Pangani and Soweto

I arrived back in Soweto on the morning of the 8th. Rwanda was amazing, as I had described, and my first day back in Tanzania was a little tough. As much as I love it here in Tanzania, life is not easy. After being in the more modernized Rwanda, it was difficult to return to Tanzania, the heat, the mosquitos, the chaos, the showers that don't work, etc. I spent the first day feeling pretty homesick. But that evening, at dinner, I spent time with the priests, who have now become my friends, and they made me feel so welcome, that I was happy to be here again. The next day, Father Antipas and I were supposed to travel to Pangani. Pangani is a small village on the coast of Tanzania between the cities of Tanga and Dar Es Salaam. The country has a long coastal area, with beautiful Indian Ocean beaches, and I really wanted to see the coast before I left. The island of Zanzibar is a popular travel destination here in Tanzania, but when I was planning my 'sidetrips,' I could really only do one, either east to Zanzibar, or west to Rwanda. Zanzibar is also very expensive. So i was really lucky when one of the priests told me that The Holy Spirit Fathers, the order of priests I am staying with, own a retreat in Pangani, and that they would love to have me as a guest. So, we were supposed to travel there on the 9th, but we were not able to do so, because one of the guests already staying there extended their stay an extra day. I went to school to teach instead. I am loving teaching, and really loving the kids, but I feel that the next time I come to Tanzania, it should be for a longer block of time, and one that isn't interrupted by many sidetrips. I love teaching these kids, and they love having me, but it's really hard for me to get any consistency with them when I am running off every few days. So, class with the kids went really well, we spent a few minutes reviewing jobs, and I think they really learned something! For the review, I had them close their excercise books that had all the class notes in them, and then I asked them questions about things we went over, like what is a mechanic, and where does he work, what is a nurse and where does he work, etc. They got them all right from memory! The last half of the class I spent working with them on this debate that we are going to have on Wednesday. I'm a little ambivalent about this debate, but the school administration really wants me to do it. The topic is, what is more important, money or education? - it is the topic that the administration gave to me. Of course all the kids said education, but I split them in half, so half will have to argue for the money side. I think that it may be a little advanced for their english abilities, but we'll see. My friend Erin at home, who is a teacher by profession (and a good one!), is helping me to prepare some structured lesson plans for the next two classes and for the debate itself. We'll see how it goes. After school that day, Father Innocent pulled me aside, and told me that he had gotten a call a few days prior from the Minister of Education about two young students, both five years old, that were complete orphans. One was found wandering the streets, as is very common here in Africa, and the other was brought to the minister by his grandmother, as she just couldn't afford to look after the boy anymore. The priests here try and keep a good relationship with the government, so they accepted the two boys in their school a day or two prior, on the condition that they would be able to find a sponsor for the two of them, and they, of course, were having a difficult time finding sponsorship. I agreed to meet the boys, and read their paperwork. The two boys are not related, but are both 5 years old, and are now attending the kindergarten at Moshi Airport School. They are the two youngest kids boarding, because they have nowhere else to live. They were pretty funny kids, totally different personalities. One was completely terrified of me, Father Innocent thinks I was the first white person he'd ever seen in real life, and he didn't say a word the whole time we were there. The other boy was very chatty and active, and spoke to me in a mixture of Kiswahili and English. Adorable! I read over their paperwork, and it's pretty hard not be affected emotionally. Both of their Ministry of Education paperwork had the death certificates of their parents stapled to the back. One's parents had died in an automobile accident, and the fathers occupation was listed as peasant, and the other, both parents died of 'TB' but Father Innocent explained to me that here in Africa, no one dies of AIDS, it's always listed as TB. Stigma. So, of course I took a photo of the two boys, and went to work, sending out emails, begging, and pleading. And withing 24 hours, we had sponsorship for both of them! YAY! For me, it was a huge success, and I felt a real charge from it! Fundraising is really natural for me, and I think I have found my future profession! Anyways, the following day, we loaded up the car, and set out for Pangani. I had been warned that the coastal part of Tanzania was really, really hot, but I had no idea what I was in for. We arrived after about a 6 hour drive, and it was even more beautiful than I had imagined. The Indian Ocean is stunning, and Pangani has not been developed as a resort town, it's pretty quiet and deserted. So, when we parked the car, got situated, and I walked out to the beach, there were absolutely no people for as far as I could see in either direction. The first afternoon in Pangani was very relaxing. Father Antipas had administrative work to