Where Did December Go?

Well, the first week of December was spent in Zanzibar (see last blog post).  :)  What about the rest of it?

I returned to Uganda to find a slew of emails about all of my committee meetings.  The Gender and Development Committee met to elect the next Camp GLOW and Camp BUILD directors.  There have been two new groups of volunteers in Uganda since I arrived, and we try to get a mix of people from all training groups involved with camps.  The hand-over (of camp direction) is going very smoothly.  The GAD Committee also did a significant amount of fundraising and we’re able to help several volunteers with their local projects promoting gender equality.  One project is the Uganda Youth Newsletter; the other is a softball camp for girls!

A few days after the GAD meeting, I attended my first Volunteer Advisory Committee (VAC) meeting.  This is where 2 representatives from each training group meet with Peace Corps Administration to discuss current policies and issues that volunteers are having.  There were many topics to cover and the meeting ended up going for 4 hours.  But I can’t say that we got a whole lot accomplished – there was a lot of discussion and not much action.

So I’ve been in Uganda for 17 months now (crazy!).  Halfway through our service, we get a medical and dental check-up – it’s very basic, more like a consultation.  I just wanted to let you know that I’m healthy and my teeth are very clean again.  :)  At the end of our service, we’ll get the full exam (blood tests, dental x-rays, etc.).

By the time I returned back to Kuluva (after all of these Kampala visits), the nursing school was closed for Christmas break.  So I’ve been hanging out with other PCVs for the holidays.   

To sum it up:

• Ate lots of pizza
• Read The Hunger Games trilogy
• Went for a hike
• Made paper snowflakes
• Went swimming in a pool at the hotel nearby 
• Had a Christmas movie marathon: Elf, A Charlie Brown Christmas, It’s A Wonderful Life, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, and Love Actually
• Christmas dinner included wine, stuffing, deviled eggs, green bean casserole, pesto pasta salad, pumpkin pie, and brownies
• White Elephant gift exchange

Have a Happy New Year everyone!!!

Tanzanian Holiday: Part 2 - Zanzibar

Looking back, we should’ve just paid the extra money and flown from Mt. Kilimanjaro airport to Zanzibar.  Instead, we were cheap Peace Corps Volunteers and decided to take the bus to Dar Es Salaam, then ferry to Zanzibar.  At first we heard it was an 8-hour ride (no problem, the same as my usual Arua ride), then we heard it was a 9-hour ride (ok, we could still make the ferry in time), but it actually turned out to be a 12-hour bus ride.  Ugh.  We got on a 5:45am bus and were delayed twice because of traffic.  Apparently there was a big accident and traffic was stopped for miles in both directions.

We finally reached Dar Es Salaam at 6:00pm and missed the last ferry by two hours.  So we had to get a hotel room and wait until the next day to go to Zanzibar.

*The good news is that buses in Tanzania are way better than the buses in Uganda.  The seats are larger and more comfortable – and they recline!  The bus company gave us water, sodas, and snacks, as well as several bathroom breaks at very nice facilities!  And the roads are paved in Tanzania!  I was very impressed.  :)

Dorothy, Katie, and I got on the 9:00am ferry to Zanzibar – which actually was delayed an hour.  (Are you picking up the theme of this vacation?  Answer: delayed transportation.  If you ever make vacation plans in Africa, factor in time for delays!)  Anyway, the ferry ride was great – there was air conditioning and flat-screen TVs playing ‘The Lord of the Rings.’  But I preferred to look out the window at the coasts of Dar Es Salaam and Stone Town.

We arrived in Stone Town and had to take a taxi to the east side of the island to meet the rest of our friends who were already on vacation there.  We spent the day swimming in the ocean and stayed in beach huts that night.  My friend Rebecca was a PCV in Uganda, but sadly ended her service a couple of months ago.  This whole trip was centered on celebrating her 30^th birthday in Zanzibar, which she came back for (all the way from San Diego!).  It was a sweet reunion and we celebrated by going to a really special restaurant called the The Rock.   

It’s on it’s own little island – we had to take a boat out to the entrance (during high tide), but by the time we finished dinner, it was low tide and we were able to walk across the sand.   

              

SO COOL!!!  Being that I was on an island on the Indian Ocean, I totally indulged in seafood.  Yum!

The next day we bummed around the beach some more, but Katie, Dorothy, and I had to leave and get back to Stone Town.  (The other group had already been to Stone Town and was going to stay on the beach for the rest of their vacation.)  We said our good-byes and made our way to the next hotel.  We had a chance to walk around town that evening and check out some of the architecture and street food markets.   

