Hujambo!

Well I’m home from my East African tour now.  It feels good to be back in Tala after fifteen days of absence, especially since I estimate I’ve sat on five or six buses for a total of around fifty hours in the last two weeks.  I was happy to see that everything was still in order at the college when I returned.  My students are supposed to come to school next Monday, but they always take their time so I don’t know when I will actually have to start teaching.  It’s OK, this is Africa, everything is pole pole (slowly slowly)!

Our adventure started in Tanzania, where we visited the town of Arusha and then immediately hopped on a thirteen hour bus ride to the Lake Victoria port town of Mwanza.  Tanzanians don’t speak very much English so I had to rely on my elementary Swahili.  We had a good time exploring the town and especially seeing the ocean-like lake there.  The lake is 26,000 square miles in total, so it’s really like looking at the Pacific Ocean from the beach in San Diego.  I’ve never seen Lake Tahoe or that big one in Michigan, but I assume it must be a similar feeling as you’d get if you peered across those.  Buses going from Mwanza to Rwanda were few and far between so we spent a few extra days killing time in Mwanza. The bus ride to Rwanda was terrible of course, as western Tanzania is a remote wasteland with ridiculous dirt roads. It’s also just really far away from everything!
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I visited Sureel in Kitui a few weeks ago but never got around to posting the pictures… I took a co-worker, Elizabeth, with me because she comes from there and promised to show me around.  We spent the weekend hanging out, cooking Indian food, and visiting this big rock called Nzambani rock.  The tribe in Kitui is the same tribe in Tala, the Kamba people, so it’s part of the Kamba “country,” or “Ukambani.”  Kitui’s a pretty modern town, though, with several banks, hoppin’ clubs, and lots of super markets.  It’s much, much bigger than Tala, but also much “deeper” into the country (about three hours from Tala).
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I was realizing the other day that my shoes have been so many places in the last four years. My one pair of Nike shoes has been in the United States, Mexico, Canada, India, Kenya, and Tanzania. Here are some of the highlights:

Randi and I were in India in December, 2006 - January, 2007 and we visited New Delhi to see some beautiful architecture in this old city. Pictured is one of the buildings at the site of the Qutub Minar, the tallest brick and stone minaret in the world. The inscriptions on the building I’m standing next to are all in Arabic, carved maybe 600 years ago. I can imagine Muslims in northern India standing at the top of the minaret singing “Allahu akbar!” to call pious Muslims for prayer. Delhi was a big, dirty city, but it is home to many relics of the old world.
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I went on a nice hike in the hills around Tala with some colleagues last weekend.  We walked to a huge rock where the view was pretty sweet. Check it out!

A month or so ago I a colleague and I bought a chicken at the local market. We took it back to his house and proceeded to slaughter and eat it. African style. I never got around to posting pictures, so here you go!

Although I was good at holding the chicken, the killing part is another story entirely. I figured if I saw it once or twice I might be able to do it myself. I am proud to say that I cannot even imagine what kind of instincts I would have to muster up (not to mention stifling a gag reflex) in order to actually kill one myself. I do believe that humans evolved as meat eaters (and of course, killers!), but wow… no thanks! I guess I just don’t like meat THAT much! In fact, a whole week will go by and I will have not eaten any meat!

By the way, in Swahili “kuku” means chicken. :)