Nicole goes to Tanzania

South Africa trip

2009-11-11T09:04:00.013-08:00

Cape Town Waterfront

Trip to the vineyards

Stunning views around Capetown

Cape Point and the Penguins!

Joburg - hanging out with the Hatty's

Back home with our new stuff

Serengeti Trip

2009-07-13T23:07:00.011-07:00

Just got back from a fantastic vacation with Chris and my parents.

Day 1 Arusha
Day 2 Lake Manyara
Day 3-6 Serengeti
Day 7 Ngorngoro Crater
Day 8 -11 Zanzibar

We (ok, I) took about 9Gb of photos so this is merely a small selection of unedited highlights (taken with my pretty new zoom lens):

Lake Manyara

Serengeti

Ngorongoro Crater

Zanzibar

2009-04-14T05:08:00.003-07:00

Apparently I've been terribly negligent of my blog this year... it's April and the only entry of the year is from January and I didn't even update the photos!

Ok... I've actually taken house photos now so will bring them in and upload a few.

Not much to say about life between January and April except that we've settled nicely into the new house. Still working through the list of repairs and upgrades but have definitely made progress and it's very cozy and home-y now.

Spent Easter weekend in Zanzibar. Zanzibar is only a 20 min flight from Dar (90 min by ferry) so it seemed completely unjustified that aside from a brief visit to stone town last December, I had yet to explore the island. Because this is technically the rainy season it's also low season pricing so we got a decent deal to spend three nights at Mtoni Marine which is just a few km north of Stone Town.

Mtoni was lovely - the rooms exceeded my expectations with flower buds placed on the bed every day and lovely little touches like that. It was a stunning pool right on the beach.

We arrived early Friday morning, dropped our bags off and went in to stone town for the day. We met up with a friend from Dar and did a morning tour of stone town. Learnt lots of interesting historical and cultural facts (even Chris learnt something new despite several previous tours). We took a lunch break and then continued through the little streets checking out the craft shops etc. Watched a beautiful sunset from Africa House Hotel then head back to the hotel to get into our room and have dinner.

The next day we rented a motorbike and rode 90 min to the north of the island. Turns out rain is quite painful on exposed skin on a motorbike but it didn't rain much and the ride up was lots of fun. Spent a few hours in the north with friends and then drove back to our neck of the woods to shower and change before heading back in to stone town for dinner. We wandered around stone town for a couple of hours checking out all the restaurants.

After two rather full days we decided to take it easy. We visited the spa in the morning - Chris got a pedicure/foot massage and I got a back massage. We had lunch in stone town - kept the motorbike for easy transport - and then returned for some time swimming and lounging poolside. We had fantastic weather all weekend except for the little rain we got on Saturday and the cloud cover kept it nice and cool. It was then back to Africa House Hotel to meet friends of a friend who were new to Tanzania - drinks and dinner and ice cream on the beach before heading back to the hotel. Monday morning was again spent lounging around - except unfortunately the sun was out in full force so I'm feeling the consequences now. I've got my first proper sunburn EVER. It's not too awful - only a few small areas are sore but I look rather lobsterish in the areas not usually exposed when wearing a T-shirt and shorts. Fortunately in most clothing you can't tell as the burn is over a dark base and I was smart enough to keep my face out of the sun completely. I think the trick now is to maintain this base tan so next time I don't fry so badly.

So, overall a wonderful weekend though I definitely needed at least a whole week to recuperate from so long with no vacation. Now finalizing travel plans for my parents' visit in June so checking out Serengeti tours with much excitement... only two more months!

(pictures from Zanzibar and from the last blog about the house to come soon!)

House delays

2009-01-18T23:29:00.003-08:00

Well, I promised photos of the new house a while back but there have been some... delays. This is Africa after all...

So we don't end up getting into the house until the 10th because the repairs are taking longer than expected (which is not unexpected really).

Then of course half of the things that were supposed to get done before we moved in weren't. The curtain rails are mostly missing or broken, the windows haven't all been fixed, etc.

Then we discover we have no hot water. First it turned out that there was a closed tap preventing water from reaching the tank. Then the input and output pipes were reversed. Then the pipes - with water finally flowing through - were leaking. THEN it turned out they were corroded and smaller than the rest of the pipes. So... after many frustrating hours (frustration on my part, work and frustration on Chris's) we finally think we've got it sorted out except the pipes are still smaller than the cold water pipes so we'll be installing a water pump to increase the pressure and, hopefully, the water flow.

We're also waiting to install a ceiling fan in the master bedroom so haven't built our bed yet and have been sleeping in the guest bedroom. We've finally gotten through most of the unpacking though not everything has found a home quite yet. It's a tiring process so we try to do little bits between enjoying our new satellite TV.

There are still so many little things to get done but we're making our way through them and once furniture has been placed and our walls have stuff on them I will add photos here.

HOUSE HUNTING IN DAR

2008-12-19T00:22:00.003-08:00

Searching for a home is always a stressful experience. There's usually a time constraint (have to be out of the last place and have no where else to live) and if the market is busy places disappear quickly leaving little time to think the big decision through.

House hunting in a third world country, however, brings a whole new level of challenges and frustrations to the experience. Add to this that we are looking for a place that is livable as an expat (we like having running water and don't want chickens running around our yard) but are looking at a range that's significantly lower than most ridiculously overpriced expat homes... basically the result isn't fun.

In Dar, most rental house hunting is done through agents found either through recommendations or through classified ads in expat publications. These agents generally don't have their own vehicles so they make an appointment to meet you at a gas station or somewhere like that and then you drive around to various places together in your car. System isn't really that bad since there isn't much in the way of street signs or house numbers so giving directions to many places is very difficult.

To start with, the agent is generally very late so you sit around in the heat waiting for them. Then they take you on a tour of parts of the city you didn't know existed (and probably could have happily never seen) to look at places that are often out of your budget, horribly located or just horrible. And as though that isn't bad enough, half the time the agents didn't actually bother to arrange the house key so you sit around outside for 20 min and can't even see inside the house.

We were actually qiute lucky with the houses and saw quite a few nice options. The problem is things are being taken up at an astonishing rate... by the time we'd seen a few places (a few adys later) the earlier places were all gone.

This process is frustrating enough in itself (we're both grumpy after two hours of driving around without seeing inside a single house), once you actually find a place you have to try to negotiate. Most owners demand one year up front payment and often a house will need some repairs. So you negotiate how much you want to pay each month, how many months in advance you want to pay and what repairs need to be done (and who will pay for them).