take care of, so I walked along the beach for a while. At one point in the afternoon, about 200 high school kids showed up at the beach, stripped down to their underwear, and ran around and played in the water. It turns out that they were on a school trip to Pangani, and their teacher agreed to allow them to take a one hour swim on the way home. It was really nice to watch them run around, playing, having so much fun! As quickly as they all came, they left, and the beach was mine again. I walked the entire length of the beach, which took about an hour, until i arrived at a rocky area and couldn't really go any further. I can't explain what the beach was like, I've never been on a beach, all by myself, for as far as I could see in any direction. It is such a peaceful feeling! On the way back, the sun started to set, and I decided to strip my clothes off and take a sunset swim in the warm water of the Indian Ocean. It was pretty dreamy, swimming naked, in warm water, all alone, at sunset. Ahhhhhh. The following day was to be my only full day in Pangani, and in The Lonely Planet guide, the one thing that was listed was a place called The Maziwe Marine Reserve. I organized a trip to go and see it. Maziwe is a natural sandbar about 10 kilometers offshore. All around the sandbar is a coral reef, and supposedly there are sometimes dolphins there. I convinced Father Antipas to go with me, as he had never really been in a boat, and never been snorkeling, and I had already paid for the boat, so I figured it would be a good experience for him, and I really enjoy his company. I was kind of surprised when we arrived at the boat that morning, it was literally a few raw timbers, held together with a few rusty nails, four sticks holding up a tattered tarp overhead, and a motor that looked like it came off of a lawnmower. There were two guys there, one to captain the boat's motor, and the other to scoop out buckets of water as we went along, which there was plenty! The boat ride took a little over an hour, and I won't say that I wasn't a little nervous, watching land get further and further away, picturing the boat I was in coming apart at any minute. Also, the water was very choppy, and I didn't have any dramamine with me for the motion sickness, but I held it together. The sandbar was beautiful, just a big island of sand in the middle of the ocean. The snorkeling was really cool. It was like being in the most exotic fishtank in the world, with brightly colored fish, yellow, and purple and pink, etc.! We saw one octopus as well, very cool, and several manta rays. Unfortunately, no dolphins though. After about 3 hours of snorkeling, we ate lunch on the sandbar, and headed back to shore. The boatride home wasn't really fun. The water was even rougher, and we had just eaten lunch. I didn't lose it, but felt awfully close, and was very happy to be on firm land when we got back. It was early afternoon when we returned, so I walked halfway down the beach, stripped down, and just laid out in the sun, swam, and laid out some more, back and forth, until it was dark. The days in Pangani were really nice, the heat was tolerable, even though it was intense, because I could get into the water if I got too hot. The nights on the otherhand were another matter entirely. First of all, when the sun goes down is when the mosquitos come out, and if I thought they were bad in Soweto, they are a million times worse on the coast. Secondly, it doesn't really get any cooler at night than during the day, so sleeping was really difficult. The first night I did ok, but the second night I didn't sleep well at all. At around 5 am, I got out of bed and walked down to the ocean. The water was cool and peaceful, so that was really nice. But by the mid morning we were already heading back to Soweto. After a stop at the Joyland Secondary School in Same, we arrived back in Soweto (Moshi) in time for dinner. Today, Saturday, I met with Father Antipas to get some final business taken care of with the 6 students that I am trying to get sponsored before I leave. I also got to talk to Sarah Jones, YAY! The later part of the morning, Father Antipas and I traveled into town to run some errands. We went to the bank to check on the status of a wire transfer that THE Mission had sent more than two weeks prior, and all I will say is this: if I have learned one thing here in Tanzania, it's patience. If I lost my temper everytime something didn't work properly, I'd be a crazy person by now. No systems work here as we expect them to in the West, and banking, apparently, is no exception. About 2 weeks ago, the bank decided to do a software update, they have no idea how long it will take, but in the interim, no account information can be pulled up for any of their customers, no statements, nothing. I can't even imagine something like this happening in the US. I guess the next time I order a drink at Starbucks and the barrista puts three sugars in it, instead of two, I'll think twice about my response! It's now Saturday afternoon, March 13th, and I have 96 hours left in Africa. I have a list of several things to do before I leave, including three days of teaching, visiting and saying goodbye to my Maasai Friends in Lekremuni, my friends from the Sisters of Charlotte, saying goodbye to my friend Furaha, and saying goodbye to some of the priests at Sabuko. And I'm sure several other things will come up. I am really looking forward to spending some time in Amsterdam with Rob, and readjusting to the developed world, but very sad to be leaving this amazing place. My date of arrival in San Francisco: March 22nd, for sure!