This blog is going to take on a little different feel, but it is the most important blog that I will write during my time I am over here. The reason that I have not blogged for such a long time is because I wanted this blog to be done well. A lot of these blogs have been just thrown together at the last minute, but I wanted to think about this one a little bit. The German fellow that I went to Katavi National Park with, some might be wondering why he was in Tanzania in the first place. For those of you that are wondering, even those that are not, I will tell you. He was here to help out a woman named Marianna. Now the million dollar question is who is Marianna? the rest of this blog is going to tell you. This blog is dedicated to her and I hope it will help her somehow. On Thursdays I do not teach any classes, so I decided to quit sitting around and start to help out at the orphanage that is about two miles from where I am living. It is quite fun, the orphanage is full of little children about 40-50 children that range in age from babies to 8 years old, mostly victims of AIDS. I say victims of AIDS, because these children are the real victims, their mothers and fathers might have suffered from AIDS and even if the children don’t have AIDS, this disease has robbed these children of so much. It has robbed them of their parents, the most important thing in the world, I was lucky enough to have a great pair of parents, a house, attention and most of all love. There are 40-50 children in this orphanage and 3-5 women to take care of them all. So, the children are mostly left to fend for themselves. Some of the stories of these children are amazing, absolutely amazing. One is named Polisi, because his parents left him and he was brought to the orphanage by the police. One is named Flora, a darling little girl, who always shows you what is in her mouth when you see her with her giant smile. She was left by her parents to fend for herself, no one knows how long, but she survived in a house all alone for a time, but they think it was a year. She is about 5 years old and has been in the orphanage for some time. Amazing. I go there and just play with the children, because they need the love and attention, any love and attention. I probably get as much joy out of it as the children do. This orphanage is called Sister Agripina There was a woman who was a psychologist in Germany, she is an older woman, only a year or two away from her pension, but she has a dream of going to Africa. So, after she is fed up with all the bureaucratic BS, she decides to take a vacation to Africa and help out in this particular orphanage. So she comes to Subawanga and starts to help out the orphans at Sister Agripina. She only has a three month visa and she goes to the orphanage and helps there for only a week. A man has recently died. His wife had died bringing his daughter into this world and now he is dying of Tuberculosis. His little daughter, a daughter that he had to trade his wife for, is now dying of tuberculosis. She is a year and a half and only 4 kilos. This is about 8.8 lbs, which is what I almost weighted at birth. He is from a very poor village in the Lake Rukwa region, so he travels to Subawanga for help. He ends up at the hospital that is run by the same nuns who run Sister Agripina. He dies, but his daughter lives and has caught tuberculosis. His little daughter is slowly dying and will not eat anything. This German woman sees this little girl named Christina. In her own words, “I can not explain what happened, but I fell in love with her and I could not leave her.” She decided to focus her energy on this one little child. She moved to a place called Mvimwa and lived in the abbey there in order to help this child. Help she did, she nursed little Christina back to health, which meant getting up in the middle of the night and forcing this little child to eat some porage. Christina made an amazing recovery, one that she would not have made if it was not for this German woman, the doctors did not think that Christina would make it, but a little love and care changed that. This women then checked how she could take this child home with her, her visa was going to expire, but she did not want to return to Germany without little Christina. It turns out that Germany would not let her take this child back with her, so she would have to leave this child or leave her entire life. She had to go back to Germany for six weeks to wrap up her