Back to the Beginning

On Saturday I decided that I had hung around Tanga long enough.  It was time to venture out on my own and visit some old friends of mine that I hadn’t seen for a long time.  For those of you who don’t know, I first came to Tanzania 4 years ago on a mission trip.  Myself and 9 other Americans were stationed outside of Morogoro in the Uluguru Mountains with several Tanzanian college students as guides and translators.  If you ever want to get to know someone VERY well, I highly recommend traveling to a developing country with them.  You will learn more than you ever needed to know, and if you are still speaking to each other after the trip, you know your friendship will last through anything.  We all had an amazing time together, and our translators became our close friends. 

It was my experience 4 years ago that led me to where I am today…back in Tanzania.  Not only did I leave Tanzania wanting to come back again someday, I left Tanzania knowing that I wanted to pursue a career in international development.  When I got back to Texas A&M, I changed my major from International Studies to Agricultural Development.   This may seem like an odd change, since I wanted to do international development, but if you want to work in developing countries where well over 50% of the workforce is employed in agriculture, it is a very good way to find a practical solution to 3^rd World issues.  Suddenly I discovered that I was not the first person to think this way and found myself surrounded with like-minded classmates at Texas A&M, along with a host of professors, organizations, and books on the topic.  Don’t you hate it when you come up with an amazing, unique idea and find out that thousands of people have already been doing it for years?  My brother, Paul, still holds fast to the belief that he invented the snowboard.  Someone else just invented the snowboard also…and first.

Anyway, I have kept in contact with many of these Tanzanian friends and was excited to find that my friend Elisha still lives in Morogoro.  He is working towards his Masters Degree at Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA).  He welcomed me to visit this weekend, and I gladly accepted.  Saturday morning, I took the daladala to the bus stand in Tanga and found a bus leaving almost immediately for Morogoro.  The bus ride took nearly 6 hours and as I neared Morogoro, the mountains rose in front of me.  I must had looked like a lunatic, sitting alone on the bus with a huge smile plastered on my face.  I made it to Morogoro’s city center where I had agreed to meet Elisha.  I waited and then started talking to a young man who was using me to practice his English.  Suddenly I felt a hand on my elbow and heard someone behind me yell “Elisha is here!” I can’t tell you how ecstatic I was to see him after all this time!  He took me to get some lunch and we mostly just stared at each other and said “I can’t believe you are here!”  While I have wanted to return to Morogoro for 4 years, the fact that I actually had was a little unbelievable.  Elisha informed me that he had arranged for me to stay in a dorm at SUA, we were going there to meet some of his friends, and then there was a going away party for some international students from Austria and Norway who had been studying at SUA for the semester.  I had only been there a few hours and I already had several new friends and was hanging out at a party where everyone spoke English.  Then I remembered what I happened to read on the internet that morning about the bombing and shooting in Norway.  The group of five from Norway were obviously really anxious to be home with their families after what had happened.  Two of the girls knew several people who had been at the youth camp, so far they had only received good news about their friends, though one was in the hospital, undergoing surgery.  My heart went out to them as I can’t imagine being away from your home when you receive news like that.  Keep them in your thoughts and prayers as they finish their final exams and head back to their homes.

After the party we headed to the dorms where I was introduced to my new roommates, three welcoming girls who took great care of me, even heating water for me in the morning for a hot shower.  While the dorms at SUA are really nice, there is still no hot water.  Although I am used to taking cold showers, the water in Morogoro must be refrigerated.  It is absolutely frigid.  Since I only had a bucket full of boiling water and no cup, I decided I would take a normal shower, then use the hot water to pull myself out a near hypothermic state.  It worked and I have never been happier to have hot water in my life. 