And if you've made it through all that and the house is still available (and you still want to live together) then you finally get to sign a contract, arrange to pay the owner a hell of a lot of money and start hoping and praying the place doesn't fall apart after a month or flood in the rainy season.

It's a lovely process. Fortunately we managed to keep our sense of humor through most of it.

I am thrilled that after only two and a half weeks (that felt more like 2 months) we have found a house we are very happy with. Three bedroom, decent sized garden, full air/con and a landlord that's actually interested in taking good care of the place.

Will post photos next week.

In meanwhile, happy holidays!

Stories from Tanzania

2008-11-10T21:49:00.005-08:00

I don't really have a lot of stories to add to the photos from the Vancouver trip. We had an amazing time tourist-ing around Vancouver and visiting the family and picking up all the things that we can't get back home. Chris was introduced to all-you-can-eat-sushi and agrees it is possibly on of the greatest things on earth. Otherwise, we had fun, it was over way too quickly and we hope to be able to visit again soon... next time with a stop on the East Coast as well.

So moving on to more recent adventures...

My house is located on a route we call short cut road because it cuts from the peninsula to one of the main roads in town (most foreigners live on the peninsula... Chris lives way down that other main road). So basically there's a dirt road that cuts across between the two through a residential area. During traffic, this could easily cut half an hour out of your drive. Unfortunately, this road is often in too poor condition for many vehicles and as there's construction along one stretch of it, they haven't fixed it up in ages.

Two weeks ago, they finally began major repair work on the entire road. I was thrilled. Then it rained. and rained. and rained. It's not often that we get this much rain during the so called dry season. The drainage ditches that were being built along the side of the road for just this reason were completely flooded. So after a day and a half of rain I cautiously attempt to get back to my place. I'll try to get a photo of the water line next to my car but the water level was probably a few inches higher than the bottom of my door. I could feel water lapping against the bottom of the car. And the worst part is that with all the road work, no one had any idea of where the ditches where and was constantly at risk of veering into one and suddenly dropping several feet.

I got in and back out and then it rained more so I went to stay at Chris's rather than risk my car dying.

This photo was taken the next morning. Water level had gone down a little and it gets a little deeper after the turn.

But there are also some very convenient aspects to this city. After a year in Tanzania, my international driver's licence had expired. I don't think you actually need an international licence but there's no way I'd want to hand over my BC licence to a cop here if stopped so it was handy to have a secondary one. So I decided to get a local licence. The licence itself costs 10,000/= (around $9) but to get it requires standing in 10 different lines in 8 different buildings and dealing with way more government officials than I have interest in dealing with. So, the easy solution is to pay someone 15,000/= ($12) to do it for you. Apparently they even had to go take an eye exam for me and passed with flying colors delivering my new licence to me within half a day. If only I could get stuff done this easily all the time.

Not a whole lot to report otherwise. Last weekend was Chris and my one year anniversary which we celebrated by going to south beach for two nights. Had a lovely, relaxing time. Hope to start making a regular thing of little weekends away as we really need some time away from town occasionally.

hope everyone's well.

Vancouver

2008-10-03T00:14:00.022-07:00

K... for a change: PHOTOS FIRST! Stories to come...

Misc Vancouver pics

Pesky Raccoons at Stanley park

Quality time with the kitty

very late birthday cake

Sand Castle competition at Harrison Hot Springs

Whistler Visit

So proud...

Wine tour in the Okanagan

Amsterdam

Sadaani and the Goat Races (August in Dar)

2008-10-02T02:17:00.013-07:00

August was a big month in Dar... We went to Sadaani National Park for the long weekend to celebrate my birthday, Robyn's birthday, Chris's 5 year anniversary in Tanzania and Shamba 1's 20th birthday (Chris's Land Rover) and later in the month was the biggest social event of the year, the Goat Races.

Goat Races:

Sadaani:

The Beard

another year begins...

2008-08-06T05:10:00.003-07:00

I can now add Dar to the list of places I've celebrated my birthday (Israel, New York, Vancouver, Toronto, Italy, Greece and Dar).

I have not come through on my promise of Paris photos yet though I will get to it someday I'm sure. I have been so busy since getting back into town that I haven't had a moment to transfer photos.

Work has been pretty busy and still adjusting to the hours (the early wake up, the ridiculous traffic and the lack of time to do any of my errands). Things are starting to pick up and flow a little better now. Getting over that initial 'don't know anything' phase at a new job.

I've also moved into a new place. It's very nice but has been a struggle to get in and get everything sorted because I've been so busy with other things. Okay, really shouldn't complain cause I came home the other day to find all my stuff had been unpacked for me and put away in the cabinets. I still have to sort and organize but at least I'm not living in chaos while I do it. Also enjoying the new luxory of leaving dishes or laundry and coming back to find them clean and put away. Could definitely get used to this. Do still need to sort out my new bed and get rid of the old one and all that. Then hopefully some day soon I can have a housewarming party. Hopefully will get photos of the new place up soon too.

Much of the delay has been caused by my booked up weekends. During the week I'm at work all day then in traffic and then too worn out to get much done. But also last weekend, being my birthday, we spent sunday out at white sands (a beach north of dar) having lunch and enjoying the beach and a few drinks. Oh, and got cool presents! an external hard drive from my brother, work clothing from my parents (SO necessary) and really stunning lighting fixtures for my new room from Chris. k... lighting fixtures doesn't sound all that exciting bit they're really really nice and I don't have any nice things here so very cool.

And next weekend's a long weekend so a group of us are heading camping. Should be nice cause this place is in a national park so there's wildlife but it's also on the beach. It's always a fine balance between maximizing your time off and away with also needing some time to get organized for the following week.

So things are good... more updates soon... and photos too hopefully.

long long overdue update...

2008-07-12T14:42:00.003-07:00

Ok... Here I was starting to think that people weren't really reading my blog anymore and all of a sudden I get several comments about how long it's been since my last update.

Well, there is a reason there was such a long lapse which I'll explain in a moment. But first, I'm requesting some feedback. Blog? no Blog? was thinking to switch to group emails to allow for less public and less google-able communication... especially for work related stuff, not liking the public blog so much. So please, let me know what you think either through comments on the blog or to my email. That way if I switch to emails I'll also know who to include.

So, at first there was no blogging because I wasn't doing anything worth blogging about. Only thing that happened during that time is that I moved to a new place: a studio apartment on the peninsula with a/c and hot water and cable tv (yay movie channels!) Otherwise, things werenot so much fum... car needed lots of repairs, weather wasn't steller, didn't have a whole lot to occupy myself with.

then there was a delay because of work. I was going through an interview process that kept getting longer and longer but I kept waiting so I could tell everyone about the job and then I started with pretty much no notice and was very busy and then took off to Paris- which is where I am blogging from now.

