wrapping things up

So I'm home. Flights home were ok besides the fact that I lost a bag in the gong show that was the Nairobi airport. Probably wont get it back, but its ok.

My last days in Africa were pretty good, same old routine more or less.

The last weekend, we decided to do something big, so we made the big trip again to Dar es Salaam, but instead of going to a seder, we went and saw 50 Cent. It was absolutely insane. When he came on, a riot broke out; people were throwing chairs everywhere, people were all types of assaulted and violated. I saw many people leaving in tears. The show was cool and hilarious though as soon as I re-met up with the girls. They had to escape from the front row by punching and elbowing their way through the crowd.

The rest of the week was good. I said goodbye to my kids, which was sad, but it was definitely time to leave.

This year has been incredible. I'm really proud of the job Becky, Rachel, and I did with everything. I can honestly say everything worked out and that we all left this trip happy, if not pretty tired. That means a lot.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed reading this. I'm glad I could keep people semi-informed. See you around.

Kilimanjaro from our house

Safari:

work

Working at Shaurimoyo is extremely frustrating for me. I have never worked with disabled children before, so I feel completely out of my element. Every day, me and my partner Vicky stand around, and check kids' work, and watch them play. We bring our own activities, but most of the time we end up standing around, especially because the first and last 45 minutes of the day are without kids.

The area where we really can help is when the kids work in their notebooks on simple math and spelling. But even this is tough, because my swahili is terrible and many of the students cannot understand simple body language and hand motions. All the same, we try our best, I guess thats all they can really ask for.

Back to the safari, it was insane. We went for the weekend. We were in jeeps, and just stood out the roof. At Ngorongoro crater, we saw so many animals in one place, it was pretty unbelievable. Gazelle, various birds, warthog, buffalo, wildebeast, flamingo, zebra, dik diks, elephants, giraffes, lions, hippos, rhinos, implala, hyenas. Pretty much everything, I'll try and upload some more photos when I can.

After all this, we went and visited a "traditional" massai village. It was one of the most awkward things I've done this whole trip. We roll up to this little circle of huts made from cow shit, and immediately all the women come out and start dancing. So we're standing in the sun watching these people hop up and down dancing, and they're taking volunteers to dance with them, and its just wierd. All this time, little half naked children are running around with flies all over them, crawling in their eyes and stuff.

Then, we got a speech about massai culture as all the massai women unrolled their mats of goods and trinkets to sell at ridiculous tourist prices. I'm really not sure who was exploiting who at this point. We left soon after this.

Despite all of this, the Massai tribe is a really cool one. They are the only tribe in tanzania that still practices and ilives in its traditional way. Villages consist of one chief and however many wives he has. Children do simple work, and when they are 15, they are sent out into the jungle with the chief to learn "everything they need to know." If another tribesman comes to the village, he can sleep with his friend's wife if he pleases, he just has to leave his spear by the door as a courtesy warning.

The massai also believe that all cattle belong to them, no matter what. They'll go and steal/raid other tribes and take their cattle because they believe it is their right. They also believe in female circumcision

That all for now I think.

Safari

This weekend we went on safari in the Ngorongoro crater and at lake manyara. It was really cool and we pretty much saw everything. Here are some pictures:

Israel:

Tormenting monkeys


Chillin with donkeys in the desert


Trying to leave


Africa:

Baobab tree


Passed out in the van


Mud huts


Rest stop on the way to Dar es Salaam


Scenery

work and the weekend

This will be short, quick, and badly written because I dont really have time.

I work at a place called Shaurimoyo, a school. I work in the class for dissabled kids. Some have down's sybndrom, some palsy, ADHD, learning dissabilities, and autism. Ages range form 8 to 14, and I pretty much help them with their work and play sports with them. So far it has been really fun and rewarding.

Friday, they had sports day, where three different classes from different schools came together and had this carnival in a field. It was really cool and the regional head of education for disabled kids (or something like that) was there and gave a speech praising us volunteers extensively which was wierd because we'd been there three days and hadn't really done that much. It was kind of awkward but at the same time pretty cool.

