Brad's African Journey!

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Woo!! This has been a crazy past couple of weeks: getting arrested by immigration, fun nights at Maasai Camp and Via Via, presentations, hanging out with Doreen and much more. I know that I have not updated in a loooong time, but it has been so busy putting together my final independent study project paper! It was stressful, but the presentation and paper went well. The rest of the students and I spent our last week basically just trying to spend as much time together. We made a couple of trips to the local clubs Maasai Camp and Via Via. It was such a blast. Great times for sure! As of now there are only about 15 of us remaining in East Africa. A lot of the students went home on December 9 after our party. Right now I am sitting in the Adrift (white water company hotel) in Uganda. Farren and I just rafted and bungee jumped in the Nile River yesterday, and it was AMAZING. We flipped twice and I fell out twice. It was the most intense white water rafting I have ever done, but very fun. We started off with the bungee jumping, which boosted our confidence for the class 5 rapids. It was pretty much AMAZING. We took an 18-hour bus ride through three countries: Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda and now we are in Jinja, Uganda!!! I was also able to see Brian; he is one of my friends that have been studying here from Point Loma. That was really cool. I really like Uganda, the scenery and people are amazing. The fact that I am not going back to Tanzania and probably will not be there within the next year has really hit me though. I REALLY enjoyed my time there and the thought of not going back is not something that I want to think about. I spent almost 4 months here; it is a big part of my life. I met some really great people and shared some pretty amazing experiences with them! It’s going to be tough leaving that all behind. Anyways, I’m still really stoked for the future. I am going to be picked up in Jinja on Monday and I go on my way to Mt. Elgon, about 8-hours from Jinja to the hospital! I will be working at for about two weeks. I’m really excited about that it should be really fun. Well I will be seeing everybody in about 3-weeks and I can’t wait!!

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Some pictures

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Man I have not been on this blog for awhile, but I have A LOT to say. School just ended yesterday and people are already on their way back to America. It's crazy to think that this leg of the journey is finished! I don't have a lot of time to write right now, but I am going to try to get something up soon. I leave for Uganda today via bus with my friend Farren. We are leaving at 2:30pm and should get to Uganda by Friday at 8am. First is white water rafting and bunjee jumping in the Nile and then I start the hospital work at Mount Elgon. I miss you all and can't wait to see you in around 3 weeks...man that's crazy!!!!

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Independent Study Project

10-hour bus ride to Dar es Salaam
4 day waiting period for permit
2-hour flight to Tabora
1-hour flight to Kigoma
Trip to the Ministry of Home Affairs in Kigoma
Aimlessly wandering around in Kigom attempting to find bus station
3-hour daladala ride with 19 people squished in to Kasulu region
And finally I arrive in the beautiful Kasulu region of Tanzania.

Wow I thought Northern Tanzania was beautiful, this place is AMAZING! When I exited the plane in Kigoma I was overwhelmed by camera flashes, video cameras and news crews. I noticed two HUGE (biggest planes I have every seen) United Nations planes. Turns out that the minister of Tanzania was on my flight and because of the refugee situations around the Kigoma area the UN planes are always there. But wow, I’m definitely moving to the Kigoma area, it is beautiful. It is green everywhere and the people here are even nicer than the ones in Arusha and Dar es Salaam. I met this lady on the plane who drove me to the Ministry of Home Affairs. I needed to get papers signed to confirm exactly what I was doing. I met with the director of home affairs, and after talking with him I didn’t think he was going to grant me permission. After waiting for 4 days in Dar es Salaam I finally received what I needed and traveling this far I was not going to let him turn me down. Turns out he allowed me, but on various conditions which is no problem (hamnashida). My next task was to find a bus station to take me to the Kasulu region of Kigoma, this is where the 1993 Burundi Refugees are. It was quite a task, but like I said the people are extremely friendly and I was able to find my way. I drove 3 hours in a daladala filled with 19 people. For those of you who don’t know what a daladala is, it basically is a Tanzanian version of a minivan, but a little different. It’s there taxi/bus service and their motto is “There is always room for one more in daladala.” And let me tell you that is no lie. It was jam packed, and our driver was absolutely insane, but what a great experience. Everyone was so friendly and surprised that Mzungu was taking a daladala to Kasulu. Usually the white people who come to the Kigoma region are involved with NGO’s and have cars that pick them up. They were stoked that I spoke Swahili and were talking with me the entire way, which was awesome. When I finally arrived in Kasulu James picked me up. James works for Woman’s Legal Aid Services, nicest guy I’ve met thus far in Tanzania. Took me to the office to discuss what I was doing here. Booked a hotel for me, but I told him it was too expensive so he welcomed me to his house for dirt-cheap. He hopefully is going to be my translator for the refugees. What a past couple days it has been, but the awesome thing is that God has never let me down. I arrived in Dar es Salaam, but had to change my flight because of logistical issues. That got worked out. Flew to Kigoma, had no idea where I was going, but ended up meeting Gema who gave me a ride to the Ministry of Home Affairs. Got worked out. Almost got denied access to the refugees, but a change of heart allowed me to press forward. Got worked out. I had absolutely no idea how to get to Kasuslu, but thanks to the helping hearts of Tanzanian people I found my way. Got worked out. Crazy fun ride to Kasuslu. And James allowed me to stay at his house for cheap and is going to act as a translator. Got worked out. I’ve known since the beginning that this study was going to be logistically challenging, but God has taken me this far I know that everything else is going to fall into place! Next task is to get the 100-dollar fee for transport to the refugees waved. Knowing that I will be going there everyday for the next 20 days I need to come up with something, hmmm. Any ideas! =) I’m stoked to get the interviews started tomorrow! Please continue to pray for my success with this study. Thanks.

