Safari (2)

PART MBILI – Surprises and Warm Hearts

After traveling with my family for over a week now and seeing so many different animals and expensive places I would never visit on my own while in the Peace Corps, I thought I knew what to expect when we were on our most safi leg of our trip – I extrapolated.  But boy, was I wrong!

We rose bright and early the next morning to find an elephant in the front of our lobby and headed out for an extra game drive on the way to the Four Seasons Hotel at Serengeti.  I still couldn’t believe I would be staying at a Four Seasons! 

The gorgeous sunrise greeted us with warm arms back into the park and we were off to try our luck at Moru with the black rhino.  Lady Luck was not with us, but she did make a visit later that day…

We saw some more hyenas and lions, including once large male sitting on a rock and the same cubs from the night before.  The cubs had moved closer to their potential prey, but still nothing, so we continued on our way to the Four Seasons.  There were other lions that I spotted in the distance that were cleaning up a carcass, which was quite fascinating to see!  I didn’t quite get the chase I wanted, but this would definitely suffice.  :)  Lions galore today!

On our way to a rest stop for lunch, we saw a queue of zebra that were walking from a watering hole.  I assumed this was part of their Great Migration, but I was still a sight!  We also stumbled on a large bird whose name just slipped my mind, but it reinforced my belief that dinosaurs still walk the earth.  I was just hoping to see a velociraptor run in and reveal that Serengeti is in actuality, Jurassic Park.

The biggest surprise of our trip was after lunch…  We had seen all of the Big Five except for the Black Rhino and the Leopard.  Although we saw a speck between two trees far off in the distance with our binoculars that seemed to be a rhino, I cannot legitimately say that we can cross that off our list.  What most definitely made up for it though, was when Lady Luck guided us to….::drum roll please::

…A LEOPARD!!!!

I knew something was up when I heard all the Swahili chatter in the intercom and I definitely knew something was up when we saw the number of cars surrounding a tree.  WE FINALLY SAW A LEOPARD!!!  FOUR OUT OF THE BIG FIVE!  I am pretty sure my family was ecstatic, and I think Haji was relieved that we were able to see it after he tried so long to take us to a visible rhino.  :D  The whole trip was great, but this just topped it off.  And it was so cool to just see one in a tree, which was what I was expecting the whole time anyway.  The only thing that could’ve possible made this even better was if it was in the middle of a meal while in the tree!  [I promise I don’t mean to be a morbid person – nature just truly fascinates me.]  But this leopard was truly beautiful!  And we were able to see its golden eyes when it woke up for a few seconds from its food coma.  I guess it’s not just humans that have food comas.  ;)

We were all smiles as we drew closer to the Four Seasons.  Even as we smelled the stench before seeing the entrance to the hippo pool, we couldn’t hide our excitement from such a successful few days of game drives.  I’d NEVER in my life thought I’d see SO MANY hippos in one place before!  Not even Hungry Hungry Hippos could compare!

And there was SO MUCH POOP!  Even as a Peace Corps Volunteer who deals with poop problems more than often, I don’t know how they can live the majority of their lives in a pool of their own poop…  But I guess they have to, in order to protect their young, if an alligator is in their presence!

We went back into the car and the last stretch of drive before the Four Seasons was overflowing with herds of wildebeest and zebras.  What a spectacle it was to see so many zebras and wildebeests in one place.  It was also the first time I’d seen zebras rolling around in the dirt and neighing at us.  They make such weird sounds!  And so many cute foals!  We were quite literally in the middle of their migration, so it was expected that we were constantly getting road blocked.

 

 

 

 

We finally arrived at the Four Seasons, and I was completely in awe by how NICE it was!  There was an infinity pool, the beds and comforters felt like I was lying on a cloud, the gym facilities were fantastic, and our room looked out onto a watering hole, where elephants visited frequently!  I took advantage of every opportunity, including the gym, to feel completely rejuvenated.  It wasn’t a surprise that the Four Seasons would be so nice, but I never expected I’d get to be staying here…IN TANZANIA!  I felt so overstimulated and amazed by how something SO SAFI could be in the same country that I was currently serving in!  At that moment, I did not want to leave, nor did I want my family to leave.