Work: Am now the new events manager for a south african company with an office in tanzania that deals mostly with marketing and promotions but is branching out into events in Dar. I think it'll be a great opportunity and very interesting. I have great co-workers. Plus they've approved two trips within my first couple of months on the job because they were already booked when I started so yay for flexibility. It'll definitely be a lot of work and long hours and it's been three years since I last worked full time so a bit of an adjustment for me but at least it will be interesting.

Paris: I am currently in Paris for 10 days with the family. We're staying in a nice (but small) flat and walking more than I've walked in ages so I'm constantly sore. Hilight so far was a bike tour to Versaille including a lovely picnic in the gardens. Monday is Bastille Day and my long time travel companion Caroline will be joining us so I'm very excited for that as well. Heading back to Dar in Wednesday. Will do a Paris blog and post photos when I'm back.

K, it's time for bed here but will post again soon with more about Paris and work. Now have good, reliable internet connection so communication should be much improved. Hope everyone is well... would love to hear from you all!

SA photos

2008-05-07T04:43:00.011-07:00

saw hundreds of vultures drawn to a zebra carcass not far from this tree.

Got stuck in the mud at the farm where rain had washed away the crossing. Brian bravely offered his weight to ensure the car didn't flip onto Chris while he set up the jack. The girls were enjoying our coffee. No, actually we were helping move rocks to put under the tyres

beautiful views at the national park across the road.

At the national park... very 'Lion King'

Chris and his niece, Kate

at the national park... the close side of the river is SA and the other sided is Zimbabe. Botswana is to the left.

South Africa and Nairobi Flies

2008-05-07T01:56:00.003-07:00

So it was a very very busy lead up to the Rugby Ball in mid-April. Lots of running around getting things organized but I enjoy it mostly. The event was great and everyone seems to have enjoyed themselves.

The morning after the ball we rushed to the airport after only 4 hours of sleep to catch our fight to South Africa. We were met at the airport by Chris's Aunt and Uncle who gave us a ride to his parents' house where we picked up the car and head out to the farm.

Chris's parents' farm is located near the Zimbabwe and Botswana border. It's a beautiful property with wildlife on it and across the road from a lovely national park and game reserve. Some of the evenings we could hear lions in the distance. We stayed at his parents' house there with his sister and her family who were visiting from London. On the farm is also the Mopane Bush Lodge was is absolutely beautiful. We spent several days at the farm just hanging out and going on some game drives. A friend of Chris's came up to join us with his girlfriend for a couple of days as well. It was very relaxing though I managed to get sick with a nasty cold.

We then head down to Joburg for a couple of days of hectic shopping. Things in SA are VERY cheap for those spending US dollars. Mostly Chris picked up stuff for work but we also got a multi-regional DVD player and some clothing and DVDs. I was definitely not feeling ready to head back to rainy, muddy Dar but fortunately, when it came time to leave the flight was cancelled. In fact, it was cancelled two days in a row. Would have been great except for the large amounts of time spent at Joburg airport. Don't feel like I got to see much of South Africa but it was a much needed break. Overall, had a fantastic time.

Back in Dar life was not so thrilling. The roads were actually worse than before and the power was going off regularly. And then, a few days after arriving, I discovered a weird rash on my neck and face. By morning it was very red and sore. Went to a local doctor who said it was fungus on my neck and an allergic reaction on my face... very suspicious. Got a cream. Tried the cream. Rash continued to spread to new places and became more like blisters and more painful. Finally went to the good clinic and paid a lot of money to be told that this is the result of squashing a Nairobi Fly against my neck. When crushed, this small beetle excretes a toxin that causes blistering, pain and itchiness. lovely. So, several days of antibiotics and creams later, it is slowly healing. Annoyingly slowly, in fact. But at least it doesn't hurt anymore and I have anti-histamines for the itchiness. My face, at least, is all better with no scars or marks left.

My laptop died. My watch died. Cell phone still works.

My evenings have been very busy seeing friends which was a welcome distraction from the frustrations of the week. A few people I havn't seen in a while are passing through at the moment. Finally got my car fixed which is VERY nice. It's now running great but still needs a few little fixes here and there that'll get done in time. I am now full on looking for an apartment for June.

And I think that just about brings us up to date.

Have booked flights to Paris for ten days in early July to meet the family... very exciting. And at least as exciting, Chris and I have finally purchased our tickets to Vancouver. We'll be in town Sept 8 -21. VERY EXCITED!!! Look forward to seeing some of you then.

Hope everyone's well!

Photos to follow.

Been a long month...

2008-03-28T07:29:00.007-07:00

So, life's been a bit of an adventure lately.

First, I bought a car. Think it was a pretty decent deal. Was very very very excited about it. Got it checked out and everything. Buying it was a hassle because it turned out the registration and insurance were both expired so a little sketchy diriving it around and a lot of up front costs but that's okay.

Bought the car Thursday and then went to Arusha for the weekend to work at the Rugby Game. It was a good chance to see how things work at the national games and meet some of the sponsors and fun to see Chris play. It was my first live rugby game.... very violent sport but exciting. The game was against an excellent Kenyan team and the Tanzania Twigas lost but it was a great game.

Flew back to Dar Saturday and drove down to south beach where six of us stayed at what will some day be a really nice lodge but at this point is still having electicity issues. Issues aside it was beautiful and we had a great and relaxing time. Unfortunately, Chris had been unable to pick up his car saturday so we drove down in my new car. On the way home the rain started. about twenty minutes from home, in the pouring rain, my car died. Mid-drive. I was more than slightly upset but the windows were all foggy from the rain so we had plenty of space for tic-tac-toe and hangman games while awaiting our rescuers. We spent two hours hanging out in the car. As you can see, we did manage to keep smiling. That was 4 days ago. It's still not fixed. I'm not impressed.

Also, hasn't stopped raining since. The rainy season here started monday and it is a site to be seen. I will try to get photos next time of Chris's landrover up to the door in water as the streets all turn into lakes and rivers. My friends' house got flooded with 8 inches of water so I'm considering myself lucky to have a dry place to hole up for the next couple of months. Hopefully I'll have a car to get around in too.

In other news, I have finally set myself up with internet on my laptop and it seems pretty good so hopefully communication and photo posting will improve. Work has been very busy. I have resigned at the university part time and continue my involvement with the rugby sponsorship and event planning as well. We have a black tie ball coming up soon so very busy with that at the moment. Also, have bought tickets to South Africa for mid April which is very exciting. Chris's parents own a large property and high end lodge in northern south africa and we'll be spending a week there and a few days in Joburg as well. Been a lot of frustrations lately here so I'm really looking forward to the break.

