Hey all, sorry about the long time since the last post. Just so much going on. Let's see...
After village homestay, we went to Ruaha, where we observed 2 mother lions, a male, and 3 cubs playing around on rocks and making adorable growl-meows and suckling noises. You never see something like that, and we observed for a full half hour. It was great.
The next morning, Nate Cronk and I woke up to a troop of about 35 baboons outside of our tent, playing in the river bed. All generations were there, from a hairy old male to 4 black babies that looked like their faces were smushed. A bull elephant also came within 5 yards of us that morning. Good times.
Since then, we've been back on campus studying. We had the first annual Livingstone-Stanley Games, and split the whole campus into two teams for the whole of Saturday. It ended in a draw, but Frisbee was undisputably handed to the Livingstones at a score of 9-1 (I was a Livingstone). Soccer and the uphill race went to the Stanleys, and everything else involved less running, so myeh. Although watching Mama Barb chug a soda and Sari Ann spew out 12 marshmallows during Fuzzy Bunny was pretty darn great.
Tomorrow we leave for our village homestay with the Safwa in Mbeya region. We'll be in the most traditional setting for the next 9 nights, eating ugali and sardines every day probably. Can't wait. There'll probably be ahuge village soccer game as well.
Anyways, I just sent a letter off to Houghton (Lois, this one's for you!), so that should tell a fair few stories. Really it's been a fairly slow week of studies since then. I'm going to go visit Magnus the woodcarver now.
Mom, I'll try to give you a phone call sometime soon.
Love y'all. Sorry this is pithy. Ain't enough time in a day yo.
-JZ
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Monday, March 11, 2013
town stay
today is the end of town home stay. it was great. i had almost no Swahili practice cuz everyone speaks English so much better than i speak Swahili.
drew and i stayed with Edwin, an ex-farmer/agriculture professor who runs a bakery out of his home now. he's currently 67. he has 5 children the youngest of whom is 28. they all live in townsave one, and 3 visited while we we're there. Edwin was a gracious host, and the always-on tv informed me of all the misery i had been uninformed of.i endeavor to forget it quickly.
i also met a wood carver named Magnus, who is a blossoming entrepreneur in love with Andrew Carnegie. he took me to his house, feed me ugali (my kindle auto corrected to Idaho, hahaha), and introduced me to his girlfriend and daughter. we spoke of business and women and politics very similar to my conversations with Edwin. i also bought my mommy a present from him (see mom! i got you a souvenir!)
in any case, if the faucets of heaven calm down soon, I'm visiting the hospital to find out the exact aids regimen in place here. my knowledge is far more technical now than when i started, and i feel proud of my efforts as a budding medical anthropologist.
love you all!!
drew and i stayed with Edwin, an ex-farmer/agriculture professor who runs a bakery out of his home now. he's currently 67. he has 5 children the youngest of whom is 28. they all live in townsave one, and 3 visited while we we're there. Edwin was a gracious host, and the always-on tv informed me of all the misery i had been uninformed of.i endeavor to forget it quickly.
i also met a wood carver named Magnus, who is a blossoming entrepreneur in love with Andrew Carnegie. he took me to his house, feed me ugali (my kindle auto corrected to Idaho, hahaha), and introduced me to his girlfriend and daughter. we spoke of business and women and politics very similar to my conversations with Edwin. i also bought my mommy a present from him (see mom! i got you a souvenir!)
in any case, if the faucets of heaven calm down soon, I'm visiting the hospital to find out the exact aids regimen in place here. my knowledge is far more technical now than when i started, and i feel proud of my efforts as a budding medical anthropologist.
love you all!!
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
hey again!! so since last time we visited the Maasai and many adventures were had. kel is receuving a letter with mostofthe details. the Maasai were super_welcoming abd taught us how to dance and spent about three hiurs if Q&A with us. the best question from their end was whether or not we had sex with our dogs. slight misunderstanding about sleepingwith our pets i suppose.
on campus (the shire) things continue muchas they always have: easy classes, good soccer games, and more Swahili. we get to bust ut iut for real with our homestay in town this weekend. I'm going with Andrew Letourneau if any y'all know hin.
also we ate ugali (rice porridge the consistency of mashed potatoes, and we learned it is, in fact, culturally sensitive to eat with your hands here and lick your plate. score for me!
On the literary end, i wrote 6 pagesof senior sem, 3 poems, and have read 2 novels, along with countless pages if aids research. also kindle can type via squiggle awesome! send me emails and letters! i Will try to respond. feel free to request info. love y'all!
on campus (the shire) things continue muchas they always have: easy classes, good soccer games, and more Swahili. we get to bust ut iut for real with our homestay in town this weekend. I'm going with Andrew Letourneau if any y'all know hin.
also we ate ugali (rice porridge the consistency of mashed potatoes, and we learned it is, in fact, culturally sensitive to eat with your hands here and lick your plate. score for me!
