Snapshots of Africa

Hello from... Columbus, Ohio?? Hmm, interesting change of pace from the last seven weeks of updates, but it feels good to be home after ten stamps and two new visas in my Passport and thousands and thousands of miles of traveling.

As promised, here are a few more photos from my trip as well as a link to viewing the album I put up on Facebook. If you don't have an account there and would still like to see the pictures, send me an e-mail at hoenig.5@osu.edu and I would love to e-mail you the website for non-Facebook users.

In addition, here's a link to a video I took of the church choir in Bohalahala: click here.

There he is!!!


Waving to us...?


Antelope


Buffalo


Four camels on a boat... too bad I couldn't find any on the beach to ride (yay for tourist traps!)


Just in case you need some meat, here's a butcher I might (not?) recommend in Geita. Click on the picture to enlarge and check out that excellent selection of meat.


This was "my" beach in Diani Beach, Kenya. I always entered here by the dead coral and walked along the shore til I got to all white sand. Beautiful!


Kids in Mgussu... very disappointed when they realized my camera was film and that they couldn't see their picture after I took it!


And last but not least, here I am with Frank, Bettina, and Nadine during our wonderful weekend hanging out in Bremen : )


Well, I guess I'll wrap up and say that I am so incredibly grateful for the opportunity I had to go on this journey, for the people I met, and for the things I was able to see and do - it was definitely an adventure I'll never forget! And just for you, Mr. Bernhard, one of the things I learned is that no matter how far you go or how alone you think you are, God always provides, and there is always something to be thankful for. Always.

To everyone who read these updates, I hope you enjoyed hearing about my adventures as much as I did writing it all : ) Thanks for coming along for the ride and following along with me as I traveled!

Almost Home

Hey all, just a quick update to let you know that after a wonderful weekend in Bremen and a two last days spent in Cologne and Bonn, I am packing my bags once more and am heading home after seven weeks of traveling. After a "mere" 34 hours after taking off from Germany (due to cheaper flights having bad connections), I'll land in Columbus, Ohio and get back to speaking English... and start writing my thesis!

I'm planning to update one more time after I get my film developed so that I can post a few pictures... especially the ones from my unofficial safari in Kenya, so stay tuned and check back in a week or so if you're interested in seeing the elephant that I thought was going to trample our car ; )

Til then, thanks for reading!!! I'm looking forward to seeing many of you in the near future and hope you enjoyed the stories, pictures, and little pieces of Africa that have appeared over the past seven weeks!

Double-Exchange

After spending four days in Bonn and having fun surprising teachers, friends, and former co-workers from my internship with my unannounced visit, I hopped on a train yesterday and headed north on a four-hour ride to Bremen. I'm currently updating this from the living room of my exchange student sister (hi Laura!) and am really enjoying getting to know her family... and relatives... and friends ; )

Last night when I arrived we had a "small" dinner party of fifteen people eating Raclette, which consists of putting vegetables and meats, pineapple, and eggs with special cheese on top into a little pan which you toast in a mini oven that's on the table. It's really good and fun to make... sortof like a fondue concept because you cook at the table.



I'm looking forward to us hopefully being able to chat with my family later on today via Skype with the daughters swapped. It's funny to think that Laura sleeps in my bedroom at my parents' house and that I'm now sleeping in hers (thanks!) : )

In addition to meeting lots of new people, I got to see a familiar face as well, because my friend Nadine, who was an exchange student at my high school five years ago, also came down from Hamburg for the weekend. It's such a blessing to be able to visit so many people in such a short amount of time, even if that does mean traveling here and there the entire time I'm in Germany.

Tomorrow I will head back South to Cologne and Bonn and fly out on Tuesday. Still don't know where I will be staying in London on Tuesday night, but if nothing else works out, there are always benches in the airport. We'll see I guess!

Well, I'm heading out to bike over to a bakery and pick up some freshly-baked Brötchen (like rolls - only way better) for breakfast... my very favorite thing to eat in Germany. Better enjoy them while I can! Mmmmmmmm : )

Not that I'm complaining, but...

