This morning we went to the Tazara Railway Station to buy train tickets and our very passive positive manners were slightly aggravated by the complete lack of ability of locals to use the line system, we spent a good hour at the opening of the 1st class ticket line and a one point I put both arms on the rails that one-would-think could stop people from jumping to the front. But no, a small (Tanzanias here in the capital are a bit shorter than those up north, and we were feeling kind of giantess) older man who had line jumped in front of us, then left bump to the front of another line, came back to pass us and take his original stolen position. Needless to say we spoke up (lacking Swahili skills at this point) and I refused to move my arms so he could pass. Well, he pried my fingers off the bar and forcefully pushed his way back to the front. I closed my eyes and imagined the joy of our good ol’ American pull-a-number system. Anywho, we got over that quickly because the train didn’t sell out, and happily high-fived as we made our way to the Mozambique Embassy.

Zambia and Moz here we come!

The BIG 5 are: Elephats, Lions, Rhinos, Buffalo, Leopard… I think that’s the list. Though I’m most excited for a possible Hippo and hopefully and family of Elephants! After that we’ll be spending a night next to Mt Kilamanjaro in a town called Moshi before going on to Victoria Falls in a few days of painful bus rides and then to Mozambique and HOME!!! Hurrah! (Getting excited to get home because it’s getting so close… but will if feel like I never left?)

After a ATM-that-is-functioning hunt we got money and headed to Zanzibar Island for a relax time. The old Stone Town (we stayed at the Karibu Inn, really nice, cheap, great location) was beautiful and historic with meandering streets and amazing woodwork. We saw dolphins up close and personal during an excursion to “Swim with the Dolphins”, which consisted more like jumping in the water right after we saw them swim by… but it was fun and exciting (except for the weird water lice a.k.a. jellyfish (?) that stung us all over). Then we SCUBA DIVED!!! Lindsay and I stayed underwater for a total of 1 hour 10 minutes checking out coral and fish and it was amazing! I definitely have to do a course somewhere, sometime.

After taken the WETEST ferry ride back to the Dar Es Salam (maybe we got ripped off on the tickets, nothing new) we spent a day running errands, prepping for Safari time and our next stop, Mozambique. I’m definitely getting anxious to get home now… and the gift luggage is only getting heavier!

Love and Hugs!!! LeAH

I was particularly lucky because, being the old lady that I am, I went to bed around 10pm while staying at the Mole Motel in Mole National Park in north western Ghana, but my trusty travel companions woke me up around midnight when, as they were relaxing having a beer, an elephant moseyed up to have a quick snack was in front of our room! It was awesome seeing an elephant up close and personal, live with no cages, whole huge tusks, and it pooped! (Just for us!) Elie took a good hour hanging around the motel that night, along with a small herd of antelope type deer guys, and we were pumped.

BACK TRACK…

So we headed from Kumasi on a regular, painful, bus expedition to Tamale. The 7 hour journey stopped once for some fu-fu and rice, but went so slow on the crummy road it was a bit to bumpy to sleep and a bit to dark to read. Eventually we got to Tamale and were lucky enough to stay at the PC Regional house with 8 other PCVs who were passing through for the night. It was fun to hear about life as a PCV in Ghana, and relax with a bunch of Americans, so we slept well that night, but got up at 4am (okay actually 5am, though we planned for 4 am!) to buy our next bus tickets to the park. No waits at the bus stop so we taxied back to the PCV house to sleep a bit more, eat some pancakes, and head out.

The bus ride to Mole was beautiful, green dappled with little villages of round mud huts and straw little roofs. Cool. The park was beautiful, with a great view over looking a watering hole (technically this is rainy season so the watering hole is not SO necessary for the animals, but still beautiful) and we saw warthogs a plenty, baboons (BaMbons as the guide Deiki pronounced it) and the baboons really liked to jump around in the water. Then we saw Red monkeys and other monkeys (they were black and white, but I forget their actual name, seeings as ‘Red monkeys’ is oh-so-technical…) and the animals were just wandering around within a few feet of us! We also so a bunch of types of deer/antelope guys, squirrels (made me thing of the UM diag) and lots of plants.

After Mole, Elie started us on our stroke of good luck. We caught a right from the small village to a bigger hub, where we got on the 10 hour ride to Accra that was leaving that minute. When we finally pulled into Accra Monday night we were tired of sitting and being subjected to really really bad Nigerians films, so we caught a taxi quick to The Salvation Army Hostel in Osu where we’ve been doing a bit too much shopping (Why, Hello, beautiful Ashanti beads and fabulous batik fabrics). One shop where we all did a lot of damage.

So now we are in Accra, about to eat Thai food for dinner (WHoppee!) and getting ready to fly to Tanzania tonight. Get excited! (Flying through Kenya, so we’ll get a 3 hour look at Nairobi, too!

Peace,
Leah

But they love the USA no less, I’ve seen a few Obama and Michelle billboards around the country and both members are looking a bit photo shopped, though nonetheless inspirational.