The other day there was seriosuly a blizzard of flying termites. They are as big as dragonflies, and they litterally swarm everywhere. They eventually would fall to the ground, shed their wings and mate. The next day there were wings everywhere.

This past weekend we went to Dar es Salaam for some passover seder. We spent more time on the bus than we did in Dar. Eight hours both ways, and bumpy as hell.

That's it for now. We're going on a safari next weekend. Peace.

Africa

So I'm in Africa now. I'm pretty excited to be here. Israel was an incredible good time, and it's hard to express how much I will miss Kibbutz Revivim and the people from there. What made it so special was the cast of characters that made up life every day. That and the free time after work created a lifestyle that I fell in love with. Work for your food and then play, and I guess that's all you really need. It was an experience I won't forget for sure.

However, now there's a new place to live, Moshi, a small town in Tanzania at the foot of Mt. Kilomanjaro. Our flights here on Air Ethiopia were fine, and upon getting to the airport, we were picked up by Athumani, one of the many chill staff members. It was an hour drive to the house, and we drove through this huge valley, passing rural villages (as in huts), huge fields, and other small towns. Everything is really green, and it was beautiful. I haven't been able to see the mountain yet, the rainy season has just started so its been pretty cloudy.

Our house is nice. There are actually a few buildings within the CCS compound, each with rooms for volunteers. We are up this dirt road, maybe a 10 minute walk from downtown.

We walked downtown today, which was cool. I've kind of lost my perspective when it comes to describing things like this. I would call it a normal looking town, but compared to America, its like a dirtier, poorer, downtown swarthmore with one story buildings. On the street, everyone is really nice. It's in the culture to talk and shoot the shit with everyone, and even though there were tons of people trying to sell me stuff, people still just wanted to talk. One guy selling little paintings never even asked me about them, we talked about Barak Obama for 15 minutes.

There are some crazy animals/bugs here. Besides the obvious mosquito/malaria stuff, there are a bunch of other crawling stuff that you have to look out for, including a this small fly that pees on you and burns your skin off...or something like that.

That's pretty much it for now. I start work tuesday in a place called Shaurimoyo, and school for disabled kids, which I'm excited for. I guess I'll write more then.

Sorry for not writing much, but to be honest, there's not much to write about. Whereas India was a constant stream of new and exciting experiences all the time, Israel is more about hanging out, working, and living a chill repetitive lifestyle for a bit.

During the days of the week (sunday through friday), I work from 8ish to 3ish. I don't really have a set job yet, so I've been doing different things every day, such as laundry, dish washing, cleaning chicken coops, cutting down trees, etc. The rest of the afternoons cosist of hanging out, messing around, and generally doing nothing, which I love. We are truly in the middle of the desert, so its fun to explore things having to do with that. The other day we biked out maybe a mile into the desert to watch the sunset, which was beautiful.

We've done a lot of the sightseeing stuff already on MBI, and I'm sure we're going to get to the Kotel again, but as for right now, our weekends have been just hanging out with our friends on Workshop. They have houses in Akko and Karme'el, so we've been going up there or to Tel Aviv.

That's pretty much it for now. Unless something pretty incredible happens, I'm probably not going to write for a little bit. Check back around mid april when I'll be sure to be writing a lot about africa.

In Israel

I'm in Israel and everything is good. We got in saturday morning and hung out in Tel Aviv. The next day, we travelled up to Akko and Carmiel to see our workshop friends which was a good time. Once we got our bags the airport lost, we headed down to our assigned kibbutz, which is Kibbutz Revivim, about 30 minutes of Ber Sheva, in the Negev Desert.

It's a cool place here. The kibbutz supposedly is the biggest milk supplier of Israel, with 800 cows. we don't have our jobs assigned yet, so we've just been chilling with the volunteer coordinator named goldie. He's and old hilarious dude from australia. I'll write more later.

later India

So I'm leaving tonight. Stuffs been great. Here's some photos:

One extremely angry midget

Varanasi

This past weekend, we went to Varanasi,and it was insane. We indulged ourselves and flew, which was great because a twelve hour train became a one hourflight.