We did a photo shoot for the rugby ball ads... we have a running theme of having the players in the ads and trying to make it funny so we tried to capture the idea of the event in this photo: the guys get rugby, the girls get to dress up. Not sure how I ended up having to do it... these go up on big roadsite billboards!

Plans

2008-02-18T22:05:00.002-08:00

Have been having a very hard time getting online lately, hence no update. The last couple of weeks have been all about making plans and finally starting to move on some of the changes I wanted to make.

1. Last week I started working part time with a woman who does sports development, fundraising, event management, etc. Basically, we raise awareness and funds for sports clubs. I'm focusing mostly on the local and national rugby teams and the affiliated junior leagues for now and we have a big event coming up this weekend that looks like it's coming together quite well. It's fun to be doing this kind of thing again.

2. A couple of weeks ago I started swahili lessons. Now I just need to actually practice and hopefully I'll be spewing bad swahili in no time. Really quite excited about it.

3. I've met a lovely american couple, Robyn and Brandt, who I will hopefully be moving in with soon. Still have some details to sort out and, of course, we need to find a place. Also very exciting. The whole rental system here is completely nuts. First of all, prices are completely out of touch with reality. It's a challenge to find a decent place under $800/mo (usually quite a bit more) but for that amount you can find some incredably dodgy places. Secondly, most landlords want you to pay a whole year in advance. Which is quite a challenge when you pay for everything in cash and the largest note is equivelant to just under $10. I guess it's understandable since they really have no way of tracking you down later if you haven't paid but still, a little excessive and a logistical challenge when you can only withdraw aprox $350 at a time from the ATM (not to mention withdrawal fees start to add up).

4. I have decided to buy a car. Transportation here is a constant frustration and I'm spending so much money on taxi's it's ridiculous. Looking for a small SUV (because it needs to be high enough to get over the pot holes and huge rainy season puddles). This is possibly the most exciting of the exciting news except that I want the damn thing right now but have to wait to find something first. And yes, apparently cars get paid for in cash as well. lovely.

I think that's it for now. Hope everyone's well.

winter

2008-01-30T23:38:00.001-08:00

I have recently returned from two weeks visiting family in Israel. When I left Dar, it was around 40 degrees and when I arrived in Israel it was zero. So, I finally got a little winter in my winter. Definitely did not have enough warm clothing and had a constant supply of tea entering my system to keep from freezing to death (okay, obviously a *slight* exaggeration). Despite the freezing temperatures, it was nice to see everybody. I hadn't been to Israel in almost three years. I also had the chance to meet some new people... my dad's cousin's daughters, a friend's five week old baby and a slight introduction to my soon-to-be new baby cousin who should be joining us in around a month but looks very cute in the ultrasound photos. Though I'm now living geographically a lot closer to Israel, the trip takes forever. The 5-6 hours at the over-airconditioned Addis Ababa airport plus an hour delay in both directions meant I spent a total of around 15 hours on planes and in airports each way.

Back in Dar, it seems that winter has arrived as well. Though it was insanely muggy when I first arrived, the weather since has cooled considerably and it's been cloudy for the last several days. Everyone keeps telling me "the rains are coming" in a slightly disconcerting way that makes me think I need to build an arc. I am finally starting to settle back in to life in Dar. After arriving on Friday, I was whisked directly off to the beach for the weekend. It was a really nice place and a very relaxing weekend. There's something about a hammock that defines vacation for me.

Then it was back to Dar where my room was being used by someone else so I had to move all my stuff down the hall until yesterday when my room opened up again and I had to move everything back up the hall and finally got to unpack and start to settle in.

That's all for the update... will try to post photos soon.

Happy New Year

2008-01-02T04:57:00.001-08:00

I think this is the first time since moving to Vancouver that I was away for New Year's Eve. I marked it here in Dar spending the night on the beach with friends. Also spent Christmas Day on the beach. I really like celebrating winter holidays on the beach. Though I would really enjoy a day of snow out here once in a while. The holidays have come and gone but we've certainly had some fun. Chelsea has been here visiting for the last two weeks and we wandered the city a little but mostly just chatted and giggled and played cards and caught up on life. We infused some christmas spirit into the holiday by making home made decorations for the tree. We also got out to Zanzibar for a few days. The highlight of zanzibar was just meeting up with Natasha and Jen and having a mini-IPMP reunion. We also got out to a water park last Sunday which was so much fun. We got there early in the morning and had the place to ourselves for the first couple of hours. We rented these mats that make it so much more pleasant to slide down and I actually slide head first down a steep slide 6 stories high!!! So proud of myself. Anyway, have had a great vacation and don't mind going back to work knowing that in just over a week I'm heading to Israel for two weeks off. yay! holiday photos to come...

Busy Busy Busy week

2007-12-17T23:58:00.000-08:00

It's been a surprisingly busy week here. After returning from the camping weekend, I could have used a nice quiet week but with the holidays coming up and so many people heading out of town it ended up being my busiest week out here.

Wednesday night was dinner at Addis in Dar - a high end ehtiopian restaurant - for a friend's birthday. The food was good but even more expensive than I expected... this place was expensive for a restaurant back home. Had a nice time though and went out to Karaoke night at Irish Pub after for a while.

Thursday night we had tickets to a play. It was a pantomime modernized sleeping beauty. Quite entertaining.

I spent much of Friday running around the city with Cathryn trying to find a few items we needed... it's a little frustrating how hard it can be to find items that I could get in ten minutes back home. Fortunately Cathryn has a car so we made pretty good time and were able to check a lot of places. In the afternoon I had a meeting with Amref - where I will be volunteering - to discuss what I can do for them. Getting started is turning out to be a lengthy process but I think it'll be an interesting opportunity. After that we went to see the Golden Compass which I was really looking forward to and was so excited that it was coming out here. The movie was okay... it was fun to see but somehow wasn't as epic as I was hoping. And after that I went out with a friend who was leaving town.

Saturday I can barely remember what I did during that day... I know there was cooking involved. That night we had Christmas dinner at a friends house. Something about a potluck in 30 degree weather just doesn't feel like christmas. Though we did have some fine christmas music going on in the background including Alvin and the Chipmunks!

Sunday and Monday were nice and quiet and tomorrow I have to deal with my resident permit and pick up Chelsea from the airport. Almost vacation time! and this weekend we will head out to Zanzibar for a couple of nights to get a quick taste of the place and meet up with Natasha and Jen who will also be out there this weekend.

