Africa & Coffee Articles VI

Africa:

• International Tanganyika Grade 4 Blog - Lucy's work blog has just been discovered!  It covers all four sections of Grade 4, but Lucy's posts are by far the bests (her class is 4-BL).  Check out the most recent post on the kids' newspaper articles on speakers that came in to tell them about Tanzania.  Unfortunately, I was unable to present on the Tanzanian coffee industry since I was out of town but our roommate Jacie stepped in to talk to the kids (Seems none of Lucy's kids wrote on coffee but there are some stories here).

• Huffington Post: From Rwanda to Libya: Who's Calling Whom a Cockroach Now? (3/1/11) - The documentary on the Rwandan Genocide cited in this article (Coexist) is not on Netflix but certainly sounds interesting.

• The East African: Dar on Brink of Darkness as Power Crisis Deepens (2/28/11) - The power cuts have been quite bad since it hasn't really rained in about four months.  Thankfully we have a generator that runs our refrigerator, fans, and lights (but not our stove or A/C).  Two weeks ago we did get a gas hotplate so we have been able to use it to cook when the power is out.

• WSJ: Danish Sailboat Hijacked in Indian Ocean (2/28/11) - Pirates are now interested in civilian leisure sailboats, not just big tankers.

• WSJ: Ivory Coast Lurches Toward Civil War (2/25/11) - Pretty wild that this has gone on for three months with no real end in sight.

• NYTimes: New Violence as Strongman of Ivory Coast Fights Ouster (2/23/11) - Ivory Coast was front and center on the news for a while but with Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, and Libya stirring the pot the news doesn't seem to care about Ivory Coast anymore.  Well, the incumbent President, who seems to have lost the election but won't turn over power, is still around and the guy who won continues to run a second government out of a hotel.  Anyway....it is still going on and eventually it will affect everyone as the prices Snickers and Green & Blacks are going to increase as cocoa prices continue to skyrocket (Ivory Coast is the world's largest cocoa producer).

• WSJ: Pirate Attack Force Leisure Sailors to Change Course (2/23/11) - Pirates are really not messing around.

• BBC: Tanzania Blasts: At Least 20 Dead in Dar es Salaam (2/17/11) - These explosions noticeably shook our house even though we are about 10 miles from the airport.  The neighborhood where the munitions depot is located would definitely termed low income and  was largely wiped out, leaving people homeless and pretty devastated.  There have been blood and clothes drives on going since the explosions.  The picture below was likely taken from an apartment building near our house and made it all the way to CNN (CNN: Explosions at Munitions Depot Rock District Near Dar es Salaam Airport).

Recent 4th Grade Highlights

As part of our "Survival Under Pressure" unit on plants, animals, and peoples that survive in extreme climates, we've been learning about heat, heat transfer, and insulation. IST doesn't have lab science until sixth grade, so designing and helping execute science experiments falls to me. Last week, my students applied their knowledge to the task of designing and building ice cube insulators. I was so impressed by their engagement, focus, and creativity.

As you can see below, our "control" ice cube did not fare well in the Dar es Salaam heat. It melted after only 15 minutes. But the winning insulator kept an ice cube solid for almost three hours! Way to go Bryce and Sean!

My fourth graders are currently learning about Tinga Tinga style painting in Art class. Renato painted this Tinga Tinga nameplate for me himself. It made my day.

Survived: Kilimanjaro Half Marathon

We returned Sunday from a great weekend in the northern part of Tanzania near the Kenya border and had an excellent half marathon experience.  We arrived at Kilimanjaro International Airport, which is pretty much halfway between Arusha and Moshi, on Friday afternoon.

You can see how "international" the airport is as people are just roaming the tarmac (including Lucy and our running friend Diana).

We took the Precision Air shuttle bus to Arusha for supper at a boutique hotel called The Bay Leaf that had been recommended to us by Matt and Nena (our housemates in Rwanda).

