Moshi (not like in Mario Kart)

Went to Moshi yesterday evening- a town closer to Mt. Kili- thought I might catch a better view of her before I leave on Monday. Can't say I had any luck in that respect, but it was a fun adventure. I took the 2,000 shilling- less than $2, 1.5 hour bus over. I sat by a guy from Barcelona carrying 2, 15-pound flower pots. He was quite an interesting guy and he told me about his travels in Europe, South Am, the US, and Africa-and asked for my number-haha.
Moshi is a fun place to walk around- I barely saw any wazungu (white people- NGO's or tourists or ppl like me) - and so I had a fun time meeting lots of people. It's fun to start talking to somebody and then they say "oo- unajua kiswahili vizuri"- your swahili is pretty good - which is relative - meaning it's better than most wazungu they meet.
So last night I stayed with my friend Amelia from Namibia- a country close to South Africa and we ate at a great place outside on the sidewalk. We had wonderful shish-ka-bobs, zanzibar pizzas, and passion juice- all for less than $2. Then we went for ice cream and that was a beautiful thing. I crashed at her place then last night and we ended up just sitting and talking for like 3.5 hours and drinking coffee. She and her family were missionaries here when she was growing up and she has amazing stories of the Lord's provision and how God blesses when we give him 100% control of our lives. She told me of how God provided her fam with food, places to stay, and outlets for ministry when they didn't have a plan - it was truly living by faith- way further out of their comfort zones than what most people consider going I think.
This morning I took a walk at 6 to try to see Kili with still no avail. Then Amelia went to work and I explored the town. Met some great Tanzanians - walked around the colorful sokoni- market with people selling everything from Obama t-shirts, tomatoes, khanga material and pineapples to coconuts, used (but washed) underwear, used shoes, and Maasai jewelry. I bought a cheap 2,000 shilling carry-on bag so I can try to bring back some Stoney Tangawizi for the fam. It's like ginger ale but way better and it's only manufactured in Africa.
There were all of these stands where Maasai were selling things in jars and I figured out it's natural medicine- it's all different types of bark and herbs that you boil or eat that supposedly treat many different ailments. Would be interested to learn more. Then I met Eddi- he showed me around and I met his Maasai friends and went to his curio shop and bought some last minute gifts. Alright get this- I saw cheap DVD's for sale- and I bought 1 DVD - for less than $5 that contains (brace yourself) (supposedly and who knows the quality)- all 6 seasons of LOST- mind you there have only been 5 seasons so far. So either it's a typ-o or I've got next season! all on one DVD! Either we're being ripped off in the states or the quality is going to be ridiculously low and every other episode will be missing. I've seen 1 DVD with all of the James Bond movies on it, all the seasons of 24, etc. We will see how that one goes, hey?
Then on the shuttle back to Arusha I met a sweet woman named Rose- and we passed her home and she pointed it out to me. When I got back to Arusha I went to the Maasai market- a place with all sorts of shops with jewelry and carvings, etc - pretty touristy- but it's fun when you barter. One of the guys asked if I would trade my water bottle or my backpack- (I traded my watch the other week- got like $13 discount!)- and I said I needed both of them. But I had an extra pair of Nike shorts I was going to leave here anyway in my bag and when I offered those, he got excited- so I got 2 pairs of earrings out of that- ha. Then I ate dinner with Scott, Annelle, and Ron the missionaries I'm staying with - we found a restaraunt with cheesecake! cheese. cake. Best thing I've ever tasted- 1st time I've heard it even mentioned since I've been here.
So it was an awesome 2 days. I wish I could describe it better- I just really love walking around... see all the shops- "dukas" are small and like store fronts, so everyone is outside - and it was busy bc it's saturday, so lots of friends to be made, people to talk to, things to see and learn.
So as you know- or don't - I leave on Monday! As in kesho kutwa- the day after tom! And I'm already missing this place. Tom is my last sunday at our Vineyard church which has been amazing. Then Monday I am making cake -keki- and cookies -biskuti- and we are having a little sherehe- party- with all of my friends who work here and the missionaries so that will be fun! But it will be difficult to say goodbye to everyone.
Well -to all of you who read this- I expect my cell phone to be ringing off the hook when I get back TUESDAY AFTERNOON- bc I want to hear from all of you! ... well I might not after 24 hours of straight traveling- but yeah- I look forward to seeing all of you soon. Maybe I'll have a good story or 2 for ya :)

Mungu akubariki! God bless! Nitaangalia nyini sasa hivi! I'll see you all soon!