Sunday morning Elisha and I headed to a church in Morogoro where we sat next to two girls from America who are teaching at a primary school in Morogoro.  They got to Tanzania about 2 weeks ago and are loving it.  After church Elisha and I went to get lunch and walk around Morogoro for a while while I tried to get my bearings.  Surprisingly, while some things about the city are the same, a lot has changed if 4 years and Morogoro seems to have grown drastically from what I remember.  We walked a long way through the market, streets, and up towards the mountains.  We were reminiscing about events and people and I asked if he knew what had happened to Agripina, one of our translators.  Agripina isn’t on Facebook, and I had completely lost contact with her.  Elisha updated me to the best of knowledge, knowing she had gotten married, but didn’t know where she was now.  He said “hang on, let me make a phone call.”  And a few minutes later, we were walking to her home, only a couple of kilometers from where we already were.  We met her and her husband Samweli at their home and talked for a long time about the fun we had on the mountain.  Agripina was more than a little surprised to see me, since she had no idea I was even on the continent, let alone in her neighborhood!  Agripina and Samweli are both teachers at secondary schools in Morogoro.  Samweli wanted to know a lot about my work with 4H and is hoping to use 4H programs or start a 4H club for young women entrepreneurs that he works with.  It was great getting to use my knowledge and explain what 4H programs are available in his area! 

After talked for a long time, we all walked back into the city where Samweli was meeting with an American who is working on building wells in villages up in the mountains.  I know I have said it before, but one of my favorite parts of traveling is meeting all of the fascinating people who are giving their time in such unique ways.  It never fails that when I am traveling I meet at least one person like this.  After meeting with him, Elisha and I headed back to campus to get dinner at the faculty restaurant.  We picked up one of Elisha’s roommates along the way and when we got to the restaurant we were met with more friends of Elisha who we joined for dinner.  There ended up being 6 of us eating together and we sat, ate, and talked for hours.  I had so much fun getting to know these students who were all studying different fields of agriculture and doing research in various areas of Tanzania.   

I was going to head back to Tanga on Monday morning; however with a little convincing (it didn’t take much) I decided to stick around for another day in order to hike to the village of Mbete, the village I was working in 4 years ago.  When Elisha and I started driving from SUA to the base of the mountains, we passed a sign with a picture that looked like a rat sniffing a bomb.  Elisha asked if I knew what it was and when I said no, he explained: this is a lab where they train rats to sniff out old minefields and dig up the mines.

For those for you who have never heard of this, yes, I am serious.  Coincidentally, my mom read an article about this project before I came to Tanzania, I just didn’t know that it was based at SUA.  Elisha said that we could take a tour if I was at all interested.  Of course, I was.  In fact, I think he was a little taken aback by how excited I actually was about this!  We pulled into the parking lot and just walked up to the buildings; the men working there were very welcoming and didn’t hesitate to show us around.  In case you are like me and were envisioning little white lab rats, let me relay another story to you from when Collin and I were in Zanzibar, two months ago:

We went to an aquarium where you could pay a little and then learn about sea turtles, feed them, and even hold the small ones.  After we took a million pictures of ourselves with the adorable sea turtles, we were shown to the less adorable creatures that inhabit the aquarium: Two cages, each holding pythons.  I’m not one of those people who do a frightened snake dance when they come upon a snake, but I’m not a fan of them either.  And these massive pythons looked like they could devour me for afternoon tea (assuming snakes have afternoon tea).  So I was surprised when our guide told us that they feed each snake one rat every two weeks.  I said that didn’t seem like much, they must be big rats.  He said they were just normal sized rats…and held his hands about two feet apart to show just how normal sized they are.

The rats here more resemble opossums than my idea of a rat.  But anyway, we were shown to where the rats are kept and we got to hold them!  Then they took us to where they train the rats to identify the scent of explosives.  They basically use Pavlov’s method.  When the rat has correctly identified a positive sample, the trainer makes a clicking noise and then gives a piece of food, or some mashed banana.  After they have been trained to identify the smell, they are taken to a dirt area where samples are in the ground and they have to dig them up.  There is a minefield for training near the area for the final step of the training.  After they have been trained, the rats are mostly transported to Mozambique where there are many unidentified landmines.  People can also send soil samples to the lab so the rats can identify if there are explosives in that area.  Even more amazing is that the rats can also be trained to detect other smells.  For example, they can detect tuberculosis.  To date, rats have detected 716 cases of TB that were otherwise missed by lab tests.  Totally amazing.  I cannot wait to see what these rats can do next! 

