not the expert

 from the air:

the expert

..

sex ed

sex ed

the president of tanzania once went on television and demonstrated how to use a condom with an ndesi (banana). 
i once was asked to explain why the NC public schools only teach abstinence. didn't i know that that is not good enough?  sure, i said.
one problem with condoms here is that many men believe that wearing a condom will make them impotent. an unexpected result is that women are more empowered to use female condoms.

while working away in the education office, i'm often present for the random women that step in for an explanation on how to use female condoms.  these Norwegian students, however, were a little mortified:

this was nothing compared to the day i found myself explaining to 3 women, including a grandmother, and two men what exactly "sensual lotion" meant and what it is meant to be used for. sigh.

run away! run away!

run away! run away!

i am so mzee (old).
i have been running every day and running at least a half marathon on the weekends. sadly, my old body is rebelling a bit. shin splints have been threatening me for weeks now. i can't bare to stop running all together, so i ice continually and try to forget about it... then there is the numbness in my toes and hip aches from the sciatic nerve... and most recently a twist in my ankle from running on the crevices in the "roads." it is really sad. i never used to be so achey. i'd like to think it is from running outdoors in the "wild" as opposed to the hermetically sealed NY Sports Club.

i went through three years of grad school fighting, running, lifting weights, yoga, tumbling around, and attempting to throw myself into walls, among other things and managed to emerge without debilitating myself. clearly, i should be devoting more time to robin's "dynamics."

kili time

kili time

from sylvie emmanual's fabulous coffee farm when she had us over for tea:

september 11th and john leaves to go to canada today. isn't that strange. what am i still doing here? am i absconding from life or living it?  it is hard to say. life is different, that much is true.  and hopefully i am different too. i make grand promises to myself about how to live life, how to survive in america. only time will tell.

hashish and mamba- deadly combo

hashish and mamba- deadly combo

this weekend jan and becky set the hash from maji moto. this was my 3rd trip to the crazy water hole. the first was definitely my favorite- out with meghan and james and some dukies.  on that trip we sketched out the elaborate horror film we planned to shoot at the springs. i think we are still looking for backers for that venture...
the second trip was also fun- julia and i almost camped out with jan and his girlfriends, but in the end decided that warm beds were better than mosquitos, nyoke snakes, or mambas crocodiles.  i think i would be up for camping out there some time though, now that i've been hardened by kili and the like. 

to set a hash from maji moto was quite ambitious. jan is crazy though. there are basically two major obstacles- first, the springs are in the middle of no where- a big leafy tree set against miles and miles of empty bushland.  thus, there is no where to set the trail, no paths to take or hide from. secondly, the springs are in the middle of no where! only a small handful of people know how to find them at all. after all, you "turn left and ask a man on a bike."  so how in the world are you going to get the whole group out there?

it was decided to meet early by the main road and then caravan out to the spring.  this was a very smart plan on jan and greg's part. and to help, jan attempted to mark the road with occasional flour to show where to turn. well, we indeed met early and waited for the caravan master to appear. and waited. and waited.  the longer we waited , the more concerned we became.  if we got caught out in maji after dark we would be doomed. there is no way to find your way back in the dark.

john made a few calls only to discover that indeed, no caravan master was coming.  jan was still setting the hash and greg was running late. meanwhile we had 45minutes of african plain between us the spring and the clock was ticking...

well, i did what i had to do and assumed navigation.  with john skeptically but without any option in the drivers seat, i squinted my eyes and appeared authoratative.  the caravan of wazungu started up their landrovers behind us and off we went.  a few twists and turns, much yelping from the bumby backseats, and pausing once to ask a bikeman if we were headed the right way. i must say i impressed myself how close i got us and we only lost one car in the process.

the mamba stories are all true. this mamba was recently captured and skinned. ewwwwww.

njusi kubwa

njusi kubwa

- big lizard.

porters rock on

porters rock on

we found this hi-larious cd a german made of porters singing on kili.  before hearing this i didn't think africans could actually sound bad. they sound like they are suffering from mountain sickness.
this isn't the best of the songs, but as it is the national anthem (sort of) i thought it was appropriate.