I cherished every moment and every relationship I made there, and the staff was so incredibly welcoming.  Another surprise was running into more Thai people!!!  Two worked in the spa and another, who was my age, worked in the jewelry shop there.  It seemed so unnatural to be speaking so much Thai in Tanzania hahaha.  And of course, the food was to die for!  THEY EVEN HAD SWEET TEA!!!!  We had a buffet every night, and I never thought I would say this, but…I got sick of food…  Not the fact that it was good, but I tried to stuff myself into a food coma every night because I knew I wouldn’t get to again for a long long time, but I was just SO FULL.  It is the most glorious type of hurt.  We also met the pastry chef and his wife.  Such a charming and energetic couple!  I tried to compensate for the amount of good food I ate the past week by going to the gym, so I felt much better by the time we left two nights later to fly back from Seronera Airstrip (in Serengeti) to Arusha.

When we left, the staff sent us off at the front lobby and I was surprised to feel like I’d known them for so much longer than we were there.  It was a nice, heartwarming feeling.  :)  When we got to Arusha, we stayed at Impala Hotel for the second time, got our second round of massages from the same spa, and my family got ready for going back to America.  Time flew by so fast, and it didn’t seem like they were here for three weeks!  I knew it was going to hit my mom pretty hard, so I just let her hug me for a while…

The next morning, we left Arusha and headed towards Moshi to go to the Kilimanjaro Airport with Haji, who volunteered to see them off one last time.  We said our goodbyes, my mom cried, I tried not to cry from seeing her cry, and as they got in their planes, I got in Haji’s car that evening as he took me to Moshi.

Now begins a new leg to my adventures…

I stayed in Moshi for one night because I had to get on a bus before the sun rose the next morning to head to Korogwe, Tanga for Training of Trainers (TOT).  TOT is essentially a time for those of us that were chosen to train the incoming class of Peace Corps Trainees (PCTs) to meet with our respective groups (mine was the Shika na Mikono group) to prepare lessons and anything else we would need for the new PCTs’ PST (Pre-Service Training).  Yes, there are LOTS of acronyms in Peace Corps.

I arrived in Korogwe, got my room, and met up with Ben (Kaka Ben) that afternoon.  (Steve would meet us there the next day after Jake left from Dar to go back home.)  Korogwe is a much smaller town than Morogoro, which was where my and Ben’s PST was, so my first impression was, “whoa…this class is going to get a real taste of Tanzania.”  Ben, Steve, and I all had our trainings in Morogoro, which is WAY bigger than Korogwe and was much more safi in terms of CCT (where we had trainings) and mjini [“town center”], and especially with the food, or lack thereof.  For me, the most difficult adjustment from going from safi vacation to being a PCV in Tanzania was the food.  Korogwe pretty much only had Tanzanian food and was lacking in variety.  Usually, when we have PC trainings, we get fed, but because it was just us PCVs there and the Korogwe Teachers College (KOTCO) was currently closed for school, we were on our own.  :(

Ben and I started working on our sessions the next morning, and when Steve arrived, we continued planning for when we would have to train the new class.  Apparently, since I was chosen for a Week Zero host as well as Shika na Mikono trainer, these PCTs were REALLY going to get sick of me, or love me.  Not only would I be one of the first volunteers they’d meet in country, they would see me again during Week Six for Shika sessions.  I.WAS.SO.PUMPED.  Anyway, although we did spend time on the serious sessions, which included both math and science sessions, lab set up and maintenance, lab NECTA practical sessions, emphasizing the use of affordable, locally available materials, and all that jazz, the majority of our preparation was put into “The Intro.”

For the past couple of years, Shika na Mikono has been known for their creative, crazy, nerdified introductions in which fire and explosions are highly encouraged.  Two years ago, for Steve’s PST, the Shika group decided to do something from the show Arrested Development with the song “Final Countdown," which would have only been entertaining for people who watch and appreciate the show (me included, if I were present).  For my PST, the Shika group was Paul McLelland, Eric Sandhurst (the PCV I replaced), and Ezra Taylor.  They did Mission Impossible and lit a line of gunpowder leading to a hydrogen-filled balloon, which was apparently anticlimactic and delayed (I was not there for this since I was in a Math session and not teaching Science at the time.)  For my IST, Paul, Steve, and Mar did a homage to Star Wars using their cane swords as fire-lit lightsabers to set fire to a large gunpowder-filled paper crane.  The idea was great, but the execution had some flaws because the fire went out when they flourished their swords as part of their choreographed battle scene.  As the years progressed, the intro has become increasingly more memorable, so it was our mission (as Ninjaneers) to trump the previous years.

After much deliberation, scouting the training grounds, and rewriting of scripts we decided on a part P.T. Barnum, part Michael Bay, part Shika presentation that would blow the new Education class away.  ;D  Of course, I won’t actually reveal what we did until the last installment of this trilogy.  The suspense has to build!  ::Insert maniacal laugh here::  Ben and I actually were planning on doing a different intro initially, but it required for all members of Shika to be present.  Therefore, I still cannot reveal it, since it is possible we may do it at their IST.

