Well, that last post was a bit premature. Today's meetings in Nairobi wound up being rather hectic, though still productive. The main issues were that I had barely enough money in my pocket for my bus ticket back to Arusha and definitely not enough time for all the errands that I had to run. I was a bit relieved when one of my appointments texted to say that he was sick, which made my day a bit less rushed. But still, I was even rationing my matatu rides because I didn't want to find myself short of cash for the bus ticket. Of course, I was still going around in my flip-flops. Turns out they're not as durable as I had imagined.
By 9:30 AM, the center part of the band (the one between the big toe and the rest) had come loose from the base and gradually became unattached over the course of the day. I was basically stumbling down the street trying to run around Nairobi while keeping my flip-flop from falling off (I wasn't always successful). I was so frustrated that I decided that I was entitled to a treat, so I indulged myself with a pineapple wedge for 10 shillings. As I sat down to count the money in my pocket, I discovered that I was 10 shillings short on bus fare. But I didn't have time to think about that, since I still had 3 more stops before heading to the bus station.
On my way to that third stop (the other two stops added significantly to the amount of weight I was carrying), I passed a shoe store and decided that I probably wouldn't get to the bus station in time in my flip-flops anyway and I was already late for my meeting. I stopped in and grabbed the first pair of flip-flops that fit (with a cheerful tropical theme to boot) and with new-found energy, made it to my final meeting (I was late, but I would have been on time if he hadn't pushed the meeting back from our original appointment). The meeting ran a bit long and I had to fight my way through Nairobi traffic, but got there just in time for the bus. I found some Tanzanian money in my pocket and they agreed to let me pay in a combination of Kenyan and Tanzanian shillings (but gave me lousy exchange rates to raise the price of the ticket). Fortunately, the bus was half-empty and the ride was peaceful.
And I just wanted to post a small rant. I was sleeping in a room last night with 5 sets of bunk beds. At 2 in the morning, a phone rang noisily in the adjacent bunk. The gentleman had a loud 5 minute conversation in bed (couldn't take the call outside, I guess). Sounded like he fell right back to sleep. And it only took me another hour.
However, I want to say that it was a relaxing bus ride and I'm glad to be back home.
Monday, August 30, 2010
My Passport
My passport
I was just going through it and realizing how much I travel. I have 28 stamps (half for entries, half for exits) and 5 visas in there. All of the stamps are from Kenya, Tanzania, or Malawi, and the oldest stamp is from 29 Nov 2009. In my previous passports (I've had 4 others), I'm pretty sure I was under 28 stamps, and I believe that I had a total of 5 visas.
I was just going through it and realizing how much I travel. I have 28 stamps (half for entries, half for exits) and 5 visas in there. All of the stamps are from Kenya, Tanzania, or Malawi, and the oldest stamp is from 29 Nov 2009. In my previous passports (I've had 4 others), I'm pretty sure I was under 28 stamps, and I believe that I had a total of 5 visas.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Flip-flops
I've spent enough time traveling. I really ought to know better. But among my packing misadventures was the one where I forgot to pack sneakers. And the one where I forgot to pack my good sandals. Now, my options are hiking boots, dress shoes and flip-flops. Unfortunately, it's usually required to take your shoes off when entering a building and the boots and dress shoes are a much slower process. However, walking ten miles in flip-flops makes for sore feet. And many stubbed toes. Good thing I did that twice over the last four days. I hope my feet forgive me someday.
Maker Faire Africa and other Nairobi Adventures
On Wednesday, I traveled to Nairobi for Maker Faire Africa. Jodie had only arrived on Monday night, and we barely scratched the surface of catching up on everything (in spite of the mountains of emails we exchanged while we were traveling) before I had to leave again.
I arrived in Nairobi in the afternoon and had a quick meeting with a prospective customer in City Centre before scurrying off to the Industrial Area. I wanted to check one or two more things off my to-do list, but I was pretty exhausted from 7 hours on the bus (I think they made the road bumpier in the past week) so I just grabbed a quick bite and was asleep by 8 PM.