affairs and leave everything behind, including a biological daughter, friends and her flat. It was a decision she would have to live with her entire life, a decision that was made weeks before the first time that she had laid eyes on Christina. After having spent time with this little girl I know why she made this decision so easily. She built a new home. She was leased land by the Mvimwa abbey and spent the last of her money on building a house. She adopted eight more orphans and they lived in Mvimwa for a about ten months in this house. Then a series of unfortunate events happened. These events forced her from her home in Mvimwa and forced her to Subawanga. Since these events transpired, she was forced from her home and forced to move into a hotel with her nine children. They survived and eventually found a place to live in very close to Sister Agripina in a suburb of Subawanga called Katandala. She is renting this house and it is very little. The events that forced her out of Mvimwa, also has made some people in Germany cut off their support of her project. As we all know money makes the world go round. These children need food, they need clothes, they need an education and they need educational toys. What these children do not need anymore is love, a home full of happiness and a mother who loves them, all these have been filled by one woman named Marianna. She is a very strong and capable woman, an amazing woman with an amazingly big heart that has allowed her to love nine children. An amazing energy that allows her to keep up with these children. The youngest is Christina, kily, is what she is called because she is to little to actually say her name. She is about 3. She has a smile that could make Stalin’s miniscule heart melt and a laugh that I will haunt only the happiest of my dreams. I was at Marianna’s house last saturaday with the other Germans and Kily was sleeping on the couch, but she started to slip off, Marianna of course grabbed for her, but young kily wasn’t going anywhere and she reached down with her hand and met my hand. I held hands with this young child for maybe a half an hour until she adjusted herself and my assistance was no longer necessary. Ima is the same age as kily. But boy is he different. Before he came to Marianna’s house he was called Little Buddha, other then the physical characteristics, a pot belly, he never smiled. I have never seen this side of him. He loves to make noises and scream when he is happy, so the house is constantly filled with his screams. I must admit that he is probably my favorite. He will run to me and put his head in between my legs and push on my legs with his arms until I pick him up and throw him over my shoulders, this is always accompanied by a scream of pleasure. Then, there is Gastoly. He is maybe five and he is the smartest little kid I have ever met. He already knows Swahili and has some English and German vocabulary. Marianna will speak to him in German and he will answer in German, its crazy. He has a wide face, that grows when he smiles. He resembles Muhammad Ali, but I don’t think he has it in him to be a professional fighter, he is just too nice. Then there is Marta. She might be seven and all she wants for Christmas is her two front teeth. She is always showing the gap in her teeth during her prolonged smile sessions. She is always laughing and you would think that she has never known what a problem is. These children are amazing. I only talked about the youngest four, because they are the cutest and will get the heart jerking reaction that I am hoping for. This woman has nine children to take care of, obviously this is a full time job, so she can not work. If you would like to verify if this is a full time job or not just ask my mom how hard it was to raise one angel and one devil when me and Collette were growing up. As far as who was the devil and who was the angel, you will have to ask Collette. The long and the short of it is that she needs financial help. She is doing all the work a human can possibly do, so she needs your help. I don’t expect you all to send huge contributions, but little ones would be appreciated, ask for donations at your local churches, ask your parents, ask oprah, I don’t really care, but in know all of you are good people and will do what you can. Here is her website where you can send donations www.christianashope.wordpress.com. All we can do is what we are able. I love you all and hope this finds you well.

