Nipo nyumbani!

I am home! (Singapore, that is, for those of you who can't keep up :))

After a protracted trip, with a stopover in Nairobi and another in Dubai, I am relaxing. I almost wrote 'finally' relaxing, but that would imply I'm always busy in Moshi -- which isn't quite accurate! There's always work to be done, but it's nothing like the pace of life in the U.S., which has been a welcome, if boring at times, change! More on this in the next post...

Stopover #1: Nairobi.

I was convinced/convinced myself to go to the annual Nairobi horse show. Terrie, the lady who owns the horses I ride in Moshi, had taken hers there and needed riders, and since I was flying through anyway, I just added 12 hours to my trip to do one dressage test -- and see my friends in Nairobi, of course :). (For those of you who don't quite know what dressage is -- wikipedia to the rescue! Although this description is the super intense, classical dressage, and what I did was far less demanding.)

What a production! As I always say, I wish I had pictures to show you -- but I was too stressed before my test to take pictures and had to leave immediately after for the airport. (And the groom, who was supposed to take pictures of me during my test, couldn't quite figure out my camera. Next time... if there is one). It's bit hard to describe, but I'll try... (especially for Becky, since you're probably the only one who can really relate!)

First, the horses. There were easily greater than 100 horses there, all of whom were groomed incredibly fashionably. Tails styled, manes braided, coats gleaming, tack shining. Simply regal, despite being a bit antsy given the new surroundings and overwhelming activity in the stables. R&B, the horse I was supposed to ride for one test, was so up she wouldn't walk properly and even stepped on me!

The grounds. It was quite a beautiful setting--Jamhuri Park, where all the expos in Nairobi occur. So many monkeys!!! And even more arenas -- main jumping, main dressage, practice arenas by the dozen, areas to lunge the horses, paddocks. I'm sure this is pretty standard as horse shows go, but never having been to one, I didn't know what expect from Nairobi.

The people. Probably the most interesting part. First of all, it was mzungu-central! All the riders were Caucasian, British-accented ex-pats or in-country 1st- or 2nd-generation individuals. With their African grooms; understandable, but quite a contrast nonetheless. Mostly women, of varying ages, mostly riding horses as their primary occupation. As much as I love riding, I could never imagine my livelihood being riding horses! So you can imagine -- an expensive sport to begin with, coupled with primarily one income source.. and obviously, some other source of wealth. As Terrie said, it's mostly rich women spending their husband's money! Although some people were nice, overall there was definitely an atmosphere of pretension... and condescension. To me, it felt like the 'insiders' were judging the 'outsiders' at the show.

The experience. I'll start by saying I had never practiced the test I rode. Granted, it wasn't technically difficult - circles at the trot and canter, diagonal changes, extensions and collections - but never having ridden a test or been judged, I was nervous!! I discreetly changed into britches, a nice white shirt, a black coat, and nice dressage boots in the stables. At least I now look the part of a rider, I thought -- a bit of a confidence boost, until I started thinking about the task ahead.

Mr. Bean, the horse I rode, wasn't picking up his left lead canter, so to encourage him forward I rode in spurs, which I've never done with him; thus, an additional challenge. Then, I had to find a stranger to call out my test because Terrie was jumping during my test. I started and felt good -- my trots were decent... but then came time for the canter. He didn't pick up the left lead, and in my battle to correct, I have no idea what happened but all of a sudden we were outside the arena! Automatic DQ, technically :(

How embarrassing! I was so frustrated and disappointed in myself. I finished the test, incredibly unhappy with my riding. I'm better than that, I thought immediately; however, it was certainly a humbling experience, and I realized I need to spend many hours, days, even weeks, riding, to feel comfortable going into another test. I asked the judge how I did: turns out I need to work on my left lead canter and staying on course. Go figure :/ I think she visibly saw the disappointment (bordering on tears, I'll admit) on my face and left me on a positive note: at least my position was nice.

So, there you have it -- despite my performance, it was worth experiencing. I realized that although I want to be a much better rider, I enjoy riding for me -- not for some artificial test in some artificial environment with judges. This is my fun hobby and I hope to keep it that way!

Stopover #2: Dubai.

In a word, opulent. Maybe it's just coming from Africa that led to my initial impression, although I think the blinding lights in the airport alone require more megawatts than Moshi's daily usage! You walk out of the plane into a giant, overlit arrival lounge where you take an elevator, whose door is covered with a humongous picture of the Atlantis hotel on Palm Jumeirah Island, down to an oversized immigration department... are you catching on to the supersized feel?

Palm Jumeirah Island (thanks, wikipedia!)

