asante sana squashed bananas

(lion king anyone?)

2-20-09
4:47 pm

our days have been totally jam packed. i'm trying to cut down entries to all but the exciting points, but also write enough to help me remember everything. sorry if they are boring you.

yesterday we spent the day on campus. i started out by painting... toilet signs. we were given eight pieces of tile and directed to decorate them. let me tell you, they were the prettiest ladies and gents signs you'll ever see. unfortunately, others agreed and i was immediately nominated to be the sole art club project thinker upper for eternity. i finished the toilet signs by shelacking (let's be honest, i can't even begin to spell that word correctly) the tiles. little did i know that you aren't supposed to touch it with your bare hands, let alone try to squeeze it all out of the paintbrush in the sink. an hour and 1/2 a bottle of paint thinner later, and i was set to go.

i also received an email yesterday from blue ventures, the organization i'm supposed to be going to madagascar with. they canceled the expedition before mine because of the riots and wanted to let us know that ours might be canceled as well. if that is the case, we can move to the fiji or malaysia trip. unfortunately, they won't know until right before we're supposed to get to madagascar whether it will be safe enough to go... which means we could end up with no trip. i think my mom and i decided to wait a week and see what happens and go from there. pray that i can go to madagascar or that we can figure out the travel plans to fiji asap!

last night we got to see some masaii dancers. SO cool. they are comprised of "warriors," complete with stretched earlobes, beautiful fabrics wrapped around their bodies, branded faces, and... cell phones. the dances are calls to their god. they basically sing, grunt, whistle, shout, whine and screech out a chant like you've never heard. then they do this part where they jump up and down, one at a time. they have verticals that could rival nba players'. some of the members of our group also went up and tried jumping with them. couldn't even begin to compete. it is a ritual that goes back many many years, but since africa doesn't have the wiring for landlines, everyone here has super cheap cell phones. one guy was holding his phone in one hand and a staff in the other. it was really cool though. we got to hear all about their culture, where the men have multiple wives, circumcision is celebrated at age 15 (both men and women), and they drink blood. it's fascinating.

today i did very little. most of my group went on an 8 hour hike. we have been going on and off campus every day, which means that i have been in a dramamine coma since arriving. i finally got to the point that i was so tired and incoherent that i had to skip the outing today to rid my system of all the drugs. i slept in (which means i slept until about 7:30, when the crickets and birds got totally out of control) and then meandered through campus a bit. after lunch, beth (another woman who stayed behind) and i tried to teach some kids various card games. the form 1's had finished exams early. instead of having free time, they were immediately coralled into a classroom for impromptu study time, even though they've had exams in all 11 subjects all week. when we came to free them, they remained in their seats, claiming they wanted to study. it wasn't until jenaya reassured them that it really was okay to leave that they started cautiously approaching the door. seeing as how i hate cards and all board games (the combo of lack of short term memory and lack of patience equates to me lasting about 2 minutes), i couldn't actually remember how to play many games. i would think i had remembered how to play something, start teaching them, and then realize 4 minutes in that i did not, in fact, actually remember. we spent 45 minutes playing a game that was a combination of slapjack, egyptian rat screw, war, crazy eights, and go fish. then we all got confused and the kids left. so far i'm really changing lives over here.

in other news, i sort of feel like i'm cheating. phs' campus is GORGEOUS and it's 100 acres surrounded by a barbed wire/electric fence. we have our own security team that watches the entrance and walks around and patrols the grounds, meaning we're pretty safe. we have toilets and filtered water. my room in the guesthouse is larger than my room was in my apartment in denver (which isn't saying much, but still). it isn't exactly the africa i was expecting. i think part of it has to do with the fact that i'm currently with a group until wednesday. it's a fundraising group and i think peace house knows that if they have a fabulous time, they'll go home and give more money/get their friends to give a bunch of money. so, we have gotten the best of the best since arriving. we've gone out to some really great meals at the nicest restaraunts in town and we're even supplied with beer and wine in the houses. the students have a very strict schedule so we haven't spent enough time with them yet to hear about much. if you want to know what arusha is REALLY like, read my friend andrew's blog (andrewsafricablog.blogspot.com), because you aren't really going to read it here. i suppose it's disappointing, but i'm hoping that i'll feel more involved once we're back from safari and i start actually accomplishing something.

anyway, i've got a lot coming up in the next few days to look forward to. we're having a movie night with the kids, going to the masaii market, i'm meeting up with andrew, and we leave for safari on monday!

time to go, as i may have just been locked into the office. shoot.





i'm living again, awake and alive. i'm dying to breathe in these abundant skies. --switchfoot