to catch you up real quick...

well hello :) I love you first off. I have tried to upload photos.. but most of the time there is a problem with the upload. so sorry.. i guess you will just have to wait :) and maybe even i will make you come party with me while i show you.. you know.. a benefit..like $5 charge to support PSA.. and then you can see all of the photos..hmm.. maybe ;) i know ..just ideas ideas..
okay.. so what have i been up tooo... well also please let me know what you have been up to.. seems a little self centered of me when i write these things.. so i write them with my mum mostly in mind.. and then i figure if anyone else reads it .. its a bonus.
so i arrived in TZ on friday.. hung out at the hotel.. met the ocean.. and was reunited with Sylvie and Ian. We had a great time, even though both were sick. Ian had lost the skin on the bottom of his feet due to playing basketball outside barefoot..this is mostly due to the anti-malaria medicine he was on, and the side effects of that.. is weakening of the skin. sort of speak.. and Sylvie.. well she had malaria.. hmm.. not fun.. not cool. but she caught it with in 12 hours..so the medicine was able to treat it and she was fine by sunday. hey did you know in seattle we are trying to find a vaccine. click here for more info on that. i love how science and seattle is global.. okay well so friday., yeah we eat.. we hang out.. we catch up. it is lovely. saturday we wake.. we hang out at the ocean.. we play we talk.. we eat.. we drink.. we are merry and joyful. sunday.. same sorts of things.. also we headed into town took pictures.. played.. relaxed.. read. Monday.. school!!!! i went with Sylvie and Ian to school... they are working here. the kids are adorable.. so in TZ it is summer break.. and some kids are taking summer school to get them prepared for high school. they are called the preform 1 class. There is about 7 kids in the class. and ian and sylvie are the unofficial teachers. they are still waiting on their teaching visas to come through. so now.. they are undercover..they are called tutors.. and teachers assistants.. but yet the teachers.. that should be teaching.. may duck out a class or two when sylvie and ian are there.. so then Sylvie and Ian get to teach. :) It was really special to watch them teach.. social studies.. remember this subject.. i still have no idea what this truly means.. so anyway.. the class was on geography of TZ and on english greetings.. like "hello..my name is.... I live.... and I am so and so old. " they had little skits to do with the class.. pretty cute. pretty neat. you can see why sylvie and ian teach.. you can tell how important caring, loving, intelligent teachers are in the world. How wonderful they are.. how important they are. teachers.. students.. education.
sylvie and i were talking afterwards. i was thanking her for her work. how beautiful it is that she teaches. She made a really good point. she said all that really matters in life.. is education and health.
i think she is absolutely right.
I didn't stay with them the entire day.. it felt like it was 120 degrees outside.. sweating as soon as the door opens hot. sweaty and gross. and i felt heat sick.. so i layed down while they taught the last class of the day. Computer training. Sylvie and Ian taught kids how to use the computer. Some of the kids.. this was their first time ever turning on a computer. The impact is HUGE they have. zero to 2010 in less then a click. fascinating how this is.
I noticed this with rwanda too.. it is like the third world gets to jump and skip most of our technological mistakes..or steps.. like the land line. no one has a phone line.. but most people have cell phones. they just jump to current technologies. i mean why not though right. why take the long road.. when you see the short cuts.
i wish they saw the short cuts with waste management.
In tanzania.. they burn.. they burn the waste.. but guess what.. long polymer chains.. don't burn.. ie.. plastics don't burn.. so you walk around and you see these lands.. burned and ashed.. with plastic remaining.. everywhere. i see it all around. i hate it. i hate that we have plastic bottles.. plastics that can't be recycled easily. i don't think they have any company coming around to pick up trash. they just individually reuse it. or burn it. or just leave it exposed in the land. in the road. in the ocean.
I wondered about waste in Rwanda. what happens to it.
have you ever seen the story of stuff? it is a quick video.. check it out. here.
anyway.. it gets you thinking.. i saw this a few years ago.. and got a sort of confirmation that we really need to figure out a way to have stuff that is sustainable. stuff can be good. and can be sustainable. we are smart enough now to make such things. i am confused as to why we don't. i doubt that it is just money. and i am sure there are tons of people working on better solutions. i like how we have sugar based plastics that are decompostable. pretty neato. we are getting close i hope. it stinks that the 3rd world cant skip the first worlds waste problems.. and just already be sustainable. and ecofriendly.
