Hello Friends!

Hello! I hope you haven’t forgotten about me; I’ve been quiet on the blog front but busy as a bee otherwise. I hope that this update finds you well. Things here in Dar are moving along at a steady clip. I can’t believe that it’s already October and that I’ve been teaching for two months!

After an amazing summer vacation in the states for nearly six weeks I came back and moved up a grade level to now teach 3^rd grade and enjoy it immensely. My colleagues are one of the greatest parts of my job. The new team of administrators, my fellow 3^rd grade teachers, and specialist teachers provide me with an amazing support system that is built around collaboration and mutual respect. They are a great asset to me, one which I do not take for granted.

It is these people and the students with whom I work every day that I will miss most about Tanzania. After much thought and deliberation, I have decided to leave IST at the end of this school year. Whenever I spent the summer in the states I seriously considered coming back to the U.S. but by the end of my vacation I felt like it just wasn’t quite time yet. I do love America and look forward to coming back home, but my itch to explore a bit more combined with the harsh reality of the U.S. job market and economy has swayed me from making that move at the moment.

So, “where to next?” you ask. Good question. That’s what I’d like to know too! I will be attending an international school job fair this January to hopefully get an answer to that question. I’d prefer to be in Southeast Asia but I am willing to explore other options. Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers as I begin the arduous task of investigating many schools in the region and initializing contact.

This new school year also brought another important change. I am now a teacher and a student since I have begun working on my Master’s degree last month. The online program is offered through the University of Cincinnati and is a Master’s of Education degree in Curriculum and Instruction with a specialization in K-6 Mathematics. Those of you who have known me for many years are, like my parents, probably quite shocked that I would pursue any math courses other than those absolutely required. Math and I didn’t get along very well throughout much of my schooling. I do find it quite interesting that of all things, math is my absolute favorite thing to teach! The degree is completely online, which allows me to continue my ‘alternative lifestyle’ abroad while working on it. It is set up to be a two year program without any breaks, but I am not in a big hurry to get it done and will probably stretch it out to three years so that I can take a little time off while moving from one place and settling in the next. Working all day then coming home and doing my own schoolwork is a schedule I’m not loving, but studying something about which I truly enjoy and am so passionate about makes the busy schedule more than bearable.

I look forward to my last year eight months in Tanzania being some of the most memorable. I have many lessons still to learn about life in a developing country and the beautiful people who call it home. There are places on the Tanzanian map still left to explore, there are children to teach, and there are people to teach me. I hope that you will continue this journey with me, allowing me to share my experiences and ramble through many blog posts to come.

Opportunity of a Lifetime

As an aside from the post below, here are some links to photo albums from my recent trips to Thailand, Zanzibar, and Malawi. Feel free to check them out if you're interested.

Malawi http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100363933700792.2771216.5132789&l=268ede3304

Zanzibar http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100217414900642.2747511.5132789&l=12d6ddfc4e

Thailand (2 albums) http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100169223311972.2724615.5132789&l=58f05b56cd

Thailand Part 2 http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100175082031052.2727800.5132789&l=305502cfc4

When I moved to Tanzania I planned only to stay for my initial two year contract. That time is nearly completed and the years have flown by as fast as the mosquitoes buzzing around my feet. As with all initial plans, mine got thwarted by life’s constant surprises. Africa’s adventures and lessons have changed me forever and I have not yet quenched my desire to experience what it has to offer. It is for that reason that I have resigned my contract and I will now be here until June of 2012.

Since I’ll be here for another year you have more time to come out and visit! I am looking forward with great anticipation to a trip I have scheduled for my vacation in October. I want to tell you about it because I’m inviting anyone who would be interested in joining me to come out to Tanzania and experience this marvelous adventure with me!

I’ll be doing a six day hike followed by a safari. *NOTE: This hike is NOT an intense climb! This is more closely associated with a six day stroll than six days of torture. You don’t even have to carry your own equipment! Interested so far? Read on!

Explaining the beauty of this place is difficult. After all, I’ve not yet been there. I’ve sat around countless dinner tables of friends, entranced, listening to their stories about hikes around the Ngorogoro Conservation Area. Now to describe it to you I’ll use a mixture of their descriptions, pictures, and text from my trusty Tanzania guidebooks, Lonely Planet and Rough Guide.

The spectacular 5,151 sq. mile Ngorogoro Conservation Area (NCA) occupies the volcanic highlands between the Great Rift Valley and the Serengeti Plains. It encompasses vast stretches of plains, grasslands, bush, and woodlands. The varied habitats guarantee breathtaking sighting of “the big five”- elephants, lion, leopard, rhino, and buffalo, and it teems with giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, gazelles, and other safari favorites. For animals, this place is a haven, while for tourists, it’s something close to heaven.

The rugged Crater Highlands consist of an elevated range of volcanoes and collapsed volcanoes rising up from the earth. The walk tours through Oldupai Gorge where the famous Leakey archeologists unearthed a plethora of notable fossils. You’ll also visit Olmoti Crater with its hosts of antelope species and nearby waterfalls. The stunningly beautiful Empakaai Crater is filled with a forest-fringed soda lake. The resident bushbuck, reedbuck, waterbuck, buffalos, monkeys, and flamingos call Empakaai home.

