An adventure to say the least

Sunday, May 27, 2012


Everyone has told me that this trip to Africa would be a trip of a lifetime. But I’m not exactly sure if anyone knew just how life changing this experience would be. Having not even arrived in Tanzania yet, I encountered my first ah-ha moment, where I witnessed an Indian family being patted down and all of their bags being searched. Back tracking a few minutes, while waiting on line to go through security before boarding our plane from Amsterdam to Kilimanjaro, a very nice and friendly Indian gentleman told us we could go in front of him because TSA would be checking all of his bags. Not thinking twice, my mother said “Oh thank you, but they are going to search my bags as well” (we were carrying a lot of expensive camera equipment in one bag) ..still we did as he asked and we cut in front of him. After going through one of those body scanner machines I sat down to put my shoes back on and noticed that the TSA agents literally were going through every single one of his bags and every member of the family was being patted down. None of our bags set off an alarm, and neither did theirs yet they didn't go through our bags.. I  simply could not understand the racial profiling because of the color of his skin, or the name on his passport. I know we live in a world where everyone is judged based on the way they look but to actually witness it first hand was something I hope I never have to experience again.

When you think about how large the World truly is, it is somewhat scary to think that people who live so close to home are off experiencing the exact same thing I set off to do. On our first leg of the flight to Tanzania my mother and I sat next to a woman who is a professor at Stony Brook College on Long Island who was travelling with 18 anthropology major students who were coming to Tanzania for a summer internship. This is her sixth time to Africa and actually met her husband in Kenya. What is even more coincidental, while we were waiting to board our plane from Amsterdam to Tanzania, we met a couple from Rochester, NY. They were also sitting next to a woman and a man who I believed to be her father. The younger woman asked me where I was from because she said I looked familiar. I hesitantly told her New Jersey, as many non-NJ residents simply think of the Jersey Shore TV show when they hear New Jersey. Then the older couple asked me where in NJ, and I responded with Toms River, but phrased it rather as a question than a fact. I knew they were from Rochester, NY so I wasn’t completely sure how familiar they would have been with Toms River, because as mentioned before it seems to get roped into the “Jersey Shore” name. The older man looked at me with a questionable expression, and simply said “Are you serious? My son lives in Jackson!” He then proceeded to tell me that their grandson attends Ocean County College, the college I just graduated from a few days before. As if the world didn’t seem small enough, the ropes just tightened a little bit more.

Having slept roughly an hour on the plane from JFK to Amsterdam, I was fortunate enough to sleep most of the flight from Amsterdam to JRO. Upon arriving in Tanzania, our plane had to abort landing and circle back in the sky for twenty minutes. There is nothing like being a thousand feet from land and suddenly being jolted back up into the air.  I started thinking to myself, of all the plane rides I’ve been on and never had anything like this happen to me, why did this have to happen now when I wanted to land more than anything. However, we did land in the Kilimanjaro International Airport, and I can officially check off one of my bucket list items- walking out of a plane onto the tarmack!!! It was so cool, and I swear, our plane was about the size of the entire airport! The not so cool part was waiting on line to get our Visa’s and then waiting another hour to receive our CTA permits. We were beginning to worry that our driver from Foot2Afrika was going to leave because he thought we hadn’t shown up. Luckily for us, Salimin was still outside, and after waiting an hour and a half he was still very pleasant and welcoming. He packed all of our luggage (yes! All three checked bags made it to Tanzania, with no damage!) in the trunk  of his car and asked me if I wanted to sit in front. Without a thought in my mind I immediately went to the right side of the vehicle, where he was also standing, and looked at me funny. It then clicked in my head that the driver sits on the right side of the vehicle.. Salimin thought it was absolutely hilarious that I made the innocent mistake. Nothing like breaking the ice by making a complete fool out of yourself.


The drive from the airport to the volunteer house is approximately 45 minutes, but it is not like any drive we mzungu’s (westerners) are accustom to. As far as I’m concerned, there is no speed limit in Tanzania, so 99% of the people drive between 80 and 100 miles per hour, swerving in and out of lanes to avoid other cars, piki-piki’s (motorcycles), pedestrians, chickens, goats, any sort of bump in the road, etc. Perfect for people like myself who have a need for speed, but as I experienced today (5/28) it is not always as much fun when you are the person walking on the side of the street with all the cars zooming past you at 100 miles per hour. Upon arrival at the volunteer house we were greeted by many people, including Deb (the Volunteer Coordinator), Sadock (the founder), Leema (the cook), and many of the volunteers. We sat and spoke to mainly Deb and Sadock for about an hour or so about the various misconceptions mzungu’s have about Africa, for example: you can’t ever ever ever use an ATM- wrong! It was nice to sit with people who truly understand that beauty and simplicity of Africa, not only because they live here but also because they see the positive in life, whereas in the US, I find the majority of people tend to focus on the negative things in life. Sadock is a very sweet man with a big smile, but an even bigger heart. He spends all his time giving to others, helping those in need, and never asks for anything in return. I’ve come to learn in the short time I’ve been here that he has a very hard time saying “no”. Time for bed !!!