One of the markets in Dar and some of the clothes they sell

This is the home i am staying at.

Ruhiyyih is the one with the light top, she is one of my favorite students and she doesnt even go to Ruaha but lives in the same home where i am staying. She is 11, speaks excellent english for her age and she is a very active Baha'i and goes to a muslim elementary school which is the closest elementary school. Her friend's name is Jenifa (Black top)

Junior Youth group on a field trip to a big rock in Iringa

African kids learning about the Baha'i Faith

Say Hello to my little friend

The year of service group of youth at Ruaha Secondary School enjoying a nice meal at Hasty Tasty restaurent. Left to Right:(Roya[sweden],Rahan[New Mexico],Sara[New Zealand],

Adrian[New Zealand],Maya[Australia],Nabil[ecaudor] and me.

One Month in Africa

Well, Its been almost one month since i arrived in Africa back in April, and i cant believe my time here is going really fast. It is now summer in Victoria, and all my friends and family are probably preparing for their summer holidays and wondering where to go camping, and what places i should visit over my holidays.

Well, If anyone can manage i have one word for you. AFRICA.

It is an amazing continent, the people here are so warm and friendly and they will give you all they have to put a smile on your face.

I am trying to put into words what i have expierenced over the last month, and its really hard to say because i am starting to become more and more African every day. So things are starting to get more normal.

I was hoping to upload some pictures for you, but the line speed is too slow. Will try in the next few weeks however. But for now, I will explain some expierences i have.

The famous "Dala Dala"s. For those who have been to Africa, you have heard of these buses before (Some places they call them minibusses, in Isreal they call them Shruets. Basically they look like a big minivan with nothing but 10-12 seats in them and they transport the Tanzanian population everywhere. It would be great if there was only twelve people in the minibus, but many times they squeeze 15-20. I have once stood for the entire 15 minutes up the hill to Iriniga town, and for a big boy like me, its very tiring and painful.

But the price is right, 200 Tanzanian Schilling (about 20 cents). The only other option is to take a taxi to town, but that costs between 3-4 cdn$, and the only time we do that, is when there are 3-4 of us, and we have lots of groceries from the market.

My motto is you haven't lived till you ride in one of these minibusses with 20 people crammed to the max, and someones arm is poking your back, and you hear a chicken in someones armbag.

Anyways, that believe it or not is starting to get ordinary for me.

Banks are great here, In a small town like Iringa, I can go to the ATM of a bank called NBC(National Bank of Commerce) and withdrawl tanzanian schillings from my Royal Bank Account. Only catch is Royal Bank charges me $5 cdn per withdrawl, and that is alot of money here. I have tried another bank in Dar es Salaam and its the same surcharge.

I guess you pay for convenience.

My next adventure that i have yet to go on, is a bus ride to Dar, and then after a two day visit, i will take the bus and train to a small town called Tabora, where my two Canadian Baha'i Friends are staying. My plans are definite, but i might start out on this trek on Thursday.

There are three bus lines in Tanzania, and all of them lets just say do not have a good safety record. So Each trip can be quite an adventure, but for $15 cdn to travel 8 hours, in a relatively comfortable (pseudo Greyhound) bus, over 200 kms, is a great deal, so why not. Flying i have been told is also a good option in Tanzania, but only for people who are planning short trips to Tanzania, because time is of the essence.

Well, I hope to write more when i have new adventures, but for now.

KwaHeri (good-bye in Kiswahili) from Tanzania
Omid Zamani

Week 1 in Iringa

Well I have been in Iringa for one week now and here are a list of my first impressions:

- Its a small town of about 100,000 or so
- Everyone is friendly and wants to chat with me, in Kswahili. As you know i don't know Kswahili. I know about 10-20 words so at least they get a good chuckle when i say hello, how are you, or count to 4 for them at the shops. (mjeyo, mbili, tatu, nne, 1,2,3,4)
- The Staff at the high school are very kind and caring, they are trying hard to attend to my needs on the first few days i have been here. I am staying in someones home and they are taking very good care of me, I am eating better than i usually do back home (I dont eat bachelor food every night)
- Iringa does not have many amenities, restaurents, coffee shops, places to go and unwind, and unless you know how to barter or speak Kswahili, My trips in town have not been very useful. They might be more useful the longer i stay here.
- There are two nice restaurents that we have visited while i have been here. One place is really special. All the workers are deaf, and if you want to order something you have to write the order on a piece of paper and then try to show the waitstaff what you want, many times, the item you selected is not available so you go through your own sign language to order something, its actually very bonding. And since i dont speak Kswahili, its very neat to communicate in other forms.
- At the school there are over 700 kids from all over Tanzania, and some kids that are from Kenya, Uganda, and two kids from India whose parents have lived here their whole lives.
- There is a basketball court, a volleyball net, and a very large soccer field (one of the better ones in Iringa, although they dont cut the grass/shrub). I have played in a couple of scrimmages, and watched some inter-class and inter-school matches. The girls dont play soccer here, they play net ball.
- The 700 students are broken up into 7 different grades
Pre-Form I (kids that have no english and need to have prep before they enter grade 8)
Form I (Grade 8 back home)
Form II (Grade 9 back home)
Form III (Grade 10 back home)
Form IV (Grade 11 back home)
Form V (Grade 12 back home)
Form VI (Grade 13 US)