Cows and Kiwis

Alright someone tell me what’s wrong with this picture: I grew up in Amish country but waited until Africa to learn how to milk a cow? hmm- haha. But I helped out again today milkin' “Zawadi” which means gift- with 2 Maasai guys today- this was the 2nd time and they invited me back again tom morn- I think they are just amused at watching the funny American girl trying to milk. Hey I’m pretty good now though. hhaha

So today was a lot of fun- Arusha Vineyard is my home church here- love it and love the people here. Something that has been an awesome surprise here is that I have not only learned about African culture, but I’ve met a lot of people from around the world. Today I ate lunch with Amanda- from Georgia, Amelia from Namibia (near South Africa), and Cassandra from New Zealand. I’ve met some cool Aussies and Kiwis (New Zealanders), Chinese, and South Africans, lots of Europeans- Brits, Germans, lots of Danish and Scandanavian, etc. Who knew right? Lots of people and lots of Christians from around the world – it’s just great! What a blessing!

Hmm- I smell like cow- think I might wash up. but who said you need to shower everyday- that’s so American- we don’t even really get dirty –home to work to out to eat-who needs to shower? On second thought I think I’m going to go outside and walk Kahlua again- haha- hopefully it’ll be better this time. (Then I’ll shower :)

Until next time…

Soo... It's been forever- the whole blog idea hasn't been consistent as I had hoped- oh well- you've got to be flexible here in Africa. :) But I have better internet access now, so I might do a couple more.

I've been here in Arusha, Tanzania- an hour away from the almighty Mt. Kilimanjaro! I've been working with CMF International since the end of April -so by now I'm adjusted more to being here.

Excitement in my days:
I live on a missionary compound and I'm not allowed to go walking outside alone, so I walk the dogs outside. When you step outside the gate onto the dusty road, Mt. Meru- Kilimanjaro's less famous, but still very majestic sidekick looms in front of you. On a clear day, you can see the peak- it's an inactive volcanoe, so it looks very cool. When I walk past the small, mud houses each with a tin roof, the kids come running and yell "mzungu! mzungu!" which means white person- not an insult - just a statement. And they try out whatever English they know on me. "Good morning, teacher!" is the most common- any time of the day - morning, evening, it doesn't matter. So I just skip correcting them and say good morning back. So me and Kaluha- the dog - or the simba (lion) -I was walking were just strolling along when she saw a herd of mbuzi (goats)- she suddenly jolted against the leash- and altough I restrained her- I must have pulled too hard on her collar, because she broke free and dashed for the mbuzi. "Njo njo! Baya mbwa!" I yelled (come here come here- bad dog!) - but she wouldn't have it. With little kids screaming- and goats running everywhere I sprinted after her through a dusty shamba (field) kicking up a dusty trail behind me. There has been no rain for a long time here. And finally I caught her. Apologizing to everyone I explained in swahili that she isn't a mean dog- she just likes to play. hah- the kids were more amused than afraid and their Mama said "Hamna shida! Karibu tena!" No problem- you are welcome again. Which made me laugh- Tanzanians are awesome like that. But sorry Kaluha- no more walks outside. For me either probably.

Another fun moment. My good friend Elinipa (which means God gives) who works here on the CMF base and I were talking about music and she was saying that Africans love music. And I told her Americans do, too. "Kweli?" she said- "really?"- she seemed surprised- so I took my IPOD over yesterday and let her listen to everything from the Backstreet Boys to 1000ft Krutch to Coldplay to Savage Garden. And of course "I Bless the Rains Down in Africa" by Toto. She loved it- haha- we both got a kick out of it. She thought it was cool that the Americans had written a song about Africa. Good times!

So my next endeavor- is next week - Mama Joshua is going to teach me how to "kupika kuku" - thats right -cook a chicken- and by that I mean I'm going to buy a real live chicken :) -and we'll take it from there. She looked surprised when I asked her to teach me how to cook one. But she said okay- if I really want to. haha- so that will be an experience.

More to come on what God's been teaching me here and my work with CMF soon!

Well it's going good here! Can't include it all here, but no worries- hakuna shida!
Mungu akubariki!
God bless!

The Hippo strikes again...

My email won't work today so let's just have some fun here...