On Thursday, I headed to the Peace Corps office to check in with a couple of people. I had a nice conversation with Serah, who was always incredibly helpful during my Peace Corps service before going to say hi to Mary in the Medical office. She was also friendly and we struck up a conversation about maize grinders (a topic I'm researching for GCS), and she had some useful insights. Then I ran over to the motor-pool and talked to GG (I can't remember his real name anymore, since everyone just refers to him by his initials), who gave me directions to navigate the maze that is Nairobi and was entertaining, as always.
My first stop was the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute or KARI. I was on the matatu, and I saw the building, and I was surprised that GG had given me wrong directions. But I hopped out and went to the main building (there were several on the campus) and asked for the maize specialist. They asked me to sit and wait for the director to help me. After 40 minutes, the director came and told me that I was in the wrong building. Apparently, GG's directions were completely accurate, and I had simply gone to the wrong building (a soil institute--though I'm not sure why the first three people I spoke to couldn't have mentioned that they don't do any crop work there). So I hopped on another matatu and got to the right building. Unfortunately, the director wasn't there, but I had an in depth conversation with one of his research assistants on seed varieties and farm sizes around Kenya. He also directed me to a rice specialist so that I could learn about a bicycle powered rice thresher being developed by some Korean development workers. Definitely an interesting project.
After that, I traveled to CNFA, which is one of our partners in Tanzania to meet with their Kenyan administration. He mentioned that he had just been working on the intractable problem of maize shelling and was trying to figure out what sort of technology was available for farmers. Talk about fortunate timing. He helped me understand the system for working with agro-dealers in Kenya (it requires coordinating with CNFA, AGMARK and KENADA, for a start) and gave me some contact information for some interesting groups. He made a good point about thinking about COMESA (the COmmon Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, but it's an economic confederation in eastern and southern Africa; East Africa=Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi while COMESA=East Africa + Ethiopia, Zambia, Malawi and other nations), which makes sense for scale.
At that point, I wanted to meet with a few more people, but Nairobi rush hour had other ideas. It took me about an hour to travel the 4 miles back to City Centre, so I opted to get myself sorted for Maker Faire. I checked into the hotel and wrote a bunch of emails on my phone (I really missed my phone while I was in the states) before crashing.
I woke up early the next morning to finish up everything before the Faire. I ran to the bus station to pick up the GCS machines that had been sent for the occasion, only to be told that they hadn't arrived. It was only after arguing with several employees there who were trying to eat their breakfast that they found the machines. The driver couldn't find the bike shop (it probably would have helped if I had given him the correct street), so I had him drop me back at the hotel. I grabbed two machines and began asking around for the shop (which was a much better landmark than the non-existent street I had written down) and found that it was only five minutes walk to get there. The first trip I was hauling 50 pounds and wishing that I had the arm-strength that I used to have. Then came the 70 pound load. I was pretty sore, and it was only 9 AM. Then I had to wait around at the bike shop so that they could fix up a bike (they were supposed to have that ready when I came), which was another 20 minutes of them tightening bolts that I would soon be loosening to assemble the machine. Finally, the bike was ready, but as I started riding, I realized that I didn't have rope to secure the cargo to the back rack, so I had to walk it to the University for Maker Faire.
I arrived slightly late, but found that I was just in time for the event's beginning. I spent the first hour of the Faire assembling the sheller and bike before I was ready to start presenting at my booth. Fortunately, the weather was unpleasant, so there wasn't much traffic at the start. As the day wore on, though, more and more people were coming, and I was having trouble talking to everyone. I had to switch back and forth between Kiswahili and English while talking to different customers (which led to a slight problem when I was talking to one of the event organizers, and he just looked blankly at me and said "I'm sorry, I don't understand Kiswahili"--I hadn't even realized that I wasn't speaking English until he told me). Fortunately, Bernard arrived at 3 PM and tweaked the set-up a bit so that it ran better (we didn't have maize anyway, so we relied on video, which actually made a really compelling case--a few people weren't convinced when I assured them that we hadn't doctored the footage) and he helped me with talking to customers. We actually got lots of positive feedback, which was nice. Most people just wanted to know when they would be able to buy one (definitely excited about GCS selling them in Kenya!) and how much the cost would be (their jaws always dropped when I told them that it would be under 5000 Kenyan shillings or about $60).