We got there and navigated the narrow streets to our hostel, which was a niceplace overlooking the Ganges (or as the Indianscall it, the Ganga). I can't say enough about how cramped the town was. One walks out the door and is more or less completely lost in less than a minute. The streets get as narrow as 2 to 3 feet, and still you have people, cows, and motorcycles all trying to get through without stopping.

Saturday, we walked around a lot. We went to the Golden Temple, which was a huge, but organized free-for-all.It was like all of India in one tiny temple; somehow it just works. there were these huge lines of people criss-crossing all over waiting to stand infront of different idols (mostly shiva) for a few seconds to say a few words and throw some flowers on top. While all of this is going on, monkeys are running all over the place, people are putting all sorts of clay and powder on your face, and others are spraing water all over the floor.

After that, we decided to make it down to the Ghats, which are theseries of named steps going right down to the riverside. We followed some random guy who wanted to show us the "cremations." We didn't really know what to think, but we followed him, nd as it turns out, he wasn't lying. Varanasi is a place where peoplefrom all over India go to die. The result is this hospice by the river filled with the old and destitute. When they die, they are openly cremated in the bonfires by the side of the river. It was a pretty wierd and gruesome thing to come across, but that's Indian culture, and that's life.

That night, our hotel provided a boat, and from the river, we watched the daily ceremony to the Ganga river performed by the ocal Brahmans. More or less a thousandpeople showed up to watch. The ceremony consisted of many repeated handmotions involving featers, rice, inscense, and cups of fire.

Beyond that, not that much happened thats worth writing about. We met some cool dudes from Chile, and an old Brit named Paul. Varanasi was a very chill place, and it was nice to relax a little bit and be away from Delhi.

This is our last week. It's a little sad to be leaving the kids, but I can't wait for Israeil, so generally things are pretty great.

Below: Streets of Varanasi and me trying to row a boat

Taj Mahal

We had a day off from work, so the girls and I headed to the Taj Mahal, which is only a three hour train ride.

I don't really know what else to say besides that it is an incredible monument. It was wierd to finally see it after all the pictures one sees growing up or whatever. The thing is huge, and is covered in intricate carvings and inlayed designs.

For some reason the train home was 6 hours, but its cool, because I've come to expect nothing to ever run on time or be normal in any way. But if there is one thing I have been growing tired of, its the constant flow of people trying to get money from me. Almost everywhere you go, one is constantly begged at (not begged to), by every person in need. On the train, dirty children will come, sweep beneath your feet for a minute, and then demand money. On the street, people with no legs will crawl over to you to beg. You get ripped off in most stores and in taxis/rickshaws because we are just "dumb rich Americans"(the prices are still reasonable by our standards, but still, the principle). I'm just tired of the constant negotiating, and can't wait to get to Israel for that reason.


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Simi's house and the sitar

On saturday, because we stayed in Delhi this weekend, we went to the house of one of the Mobile Creches teachers, Simi. Getting to Simi's house took a while, and when we finally got to the neighborhood, we realized we had no idea where to go. The neighborhood we were in was like a giant maze. We walked through the cramped streets (if you could call them that, they were as wide as a sidewalk), past cows and goats, trying to find house 208, which was tough because the house numbers weren't nesecarily in order. Pretty soon, we had a group of 15-20 children and adults following us just trying to help us find our way. We were like celebrities, and it was wierd. All the same, we were thankful, and eventually found the house, which consisted of two small rooms (one of them open air because it didn't have a wall) on the third floor. The apartment was only a small part of the giant mass of apartments and apartment buildings that all kind of merge together into big globs of housing.

Once inside, we sat down and drank tea, but it was difficult to talk because Simi speaks little to no english, and we the same with Hindi. Eventually, Simi's brother in law put on dance music, and we all kind of danced goofily in this small room, eventually joined by Simi's two small kids. If that sounds awkward, its because it was. Still a fun experience though.