If you want to learn more about this project, they have a fantastic website: www.apopo.org

After this surprise visit, we continued on our way to the Uluguru Mountains.  After we parked in an obliging man’s yard, we began our hike and I was reminded of the mantra my friend Kara and I used when we were hiking to the camp, “It’s only twenty minutes, it’s only twenty minutes, one foot in front of the other, it’s only twenty minutes…” Except I don’t think we ever made it to the camp in anything close to twenty minutes.  Once we reach Bahati Camp, we rested for a little bit and I took pictures before we headed on to Mbete.  These mountains are the most beautiful place I have ever been.  Between the tropical foliage, the mountains, and the rivers and waterfalls, it is impossible to not love the area.  

We headed farther up the mountain to the village of Mbete, where I was hoping to be able to see my old friend, Abdullah.  Fortunately for me, he happened to be home when I arrived and he remembered me as well.  After hugs, we sat and talked on his from porch as we had so many times before, four years ago.  After we caught up with how his family is doing and my work in Tanzania, we walked down to the new guest house that was built on the way up to Mbete to get some soda and enjoy each others company a little longer. 

We reluctantly headed down the mountain and back to SUA for dinner with Elisha’s sister, then bed, then Elisha took me to the bus stand the next morning for the 6 hour ride back to Tanga.  Overall it was a WONDERFUL trip and I cannot wait to make it again! 

Whew!  Ok, now for my 4H work:  we are in full swing here at the 4H Center in preparation for the Take a Lead Conference that starts next week.  I am honored to be a participant in the conference as one of five delegates from the US.  There will be about 50 delegates in all from Finland, Austria, Canada, America, Gambia, Liberia, Kenya, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Namibia, Malawi, and Zambia!  The conference is two weeks long and includes several days of home-stay visits to clubs around this area.  This is the third year for the conference and the focus is on volunteers this year.  Many of the participants work for 4H Organizations, some work for other youth development related organizations.  The conference is held here and most of the delegates will be staying here at the hostel with me.  I can’t wait to see who I meet and what all I learn!  I know that this will be a great experience and will add to my work for the Global 4-H Network!  I will try to update everyone half way through the conference, but the schedule is packed with activities, so it may be two weeks before you hear from me again, with the longest blog post ever.  Expect lots of pictures and stories.

And for pictures of Morogoro, Mbete, and explosive detecting rats, look on Facebook, or click here!

I'll Take "Tanzania" for 800, Alex!

Well…I did it.  I made it over a week without my English speaking companion, Collin!  I have, however, been updating him every chance I get about what is going on here.  I just can’t help myself.  After spending the past week travelling through Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia, he is home today.  And if you haven’t been reading his blog, the pictures from his Kenya Safari are amazing, so you should go check it out:

collininafrica.blogspot.com

I wasn’t going to post a blog, because there hasn’t been anything substantial that has happened this week.  Mostly office work, no trip this weekend.  But then I realized “hey, when has having nothing to say ever stopped someone from blogging before?” I’m SO sorry.

I realize, as I think about what to write, that many of my readers (all nine of you) may not know that much about Tanzania besides what I have told you already.  So allow me to educate you a little about this unique country.  First, I know that most people think of Africa as one big, autonomous country.  That is how I used to see Africa also, but the more you learn about different cultures and histories of the countries in Africa, the more you see how unique and different they all really are.  For example, Tanzania is bordered to the south by Mozambique.  Guess what language they speak in Mozambique?  Go ahead, guess.  Portuguese.  (duh)  They also speak a plethora of other languages and dialects in Mozambique, as is the same in most countries.  There are, for example, over 200 dialects of Swahili.  Because of tribes, cultures, colonization, and a host of other factors, each country has a unique history.

