American Football

There was a football game in Arusha.  Not soccer, but American football.  The team from Drake University in Iowa played against a team from Mexico.  The New York Times wrote up an article on it. 

I was at the game, but it wasn't too thrilling, until the 4th quarter where all kinds of crazy plays went down (including one of the teams clearing the bench).  There was an announcer who explained what was happening and helped the first time watchers in the audience to understand the rules.  All the explanations were in English (and using specialized vocabulary at that), so it wasn't entirely accessible to a lot of the locals.

My favorite part of the game was the halftime show, which featured a whole bunch of Masai tribal dancing.  It was a really fun program.  Then they gave American footballs to a bunch of orphans from Arusha.  I'll let you know if the game catches on over here.

All photos credited to Tara Mastracchio.  Really amazing pictures, Tara.

Frisbee Tournament in Mombasa - Pictures

Here are the pictures from our trip to Mombasa for the frisbee tournament (see the story h e r e):

The most awesome team ever!
Back row from left: Rose, Angela, Tara, Claire, Jodie, Simeon, me
Front row from left: Shannon, Karina (aka Dutchy Dutch), Mic

This is the first picture that does justice to the crowding on the Likoni Ferry.

Morning warm-ups

All girls line-up

Our team with the other Tanzanian team (they came from Mwanza)

I gave a lot of pep talks throughout the tournament

Team dinner

Our trophies

Team pyramid photo (a couple of Ugandans found our spirit downright infectious)

Frisbee Tournament in Mombasa Day 4+5

Monday was a nice relaxing day for all of us. We had a slow morning and tried to get all the moisture out of the tent and our sleeping bags before packing up. The remainder of the team was heading down to Diani Beach for a bit more relaxation, while I traveled with some of my Peace Corps friends back to Mombasa. Mercifully, they helped me get back across the ferry since I was hauling the tent and an extra sleeping bag. They also told me about some administrative changes that sounds exciting and of course, the conversation then devolved into politics as it always does.

Back in Mombasa, I ran to the supermarket for some snacks and then went to the bus station and booked a seat on the bus. Not a moment too soon, since I grabbed the last seat on the bus. Then I went and booked a room in a nearby guest house and just slept away the afternoon in front of the fan. Turns out going to bed late, sleeping in damp bedding and waking up early every day had caught up with me. I woke up at 8 PM and realized that I needed to grab a bite.

I walked down the street and noticed that I had tons of options. I couldn't help thinking that if I were back in Arusha at this hour, I would have trouble finding places that were open aside from the bars and they're usually out of food by then. I chose a nice outdoor grill and had a Swahili pizza (ground beef and egg wrapped in chapati and fried--in Arusha they call them Zanzibar pizzas) and discovered that they had Fanta citrus, which is my favorite flavor. I hadn't had any in ages, so I drained three sodas with my meal and struggled to push away the stray cat who wanted to share my meal.

I headed back to my room and climbed into bed. I was on the bus by 6:30, and I was glad I had a window seat, but I was in the very back row which I knew was going to make for a very long ride. I read for most of the journey, and during the stretch from Voi to Taveta, I felt every single bump and nearly knocked my head against the ceiling a few times. Otherwise, the journey was pretty uneventful and I was happy to be heading home.

Sadly, during our photo exchange over the weekend, I didn't end up getting the pictures of our team, so I'll have to put them up in a separate post.

Frisbee Tournament in Mombasa Day 3

We weren't playing in the first game of the day, so we took plenty of time to warm up and decided that we would start our next game with representatives from five different countries on the line. At this point, our main ambition was to win the spirit award, so we were just going out there to have a great time. So as we lined up against Peace Corps, we had Mic (Tanzania), Karina (Netherlands), Rose (UK), Angela (Canada) and Simeon (USA) out there.

I was psyched for the game, since I knew most of the players on the team. We went into the half trailing 6-4, and to start the second half, we put 5 girls on the line. They reminded us that we only needed one on the field to match them. We replied with a friendly smile that we would try not to embarrass them. We kept the girls out there for two points and they scored one and yielded one, before we subbed some fresh players in (and provided a bit more of a gender balance). We lost the game 11-7, but we all had big grins on our face.

After that, they took the results from the 6 games that everyone had played and seeded the teams for a single elimination bracket. We were the 8th seed, so we were playing the 1st seed. As it turns out, that meant the Ugandan team that we had played once the previous day. We were a little tired following our game with Peace Corps, but we lined up against Uganda with five girls on the team. We had to assure this team as well that we were confident in our strategy and that this was a perfectly sane strategy.