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Starting with purple: Megan, Catherine (shes crazy!) me, Doug aka Mbwa, and Noah

There is a lion hunting a group of Germans in a safari car to the right....I swear =)

TWIGA!!!!!!

Female Lion....not too happy.

Farren and I on top of a mountain overlooking the Serengeti

A lion eating a Warthog, so cool!!!!

This is the famous bird study team from Serengeti!!!!! We were the best group by far, I mean look at us! =)

Adam and I after the Safari (you get incredibly dirty from all the dust in the road, haha)

So as you all can see from the pictures I was on quite the safari. I was not able to write about it because of finals week. Following probably my best two weeks of my life we were thrown back into the city to start our finals. Now that it is all over I can share some of my experiences with you. The first week we went to Serengeti National Park. That was so amazing, it seems so long ago. Basically we were split into research teams. I drew the lucky straw and was able to study the birds……NOT! Haha. No one wanted the birds and the 6 of us who ended up studying them drew the short end of the straws, haha. I wanted to be in the predator or at least the hippo group. It ended being such an awesome group though. We had a great time together. We had to be up the earliest, of course as if studying birds wasn’t awesome enough!! Every morning we needed to be out of the campsite at 5:30 am! Haha. But once again it ended up being great. What most people didn’t know is we stopped frequently for lions to cross the road or watch the hippos slip into the water. Most activity within these National parks happens during sunrise and sunset. Oh seeing the sunrise over the Serengeti every morning wasn’t too shabby either AMAZING!!!! Anyways we also went on sunset game drives where we saw so much: Lions hunting and killing a warthog, leopards in the trees, lions having sex, (crazy, they do it every 10 mins for 48 hours straight!!) hippos, Elephants fighting, and on the last day in the Serengeti we saw a the world renown Tanzania Cheetah walk across the Serengeti plains during the sunset. We had been looking for a Cheetah since the day we got there, and it was soooo cool to see it the last day during the sunset. So much other stuff happened. Our campsite was literally smack dab in the middle of the Serengeti. Anything from Hyenas, lions, and elephants would walk across our campsite. You could shine your flashlight by the bathrooms at night and would see hundreds of eyes all over the place!!! I was going to the bathroom one night and on my way there I heard a high pitch scream. I thought to myself, oh crap someone just got attacked by a lion or something. So I ran over to the stall and saw my friend Chloe running out of the bathroom screaming and laughing. Apparently a bat lives in the drop latrine and while she was going to the bathroom a bat flew up and smacked her right on her butt!!!! Funniest thing ever! She had to be checked for rabies the next day!! Haha, but she is fine. So that is a very short clip from my time in the Serengeti. So much more happened, but it’s hard to type it all out! Haha. The next week we went to Lake Natron, where the famous Maasai tribe lives. I will hopefully get some more time tomorrow to write about that.

I’m having a great time. I just started my Independent Study Project yesterday. I took a 10-hour bus ride to Dar es Salaam and was supposed to catch a plane this morning to Kigoma. A lot of logistical failures occurred and I will not fly out until Wednesday. It was very stressful at the time, but everything happens for a reason and I know it will work out. I’m going to be studying the Burundi Refugees from the 1993 Genocide. My study question is:

My study will examine the following question: If given the opportunity, would 1993 Burundi refugees choose to naturalize, repatriate or resettle? To help understand their choices, I will document their living situations and experiences of their life just before 1993, and their current living situations in Tanzania now.

So basically this question will give me the opportunity to find out about their history and experiences during the genocide. It’s going to be pretty intense, but I cannot wait! These 1993 Burundi refugees are not given any choice but to return back to Burundi (repatriate). Some of these people saw their entire family get killed, it’s pretty awful that they will have to go back to that same house, especially because a lot of the killers have not yet been brought to justice. Some of them are even receiving death threats that if they return they will get killed. So hopefully my study will shed some light on their thoughts, and maybe even help their story be heard to the government. Please pray that logistical stuff will work out and I will be able to leave on Wednesday!