Now, I’m allowing my dork to show a little bit here, but one of my absolute favorite websites (besides Wikipedia) is the CIA World Factbook.  It is a fantastic resource for school papers, researching before a trip, or for bored people like me who love to carry around useless facts in my brain.  Useful information escapes my head immediately, but random knowledge sticks with me forever, just waiting for Alex Trebek to say “This author of Middlemarch published under the name ‘George Eliot’.” To which I yell out “WHO IS ‘MARY ANN EVANS’?”, impressing all those within earshot.  Of course they never ask that question, though I have been carrying around that knowledge for over 7 years now, so I hope you are all appropriately impressed.  I can never remember how to say useful things in Swahili like “I need to get off the bus NOW!”  But I can say “Iko wapi uwanja wakambi?” (Where is the campground) and “Wanawake wote wawili wameva mashati ya buluu” (The two women are wearing blue shirts).  That last one I just like to say because of all the W’s…and people who don’t speak Swahili think I really know what I’m doing. 

Anyway, you go to the World Factbook, pick a country (any country), and read massive amounts of information about that country.  Their history, what their flag looks like, their population, education rates, common diseases, occupations, imports and exports, major waterways, the number of telephones in the country, and kilometers of paved and unpaved roads.  It is totally fascinating information.  So, while I could let you go to the website and read it for yourself (or, more likely, NOT read it for yourself), I’m going to tell you some of the most fascinating things that I have found about Tanzania.

History:  Tanzania (or Tanganyika) gained its independence from Britain in the early 1960’s.  In 1964, Tanganyika and Zanzibar came together to form Tanzania.  Tanzania (including the islands of Zanzibar, Pembe, and Mafia) is a little more than double the size of California.  While its entire east coast is along the Indian Ocean, Tanzania still manages to border 8 different countries: Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire), Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique. 

Tanzania is a treasure-trove of awesome natural sights.   Tanzania is the home of Mt. Kilimanjaro (the 5^th highest peak in the world and highest point in Africa), the Serengeti (this borders Tanzania and Kenya), Lake Victoria (the World’s second largest freshwater lake), Lake Tanganyika (the World’s second deepest lake), and of course the Zanzibar Archipelago.  These natural resources are one reason that Tanzania is a fairly stable country in Sub-Saharan Africa.  Unfortunately, not all of the facts about Tanzania are like these.

There are 1.4 million people living with HIV/AIDS in Tanzania, ranking it 7^th in the world.  Tanzania ranks 4^th in deaths caused by HIV/AIDS.  The total life expectancy is 52.85 years.  Making it about time for me to have a mid-life crisis. 

The biggest agricultural commodities here are: coffee (yum!), sisal, tea, cotton, pyrethrum (insect repellent made from chrysanthemums), tobacco, cashews, cloves, corn, cassava (a root that is commonly eaten here, but is also used to make tapioca), and bananas.  80% of the population is employed by agriculture.  In the US, only 2% of the population works in agriculture.

There are only 173,552 phone land lines in the country (ranking 131^st in the world), however, there are 17.677 million cell phones here.  There are only 678,000 internet users here.  Can you imagine that?  The population of Tanzania is 42,746,620 and there are only 678,000 internet users. 

There are 124 airports in Tanzania.  9 have paved runways. 

77.5% of males and 62.2% of females age 15 and over can read and write.

22.5% of males and 37.8% of females can’t.

Even with these staggering statistics, Tanzania is far better off than many other countries.  There is no civil war.  There are no conflicts with other countries.  We have access to the ocean, enabling us to import and export goods.  The government is fairly stable.  The people are friendly, hardworking, and ambitions. 