We stayed with them all the way to the half, with the score seesawing back and forth reaching 6-5 their lead going into the break. Several of the spectators as well as the other team seemed to be wondering if we were really the 8th seed. Unfortunately, for the second half, they seemed to draw on infinite reserves of energy, and we couldn't keep up. They pulled away and won 11-6, eliminating us from the tournament. They joined us on the field as we made a pyramid and congratulated us on some really solid play before we took a bunch of pictures together.

We ate a big lunch and reflected on our stats for the tournament. We finished 0-7, but we had also played five of our games against the top 3 seeds (Uganda, Mwanza and Uganda) and we played each of the two teams in the final twice. There was another team that finished 0-7 and we never got to play them, and they were only seeded ahead of us since they scored more points. We talked about scheduling a friendly match, but we were all a bit tired, so we just shook hands.

We swam in the pool and enjoyed the perfect coastal weather. Unfortunately, I forgot to put sunscreen on my legs (they almost never burn) and in my 20 minute swim, I picked up a pretty nasty sunburn. I spent most of the rest of the day hiding in the shade. We did go to watch the final match (Uganda vs. Uganda) and we were happy that the team that we found more sportsmanlike ultimately prevailed. After that, there were a few more random Frisbee related activities.

Jodie, Mic, Shannon and Karina all left early, so we said good-bye to them. We grabbed dinner at Twiga, where they further disappointed us by charging us 200 shillings for an avocado salad (three of us ordered it) that was listed on the menu for 150. They assured us that the menu was wrong and that we should have asked them the price beforehand. This seems like a good place to reiterate my comment that the service at Twiga Lodge was really disappointing and I hope that people traveling to the coast find more pleasant accommodations for their stay.

At night, there was a big party where they awarded prizes, and we were really excited to receive the spirit award (combined with a frisbee and a carved keychain for each of our players). We were really thrilled and everyone seemed really happy for us. There were some games at the party, but I mostly found quiet places to talk to some of my friends from Peace Corps about how their projects were going. Then I started hanging out with the remainder of my team at the party and we didn't crash until after 1.

Frisbee Tournament in Mombasa Day 2

We were woken a bit early by a cold damp feeling. It rained heavily during the night and apparently the water-proofing precautions weren't adequate. As I went to talk with the other captains to prepare for the day, everyone else was working to dry out food, clothes and sleeping bags.

Simeon and I went and met the other captains and the organizers, paid the registration fee and collected our team's shirts. We had a really nice deep red. They told us that there were awards for the winner of the tournament as well as an award for the team with the most spirit. We asked a couple of clarifying questions about rules, then we regrouped with the team to go over some final details (we decided that we were more concerned with winning the spirit award than the tournament) before stretching and warm-ups. There were eight teams in the tournament (two from Kampala, three from Nairobi, one with Peace Corps Kenya volunteers, one from Mwanza and our team) so we were going to create brackets based on the results of a round robin. Kinda. More on that later. Anyway, there were only three fields, so we were sitting out the first game. We took that as a good sign, since we'd be much fresher than the other team.

The games were all played on the sand, which was a big change for all the teams. We were playing 5 on 5 and teams had to have at least 1 woman on the field at all times. Whichever team was receiving the throw-off could put 1-3 women on the field and the other team needed to put at least that many. Most teams had 3 women, while we had 6, so we were glad about that.

As we ran out for our first game, one of the Ugandan teams lined up across from us and the rain started pouring torrentially. We tried to play for a few minutes, but soon there was thunder over the ocean, so we had to clear off the field. We noticed standing on the sidelines that the water dripping off our shirts was Kool-Aid red and laughed at that. After about 15 minutes, the lightning was pretty much gone and the rain was pretty mild, so we resumed play. It was a rather frustrating game. We weren't really bothered by the fact that we lost 11-1. What was more disconcerting was that the team didn't feel cohesive and we didn't have a whole lot of passion.

We picked it up a bit for our second game (playing against the Mwanza team), but we lost 11-1 again. The other teams were definitely incredibly skilled and had a lot of stamina, but our team just didn't have the energy that we normally had during our Thursday games. We weren't supporting each other as much as we usually do and it didn't seem like people were having as much fun.

After that, the organizers provided us with a huge pasta lunch that was really delicious. We talked to all the other players and were all laughing and loosening up. We even took a quick swim and by the time we came back after lunch, we were in much better spirits. We attacked the next game with the fire that had been missing from the first two and definitely came together as a cohesive unit. We were playing one of the Nairobi teams and they wound up beating us 11-5. It was an improvement in our score, it was an improvement in how all of us were playing (half of our team had barely thrown a Frisbee before six months ago and for some it was even less than that), but most importantly, it was an improvement in that we were all having fun. We had the loudest cheering section on the sidelines most of the time and even though we were blown-out, the other team was clearly worn out after the match.