I spent a day in Dubai with my dad, who had a few meetings there. Here are some pictures, including the tallest building in the world. I did not get a picture of the hotel in the ocean, the Burj al Arab, because it was raining and no longer warranted a stopover!

It's interesting being in Dubai -- Muslim women decide if and how they want to veil themselves, and the result spans the gamut of possibilities. But no matter the coverage, they are quite stylishly dressed -- brand name clothes, I assume, but definitely brand name shoes, bag, and make-up, which is very obvious because those are the only things you can see sometimes!! Polygamy is totally cool, too. The Sheikh has 3 wives (or is it 4?), and it appears many other men do, too!

The Sheikh's palace -- Brandenburg gate, anyone?

It's yellow. Everything is yellow. The sand, the buildings, the haze. Thank goodness the city's many skyscrapers have unique architecture -- some variety!

Everything is really far away from everything else, which means lots of driving and lots of traffic! They have reclaimed lots of land, creating lots of islands off the coast -- all with cool designs, of course. Buuut, given the terrible state of the economy, lots of construction has come to screeching halt. So many half-finished buildings remain exposed to the environment (sandstorms, and apparently it RAINS in Dubai b/c of all the trees they've planted!!), which probably means that destruction is likely to follow the economic rebound, whenever that may be.

What's there to do in Dubai? SHOP! And eat. Just like Singapore :) And, on a good day, hang out with the lazy, smelly camels.... it remains a desert, despite their attempts at planting trees everywhere.

The Clothes Souk -- a gold mine :)
OK, no treasures here, though...

My most favorite parts: (1) the pretty jewelry in the Gold Souk (it was so nice to see some dainty things), (2) the amazing dried fruits and nuts -- probably the largest dates, figs, and walnuts I've ever seen, and they taste every bit as they look, (3) the fountains at the Dubai Mall -- a water show of rotating, swinging, alternating fountains in the main, soccer field-sized courtyard of the mall -- stunning!, and (4) the haggling at the clothing souks (personal experience!).

After my 1-day tour of Dubai, we flew to Singapore. Because so few people are reading this blog, I'll admit -- I got a sweet upgrade to business class! Lucky me!! A mattress on top of my seat that already reclines ~178 degrees, endless movies, decent food, and a starry plane ceiling that changes colors to match the night sky. Life was good :)

Finally, being home and talking to people about my life in Tanzania has given me much opportunity to reflect on my life for the past few months. More on that in the next post...

Oh PS -- we could see the Sheikh's exercise track for his horses from our hotel :)

A Fogarty Thanksgiving: Lake Naivasha, Kenya

Only in the middle of East Africa would I have plans for three Thanksgiving dinners! Stop #1: Lake Naivasha, Kenya.

As we had so much fun rafting the Nile, we left Uganda promising to see each other soon, and we pulled it off -- this time, in only 12 emails :) Kristin and Anne, our Fogarty Nairobi rockstars, rented a house on Lake Naivasha in Kenya, northwest of Nairobi in the Rift Valley. They boasted of flamingoes, hippoes, and giraffes in the yard of the house (after all, it is named Twiga House, or Giraffe House in Swahili), but I was a bit skeptical and decided to go mainly to see my favorite Fogarty East Africa friends.

After a late night Mexican potluck at my house the night before I left, for which I made 30 tortillas from scratch, and some later night packing, Andy and I left at 545 in the morning to catch a shuttle to Nairobi, a taxi to the dala dala stand in Nairobi, then a dala dala from Nairobi to Naivasha town, then a mysterious ride from Naivasha town to the house.... easy, right? The 8+ hour bus ride to Nairobi was definitely grueling, with the roughest roads I've been on in a long time... especially on the Tanzania side. At least the Kenya side it looks like they are trying to pave a road right next to the dirt diversion. Good thing I was so tired from the night before I slept practically the entire way to Nairobi!

Waiting for the matatu in Nairobi... corruption IS evil!

The journey was looking up, as our dala dala (or matatu in Kenyan kiswahili) to Naivasha had an LCD screen -- I kid you not!
AND, in Kenya, you can't pack more than 14 people in a matatu!!! A real upgrade from Tanzanian dala dalas :) Apparently the favored form of matatu entertainment is music videos of kiswahili songs, alternating between seemingly activist songs about hunger and/or poverty and random artists dancing in their yards. We were pretty convinced it was Kenyan President Kibaki in propaganda videos for a while...

Anyway, we finally made it to Naivasha town AND finally found Lisa, a fellow from Kisumu, Kenya, who picked us up and took us to the house... and 14 hours after our journey had begun, we were in Twiga House!

