A farewell quiche

My trip is winding down (I fly out tomorrow night) and it was my last day at Mama Clementina for this trip. Today’s class was the Form 4s. And, like we did on Tuesday with the Form 3s, we made quiche. One bacon and Gouda and one veggie. Obviously, the girls had never heard of quiche but most seemed to enjoy it. The also quite enjoyed watching videos of themselves singing on my iPad. I’ll be sure to share the most recent videos when I get home.

I’m sitting here on the porch — our usual spot — watching the sun go down. So beautiful

We’ll probably head over to the Friday night hotspot, Glacier, to say some goodbyes in a few hours. But since I could easily be a mother to most everyone at Glacier (possibly even a grandmother), I’m sure we won’t stay long.

That’s all I’ve got at the moment. I’ll check in kesho…

A respite from the rain

Day two of glorious sunshine around here. I know I’ve been obsessing a bit about the weather lately but the weather seems to impact daily activities here so much more than it does at home.

My supply of clean and dry clothes is rapidly dwindling because the constant rain and moisture in the air doesn’t allow the clothes to get dry enough before the mustiness settles in. Travel on the a already difficult and treacherous (at least by our western standards) roads, becomes even more difficult and, at times, impossible with so much water and mud. Power and network issues, too, come up quite a bit more often in the rainy season.

But, as I’ve mentioned before, the beauty of this region is intensified with the rain. And the locals are so very grateful for a rainy season unlike any other they’ve had in recent years. So a little inconvenience isn’t really important in the grand scheme of things. I’m disappointed that the weather hasn’t allowed us to make a visit to the Gabriella center this trip, but I’m grateful that this rain is doing much good for the people who live here. And, me? I head home to sunny California in a few days and a home with a dishwasher and a washing machine and dryer.

Today’s photo is of our beautiful and green yard as I sit on the porch typing on my iPad. I really can’t wait to get home where I can download my photos and type our stories of the past week on a real keyboard.

I’ll miss Shay desperately, but it’s so wonderful to see how settled in she’s gotten here. She’s made some wonderful friends who take vey good care of her and check in on her regularly. She’s doing some fantastic and inspiring work with the students at Kilimahewa, the girls at Mama Clementina and everyone at the Hard Life Art club — not to mention the tutoring sessions she offers up regularly to friends who need them and mentoring sessions with some formers House of Learning students she made contact with. She may think otherwise, but she’s going to be just fine when I leave. Actually, better than fine…nzuri sana sana.

Slow day in Moshi

Today is Wednesday and we have nowhere to be. No classes to teach and no meetings. We thought about getting out of town fora little R&R but the rain is proving to be quite an obstacle.

Wanted to go to Tarangire and to enjoy their gorgeous lodge and scenery but the lodge closed due to the heavy rains. We are now thinking about Lake Chala but the wet and muddy roads are too much for our little car. We will have to borrow a sturdier car to make that journey.

For now, though, we’re enjoying a quiet morning at home. Africafe, a call home to talk to Treb and the kids and catching up on the headlines from home. My news feed is heavy on the Sharks and their sweep of the Canucks and Charles Ramsey.

Today’s photo is of some of my favorite girls — the Form 3s at Mama Clementina. While we waited for the quiches to come out of the oven, they again sang some beautiful songs. My favorites were the goodbye songs for me, since yesterday was my last day with them for this trip. When I have access to a computer I’ll be sure to share them with you.

Back to my quiet morning and my book….

“I bless the rains down in Africa…”

I’m thinking Toto never actually visited Africa before writing that song. If it rained maybe every OTHER day I might actually bless them. But EVERY day and pretty much all day is a bit of a challenge.

My computer is still not working. And, yes it’s the rain’s fault since a sudden downpour while we sat on the porch one night rendered my keyboard unfixable in the land without Genuis Bars.

Blogging is tough on my iPad so I’ve decided to recreate my trip in blog form when I get home. I’ve been taking notes on our adventures and I have to say that some of our stories are screaming to be told.

Anyway, the photo of the day is brought to you by the “rains down in Africa.” That’s a photo of our clothes drying on the line….for the last five-freaking-days. If we got maybe half a day without rain the clothes might actually dry at some point.

