The Kibiti High School Library

I want to thank all of the generous people who donated to the Kibiti High School Library Fundraising Project. This is our last week in Kibiti and we are really excited about what we have been able to do with the generous contributions. With your help we have been able to furnish the library with over 150 reference books, 5 computers, ceiling fans (these are going to be wonderful when the hot season rolls around again) and educational software programs for the students to use. This will be the first time many of the students have had a chance to use a computer and they are thrilled that they have the opportunity to use them at school.


Duffie with some of the students in the Library.



Nicolas and Yahaya using the Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia.

Inshallah

I am currently reading a pretty interesting travel novel, Beyond the Pyramids by Douglas Kennedy. In the book he recounts his travels through Egypt - the places he sees, the people he meets etc. One passage in particular reminded me a lot of Tanzania. Both Egypt and Tanzania have a heavy Islamic influence and Kennedy's explanation on Egyptian motor habits may as well have been talking about Tanzania:

I turned away from Ramleh Square, and attempted to cross the street. This can be a nervy adventure in Egypt, where the rules of the road go something like this: ignore all traffic lights, stop signs or pedestrian crossings. Drive at maximum speed, even in the most congested streets. Never indicate that you are changing lanes (use your car horn instead). Always cut across an oncoming vehicle's path. Consider any pedestrian a suitable target for liquidation.



I made the mistake of thinking that a green light in my favor actually meant that I could cross the street in relative safety. This turned out to be a bad deduction, for half-way across the road, I turned and saw a batallion of cars bearing down on me. It was like being an alien craft in a game of Space Invaders, and I dove for the pavement, just missing the wrath of a Fiat. an elderly man dressed in a 'galabiya' helped me up after I landed, dusted me off, and seizing me by the arm, led me back into the fray.

'This time I think we make it, Inshallah', he said.

Inshallah means 'Allah willing', and the principle of divine intervention seems to be at work every time you encounter a motor vehicle in Egypt. There is a grim fatalism about Egyptian driving habits -- a belief that you can be wildly dangerous behind the wheel because Allah is the only traffic cop worth listening to, and He alone will decide whether or not you'll make it around the next hairpin curve. The passion for chaos on Egypt's road is an indication of the degree to which accepted western notions of order are given low priority in this society. and it leaves you wondering: is everybody in Egypt living on his nerves?

Swimming With the Dolphins at Kizimkazi

On the southern end of Zanzibar is the village of Kizimkazi. The waters around Kizimkazi are home to several schools of dolphins. Bottle-nose dolphins are the most common species seen, however, humpback dolphins are often seen there as well.



I took a dolphin tour where they took us out on a boat from Kizimkazi to watch for dolphins. After about an hour we spotted a school of dolphins just off the shore from the village and we all got to jump in and swim with them for a few minutes! After jumping in the guides told us to be sure and look down. On the surface of the water you can only see four or five dolphins coming up for air but when you look down you can see the entire school (10-20 of least) feeding on the coral reef below. Here are some of the shots I was able to get :

Mnemba Island Atoll

Just off the northeast coast of Zanzibar lies Mnemba Island. Only 1.5 km in circumference the island is quite small. I wasn't actually able to visit Mnemba since it is privately owned and houses an incredibly exclusive private resort, however, the Marine Park surrounding the island is open to the public for snorkeling, diving and swimming.

I took a day trip to go snorkeling in the Mnemba atoll. The marine life is exquisite and beatiful.



There were tons of huge starfish: they had skinny blue ones like the one you see below and really thick red ones as well.



I have no idea what these fish are called but I thought they were really cute and funny. They are almost a foot long and super skinny. Their mouths look like little trumpets.



And just before we left the captain of our snorkeling boat jumped in and found a baby octopus. He let me hold him for a little bit. When you let the octopus go you have to peel all of its eight legs off of your arm and it feels kind of like velcro.



After a few hours of snorkeling, we were taken back to a beach on the main island where there was freshly grilled kingfish, rice and fruit being served. It was a delicious way to finish up the day!

Holiday Rewind

Thanks to our awesome field director who happens to have handy connections in Zanzibar I got to spend Christmas in a tropical paradise with the other volunteers for our mid-service conference.

Zanzibar is actually a group of islands including the main island called Unguja and Pemba, a smaller island to the north. Zanzibar is the birthplace of Swahili language and culture. It has many cultural influences from Eastern Africa as well as from the Middle East due to its location. The island was an important part of the slave trade and you can visit caves where slaves were hidden after slavery became illegal but the slave trade continued. Zanzibar is also sometime called "The Spice Island" due to the many spice plantations located in the islands interior.