Because of these things, combined with their abundance of ecotourism opportunities and natural resources, Tanzania has a bright future.  Working with 4H Tanzania has afforded me with the opportunity and privilege of working toward that future.  In the US, our hope for 4-H members is that they will graduate from college, maybe get a masters degree, become the best in their profession, become a billionaire, and then, of course, donate a substantial portion of their billions to 4-H.  In Tanzania, we of course have these hopes as well, but more realistically, we hope that the members don’t contract HIV/AIDS, attend some of secondary school, and are able to provide food for themselves and their families.    It is hard to wrap my head around this reality.  I like problems to be fixed quickly, like everyone.  I want to spend 6 months here and suddenly have a developed country.  That won’t happen, but what will happen is that little by little, year by year, generation after generation, Tanzania will improve. 

There are so many different areas of improvement that need to be tackled that it can seem overwhelming at times.  Government policy, transportation, medical care, education, food aid, micro-loans, technology, housing, gender equality, agriculture, the environment…plus a million other topics.  Instead of being overwhelmed though, it means opportunity.  It means that regardless of your occupation, field of study, your interests, or your abilities, I guarantee there is a way for you to help.  Whether you are lending your money, time, or expertise, I encourage you to find a way help.  And if you need help finding a way to help, don’t hesitate to ask!  There are a host of websites and organizations that I can point you towards.  And hopefully very soon, one of those organizations will be 4-H itself!

Well, looks like I managed to post a blog after all.  Sorry this isn’t accompanied with hilarious stories of my inability to function gracefully or pictures of adorable kids, but I’m sure the next post will!  Schools that have been on holiday started up again this week, so it is only a matter of time before I am out and about visiting schools!       

I Don’t Think We’re in Tanzania Anymore, Toto

And, we’re not.  On Thursday, Collin and I left Tanga for a short trip to Kenya.  Mombasa, Kenya, and the beaches south of Mombasa to be exact.  After our bumpy bus ride north from Tanga, along the coast, we reached the Kenyan border.  The road in Tanzania is currently under construction thanks to funding from the U.S. Government.  The road looks lovely.  Flat, wide, and….incomplete.  As we bumped along on the old road, we could watch the beautiful expanse of almost complete road out our window the entire ride.  Talk about salt in the wound. 

As we approached the border to Kenya, we were given papers to fill out— 3 of them.  If you have ever tried writing in the car, you know that it can be difficult.  If you’ve ever tried writing on a bus in a developing country, you know it is impossible.   We were afraid we would be turned away at the boarder for writing like 3 year-olds.  Our forms were completely illegible and despite the fact that we started filling them out about 30 minutes before we got there, we were still not done when we reached the border.  Lucky for us, they let us in anyway and we discovered that the road we were travelling in Kenya was actually quite pleasant.  We felt like we were flying, though I’m pretty sure we were just going about 50 mph.  We reached our destination of Ukundu in no time and hailed a taxi for our hotel.  Phase 1 of the vacation was successfully completed!

We stayed around Ukundu for two days at a lovely place called “Forest Dream” (because when I think of Kenya, I think of forests?).  Across the main road and down a little further was access to a beautiful beach.  Mombasa and the beaches surrounding are quite a vacation destination.  It can be fun to be in a touristy place…and it has its drawbacks as well.  One of the perks is that people expect to see white people who only speak English, so just a few words of Swahili makes them think “wow!”.  One of the downers is that you can’t walk 5 steps without someone saying “my friend, I make a special price for you, because you are my friend!”  We experienced this some while we were in Zanzibar, but nothing could prepare us for Mombasa’s determination.  Collin and I tried various approaches to avoid these meetings.  We spoke in Spanish (this may have been a more successful approach if I actually spoke any Spanish).  We told them that we had no money (you would think that that would send people away, but it didn’t seem to deter them).  Our final and most successful attempt was to “walk with purpose,” as Collin called it.  Just walk like a New Yorker and they tend to leave you alone.  It makes it difficult to enjoy the beach, but at least we made good time!  Sometimes they just step up their game and try a new sales approach.  Once we actually reached the city of Mombasa I received several “Madam, you are beautiful”s and a couple “You need a bus ticket?  But I am in love with you!”   If you are ever in need of a morale boost (or marriage proposal)…Mombasa is the place for you. 