The other wrinkle in the day was that it was the signing of the new Kenyan constitution (sorry, no link--that's a pretty hefty document, and I'm not sure they've moved it online yet). Most of the government and a large group of foreign dignitaries were just a few miles away, along with an enormous crowd. It was definitely an exciting day, since the old constitution had been to the detriment of many citizens and the new one looks to create a better system of government for the wananchi (people of the country). I was actually super-excited to be so close to the momentous event and was glad that it had all turned out so well (though, of course, with a few unsavory characters in attendance). However, the parades and honking horns weren't the most conducive to my sleep, but in this case, I was happy for the lost sleep.
I was so worn out by the first day of Maker Faire, that after moving into a double (rooming with Bernard), we both fell asleep by 9 PM. Day 2 (of 2) of Maker Faire was pretty similar to the first, but without the complications of the constitution. Bernard and I were both fighting upset stomachs (we're pretty sure that it was the food at the hotel where we were staying) and needed a few bathroom breaks. We also took more time to tour other exhibits and see what else people had brought. I really liked the guy with the sisal twiner (sisal is a fibrous plant that grows in arid climates and is typically made into rope or twine), but I really wanted to replace his motor with a bicycle (don't laugh, this would be a really good project). I visited a couple of bio-gas projects where I felt that they had a different definition of "affordable" from me. Oh well, I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for bio-gas. I spent a bunch of time with the guy at the adjacent booth who had a really cool rural toilet design and who really wanted to get some GCS shellers down to South Africa. I also talked to a lot of people working on "trash rehablitation" (e.g. crocheting old plastic bags into shoulder bags, or crafting old flip-flops into beads and necklaces), which is always fun to see. I even saw a few people from MIT and talked a bit with them. I even saw a book on development in Kenya that had a picture of Stupin and Suprio (friends from IDDS) in there. All in all, it was a good day. A bunch of people went out to a club for the after-party, but my stomach had other plans, so Bernard and I crashed early again.
I really liked rooming with Bernard, since he's such an entertaining guy (very subtle humor) and we get along really well. I was also really impressed with the organizers at Maker Faire and how on-the-ball they were. The event ran really smoothly (except for the tainted hotel food) and was a lot of fun (it definitely helps that they attracted some great Makers). Oh, and they brought fast internet, so I downloaded some development manuals from here (also added to the Linkes page on the blog) which I'm super-excited about.
I am just taking it easy in Nairobi today (trying to pace myself a bit) before having a few meetings tomorrow and hopping on the bus back to Arusha. All in all, this has probably been my favorite trip to Nairobi.
I arrived in Nairobi in the afternoon and had a quick meeting with a prospective customer in City Centre before scurrying off to the Industrial Area. I wanted to check one or two more things off my to-do list, but I was pretty exhausted from 7 hours on the bus (I think they made the road bumpier in the past week) so I just grabbed a quick bite and was asleep by 8 PM.
On Thursday, I headed to the Peace Corps office to check in with a couple of people. I had a nice conversation with Serah, who was always incredibly helpful during my Peace Corps service before going to say hi to Mary in the Medical office. She was also friendly and we struck up a conversation about maize grinders (a topic I'm researching for GCS), and she had some useful insights. Then I ran over to the motor-pool and talked to GG (I can't remember his real name anymore, since everyone just refers to him by his initials), who gave me directions to navigate the maze that is Nairobi and was entertaining, as always.
My first stop was the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute or KARI. I was on the matatu, and I saw the building, and I was surprised that GG had given me wrong directions. But I hopped out and went to the main building (there were several on the campus) and asked for the maize specialist. They asked me to sit and wait for the director to help me. After 40 minutes, the director came and told me that I was in the wrong building. Apparently, GG's directions were completely accurate, and I had simply gone to the wrong building (a soil institute--though I'm not sure why the first three people I spoke to couldn't have mentioned that they don't do any crop work there). So I hopped on another matatu and got to the right building. Unfortunately, the director wasn't there, but I had an in depth conversation with one of his research assistants on seed varieties and farm sizes around Kenya. He also directed me to a rice specialist so that I could learn about a bicycle powered rice thresher being developed by some Korean development workers. Definitely an interesting project.