The three of us planned what we could in the few days at Korogwe and got most of our logistics worked out before we went our separate ways.  Ben was going to a conference in Kenya for his Masters International program and Steve and I moseyed our way south of Korogwe – Steve went to Morogoro to head back to site and my destination was Dar.

I already had to be in Dar for Week Zero, but the reason why I went early was because…I WAS GETTING TO MEET THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!!!

Mine was one of the lucky PCV names drawn to meet President Obama when he came to visit Tanzania during his Africa circuit of South Africa, Ethiopia, and Tanzania.  I was pretty darned thrilled!!!  I would totally skip out on SCUBA diving any day to meet the President!  The only problem was that I was feeling a bit…uneasy in the stomach and intestinal area at the time, but more on that later.

I was supposed to be in Dar by the 3rd of July anyway for Week Zero, but with the POTUS (President of the United States) visit, I had to get there on the 1st.  Apparently, Travis Kocurek (from my training class), Folake Oyegbola (from Steve’s training class), and Kathryn Alexander (from Eric Sandhurst’s class) were chosen to be a part of the official press entourage.  They were able to travel in the caravan with the press to help translate and pretty much get them acquainted with Tanzania while the press traveled with the President around Dar es Salaam.  Coolest job ever, right?!  Thank goodness I packed a dress (which I brought solely for Week Zero) because I didn’t find out until after I was travelling with family that I would be going to the POTUS visit.  The thing was, I hadn’t tried on this dress since Swearing-In, so I was crossing my fingers it would fit…

The day of the meet, I woke up super early to get ready, took a lot of Imodium since my stomach was still feeling very iffy, and went downstairs to wait with the other PCVs.  At around 5:30am, at least 30 of us PCVs were driven from Econo Lodge (in the city centre of Dar) to the Peace Corps office, then to the U.S. Embassy.  When we got there, my initial reaction was: 1) “Please don’t poop yourself, please don’t poop yourself…” and 2) “Wow!  There are a lot of people…I don’t think I’ll get to shake his hand.”  From the information that was given to me when I first got the call, it was going to be a more intimate gathering of just Peace Corps staff and Volunteers with the President; however, plans changed once he got to country.  It went from just about 40 people in a room to a couple hundred people outside the Embassy.  It was still really cool to get to hear him in person and see him up close!

When he walked up to the podium, I could tell he had a regal air of confidence.  It was amazing to really see!  There was just something about him that if you looked at him, you knew he was the President of the United States – his gaze was very captivating and sincere, and he was very professional yet calm and lighthearted.  You could tell he had definitely aged since he swore in, and he was indeed taller than I expected.  And man, his head was huge!  Once he stepped off the podium to greet the lucky young ins, the crowd that was intently listening to him suddenly pushed forward.  A peaceful group of U.S. Embassy workers and their families turned into a hoard of fans at a concert, pushing against a barricade.  And I am not ashamed to say that I was right in the middle of it!  :P  I was mainly standing there taking pictures, didn’t think I was going to join in in the commotion, but then I was trapped.  So, I thought, “What the heck, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em!”  I reached my hand over the shoulder of another PCV in front of me and went for the chance of grazing President Obama’s shoulder.  To my surprise, he stopped, looked me in the eyes, gave me a big smile that mirrored my cheesy grin, and shook my hand.

IT.WAS.AWESOME.  And totally worth the fact that I was pretty much glued in that position until he finally passed our section of the fencing.  ;)  Unfortunately, everyone that had a camera was either stuck in the crowd and too close to get a good shot of me shaking hands with the President, or they were too far to even tell who’s who.  That’s okay though, because in my heart (and hand), I knew what I did that day and it was a pretty cool story to tell.  (Tall) Brian Connors also mentioned to Obama that we were Peace Corps and he acknowledged us with a cordial nod and a “thank you for your service.”

He was shaking my hand in this picture!
[Thank you Tyler, for being tall and getting this picture for me!  :)]

It was a hot day in Dar es Salaam, but successful nonetheless!  I was able to fit into the dress that I wore on my Swearing-In Day (which I was worried about because of all the carbs I’d been eating – oh, Tanzania!), I DID NOT poop my dress, and I was able to shake the hand of President Obama himself!  What a great day!  And now, I have 42 new volunteers to look forward to in the next couple of days…or should I say, in the last installment of Safari!!