I had Kenyan beef and Lucy had a stuffed chicken dish.  Both were pretty good and the atmosphere was very pleasant, but it did not surpass Brew Bistro in Nairobi as the best restaurant we have been to East Africa.  We ate at Brew Bistro twice when we were in town over Christmas and would highly recommend it to anyone.

Birthday Weekend in Zanzibar

For my birthday this year, Lucy surprised me with planning a trip to Zanzibar to go swimming with giant sea turtles at the Chumbe Island Coral Park off the western coast of the island.  I returned from the field early Friday morning 28 January, had a few meetings in the office, and picked up Lucy to get on the last ferry of the day to Zanzibar (4pm).

We arrived in Stone Town around 6pm to make the sunset at the Africa House Hotel.

Kilimanjaro Half Marathon

After a few weeks of training (Lucy) and trying not to be hobbled by said training (Jon), Lucy and I are running the Kilimanjaro Half Marathon this weekend.  Lucy is in prime shape and ready to tackle part of the highest mountain in Africa (from base to peak, Kilimanjaro is actually the highest mountain in the world).  I hope to survive 21.1km (half uphill, half downhill) starting at an elevation around 3,500 feet.  We have to finish in the first 1,650 to receive medals and t-shirts so we have a goal.  This video pretty much sums it up.



We fly to Kilimanjaro Airport on Friday night and plan to go on a safari in Arusha National Park on Saturday.  The race begins at 7am Sunday morning (10pm Saturday night, CST) at the stadium in Moshi, home of this  business.

We fly back to Dar on Sunday afternoon.

Wish us luck!

Baby Elephants

A highlight of our time in Nairobi was our visit to The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. I'd been wanting to go there since last year when Jon, Nena and Suha visited. The trust takes in orphaned elephant babies who would be unable to survive in the wild (elephants subsist exclusively on their mothers' milk until they're two years old), hand rears them in the "elephant nursery," and then gradually reintroduces them into the wild. The nursery is in Nairobi National Park and the public is invited to see the keepers feed the elephants (using elephant-sized baby bottles).


After eating, the elephants drink water,


play,


and cool off in the mud.



The whole experience was just as cool as I'd imagined. I even got to pet this elephant, who was feeling friendly. She was quite bristly feeling, since she was covered with short wiry hairs, and rather muddy.


If you ever find yourself in Nairobi, this is a must-do activity!

Merry Christmas from London

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Lucy and I arrived in London for the holidays early Thursday morning after being snowed out in Nairobi for a few days. We changed from our shorts and flip flops at Heathrow and took the subway into town looking a bit like a traveling circus.

We are staying in a very nice flat in Chelsea that belongs to a friend of Lucy’s family.  Our blood has thinned significantly since leaving Hanover so it feels quite cold to us here and are each wearing multiple layers of long underwear at all times for safety.  The grocery store around the corner has been visited four times and we have stored up butter, cheese, and chocolate for the long winter ahead.

Yesterday afternoon we went to St. Paul’s for a carol service but were unable to get inside it was so full.  They had set up a jumbo screen to broadcast the service in a nearby square so we stood in the cold singing carols with a couple hundred of Lucy’s fellow countrymen.

After the service, we took the tube back to our neighborhood and did only what seemed appropriate when in England on Christmas Eve: stopped in the local pub for a snack and beer.  We had some excellent warm brie with red onion chutney and some sweet potato fries (Lucy: “best I’ve ever had”) to go with my Guinness and her blueberry cider.

This morning Lucy had a stocking for me with dark chocolate covered ginger and an orange in it.  We had tea and french toast for breakfast.  We went to church at St. Luke’s (built in 1825) across the street from the flat.

We have a small tree from Nakumatt in Nairobi with two maasai angel ornaments on it.  We don't have any presents, but we feel quite festive and are certainly happy to be here.