... did I really have to leave the warmth behind when I boarded my plane headed for Europe? At least it's still well above freezing here, although I don't think I am coming home to Ohio until someone fixes the arctic weather you all are having over there!

I'm grateful for the sunshine here at the moment, though, and am in general extremely, totally, really, really, excited to be here in Germany : ) I'm currently living in Bonn with a wonderful family that I spent a lot of time with while I was here studying last year, and it is wonderful to be able to visit with them again.

In just a few minutes I'm going to head out to go walk along the Rhine and then meet a friend for lunch in the city center. Yay for being back!

Somehow it's a little strange to not be in Africa anymore though. I mean... I stared at a faucet for a good minute or so debating whether or not it was possible that safe drinking water could come out of it in the airport in London. I stared at the dinner table last night at a complete loss because I had no idea which of the three meats, three cheeses, two butters, and six of seven spreads I should put on my bread. Such a huge selection of choices just doesn't exist in Africa, and I literally didn't know what to do with it all. And then the clothes that people wore in the airport and on the street - so bland! Where are all the bright mismatched patterns I've grown so accustomed to? And how come I can't use any of my Swahili phrases that I picked up?

Well anyway, those are just a few of the things going through my mind since I've landed.

And now before I head into the city, here are a few pictures from my last days in Africa : )

Three African ladies: me with 25 braids (told you it looked scary!), Hanna with three, and Marina with five



The family I stayed with in Nairobi... post-braids : )

Goodbye bush life; Hello city!

Can I just say that I am incredibly thankful to be writing this post on the other end of my bus trip? I left Geita on Friday on a bus, this time well-prepared for the cold nighttime mountain air with a fleece shirt, coat, scarf, and hat. You all at home are probably laughing at me needing that in Africa… but I was definitely glad to have had that all along!

I saw zebras as we passed the Serengeti and stared up at the most beautiful and bright display of stars I have ever seen while we drove through the night. Other events during the fifteen-hour trip included discovering during a rain storm that my window had a rather large leak in it, after which a small container of aloe vera I had with me broke and spilled on my jeans. Yay for being wet and stick and stuck in a bus!

The woman I sat next to also added to the fun when she brought a whole fried Lake Victoria tilapia wrapped in newspaper back onto the bus for a mid-afternoon snack. I cringed at the thought of her eating a smelly fish on the already hot and smelly, cramped bus… but when I heard the words, “Karibu! Karibu sana!” I realized that I was wrong; WE, not she, would be eating the salty, oily fish with our hands directly after a bathroom break (I had hand sanitizer at least). Mmm! Although I do have to say that the fish actually turned out to taste good. Ah, the fun of meeting people and eating local food ; )

Hmm, in other news I decided that it might be fun to get my hair braided before I left Tanzania, so three hours later I had twenty-five mini braids in the front half of my hair. It was a sortof painful experience that I don’t plan on needing to repeat anytime soon, but I figured it would be an adventure to try it at least once. I will post a picture when I get to Germany and have faster Internet, but suffice it to say that I scared myself every time I looked in the mirror afterwards… especially when I took all the braids out and had a giant fro!

Here in Nairobi I have been loving spending a few days with the same family I stayed with on my way out to Tanzania two weeks ago. It cracks me up the way they all converse with each other – half English and half German, sometimes to the extent that both languages are used in one sentence. It doesn’t really matter since we are all fluent in both, but sometimes I don’t know which language to begin talking in!

Even at church today there was a funny language mix-up… the church is made up of people from countries from all over the world, and as the pastor got up to speak and greeted everyone in Kiswahili and then German, he forgot to switch to English and so began his sermon in the wrong language until someone said, “Falsche Sprache!” (wrong language) and he corrected himself and started again : )

Anyway, it’s about time for me to start thinking about how to best jam everything into my suitcase and prepare to go. I have just a few hours left in Africa before I leave the continent and head to Europe again for a week, and although I have mixed emotions about going, I’m really, really excited to be heading to Germany next.

Kwa heri, Tschüss, and Goodbye til my next update from Germany!