Today, I finally bought a Sitar, and it is amazing. I went to a store called Rhiki Rham, which is famous for its sitars. The owner and luthier is named Sanjay, and he is the guy who makes Sitars for Ravi Shankar, Paul Mcartney, and various other famous musicians. I got the cheapest one in the store, which was about 300 bucks (which would cost 1500 in the states). The instrument is beautiful, decorated with carved wood and camel bone inlays. I'll be sad to have to ship it home when I leave India for Israel; hopefully it will make it in one piece.

tryna eat some beef

I know that my blog posts have been sparser than expected, and I am realizing now that the truly strange and different things about India have become somewhat normal to me. That being said, I figure I'll try and talk about those things in this post.

I've already talked about how nuts driving is, but it gets even crazier. It is not uncommon to see whole families riding on a single motorcycle, no exaggerations. Imagine the father driving with a small child on his lap, behind him a mother sitting side saddle holding a baby and possibly a small animal, and then packages strapped on in various places. It's insane to think that that is a normal and legit mode of travel while people back home are ridiculous for driving with a baby in their lap.

It is also common at red lights for impoverished children to come out to the streets and try and sell you things. You keep saying no, but they stay, plead, touch you, cry, and whatever else they can think of until you relent or the light turns green.

Temples are also a place where people try milk the tourists as best they can through pity. We went to the biggest Mosque in Delhi the other day (shown below), and walking up the steps to get there was pretty incredible in the worst way. Lining the steps on both sides were people with every malady or deformity or condition you could think of. Its truly heartbreaking sometimes, but there’s not much you can do at times like those.

In Hauz Khas there is no better illustration of the socioeconomic gap than the gym complex I've been going to as often as I can. Honestly, I can say that it is one of the nicest and cleanest places I've been in delhi. It is set up like anh country club in America. For those who saw pictures of the gym in Costa Rica, its the complete opposite. I see it filled with the richest of the rich, and then on my walk home, I pass those in utter poverty with their makeshift (but permanent) tents on the side of the roads and highways.

As far as work goes, things are normal. One of my favorite kids is named Deepak. He's in the older group, but he’s one of the youngest, about seven years old. He often gets left out of things because the older kids already speak some english and know the ABCs. They also like to pick on him because they are older, bigger, and because no one stops them. Because of all this, he’s usually pretty glum, and I try and make it my mission to get him to smile as much as I can. A few days ago, the older kids were on a field trip but Deepak was still at Mobile Creches for some unknown reason. Becky was working with him all day on the ABCs, and when he finally was able to recite and write them all down, he went nuts. It was the happiest I've ever seen him, and for the next seven times in row he recited them to me, that little kid was nothing but joy. As lame as that might sound, that, for me, is the best part of this whole experience. We're not saving the world, but if we can make a kid smile, it almost feels like it.

And in other HUGE news, I have found Uncle Larry’s long lost Indian twin brother. He works right here at the CCS house and his name is Geresh. The photo below is of me and some of the CCS staff, see if you can spot him.

The rest of the photos are, in order: Hauz Khas apartment complex (the whole thing looks like that), playing drums in Pushkar, monkey in Pushkar, girls and I at largest Mosque in Delhi, girls and I on River Ganges in Rishikesh, and little Deepak smiling on Republic day celebrations last friday.

rishikesh

This past weekend we went to rishikesh, a small town straddling the ganges river between crazy mountains 200km or so north of delhi. It was beautiful. There wasn't much to do beyond walk around a do yoga, so thats what we did. We took a yoga class with one of the few legit yoga teachers, and it was honestly pretty intense physically. my limbs went to unnatural places, and they even had me doing a head stand. I also took a sitar lesson with two other volunteers which was good. My teacher was this white guy from tennesee, but he has been india for four years studying sitar and indian percussion. I'm considering buying a sitar. You can get one for about $200, whereas in the states would cost $1000. we'll see, its an amazing instrument.