Last weekend we stayed at Father Pombo’s place, connected to the church. It was the same place that Christian had stayed for the duration of his stay in Africa. It was a very relaxing weekend. I read a book and just relaxed. Father Pombo is a very interesting man. He wakes up at six to ring the church bells everyday and he doesn’t go to sleep until two or three in the morning everyday. He works very hard and does a lot. He is writing four books on top of preaching to three different parishes, with the help of Father Mindi. He is busy all the time, but he never seems tired. He is always smiling and joking around. He is a great example of how attitude can overcome hardship. The food he eats is very good. On Friday night we said goodbye to Christian, who left Saturday morning early. It was sad, he was almost in tears, but Father Pombo said he was just changing rooms, it was no big deal. This room change just happened to be across a sea. So, now there are only six Muzungu (Muzungu is the Swahili word for white person) left in Subawanga. James, me and four 20 year old Germans at Katandala are the only ones left. It is a very new experience to be such a big minority for me, but it doesn’t really matter much. This Friday we left at 2 o’clock to go to Kipilli. James and I thought that we were going to leave at noon, but this is Tanzania, so we left at 2. It was James, me, Brother Joseph and two form 4 student girls. Kipilli is right on Lake Tanganyika. The monastery’s house is located on a bay facing the Lake. It was absolutely gorgeous. We got there late on Friday and just ate dinner and went to bed. Then on Saturday I woke up and went and read by the Lake. I got hot so I went for a swim. The water was a turquoise blue and very refreshing. It was extremely hot in Kipilli, so we swam when we got hot and dried off by the sun. We did this for most of the day, then we went to a beach at another part of Lake Tanganyika. There were people building boats, washing clothes and a lot of children were swimming. James took out his camera to take a picture and he was swarmed by around fifteen children that wanted to see the picture he took. It is a good thing his camera is waterproof, because otherwise it would have been wrecked by all those little wet hands grabbing it. It was cool. Then we back, ate dinner and watched the sunset. The sunset was beautiful, I took a lot of pictures that I will try to get up on facebook. We slept as well as we could, James said he woke up and thought he was dying, because it was so hot. Then on Sunday we woke up and did the same thing as Saturday morning, except we did not swim at all. James and I got some wicked sunburn and since we are both geniuses and neither of us brought along sunscreen or aloe, we stayed that way. Yes mom, I know you made me bring some and I know it doesn’t do me any good to leave it in subawanga and yes next time I go I will bring it with me. Then we walked with Brother Joseph to the convent near us. It was beautiful. The sister that was staying there was very very nice. She was welcoming and gave us some food. It was blazing out, but I was hungry so I ate a lot. Then we walked back to where we were staying and tried to cool off. Then we had to eat again, but I was stuffed to I politely ate as little as I could. Then we hung out for a little while and waited for the boat, then we went for a boat ride. It was beautiful. We went by a hotel that you have to pay a $1000 a night to stay at and then we went by some small villages and a lot of mountains that were very pretty. It was nice. Then we came back and drank some pombei by the Lake and watched the sunset, which turned out to be even better then yesterday’s sunset. We went to bed and the next morning we left. It was still hot, but now that we are back in Subawanga at 5000 ft. elevation it is not so hot, not uncomfortable anyways. James bought some aloe and we have been using it ever since to heal our burning skin. But the burnt skin was worth it for the beauty we saw. It was a great trip.

James and I are settled in to our new home. We found a rug under my bed and now our little room is truly a home. I teach three eighty minute periods a day. The math is isn’t too hard, but I haven’t had real math in six years. The children seem to take to the lessons very quickly and ask very tough questions. However, I have another teacher who is also a form three math teacher. His name is Dennis, but everyone calls him Black. He is about six feet and 220lbs and maybe 4% body fat. He is the strongest person I have ever seen. Tammy would have loved to have him playing rugby at SJU. He is very nice though and has helped me understand some math. I don’t have much to do after I figure out my lesson plan, so I mostly just sit around and talk to other teachers. School starts at 7:30 and ends at 2:30. Afterward I usually go to town or read. I have a lot of free time, which is fine with me. We eat the same basic things everyday. Breakfast is bread and maybe peanut butter or just butter. Then at 10:40 we have a break where we have tea and roll type stuff. Then after school is out we eat lunch. Rice and maybe ugali, beans, a vegetable and a kind of meat is what is almost always on the menu. Ugali looks like mashed potatoes, it is corn flour that has been ground up and boiled, it is tasteless, but it absorbs taste very well. The beans are a mixture of baked beans and kidney beans, they are tasty. The vegetable ranges from potatoes, tomatoes or a cabbage type vegetable. The vegetables are always boiled in a different type of sauce, they are very good. The meat is all free range and it is usually fish, cow or goat, again it is boiled in a sauce, but it is very tough and tasty. Supper is the same thing as lunch and we eat that at 7 o’clock at night. It is a good relaxed pace of life that agrees with me. I am still trying to learn Swahili, but it is a pretty simple language to learn. So far the trip has been very good. A week ago, we went to a form four graduation, which is basically high school graduation. It was very interesting. There was a bunch of performances that ranged from rapping, singing, speeches and dances. It was very cool. The audience participated a lot with either shouting their approval or running up to the stage to give money. It was interesting. After the graduation, there was a feast which was very delicious. Then everyone just sat around and drank beer talking. The children went to the assembly hall and danced. It was a lot of fun.
