Trip to Arusha with My Host Sister! August 3, 2007

(July 28th-29th)

We woke up early to go do some shopping around town. I wanted to buy some Tanzanian fabric for my little sister, and we went around town to find some Changa for us. I found a very cute purple one that I would give to my little sister

We got ready and met with Payal and Pricilla (Sarah’s friends), to go to Arusha! Two hours ride later, we arrived in Arusha! We walked around a bit to look for our hotel, and found Hotel 7-11 and a double room with full size beds for 30,000 Tsh! We split so each of us would just pay  7,500 Tsh! The hotel was clean and cute, well worth the money. Christina then later joined us at the hotel, and paid for a single room for 25,000 Tsh.

We went back out to town to shop around, and ate a little bit of food. I tried this Ceres sparkling grape juice, and it was unbelievably good. Ceres is a brand that makes pure fruit juice, and oh my it always exceeds my expectations. No added sugar or preservatives. Highly recommended!

We got a ride to go to the movie theater outside of town, and we saw Ocean’s 13! The theater is in this new mall complex and it’s quite nice. The movie was very good. I really liked it and it had the feel of the Ocean’s 11.

We then got a ride back to town for dinner. We went to McMoody’s and had pizza! Their milk shakes are so thick and good, and I definitely stuffed myself with food there. We sat around for a lil more while Christina and I had some tea while we waited to go out. We got picked up by Samir, Pricilla’s friend, and we went out to go drinking!

We first went to a small bar just outside of town, it was a quite chill place, and we sat around and took some shots. Mmmm I like tequila. We then went to Maasai Camp, which is a pretty popular club, and it was a very cute place. I finally got to see Tish and Tish’s boy, Joseph! We talked for a little bit, but they had to go! I got more to drink from the bar and surprisingly I was not drunk at all. I ordered a screwdriver, and was hoping that it would come in fresh squeezed orange juice… But I was let down, and it was some nasty juice. I downed the screwdriver anyways and went back to chilling with my friends!

The night was good, until we realized that Christina’s wallet+keys+everything is missing~ Needless to say, we did a lot of running around, and we went back to the hotel. After getting back to hotel to sort out everything, we went outside to have chipsi mayai! Yummy but greasy!

Samir’s friends left us around 3:00am, and we stayed up to chat for a little bit, and waited for Sarah’s friend, Hassan, to come. Ahh he finally arrived, only he was plastered and throwing up. So Sarah and I chatted with him for a little bit, and I left them to take Hassan home. Ahhhh it was so late. I finally got to bed around 5am….

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Christina and I woke up early to have breakfast so that we can head back to Moshi! We got back and Christina had a flight at 3pm so we had to pack her up, and she had to quickly interview me before she head to the airport.  Sarah, Pricilla, and Payal came back a little bit later than us, but they got back and we had ice cream! We bid good byes, and Sarah and I went to town for more shopping and juice. Ahhh I am so sad.

I don’t want to leave! It was a slow day, and I watched a little bit of TV at night.  I also developed some kind of infection, so late at night, I went to the local doctor to get it checked out. It was painful! They cleaned it out and checked me for malaria. Thew, I didn’t have malaria. But the infection wasn’t too good. I just gotta wait to go to MIT Medical.

I couldn’t believe that I was leaving

My trip to Arusha July 19, 2007

Wednesday, I went to Arusha for the first time!

Around 7am, I took the coaster buses to Arusha (2000 Tsh). My destination was Mobility Care, which was close to the CHAMA bus stop. Tish said that it’s after Usa (not U.S.A., but oo-sah) River, and Tengeru. The terrain in Arusha is beautiful, and it’s a little colder than Moshi. There are hills in Arusha!

Around 8:15 or so, I got off at the CHAMA bus stop, and there was Tish, Daniel, and Christina, waving at me across the street! They were just getting there, and I was right on time!

Daniel is a funny man, he is so sarcastic! We walked down this small road off the main Moshi-Nairobi Road and reached to the gate for Mobility Care. On the small road, we would see locals herding their animals (usually cows, goats, or donkeys). The donkeys look like the one in Shrek! Except these ones don’t talk…

We saw the big sign on Mobility Care’s workshop, and we were welcomed by the staff! We stopped and ate PB&J sandwiches (compliments of Tish and Christina), and chatted a little about what’s going on, and how everyone is doing. We were offered a cup of chai

The Mobility Care building is a cute little place, and has a computer and internet! Tish tells me that the internet has been down for quite some time, but it was working on Wednesday!