Last days in Geita

It's dark outside, the African jungle-sounding nighttime noises are creating a chorus outside our windows, and from some house a ways away I can just barely make out Celine Dion on the radio (people here like to play their music loudly)... but other than that it's peaceful and quiet, so I figured it'd be the perfect time for an update. I promise this one will be more encouraging than the last!

First, this was a beautiful sight yesterday:



I never thought I would be so thankful for rain, but after living here for nearly two weeks and sparing water and Daniel having to take a huge tank (seen in the background of the picture) into town to fill up from another water source there, we were all smiling when the skies opened up and we could collect a couple thousand liters off the roof in barrels, buckets, and tanks. Drinking water (don't worry, it's filtered first), shower water, washing dishes and clothes water... we have enough for awhile!

Also going on at the house lately has been Marina's "Salooni" (salon in Swahili) which she's opened up. To all the relatives I did this to when I was little... it was payback time ; )



Other than that, I have been doing interviews for my research and am finding people's opinions about who missionaries are and what they are here to do really interesting. Some people say they come because they want to live in a new place. Others think that missionaries want to earn money. To help people. To teach about God. To spy. Quite the colorful quilt these people are painting for me! I've talked to people from all different walks of life, from the diocese bishop to housekeepers, and one thing I am loving about the interviews is how much people like to talk and share thier opinions. It's fun!

I will be in Geita until Friday when I board another night bus back to Nairobi (oh joy). I'll stay with the same family I did on my way through last time and am really looking forward to that, and then on Sunday night I'll leave the Southern Hemisphere and the warm weather and head to Germany for a quick visit.

Speaking of the Southern Hemisphere... here are my two quick observations about it:

1. The constellations look different. Of course I knew this would happen, but let me tell you, the big dipper does not look like it could hold any water at this angle.

2. I really wanted to see a toilet flush with water swirling in the opposite direction. No such luck. All the toilets here are either not the kind that swirl in circles or are just plain holes in the ground. Bummer.

Mgussu

I don't exactly want to write about everything that happened yesterday, because the things I saw weren't pretty and aren't going to be nice to read about... but I think that it's important to know what goes on in the world beyond our realms of comfort and familiarity, so here we go.

Yesterday morning we left Geita and headed to a village called Mgussu on the other side of the mountains where the gold mines are. On the drive out, we passed by a crowd of one hundred people or so on the side of the road and slowed down to see why they were all collected there. As we got closer, we saw a man lying on the side of the road, nearly dead. He'd just been stoned by that crowd of people for stealing 1 kg of beans, and the police officer who stood nearby was apparently only there for crowd control.

I looked away as quickly as I could, but even that quick glance was enough to burn the image in my mind for forever. Sitting there smashed in the back seat of a car between three other people, I couldn't stop the tears from coming. It was a pretty awful scene. I can understand to an extent why vigilante justice exists here. The entire justice system is corrupt, so when theives and murderers are let out of prison after just a few days when the right people are paid, this ensures that they won't come back and no one person in the community can be prosecuted for murder. It's just still a hard thing to comprehend and even harder to see.

Anyway, after that we arrived in Mgussu, a village right by the gold mines where money flows just about as fast as the alcohol or as quickly as the water flows through the streets like rivers when it rains. Daniel told me that according to a study group that came through the area recently, 98.7% of the prostitutes there are HIV positive, the highest rate out of all 6,000 other areas this group surveyed.

Here's a girl that I met in the village taking care of a baby who is probably her sister. They were both really cute.



After holding a seminar in the church in Mgussu, we drove to the big gold mines and looked at how open pit mining is done. Entire mountains are moved and literally set down piece by piece, upside down, in a new spot. The chemicals the mines use for processing the gold are stored in a giant man-made lake that a security guard told us killed nineteen cows within minutes who drank from it a few weeks ago. The money all leaves the country and goes to foreign countries, and the workers are treated badly. It was fascinating to see the rock layers as they defaced entire mountains just to get some sparkly powder. Here is a small portion of a mine.



Anyway, that was my day. It made me sad, angry, and thankful all at once... the latter mostly because it reminded me not to take my home for granted.