Our next game was against the other Uganda team. We had heard some fearsome reports about this team, so we were braced for the worst. We were really excited as we kept pace with them up to 3-3. Unfortunately, they took the next 7 points and the final score was 11-4. Still, our spirits couldn't be dampened at that point and we were having a great time. Then we had our next game against that first Ugandan team. So it wasn't exactly a round robin. We weren't thrilled about the prospect of playing a team that had so thoroughly mopped the floor with us earlier in the day, but we were excited to play another game, and by that time, the late afternoon weather was pretty much perfect. We lost to them 11-5, but we could tell that we had taken them by surprise this time. We put on a really solid game and made them work much harder for their points.

As we walked off the field, you could have easily mistaken us for a team that had gone 5-0 considering how we were high-fiving and patting one another on the back. Instead we were 0-5 and having a great time. We even found that the teams who weren't playing would come over to give us some scouting reports and seemed to be pulling for us. Our favorite part, however, was admiring the slight pink tint to the shirts of the teams we played against as the rain leached some of our dye onto their shirts.

We headed into the water to swim a bit and felt the day melt away. After we dried off, we raided our groceries and realized just how much we'd been running around the whole day. In the evening, some people grabbed a bite at the restaurant attached to the campsite. It wasn't the high prices for mediocre food that bothered me so much as the rudeness and difficultness of the waiters on staff. I was paying for a drink and handed him 200 shillings for a soda that costs 60 shillings (of course, most shops sell it for 25). After 30 minutes, he brought me 100 shillings and told me that he would bring me the remaining 40 shortly. Later that night, after the kitchen closed, I realized that he had given himself a bit of a tip that he certainly hadn't earned.

I was partially distracted by our poker game at the table. We used peanuts as our poker chips and had to work really hard not to eat our money. We assigned each peanut a value of 5 shillings and all put in 100 shillings (about $1.25--what can I say, we like our high stakes). We all had a great time and really enjoyed ourselves. After that, I sat with one of my Peace Corps friends and had a long conversation about water pumps. We visited the beach house where the organizers were staying to see if there was a party going on. There was definitely a party, but I decided I'd rather do a low-key night on the beach, so I found some of my teammates and we sat under the stars and drank more wine straight from the box and had deep philosophical discussions including a conversation about the death penalty and Guantanamo Bay.

Around 1:30 we headed back toward the tent and feasted on some chips before crawling into our damp sleeping bags.

Frisbee Tournament in Mombasa (Day 1)

Well, our weekly Frisbee matches were all building up to the event (we're trying to do Sunday games as well, but those haven't quite taken off yet). We sent a bunch of our players to Mombasa for an Ultimate Frisbee tournament last weekend. We heard about the tournament 3 months ago and decided to rustle up a team. The games were Saturday and Sunday on the beach south of Mombasa, so we traveled down there on Friday. We traveled as a team of 13 (Jodie, Mic, Simeon, Malachi, Janelle, Shannon, Tara, Angela, Barb, Claire, Rose, Karina and me), though only 10 of us played (Malachi is Simeon's 11 month old son, so he stayed on the sidelines with his mom, Janelle, and Barb had recently broken her wrist, so she filled the role of team manager).

We were on the Raqib bus (15,000 Tanzanian shillings or about $10 for a trip from Arusha to Mombasa), which I had taken many times when I lived in Kenya. We got there at 6:45 AM (well, everyone else followed my directions and got there at 6:30 and then had to wait for me to show up with the tickets). The bus left at 6:50 and the first song that came on the radio was Holiday by Madonna. We all took that as a good omen. The ride was pretty uneventful all the way to the Kenyan border, but the scenery was nice (we couldn't see Mt. Kilimanjaro, though, since it was cloudy). I was rather tired the whole trip, since I had woken up at 1:55 AM and didn't manage to fall asleep again.

At the border, we discovered that they were checking Yellow Fever cards because of an outbreak in Uganda. It was the first time any of us had seen this at this border crossing. Some of my fellow travelers hadn't packed theirs, but they talked to the medical officer and convinced them they were up-to-date and managed to get through. Other than that, it was just a long wait as they prepared visas for everyone, but we made it through without event and were on our way.

I spent a lot of time warning everyone how miserable the road is for the first 120 km once we get into Kenya, so they were braced. It wasn't actually too miserable (which is not to say it was pleasant), and I also told people to keep their eyes open for elephants, giraffes and possibly buffalo. We saw one giraffe near the road and Simeon said that he saw some elephants further out. I pointed out Maktau (the village where I served when I was in Peace Corps) to everyone as we drove past and had to admire it in the greenest condition I had ever seen it. The rains have definitely been helpful this year.