Mikumi Photos

2007-12-12T05:09:00.000-08:00

I had to reduce the quality in order to speed of the uploading a little... sorry.

Camping in Mikumi

2007-12-10T00:47:00.000-08:00

I am very sore and tired this monday morning because we finally got to go on our camping trip. Eight of us spent the weekend at Mikumi National Park having a blast. It took about 6 hours to get there but there was beautiful scenery and a gorgeous sunset to enjoy en route. We got there a little after the gate closed (3 hours late) so had to do some driving around and negotiating to get into the park but finally got to our camp site, set up tents, lit a fire and got dinner cooking. Each morning we got up at 6:30, drank some coffee and loaded into the land rover for a game drive. There are soooo many animals everywhere. We saw zebras, wildebeest, buffalo, elephants, impala, giraffes, hippos, lions, baboons, jackals, warthogs, crocs vultures and eagles (We also had a whole lot of insects at camp, including army ants, which hurt like hell when they bite you-I got nibbled twice). One of the guys let me use his 50-500 zoom lens on my camera so I've got some amazing close-up photos.... although more often than not, the animals were so close we didn't need the zoom at all. I spent most of the weekend sitting on the roof of the land rover getting bounced around (hence the sore), listening to music and taking photos of the amazing animals and scenery. We had in our group a couple guys who worked for a hunting/safari company so they knew everything about the animals and the trees and so on. After a few hours we'd get hungry and head back to camp. Saturday we went on an afternoon drive as well (which turned into an evening drice as we ended up really far away and didn't get back to camp until after dark). Sunday we spent a couple of hours sitting around a hippo pool watching as one by one herds of different animals came to the water hole... there was some serious negotiation involved in accessing the water as there was a clear priority sequence and crocs waiting in the water for their lunch. Lions are not the most exciting animal to watch (didn't do much but lay around) but it was pretty cool to get so close up to them and we found four cubs as well. Anyway, beyond this description I think the photos will have to speak for themselves... I took about 400 pics so it'll take a couple of days to download and sort but I will post photos here soon. I had an amazing weekend and couldn't have asked for better company. All in all, a huge success and I could definitely have stayed longer.

sick

2007-12-04T23:27:00.000-08:00

Well, I finally got over the stomach bug and was healthy for all of about five days before catching the flu. Have been mostly taking it easy ever since except yesterday my stubborn side insisted on not postponing dinner plans I'd made. Last night was the first night of Chanucka and I had invited my new "family" for dinner. There were nine of us in total and I spent five hours straight cooking. I made latkes and meatballs and ratatouille. Food mostly came out okay - meatballs weren't as good as they usually are - but I was pleased considering I have minimal ingredients and spices to work with. The whole experience was a little exhausting though and I was fairly dazed through dinner and then had to clean up before crashing into my bed. Apparently standing over a hot stove all day with a fever isn't fun. It was well worth the effort though to get everybody together and have a nice holiday dinner.

Camping, attempt #2, starts on Friday. fingers crossed.

my new zero tolerance policy for mozzies was going really well for a few days but has since collapsed completely. I just can't seem to keep the damn things off me. apparently I need to eat more garlic. Will keep trying though I can't imagine camping is going to help the situation much.

can't think of other news at the moment. I do have more photos to post (a good one of my campus monkeys!!) but haven't had a chance to do it... hopefully early next week I can put them up with camping photos.

update

2007-11-26T01:21:00.000-08:00

Okay, enough not-so-subtle hints. I am updating. I was supposed to go camping this weekend so was waiting to update after that with exciting camping stories and photos but the trip has been delayed for now so that will have to wait for another entry. Not a whole lot to say in meanwhile really. Things here are settled into their own little rhythm. I have not been doing much new exploring recently though I really need to get back on track with that. Amazing how laziness sets in. Mostly just been working during the week and hanging out with friends on the weekend. Must make more progress on the swahili front as well... have been slacking badly.

I have to admit, in the last week or so I have taken some serious losses in the war against mosquito bites. I have at least ten million bites on each foot and thousands more spread elsewhere. I got a bite near my knee while wearing full length jeans! How does that even happen? Between that and a few days with a minor stomach bug, things were looking pretty miserable for a while. But I am regrouping and getting ready for round 27 and hoping the 26-0 record will start to turn around because I can't handle the itchiness any more! I'm considering creating a full body mosquito net outfit that will just go permanently over my regular clothing. The search for 100% DEET begins...

Bagamoyo and SUSHI!

2007-11-09T02:14:00.001-08:00

Sorry for the posting delay... power cut out on me Friday so couldn't get this posted. So this is actually from a week ago.

Bagamoyo

The day after the accident I'd been planning to go to Bagamoyo for two days with Marika... so with very little sleep, I packed my bag and we took off for the weekend. Ended up staying for half a day and coming back. Not because it wasn't nice but because it really wasn't that much of a hassle to get there so we'd rather just go again another time and we were both feeling tired and lazy ( I blame the massive headache I still had). But we had a really nice visit and even found a local to give us a little tour around - the guy teaches wood carving and has offered to come to Dar for a lesson some time... Really want to do it and the lesson itself isn't so expensive but the cost of the wood is quite steep so haven't decided yet.

Bagamoyo was the capital of colonial German rule in East Africa and a very important trade port in its day (in particular- slave trading). It's an hour north of Dar by Dalla Dalla (and they drive FAST). The architecture has colonial as well as arab and indian influence though the buildings have not been kept up very well. There are quite a few areas to wander and Marika and I really only saw a small part of what there is on this trip - preferring to spend some time enjoying the beach which is now a centre for boat construction. I most enjoyed just walking around and taking in the most vibrant colors nature has to offer - every color of flower and even the leaves were an amazing shade of green.

Sushi

Yesterday I had sushi for dinner... highlight of my month for sure! They don't have any salmon here which I'm quite devastated about but the tuna sashimi was pretty darn good and they had a fantastic spicy tuna roll. I even liked the california rolls. My mouth is already watering for more.... mmmm

Eventful weekend

2007-11-04T02:57:00.000-08:00

So... the weekend got off to an interesting start. Friday night I was meeting a friend for a quick drink before dinner which got detoured into going to a BBQ with a large group of South Africans. Had a really nice time and a great dinner and we all headed out for an early night. And never made it home unfortunately. Not long into our drive home we got rear ended by a guy driving way too fast and not paying attention to the speedbump that we had just gone over. He took a little flight over it and ended up hitting the very bottom of our rear bumper pretty hard. Their car made out a lot worse than the pick up I was in but we still got bashed around a little. Fortunately we were wearing seatbelts so just got a bump on the head from the headrest and a slight hit on the shoulder from the seatbelt. However, car accidents here, especially when concerning Foreigners in one car and locals in the other I imagine, are a bit of a hassle. No mandatory insurance like at home. So we spent a good chunk of time waiting for the police and so on and then had to go down to the police station for a while. The police were actually fairly easy to deal with it seems (though I mostly tried to stay out of it). They didn't want to let us take the car home in case more damage happened before the inspection. The police officer was asking for my phone number... he'd already seen my phone and I didn't think saying no would help us out very much so I made sure he agreed to let us leave with the car before giving him my number :( Hopefully will never hear from him again. That was my friday night. Will write about the rest of the weekend later.