I went to Katavi National park last weekend with a German friend of mine named Christain. We took the bus at 7:30 Friday morning to Staliki. Staliki is a small small town on the edge of Katavi National Park. On the bus ride we saw Zebras, Impalas, and Giraffes. It was cool. We got to Staliki in the afternoon and went to look for a place to stay. The first two places were expensive around $25 per night, so we opted to find a different place to stay. We found a place for 5-6 dollars a night, so we stayed there. We walked to the park rangers headquarters and asked them what the best way to get a safari would be and how to get bus tickets home. They got us the bus tickets and told us to pick them up tomorrow. Then he told us to go back to the place we first tried to sleep at, the $25 a night place and get a safari through them. So we left and went to the place to negotiate the safari, but the guide wasn’t there, so we went to eat something. A nice place in town where they had food and a table outside is where we ate, rice and chicken. While we were eating some local children came near us and started yelling to us. Muzungo is what white people are called in Africa, so the children were shouting that at us. Then they would run away laughing. So I started yelling back, I asked them how they were and then I told them to come here. They replied by telling me to come there, so I got up to go over there and they all ran away. So I sat back down and started to drink more beer. Then we went to the place called riverside camp, to see the safari guide and negotiate a price for the safari the next day. He still wasn’t there, so we took a couple of beers down to the river to see the hippos. There were about 100 hippos just relaxing in this river, no joke. We were about 7ft. away from all the hippos, including one hippo that had been born that day. It was the coolest experience with animals that I had had so far, little did I know that I would get much closer to an animal much more dangerous then a hippo. We saw one hippo out of the water, that scared me a little, but it was a lot farther away then the other ones, so we were safe. The guide, Mr. Jumaa was his name, interestingly enough Ijumaa is Friday in Swahili, and they are pronounced the same. We got our safari set up for 7:30 the next morning. Then returned to the river, drank our beer and hung out with the hippos. We stayed there for probably 3 and a half hours total. There were a couple of children who work at riverside camp, they came and talked to us, but eventually we got hungry and left. We went to a new place for dinner and had chipsmiei. It was an interesting dish, scrambled eggs and French fries, it was good. The restaurant saw us and played only country music, I thought is was hilarious, but Christian was not amused. The bar had only 3 country songs, including two by Reba Mcentire, who’s voice Christian hates. We left and went to bed. Then began the day of the safari. Up early, we walked to riverside camp and met Mr. Jumaa. We got in a green Toyota land cruiser with a removable top and got biscuits for breakfast and some water and paid our park entry fees, then the safari started. The first animal we saw was a fisher eagle, it looks just like a bald eagle, but has more white on it, then some guinea fowl, a bird that looks like a turkey with a turquoise head, then an African Buffalo. These animals are huge, our guide said that when you see one or two they are dangerous, when walking, but in big groups, no problem. We saw two at first, then around 75 in one part. Then some Impalas wondered our way, we saw these all day. Giraffe was the next thing to shoot, a picture of course. They are huge and beautiful creatures as long as you don’t look at their faces. The face makes them look really stupid. Then we saw a warthog that only had one tusk, that was neat. Then we saw a car ahead of us stopped, I was wondering what was going on, until I saw them. There were five lions sitting on this hill about fifteen yards away from us. We stopped and I started taking pictures. A couple of them left the hill and slowly walked over to a tree, hesitated, then jump into the tree and climbed up. The male and a female stayed on the hill. Then our guide pointed out another lion on the other side of the road, I still couldn’t see it. Then the car in front of us left, so we got a