rwanda is much cleaner then tanzania. rwanda follows rules. follows rules religiously. each moto and moto rider must wear helmets. in tanzania.. the bikers don't carry a second helmet, and they probably don't have one for themselves either. Rwanda is a young country. Tanzania.. i see a lot more "wiser" individuals. ;) Rwanda smiles more.. i think out of courtesy. Tanzania they will stare more with out any look in their face. Rwanda is proper. Tanzania is free. it is funny though that Rwanda didn't pass the antihomosexual bill.. and yet Tanzania did. So in TZ it is against the law for instance to be gay. but since no one here cares about laws.. it is not enforced. nor even acknowledged. however, in Rwanda.. if it was passed.. it would have been enforced. I really am thankful and more appreciative of HDI/Aflodis/Cedy's work on human rights. It is a great thing that Rwanda is the only east country with it allowed. And it would have been the only country that would have prosecuted. Otherwise, all east african countries don't care.won't enforce the laws. it is interesting.. gay rights in america too.. i have heard stories while i have been away.. about bullying. about the young man that committed suicide. this breaks my heart.
i am naive of course. and don't understand the importance of regulating other people lives. I am unsure of what regulating love really accomplishes? i wonder if we have done any good by doing such things? i wonder if making people feel different or outsiders makes the other majority feel better or what. i am sorry i am pretty stupid. i just don't get it. i dont' get humanities need to marginalize people.. based on any number of reasons. why make people an outlier? why make people different. and then impose a hierarchy. what i know.. is that i know what is right and wrong for me. i know what makes sense. what doesn't make sense. but to impose my beliefs onto others (when of course they are not causing direct harm) makes no sense. i have no idea if they should take a left or a right. or go up or down. how can i know such ridiculous things? the world is more beautiful when we paint it with different colors.
this black and white thing.. is cool.. but i love me a rainbow.
soo what did i do today.. well i decided i needed a day by myself.. so i decided to hang out with just me.. well that was until i went out.. on the beach started taking pictures.. and this guy comes up to me. he seems friendly enough. and i like his smile. it seems authentic. he asks if i want to see his art. i say sure. i go up and look at it. it is beautiful. Bagamoyo is an art town. it has the number one art school in TZ here. and it shows by all the vendors. i love artist. i love art towns and beach towns. they kinda go hand and hand for some reason. i guess the ocean is just that inspirational.
I start talking to him.. and he asks if i want to go around town today and he will show me some places to take pictures. he said we can go by bike. i know i know i know .. what you are thinking. i should say no.. continue on my day.. alone. but no. i am in africa. i liked his smile. so i said sure. bring on the adventure. it is daylight and he is not that big. we rent bikes (bicycles) and he takes me down to the fish market. he shows me around. introduces me to people. we have a soda in the local place. there were three girls there. they wanted me to take pictures of them. So i do. that was fun. While we are there he asks if i want to smoke. i tell him no thanks. he has a weed smoke i think.. and chills out. he seems more Jamaican to me at this point but i laugh. he now is for sure harmless. we finish our pop.. and head out.. out to the school. he wants to show me the carving school where he studied. We biked up there and I hung out with his art teacher and his art teachers friends. It was a cool little loft of a place.. there was a small bed up the bamboo stairs.. to the open wind thatched roof hut. blank canvas all around.. and sculptures available for sell. i buy a small post card for my friend Jenn Cota. she is a mum with a little one. the post card is of an african mum with a little one. kinda cute. (i know.. all my other friends i got you possibly a little something too.. even if it was just a photograph that made me think of you) anyway.. i talk with them for a bit and they offer me art classes. i wish i was staying longer. i would for sure. learn from the local artists. the best of tanzania. we then get back on our bikes are ride around town. he showed me some more places.. took some photos but primarily just enjoyed the simpleness of riding a bike in the yellow sand around this beach town. through the mud huts with sticks exposed, and then through the left over concrete buildings.. looking at art in motion.
i stopped by his hut at the end. and i bought a little sculpture for myself. to remind me of the good we all have. the gratefulness of bounty. the pleasure in sharing. the gift in unity.

i love you.. that was long.. now i am going back to the ocean. and soon will meet with S + I.

enjoy your day!!!

Love you,
Lizzie