bonus blog -- sleep
Because we do two check ins with the group every day covering the full range of health and wellness topics, I feel we have a good sense of how our folks (your kids) are doing. In general, they are doing well: everyone is drinking enough water and eating well; their bowels are moving freely (as Holden Caulfield would say), and they are getting along with each other very well. The biggest challenge is that we are all tired.
Why?
Well, we wake up early. Villagers start their day early (and go to be fairly late) and sound – of cooking, cleaning pots and pans, heating up water -- really carries in the small houses. The houses are in full swing by 6:00 or 6:30 and we get to school around 7:45.
sleepy boys
Several of us have babies in the house who cry in the night (remember those days?). Two in our group have rosters in the family. At one house, they bring the rooster inside to keep him safe from the cats. He starts his day at 3:00 am. That is tough on any sleeper.
For whatever reason – new types of food, more red meat than we (I) usually consume, or whatever – our tummies churn a bit, so even the non-old people on the trip wake up in the middle of the night and have trouble falling back asleep. For those of us who are old and have to hit the men’s room in the middle of the night, that is the double whammy. Throw in the mosquitoes that you can hear even as you are protected with netting, and there are many factors conspiring against a good night’s sleep.
One of the other challenges is that it is hard for us to find the alone time that we might need. When we get home after a long day, some of the houses have young kids who are looking to play games with their Menlo visitor; sometimes our students get invited over for dinner at a neighbor’s, which typically entails a long hang out/game playing time before the meal is served around 8:00; some of the students pitch in the cooking and other chores when they get home from school. Whatever the reason, there is very little down time (or it is hard for many of us to actually go into our room and close the door without feeling rude).
Our students have overcome the awkwardness of those first days in the homes, but for those in our group who are paired with a Banjika student with limited English, the homestays are more challenging.
Several of our students are admitting to some homesickness.
BUT Peter Brown and the other planners of the trip anticipated that this is part of the trip where students typically drag a bit, so the upcoming schedule provides a timely antidote. We are heading back to Arusha (the big city in this area, and the hub of the tourist/safari economy as it is the launching point to get to the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater) today to stay in a nice hotel and relax and recharge for two days. While there, we will have some pool time, do some activities, and participate in the Arusha marathon (by walking or jogging a 5K or running the 10K portion). That may not sound relaxing, but it does to our group. Then we are back in Karatu and have only three more nights of homestay and on the last day, we do the safari at the Ngorongoro Crater. Everyone is looking forward to that, and, I think, everyone sees that that last week is completely doable. We are approaching the home stretch, and our students are already thinking about how they will say goodbye to their homestay families.