Halloween

2007-10-31T01:18:00.001-07:00

Not much to say about the past week... went to a Halloween party Saturday night and had a really great time. Met lots of new people. And now I'm back to trying desperately to find something to do at work and not get too frustrated with how things are going. My energy and motivation are definitely suffering a little in this work environment. This weekend I plan to finally get out of town for a bit so hopefully next week there will be more stories to share and photos to post.

There was a lovely full moon this weekend so I spent some time playing around with my camera and got a few good shots. Haven't had a chance to do any editing yet so these are just straight from the camera.

Order of the Day

2007-10-25T02:00:00.001-07:00

a typical weekday...

6:30am Wake up to the sound of the auto-mechanic outside my window. Sometimes he starts at 6. Nothing like the sound of engines to start the day. Sometimes I am able to fall asleep again after a little while (with the help of my ear plugs)

8am Wake up for real. Have some tea and bread and some kind of fruit or veggie. Take my anti-malaria pill, multi-vitamin and Omega-3 supplement. Fill up my water bottle for the day.

8:45 Marika and I head to the University. Usually we leave late but this is when we should leave. We catch a tsh (20 cents).

9am Start work. and by start work, I mean turn on the computer and sit down at my desk. Mostly work is checking my email and messing around online (as I'm doing right now, for example). Occasionally I have reports to write and submit to the CIH in Toronto. Last week I wrote a funding proposal and this week we met with the funder and found out they won't fund us until they've restructured the funding system. (Apparently in the past funding for the Universities has gone through the Ministry of Health - because TACAIDS is a government agency - and the Ministry of Health has done something with the money that didn't include actually giving it to the University so now they want to restructure the system to ensure we actually get the money... which is good... but it's going to take time so for now = no money). I have also been meeting with representatives from various student groups to try to set up some kind of coordination of their activities. Some good ideas came out of those meetings and I hope to keep busy by pursuing some of them, like a Secondary School Outreach program. I also have to write articles for our program's publication.

12:45pm Lunch. Staff at the health clinic gets free lunch (I'm guessing it's because there isn't enough staff to cover breaks and since they bring food down for the patients anyway). Someone from the cafeteria brings down a few dishes of something and we get to eat it. I'm not technically staff here but my supervisor is and he doesn't eat here so I get his portion. Lunch time varies slightly and it's important to get there before things run out so there is a bit of a push/shove process. I can usually smell the food from my office when it arrives. Lunch consists of rice and either roasted 1/4 chicken or beef in a red sauce and sometimes some beans or cooked banana or veggies (the same kind every time). So, not a whole lot of variety but it's free and it's here. There are many different places to eat on campus... most serve the same food and are packed with students or faculty around lunch time. I tend to eat in my office and sometime go for a walk around outside for a bit.

5pm Quitting time. By five it's usually cool enough to walk home without working up too much of a sweat. Takes around 20-25 minutes. After work, I will usually go home and change. This is also when I'm most likely to shower because I'm hot and don't mind the cold water so much. Sometimes I will go to the grocery store to pick up a few things.

6pm I usually have an hour or two before Marika comes home. I spend that time reading or watching CNN (which I get at home). Sometimes I do some Sudoku puzzles.

7:30/8pm Dinner time. Marika and I usually have dinner together. Sometimes we cook at home. If we go out, we usually go to Euro - a restaurant around the corner from us. Meals are much the same as what I described for lunch although they also have a really good beef stew. They also have burgers and samosas on the menu but I have yet to try them. Other options include a few places for chipsi and mishkaki (fries and beef skewers). Before going out I change into longer clothing and apply ample mosquito repellent.... I swear those things hunt me down.

9pm After dinner Marika and I often sit around talking. Often Emmanuel will stop by for a while to visit and teach us some new kiswahili words (and test us on the old ones). Sometimes I watch a movie on my laptop.

10 - 12 Depending how tired I am, I'll read for a while and go to bed. But first I wash my feet, re-apply mosquito spray and re-adjust mosquito net. I also often spend a little time killing any mosquitoes I can find. It makes for a more fulfilling day, I think.

And there you have it, a day in the life of Nicole. Next time we examine... the weekend!

Finally... some photos

2007-10-22T08:37:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the terrible layout but this takes forever so I just threw them on there... I'll keep working on a better alternative.

K, I'll get a better photo when I can but in meanwhile: MONKEYS!!!

On campus (left)

Pretty Beach :

Marika, Emmanuel and I at the pretty beach:

My house

Cute kids:

My street at night

Apartment building in the City Centre

Dalla Dalla Station at Mwenge (nearest station to my house)

Dinner. no, not really... it's dinner for the dogs.

AIDS

2007-10-22T00:06:00.000-07:00

So... I thought I'd spend my monday morning posting about what it is I'm actually doing here. I don't have a whole lot to do so I still spend a good part of my day messing around on the internet BUT I am definitely starting to get into things and it's interesting though I have serious doubts that I will have any impact whatsoever... and this is predictable but still disappointing.

Saturday night I was out having dinner with Marika and we were approached by a guy who decided to sit with us (this happens A LOT). We start talking and it turns out that he is starting now as a HIV Peer Educator... a program included in the funding proposal I have just written. So we start chatting about the program and (keep in mind he's clearly had a few drinks) our new friend starts talking about AIDS.

He starts talking about how everyone learns about using condoms but what does that even accomplish when they sit out in 30 degree temperatures all the time. In his opinion they must be completely ineffective. He's also convinced that in developed countries we don't use condoms.

We also spoke about HIV testing. I know that getting people to get tested is hard but he was quite convincing about his anti-testing views. He said that if he finds out he has HIV, he knows he will die of AIDS and what's the point of spending money on post-secondary school. Also, he said families abandon those who are infected so that you are forced to work and take care of yourself. And if you don't have sufficient access to nutritious foods then the treatment isn't going to be very effective anyway. So, he has not been tested and does not plan to be tested.