Some pictures of the beautiful house and grounds...

We had Mexican night with chapati, beans, cheese, guacamole (my new fav food in Africa), and some awesome mole as we awaited for the Samar's arrival... all told, the Fogarty count was 10: Me and Maria from Tanzania, Anne and Kristin from Nairobi, Gerry and Todd from Eldoret, Kenya, Lisa from Kisumu, Kenya, Miriam and Samar from Kampala, and Miriam's Ugandan twin Teddy and her two boys!

We woke up the next morning energized to go hiking a gorge in Hell's Gate... I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, except to say that it was one of the most amazing hikes I've been on! Some might even say 'gorge'-ous.... :) Especially the parts where we were either scaling rock walls or hugging a cliff wall walking on a 1 foot wide pathway next an albeit-shallow river with a 1-year-old and 4-year-old.

Gorgeous sandstone!

We scaled this at the end! (just kidding... )

PB&J sandwiches, apples, and carrots later, we came home to start the Thanksgiving dinner process... an 18lb turkey, stuffing (even veggie stuffing for us vegetarians, thanks Anne!), beans, mashed potatoes, pumpkin soup, oh and did I mention pies?!?! Anne and Kristin stepped up to the task with 2 apple pies (in addition to all the other cooking they did), but Todd was the unexpected hero! He make 2 pumpkin pies, chocolate chip and snickerdoodle cookies, and brought the supplies for pina coladas on top of it all.... and managed to keep the pies flat on the matatu + motorcycle transport he required to get to Naivasha!!!

Dinner was simply amazing -- I love my Fogarties! Hanging out in the house and catching up was awesome, as some of us *ahem Gerry, Miriam, and Todd* made some slightly inappropriate jokes about wild natives.
We got to watch our Nile rafting adventure video -- where we caught our happy-go-lucky guide Taabani Taabani purposefully flipping us on the last rapid!!!! It was definitely hilarious to see how we were always the only boat to have its passengers crouching, fearing the worst at every rapid!

Sunday, post a leftover-pie breakfast, we set out to "Crescent" "Island" (Crescent Island seems to be neither a Crescent nor an Island... talk amongst yourselves... :)) on Lake Naivasha, to walk among the wildlife. It turns out Out of Africa was filmed there, by the way! When we got to Crescent Island, after some amazing haggling by Anne's husband Damien, a true pro at negotiating in Kenya, we found out the giraffes had just had babies!!!! There was a 4-day old and a 5-day old! How cute -- although (1) they sure are big for days old, and (2) the mama and papa giraffe were none-too-pleased to have these crazy mzungu tourists encroaching on their space.

After some time admiring the giraffes, we moved on to the zebras... although we had a bit more fun with them, as Gerry, Miriam, Damien, Anne, and I charged them making bird sounds to see their reaction. I don't think they've ever met some mzungu kicha (crazy foreigners) quite like us, as they scampered away... of course, I'm sure it was the sound of birds, their most feared predator, that drove them way..... ???!???!

Aaaand just like that, our weekend get away was "finished" (a Kenyan English classic, apparently -- things are just 'finished' and one has no idea what that means)... with plans for a beach weekend next and some Fogarty t-shirts...

View from our house at dusk

The Rift Valley

Halloween, Moshi-style!

As usual, much to catch up on!

Although I'm sure you can't wait to hear about my crazy Halloween, first, we begin with my dad's whirlwind less-than-24-hour visit of Moshi. It was so fast we didn't even have time for a picture to document the event!!! :(

A not-so-speedy late night dinner at Milan's, the Indian vegetarian restaurant in downtown Moshi that probably has the best Indian food here, followed by a nighttime tour of sleepy Moshi. We woke up early the next day and went into town, where it turns out the market looks like India in the 60s according to my dad. We attempted to visit KCMC, but just walking into the main hospital building was sufficient for my faint-of-heart father :) We did catch both my office as well as the head of the ob/gyn department here, who was super excited to meet my dad as he will be spending 3 months in Singapore this year.

Of course, no visit to Moshi is complete without visiting the stables at ISM, so we said hi to Mr. Bean and R&B, the two horses whom I ride, as well as met, either intentionally or by accident, mostly everyone with whom I work.

And just like that, the trip was done, and though I was really sad to say goodbye, at least I'm going home in less than a month now!!

But the mad dash that was Halloween weekend continued, as we had to prepare our costumes out of nothing! At the time I also had another housemate, Naz, an awesome urogyn fellow from Duke who was in Tanzania to spend a week with Jeff and others doing fistula surgeries all week in a tiny rural town/village in the middle of Tanzania (think: no power every day!). Luckily, she came back from Berega in time to have a Moshi Halloween.