Nairobi Safari Day

This morning we did the Nairobi safari loop of Nairobi National Park, Elephant Orphanage, Giraffe Sanctuary, and Karen Blixen House.  We ran into a male lion on the side of the road while in the park and have some pretty awesome pictures.
 

Queue music from The Lion King: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack.

 Our flight was canceled to London tonight so we are in Nairobi for a few more days...

Rwanda Coffee Now on Sale in the U.S.

The 2010 coffee crop from Rwanda is now on sale and two of the roasters have called out TechnoServe in their marketing efforts.

• Intelligentsia Coffee: Zirikana, Rwanda: Kirezi - Intelligentsia is a high-end coffee roaster that has bought a significant amount of coffee from TechnoServe cooperatives in Rwanda.  The Kirezi cooperative that is highlighted in the coffee's "story" is a new group that received a ~$13K loan to finance a washing station because of the work that I am doing here.

• Peet's Coffee and Tea: Uzuri African Blend - Peet's has been a key buyer of TechnoServe coffee in East Africa for many years and views the Coffee Initiative as a valuable partner in Rwanda and Tanzania.  This year's Uzuri blend has been released and the reviews are pretty solid (check at the bottom of the first link above).  The page above also includes links to a slideshow with another TechnoServe cooperative Abangakarushwa and a video that I've included below.  The employees in the slideshow that do the sorting and drying at coffee wet mills in Rwanda make 500 Rwandan Francs a day (~$0.84), a very good wage in rural areas where cash wages are virtually non-existent.

These types of stories are the best way to explain what the Coffee Initiative is all about...

Happy Thanksgiving to Everyone!

Lucy made delicious pumpkin pies, and we have just returned from a Thanksgiving feast (after work of course).  Lucy is cutting the desserts with some friends below.  We are sorry we cannot be with our friends and family in the U.S but have been thinking of everyone.  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

On a related note, I haven't gotten a lot of feedback on a certain issue since being in Tanzania so thought Thanksgiving gatherings might be a good time to survey the crowd.  This issue concerned me during the last election and continues to be in the news quite regularly.

What would you do if Sarah Palin became President?

Let me know what you find out!

Africa & Coffee Articles V

Another installment of things that interest me!

Africa:

• NYTimes: In the Footsteps of the Museum's Gorillas (11/21/10) - Lucy found this interesting article linking the American Museum of Natrual History in New York to the Virunga Mountains in East Africa.  Apparently the scenes in the Hall of African Mammals are depictions of actual places from the 1920s and a curator from the museum is returning to the site where the gorillas scene originated.  Below is a picture from one of our visits to the Virungas last year with the same mountains from the museum behind us.  

• NYTimes: When Donations Go Astray (11/20/10) - Not a new thing but everyone should check how efficient charity organizations are before donating.

• NYTimes: Lost Boys of Sudan Fill in the Blanks of Their Past (11/20/10) - 20 years later resettled Sundanese find a link to their former lives. 

• WSJ: Banks Exit From Embassy Business (11/20/10) - Embassy banking is big business in Africa with so much aid money needing a home until it can be spent (or siphoned off to the government!).  Apparently in the U.S., the banking regulations have gotten so hairy with anti-money laundering rules that major banks are just walking away from embassy business.

• WSJ: Putting Cap on Bad Juju Conjures Up a Good Business (11/19/10) - Welcome to Africa!  You should read this article if you want to begin to understand how challenging it is to get things done here.  Also, the effects of this ride on Lucy's juju are currently unknown (but her driver is ready for the long winter!).

Thanksgiving in Tanzania

Jon and I are going to a Thanksgiving potluck tomorrow evening. Tomorrow is not a school or work holiday for us, so we'll head over for dinner.

This is one of the three pumpkin pies I made to contribute to the party. We don't have a pie pan, so as you can see, I improvised. I used this recipe from King Arthur Flour for the filling and one from smittenkitchen.com (have I mentioned how much I like her recipes??) for the crust.