So far we’ve hit us the capital, Accra, and stayed at Crystal Hostel which was a bit outta town though nice that it felt like a regular Ghanaian neighborhood. We drank some inexpensive and not to shabby wine, ate chinese food, went to an internet cafe faster than my house in the USA (where are we, really?) and walked all along the coastline talking to little kids in English. YAY ENGLISH! Makes life a bit easier!

Then we hopped on a cheap bus to the Cape Coast, saw a really depressing Cape Castle where about 2000-5000 slaves were kept hostage before heading to ‘Merka and livened our spirits by contributing to the local economy at various market stalls around town.

We met a cook PCorps couple from Benin, met up with Brett and Amanda from Cape Verde and went on the Canopy Walk in Kakum National Park. Scary heights. Lots of butterflies. Then we hung out waiting for a Tro-tro, through a rainstorm, til a few hours later we made it to the Hans Cottage Botel. The hotel where they would have filmed The Shining had the move been made in Ghana. Weird weird place.

Now we are headed north in search of elephants, and I’m just searching for ideas about the future. Wish us luck! Love, Leah

Why are we ballin’ you may ask? Because, through our great luck of connections and friendly Americans abroad, we got hooked up with an Embassy worker that let us crash at their apartment prior to our flight our of Dakar. Hip hip HORRAY for laundry machine washed clothes and air conditioning! Maybe I’ll be back to the USA earlier than I planned…

Highlights of the Senegal Expedition:

Dakar (capital city, on a peninsula, crowded, hot, a bit rainy – cuz its the rainy season – and anything you could want to buy, for sale)
1. N’Ice Cream – they have an Obama flavor and it rocks
2. The Market – shopping for fabrics and jewelry and shoes, and I love getting charged 60X the normal price because of the white skin factor, but we have become a bit better at bargining
3. Weird huge statue – It’s kinda like their statue of liberty, expect its a scantily clad family of 3 in a highly Muslim country where multiple wives, many a children and head to toe clothing is the Norm (oh and North Koreans built it in exchange for a good chunk of coastal land, another weird point)
The Statue Controversy

Dakar was cool. We stayed with 3rd year extension Volunteers in their house and they took us all around the city. Great schwarma and pastries (thank you Lebanese immigration and french colonialism). We went and heard live music at Just 4 You, and we got lucky with a great local band called Orchestra Baobab (in homage to my favorite tree in this nation). We also spend a night learning to make ricotta cheese and the days getting our Ghanaian visa, prepping for the next stop!

Sant Luis (the old capital in the north, filled with french colonial architecture and built on an island in the middle of the Senegal River, with nice little and slightly scary bridges connecting them all)
1. Amazing Senegalese food at La Linguiere, local Thiou Tomate, Maffe and Yassa Poulet for cheap ($3-$5 USD) we also ate a lot of bags of water, we have become accustomed to sucking on their corners as a hydration technique.
2. Old buildings – the island had really old buildings which gave it a nice grandeur, we were also there during the last days of Ramadan and the final night, when Muslims are allowed to break fast for during the day, Korite, we went out to a bar and then a disco call L’Iguana (and no, Muslims technically can’t drink alcohol, even on Korite) where we were dancing and relaxing with some other international development workers and Senegalese, when one section of the concrete roof collapsed. People looked over, assessed that no one was under the rubble, and continued dancing. Then the music stopped and we all got kicked out. Yay for old colonial architecture!

In Sant Luis we also bought a lot of ebony masks and other wood stuff, along with bags, more fabric and jewelry. We walked all over the coast which was unfortunately covered with trash and the ocean consisted of murky water (due to the rainy season) and floating mostly plastic trash. Not swimmable and a bit disappointed after living on Sal for 2 years, but the walk was nice. It was also a bit strange to see groups of Muslim men break down into prayer sessions constantly. I accidentally walked on one guy’s prayer mat because I was rounding the corner and he was stretched out at the entrance way to a little shop. Opps, a bit awkward. When we stayed at the Youth Hostel L’Atlantide, we would be sitting have a banguette and then 3 guys would all of a sudden prostrate themselves on the floor and start chanting together less than 3 feet from us, it felt a bit intrusive. Se la vie!

The South (best part of our trip, we got to see more of the “True Senegal” and went off the beaten track a bit more)
1. Staying at Sarah’s Village outside Mbour, her hut is painted like a hobbit hole and has the classic one room, outdoor pit toliet and nice family in a big compound around her. She has a great little garden in the back and we got to eat Millet with her family! (Here they make a big pot and everyone has their own spoon and digs in, we ate millet with them which another PCV said is bird seed that they grind down and cook. Quite tasty and seems healthy…)
2. Visited an awesome campemant in Mbour, a great tourist spot along the ocean where we relaxed with a beer, had a swim (the water was WAY cleaner than up north) and then enjoyed the great decorations, murals and general feel of the spot. Note to self: Canned Baga Ganoush is not as good as the fresh stuff. Not nearly as good.
3. The BUMPY car rides everywhere, we ride on reformed station wagons that they gery rig a 3rd seat into – cramped, dirty, no leg room and always an adventure. On the ride to Palmarin, Chris Murphy’s site, water entered in the holes in the floor and whetted our feet!
4. The highlight of our trip south, KAYAKING IN MANGROVE TREES! Down south Chris has been working with promoting Eco tourism so we did one of his trips, kayaked all around the Sine Delta area enjoying the mangrove forests (we planted some!) and swimming in the salty water. We also went inside a giant Baobab tree and had coffee. So cool (thanks Pierre)!