lot closer. We were maybe 7 yards away now. We took a bunch more pictures and I found the other lion in the grass. Our guide then started backing up right at the other lion. I was afraid at this point. Christian and I were sitting on top of the car, outside of it, no protection and the lions had already demonstrated that they can jump very well. The large cat, another female, just got up and moseyed to a tree right next to the other lions. Then our guide drove the car around the hill and stopped by the tree. The lions just looked at us like what are you going to do I’m a lion. We stopped about 5ft away from a lion. It was amazing. I can’t begin to describe how lazy these animals are, they are more lazy then any house cat I’ve ever seen. Then we left. We saw hippo number one of what would end up being about a thousand for the day. I turned to Christian and said “now we just need to see an elephant and I’ll be happy.” Five minutes later I was happy, an Elephant was on the horizon, so our guide cut him off on the road. The elephant was huge. Though it was only a teenager, so having raging hormones, it thought we were encroaching on its turf and trumpeted at us and fake charged. It was awesome. I was terrified. Then we saw a bunch of vultures and cranes eating a dead elephant. We stopped for some buttered bread and cokes. Then we saw more of the same, until we came to this place we thought was full of rocks, we’re talking about four hundred rocks, but as we got closer, we realized there were no rocks, only hippos hanging out in mud. We stopped there and took some pictures. We went to a ranger station near by and saw an hippo and elephant skull. They were both huge. The hippo skull had a tooth still in it and we got to hold it, it was bigger then my forearm and heavy. We moved on and saw two more Elephants and some velvet monkeys. Then we saw a couple of crocodiles and hippos hanging out together. Whenever they were close by each other, a couple hippos would be looking at the crocs and a couple of crocs looking at the hippos. Then we got to the crocodile caves, these are caves that the crocs go into to escape the heat and tourists. I actually saw one climbing into the cave. We stopped at a bridge right next to the caves and saw a bunch of hippos. One hippo let just its nose out of the water to breath, a neat sight to see. Then we drove some more, saw some zebras and stopped for lunch. We stopped next to this river with a bunch of hippos. Two adolescent hippos were play fighting. This consisted of them opening their mouths really big and pushing on each other with their mouths. An amazing sight. Lunch was finished, so we left and went to the flood plains. We saw waterbucks, zebras, giraffes and buffaloes hanging out together. Waterbucks are just big deer with horns like an impala. They were very beautiful. Then came a big stretch of time were we did not see any animals and I fell asleep. Then we saw another eagle and an owl. Our guide started to head for home. Which was fine with me, I was tired. We saw more lions and tried to get close to them. Our guide ended getting a little too close and one lion roared at us. Needless to say that warning was more then adequate for me. There were three males lying around by themselves, with two females nearby. One of the females was laying about 5 ft. away from a hippo. Then we left. Christian and I ate at the place we got lunch the day before and had some beers. It was one of the greatest days of my life. The next morning we waited for 3 hours for our bus, but this is Africa, so it didn’t matter. Yesterday was a national holiday, Julius Nygiere, the first president of Tanzania and a very good president at that died. So we didn’t have school. One of the sisters had passed away, so we went to the funeral. It was pretty much the same as an American funeral, except for a couple of changes. Everyone walks with the body to the grave, then prayers are said, then the body is buried, while everyone watches and if you want to, you can help cover the grave, after that everyone is invited for a meal, then the funeral is over. It was very nice to see everyone gathered for a meal after mourning. It has more of a community feel, the community lost someone, not just the family of the deceased. Life here is good, teaching is going well and I have no regrets. Everyday is a new experience.