Work has been good, same old stuff. Every day the girls and I head in, work, play for a few hours, and then peace. I've begun to get a good grasp on the names of the older kids, who
I enjoy working with a lot because we communicate easier and it's more relaxed. The little kids' names, I'm still working out. Many of them have nicknames of my choosing. There's about 25 of them, I'll get it eventually.

work and the weekend

Work has been great. For the first part of the day, I work with the little kids, who although may be cute, are rediculously insane. As soon as the teacher leaves, they go insane, and its almost impossible to calm them down. It is also not a big deal to slap kids in the head and face here, as the teacher lets us know, although im not too comfortable with that at the moment. For this reason it is hard to get stuff done, and the language barrier only makes things more interesting. They know parts of the alphabet, so when we sing it it ends up sounding more like " A B C D glip glop gloo, L M N O P..." (literally).
the second part of the day work with the older kids who are between 8 and 14. They all speak more english, and its nice to communicate more freely. With them, we just work on more advanced reading.

This past weekend, me and the girls went to Pushkar, a small "spiritual" town surounding a lake. It looked like it was out of alladin. We took the sleeper train third class, and arrived in ajmer at 4 in the morning. We finally negotiated a price with the rickshawdrivers to get us to pushkar, although our driver (who looked like an Indian jim carey) was about to get a knuckle sandwich by me for being so rediculously persistent after we told him to piss off. He ended up giving us the price we wanted so it worked out.
Arriving in pushkar was sureal. They dropped us off at the town gate, and we had no idea how to get to the hotel besides the crude map that fellow volunteer Stuart had drawn us. As we walked along the streets, I literally felt like I was in a horror movie. The streets were competely deserted and silent, except all around us were hudreds of bodies of all the hobos sleeping on everything that wasn't wet or covered in shit. However, all the stray dogs and cows were awake and were glad to escort us to our hotel, which we eventually found after walking about a kilometer.
the hotel was sick, it overlooked the lake and a view that looked like it was out of a storybook. During the day, we did all that there was to do short of taking yoga classes. We walked around the whole lake (probably like two miles), saw the shops and temples. I also learned how to play basic sitar (after staying in the music shop for a unreasonably longtime without buying anything), and got an awesome drum lesson from this crazy dude whose father played with the greatful dead percussion section. The town is kind of sad in some ways because it completely runs on tourism. It is pretty much one giant bazaar,and everyone is trying to take money from you one way or another. There was nothing to do at night. The next day, I played more drums and then we trained home to the lovely CCS house. It was a good weekend. Next weekend we'll probably go to Rejekesh with a bunch of other volunteers.

Below: photos from Pushkar

driving, working

Driving here can only be described as organized chaos. On the road, you will find cars, buses, rickshaws, bicycle rickshaws, bikes, bikes carrying massive amounts of material, trucks, people, and cows, all moving at the sametime. To compound matters even worse, there are no lanes on many roads, and when there are, no one pays attentionto them. Driving is eat or be eaten, and as a result, cars are honking more then they're not. My first impression was that everyone wasreally angry, but in fact it is only because everyone is letting everyone else know where they are at all times. Its like bats. Suprisingly, this system works, and there seem to be few accidents with major consequences other than a dented bumper. I went to my placement for the first time today. Essentially, it is a school for children whose fathers are construction laborers. One nice women kindly took the children in, and now, years later, has a deal to provide schooling for the children while the building contractor supplies the location. Its pretty bare, and there are not a lot of supplies, but the kids are adorable. Becky, Rachel, and I begin work in ernest tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes.

I'm in India

So I'm here, and it's pretty geat. This has to be quick because its dinner soon/the internet is crap here, but here's whats up.

The flights were unneventful, but getting off the plane was a cool experience. Walking outside after everything was great. It's in the 60's here and it smelled like spices outside.

I'm living in a middle class neighborhood in an apartment complex called Hauz Khas. Its nice, although the cars runningby the place never stop beeping.

The other volunteers are pretty cool. Today, we did a little sightseeing, and saw the Lotus Temple and the grave of some Mongol Emperor whose name I now forget.

I have to get off now, but everything is well, and I'll write again when more stuff happens.

Costa Rica in review

It was pretty cool.