On the literary end, i wrote 6 pagesof senior sem, 3 poems, and have read 2 novels, along with countless pages if aids research. also kindle can type via squiggle awesome! send me emails and letters! i Will try to respond. feel free to request info. love y'all!
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
hey all sorry about the long delay. internet has been funky . so...
last night we all went to the rocks on the river to watch a beautiful full moon. just impossible to describe so I will leave it to picture s.
we spent three days at ruaha game park and got mock- charged by a bull elephant, which was one of the best moments of my life. getting charged by a tusked bus is rather awe- inspiring. we saw lions too, and birds, cuz that's Eli for you. in two days we visit the maAsia, which will be awesome. can't wait to dance with them, which is basically jumping up and down for hours on end. CARDIOOOOOO!!! also, rugby in an hour.
also the people here never cease to entertain. a businessman just pointed out some "wazungu wazuri" girls to me and asked whether I liked white girls or black girls better.his wife was there too.
as for Swahili, I'm still plugging away with Deus. he's a great teacher. oh, and today I both wrote a poem and got rejected from Rochester medical school. very productive. I would like to have a keyboard right now. I shall try and post again soon! love you all, write me stories!
last night we all went to the rocks on the river to watch a beautiful full moon. just impossible to describe so I will leave it to picture s.
we spent three days at ruaha game park and got mock- charged by a bull elephant, which was one of the best moments of my life. getting charged by a tusked bus is rather awe- inspiring. we saw lions too, and birds, cuz that's Eli for you. in two days we visit the maAsia, which will be awesome. can't wait to dance with them, which is basically jumping up and down for hours on end. CARDIOOOOOO!!! also, rugby in an hour.
also the people here never cease to entertain. a businessman just pointed out some "wazungu wazuri" girls to me and asked whether I liked white girls or black girls better.his wife was there too.
as for Swahili, I'm still plugging away with Deus. he's a great teacher. oh, and today I both wrote a poem and got rejected from Rochester medical school. very productive. I would like to have a keyboard right now. I shall try and post again soon! love you all, write me stories!
Friday, February 8, 2013
Pythons, Horses, and Retroviruses
Crazy days been had people. Kelsey, skip the next paragraph.
Today, I went to the barn at 6:30 AM for horseback riding. Kim, consummate horser that she is, came along. at the top of the hill, she nearly stepped on a python. We freaked for a second, investigated, and then Shera Moyer, picked it up. It was decided that we would drop it into the back of the class behind Eli (Dr. Knapp) during his Bio lecture. As he finished talking about human remains discovered at Tsavo, which were left behind by man-eating lions, the girls burst out screaming and climbed on tables as the 7 foot python wriggled into the room, having been released by Chris and Shera. Kim got it all on film. Everyone calmed down, and the snake was fondled lovingly by the class, before being thrown into the river to resume its normal life.
Now we're in Iringa, for our somewhat weekly trip to the city. Stephanie Ford and I just got back from touring a local AIDS clinic. A wonderful counselor (but not Almighty God or the Everlasting Father) named Happy freely spoke with us for an hour, answering any questions we asked. Afterwards, she introduced us to the other staff, and George took us on an unrequested tour of the laboratory. It. Was. Awesome. We also walked to the other AIDS clinic nearby, and an accountant named Gilbert invited us to come back in the morning to meet all the other staff. This was after I had promptly offended him by explaining why I had come, rather than asking him his name and introducing myself. I am a terrible American. Ah well, I'm learning.
Deus, one of the night guards, has been a wonderful Swahili teacher to me, and I've taught him a smidgen of English in return. He's one of the local Wa-Hehe (hay-hay) people, and we sit down to swap language for about an hour almost every night. It's made me pretty good at Swahili for an mzungu from Houghton, but I still speak like a one-year old. At this rate, I'll be pre-teen level by the time I leave! That's actually an exciting prospect. I'm starting to think I might return in my doctoring years.
I also dropped 3 letters in the mail today: a letter to "my kids" from ACO, a letter to my family, and an open letter to Houghtonites, which shall arrive in Ted's mailbox, so hit him up for it when he gets it (sorry Ted). I'll try and write more letters, but my time has been surprisingly short... probably because of all the Swahili.
Anyways, life is good here, the trees are beautiful, the animals are amazing, the culture is friendly, and everything in nature bites, stings, stabs, or tastes good, and sometimes combines those traits in surprising ways. Love you all!
Also, my address is PO Box 934, Iringa, Tanzania. If you write me letters, I can read those on campus, where my time isn't as limited, which is nice. Kwa heri!
