It's hard to believe that it has been six months already since I was volunteering in Boma. I realize that I haven't blogged since then, but the transition was bitter sweet and the feelings were often hard to describe. The "Tanzanian Haze" lingered weeks after landing in NYC, and now it's all I can do to stop myself from day dreaming about The Hannah School, Safari, or our trips to Moshi, Arusha, and Zanzibar.
Because I received 3 credits for my volunteer placement from my college, I had to write a 30+ page text about my experience. It could be anything; a research paper, a compilation of my journals, a memoir. I chose to do a little of all three. I just finished the work, and handed it in to Jim, my mentor, yesterday. He has already replied with wonderful feedback. I was unsure if my writing would convey the experience in a way that would make sense to others. It's hard to experience something like volunteering in a third world country and easily explain it so that others understand it the same way you would like them to understand it. While I believe that no one will truly perceive Tanzania the way the other volunteers and I have, I beamed over Jim's feedback. He commented on specific observations I made about their culture, he paid close-attention to the deep-rooted feelings I have in volunteering and offered ways in which to continue this in the states, he spoke of sustainability and the undermining of cultural strengths, the idea of beauty and happiness and what it means cross-culturally.
Since I've been home from Tanzania, I have been yearning for an understanding from someone other than a volunteer. It feels like an accomplishment, and it has given me a sense of closure, to receive Jim's understanding.
I remember having a conversation with Colleen upon our return to the states. We were talking about the "Ah Ha!" moment that we figured in the beginning of our trip we would have following it. We've all realized now that you don't get one. Not really, anyway. Here is a snippet from my last journal in Tanzania:
While I can sense that I have changed for the better, I believe that the real sense of change will come in the weeks, months, and years ahead. I would like to take what I have learned about myself and others and continue to battle all of my fears and doubts with the strength that I have learned on my African journey. I want this attitude change to last; I want my new found outlook on myself and the world around me to exist in a future where I will continually be faced with new uncertainties and doubts; I want my perspective on life to continually change as important aspects of my life transform and adjust to my surroundings. I have learned so much about the person I was before this trip, the person I became during, and the person I hope to become.
So it's not about the moment where you realized you're life has changed for the better, but it's what you do with that moment that has the ability to change the rest of your life.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Zanzibar Island is Paradise
Lindsay, Coleen, and I arrived in Zanzibar yesterday at sunset. Our resort is located right on the white sandy beach, overlooking the Indian Ocean. We ate a candle lit dinner on the beach(yes, we are aware of how funny that seems) and after a bottle of wine, were ready for the Full Moon Beach party. We met a bunch of people from the UK, Australia, and locals alike, sharing our Tanzanian travel stories. There was an African acrobatic/fire breathing/dancing troupe that performed and a DJ after that played music till god knows when. Linds and I got in pretty late and spent today lounging around and swimming in the ocean. Tomorrow we are visitng Stone Town to see some of historical Zanzibar then flying back to Boma in the late afternoon.
Back to the states on Saturday. See everyone soon!
Back to the states on Saturday. See everyone soon!
Thursday, July 9, 2009
hujambo!
hi everyone!
still having the time of my life...
on tuesday i climbed a waterfall and swam in the fall's freshwater swimming pool. the hike up the fall was a challenge, but the other volunteers and i did it together, pushing each other on, and the view at the top was WELL worth the struggle.
this weekend, i am flying to zanzibar island with two other of the volunteers, lindsay and coleen, to do some of the "touristy" Tanzanian things. we have a hotel and plan on snorkeling, visiting stone town and hopefully swimming with the dolphins. the relaxation will be much needed; i'm really looking forward to it.
i cant believe i am leaving in a little over a week. it seems like just yesterday i arrived at the kilimanjaro airport. while i miss home, i am going to be just heartbroken to leave this place. the relationships i have formed with the other volunteers and locals alike will have an everlasting impression on my heart. i will miss them all dearly.
i hope all is well in the states, and wherever else all of my beautiful friends are traveling.
i should post once more before i leave.
salama <3
still having the time of my life...
on tuesday i climbed a waterfall and swam in the fall's freshwater swimming pool. the hike up the fall was a challenge, but the other volunteers and i did it together, pushing each other on, and the view at the top was WELL worth the struggle.