Things are going great over here. I started teaching classes. I teach three times a week for an hour and twenty minutes. I teach form three math, about 11th grade. It is fun, i enjoy it. I have a lot of time to prepare and get things done, so it is no big deal. Malaria is over with, I feel great. I am going to Katavi National Park this weekend with a German guy named Christian. I can't wait. I am still trying to learn the language, but I know enough to get around. The food here is good. In the morning we have bread with peanut butter or butter and tea or piping hot milk. It is good. then at about 10:40 we have tea and Mkazi, which is like minidonuts. Then at 2:30 we eat lunch. Ugali, rice, meat and beans, plus a vegtable. Ugali is corn flour that has been boiled in water. It looks like mashed potatoes, but has no taste. At 7 at night we have dinner which is the same as lunch.
PS Go Twins.

9/14/09
Sorry it took me so long to get this going, but we had a long journey to Subawanga. James and I very much enjoyed our stop in London, we took in all the tourist sites in the small amount of time that we had to be there. It was only an 8 hour flight to London and a 12 hour flight to Dar es Salaam. We were picked up from the airport at 8 o’clock in the morning and spent the day in Dar. People drive crazy in Dar, I’m not sure they have any stop signs and if they do I think they are optional. It was amazing, because the traffic is rush hour traffic all the time and people just go and honk at you. Brother Jerome drove a very tired me and James around Dar, to get our bus ticket and make sure that our check cards would work in the ATM. I fell asleep every time we got in the car. The next day we got on a bus at 7 in the morning to go to MBeya. The bus was supposed to get in around 5 the same day, but since it had a lot of troubles we did not get in until 11 pm. So after the 16 hour bus ride we slept at MBeya. The bus was comfortable enough, we watched movies in Swahili, slept and read. We then traveled to Subawanga by car courtesy of Brother Joesph. It was a 5 hour drive on mostly bumpy dirt roads. We were finally home in Subawanga. We are living in the guest house of the Abbey right next to chemchemi secondary school. James and I are sharing a room, not much bigger then Mary Hall, but we do have our own bathroom with a heated shower. All the Monks have been so nice and welcoming to us, the language barrier is difficult, but a smile is a smile in any language. We toured the school, the church, and the hospital over the next two days and tried to recover from the jet lag. That Saturday we went to Mvimwa abbey. It was a 2 and a half hour drive over a unmaintained dirt road. However, it was a beautiful drive. The drive took us over many planes of dead grasses, since it is the dry season, that are nestled in between small mountains. The abbey itself is beautiful, it was constructed in conjunction with the landscape that it was built over. Huge rocks provide support for some of the structures, it is very cool. James, Joesph and I went to the top of the mountain behind the abbey to overlook the entire property of Mvimwa. On Sunday we then went to the primary school and saw the children. They were a blast, they asked us all kinds of questions, James told a story about Michael Jackson and we both sang Wagon Wheel for them. Then we played soccer and left to go back to Subawanga. Then we were left on our own to do whatever we wanted. Since then James and I have walked into the internet cafe, which is where I am right now, to contact our parents and tell them we are not dead and I have read a lot of books. On Wednesday night my sleep was rudely interrupted by my stomach, which then proceeded to empty its contents 7 times over the remaining 4 hours of sleep that got intermetently. I immediately thought I had food poisioning, that was wishful thinking. I went to the doctor and I was diagnosed with Malaria, only after I throw up one more time, just for good measure. I spent the next three days in bed with a temperature. I didn’t eat anything except for some bread every once in a while. I was not hungry and I still don’t have my appetite back. On Friday I felt better and ate at supper, just some rice. On Saturday morning we all got up early and went to Mvimwa to see the primary school graduation. This was very interesting, there were dances and speeches before the graduation, then finally a raffle drawing and then the actual calling of names and stuff. I went and was exhausted by the end of it. We then went to mass on Sunday and ate lunch with the Monks before leaving for Subawanga. It was cool, but we didn’t get to Subawanga until 7 o’clock Sunday night and I went straight to bed. James got up this morning and taught for his first day of school, I have not taught yet, since I was sick, I went to the internet so my family would not worry about me. I walked the couple of miles to Subawanga and back and felt fine.