After that, I traveled to CNFA, which is one of our partners in Tanzania to meet with their Kenyan administration. He mentioned that he had just been working on the intractable problem of maize shelling and was trying to figure out what sort of technology was available for farmers. Talk about fortunate timing. He helped me understand the system for working with agro-dealers in Kenya (it requires coordinating with CNFA, AGMARK and KENADA, for a start) and gave me some contact information for some interesting groups. He made a good point about thinking about COMESA (the COmmon Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, but it's an economic confederation in eastern and southern Africa; East Africa=Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi while COMESA=East Africa + Ethiopia, Zambia, Malawi and other nations), which makes sense for scale.
At that point, I wanted to meet with a few more people, but Nairobi rush hour had other ideas. It took me about an hour to travel the 4 miles back to City Centre, so I opted to get myself sorted for Maker Faire. I checked into the hotel and wrote a bunch of emails on my phone (I really missed my phone while I was in the states) before crashing.
I woke up early the next morning to finish up everything before the Faire. I ran to the bus station to pick up the GCS machines that had been sent for the occasion, only to be told that they hadn't arrived. It was only after arguing with several employees there who were trying to eat their breakfast that they found the machines. The driver couldn't find the bike shop (it probably would have helped if I had given him the correct street), so I had him drop me back at the hotel. I grabbed two machines and began asking around for the shop (which was a much better landmark than the non-existent street I had written down) and found that it was only five minutes walk to get there. The first trip I was hauling 50 pounds and wishing that I had the arm-strength that I used to have. Then came the 70 pound load. I was pretty sore, and it was only 9 AM. Then I had to wait around at the bike shop so that they could fix up a bike (they were supposed to have that ready when I came), which was another 20 minutes of them tightening bolts that I would soon be loosening to assemble the machine. Finally, the bike was ready, but as I started riding, I realized that I didn't have rope to secure the cargo to the back rack, so I had to walk it to the University for Maker Faire.
I arrived slightly late, but found that I was just in time for the event's beginning. I spent the first hour of the Faire assembling the sheller and bike before I was ready to start presenting at my booth. Fortunately, the weather was unpleasant, so there wasn't much traffic at the start. As the day wore on, though, more and more people were coming, and I was having trouble talking to everyone. I had to switch back and forth between Kiswahili and English while talking to different customers (which led to a slight problem when I was talking to one of the event organizers, and he just looked blankly at me and said "I'm sorry, I don't understand Kiswahili"--I hadn't even realized that I wasn't speaking English until he told me). Fortunately, Bernard arrived at 3 PM and tweaked the set-up a bit so that it ran better (we didn't have maize anyway, so we relied on video, which actually made a really compelling case--a few people weren't convinced when I assured them that we hadn't doctored the footage) and he helped me with talking to customers. We actually got lots of positive feedback, which was nice. Most people just wanted to know when they would be able to buy one (definitely excited about GCS selling them in Kenya!) and how much the cost would be (their jaws always dropped when I told them that it would be under 5000 Kenyan shillings or about $60).
The other wrinkle in the day was that it was the signing of the new Kenyan constitution (sorry, no link--that's a pretty hefty document, and I'm not sure they've moved it online yet). Most of the government and a large group of foreign dignitaries were just a few miles away, along with an enormous crowd. It was definitely an exciting day, since the old constitution had been to the detriment of many citizens and the new one looks to create a better system of government for the wananchi (people of the country). I was actually super-excited to be so close to the momentous event and was glad that it had all turned out so well (though, of course, with a few unsavory characters in attendance). However, the parades and honking horns weren't the most conducive to my sleep, but in this case, I was happy for the lost sleep.
