Back Again

Welcome back, fair followers!

Well, I’m off again. This will be my second trip to Tanzania, and I am more excited than ever. Better yet- my mother is less worried this time, thanks to my promise to avoid “getting cut” at all costs. (Readers from last time... you may remember my description of an aborted trip to the beach, thanks to a friendly warning that we should “not go down there” as we might “get cut” by “bad men”. Really, I don’t see what the fuss was about.)

Its Eileen here once more. If you don’t remember me from the blog updates last summer, I’m a Leo, twenty-three years old, a former student of History, Theatre and Women’s and Gender Studies at Winona State University with a knack for improv comedy and a penchant for doing funky dances to Prince music. My dream job is to be Indiana Jones and Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue is my favorite album of all time. I am frequently mocked for my obsession with the Star Wars franchise.

I’ve been home and leeching off my parents’ generosity for the last six-ish months and preparing for this trip. As some of you may know, I managed to raise a few thousand dollars for the Tanzanian Education Project, and am happy to be able to carry that money very nervously on my person across the Atlantic and put it to good use upon reaching Tanzania. I can’t wait to see Babu, Billo, Eve, Father and everyone else, and I can’t wait to tell you about all of the new and wonderful people we will meet and COMPLETELY SAFE adventures we will embark upon.

I’m very thankful to be traveling with my colleague Kristina Parthum, another recent WSU grad. I’ve had the pleasure of working with Kristina in our Women’s and Gender Studies classes as well as on projects like raising money for VDAY through The Vagina Monologues and other volunteer work. I know Kristina is going to be a fantastic asset to the Tanzanian Education Project; she is enthusiastic, open-minded and has an incredibly generous heart. I hope she enjoys traveling with me and can tolerate my somewhat scatterbrained leadership style.

Right now, we’re laid up in a quite nice Holiday Inn Express in Leesburg, Virginia. Our flight from Washington, DC Dulles International Airport was pushed back a day by Ethiopian Airlines. Frankly, I’m quite upset by the day gap. After all, its very difficult to spend your last night in the United States on an incredibly comfortable bed, drooling on someone else’s pillows, and not worrying about washing your towels. Also the complimentary breakfast. That’s the WORST. Man, I hate having a smorgasbord of delectable breakfasty treats available. (Read: sarcasm)

However, tomorrow we will be leaving the confines of the hospitality industry and embarking on a wonderful journey. We will fly out of Dulles to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and then on to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. I can’t say I’m sorry to leave the Midwest at this time of year to pursue more tropical climes. We’ll be shivering as we walk into the airport in DC, and sweating as we stroll into the midday heat of Dar es Salaam. My thoughts are with my friends and family muddling through the end of winter, you brave few who must scrape frost off your vehicles in the wee hours, using credit cards, shirtsleeves and other available tools to clear away that awful, frozen precipitation. Have hope, dear friends, wrinkling your noses as your boogers crystalize on those bleary trudges home from the bar, for the end is in sight! The first warms gusts of spring are on their way, rolling in from the west... or something. I don’t know. I’m not a meteorologist. What do I know? I’m a liberal arts major who uses volunteer work as an excuse not to get a big girl job.

Anyway, I’m ecstatic to return to my second home and begin working hard on our many projects. These will include assessing the cost of installing a water catch system at Fanaka, visiting our other partner schools, Olof Bethsaida Girls Secondary School and Orphanage, Hope and Joy Primary School and ELA Nursery School, revisiting the possibility of putting in a chicken coop on Fanaka’s property and checking the progress of Fanaka’s stationary shop. I hope you’ll stay tuned as the Tanzanian Education Project continues to interact with some wonderful people, and you’ll tolerate my tangents and brief excursions into reverie as I try to illustrate what a great thing the TEP has got goin’ on. See you on the other side, chums!