Empakaai Crater from the air

With its stunning ethereal blue-green vistas, the 12 mile wide Ngorogoro Crater is NCA’s incomparable highlight. A vast, unbroken caldera left behind when an enormous volcano collapsed, created a crater that teems with animals. The deep bluish-purplish color of the crater walls provides a spectacular backdrop to your game drive photographs. If you’ve seen Disney’s Lion King, they used Ngorogoro Crater as their inspiration for the setting.

Animals of all kinds share the Highlands with the local Maasai tribal people, who have grazing rights and are often seen herding their cattle throughout the area. The hike also crosses through their bomas, villages, and visits can be arranged.

The trip will end with a visit to Tarangire National Park for an unparalleled safari adventure. It is home to virtually every safari animal you could want to see and is also a major destination for bird-watchers.

If you’re interested in joining me on this once in a lifetime opportunity please e-mail me at cmlane1@gmail.com. I would love to have some of you visit and make lasting memories with me!

Sacrifices for Family

Today I want to share an encounter I had a few weeks ago with a local man who I am blessed to call a friend. People here are much more community oriented than the average Americans. They ‘do life’ together on a whole different level, often sharing homes, food and resources out of necessity. This kind of communal mindset permeates all areas of life and sets the tone for personal and commercial climates.

One Friday evening I hired Francis, one of my two usual taxi drivers, to take me to the bank then to a friend’s house. There was a bit of traffic and I had confused the bank’s hours, so whenever we arrived it was already closed. I got back into the car and disappointingly shared the news. Without a moment’s hesitation, Francis opened his ashtray where all of his money is kept and took out a handful of bills while asking, “Sister, how much money do you need to be ok until you can come back?”

Instantaneously my frustrations slid off like a layer of dirt in a shower. I was touched that this man, who I know struggles to make ends meet on a daily basis, offered what little he had to make sure that my comparatively spoiled desires were met. Why? Because we’re family and that’s what family does for one another. I’m blessed to have these ‘family’ members here to look out for me.

Envy Understood

Living in a third world country has thrust poverty and disparity into my immediate line of vision on a daily basis. Malnutrition is rampant and Tanzanians emaciated bodies are evidence of it. Meanwhile, in stark contrast we mzungus, white men, fly by them in our $30,000 Land Cruisers on our way to the yacht club for sailing lessons or to Osaka Japanese restaurant for sushi. We go to Shoppers Plaza grocery store and hand the cashier more money for our weekend goodies than she makes in a month. Our house help cook succulent meals of abundance for the family (with decadent desserts, of course) while thinking of their own children who are at home digging through the mud in hopes that the recent rains have brought the underground moths closer to the surface for easy harvesting; it is after all, a great source of protein.

Living in this kind of chronic desperation and necessity whilst coming into contact with the comparatively opulent wealth and waste of the mzungu undoubtedly leaves many Tanzanians resentful and bitter towards us. I don’t blame them either; I can’t image needing so many things and seeing it around me knowing that ‘I can look, but I can’t touch.’

Some keep their feelings hidden, smiling and doing a wonderful job for their bosses. They know they are getting paid better than many of their counterparts who are not so lucky as to score employment with an mzungu.

Others deal with feelings of anger and envy, bred of desperation, by actions of outright hostility towards the mzungu. This kind of encounter most often occurs within the context of some sort of money exchange like refusing to give a short taxi ride for a reasonable rate or charging astronomical prices for local vegetables.

My classroom assistant, Mariam, is a wonderful Tanzanian woman with whom I have become quite close since my arrival. She and I are comfortable enough to be able to talk honestly and openly about our cultures and the misunderstandings between them.

She and I were talking about this topic one day and she said that many locals who work for or with expats (foreigners) are stuck in a precarious position because they truly do admire and enjoy their mzungu friends but face these feelings of envy and anger towards them because of the inequalities.

The mzungu version of the sentiment that Mariam expressed is occasionally voiced during conversations with my friends. I admit with shame and embarrassment that it’s surprisingly easy to slip into a mode of annoyance by those Tanzanians who resort to behavior that is rude, intrusive, forceful, or hostile.

The argument for and against foreign aid is another topic for a later post, but it does affect this situation. Without getting into the details, Tanzania has been the recipient of an astronomical amount of foreign aid over the years. However well-intended this aid is, its givers have mismanaged its structure and have inadvertently helped create a society who have become accustomed to a hand out not a hand up.

I have to consistently remind myself of the fact that desperation and an immediate survival instinct for themselves and their family are causes for many actions that are deemed ‘unpleasant’ and ‘inappropriate’ in my Western mind. When I instead picture the hungry son, sick spouse, or uneducated sister at home my heart breaks and I thank God for his unending blessings to me. My continued hope and prayer is that my heart always breaks with the things that break His.