We made it to Voi where the road becomes much smoother and were relieved that we only had to deal with the heat. After another half hour or so, I woke up from a brief nap to discover that we were stopped to repair a flat tire. Apparently, while the conductor was jumping on the makeshift wrench to apply enough torque to loosen the lug-nuts, it bounced up and gave him a nasty cut in the upper-arm. I handed my first aid kit to Mic and he went out to clean up the wound and perform some first-aid. The tire had definitely been shredded, but thankfully, we were up and running again pretty quickly.

With all of the delays, we didn't roll into Mombasa until about 5:15 PM (8 hours is pretty good time, but over 10 isn't a big surprise). We put Simeon, Janelle, Malachi, Barb and Angela into a taxi and the rest of us took a matatu to Nakumatt to pick up some provisions for the weekend. The campsite didn't have cooking facilities, so our shopping bags were mostly filled with sandwich supplies, snacks and (for some of us) alcohol.

We made it out of Nakumatt and were right at the Likoni Ferry to take us to south Coast. A few people in the group commented that they felt like cattle. We stayed close and managed to avoid the pickpockets (always an accomplishment on the Likoni Ferry) and admired a nice sunset as the ferry struggled across. We hopped off the ferry and commandeered a matatu to take us directly to our campsite on Tiwi Beach (for price comparison, the taxi was 2,500 Kenyan Shillings--just over $30--split among 4 people, while the matatus and the ferry was 1,500 Kenyan Shillings split among 8 people).

We were all a bit wiped, but the first thing to do was to set up tents in the dark. Actually, I found some of my Peace Corps friends there, and caught up with them briefly and came back to discover that I had skipped out on the entirety of assembling the tent. Oops. Anyway, everyone else from the team went to grab dinner, but I spent more time hanging out with Peace Corps folks and playing Bananagrams (it was surprisingly addictive).

I sat down with the team after dinner and we talked a bit about rules, strategy and organization of the tournament. We typically play rather lax rules in our pick-up games, so I wanted to make sure that everyone understood what we would need to do the next day. After that, a group of us drank some wine straight from the box (classy, as they say in French) and ran out for a quick late-night dip in the Indian Ocean (the campsite was right on the beach). The tide was pretty far out and it was a bit rocky, so we didn't stay out too long and then decided to walk along the beach. We talked to some people from other teams as we walked and were feeling pretty psyched about the tournament.

We climbed into the tent (Shannon had a large tent, so he was sharing it with Tara, Rose, Claire, Karina and me) and were all asleep pretty instantaneously.

Walking at night

Arusha definitely has a decent crime rate, which means that a lot of people are pretty anxious about going out at night. In some cases, people will insist on traveling only by taxi, while other people on a tighter budget opt for motorcycles to travel safely. Personally, I love night time and find walking incredibly relaxing. This tends to make several of my friends anxious, so I try to avoid the subject in certain audiences.

Tonight after Frisbee, it was a particularly beautiful night, so I decided to walk about 1.5 miles back to the office from town. It was moonless, and only about 10% of the street lights installed in Arusha actually work, so I had to rely on headlights to light the way. There are plenty of stretches where I was on my own with the stars, which is gorgeous since I can see so many.

As it happens, there are some well-known segments where thieves are known to hide, so I made sure to keep a brisk pace as I was going through these areas. (Unfortunately, I had forgotten my sneakers, so I was somewhat handicapped in my sandals.) The first one is a bridge near town, where there is a lot of trees before and after where people could (and do) hide. As I jogged along, there were no headlights to light the way, but I wasn't going to slow down until I was safely past the area. My eyes and ears were on full alert for movement of any kind, but then I felt my foot hit nothingness where the pavement should have been.

I discovered that there was a hole in the pavement about 18 inches deep, and I felt my shin hit the edge of the hole and I was on the ground. It knocked the wind out of me, but quickly I realized where I was and spun around to make sure no one was trying to approach. I realized that my anxious reaction was proof that I know how unsafe I was being. I quickly scrambled to my feet and moved forward to where there was some lighting. I saw that I had some nasty scrapes on my shin, knee and forearm but made myself keep moving normally, since I didn't want to attract any attention.

On my way back to the office, I stopped at one of the safari hotels in town to clean myself up a bit and made it back the last mile to the office without further event, but I was a little sore by the end. I realized that I wasn't paying much attention to the stars by that point, which was a bit of a disappointment, so before I went in, I shifted a long gaze at the stars and let my thoughts gather themselves.