I really shouldn’t complain because they do desperately need the rain here. Last year’s rains weren’t enough to keep food costs low, so this year’s rains are crucial to the crops. And, it really is stunningly beautiful here during this season

Technical difficulties

It’s a meltdown Friday morning here in Moshi. The SIM card in my phone stopped working yesterday so I’ve been in communicado for the past 24 hours. Sat down with my laptop this morning to write a blog post about our activities for the past couple of days and….nothing. All whacked out. Not working at all. Then Shay powered up hers. Ack!!! That one’s dead too.

I’m typing on my iPad at the moment so my situation definitely qualifies as a first world problem. I head home in a week and can get my computer fixed. Things are a bit more dire for Shay who really needs a computer to do her work.

I’ll sign off now as we pray to the gods of broken electronics.

Kwaheri!

The Mama Clementina Foundation singers

I still can’t get enough of the Form 3 girls at Mama Clementina Foundation singing for us while waiting for their cooking project to come out of the oven, so I wanted to share the videos with all of you. Here are links for the three songs they sang for us. Please excuse the poor video quality. Videographer is not a job I’m cut out for. And, if it was, perhaps I wouldn’t be shooting with my iPhone.

The MCM singers #1

The MCM singers #2

The MCM singers #3

From computers to cake

Yesterday was cooking day at Mama Clementina. Shay teaches hospitality and cooking classes to the Form 3 and Form 4 girls at Mama Clementina Foundation each Tuesday and Friday. When the girls see Shay arrive with food bags they can’t hide their excitement — cooking days are their favorites. Yesterday we made apple cinnamon bundt cake and, as an added bonus the girls got to use all the new cooking supplies I brought over in my suitcase. Look how excited they are:

As Shay and I searched online for recipes, I learned just how challenging this part of the project is. Recipes must not include ingredients that can’t be purchased in the local markets. If you’ve ever been to Africa you know just how limiting this is. Recipes also must have short cooking/baking times so that Shay has enough time to help the girls prepare all the ingredients and work through the recipes step by step. With a brand new bundt pan, we were anxious to try it out. After much searching, we found a recipe that didn’t take much more than an hour to cook and only required sugar, flour, vanilla, apples, baking powder, cinnamon and eggs — all things we could find easily!

Here’s Shay getting everyone started and the girls doing their thing:

Here’s the girls sampling their finished product — which was delicious, by the way:

This was my first time meeting the girls and I absolutely adored them. They sang for us while we waited for the cake to bake and it was one of the most beautiful things I’ve experienced here. I’ll check with my technical advisor (Shay) to see how to go about posting my recording of the girls’ songs. But, oh my goodness, they are such smart and beautiful girls and the singing just the icing on the cake (pun absolutely not intended — pole!).

After class we headed home for a very special birthday party. Mama Salma who helps Shay out part time with laundry and other household chores is the sweetest and most adorable woman who never stops smiling and greets us each day with hugs and kisses. Mama Salma has two children and yesterday was her daughter Salma’s 7th birthday. We invited Mama Salma to bring the birthday girl, her brother and a few of her friends over for some cake and milk. I know I’m overdoing it with the superlatives, but, oh my goodness, Salma was such a joy. Just a bundle of smiles and giggles and she loved her cake. Here’s the beautiful birthday girl:

Today is a national holiday here — Labor Day — so no school for us. So far it’s been a quiet day. With my jet lag kicking in a bit that’s been a good thing. Back to work tomorrow…

This is a computer…

I mentioned yesterday that Shay and I were planning to facilitate a computer class for the students at Kilimahewa and, wow, WHAT an experience that was. Shay has been working with three recent Kilimahewa graduates — Veronica, Elizabeth and Teresia — who just passed their Form 4 exams and will soon be moving on to Form 5. While they await their future placements, EdPowerment has been paying them to teach classes at Kilimahewa. In addition to their teaching responsibilities, Shay has been working with them on some basic business and computer skills. She has also been preparing them to teach the computer classes to the Kilimahewa students. Here’s Shay and her girls getting ready to start the class:

Oh my goodness, the girls did such a wonderful job! Shay and I were such proud mamas watching these three beautiful and confident girls do their thing. To give you an idea of the challenge they were up against, we asked the class of approximately 20 students to raise their hands if they had ever used a computer. Three hands went up very tentatively. Look at the fabulous teachers in action:

Anyone who knows me well knows that I am not the most technically savvy person in the world (that’s what Treb and the kids are for), but it was hard even for me to fathom how basic this class had to be. The girls were so patient in explaining (in both English and Swahili) what a computer is and how to use a keyboard. Understanding the difference between hardware and software proved to be a tricky proposition. The students were so patient and engaged and did a wonderful job of taking notes.