this weekend, i am flying to zanzibar island with two other of the volunteers, lindsay and coleen, to do some of the "touristy" Tanzanian things. we have a hotel and plan on snorkeling, visiting stone town and hopefully swimming with the dolphins. the relaxation will be much needed; i'm really looking forward to it.
i cant believe i am leaving in a little over a week. it seems like just yesterday i arrived at the kilimanjaro airport. while i miss home, i am going to be just heartbroken to leave this place. the relationships i have formed with the other volunteers and locals alike will have an everlasting impression on my heart. i will miss them all dearly.
i hope all is well in the states, and wherever else all of my beautiful friends are traveling.
i should post once more before i leave.
salama <3
Monday, July 6, 2009
the experience of a life time
this trip just keeps getting better and better...
safari was probably the coolest thing i have even done. i literally slept next to 10 zebrasand earlier in the day an elephant walked right through our campsite. we were in the ngoragora crator, where the lion king takes place. i saw lions, leopards, ostraches, hippos, a ton of birds, etc. it was an absolutely amazing experience.
my students are difficult, to say the least, but it is all part of the learning experience. they are sweet and just want to be loved, and at the end of the day, even if i don't feel like i have taught them anything, giving them the affection and love that they need seems more important.
i miss everyone at home very much but i am definetly not ready to leave this beautiful place. the people i have met here are amazing friends and volunteers. i will miss them very much when we have to say goodbye.
kwaheri!
safari was probably the coolest thing i have even done. i literally slept next to 10 zebrasand earlier in the day an elephant walked right through our campsite. we were in the ngoragora crator, where the lion king takes place. i saw lions, leopards, ostraches, hippos, a ton of birds, etc. it was an absolutely amazing experience.
my students are difficult, to say the least, but it is all part of the learning experience. they are sweet and just want to be loved, and at the end of the day, even if i don't feel like i have taught them anything, giving them the affection and love that they need seems more important.
i miss everyone at home very much but i am definetly not ready to leave this beautiful place. the people i have met here are amazing friends and volunteers. i will miss them very much when we have to say goodbye.
kwaheri!
Thursday, July 2, 2009
tucker, we're not in bellport anymore...
My job is anything but easy. When I met the director of the school the other day, they told me that I would be a teacher’s assistant and would be observing the first day, but when I got there I was, as they say, “thrown to the wolves.” I have my own class of 10 nine year olds who not only do not listen, but they also don’t understand any English. Half of my first day was spent figuring out how to get the kids to stay seated and pay attention. We hardly got through one math lesson before the “break” which was spent playing ‘ring around the rosy’ and hand games. After the break, we only had about 45 minutes till the end of the day. I attempted to teach them how to do a word search with the Swahili sounds, but they barely understood the concept. I think my students have a potential to learn, but there are too many distractions and barriers, including their teachers. They bring their own children to the school and allow them to run wild through the classrooms. Also, the teachers do not speak very much English, nor did they ever attend school to learn classroom management or how to teach in a classroom setting. So, if the teacher is not knowledgeable on the topic of teaching, how is a child supposed to learn from this adult? The teachers in use corporal punishment to discipline there children. While I don’t agree with this type of punishment, I’m certainly not here to change their cultural ways. The main problem with this is that me raising my voice or telling them “no” means nothing to them; they practically laugh at me. The school also has a serious lack of resources. It is located on the top floor of a barn about an eighth of a mile from home base. My classroom can’t be more than 10 by 5, with 3 benches, and absolutely nothing on the walls. I don’t have a chalkboard either, and the amount of paper the school provides is limited which makes classroom lessons a struggle.
it’s interesting; I came here thinking that I would go back to the states encouraging everyone to volunteer the same way I am currently volunteering; teach, work in an orphanage etc. But all that being a volunteer teacher here means is that a Tanzanian teacher doesn’t have to come to school for three weeks. The teachers here get paid less than 50,000 schillings a month, which is about $50.00 in the states. Even without volunteers, the teachers might be absent from class sometimes a couple of days a week.
I know that this is rather counterintuitive for me to say, and against what I’ve been preaching for most of the beginnings of my adult life, but this type of volunteering is not promoting a self-sustainable life style. Like I said earlier, by me volunteering as a teacher, I am only giving the Tanzanian teachers the weeks off. Think of my volunteer work like substitute teaching in the states. A teacher calls in sick and a substitute teacher is called in to “teach” the class for the day. For the most part, the kids don’t listen and take the new teacher for granted, knowing that their actions will have less of a consequence because of the sub’s short teaching period. The lessons and rules the substitute will attempt to teach and implement might be conducive to their learning environment, but as soon as the student’s original teacher comes back, all of that will go out the window. While this kind of experience might have a positive impact and give the substitute teachers a new perspective, like the volunteers in , it has a negative impact on the students, or Tanzanian children we are trying to help.