Something that most people probably don’t know about Kenya is that English is actually the official language of the country, which means a lot of people speak it.  This is very helpful for people like myself who speak only a little (“kidogo”—remember this word…it will come in handy later) Swahili. 

After spending two nights in Ukunda, we hired a taxi to drive us the 40km (25 miles) to the city of Mombasa—the second largest city in Kenya (next to the Capitol of Nairobi).  We asked the driver if he would stay with us in the city and take us places we wanted to go, since we had no idea where anything was.    Thankfully he said yes and we embarked on our few hour tour of the city.  He took us first to Fort Jesus, a fort built at the end of the 16^th Century by the Portuguese looking to secure the port city as their own.  Old town Mombasa is beautiful and has a heavy Muslim influence.  The roads of the old part of the city are very narrow, with old buildings towering on each side of you.  Very Beautiful!

Collin and I have learned several lessons while we have been here.  We learn some every new place that we go.  Here are some that I have learned while I have been in Kenya:

Lesson #1:  If you are the type of person who smears their nail polish the moment you are done painting your nails, you should not be the type of person to get something semi-permanent…like, say….henna for example.

Lesson #2: If you ignore lesson 1 and decide to get henna anyways, be sure that cross-cultural barriers are out of the way before you begin.  For example, kidogo (little—see I told you it would come in handy) to me might mean “a few little dotted flowers on maybe one finger.”  Kidogo to a henna artist might mean “maybe we only go half way up the arm.” 

Lessons learned.  I have taken these lessons to heart and will never make the same mistakes again (or at least for another couple of months).

After we left Fort Jesus, we drove to find a place to have lunch and our driver dropped us off at a restaurant something akin to a Kenyan version of the Hard Rock Café, where you could order a cheeseburger called the “Michael Jackson Facelifter.”  I don’t know why.  Collin ordered the “Stevie Wonder” burger and I stuck with my standard since I have been here of “fish”.  When we finished, we loaded back into our taxi and headed to the bus stand to drop me off before the driver took Collin to the Airport.  Here we were…I had known it was coming for a long time now…but I was dreading it.  The goodbye. 

For the past five weeks, with the exception of when we were sleeping, we have probably been apart for a grand total of 8 hours.  So the fact that we were saying goodbye for at least 5 months was a little hard to take.  Collin has been a wonderful friend, co-worker, and traveling companion.  Together we have experienced culture, awesome sights, successes, and failures (or “learning experiences” as my 4-H Educators called them). 

Note to Collin:  Have a wonderful time on the rest of your trip!  When things go wrong, just think to yourself “hakuna matata” and “T.I.A.”  Then give yourself a homeschooler nipi tano for me!

After we said goodbye (or “see you later” as we like to say instead), I set off to purchase a bus ticket back to Tanga…all by myself.  This is the first thing I have had to do solo since I stepped off the bus in Tanga and I was somewhat saddened to find that the bus didn’t leave until 5:30 pm.  I bought the ticket at 2:30.  So, what does a girl do for 3 hours by herself in a city she knows nothing about while carrying her luggage?  She finds a restaurant, orders a Coke, and sits down to write her blog.  And that is where you would find me now (if I had internet and was posting this immediately).  I have been here for 2 hours thus far and have, just by sitting here been able to procure the phone numbers of two men.  Only one of whom would I ever consider calling.  Allow me to explain.