The Hippo strikes again...
I don't know if I have mentioned this previously- but we have a resident hippo (kiboko in Kiswahili)- that lives in the river that cuts through our Masumbo campus. It has only been spotted about 3 times in the 12 years that this program has been running- these legends are the only traces that he has left in the more recent years- the phantom kiboko we say. But not this year- we heard a loud snort one night about 3 or 4 weeks ago, but since then we have only experienced silent peaceful kiboko-less nights.
Then... one serene evening in Tanzania several nights ago- my 3 tentmates and I were just settling in our sleeping bags and getting comfortable for the night when alas! a snort distinct to that plump river-dwelling mammal we call the kiboko echoed through our camp (mind you- if you haven't been doing your kiboko research lately- these "cute" "hungry-hungry hippos" view of hippos we have is in fact distorted. Hippos are responsible for more deaths in Africa than any of African animal...). Anyway upon hearing the grunt of the animal the 4 us ventured out into the dark night (no not the batman movie ha)- armed only with our wimpy flashlights. Straining to get a view of the river from the high bank covered in thick brush the lies between us and the river (called the Little Ruaha)- my friend jumped up onto a boulder to see more clearly. Within the next moment another - more viscious snort resounded, but this time it sounded much closer- which caused pandamonium as we all crazily scampered onto the safe haven of the rock. We made it up, but I scraped all the skin off of my right calf in the process. Once we had all climbed the rock we attemped to search the river below but with no avail. The phantom hippo had once again escaped into the thick darkness of the African night....

(Interesting note: the next morning we heard that our little hippo friend had attacked somebody down the road at the police check a couple kilometers away just days prior to this incident...glad we didn't know that at the time.)

Hey there all!

I finally have enough time to write more! This is a re-cap of the whole trip so far from the beg until now!

When we landed in Dar Es Salaam the heat was intense and standing there with 30 other people- 1 of who I knew was intimidating - but so exhilarating as we discussed the traveling and adventures that we would soon have. We drove out of Dar the next day to Bagamoyo -a beautiful town on the coast with about every type of tropical vegetation you could imagine- and swam in the Indian ocean which felt like bath water! It was a great place to start the trip and begin building relationships. Then we drove to a spot by the road where we waded out into a boat carrying our backpacks over out heads and boarded. It took us to Lazy Lagoon Island which is a private island that was uninhabited except the resort we stayed at and viscious bush pigs. We stayed in huts where we could just walk from our front porch to the beautiful blue ocean. We went snorkeling the next day and saw starfish every color of the rainbow as well as a 2 1/2 foot long sea worm that adhered to your skin when you touched it- neat-o! At night a guard armed with a spear would courageously escort us through the thick forest to protect us from the bush pigs to our hut where we would cuddle up in our mosquitoe nets for the night.
From there we headed to the Mikumi Game Park for our first round of safaris. We drove in to find towering giraffes and elephant herds all around us right away. Not to mention we also drove past a lovely lady lioness and a couple of her cubs and friends that were just chilling right by the road- they were just hanging out -not stalking anything .. but they blended in so well we wouldnt have been able to tell if they were about to pounce on us, so who knows-we might have almost been eaten- hah. That night we hung out and watched rattels and bush babies from the deck of where we stayed. Those rattels (honey badgers) are aggressive - pure muscle - a cool animal that can own a leopard or cobra- I had never heard of them before. And I captured a bush baby with its big eyes and long bushy tail for my sis Rachel... well maybe not but I thought about it.
The group that we are traveling with is amazing and it is such a huge blessing to be experiencing all of this with them. Just amazing people from a bunch of different backgrounds and rich character- so good!
We have spent a lot of time at our campsite which is called Masumbo near Iringa mjini- (town)- where we stay in tents that they built beneath hollow, permanent huts. We have stimulating lectures everyday with our professor who has lived in Africa for almost all of his life. His stories of growing up in the bush as an MK with leopards pacing outside of his paper-thin tent, almost getting crushed by a rhino, translated the Bible with the Murle people of Sudan, etc etc are amazing and he incorporates them into his lectures to make them so interesting and applicable that it is unbelievable.
We also went to Ruaha Game Park and saw some amazing things there - a hippo and croc pool where we saw at least 60 crocs (mambas) and fighting hippos (viboko)- and everything else in between. Plus a bug the size of goliath- a rhinocerous grasshopper I believe. The whole time we rode on the top of the Land Rovers and tried to pick out where the animals were from the beautiful panoramic view. What a compact re-cap of Ruaha but can't contain it all in here.

