Asante Sana

So much time has gone by....





And it embarrasses me to write to you all at this point in time. But I hope that you will understand. The time I spent in Bagamoyo with the children, youth and artists was so mind and heart changing. Three weeks was all it took for the love in Africa to take over my heart.

The majority of people I met and spent time with had very little but had everything.

Time was not kept with a clock, time passed as it was intended--through the travels of the sun throughout the expansive sky.

Smiling at small child would send them into a wit of giggles and then a wide pearly white smile would soon stretch across their faces.

Mambo?
Poa.


How are you?
I'm good.

I'm good was always the response. Although one of our friends my have not eaten at all throughout the day, they were still 'poa'. Are we always poa? Are we always thankful for what we have?

Anything is possible under the sun.


I want to share my experience with anyone and everyone that is willing to listen, however, I have yet to figure out how to do this. I am ever so thankful for everyone's support...and I feel extremely guilt ridden because I have yet to include you in my experience, but I am still in a reflection period.

My thoughts get stuck in my head, running around and around....when I try to express these thoughts and feelings in words....I become blank or the words in which I do think of aren't the thoughts I feel.

I will continue to try and I hope that within time, I will be able to share with you all the joys I experienced while in Bagamoyo.


Here is a link to some photos on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2035808&id=1559940150&l=630cc77f56

One Bag Packed

Thanks to the generousness of numerous people I will be traveling with a 50 pound bag full of supplies for the children of Bagamoyo! Thank you Scott Baker (Champlain College Professor of International Business), Beeman Elementary School in New Haven, Vermont, the Champlain College library (even though you don't know it, I helped myself...you were recycling tons of teaching textbooks in the basement of the library and I decided to save a few!), the Champlain College Children's Club and to my family for their donations!

Donations
• 3 white boards
• Music textbook for teachers
• Geography textbook for teachers
• Business book
• Clock face overheads
• Math K-3 textbooks
• Pencils
• Pens
• Lead pencils
• Note pads
• Children’s reading books
• 34 jump ropes
• Balloons
• Playing cards
• Boys and girls underwear
• 20 Spin tops
• 4 pencil sharpeners
• Ruler
• 20 Frisbees
• 3 pairs sunglasses
• Sidewalk chalk
• Girls, boys, infant clothes

Donations

It is hard to believe that I will be traveling tomorrow! At 6PM I will meet Ashley in Burlington. From there we will drive to Dover, New Hampshire to catch a Greyhound bus around 1030PM. We will be arriving at Logan Airport in Boston around midnight and then meeting up with the rest of the group anytime between midnight and three AM. Without delay we will board our first plane to Washington D.C. at 6AM.

Tomorrow at 5PM will be the start to a very long few days of travel!

On another note, I wanted to share with everyone that throughout the semester our group was able to raise nearly $4000 to donate to the two organizations. We held a few events on campus including a night of African festivities, a coin drop and an silent auction with local and African items. Additionally, donations that were sent to the Center of Service for each individual group member helped the two organizations because 10% of the contribution went towards the fund raising fund and then 90% when towards the individual group recipient. Ashley sent the money via wire transfer last week and below is a message in response from IMUMA!

"Many thanks for the very very big support you gave to IMUMA. And the money came on the right time, because there is food problem here at IMUMA, we have to pay anual NGO fees, and the rest of the money we will start on cleaning the land farm we bought and we have to buy bushknieves/ matchetes, hoes, folks, rakes, axes, etc. All is all we are so appreciate for the supportive donations. Regards, Shariff"

I am happy to hear that we have already started to help!

More news to come in a few hours....

Malaria Monday's

Left to Right (Back): Christy, Joe, Brian, Me!, Aba, Amanda, Jess, Jen, Dave
(Front): Elisha, Chelsy, Ashley

Malaria Monday's start today for the group! Our trip is under way...Sort of :)

Moyo Mmoja Guest House

Here is a link to the guest house in which we will be staying at in Bagamoyo.


http://moyommoja.org/members/news?mode=static&cat=9108&zid=NOC10000589&mother=0&sub=0

The Countdown

I finished my exams last Friday and now I am able to concentrate on the trip! I have found it very hard to balance my time and my efforts in terms of what I need to do and what I want to do. For the past few months I had to concentrate on school one hundred percent, it had to be my first priority, I had to place my involvement with Tanzania to the back of my mind. Without Champlain College, what I do at Champlain and my academic performance I would not have this opportunity.

This Thursday I plan to meet with a couple who have recently traveled to Tanzania. I look forward to hearing their perspective of the country and the culture and thus comparing it with the experience in which I will have upon my return.

I also hope to speak with a father of a little girl who I watch at the after school program who worked in Tanzania and the surrounding countries.

Additionally, my birthday partner Phoebe Barash traveled to Tanzania when she was a teenager and did volunteer work in the country.

There are so many local connections to Tanzania within our community. I would have never guessed. It was through speaking up and putting the world out there that people came forth with a tremendous amount of advice based upon their experiences to offer me.

I believe that everyone's perspective will be useful for me to hear!

Group Website

Joe Mester, a Junior at Champlain College and also member of our trip going to Tanzania, is very talented with computers. He graciously used his skills to create a brochure for our trip and also a group website. The website provides the history of the trip, information about the current trip, news from the two orphanages that we will be volunteering at and photos from the previous year. Members of this years trip have blog links (linking you to this site!) and also biography pages with photos. To access our biographies, follow the "Current Trip" link and scroll down to the bottom of the page. Thank you Joe for bringing our trip to the land of "Virtual Life", the world wide web. Please feel free to share the group website with anyone you know!

Homepage: http://www.teachfortomorrowcc.com/index.html

My Biography: http://www.teachfortomorrowcc.com/nichole_baker.html