I hadn’t been sitting here for very long before I noticed that every time I looked up, a man sitting in the corner was looking at me.  When he approached me after this went on for about 30 minutes, I nearly said “look buddy, I know I’m white.  I don’t want a bus ticket.  I don’t want sunglasses.  And I don’t want a keychain with my name engraved in it.”  I’m glad I didn’t.  He walked up and said “Hello, are you Olivia?”  I said, “Umm.  No.”  He said, “I’m so sorry.  That is why I have been looking at you.  A women named Olivia came here from Britain about 3 years ago to work in the hospital with a group of students.  She stayed in my house and you look a lot like her.”  I was still a little suspicious but as the conversation went on it became obvious that it was true.  It turns out that this man (his name is David) has students work with him as he takes them to surrounding areas to work with the hospital.  David’s son is studying economics at Texas Tech University.  I said “I WENT TO COLLEGE AT TEXAS A&M!” and the conversation continued.  To you Aggies out there, I did refrain from hissing at the mention of “Tortilla Tech,” as I don’t need anyone to think that I am weird here.  My permanent Fightin’ Texas Aggie Ring tan-line proves my allegiance.  Maybe I could get a henna Aggie Ring…just in case I ever lost mine.  It’s an idea, anyways.  And on a side note, if you turn your Aggie Ring around, it looks convincingly like a wedding band…I would need this approach later on in the evening.  David told me that if I am ever in Mombasa again to give him a call and he will show me the work he does and maybe I could work with the students if there are any there at the time.  These are the kinds of chance meetings that I love about travelling.  I have yet to go somewhere and not meet someone who has something absolutely fascinating to say!

I left the restaurant to find my bus at about 5:00.  This was easier said than done.  When the bus finally pulled up a little after 5:30, I boarded, sat where the nice man told me to and waited.  There was a huge stack of supplies outside of the bus.  Boxes of margarine, apples, sacks of flour, and a ton of other items.  This wasn’t actually a bus.  It was a mini-bus.  Something between a daladala and a coach.  And to my surprise (and chagrin), they were loading ALL of those supplies onto the bus.  I don’t know how they did it but under every seat, in every crack, and filling the aisles were boxes and bags of supplies.  I should know by now that 5:30 does not mean 5:30, but I still sat and looked at my watch every 5 minutes.  Around 6:30 we pulled away from the curb, drove for about 10 minutes and came to a stop.  Suddenly everyone got off the bus.  I didn’t know why, but I figured that I better too.  The bus driver stopped me and asked if I knew how to find the bus after we crossed on the ferry and when I said no he pointed to a woman and said “follow her.”  And I did.  I wouldn’t let her out of my sight as hundreds of people ran to get onto the ferry.  I don’t know why we were running, but when everyone else is, you don’t really have a choice.  We boarded the ferry, stood while the ferry crossed the BAY, and then everyone started running again.  I still don’t know why we were all running, but again, no choice.  I followed the nice women for about 15 minutes through crowds of people and lines of buses, and miraculously, we boarded our bus again.  Because we are so near the equator, it gets dark here around 6:30 every night, so this entire event took place in the dark, which makes life a little more difficult.

We finally crossed into Tanzania after going through customs and immigration, reloaded the bus and began the arduous journey through the rough roads of Tanzania, getting back into Tanga at nearly midnight.  Totally exhausted, the bus driver found a taxi for me that he knew would be safe and I went on my way back to the 4H Center, arriving back a little after midnight.

I had a wonderful time travelling and while I loved having a travel buddy to share my experiences with, it is a completely different adventure to travel by yourself.  It’s like when you go to the mall by yourself and you feel a little lonely at first and wonder what you will do.  Then it occurs to you that you can do whatever you want.  You want to try on a hundred different shirts, you can.  You want to get a soft pretzel, go ahead.  You want to sit on a bench and do nothing, you can do that too.  Once you embrace this concept, the world is your oyster and I am excited to see what new adventures come my way in the next few months!

I know that this post wasn’t really about my 4H work, but rest assured that my next one will be as I am becoming increasingly busy!  I hope everyone’s 4^th of July was AMAZING!  And as always, look to Facebook for my pictures…including the great henna experiment!    If you don't have a Facebook (shocking, I know), you can follow this link to find the pictures!  I just found this out, or I would have been doing this all along.

Tanzania 4H Photos