None of us knew what to expect -- we just knew that the mzungu bar, the Watering Hole, was having a party and playing the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Though I've yet to see the movie, I still had no desire, so we planned a late arrival. Given that I was organizing the first ever blood drive in Moshi just a week after Halloween, I decided to dress up like a drop of blood and advertise my blood drive! Taking a red bedsheet and wrapping like a drop aka toga was no easy feat, especially as I nixed all possibility to go to the bathroom that night! Lucky for me, Holly (my permanent roommate) and Naz were super excited about my costume and helped me make the necessary accoutrements to the costume.

Shamelessly advertising:) You'll note that I also
pasted "O-neg" onto myself!

Naz decided to take like 10 mosquito nets and wrap them around herself like a mummy, and Holly was a pirate! Andy dressed up as mzungu sana -- ie, the ultimate tourist, with his safari shirt, water bottle, 10 million maps, and snapping pictures of everything. Pretty classic :)

The Watering Hole party was actually super fun!! I was amazed at the number of ex-pats, mostly European, who live in Moshi, and I met a ton of new people!

When everyone was ready to go home at 2am, I wasn't... so I stayed out with my friend Jan (ie Elvis, in the above pics) at the Watering Hole party, where we were the last to leave at 330am... and then went out to another bar -- the 'Kool Bar' -- to play pool and hang out until 5am, until REALLY everything closed. I guess I finally had to go home..

So I caught a short nap, as I had to wake up the next morning at 9am to go to the Anglican church to announce the blood drive and recruit donors. Painful!!!!!!! I couldn't decide what was worse -- standing up to sing when I was so tired, or sitting quietly and drifting as I listened to the sermon. But it totally was worth it in the end, as a number of people were excited about the blood drive (and came, but I'm jumping ahead!)

My mad dash continued, as I was setting that day's hash, the 173rd Kilimanjaro hash, with my neighbor Suzanne. With 4 hours to go, we had no drinks or food and hadn't even set the trail!! So we quickly pulled all the beer, soda, chips, nuts, cookies together, prayed that Greg (hasher extraordinaire who established the Moshi hash club) would meet us soooooon, as we were setting it at his farm on the outskirts of Moshi.

Our peacock friend

But, of course Greg came through, and we started setting the hash... except I forgot the extra bag of flour (see above: mad dash!!!!) and Greg's dogs decided to get into it with the bulls and cows that surrounded us and got angry! We escaped (although just barely for Noodle, the small dog), and started setting the hash through Greg's coffee farm, crossed the requisite hash stream, meandered through green bean and maize plots, and just barely finished setting the hash before the first hasher, a runner, finished the course! (although they cheated, they found a shortcut!)

So the mad dash continued as we set up all the food and drinks and greeted the returning hashers... everything went well in the end and everyone enjoyed the hash, even the walkers who got thoroughly lost!

The kids return early!

Fountains in the yard

Relaxation finally came as Greg, Suzanne, Jan, a few others, and I sat on the lawn of Greg's parent's house and unwound with a few beers and many good stories...

Fogarty East Africa Unites!

After 55 emails of planning, we pulled it off!

The 7 Fogarties in East Africa (Miriam & Samar in Kampala, Anne & Kristin in Nairobi, Maria in Dar es Salaam, Todd in Eldoret, Kenya, and me) met up for a weekend in Kampala -- the main purpose being to raft the rapids at the source of the Nile. Seriously!

As everyone was bringing a +1 friend/husband, Andy (my partner in crime in my research program) and I set out to Kampala last weekend. We avoided the 7 hour drive to Nairobi + 14 hour bus ride to Kampala and sucked it up to pay the expensive but totally-worth-it direct plane ticket to Kampala instead. The drive from the airport to Kampala was beautiful -- Uganda is so lush and green, with sugarcane, banana trees, coffee everywhere! Nothing like the Tanzanian flat, dusty savanna. And their construction creates a striking contrast -- red terracotta roofs on whitewashed colonial-style buildings (but I guess I was too mesmerized to catch a picture!).

Driving into Kampala

Interesting billboards...

Friday in Kampala was totally random and fun! We walked through the heart of Kampala, Nakasero, had a pretty decent South Indian lunch, and ended up at an amazing coffee shop-cum-craft market and, of course, I bought the tourist-trap Ugandan paper bead necklaces. But they're beautiful!

Fanta passion!! My favorite

A blood drive in downtown Kampala (on Nakasero)!!
Kampala has these menacing storks roaming everywhere! They are about the size of a 4 year old child and look like they are going to abduct you, not deliver you a baby!