I was so worn out by the first day of Maker Faire, that after moving into a double (rooming with Bernard), we both fell asleep by 9 PM. Day 2 (of 2) of Maker Faire was pretty similar to the first, but without the complications of the constitution. Bernard and I were both fighting upset stomachs (we're pretty sure that it was the food at the hotel where we were staying) and needed a few bathroom breaks. We also took more time to tour other exhibits and see what else people had brought. I really liked the guy with the sisal twiner (sisal is a fibrous plant that grows in arid climates and is typically made into rope or twine), but I really wanted to replace his motor with a bicycle (don't laugh, this would be a really good project). I visited a couple of bio-gas projects where I felt that they had a different definition of "affordable" from me. Oh well, I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for bio-gas. I spent a bunch of time with the guy at the adjacent booth who had a really cool rural toilet design and who really wanted to get some GCS shellers down to South Africa. I also talked to a lot of people working on "trash rehablitation" (e.g. crocheting old plastic bags into shoulder bags, or crafting old flip-flops into beads and necklaces), which is always fun to see. I even saw a few people from MIT and talked a bit with them. I even saw a book on development in Kenya that had a picture of Stupin and Suprio (friends from IDDS) in there. All in all, it was a good day. A bunch of people went out to a club for the after-party, but my stomach had other plans, so Bernard and I crashed early again.
I really liked rooming with Bernard, since he's such an entertaining guy (very subtle humor) and we get along really well. I was also really impressed with the organizers at Maker Faire and how on-the-ball they were. The event ran really smoothly (except for the tainted hotel food) and was a lot of fun (it definitely helps that they attracted some great Makers). Oh, and they brought fast internet, so I downloaded some development manuals from here (also added to the Linkes page on the blog) which I'm super-excited about.
I am just taking it easy in Nairobi today (trying to pace myself a bit) before having a few meetings tomorrow and hopping on the bus back to Arusha. All in all, this has probably been my favorite trip to Nairobi.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Back in Africa
Okay, well I have a slight excuse for my blog absence. For the past few weeks, my computer has been mostly out of commission as I botched my operating system upgrade. Fortunately, I was able to use the internet at the GCS office and my computer is stronger than ever. Yep, couldn't get it to work on American internet, but just a few minutes on Tanzanian internet and it's all golden. As a side note, I'm a big fan of Lucid Lynx (Ubuntu v. 10.04).
My other slight excuse for recent blog absence has been crippling sleep difficulties. I bit off way more than I could chew in July, and although I made it through the month, I crashed right after that. I couldn't force myself onto a normal sleep schedule, I would wake up exhausted and incoherent and I was having vivid (and haunting) dreams like I used to have back when I was taking Mefloquine (aka Larium, the malaria prophylaxis that is notorious for causing intense dreams). I haven't taken Mefloquine in 16 months, but I took the pills for over five months and I've heard that the pills can have lingering side effects for years afterwards. Joy. Of course, my medical expertise is limited to making random guesses based on various books that I've read, so you can take this diagnosis with a grain of salt. After some unorthodox methods, I'm back on a normal sleep cycle (for my standards, which is different from a typical sleep cycle).
The travel was rather taxing. I never had any concerns about missing a flight, but Chicago-Boston-London-Nairobi-Arusha is quite a trip (and I am never a big fan of passing through Heathrow). I had Marco Polo's The Travels with me, but I didn't make too much progress. I also didn't sleep much and the movies seemed sub-standard, even for an airplane. I left on Monday afternoon (packing was a complete misadventure, and I'm surprised that I "only" forgot four major things) and arrived in Nairobi on Tuesday night. I crashed at a cheap hotel in town before hopping on a bus back to Arusha. The bus ride was nice, since I was sitting next to a friendly Australian named David and we chatted most of the way. The road is still a work in progress, but it's nice to sit next to someone interesting. I arrived on Wednesday afternoon, and my neighbor (Mic) came to the station to pick me up.
It was fun arriving back in Tanzania. The first thing that Glady (the GCS secretary) said to me was "Dani! Umenenepa." I hadn't heard the second word before, but I knew it was related to "mnene" which is fat. I believe I was correct to translate it as her telling me that I have become fat. And it's true, I think I came back about 15 pounds heavier (I actually dropped a bit at the very end, so I could have come back in worse shape). But then I turned around and dropped more than 5 lbs in the first week (enough to move a full belt notch). Part of that was my erratic eating habits, since I didn't bother to restock the kitchen (there's actually a semi-legit reason, but it falls into the "unbloggable" category) and was just living off of avocados, balsamic vinegar, cans of tuna and yellow mustard. At one point I tried mixing all four of those together. It wasn't as terrible as it sounds. But I probably won't eat that again. Probably...