Within the next few weeks, we hope to be able to finally power up the computers and really get down to business. Baby steps, people 🙂

Here’s our students heading home after class:

Let me also point out Kilimahewa’s gorgeous new school building. It was in the early stages when I was here in January, and here it is now:

Also wanted to point out that I’m here for the first time during rainy season. And while I wasn’t looking forward to being here for the rain and the mud, I’m just awestruck by the beauty of the landscape at this time of year. Look at how gorgeous it is right now:

Not only is it green and lush and more gorgeous than I’m used to, it’s also kind of quiet. The rain makes Kili climbs and safaris difficult so it’s the off-season for tourists. Definitely less of us wazungu walking around town, making it more of a true Tanzanian experience.

I’ll wrap up today’s post with a photo of a few of the boys in our computer class. They live far from school and it was getting late in the day so we gave a few of them a ride home. They wanted me to take a photo of them in the car, aren’t they cute?

More to come kesho (tomorrow)…

Happy to be here :)

Well, I’m here and it feels wonderful. Flight was, thankfully, pretty uneventful. Got in last night at 7:30 and Shay and Morgan were waiting at the airport for me. Got to hop in Shay’s car (yes, she has a car!!) and drove back to the very-much-becoming-a-home house. Great night’s sleep followed by a very Moshi wake-up call of roosters, barking dogs and about a million birds chirping. A little Africafe on the patio with Shay while watching the rain…ahhh, it’s good to be back.

I’m definitely not a local by any stretch of the imagination (Shay is getting awfully close, though) but it seems that with each trip out here things that I used to think were so bizarre and strange kinda seem normal to me now. For instance, while enjoying some Union coffee and breakfast on the outdoor patio of our favorite cafe, we didn’t even blink at the pick-up truck parked in front of us with a mooing cow in the back. I did take a photo since the more I thought about it the stranger it seemed. That’s Africa, baby 😉

And just for good measure, here’s a not very good shot of one of my favorite things here: a mama with her beautiful baby strapped to her. You have to look closely for her.

We’re getting ready to head over to Kilimahewa so that Shay can facilitate their first-ever computer class. EdPowerment supplied the school with 8 brand-new laptops and also sent me out here with a bunch of software to load them up with. Tables and chairs were built and I get to see it all come together today. It’s going to be so fun to see these kids experience computers for the first time. I’ll be sure to take some photos. Tomorrow I get to meet the Mama Clementina girls and I can’t wait. I’ll certainly post photos of that, too.

I’ll finish up with a shout out to the wonderful support system I have in place. The fact that I can pick up and fly half way around the world for two weeks is only possible because my wonderful husband, Treb does such a fantastic job of keeping things running at home, while still managing to keep his company running as well. My kids do an equally fantastic job of stepping up and demonstrating a level of independence that they mostly hide when I’m around. My mom, in-laws and wonderful friends are all ready and willing to jump in wherever necessary. Asante, everyone! Couldn’t do it without you.

More kesho (tomorrow)

Back to Moshi

Today is packing day!

Yep, I’m heading back to Tanzania tomorrow for another two weeks. So excited to see Shay and all my Tanzanian friends, but am seriously dreading the flight. This trip is better than most in that I have a direct flight to Amsterdam, but I still have 10+ hours to Amsterdam and another 10+ hours to Kilimanjaro. Praying to the travel gods that the FAA furloughs don’t hurt me…

I will definitely be blogging again on this trip. I have lots to share with you. We’ve got exciting projects happening at Kilimahewa and with the chicken project we are funding, I get to meet the lovely girls in Shay’s hospitality classes and we’ll spend time with some of our sponsored children.

A daily view of Mt. Kilimanjaro is a definite bonus.