Tanzania Telecommunications Company Ltd.

Tanzania Telecommunications Company Ltd.

in the US, when you purchase an internet service, you pick up a box, go home, and wait for someone in the netherworl to flip a switch. you might put in an installation cd. you might even spend all day waiting for a disenchanted technician to show up at your door to flip a switch in your house.

we decided to go all out and try to get a faster internet connection at A5.  the only provider of "broadband" is TTCL.

after 3 days of waiting for them to show up and install it (which honestly is not all that different a wait than in the US), a bright yellow TTCL pickup truck came hurtaling down the driveway.  3 people sat in the cabin and 4 more were standing in the truck bed, holding onto railings.  all 7 hopped out. 2 began pacing the yard... "discussing." the others came into the house- a clever looking young man with a baseball cap, 2 men ready to get down and dirty, a professionally dressed woman to touch the computer keyboard, and their leader, and their leader, a boistrous man with rich dark skin and a wandering eye to issue commands.  all five crowded around the laptop in a picture perfect tableua that i was desperate to capture.  unfortunately, eventually they had to give up for the day, leaving the job unfinished...

olympians

olympians

my fav flower, i wish i could rub the smell all over me:

i ran the marathon path all by my lonesome this weekend!  john is extremely busy trying to finish a new grant application before the 11th and unfortunately needed to skip the long run this weekend.  i drug myself out of bed, tossed on some clothes, had some litchi juice, and had at it.  though i was a bit slower during the first half, i am impressed that i actually kept running without anyone waiting for me.

in general, one should not run alone here, especially on the rural paths john and i usually take. one of my office drivers-an african-was running alone and 3 men jumped from the bushes and held him up with a knife.  also, unfortunately, rape is quite common though completely unreported. and, i have learned from my friends that live here, having sex with white girls is a huge prize, so to speak. ew.

i know i am a bit foolish. i used to laugh in undergrad when my friends would talk about the "dangers" of durham and-completely stupidly-would go running around east campus in the coolness of dark. but i do try to keep my head here.  i only run a couple of very public places alone and never through the cornfields where people can jump out or to the river alone-an area where women are attacked all the top. and mostly i run with someone else and even that only in daylight. 

so, i was a bit hesitant to run the marathon path.  it is very long, beginning through the urban area with too many cars and people and goats, then going way out into the coffee plantations, finally all the way to the Kilimanjaro gate we finished our climb at.  though much of that is rather desolate, it is a paved road with occasional cars and women carrying their bananas into town. 

in those long runs, the hardest part for me is actually the return.  though the way out is almost all uphill and the way back downhill-the run is so long that going "down" makes little difference.  i have never been much of a runner and certainly never long distance, so to run 8 or so miles only to have to run 8 more to get home is awful.  (especially on this route- as you get closer to the kili gate the rains usually start, soaking you through so all your chaffing clothes are a joy) so i wasn't particularly looking forward to it.

just after i turned, a man appeared from no where and started running after me. hearing the feet gave me a bit of a heart attack as i doubted  i'd be able to outrun someone intent on catching me at this point.  i didn't have much time to consider it though, two heartbeats and he was right next to me. hamna shida (it is nothing) this beautiful, tall man was at my side. he was decked out in actual running shoes and light running pants and jacket. through my toddler proficient kiswahili and his broken english, he told me he is "a runner. that is my job." he wanted to know why i ran if it is not my job.  i tried to explain that i am an actress and so it is sort of my job.  ah, he said, "you run to maintain your shape."  that's right.  :)  he trains at least 6 days a week doing this incredibly huge circle through moshi, to the rural district, past the mountain gate and back to him home.  it takes him and his friends 45 minutes, but "we are not ashamed." i was somewhat confused, thinking 45 minutes is nothing, but he assured me it should only take them 39 minutes. 

he ran with me, inadvertently encouraging me to pick up my speed, the entire way back.  it was great. not only was he very nice, but returning through the urban area can be very hazardous at that time of day.  i felt like i was in the middle of that olympics visa commercial, where the random african man misses his bus then runs all the way to town as the people in the bus laugh at wave.

yelp. i look like a runner.