I also moved into a new house. It's a bit closer to town and to the office, which is nice. The sitting room is also the kitchen and the GCS workshop. That is a little cramped. My room is fairly cozy, but we're looking at getting some more storage space, which will hopefully make it a bit more home-esque. The bathroom has a "Western toilet" as opposed to some kind of hole in the ground as well as a water heater on the shower, which are pretty nice amenities. Except the builders didn't understand the principle of gravity, so the drain is not the lowest point on the floor, so it's always a few minutes each morning using a squeegee-like thingamajig to coax the water down the drain. But the water has not been switched off in all my time there (knocking on wood as I type this), which is by far the greatest luxury. Oh, and the house has more electrical outlets, so we're not doing the "plug choreography" like we used to do in the old house.
There are different puppies hanging around outside the office now. One of the neighboring shopkeepers announced that one of the old puppies got run over and died. Sometimes kiswahili feels pretty blunt. And the kids keep harassing the puppies and now these ones whine outside all night. I haven't actually gone back to visit Juju yet or anyone else up the hill. I see Philemon at the office, but that's it.
Hmmmm, I feel like such a downer in this post. I promise that things are mostly comfortable, and I'm really happy to be back in Arusha. I'm really blown away by all the things that GCS accomplished while I was away. The storage room looks a lot emptier with all of the machines that have been sold (including more than 100 to TFA, which is the store that I was working with back in May). And, lest you thought that anything had changed, I'm reading The Economist even more furiously than ever to make up for the issues that I didn't read while I was back in the states.
Yep, it's good to be back.
My other slight excuse for recent blog absence has been crippling sleep difficulties. I bit off way more than I could chew in July, and although I made it through the month, I crashed right after that. I couldn't force myself onto a normal sleep schedule, I would wake up exhausted and incoherent and I was having vivid (and haunting) dreams like I used to have back when I was taking Mefloquine (aka Larium, the malaria prophylaxis that is notorious for causing intense dreams). I haven't taken Mefloquine in 16 months, but I took the pills for over five months and I've heard that the pills can have lingering side effects for years afterwards. Joy. Of course, my medical expertise is limited to making random guesses based on various books that I've read, so you can take this diagnosis with a grain of salt. After some unorthodox methods, I'm back on a normal sleep cycle (for my standards, which is different from a typical sleep cycle).
The travel was rather taxing. I never had any concerns about missing a flight, but Chicago-Boston-London-Nairobi-Arusha is quite a trip (and I am never a big fan of passing through Heathrow). I had Marco Polo's The Travels with me, but I didn't make too much progress. I also didn't sleep much and the movies seemed sub-standard, even for an airplane. I left on Monday afternoon (packing was a complete misadventure, and I'm surprised that I "only" forgot four major things) and arrived in Nairobi on Tuesday night. I crashed at a cheap hotel in town before hopping on a bus back to Arusha. The bus ride was nice, since I was sitting next to a friendly Australian named David and we chatted most of the way. The road is still a work in progress, but it's nice to sit next to someone interesting. I arrived on Wednesday afternoon, and my neighbor (Mic) came to the station to pick me up.
It was fun arriving back in Tanzania. The first thing that Glady (the GCS secretary) said to me was "Dani! Umenenepa." I hadn't heard the second word before, but I knew it was related to "mnene" which is fat. I believe I was correct to translate it as her telling me that I have become fat. And it's true, I think I came back about 15 pounds heavier (I actually dropped a bit at the very end, so I could have come back in worse shape). But then I turned around and dropped more than 5 lbs in the first week (enough to move a full belt notch). Part of that was my erratic eating habits, since I didn't bother to restock the kitchen (there's actually a semi-legit reason, but it falls into the "unbloggable" category) and was just living off of avocados, balsamic vinegar, cans of tuna and yellow mustard. At one point I tried mixing all four of those together. It wasn't as terrible as it sounds. But I probably won't eat that again. Probably...
