Greetings friends from Africa. I hope that everyone is ok, especially concerning the events surrounding the recent bombing at the Boston Marathon—my prayers and condolences go out to all the runners, spectators, and families affected by that tragedy—as well as the millions of other people affected around the world every day by similarly evil acts. I ran in a marathon, and trying to imagine a bomb going off as I cross the finish line or as I watch from the sidelines is a horribly scary thought—and I truly pray for [...]

I have not forgotten you all, but I know—it has been a LONG time since I’ve given you all an update. Forgive me for the delay–life just happens, and I’ve been so busy. This blog post today marks the third month that I have been here in Tanzania and I can’t believe it is already late March. Too fast too fast–only one more month here at school until I move on to my summer volunteering. My life has been wild–so much going on. We have taken numerous trips out and [...]

I want to dedicate this blog post to the Tanzanian people. This blog post is not about me or my time really, but more about a serious injustice I have come across: the state of healthcare in this country. Consider the following post less of a personal reflection, and more of an educational/personal rant… if that even makes any sense. I also caution that some of the information below is graphic and disturbing, but it is incredibly important to understand. This may not make you feel good, and I apologize [...]

My friends and family… AND EVERYONE! HAMJAMBO RAFIKI?! It has been a long time, and I apologize for not posting as I had promised. I have been SO busy running all over this beautiful country taking in everything. So again my apologies! I miss all of you, but I’m getting more and more comfortable with everything here—including the public transit, which two months ago, I almost had a heart attack because I’d never seen a van packed with 30 people! There’s no stay like the homestay! In this long blog [...]

On Sunday this past week, I went outside and kicked the soccer ball around with Shedrack (my brother) and his friend Lewis. Then the neighbor guy walked over. Now, I’ve met this guy before, his name is Michael. My family invited him over for dinner a few nights ago. Turns out he is 24 and studying at the nearby Makumira University to become a teacher. Anyway, as we were out back playing soccer, Michael walked over and I went to shake his hand. Greetings are very important here—so I practiced [...]

It’s very hard to believe that today marks one whole month that I have been in Africa. If that was one month, the next seven are going to pass by so quickly. So in thinking of a good way to summarize everything that has happened to me, I’ve compiled a list that I think represents my experience and my impressions so far. Enjoy: You know you are in Africa (Tanzania) when: Your host family tells you straight up that they have an explicit goal to make you 20 pounds heavier [...]

Alright, here we finally are: The details that have been my life for the last three or so weeks. To start, let’s go back to the beginning for a brief crash course in “The Hermann’s take on Tanzania.” My whole family left Minneapolis on Christmas Day, and spent a night in Amsterdam to adjust to the time. The next morning we took off for Kilimanjaro International Airport, arriving around 10:00 PM, local time. Greeted by our amazing safari driver, Joseph of SENE Company, we were quickly whisked away to a lodge in [...]

Ok. This blog post is unique, because it’s not the three-week long summary that you are all expecting of what has been my life—instead it’s a brief story of what just happened to me—a story that took place earlier today. I feel compelled to write about it because it melted my heart, and gave me strength being here alone in my hotel. I went down to the hotel lunch room to order lunch. There are about four consistent ladies always working in the kitchen, that I have come to know. [...]

Yesterday (Thursday) we visited a traditional healer high up in the mountains of Arusha. It was really cold and damp up there so I’m glad we aren’t living in homestays up there. It was interesting to see the traditional healer in practice as he had hundreds of powders that were basically ground up plant roots and such that he claimed could cure anything. The woman that we saw him heal said she had chest pain and foot pain so he proceeded to give her one powder to mix with water [...]

This weekend we began our safari to Lake Manyara and Ngorongoro Crater. Our first stop on the three hour drive outside of Arusha was Lake Manyara National Park. The drive to the lake was through a pretty rural stretch of land. As we were driving, we passes Maasai villagers herding their cattle. We also passed a group of Maasai men dressed in complete black with white face painting. We asked our driver why their faces were painted white and they were dressed in black. It turns out that Maasai young [...]

Yesterday we had a free day at school, so we decided to go to Arusha and go shopping. It was the end of our second weekend in Tanzania and we all had mixed feelings about it. It seems like we have been here for so much longer because of all of the things we are doing and the experiences we are having. On the other hand, we looked forward to plan trips for the following weekends and realized we only have three weekends left to plan. We hope to go [...]

Yesterday (Friday) we had a free day so we traveled into Arusha town to do some more shopping and explore. Town is very dirty and very crowded so it is very exhausting to spend time there. I’m glad we live outside the city a little bit. Since there are so many people it is hard to take pictures because I am scared my camera will get stolen. When we were in town we went to the Maasai Market which was a quieter area where a lot of souvenirs and our [...]

Yesterday after class Mama taught Erin and I how to do laundry. They do all their laundry by hand in buckets and scrub with their hands. It wasn’t that hard for the first few pieces of clothing that we washed but I can’t imagine doing it for hours. Everything is just then hung on clothes lines and sometimes ironed. They iron in case any bugs or mosquitoes have nested in the clothes. 

Next to our school there is an orphanage called the Cradle of Love that we pass every day on the way to school. Yesterday after class we stopped in to see if they needed any help and to check it out. Everyone was very welcoming so we went in the back and hung out with the babies for a few hours. All of the babies were under 2 years old or so and there was at least 40 of them. I only saw about 4 staff members so that were [...]

Well our first weekend at our homestay was quite interesting. On Saturday, we woke up around 8:00 am and had breakfast with the family. Unfortunately, both Kelsey and I started feeling sick on Saturday morning. We were able to go to the market at Tangeru with dada Lilian and dada Jacquelin by taking the minibuses. It was so crowded and I will never complain about a crowded campus connector again. When we got to the market, it was pretty hectic, everyone trying to pull us this way and that to [...]