Dreams are coming true!!

Hello Everyone!!

In the past few weeks, it has become apparent to me that most of my life expereinces thus far have prepared me for my time spent here in Tanzania. I remember when I switched my major in college from biomedical engineering to political science and international relations and everyone asked me "What do you want to do with that?" Well, the opportunities presented to me in the past few weeks have been the realization of my dreams!
I met an NGO fiscal project director (the guy who finds the funding for NGO's and NPO's) who asked me to do a survey and evaluation for a cultural enhancement center to be located on the South eastern coast of Zanzibar in a village called Kizimkazi. Since the Toledo Secondary School was on a holiday, I said yes, I would go and see how I was capable of helping!
I arrived two weeks ago and met with the owners of Promised Land- a beach resort in Kizimkazi, and the owners of Via Via Cultural Cafe in Zanzibar, and under the collaboration of these people, with Sadiq, the NGO fiscal project director, we put together the logistics and resources and most of the funding for the Kizimkazi Music festival- to be held Dec 26-Jan 1!! We have signed the three most popular artists in Zanzibar- Bi Kidude, Makame Faki, and DJ Yusuf, all of them having performed around the world! I also personally met with the Minsitry of Tourism, Trade, and Investment for the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar!
My job was to survey the local fishing village and the surrounding areas- here's how it went;
Two local tour guides, Omar and Ally, later nicknamed Mosquito and Chameleon respectively because the tourism industry is such that if a tourists has already chosen a tour guide for the next day, and approached by another tour guide, if they tell them who they are going with, the tour guide will become jealous and belligerent, telling the tourists the other guides are irresponsible and incompetent and do not know the area as well...they nicknamed me Kobe, which is swahili for "turtle." So, we were a team, and a darn good one at that. Each day we would walk many kilometers to the surrounding villages, meeting with village sheha's (the local chiefs/heads of village politics), finding local artists, local musicians, local people who do cooking and other cultural activites such as coil rope making, piko, henna art, batik and kikoi (traditional fabric weaving on a loom), and other various sorts of art. We found many interested artists who are now signed to come to the festival to display their local artwork, promoting local business, while at the same time educating travelers and other locals on the importance of their artwork in the community, explaining their creative processes from start to finish. Once we had everyone from the surrounding 8 villages, we then went into Stone Town and the heavily populated and touristy parts of Zanzibar to find popular artists interested in coming...and boy did we find a lot! We are now expanding to include artists from Bagamoyo, Uganda, Arusha and Kenya and we will be able to fill each day of the festival with many entertaining and educational opportunities for the local people and travelers to collaborate and experience the local culture through dance, music, arts, acrobatics, and international cuisine!

Mosquito and Chameleon also took me all around to see the most fascinating sights in Kizimkazi in order to promote the local businesses in the village. The problem is that travelers are coming from Stone Town to Kizimkazi just for the afternoon to swim with all the dolphins, which is what Kizimkazi is most popular for, but they are not staying to experience all the ecologiocal and cultural tourism opportunities that exist, leaving the area largely undiscovered, which is devastating the local economy that relies on the revenue of tourism! So, I got to go on tours of the natural springs, the caves, and the cluster of islands where the mangroves, red monkeys and amazing snorkeling spots are. I also got to go on the dolphin tours and swam with approx 40 dolphins next to me, below me and above me. I got to ride my bike to Jozani National Forest to see amazing protected wildlife species that exist only in this national park, and I also got to make coil rope with the local women who rope the husks of coconut shells to make a local product widely used in the villages. I got to see how charcoal was made, how fishing nets are repaired, how local dhow boats are made, and how local wood carvers, batik painters, and jewelry makers construct their crafts! I am compiling all of this information into a tourist book complete with write-ups and pictures in order to enhance the local tourism industry in Kizimkazi and I will also be working with Mosquito and Chameleon on further training so that they can improve their tourism business! It was quite indeed a busy week, going all over the area to do this survey was so interesting though and the people I met with were so eager to share their artwork and explain it to me! There are really no words to describe the relationships that were formed during these two short weeks and I felt that because of my experiences there, Kizimkazi will now be a place I will return to.

After the survey was completed, I kept meeting people who wanted to be involved with the Kizimkazi Music festival in order to promote the arts in Zanzibar. The last person I met with was Khamis, an Art Manager in Stone Town. On the final day of my work in Zanzibar, he took me to meet the Ministry of Tourism, Trade and Investment for the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar!!! CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT?! Me, a girl from Ohio, going from meeting local tour guides, to local villagers, to local village leaders all the way up to the head of the national government...the Ministry!!! Well, long story short, I gave them the proposal I had written for the Kizimkazi Music Festival, and they were in total support of it, encouraging and offering further suggestions even!!

