I'm Back!

Things have been moving so quickly ever since I found out about this job. I finished up everything I needed to do in America, but things still felt rushed. I left Sunday morning around 10:30 to San Francisco. I arrived a little early because I was thinking I had to be there for 3 hours for an international departure, but it was actually just a connecting flight to LAX. When I arrived in LA it immediately just felt and smelled right. I hadn’t been back to LA since just after graduation last year. Anyway I walked about a quarter mile to the next terminal and got all my things situated again. I found a spot on the ground to give my laptop one last charge for the flight.

Turkish Air’s plane was a little less roomy than KLM but it was still fine. I watched The Great Gatsby, ate dinner, drugged myself with some Benadryl and woke up for breakfast an hour and a half before landing. Not too bad of a flight! When we got off in Istanbul it was a complete mess because we had to go back through security and into a different terminal with the passengers from about 10 other flights. The international terminal was crazy busy and totally designed to entice consumers to spend more money. I made my way to my gate and immediately felt welcomed to Africa.

As I sat down a Tanzanian man caught my eye and asked if I was going to Dar es Salaam. We had a brief conversation and then I pretended to be busy with something because we still had over an hour to wait. Then another man approached me a while later asking where I was going. When I told him Dar he told me already knew because he had been eavesdropping and just wanted to tell me the gate had changed. I was very thankful for that so talked with him while we waited at the other gate. As we boarded the plane he wanted to sit next to me and I kept trying to say that someone else was probably sitting there. Thankfully this British man approached with his ticket. It turns out this man, Ryan, actually dated a PCV extendee who was in Mtwara. I had only met her a few times, but in Peace Corps everyone is basically family. Ryan is one of the infamous “Helicopter Guys” (off-shore oil drilling search and rescue) who I’d heard so much about. I had gone to one of their big ex-pat parties in Mtwara, but apparently PCVs in general had been banned previously because of Mikey’s behavior one night. Anyway, Ryan and I talked for two hours and then we both went to sleep for about 4 hours. It was nice to stretch out for once and I didn’t feel weird because it felt like I knew him.

We arrived at the airport and it wasn’t as hot and humid as I had expected but it was definitely still a little sticky. Ryan helped me navigate my way through the Visa process since he does it every 6 weeks. I waited for about an hour and then finally grabbed my bags, exchanged money and got a cab. I approached 3 Wazee (old men) because I figured an old taxi driver would be safer in the middle of the night. This mid-thirties guy came up and I ignored him, but then the Wazee told me to go with him. As we walked out from the canopy he left part of his ID badge with a “taxi receptionist” so I actually felt safe. He took me straight to Econolodge and I arrived right at 4am. Everything was completely dark and empty but as soon as I walked inside I felt like I was home. I told him who I was and he told me which room Deirdre was in. I knocked on her door and she squealed in excitement and came into the hall to talk. We chatted until about 5:45 and then went for a nice long walk around Posta area in Dar. It was just the perfect time to go for a walk-not too many people, not too hot. As we walked I realized how sick I really was when I was there last. We walked for maybe 45 minutes and I probably had walked ¼ of the distance on my most “active” day. I felt so fresh and full of energy. I guess it was nice to have another reminder that I left Tanzania for a reason and I wasn’t just being a wimp.

Deirdre gave me a medical kit when we got back to Econo! Apparently Jen took most of my meds when I left TZ and now Jen is leaving TZ today, so she wanted to give me something useful. Maybe it’s just a Peace Corps thing but I felt like it was the sweetest gift anyone could ever give me! Now I have a malaria self-test kit, malaria treatment, gels, creams, antibiotics and other over the counter drugs. Then we had a PCV breakfast date at 7am. It was so nice to see everyone! Jen, Steph, Stevie, James, Kory, Deirdre, Pfaff, and 2 other volunteers I’d never met were all there. Then I ran into an older volunteer who had been in Dar for medical when I was sick and Anna was back in Deirdre’s room. To top it all off this Kenyan lady who had been so concerned about Drew’s back (as he was crawling to breakfast every morning), was at Econolodge again! Such crazy timing! She wanted to make sure Drew was alright now and said it was lovely to see me again. So odd, but karibu Tanzania. Pretty much everyone left after breakfast so I went to the room and tried to nap. I showered and then Anna had to change into a single room so I moved my stuff into Steph’s room. Surprise, there was Logan! Logan is the guy in charge of Zinduka, so pretty much knows everyone in country. We also discovered that Logan is a Downey High School graduate…what are the chances of finding another Modestan in TZ?!