Today, I went to the barn at 6:30 AM for horseback riding. Kim, consummate horser that she is, came along. at the top of the hill, she nearly stepped on a python. We freaked for a second, investigated, and then Shera Moyer, picked it up. It was decided that we would drop it into the back of the class behind Eli (Dr. Knapp) during his Bio lecture. As he finished talking about human remains discovered at Tsavo, which were left behind by man-eating lions, the girls burst out screaming and climbed on tables as the 7 foot python wriggled into the room, having been released by Chris and Shera. Kim got it all on film. Everyone calmed down, and the snake was fondled lovingly by the class, before being thrown into the river to resume its normal life.
Now we're in Iringa, for our somewhat weekly trip to the city. Stephanie Ford and I just got back from touring a local AIDS clinic. A wonderful counselor (but not Almighty God or the Everlasting Father) named Happy freely spoke with us for an hour, answering any questions we asked. Afterwards, she introduced us to the other staff, and George took us on an unrequested tour of the laboratory. It. Was. Awesome. We also walked to the other AIDS clinic nearby, and an accountant named Gilbert invited us to come back in the morning to meet all the other staff. This was after I had promptly offended him by explaining why I had come, rather than asking him his name and introducing myself. I am a terrible American. Ah well, I'm learning.
Deus, one of the night guards, has been a wonderful Swahili teacher to me, and I've taught him a smidgen of English in return. He's one of the local Wa-Hehe (hay-hay) people, and we sit down to swap language for about an hour almost every night. It's made me pretty good at Swahili for an mzungu from Houghton, but I still speak like a one-year old. At this rate, I'll be pre-teen level by the time I leave! That's actually an exciting prospect. I'm starting to think I might return in my doctoring years.
I also dropped 3 letters in the mail today: a letter to "my kids" from ACO, a letter to my family, and an open letter to Houghtonites, which shall arrive in Ted's mailbox, so hit him up for it when he gets it (sorry Ted). I'll try and write more letters, but my time has been surprisingly short... probably because of all the Swahili.
Anyways, life is good here, the trees are beautiful, the animals are amazing, the culture is friendly, and everything in nature bites, stings, stabs, or tastes good, and sometimes combines those traits in surprising ways. Love you all!
Also, my address is PO Box 934, Iringa, Tanzania. If you write me letters, I can read those on campus, where my time isn't as limited, which is nice. Kwa heri!
Friday, February 1, 2013
Hey all!
So I'm here in Tanzania, one week in, sittin in an Internet cafe in Iringa. Our home campus is beautiful, and for class we listen to Eli and Dr. A, and sometimes read books, but mostly play volleyball. This will change. I started work on my Senior Sem too :D So.. .let's see...
Day 1 and 2 we spent at Lazy Lagoon, which was an island paradise where we lived in huts, played on the beach, saw a sea turtle (dead), a blowfish (dead), and many other fish and starfish (not dead). Was glorious. Then we spent a day at a game park and saw (deep breath)
giraffes, elephants, wildebeest, warthogs, impalas, sausage trees, hippos, and a bunch of other stuff!
Now we're living in lovely little huts (kibanda) practicing our Swahili so we can speak with people around here (Tunasoma Kiswahili kwa sabubu kusema na wato wanata hi), and generally having a great time :) (rock climbing, volleyball, NAPS, campfires). I wish I could talk to all of you, or at least e-mail all of you back, but there's so little time!!! Just know I love you all, I miss you, and I'll try and send out at least a communal snail-mail letter. Kwa heri!
So I'm here in Tanzania, one week in, sittin in an Internet cafe in Iringa. Our home campus is beautiful, and for class we listen to Eli and Dr. A, and sometimes read books, but mostly play volleyball. This will change. I started work on my Senior Sem too :D So.. .let's see...
Day 1 and 2 we spent at Lazy Lagoon, which was an island paradise where we lived in huts, played on the beach, saw a sea turtle (dead), a blowfish (dead), and many other fish and starfish (not dead). Was glorious. Then we spent a day at a game park and saw (deep breath)
giraffes, elephants, wildebeest, warthogs, impalas, sausage trees, hippos, and a bunch of other stuff!
Now we're living in lovely little huts (kibanda) practicing our Swahili so we can speak with people around here (Tunasoma Kiswahili kwa sabubu kusema na wato wanata hi), and generally having a great time :) (rock climbing, volleyball, NAPS, campfires). I wish I could talk to all of you, or at least e-mail all of you back, but there's so little time!!! Just know I love you all, I miss you, and I'll try and send out at least a communal snail-mail letter. Kwa heri!
Thursday, January 3, 2013
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