The traveling and sights have been amazing, but the culture is even better. We walk into the village right by our campsite and people ask us in just to sit and talk, or to play with the kids, or eat ugali (their main food staple)- it's great! The past 24 hours have been an up close and personal experience of African culture, too- one of the hilights so far! My friend Megan has sponsored a child through Compassion International in Iringa which is only 30 min from Masumbo (our campsite) for about a year and so she arranged to visit him and took me along. His name is Absalumu and is 6 yr old and is an amazing little man - so we visited him 2 days ago and found out that this sunday at church he was having a special service at 7:00 Sunday to celebrate the recovery from his surgery (he had surgery on his legs bc they were bent when he was born)- and Megan and I decided that we wanted to go. So since there is no daladala -(bus) - that runs that early on Sundays our prof suggested the we just go on Sat aftternoon and ask Absalumu and his family if we could stay with them and then go to church with them. In the African culture showing up at someone's door who you just met without any warning and asking to stay is surprisingly acceptable - not imposing at all- for real. They were so excited to have us and we went to the market with them to get peanuts, ate ugali with our hands, played with the kids outside, talked to their neighbors, and just experienced what actual everyday life is like here. It was difficult with the language barrier and everything and resorting to playing the English =Swahili game with 6 and 7 year olds -I say car you say gari, I say banana you say ndizi, etc really makes me feel smart-hah-jk but it's a process and Im learning. It's all about the effort- so there was a lot of laughing and motions to communicate -it was hilar. We had a blast and learned a lot.
So this doesn't even begin to explain everything I've experience but it's my best shot- so hope that you are all well and I would love to hear back from you about how you are doing!

Miss you all and are keeping you in my prayers!
-Laura Schmucker

my contacts:
http://schmuckerintanzania.blogspot.com/

My address until April is:
Houghton in Tanzania
PO Box 934
Iringa,Tanzania

Then after the 2nd wk of April it will be:
Attn: Laura Schmucker
C/O CMF International
PO Box 2582
Arusha, Tanzania
East Africa

I know already that it is going to be really difficult to explain how amazing this experience has been and we are only a few weeks in! Today was the 1 month anniversary of my departure from the states! Seems like longer, but it has also flown by- depending on how you look at it.

We just returned from a hardcore safari in Ruaha National Game Park yesterday! We were half-way there when they stopped the huge monster land rover -type vehicle we drive around (it fits at least 20 of us in there)- and our Tanzanian driver- Edgidy told us that we could ride on top- yep- it was as cool as it sounds - just hanging out on top of this safari machine driving through this park with the wind whipping in our hair across the dirt. The dirt is a rich red color and the vegetation was refreshingly green and thick as we enter the rainy season. The huge beobab (prob spelled wrong) trees were probably 20 ft in diameter at times and the pure blue sky with the gorgeous mountains fading into the backround was just breathtaking.

We stopped at a kiboko (hippo) and mamba (crocodile) pool as we entered the park. The water level was low so all the fish were there so there were more crocodiles- more than 60! just hanging out sitting on the bank with their huge mouths open! And so many hippos- they were fighting and opening their huge jaws! Then we drove further and found 2 big papa lions just taking a nap right next to the road- we named them Scar and Charlie- they were huge - easy to see why they call them the kings of the jungle. We saw a mama elephant and her tiny baby- so small it fit under her belly -amazing!

and much more-
out of time!
more soon!
much love

Hey there all!

My first update from in Tanzania!
We made it safe and I am loving it here!
First we stayed a night in Dar Es Salaam- it was the hottest night of my life -and then we left to go to Bagamoyo - a town on the coast! We swam in the Indian Ocean which was as hot as bath water and bonded with the group - i am really blessed with the awesome group that we are with. Then we headed to a private island resort- yup- just the resort and the workers (and wild bush pigs) on the island- it was insanely grogeous and the snorkeling was great!
Then it was off to our first safari - we saw about every animal you think of when think safari! Just a troop of baboons here and there and a pride of lions just feet from the road!! Then we made it to Irringa where we are staying- to get there we drove on a road that is just inches away from a straight cliff face basically- a rocky ravine would be there to break our fall if we would be so unfortunate as to make a wrong turn. It is high up in the mountains and is beautiful! The people are beautiful and the language barrier is frustrating but we are working through it!

I absolutely love it here but have only limited internet so have to go! hope everyoene is well!