Now read this carefully...the Ministry asked me if I would be interested in meeting with them again to do further work of this type- creating a position for me to work under them, organizing future cultural enhancement programs and festivals in other areas of Zanzibar which are in need of more tourism, like Kizimkazi!!! The MINISTRY!!! ASKING ME??!!
Not only that- I know you are all besides yourself...i almost wet my pants in that meeting!!! But in addition to that, there are other programs for the cultural preservation of Zanzibar that Khamisi asked me to work on with him!! He is involved with numerous NGO's operating in Stone Town to promote the arts and the culture of Zanzibar. He also took me to the Dhow Countries Music Academy (look it up on www.zanzibarmusic.org) to see what this music education foundation is doing in Stone Town and to meet various other artists passionate about preserving their culture and arts! To see more of what i'm talking about, check out www.bayimbaculturalfoundation.org and www.busaramusic.com But those are just the sites for some of the people we are working with...i will have to post pictures of the actual culutral events I got to take place in...words really cant describe it!!

It was amazing...and it seemed as if all of my aspirations had come true...THIS....THIS right here, right now, what I am doing, is what I went to school for! I never knew these types of opportunities could ever come true for me...and now here I am...

this is all the good news!
However, there is some bad news...

The Tanga City Council denied my petition for a volunteer permit in Tanga...I am very upset about it and can't believe that they would deny me the opportunity to teach in their schools, to volunteer at the orphanages, and to enhance the relationships between their Sister City in Toledo with the TIYO and the Medical Mission. Thus, I cannot say that I will be staying in Tanga much longer because of this...if I am not welcome as a VOLUNTEER...then I should not stay here. No one on either end of this has been able to help me at all in this matter and i find it quite shameful. So, I will be finishing up the logisitics of the TIYO and the Medical Mission to the extent that both will be successful and well planned out to detail and continue to teach at the Toledo Secondary School and with the boys and girls for as long as I can until I am harrassed again by immigration here...then I will go elsewhere where I am actually welcomed.

Please tell me how you have been and what you think of what's going on, i love hearing from you all in my comments box!! until next time...

Habari n'do hio

Habari N'do Hio- That's the way it is (In Kiswahili). It's also the title of a popular song here in Tanga!! SO, a lot has happened in the past few weeks! I have met some very good people and had some amazing adventures...and a few eye openers that have been shocking.

I was thrown in front of a classroom about four weeks, totally unawares to me, there I was, told to teach English. So, I didn't have time to be shocked at all, I just took the book that was handed to me and then went into discussion and had the students come up front to read aloud. With only two books and over 60 students, there isn't much of an alternative. Since that day, I have been able to prepare myself and actually write lesson plans and have structured notes ready for class, full with role-playing and discussions and homework!! It is so different here than education in the U.S....I will have to devote an entire posting to just this subject because it is actually quite unbelievable... I have some students who are just wonderful and so eager to learn, and others who are shy and can't understand me, and even others who prefer to come to me for counseling...I never thought I'd be a teacher in a classroom, but much to my surprise, i really love it!!

In the afternoons when school lets out I go between the girls and the boys' orphanages to read with them and play and talk. I seem to be spending more time with the boys recently. It's nice to be with them because we can all sit and talk together and i know how they all interact with one another, whereas with 35 girls, it is much mopre difficult to show them all the attention they deserve and so badly need.

I travelled to Arusha, the town where Mt. Kilimanjaro is, two weekends ago. It was so nice! The weather was cool and there was a breeze and even the people were a little different than in Tanga. It was nice to get out and see another part of Tanzania. While I was there, I met some very nice people who were very interesting and each of them have outstanding projects they are working on and some have asked me to help! We have a holiday at school next week and one of the people I met asked me to come to Zanzibar to help with a project they are starting there. There is a small island, Kazimkazi, that is the Southern part of Zanzibar and this group wants to expand one of their culture enhancement centers in this location. It is called Via Via Cafe and there are other locations all over the world. The Cafe offers a cultural perspective of the region with local foods, local music, traditional dance lessons, language lessons, etc to enhance tourist's understanding of the local culture. So I will be going there for a week to do a survey and an evaluation!!! Yea, I'm PUMPED!!!

I had a very nice meeting yesterday. i brought together Mr. Charles and Mr. Ndauka, the headmaster at the Tanga International School and the Toledo Secondary School where I teach. They met and discussed ways to facilitate the growth and development of their schools and their students. It was a very positive meeting and I have high hopes for this new bond! The Tanga International School is where the TIYO concert will be held...I hope to be posting pictures soon.

For now I am living in a hotel. It is nice but I cannot stay there long as it is expensive. I will soon be moving in with a Hindu family, Dharmish's family, I have mentioned him in previous posts. I am excited to learn the Hindu traditions and this expereince is one I a m looking forward to. I am practicing Ramadan again this year and it is much MUCH HARDER in this heat!!

My time is up...

THANK YOU to my friends and family who have been keeping in contact with me...you have no idea how it is carrying me through! THANK YOU...i miss you