Because you can't buy canned pumpkin here, I roasted 2 pumpkins in the oven and then scooped out the insides and pureed them in our blender. The blender is a big development for us--last year I had to mash the pumpkin by hand with a potato masher. Then I added spices, cream, milk, eggs, sugar etc. to the pumpkin, poured the filling into the pie crust, baked it, and voila!

Please notice the very appropriate tablecloth. I bought it last weekend at the fabric market downtown. I was quite excited!

I am very thankful for all of my friends and family, both near and far. I'll be thinking of you tomorrow. Happy Thanksgiving!

Ozymandias

Ozymandias

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

In sixth grade, I was lucky enough to have Mrs. Taliaferro as my English teacher. Under her expert guidence, we studied and memorized this Shelley poem. So, when I found myself in Luxor, the Brearley girl in me couldn't pass up the opportunity to visit the statue that (supposedly) inspired the poem. My friend Ruth and I even had a dramatic reading of the poem while overlooking it.

This is taken from the opposite direction as the picture above. Here, you can see what remains of his head and torso.


While there are no "trunkless legs" to be seen, both of his feet remain. This is me standing on the one that you can see in the top picture. Imagine how big the statue once was!

Egypt

I rode a camel by the pyramids of Giza,


visited the "bent" pyramid in Dashur,

saw the world's oldest boat,

sailed the Nile in Luxor (on a somewhat newer boat),

wore a headscarf,

saw too many tombs and temples to count,

and so much more.

Egypt is amazing!

Cinnamon Rolls

Cinnamon rolls (and a Rwandan potholder). What more do you need on a day off from school? For those of you who are interested in making your own cinnamon rolls, I used a recipe from my favorite food blog, smittenkitchen.com. Happy Eid!

Africa & Coffee Articles IV

The latest installment of things relevant to our lives in Africa (sort of):

• WSJ: African Brand Is Sweet on Obama (10/7/10) - Obama is all over Africa ("First Kenyan to be President of the United States").  The possibility of products with Obama are endless here.  Lucy has a lovely apron with Obama's face on it and had to stop me from buying these fashionable britches.

• WSJ: Troops Pledged to Somalia (10/7/10) - Uganda will provide the physical bodies if someone else pays.  Museveni has been President of Uganda for 24 years and was able to remove any mention of term limits from the constitution in 2006.
• WSJ: Catching Africa's Investment Bug Is Proving Contagious (10/6/10) - Yes, limited competition results in healthy margins, but can volatile exchange rates, corruption, political instability, and an unskilled labor force be overcome?  Cellular providers and breweries print money in Africa, but can other industries?
• WSJ: When Togo Played Bahrain, the Whole Match Was a Fake (10/4/10) - Bahrain paid to fly the Togo national team to Bahrain for an exhibition match.  A team came but it wasn't the national team.  This story probably sounds ridiculous to Americans but doesn't seem odd to me after living in Africa. The pictures below were taking soccer games in Kigali.  The national stadium was a ten-minute walk from our house.

• NYTimes: Frenzy of Rape in Congo Revails U.N. Weakness (10/3/10) - The stories that continue to come out of Congo are hard to imagine and quite disturbing.  This article reinforces what seems to status quo when it comes to the U.N. providing peacekeepers.  The video below shows the landscape of the area which is very similar to Rwanda.

2nd Avenue Construction in New York

So I wrote in April about what could have been my apartment in New York at 91st and 2nd Avenue (VolunteerExpat: Upper East Side Rat Infestation) and another article came out yesterday about the effects of the 2nd Avenue subway construction on local businesses (NYTimes: Subway Work on 2nd Avenue Hobbles Stores).  The picture included in the Times (below) actually shows what would have been my apartment (the row of windows on the second right above the word "Cottage").

Who knew I'd be moving soon enough to a dirt road in Rwanda...

Also, my lunch just arrived and it is tasty as always.  Goat, rice, spinach from the woman around the corner on the street.  I have this for lunch about four days a week.