On Christmas Eve I took the ferry from Dar es Salaam into Stone Town, the capital city of Zanzibar. The trip only takes 2-3 hours depending on the speed of the ferry you are on. Here is the view from the ferry as you are approaching Stone Town:


One of Stone Town's charms is its maze of streets and alleyways that you can wander through for hours. It reminded me a lot of Venice (minus the canals). And I found that as long as I kept heading in the direction of wherever I was trying to go I eventually got there.



Another charm are the beautifully carved wooden doorways that you will see as you are wandering through the streets.

Stay tuned for more stories about Zanzibar...

Debate Club

A new addition to the English Club starting in January this year is the weekly debates. In an effort to create a medium for all students (science and art) to improve their English communication skills the headmaster would like to see all of the Form V classes participating in a weekly debate. Every Saturday two classes debate a motion given to them by their debate team secretary. So far they have been very interesting to listen to and the debates give the students a great platform for practicing their English and presentation skills.


The motions so far have been:

Africa's people are the cause of its own underdevelopment.

and

Co-educational schools are better than single sex schools.

Congratulations Form VI!

Our Form VI students just had their graduation ceremony last week and it was a pretty big event. Family members from all over the country came to congratulate the graduates on completing their secondary education. After a four hour ceremony everyone got to enjoy a delicious meal of pilau, chicken, beef, rice, kachumbari, bananas and soda.


On Monday and for the next several weeks the students will start taking their National Exams on their class subjects. Good luck Form VI!

Books!

Thanks to everyone who donated to our Library Project! So far we have raised $2,620.00 -- but its not too late if you would still like to donate to the Library at Kibiti Secondary School just visit our website: http://www.firstgiving.com/kibiti

On Tuesday last week we went with the headmaster of the school to make our first book purchase at Tanzania Book Support Trust - a local NGO.

"Paving the Way" Into the New Year

To celebrate the new year, the staff at my school were all invited to go on an overnight trip to the Selous Game Reserve. The school rented a bus to pick us all up at school and after a few hours on a bumpy dirt road we arrived at Selous. While a bus is not exactly the ideal vehicle for travelling on dirt paths through the wilderness and viewing wildlife everyone still had a good time and enjoyed the journey to the hostel where we were staying the night 70 km past the Reserve Gate. The Rufiji River cuts through Selous and lots of elephants, giraffes, zebras and birds can be seen enjoying the water:

Outside our hostel we found a warthog family that was hanging out:




After a restful night that was nice and cool due to the rain we started to head back towards the entrance gate at noon. The park rangers made us wait an extra hour before we were allowed on the road because of the rain.


While our hardy little bus was able to make its way along the wilderness roads while they were dry it was not quite up to the task after a night of rain. Shortly after we started driving we found ourselves sliding into a ditch along the road. Everyone piled out of the bus and while the park ranger who accompanied us kept watch for dangerous wild animals and the lion we could hear growling in the bush nearby everyone pushed the bus back onto the mud that was trying to pose as a road and we continued on our way.

That first trip into the ditch turned out to be the easiest one to get out of - Further down the road we found our bus tire deep in a river of mud too many times to count! Since there is no AAA in Africa (that I know of) we had to get ourselves out of the mud on our own. We literally had to create our own road out of boulders, logs, sticks and grass that we could find in the bush in order to create a surface the bus could drive on without sinking.





Even the ranger helped! (Note the big gun)


All the while a giraffe family watched us from down the road. They weren't used to seeing people outside of their vehicles in an area where large, dangerous, carniverous animals hunt for their dinner!

Finally, after seven hours of this business and after the ranger spotted a leapord nearby (!) a giant tractor showed up to tow us through the rest of the muddy spots and we reached the entrance gate by 8:00. Eight hours to travel only 70 km (a little less than 45 miles). It was quite an adventure! Next time I visit Selous, however, I will be sure to be in a vehicle with 4-wheel drive.

Tui La Nazi

Tui la nazi (aka coconut milk) is a very popular and delicious ingredient in the coastal regions. Here is a little "How-To" for making your own fresh coconut milk.

To start you will need a Kibao cha Mbuzi (literally means "Goat Board" but no one can tell me why) and a ripe coconut:


Step 1: Crack open the coconut


Step 2: Sit on the Kibao cha mbuzi and "scratch" the coconut. (Kuna la nazi)












Step 3: Add a little warm water to the scratched coconut

Step 4: Knead the warm water and coconut together with your hands.

Step 5: Strain



And finally you have a nice bowl of coconut milk to use when you're cooking!