And so we, as CCS volunteers, agree that the Volunteering phenomenon needs a new approach. Tracey, a fellow volunteer, has started a sustainability project in another Tanzanian school called The Promise Land. Instead of volunteering as a teacher, she has asked for permission to help the teachers and staff learn and implement skills important to a conducive learning environment that also incorporates s cultural customs. As a university professor, she is more apt to teach teachers, than to teach young school children.
This type of project is exactly what villages like Boma need. Other examples of sustainable developments we brainstormed for future volunteer work would be educating other Tanzanian workers on how to improve their businesses and infrastructure; access to clean drinking water, helping to build irrigation systems, “how to classes” such as fundraising ideas to support research and resources involving some of the countries most prevalent problems; for instance, malnourishment, the AIDS/HIV epidemic, the lack of clean drinking water, etc. We believe that this kind of help would be more beneficial regarding sustainability and allowing and countries a like to be more dependent.
An important aspect of development that might improve developing countries sustainability is free trade. The first President of Tanzania introduced and pushed for socialism. He wanted his country to be self-sustainable with their own resources and did this by jacking up import and export taxes so trading became impossible. When was taken over by took out a load from The World Bank to help them get back on their feet. This put them in debt, asking TWB for more money. They responded with a proposition. The World Bank would give them a loan if they reopened their trade again and encouraged capitalism instead of socialism. agreed and because of this, government spending was cut, including schooling. Education about AIDS and HIV was scarce increasing the percentages of people infected. Food crops, banana exports became huge, became cash crops and bit by bit they started to sell themselves off to countries with whom they traded. More debts lead to more loans which lead to the selling of all of their own resources as trade commodities. For example, one of the biggest Gold Mines is located in and they were forced to sell it in order to repay their loans taken from The World Bank.
sorry, that was more informational than a contemplative journal, but it was just easier for me to copy and past my notes onto this blog.
having the time of my life, though!
it’s interesting; I came here thinking that I would go back to the states encouraging everyone to volunteer the same way I am currently volunteering; teach, work in an orphanage etc. But all that being a volunteer teacher here means is that a Tanzanian teacher doesn’t have to come to school for three weeks. The teachers here get paid less than 50,000 schillings a month, which is about $50.00 in the states. Even without volunteers, the teachers might be absent from class sometimes a couple of days a week.
I know that this is rather counterintuitive for me to say, and against what I’ve been preaching for most of the beginnings of my adult life, but this type of volunteering is not promoting a self-sustainable life style. Like I said earlier, by me volunteering as a teacher, I am only giving the Tanzanian teachers the weeks off. Think of my volunteer work like substitute teaching in the states. A teacher calls in sick and a substitute teacher is called in to “teach” the class for the day. For the most part, the kids don’t listen and take the new teacher for granted, knowing that their actions will have less of a consequence because of the sub’s short teaching period. The lessons and rules the substitute will attempt to teach and implement might be conducive to their learning environment, but as soon as the student’s original teacher comes back, all of that will go out the window. While this kind of experience might have a positive impact and give the substitute teachers a new perspective, like the volunteers in , it has a negative impact on the students, or Tanzanian children we are trying to help.
And so we, as CCS volunteers, agree that the Volunteering phenomenon needs a new approach. Tracey, a fellow volunteer, has started a sustainability project in another Tanzanian school called The Promise Land. Instead of volunteering as a teacher, she has asked for permission to help the teachers and staff learn and implement skills important to a conducive learning environment that also incorporates s cultural customs. As a university professor, she is more apt to teach teachers, than to teach young school children.
This type of project is exactly what villages like Boma need. Other examples of sustainable developments we brainstormed for future volunteer work would be educating other Tanzanian workers on how to improve their businesses and infrastructure; access to clean drinking water, helping to build irrigation systems, “how to classes” such as fundraising ideas to support research and resources involving some of the countries most prevalent problems; for instance, malnourishment, the AIDS/HIV epidemic, the lack of clean drinking water, etc. We believe that this kind of help would be more beneficial regarding sustainability and allowing and countries a like to be more dependent.