Today at 4pm – off to Ghana! Wish us luck and I miss you all!!!
Love, Leah

We (Dacia, Lindsay and I) got into Dakar, Senegal on Friday afternoon and thankfully Justin, a PCV here, met us at the airport. We avoided getting immediate yellow fever shots and somehow got through passport control. I accidentally walked into lost baggage offices while thinking I was being directed to the bathroom, but then we made it happily outside to Justin and got in a slightly scary taxi (which had a bottom and 4 tires, though the door didn’t really shut). Friday night we entered into QUIZ night, a Peace Corps monthly activity and got third place! Apparently braise means to cook meat slowly, I thought it was to rub marinade on meat as it cooks. Darn.

Saturday we spent at the huge market street but it was hard to buy anything because the Senegalese guys are so much more aggressive than Cape Verdeans! They were all over us trying to hike up prices and sell us anything that our eyes lingered over for more than 15 seconds… But we did succeed, somehow, and but 8 meters of fabric plus a phone card and some other art and jewelry. Dinner: spectacular Chinese food, eggplant dishes, cashew chicken dish, cucumbers, and shrimp. Plus PBRs!

Breakfast: Pastries up the wazoo. Great french tradition that they adopted here, crossionts, doughnuts, bread. Yum. Today we spent the day at Ilhe de Goree – we wandered around the cool historic island and bought a few more things. Sweated a bit. A relaxed in a spot that had no cars! (The air pollution here makes me a little nauseous.) Now we are hanging out at the house of an embassy worker so I thought I’d hit up the internet for a minute! Anyways, so far Senegal = not too many mosquito bites, a lot of hot weather, great ice cream, annoying retailers, amazing Chinese food, and more to come!

Okay! Fika dretu, Leah

Phrase of the day: Nu tu du? What’s your name?

This last week in Sal has been full of goodbyes, and in traditional Cape Verde style, they are all good-bye PARTIES

Friday Jacky, Sheila, Bevely and a bunch of my good friends got together at the Chã Matias center and threw me a surprise going away party (I was slightly suspicious since Jacky was rushing me over there at 7pm on a Friday, not usually business hours!). That was right after I had tea with my favorite Excel students, some older women who I’ve been working with over the summer. We had a nice snack, yummy home-made mint tea and cous-cous (cinamon mandioca flour cake bread thing, quite tasty when hot).

Then we had a official goodbye dinner with all our work buddies on Saturday, which consisted of lots of dancing, 2 quick and sappy speeches by Jacky and I after recieving a City Hall thank-you tile, pen and key chain (yay for free stuff!) – Jacky really pushed me into the speech giving since I shy away from the mic, I get trembley fingers! Somehow I got over the butterflies and we sang La Bamba for everyone (who knew I was a famous diva in a past life?) and then the night became a kareoke fest, CV style as we read lyrics off a small notebook that belonged to the painoman.

Here are some pics to recount the goodbyes, then its off to Praia for my final medical checkups and exit interview:

The President commemorating us at the Municipal Week of Education

I'll miss his early morning whine and cuddley paws *Gizado*

all smiles today!

Lovely thank-you from Antero and Mario

Our lovely rendition of La Bamba... la la la...

Singers: Ana Rosa, Sheila, Nanda and Zaza - 100% talent!

The malageta shot burned lip to stomach – we tried to go dancing at a disco after that but this was kind of the end of the goodbye night for me (after steve told me horror stories of some locals who had the malageta shot come right back up, in front of the bar, i decided to take it easy…).

Leah teaching about saving water!

This week we finished our first Training session for Environmental Education, a training on Recycling for teachers that showed them the MANY MANY ways they could reuse materials to make flowers, curtains, napkin holders, etc. It was awesome because everytime I am about to throw something away, I pause and wonder what I could do with it first.

Recycling training session - thanks PCPP donors!

plastic bottle flower

Ladies a working...

Here in CV, the common move was to present flowers to older women, poor, or in my case, 3 female inmates at the local prison. Giving out flowers, chocolate and poetry to make a women feel nice is, um, nice, but does it help?

I had a few friendly debates about this with a coworker, who criticized a show allowing only female voices to perform, and complained that here in Sal, where more civil servant administration positions are filled by women than men, we should have a day for Gender Equality (which probably also exists). He claimed that they way this day is celebrated, we are actually holding women back more than taking steps forward. What do you think?

I find the gift giving part sweet, but kind of crap. We gave flowers to female inmates that we have been working with, but when I brought up the fact that only the women are responsible for all the general cleaning, laundry, dishes and food distribution at the prison (which has about 15 men who sit and play cards) no one seemed to take a second thought. Why is that just so socially acceptable? (One reason an inmate gave was that the guards have less problem controlling female inmates, and less worry that they will try to escape when out of their cells doing these chores, which is understandable but I’m still not sure if that means it is acceptable.)

Well, de tudo maneira, Happy Women’s Day!