I also moved into a new house. It's a bit closer to town and to the office, which is nice. The sitting room is also the kitchen and the GCS workshop. That is a little cramped. My room is fairly cozy, but we're looking at getting some more storage space, which will hopefully make it a bit more home-esque. The bathroom has a "Western toilet" as opposed to some kind of hole in the ground as well as a water heater on the shower, which are pretty nice amenities. Except the builders didn't understand the principle of gravity, so the drain is not the lowest point on the floor, so it's always a few minutes each morning using a squeegee-like thingamajig to coax the water down the drain. But the water has not been switched off in all my time there (knocking on wood as I type this), which is by far the greatest luxury. Oh, and the house has more electrical outlets, so we're not doing the "plug choreography" like we used to do in the old house.
There are different puppies hanging around outside the office now. One of the neighboring shopkeepers announced that one of the old puppies got run over and died. Sometimes kiswahili feels pretty blunt. And the kids keep harassing the puppies and now these ones whine outside all night. I haven't actually gone back to visit Juju yet or anyone else up the hill. I see Philemon at the office, but that's it.
Hmmmm, I feel like such a downer in this post. I promise that things are mostly comfortable, and I'm really happy to be back in Arusha. I'm really blown away by all the things that GCS accomplished while I was away. The storage room looks a lot emptier with all of the machines that have been sold (including more than 100 to TFA, which is the store that I was working with back in May). And, lest you thought that anything had changed, I'm reading The Economist even more furiously than ever to make up for the issues that I didn't read while I was back in the states.
Yep, it's good to be back.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Way Behind on Everything
Well, the last two months, I was abducted by aliens and hence, I couldn't sit down and update this blog. Okay, that's not actually true, but I bet I had you fooled.
I was in the states for 2.5 months, and I have every intention of sitting down and blogging about it. Unfortunately, that is right next to "Blog about December and January" on my to-do list. Still, I'll try to at least get some cursory posts up there. I am very grateful to the people still checking this in spite of this 2 month hiatus from updates.
So I am up to my ears in work, I know that I owe dozens of people emails and I'm backdating these posts so that I seem like a little bit less of a slacker. Anyway, I promise you that I have lots of good stories from June and July and I will do my best to put those up here for anyone who is interested.
Thanks for sticking around for this ride :)
Oh, and I wound up buying a Flip Cam. I don't know if I'm just cruelly getting your hopes up for videos, but hey, it could happen. We'll see...
I was in the states for 2.5 months, and I have every intention of sitting down and blogging about it. Unfortunately, that is right next to "Blog about December and January" on my to-do list. Still, I'll try to at least get some cursory posts up there. I am very grateful to the people still checking this in spite of this 2 month hiatus from updates.
So I am up to my ears in work, I know that I owe dozens of people emails and I'm backdating these posts so that I seem like a little bit less of a slacker. Anyway, I promise you that I have lots of good stories from June and July and I will do my best to put those up here for anyone who is interested.
Thanks for sticking around for this ride :)
Oh, and I wound up buying a Flip Cam. I don't know if I'm just cruelly getting your hopes up for videos, but hey, it could happen. We'll see...
Sunday, August 15, 2010
An interlude with my family
After IDDS I had two weeks with my family. To be honest, it was an absolute blur. I was so drained from everything (on my way out of Colorado, I stopped by to see a terminally ill relative before going to one last networking event at the Unreasonable Institute and saying lots of good-byes to my friends at IDDS and the Unreasonable Institute) that I basically collapsed. It's too late to do anything now, but I had $10 stolen from me by the Denver-area public transit system and had a frustrating encounter with an incredibly unfriendly driver.
Anyway, I took a red-eye to North Carolina and saw my mother and my sister Claire (I hadn't seen her in 21 months at that point). As we waited for my luggage, Claire snapped several pictures of me in a state that I would prefer not to remember. It was raining torrentially as we stepped out into the parking lot, but I was glad to feel the cool refreshing raindrops. We drove up to Ocean Isle, where the extended family has done vacation since 1992 (other relatives have been doing it much longer, but that was my first trip). It was nice to see cousins, but I was pretty out of it the whole trip. I was having a terrible time sleeping and didn't feel entirely "with it" most of the time. Still, it was nice being around family and friends and not feeling any sort of pressure (actually, that's not true, since I still had a few lingering GCS tasks that I was trying to work on in my sporadic moments of lucidity). I definitely did not contribute my fair share to the housework, but I tried my best to be outgoing and participate in the activities (corn-holing was the popular game this year).