              

Such life and history in that city!  I completely fell in love with it and intend to return someday.  :)

There is so much to do in Zanzibar and we knew we couldn’t do it all, but snorkeling in the coral reefs was a must!  We booked a tour that took us to a sandbank island for the day.   

                   

 We snorkeled for hours, had a lunch of grilled king fish and local food, snorkeled some more, and went back to Stone Town for drinks and dinner.  Tom and Ilse (PCVs from Arua) were also there that week, so we met up with them at the Africa House Hotel, which had a sunset bar overlooking the ocean.  It was gorgeous.

Our final day in Zanzibar was spent wandering the alleys, shopping, and eating.  Our flight didn’t leave until 8:40pm, so we soaked up every last bit of culture that we could.  We visited the former slave markets, Freddy Mercury’s house and restaurant (FYI – Freddy Mercury was born in Zanzibar and they have historical spots dedicated to him), and took tons of pictures of the buildings and beaches.  It was extremely hot and humid which gave us the excuse to stop frequently at different restaurants and have a drink.

What an incredible vacation.  And since my Tanzanian visa is valid for one year, I’m definitely going back.  There’s so much more I want to see/do in Zanzibar.  Anyone want to join me???  ;)

Tanzanian Holiday: Part 1 - The Serengeti

The holiday started on Thanksgiving.  I went to a town called Nebbi, which is just an hour south of Arua.  If you remember, last year I went to Sherry’s (very modern) house in Arua and had a huge traditional American Thanksgiving, with ice cream and everything.  This year I wanted to have a Peace Corps Thanksgiving with other volunteers in a more rural setting.  It was perfect!  We cooked and baked everything from scratch (which took ALL day), but we ended up with a turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, pumpkin soup, pasta salad, stir-fry vegetables, apple pie, pineapple pie, and pumpkin bread.  :)

        

And as soon as we set the table, the power went out.  Ah, Uganda.  We weren’t prepared with candles, so we improvised and lit the room with all of our headlamps!  Truly a Peace Corps Thanksgiving.

Then it was time to depart for Tanzania.  There were some transportation issues along the way – my usual bus company had a night bus crash into an elephant near Murchison Falls, killing the elephant and seven passengers.  That bus company was then shut down until they paid the wildlife authority for the loss of the elephant.  Ah, Uganda.  So I took the other decent bus company to Kampala . . . unfortunately the bus was 1½ hours late . . . and then broke down in the middle of nowhere.   

It took another 1½ hours to fix it.  I arrived very late to my hotel but thankfully wasn’t flying out until the next day.  Phew!  (And then the flight ended up being delayed 2 hours anyway.  Ugh!)

Dorothy, Katie, and I eventually made it to Tanzania and embarked on our safari adventure.

We went to 3 major parks: Lake Manyara, Serengeti National Park, and the Ngorongoro Crater.  Lake Manyara was stunning – it was the first time that I saw zebras and wildebeest!

 There were so many other animals too (elephants, giraffes, baboons, gazelles, etc.).

Our safari was in the “budget” price range so we were camping in tents instead of staying at hotels.  I can’t tell you how cool it is to be sleeping in a campground with gazelles walking through at night.  Then in the morning, several water buffalo found their way to our site.   

Considering that they are one of Africa’s most dangerous animals, this moment had us stopped in our tracks.  I’ll never forget it.

We went for an early morning game drive (because dusk and dawn are when the big cats go out for hunting).  And we saw EVERYTHING!  Lions, impala, hippos, hyenas, elephants, leopards, water buffalo, warthogs, vultures, wildebeest, ostriches, zebras!!!!   

 It’s one thing to see these animals sitting in a zoo, but in the wild you get to see their behavior.  This was the most amazing part of the safari – we saw a lioness begin to hunt wildebeest; we watched the wildebeests’ reaction when they saw her and how fast they moved and changed directions across the plains!!!  Indescribable.  But the best of the best was spotting a mother cheetah and her two ‘teenage’ cubs going for a hunt.   

We never saw a kill (I don’t know if that’s good or bad), but we came across several carcasses that had already attracted vultures and hyenas. 

That night after the game drive, we camped out at the ridge of the Ngorongoro Crater.  It was a perfect day that ended with a bottle of South African red wine and a full moon rising over the crater.  It was one of the most memorable nights of my life.  

The next morning we went for game drive inside the crater – we saw a lot of the same animals, but in much closer proximity.  We parked the car right in the middle of a herd of zebras and wildebeest.  :)   

In the end, we saw almost every animal the Serengeti has . . . except for rhinos.  Rhinos can be found mostly inside the crater, but even there, they are only few.  It was too hard to track them that day.

When you have time, check out my pictures on the Shutterfly website or Facebook.

I will post “Tanzanian Holiday: Part 2 - Zanzibar” tomorrow.