Keeping in mind that this young man has been selected as a peer educator (granted he hasn't gone through his training yet), I am feeling discouraged about the effectiveness of these programs.

Aside from writing funding proposals, I am also meeting with student groups to try and coordinate world AIDS day events. The people I have spoken with are very enthusiastic about putting together something different this year and would like to focus on more positive messages about AIDS. Of course, I have no funding for anything so I am hoping that the groups are able to find funding and are willing to use some of it towards a collective element (I want to put together a program listing all the different events to distribute to the students.)

Also working on coordinating an event to promote HIV testing (there will be mobile testing units set up) but it's supposed to be happening in a couple of weeks and the budget was submitted so late and hasn't been approved yet.

anyway, that is what I have been and will be doing.

pictures to come. soon. I promise. tonight...unless the power goes off again.

Monkeys, Religion. and other musings

2007-10-19T00:30:00.000-07:00

You may recall in an earlier blog I mentioned seeing monkeys. Well, it was the first day I had arrived and I was brought into the office for a little while. I was pretty tired and just wanted to sleep. When we left the clinic, I was surprised to see a group of monkeys hanging out near the clinic. I recall pointing them out to my supervisor and he told me that they are often around the campus. If I hadn't had that brief conversation I would probably have assumed that the whole thing never happened because in two weeks of work, I had not seen another monkey. Until yesterday. I was leaving work and looked back and there was a group of cute monkeys nibbling at the banana peels left over from lunch. And I didn't have my camera :( So now I will start bringing my camera with me so that someday I will catch the monkeys and be able to post photos. That is assuming I can ever manage to upload photos. This evening I will try the internet cafe.

Religion is an interesting topic here. Everyone is religious, the only question is "Christian or Mulsim"? A tough question to answer for me as, first, I'm Jewish, and second, I'm not religious. So if I respond with "I'm Jewish", so far, I either get told about how I'm of the chosen people or I get asked quite random questions about Judaism. Once I was asked to teach someone how Jews pray. When I said I didn't pray they called me a liar. seriously. After several challenging conversations about being Jewish, I decided once to try to say that I'm not religious. They kinda just stared blankly at me. So finally I just said I'm Jewish and that seemed less confusing but they still looked at me like they thought I was lying. Everyone I've spoken to also seems to think that being Jewish and Israeli are interchangable.

Working in a health clinic is rather distracting. There are constantly sick people sounds... like vomiting, crying, occasionally screaming. and the place smells like disinfectant a lot of the time. We are supposed to be moving to our own office in the next few weeks. Should be a nice change except that I will be sharing a large office with my supervisor... I'll have to make sure I set up my desk so the monitor is facing away from him or no more random internet use.

I've been a little sick that last couple of days. Just a bad cold but it kept me up all night sniffling so I was pretty tired. Finally got a good night sleep tonight so am feeling much better. Usually I get woken up at 6:30 by the neighbor who seems to be an automechanic/fridge refurbishre and who likes to work with power tools between 6:30 and 7:30 in the morning.

Work has really been picking up this week so I've been quite busy with, hopefully, useful stuff. Will write more about what I'm doing next time.

Again: haven't been able to upload photos but I'm working on it.

quick mouse update

2007-10-15T23:47:00.000-07:00

Turns out we didn't have mice afterall. We had a rat. A big rat. An ugly rat. Thankfully, we also apparently have an expert rat catcher and he happened to see our rat while cleaning the kitchen and was able to catch the rat and kill the rat in a rather unpleasant and violent way. I arrived home and was proudly shown our dead rat.

yuck.

Having problems uploading photos but I promise they will come as soon as possible.

Weekend on the Beach

2007-10-14T23:21:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it but it's already been a month since I left Vancouver and two weeks since I arrived in Dar. Time is swishing by and I have yet to do anything productive.
I finally got out of the office long enough to enjoy the city a little. Saturday I got a tour of the neighborhood from a friend who lives/works where I live (there are a few flats that are rented out and then the main house where he lives with the owner). He took us through the smaller routes around the area and then to a nice quiet beach that's a little out of the way and so not so busy. Marika and I weren't expecting to be out so long and so didn't think of sunscreen. oops. But we weren't fully sunburnt... yet.
Sunday we went out to Bongoyo Island which has a really lovely beach and was not very busy. It was quite expensive to get out there and then we had to pay a park entry fee but it was a nice day at the end of which I must admit I have received my first ever sunburn. Just a little patch on one shoulder. I put on sunscreen and was in partial shade most of the time but the malaria meds make you sensitive to the sun so I guess it was enough. But it is nice to have a tan at last! I did take photos over the weekend and hopefully this evening I will get to the internet cafe to upload them.
I neglected to comment on food in my last post... Though the food is usually pretty good, there is very very little variety. A standard meal is rice or ugali with meat of some kind (always prepared the same way as far as I can tell). Often there is a little bit of veggies with it, sometimes some beans or cooked banana. Sometimes there is Pilau or Biryani which is basically the same thing but with flavored rice. The other option is chipsi and mishkaki (french fries and beef on a skewer)which can be excellent but sometimes the beef is very over-cooked from sitting on a grill until purchased. Fortunately, almost any type of food can be purchased so cooking at home adds a little variety to my meals. And there are lots of cheap, fresh fruits and veggies to buy so I'm trying to inject some health into my diet that way.

Thanks everyone who has made comments... it's nice to hear your thoughts (though maybe not the one about the mice... which, by the way, seem to be doing very well)

First Impressions

2007-10-11T01:57:00.001-07:00

I get asked a lot by both locals and friends/family at home: "How do you find Tanzania?"

So, here's how I find Tanzania so far...

Dark. I'm finding it hard to get used to the daylight hours here. Because we are equatorial (only 6 degrees south) and have no daylight savings time, it is daylight here from approx. 6am to 6pm all year round (with maybe an extra half hour of dawn/dusk on either end). Seeing as there are no streetlights (not in the areas I've been to so far) and no city lights reflecting of cloud cover or any of that, it's really quite dark by 6:30. And for me that means my body starts to think it's late and by 10 it's hard to convince my body to stay awake. Also, with getting home from work around 5:30, this doesn't leave much daytime to wander around and I'm not yet so comfortable walking around alone after dark so for that I wait for my roommate.