There is also O-Level (ordinary) and A-Level (Honors Level)

They study most subjects we have back home, Geography, History, Math, English, Computer Class, etc. They also have a mandatory religions class, and the Baha'i kids also do lots of activities, including a mandatory Junior Youth Program.
- My first Computer Tasks are as follows

Figure out how Windows 2003 Server Security work (Paul, if you are reading this, msn me, maybe you can step me through this. hehehe) I will also be building Access databases to centralize all the Schools data. They currently have all the data in many different spreadsheets on different computers.
- The computer lab has 20 working computers and about 10 computers that need something to make them work (UPS, moniter, keyboard, cleaning, new hard drives, etc.)
- I also plan on teaching the Staff more complicated stuff like Excel and Access and how to use the more powerful tools on the computers.

Anyways until next time, I hope this gives you a better insight of where I am in the world, and what i am up to.

If you want to email me use ozamani9@gmail.com
If you want to msn me use ozamani9@hotmail.com (add me to your contacts)

please click the comment after each post, and let me know what you think so far.

Cheers
Omid in Tanzania

Arrived in Iringa.............

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It is 10:19am right now, I am sitting at a Internet Cafe in Iringa. I apologize in advance but this post is going to go all over the place. Please see if you can follow it

I have been going to bed late (11:00 our time and getting up 5:30am our time) I am still fighting jet lag. The good news is I am not napping in the afternoons so i will eventually get over this.

AFRICA has changed so much since 10 years ago. All the amenities can be found in a small town like Iringa, cel phone cards, cel phones, clothes, restarurents, INTERNET CAFE thats where i am now. It cost 1000 (94 cents) shilingi an hour, which is cheap for me, but expensive for the locals, there are some university students here, that need to use the internet for their studies.

Religion is very important here and a big part of every day life. First biggest culture shock was the call to Prayer in Dar es Salaam, there were three moslem mosques in the neighborhood i stayed in, and as i was fighting jet lag, I was awake at 5:00AM, when the call to prayer happens, and everybodys clock is a little different so i actually heard it at three different times :) heheheehe.

All the schools are either Christian or Muslim, and we are the only Baha'i school, in Iringa Region. Neat thing here, people dont care if you are Christian, Muslim (there is a very large muslim community here) or a Baha'i, they all say Kariboo (Welcome) and Habari (Hello) Most people know the staff at the Ruahu school, so it will just be a matter of time before people here know i am a working there. its really neat actually. If you like to keep a low profile and just go about your day, I wouldnt reccommend coming here if you are mzungu (not African, or Arab) Usually the Europeans that are here are called Mzungus. There arent many, and everybody looks you up and down. (For anyone that has travelled to a remote country where foreigners are rare, I am sure you have had this feeling.)

Iringa is a small town of about 150,000, its cold, and windy, reminds me of an African Victoria actually :) :) :) , everyone who knows i am a canadain told me i would love Iringa. So far I do. Time is the hardest thing to get used to here, Its got a relax (jamiacan relaxed) attitude, People say to me relax, chill out man, things happen very slowly here. (In a very loving way mind you)

and when i am frustrutated or impatient with something the people say Hakuna Mutata (no worries) So everyone who reads this blog will have learned two words in Swahili or if you have watched the Lion King hehehehe.

I have met some really cool people at the school, Nabil, Half persian Half Ecuadorian guy who loves Football, he is a Year of Service volunteer, teaching Geography, Rahan, Half Persian Half American from New Mexico, US is the resident computer expert here and teaches many computer science classes, (although he has no formal training), I sometimes feel overqualified to teach computers here, but it is also very humbling. There are some things i dont know that i need to learn about. Windows Servers and networking and also Mauvis Beacon (teaching kids how to type), and debugging problems, and sometime even fixing computers. The motto i have learned is if its broke, you fix it yourself, and if you dont know how, you learn.

There are also two girls from Austrialia and New Zealand, but i dont know them very well yet

I will try and post more about what i am going to be doing here as soon as i found out myself hehehe