An important aspect of development that might improve developing countries sustainability is free trade. The first President of Tanzania introduced and pushed for socialism. He wanted his country to be self-sustainable with their own resources and did this by jacking up import and export taxes so trading became impossible. When was taken over by took out a load from The World Bank to help them get back on their feet. This put them in debt, asking TWB for more money. They responded with a proposition. The World Bank would give them a loan if they reopened their trade again and encouraged capitalism instead of socialism. agreed and because of this, government spending was cut, including schooling. Education about AIDS and HIV was scarce increasing the percentages of people infected. Food crops, banana exports became huge, became cash crops and bit by bit they started to sell themselves off to countries with whom they traded. More debts lead to more loans which lead to the selling of all of their own resources as trade commodities. For example, one of the biggest Gold Mines is located in and they were forced to sell it in order to repay their loans taken from The World Bank.
sorry, that was more informational than a contemplative journal, but it was just easier for me to copy and past my notes onto this blog.
having the time of my life, though!
Monday, June 29, 2009
Boma, Tanzania
i only have 8 more minutes of online time left. i tried posting for the last half hour and it is only finally working now. this place is wild. like walking into a page of a national geographic. i am living in a village called Boma, and traveled about a half hour to Moshi where i am using the internet. the village i am living in is small, desolate, and dry. the way the vibrant colors of the shops and hut walls contrast with the dusty brown of the streets, is stunningly beautiful. the people are friendly, but skeptical and curious of my intentions. they love my hair and my clothes. i have to constantly turn them down when they ask for money, which breaks my heart, but i do give out food when asked. i start my job as a school teacher of 6 year olds tomorrow morning whcih i am very excited about and will go on safari on friday. today, a parade of 300 people from another village walked thruogh our town singing and dancing to god. it was an unbelievable sight. we even got to join in with them. every morning i awake to the muslim prayer and song. there are two religions in tanzania; christianity and muslim.
i have to go because of the time limit. ttys. maybe wednesday.
cheers
i have to go because of the time limit. ttys. maybe wednesday.
cheers
Thursday, June 25, 2009
"Are you two dark yet?"
So tonight was the last time Bran and I were able to talk before we both leave for our summer adventures tomorrow. Dad calls this "dark territory." Bran will be in "the field" and I will be in rural Kilimanjaro, which Dad likes to call my "hut."
I'm getting a little jittery about my future travels tomorrow and the weeks ahead, but I know that once I get settled in and meet some of the other volunteers, I'll feel more comfortable. I've received some good advice for my worries, and I really appreciate them. (Ben and Mike :] )
But other than that, I'm really anxious and excited! I'm all packed besides a few things like my phone charger and the malaria meds I'll need to take tomorrow before I leave. I'm going to have an international phone (it's the same # as my regular cell phone) so if anyone would like to text me, be my guest. I won't be able to answer your calls because it's about $5 per minute! The place I'm staying has a phone that is free for me to receive calls, ask Momma Mills for the # if you need it. Other than that, there's always the good ole mail:
Lauren Miller
Cross Cultural Solutions
Attn: Zik Alula
P.O. Box 311
Boma Ng'ombe
Moshi, Tanzania
Well, I hope to get online atleast twice a week, so I'll be sure to blog as much as possible. Take care everyone, and I look forward to sharing my experiences with you!
peace&love
laur
I'm getting a little jittery about my future travels tomorrow and the weeks ahead, but I know that once I get settled in and meet some of the other volunteers, I'll feel more comfortable. I've received some good advice for my worries, and I really appreciate them. (Ben and Mike :] )
But other than that, I'm really anxious and excited! I'm all packed besides a few things like my phone charger and the malaria meds I'll need to take tomorrow before I leave. I'm going to have an international phone (it's the same # as my regular cell phone) so if anyone would like to text me, be my guest. I won't be able to answer your calls because it's about $5 per minute! The place I'm staying has a phone that is free for me to receive calls, ask Momma Mills for the # if you need it. Other than that, there's always the good ole mail:
Lauren Miller
Cross Cultural Solutions
Attn: Zik Alula
P.O. Box 311
Boma Ng'ombe
Moshi, Tanzania
Well, I hope to get online atleast twice a week, so I'll be sure to blog as much as possible. Take care everyone, and I look forward to sharing my experiences with you!
peace&love
laur
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