Turns out Mobility Care is also a puppy factory, because two dogs just gave birth to a ton of puppies! Christina told me that a few of them didn’t survive, but a ton of them did! We walked along this small pathway, while dodging the large trails of ants, to check out the puppies. They were laying on each other in a pile! Those poooopies were so cute! They were all sorts of colors

I had seen the really beautiful brochures that MobilityCare has, and Tish told me they didn’t have brochure holders! So I gave them 10 brochure holders so that they can start distributing these beautiful brochures around town! Daniel was so excited to get those brochure holders We all thought they were very professional looking!

Agnes, the lovely lady who cooks the most wonderful food in the world, came by and started making lunch! Tish, Christina and I had arranged to visit Sibusiso (center for mentally disabled children). Sibusiso is one of the bigger clients with Mobility Care, and it’s right down the road. We all took a walk to go to the Sibusiso compound.

My visit at Sibusiso would’ve been more pleasant if I wasn’t so hungry! The compound was beautiful, and full with pretty shrubs and plants! We met Emanuel and Steve, the staff physical therapists (I believe Steve was trained at KCMC!), and gave us a brief introduction about the centre.

We saw mothers, grandparents and children at the compound, and there were schools and playgrounds! It was such a nice sanctuary for kids with mental disabilities. In East Africa, it is very common for families to hide their kids who have mental disabilities, and this was just a very safe and happy place for these families to go to.

We met an outreach teacher, and she gave us the grand tour of Sibusiso. We found out that Sibusiso has been receiving funds from the Netherlands, and is starting to be self sustainable with all the different activities at the centre. At Sibusiso, children would be given vocational training on how to milk cows, or mothers would be taught how to give massages for their children.

We also visited the sandbox, where many kids were half buried in the sand! They were adorable. We found out that grandparents often play a major role in taking care of these children because the mothers are often too busy with other children.

Side note, Sibusiso has a great brochure as well, and I picked one up just for reference.

We were starving, and had to turn down the offer for lunch at Sibusiso, since Agnes already cooked us lunch! We walked back to Mobility Care, and everyone had the wonderful, delicious lunch made by Agnes!

It was rice, some vegetable dish, and a meat stew. It was so good I definitely ate way too much, and almost had to throw up. Nimeshiba sana! We took chairs outside and sat with Mr. Sun so that we can get warmer.

We had a great discussion about marketing, and how much Mobility Care wishes to grow bigger, and also touched on many business issues that needs to be solved. For example, Mobility Care is in need of a car! Also, Mobility Care doesn’t have an outreach program like KCMC Wheelchair Workshop does with KASI. We shared a lot of ideas, and I think there are some good potential fellowship projects ahead!

After our wonderful lunch and chat about business, we took off to Usa Rehabilitation Centre to find Edmund, who is going to be a user who will be trying out Tish/Wenxian’s new design! We took two daladalas with the wheelchair, and it wasn’t the easiest thing to do since the daladalas are so packed already. We finally arrived to our destination in one piece, and handed off the wheelchair frame to Edmund!

The rehabilitation centre also has a tricycle workshop, and we spent some time checking out how they were chaining the tricycles Mario would’ve enjoyed that if he was there with us.

We did our interview, and I was the designated camera woman for the day. My video shooting skills really suck, I hope the video wasn’t too bad.

We went back to the main road, and I caught a large bus to head back to Moshi town for 2000 Tsh. The ride was nice, but I got kind of car sick. I was dropped off in town, and walked home.

Ahhh!!! Turns out Anna had locked the door from the inside, and Rashida Auntie (host mother) and I are locked out! We stood around so that we could get a car to go to the slums to find Anna to get the key to the back door of the house.

Our neighbor was very nice to ask her husband to drive us to the slums, and we passed by the industrial area of the town. The car was a sedan, and not a 4wD, and we had to drive so slowly so that the bottom of the car won’t get scratched up by the bumpy roads!

The slums were neat, until we were hassled by some crazy guy who demanded money, or else he’d break the windows of the car!  I was holding my breath in the back seat, hoping that he would go away. Our neighbor gave him 500 tsh, and he kinda of shut up for a second. We finally got the key, and we quickly left the slums.

I spent more time to work on KCMC materials at night, and called it a day

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I am too tired right now,  there are still a ton of details that I may have left out. I’ll have to revise this blog entry later.