We met up with Miriam and Samar, our Kampala Fogarty hosts, Maria from Dar, and a bunch of Miriam's friends to go to an art gallery opening -- slightly a bummer as the power was out -- then proceeded to a basketball game at the Kampala YMCA. Totally random, right??

Andy, Miriam, Maria (in Dar), me

Well it turns out that one of Miriam's co-workers plays on the red team. It's still unclear what league this was or what was at stake, but it was a good game! And some ganja-smoking dude who kept walking onto the court and would mime playing a game or would chuck the ball at the goal only added to the level of entertainment :)

The ganja dude :)

The next day, we headed to Jinja, another picturesque drive to the source of the Nile near Lake Victoria -- although not before about 20 people tried to serve us! At least it was some of the best hummus and falafel I've ever had!

It was amazing -- we took a bus that was NOT crowded to the brim and then some. Everyone actually had a seat!!!! Crazy. After my Arusha-Moshi experience I definitely expect a can of sardines on every bus :) We picked up the Nairobi crew and headed to the Nile River Explorers campsite, which was awesome -- and free because we were rafting with them the next day! Definitely pretty good bandas, and the bathroom was quite clean -- although a long enough walk from our rooms that we either squatted in the bushes or waited til morning :)

The requisite Stanford crew pic -- Todd and Samar, former Stanford undergrads :)
Party before rafting the next day -- Miriam is so photogenic!
Some guys pasted on mustaches like Hitler and did Northern vs. Southern Hemisphere funnel competitions... we did NOT partake!

Our bandas

The pre-rafting pic

All trip we had been talking about having a 'calm' boat and an 'adventurous' boat, especially after reading this(link), but when it came down to it, I think none of us wanted to 'chicken' out and actually be in the 'calm' boat -- so we called ourselves the 'indifferent' boat instead. Our guide, Tabani Tabani, this happy-go-lucky Zimbabwean who's rafted the Zambezi (more intense than the Nile!), the Colorado River, and wants to go to Norway or New Zealand next, was awesome -- super entertaining and really laid back.

Having never been white water rafting before, I didn't know quite what to expect. Who starts with the Nile?!?! But to give you a quick recap -- the first 4 of 30 kilometers are the 'safety drill' where we learn to paddle, do a 'flip' drill, learn that 'feet forward' is how you want to be if you get flipped, and get lulled into a false sense of security about this adventure... until we hear the roar of the first rapid in the distance...

We only flipped twice!!! The first was on the '50-50' rapid, which really should be renamed as the 80-20 rapid. Most boats flipped! And that being my first flipping experience, I'd never felt the experience of fearing for my next breath -- and air insecurity is pretty much the worst feeling, I've decided. I was gasping and felt like I couldn't get out of the rapids fast enough, though of course I was fine and it was over in about 10 seconds. One day I'd really like to see what I looked like then -- my friend Anne said I looked petrified! But, I made it, and the second time we flipped, at 'The Other Place' (next to 'The Bad Place,' if you read the NYT article), I was definitely more prepared. Oh, and I lost my right contact to the Nile during our 50-50 flipping experience -- so I was essentially 50% blind for the rest of the trip :)

When we weren't flipping, which was 95% of the adventure, we were either battling the other boats with paddle splash wars, floating in the water and admiring the lush green riverbanks and wildlife, enjoying a pineapple lunch in the middle of the Nile, or going through some thrilling rapids and getting the splash of a lifetime! I think the NYT article definitely sensationalized a bit -- it wasn't that intense! But it definitely describes the experience of going through a rapid quite well. The roar is incredible -- Taabani was screaming at us! But that just made it all the more thrilling for me!

I was pretty proud of myself! Even though I thought hiking Lion's Head in Cape Town was 'the coolest thing I've done in a while,' rafting at the source of the Nile definitely beats that! I even bought a hoodie commemorating the experience :) Next time, the horseback riding safari...

Sorry no pictures -- you lose pretty much everything you take into the boat (like my contacts!) -- but we bought a DVD of us rafting -- some guy actually stands in the rapids to film you! So I'll have the memories forever :)

Our drive back to the campsite in this bus -- safe, no? :)

Our weekend ended almost before it began! We had a wazungu matatu (matatu in Uganda = dala dala in Tanzania) take us back to Kampala, where we essentially passed out and then left early the next morning. It was wonderful seeing all the Fogarties, 3 months after our DC orientation, hearing about everyone's research and lives in their respective cities. And it definitely motivated me to (1) learn more Swahili and (2) get into the community. So you'll have to hold me to that...