I was trying to update from Jaunty Jackalope (Ubuntu version 9.04) to Lucid Lynx (Ubuntu version 10.04), but my computer was having a lot of trouble with the change. It finally acquiesced, but only after Daryl (my new brother-in-law) coaxed it to accept (he did a ctrl+alt+delete, which worked with his magic fingers after my 30 failed attempts at restarting the computer). It was nice to have my computer back, though it didn't return to 100% until I was back in Tanzania.
After that, we drove back to Chicago. I don't remember most of the trip, but I was very coherent while we visited my cousin Dave in Raleigh and saw his brand new daughter (she is lovely). I really enjoyed my time in Raleigh, and spending time with more friends and family.
I remember very little of my week at home. I saw family on most of those days (and I think I tried to do some GCS work on other days), but I was typically incoherent for most of the day, and only truly present from about 1 AM to 4 AM. I usually spent that time with some of my friends from high school. (I learned a new game called Killer Bunnies, which I am now a big fan of.) Unfortunately, they were usually getting pretty tired right around the time that I was starting to wake up. Still, it was nice to have some night-owls. And they got me hooked on a British show called Sherlock.
I had incredibly vivid dreams during that time, to the point where I wasn't sure what I had or hadn't done. I discovered in Tanzania that some of the things that I was absolutely certain that I had packed were still at home. I haven't had dreams that vivid since I was on Mefloquine during my Peace Corps service. It was incredibly unpleasant, and while it has mostly subsided, it hasn't gone away completely. I feel like I need another round with my family, since both of us were short-changed by this trip :-/
Anyway, I took a red-eye to North Carolina and saw my mother and my sister Claire (I hadn't seen her in 21 months at that point). As we waited for my luggage, Claire snapped several pictures of me in a state that I would prefer not to remember. It was raining torrentially as we stepped out into the parking lot, but I was glad to feel the cool refreshing raindrops. We drove up to Ocean Isle, where the extended family has done vacation since 1992 (other relatives have been doing it much longer, but that was my first trip). It was nice to see cousins, but I was pretty out of it the whole trip. I was having a terrible time sleeping and didn't feel entirely "with it" most of the time. Still, it was nice being around family and friends and not feeling any sort of pressure (actually, that's not true, since I still had a few lingering GCS tasks that I was trying to work on in my sporadic moments of lucidity). I definitely did not contribute my fair share to the housework, but I tried my best to be outgoing and participate in the activities (corn-holing was the popular game this year).
I was trying to update from Jaunty Jackalope (Ubuntu version 9.04) to Lucid Lynx (Ubuntu version 10.04), but my computer was having a lot of trouble with the change. It finally acquiesced, but only after Daryl (my new brother-in-law) coaxed it to accept (he did a ctrl+alt+delete, which worked with his magic fingers after my 30 failed attempts at restarting the computer). It was nice to have my computer back, though it didn't return to 100% until I was back in Tanzania.
After that, we drove back to Chicago. I don't remember most of the trip, but I was very coherent while we visited my cousin Dave in Raleigh and saw his brand new daughter (she is lovely). I really enjoyed my time in Raleigh, and spending time with more friends and family.
I remember very little of my week at home. I saw family on most of those days (and I think I tried to do some GCS work on other days), but I was typically incoherent for most of the day, and only truly present from about 1 AM to 4 AM. I usually spent that time with some of my friends from high school. (I learned a new game called Killer Bunnies, which I am now a big fan of.) Unfortunately, they were usually getting pretty tired right around the time that I was starting to wake up. Still, it was nice to have some night-owls. And they got me hooked on a British show called Sherlock.
I had incredibly vivid dreams during that time, to the point where I wasn't sure what I had or hadn't done. I discovered in Tanzania that some of the things that I was absolutely certain that I had packed were still at home. I haven't had dreams that vivid since I was on Mefloquine during my Peace Corps service. It was incredibly unpleasant, and while it has mostly subsided, it hasn't gone away completely. I feel like I need another round with my family, since both of us were short-changed by this trip :-/
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