Dusty. Though the main roads are paved here the shoulder of the road is dirt and there is also a lot of road construction (I'm assured that no progress has been made since my predecessor arrived a year ago) so there is a lot of dust being blown into the air by cars. It really hurts my eyes sometimes. And at night, when it's dark, the headlights stream through the dust and you can only see dust and silhouettes of people walking on the side of the road. It's really neat looking and I'm hoping to take a photo but obviously it's hard to get a good picture when it's dark and the light is moving.

Despite a few rainy days last week, the weather here has been good. The high has been just under 30 degrees but there is often a nice breeze and sometimes some clouds so it feels much cooler. So far it hasn't been too humid either. However, everyone keeps telling me that we are entering the rainy season so it is supposed to get hotter and more humid. Interestingly, the descriptions people give me of the expected weather over the next few months is quite different from the climate charts I've seen so I'll have to wait and see.

Other than that, I'm finding that, not surprisingly, a lot of people like to talk to Mzungu (means European but is used for all white people, possibly all foreigners) so you get a lot of people saying hi (mostly in Swahili) all the time. The children are cute because it seems to take them a while to get up the nerves to say hi so often I'll hear them yell "Hello!" several moments after I've walked by. The constant barrage of greetings is quite tiring as there are numerous greetings in Swahili and there is a correct response to each (you can't just say hi back) so it takes me a few moments before I can respond.

In other news, just when the battle against the household bugs seemed to be progressing (we've cleaned and sprayed and everything that needs to be sealed in a container is sealed reducing the bug population to a very acceptable level), it turns out we have a mouse. possibly mice. And our new housemate got into the cupboard last night and gnawed holes into various food packages. Thankfully the fruit and veggies are all kept in the fridge now and we were able to salvage the rice as it had only a very small hole in the bag.

Settling in

2007-10-07T05:42:00.001-07:00

So I have had a few days to get settled in now and mostly things have been going very smoothly except for a few hiccups with my visa and my bank card. For some reason the Tanzania High Commission in Canada issued me a six month tourist visa (I did indicate I was on a volunteer internship) but here they won't accept that for some reason. So, they've allowed me into the country for two months by which time I need to apply for a resident permit. Which is all fine and good if it weren't for the ridiculous amount of money I paid for that damn visa. The High Commission will be receiving an email but I don't imagine it will accomplish much. The bank card situation is too frustrating to get into. Let's just leave it at the damn thing doesn't work.

Anyway, my home is quite comfortable and well located. I have a great (but slightly overpriced) grocery store, several atms, a movie theatre and excellent internet cafe within a five minute walk and it's only a 20 minute walk (or 5 minute bus) to work. There are currently two of us living in a four bedroom house with a lovely dining room, sitting room, kitchen and a private bathroom for every room. We have thoroughly cleaned the kitchen and have started to do some cooking there. Blackouts are quite frequent but we don't really need electricity so much anyway. I am working very hard on the swahili and have managed to learn basic greetings and numbers so far. Everyone seems very eager to teach me and I feel completely useless without it so I hope to become mildly conversant fairly quickly.

The first few days of work went by okay. My supervisor was invited at the last minute to a conference in Liberia so much of his time went to making arrangements and then he will be gone all of this week. It took me until now to adjust to the time difference too so I wasn't much use. I am focusing now and making arrangements for a big event to happen sometime in the next few weeks in which students and faculty at the university will be invited to a day with some speakers and entertainment and where HIV testing sites will be set up. I have serious questions about the possibility of success for this event but it's hard to know without knowing the community and what will motivate them to come out to a weekend event. Friday I was asked to sit down with a couple of members of the student government to figure out a budget for the event. Like I have any idea what tent rentals cost here!!!

Will take some photos today and post them next time I'm online... internet connection at the internet cafe is much better than at work so I'll have to do it here.

Arrival

2007-10-03T02:27:00.000-07:00

I'm using my supervisor's computer at the moment as mine is "being fixed" so this will be a very brief post. Arrived safely in Dar yesterday morning having regained my sense of adventure after a brief lapse while trying to sleep in London between flights. So far, I have been well taken care of. Musiba, my supervisor, met me at the airport and got me all settled in at my house. I have a room in a house shared with three others. Things have been going very smoothly except for a few moments of panic when I woke up from my nap in the middle of a blackout (it was already dark outside and no one was home) and had to use the light from my wrist watch to find my cell phone and the light from my cell phone to find my still-packed flashlight. Fortunately the lights came on within about 30 minutes. So far I have come across various lizards, a frog, a spider, a goat, a chicken, monkeys (just hanging out on campus) and, most annoying so far, two loud and mean looking dogs and many very tiny ant like bugs found everywhere but also, particularly notable, in my bed. the loud dogs live very close to my window. the little bugs don't seem to bite and I've now set up my treated mosquito net (because I've seen some of those too) and that should help with these little bugs too hopefully. Will write more once I have some time to myself on a computer. The internet connection here is slow but not too terrible so updating shouldn't be an issue (photos my be another matter however).

This is the lovely room I enjoyed at Heathrow's Novotel between flights. It was very nice BUT they were doing some renovations in the hallway so it wasn't easy to get much sleep :(

Training

2007-09-25T18:28:00.001-07:00

I am a few days from being done with two weeks of training. I spent 20 hours in transit with 7 months worth of luggage to reach all my lovely training sites so it's been pretty tiring. Not so thrilled with most of the content and definitely could have condensed it into a week but the area around Montreal was absolutely beautiful with all the leaves turning red so that helped. Now I am spending a week in Toronto finishing off my training and getting everything else ready. I am enjoying having a little space to my self too. But I am getting pretty close to being ready as far as having all the necessary arrangements made. If it wasn't for the 40+ hours it will take me to get there, I would probably start getting excited right about now!

This is where I will be working (the University of Dar es Salaam):

View Larger Map

isn't technology cool?!? The map is fully interactive so zoom on in and check out my new neighborhood. I guess the training wasn't entirely useless...

the anglo-crew:

On my way

2007-09-17T19:52:00.000-07:00

I am writing from the ever so exotic location of..... Ottawa! Ok, so I'm not yet in Tanzania but I have said my goodbyes and packed my stuff and will now spend two weeks in training in Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto before heading overseas September 30th. I will be working at the University of Dar es Salaam to build the capacity of their HIV/AIDS committee as part of a program at U of T's Centre for International Health to increase the role of Universities in combating the AIDS epidemic in Africa. Or something like that... it's all a little vague but soon enough I'm sure it will all be clearer. I have spent the last two weeks quickly pulling together all the necessary fragments for this experience (visa still MIA) and am looking forward to two weeks of relaxing with all the new people I'm meeting. Already regretting the lack of sweaters. Anyway, stay tuned here for updates on what I'm doing, where I'm going and, of course, photos.