Steph and Logan and I all went out to lunch (chipsi mayai) and we laughed the whole time, partially making fun of Tanzanian things. The mama was screaming “MtAAAmmuu” (tasty) about her homemade chili sauce, but refused to share the ingredients, so that turned into a Swahili PCV-Mama show down. They helped me negotiate with my Babu taxi driver who is always sleeping outside of Econo. When we started driving he was really chatty with me and remembered me and all of that, so I felt loved. He told me his son is 22 and going to university so he had to sell his old (crappy) car and is using his friends. I told him I was 22 too and he said “Wazungu wanakuwa haraka haraka” (white people become fast-AKA white people age quickly), which just made me feel great about myself. Steph also told me America had made me a Mnenepa (fat person) as she was trying to zip up my dress. I’d forgotten about all these well-meaning comments. 

I got myself in through security at the airport and couldn’t find Coastal Aviation’s desk. In America they surely wouldn’t allow you through security without a proper ticket right? Well it turns out even though I had flown domestically from that terminal with my parents, there is ANOTHER domestic terminal two kilometers down the road for “local” flights. Our plane was a 12 passenger Cessna, one propeller in the front. I usually don’t have a fear of flying, but we were up, down and side to side all the time. It is only about 20 minutes to Zanzibar and then 30 minutes to Pemba. The water was AMAZING to see from above. I arrived and waited about 2 minutes for my bag and walked 6 feet to the outside of the airport. Saidi, the driver met me and drove me an hour and a half to the lodge. He was a very good tour guide and told me interesting history about the island. I fell asleep towards the end and woke up to a cow screaming. He had run over the cow’s rope which was tied through its nose and jerked the cow around and somehow got the cow’s leg tied up in the rope. Then drove maybe one kilometer further and turned a corner and we were head on with Craig who was on a quad. Craig didn’t know how to reverse, so we had to reverse most of the way back to the cow.

I met everyone when I got to the resort and then went for a quick swim. I showered, took a quick nap, ate dinner and went back to sleep. Cisca is the owner, Craig dive instructor, Darren dive instructor, Issa native Dive Master student, Matt was the only “guest” but he is actually a dive instructor on a small island off Zanzibar.

The next morning I came down to breakfast and was immediately proposed to by Ali, the server. I also met Mato, who is basically also the Assistant Manager but in charge of more physical administration and translations (his English is amazing), whereas I’ll be more in the office and making things look presentable. Mato is probably the closest person I’ll be working with and we get along great. I followed him around all day and we helped the girls make the rooms and I learned where everything was.

I’ve been starting work around 7:30am, take a 45 minute lunch break, then get an hour or two break at the end of the day and have to return for dinner preparations around 6:30-7pm. I’m exhausted! During the day I run back and forth checking on food, laundry, workers, etc. I have only gone swimming once, which is a little disappointing. I have met many amazing people so it hasn’t really been all work “entertaining” them. We had a huge fire pit dinner the other night for 25 people and we were just running around like crazy people. I have met two VSO volunteers and one of the two PCVs who live on Pemba. I also met the Brown family and Ginger who live about 10km away. It’s nice to know so many other “foreigners” are here on the island. I have also bonded with the cleaning girls. One of them calls herself Mama Aly now. We laugh and joke all the time-in Swahili. Even though my Swahili is lacking I feel more confident using it here because the staff doesn’t laugh or judge me for mistakes. It makes me feel accomplished to have made such great relationships already, having only spoken 10 English words.

That is all for now! Hopefully I’ll have a day off soon so I can explore that island….

The address on the left (Chake Chake) is current if you’d like to send me mail. Emails are also awesome, although internet has been very unstable. I still don’t know my phone number here (I have 3 numbers though-1 Airtel, 1 “personal” but still an office phone, and 1 office phone) so stay tuned for that. Viber is an awesome app for anyone with a smartphone who wants to talk!