Catch Up Time Extreme

So I have been away from the computer for a very long time, and have so much to catch up on. So I'm going to give it in SparkNotes form, so that you can just skim through it. By the way, the marriage proposal day is going to go in its own blog above. :)

So here's my Christmas present to all of you, an updated blog!! Let me know if you want more juicy details on any parts, as I can elaborate thoroughly.

Also, things are red are the stuff that I think is most interesting.

DRIVE TO ARUSHA

-Saw a whole bunch of villages selling food in the center with many people comin by. (Lots of Safarites)

-Had to stop for a giraffe crossing the road.

-Almost got ripped off at a tourist trap. They kept saying "trust us" (shudder)

-People who did not get their passports stamped just gave their passports and $50 to the bus driver who disappeared for 30 minutes. (Sketchy)

Bus Stop in Arusha to Moshi

-Next day we get on the bus to go to Ismilie's village.

-We get to the bus place with a whole bunch of busses and we get surrounded by about 50 people.

-We keep bartering until we get our bus price down to $1 to get to Moshi.

-In the bus all of us sat in the back, so all the white people were in the back (people are scared of us).

-Vendors would hold up giant cardboard displays of the cheapest goods (like toy plastic cell phones) for people to buy on the bus.

-On our drive we saw many farms which were so fun looking and many worn down shaqs that look very hazardous to live in.

-At Moshi there are a lot more vendors and buses.

-One guy was selling Safari hats.

-The man in front of me buys a cell phone, and then right before the trip, he gives it back. So sketchy.

-We head to Mongua

Mongua

-Mongua is basicly a bus stop location with 5 shops around it. We stopped here because we needed a van that went out of its way to get to the remote village of Kyrangia (also known as Ismilie's village).

-I go peeing in the back, and see a giant farm which was very tranquil. I pee on a tree, and I'm pretty sure a guy was watching me.

-With our group of 9 we barter with the bus drivers (who all seem to be in it together) to get the price for all of us from $15-$13. We save a wopping $2, and boy we bay.

-We load into the mini-Bus and sit down. I ask can 9 people really fit in here? As it was pretty crowded.

-By the time the bus leaves there are 30 people in there.

-I get up for Stephanie so she can sit down, then a woman comes in I get up for, and then an old women with a baby comes in that I get up for.

-So by the end I was standing on the bus, with my back against the ceiling in between two babys..

-As we were going up a mountain the road was really really bumpy.

-Some of the group members sat on eachother.

-There was a cliff on one side of the road, but that didn't stop us from going fast.

-We end up going to the wrong secondary school, and have to pay $10 more to get to the right place.

-On the way to the right school we go up a really steep hill.

In Karuga!

-It is an amazing view at this secondary school. Surrounded by green mountains in all directions with mud houses on all sides, and paths leading up to all of them.

-We find someone at the high school, and ask where is Ismilie's house. She doesn't speak English but she waves her finger in a very broad circle in one direction (it basicly covered about 50 houses).

-We let our bus drivers go and start climbining up the mountain with our luggage.

-One friendly man sees us and helps guide us up.
-His wife also follows.

-The people here are so friendly, when ever we walk buy any of them they stop to say Caribou (welcome in Swahili) and our very happy.

Day 2 at Ismilies

-I wake up to the group quoting Monty Python.

-I had slept oustside last night until it started raining on me.

-We climb up a mountain guided by one of Ismilie's grandsons.
-We see the watersource that runs through the village.
-We crawl into a junglish area to a place with a sacrificing alter.

-Drank my first sip of alcohol (called humanjiyana)
-It was made from sugar cane and processed on top of the mountain. (that's my requirement for any future drinks).

-We went further into the jungle and found a sacred crave
-I crawled into the cave

-Really got a feeling of oneness with nature.

The Market

-I go with Ismilie's grandaughter Zawagi (calling her Z from now on) to the market.
-It is a long winding walk.

-I see people batheing in the river.

-Lots of half developed houses, that no one is working on. Including a half developed church.

-Saw a house that had painted on bricks.

-I loved the market place.
-They were saleing anchovies, beans, mangos, bannanas, old clothes, cloths, shoes, and baskets.

-Hundreds of people wearing very bright colors.

-I take a picture of some old guys playing a game and they ask me for money.

-The cool thing was we were not the focus of this market, people didn't even see us as different.

-I buy the most delicious coke and drink it ice cold with sweat dripping over my face.

-So I try to eat a popscicle, but I cant get it open.
-10 kids gather around me, and 3 grandmas, all watching me try to open it.
-They all start laughing at me (including the grandmas)
-Some of the kids start imitateing me, which gets one of the moms upset.

-So the women in this village all cary grocerys on their head, including giant buckets of water. So I decided to imitate them.

-I try to balance 7 mangos in a bag on my head.
-This was completely different than normal culture because:
1. I'm a guy.
2. I'm white.
3. They are mangos (not good for balancing)
-While walking with the mangos on my head people's heads started following me. Everyone's. You could see their necks twist.

-On the way back we had to cross a very old crickety makeshift bridge that freaked me out.

-Z seemed sick as she was coughing.

-I go to a rock, which the night before someone had showed me.

The ROCK

-My friends are there waiting for me a gain.

-We look at the sunset for a while.

-They call me Mr. Hedman

-One of the guys asks me to go get my journal so I can teach him more math.

-On the way to get my journal 3 young women start talking to me in Swahili.
-Not understanding what they say to me, I just repeat to them what they say.
-One women laughs so hard she almost falls down crying.
-Ben says it is because I flail my arms when I talk.

-When I get back to the rock with my journal I teach the kids more math. (The night before I had taught one of them Algebra. Useing pieces of crumpled paper and asking "How many do you need?")

-I try to show them how to do triginometry, but its just not fun to explain. You try to explain to someone why sin(x)=1 works. They give me a 3x3 matrix to solve.

-Back at Ismilie's we talk about light, physics, and dreams.


-For dinner Z made a "special" cupate for me which was really big.

-I sleep in the grass with Teju.


-The next morning I wake up three kids staring at me. Z asks me why I am outside? I tell her that I am lost.

-On our hike of the day all the guys take a nude photo. One of the pictures we are all touching eachothers butts. Shudder.

-We stop by a small farm house, and a little girl about 3-4 years old starts following us. She is more fit than all of us and goes faster than us on the rest of the hike.

-There was a strange breed of what I call Turkey Duck here.

-We visit a man who says he worked for the post office his entire life.

-We stop by the market but there isn't a soul there today. It is eerie.

-At night I go back up to my rock, and see my friend again (his name is Frank).

-I spend the night talking to him about why America is different.

-Here in Tanzania Africans are obssesed with rappers.

-They ask me how Little Bow Wow is so rich.

-Frank then points out how St. John made it big from Africa.

-I tried to explain to him how in America there are record companies, and it is hard to get a record label.

-I told about how we don't many farmers and there are giant farms with machines.

-I explained why there is poor people in America (he could not understand this at all).

-He asked me if Bush was a good president.

-I asked him what would be good for Nigeria.


And that gets us to Christmas Eve, the best day ever in Africa!