Eritrea: Helping orginization

Going to trying to help with refuge camps in Eritrea! They cal it the Marshall Plan! GO MARSHALL PLAN!!

http://asmarino.com/en/articles/377-an-eritrean-refugee-marshall-plan

Eritrea: Lesson

I think a lesson I got from this day was actually from Samara's kids. They both were playing together laughing, smiling, and just both having a good time, and while Samara and I talked together they just both entertained themselves by playing with one another. I mean Samara and I talked for a pretty long time. I wish me and my sister could do that. I mean we play together sometimes, but if we play to long with each other we somehow get in a fight, or we get tired of each other. I was very impressed by them, and hopefully can get a long just as well with my sister.

Eritrea: Person

After the show was over I decided to go have dinner. I looked at my map trying to figure out which way to go. A nice lady with two children came over, and told me where the best restaurants were. She was the first person in Eritrea to talk to me, and also who spoke English. I was very glad I had finally talked with someone. She told me whenever I need help I could just come on over to her house. I was very grateful because I still had many days to live here, and I would need all the help I can get. Her name was Sarama, and her children's name were Aatifa and Aazzeza. I wish my mom and sister could have met them. Both our families had a lot in common. She was singular, my mom is singular. She has to kids, our family has two kids. It was very cool. My mom would have loved to talk to her about many things, and I could tell they would get along very well.

Eritrea: Touch

The show was amazing. It even distracted me from the smell of the through up. There was one part that was said because one of the dancers fell and sprained there ankle. It stopped the show for about five minutes, but when it started again, everyone just started cheering. When the show was finished I decided to wait until the dancers came out so I could meet them. I wanted to meet all the dancers, but my main goal was to meet Clara. She did a FABULOUS job. About thirty minutes later the dancers come out. I asked many of the dancers to sign my program. I even asked one to sign my hand. The one who I asked played the Sugar Plum Fairy. When I felt her touch they were burning hot. I can imagine how tired and hot she was, but she didn't show it at all. Sadly I never could get Clara's. Oh well, maybe next time.

Eritrea: Smell

After I was done with my meal I decided to gaze just a bit longer so I could remember every single detail from where I was sitting. I also looked to see were I should head next. When I walked out of the restaurant it was about 3:20. I decided to head over to a theatre. They were going to perform the Nutcracker. The Nutcracker is my favorite ballet show. I am not sure if its because I have been in the Nutcracker so many times as a kid, or because of the beautiful music. It was at 3:30 so I had to hurry. After about a couple of wrong turns I finally found it. The Impero Cinema Asmara Theatre. It was such a beautiful theatre. Not as big as some theatres iv'e been into, but very pretty. I got there right in time. Luckily it wasn't sold out, but I did get a pretty bad seat. In the back of the row I could smell this really bad smell. It was like mint gum mixed with through up. That's when I realized there was one seat open. THERE WAS THROUGH UP ON IT.

Eritrea: Taste

When I walked into the restaurant people stared at me like I was weird. I wasn't sure if it was because I had something on my face, or if it was because I was all by myself. I decided to sit at a table that know one was near too, but also had an amazing view. When they gave me the menu I couldn't read anything on it. I totally forgot the problem of how I am going to order something. I decided to pick a food that I could act out. When a man came over I showed him my fork, and then I twirled it; pretending I had noodles on it. he looked at me like I was crazy, and then said, "Um, may I help you?" I totally felt my cheeks burn up. I was so embarressed. I should have guessed someone here spoke some English. After I came back to my senses, and felt my cheeks stop burning, I asked for a Spaghetti Plate with Marinara Sauce with no meat, and a piece of Garlic Bread on the side. Literally two seconds later the food comes, out steaming hot. My mind decided to let it cool a little, but my mouth said eat it. So I took a bite. BEST SPAGHETTI EVER!!

Eritrea: Sound

When I got settled in my hotel room (by the way is AWESOME) I started to unpack. This was probably my least favorite part of the trip, tied with repacking all my stuff. I finished packing at about 2:00 in the day, so I decided to start exploring. I can't tell you how excited I was to start exploring, I mean, I had been waiting for this trip for about 4 months now. I decided to go find a restaurant. I was so hungry. I was going to eat when I arrived, but I thought it would be better to be all settled in first. I had a big map of Asmara that I found on google. I circled in red all the places that looked interesting to me, or were important; like the hospital or food store. When I was heading to the restaurant the streets were pretty crowded. The only thing I heard were people shouting, talking, and other noises that I can't describe. It took me a while to get through the crowd. I must say it was a struggle, but I finally arrived at the restaurant I wanted to go to. Cherhi Recreation Center, built in 1983, it resembles an air traffic control tower. This restaurant has the best view in town, and is situated on a hill
north of the covered market.

Eritrea: Sight

On January 4, 2010 I arrived at the capital of Eritrea: Asmara. At first i didn't know what to do, I mean this was my first time ever going somewhere without my family. So, I decided to try to find the hotel I was staying at. This hotel I looked up on google, and when I saw the sight of the hotel I knew I had to go there. I am pretty sure it is one the more fancy hotels in Eritrea. I was so surprised when my mom said yes, it was definitely the more luxurious kind of hotel. The hotel was called Hotel Inter-continental Asmara. http://www.southtravels.com/africa/eritrea/intercontinentalasmara/index.html

7 things I would like to do in Eritrea

1. Asmara Theater and Opera House

2. Denkalya Desert

3. Al Khulafa Al Rashiudin Mosque

4. Cathedral of Asmara

5. Fiat Tagliero

6. National Museum Asmara

7. Nda Mariam Othodox Church

Money converter

American money to Eritrea money.

$1.00=$15.14

$5.00=$75.72

$10.00=$151.45

$20.00=$302.89

$50.00=$757.23

$100.00=$1514.45

Language of Eritrea

The language of Eritrea is English and Tigrinya. Here you can learn some words and phrases in Tigrinya.

http://www.eritrea.be/old/eritrea-languages.htm

Cheapest tickets to Eritrea

Cheap flight to Eritrea, Asmara.

http://www.cheapflights.com/flights-to-asmara/santa-barbara/

Eritrea

I am traveling to "Eritrea"! YAY! SO EXCITED!!

Fetching Water Entry

I think you are an amazing young little girl. I can't believe someone your age is carrying more than a gallon of water every single day. It gives me goose bumps to see you in this picture carrying a big bucket of water on your head. I can't even explain how I feel, I really can't! In social studies we got a chance to see how it would feel to carry a gallon(or more) of water for our whole period of class. When i filled up my 1 gallon of water I was so suprised at how heavy it was, and that was just 1 gallon, and then the bucket on your head is probably about 6 gallons of water. It's just amazing that a girl as young and small as you can carry it. We walked for less than a mile so not that long at all, but still my hand hurt from carrying the gallon. Now that I see you guys have to do this everyday for about more than 10 miles it makes me feel like you guys are heroes. It's very hard for me to say what i feel , but one word I would have to say I feel right now writing this is,"PROUD"!

I have many questions for you. One is, " How old were you when you started carrying water?" Another is, " How many miles do you walk a day?" Last but not least, " Is it hard, or do you not think about that kind of stuff, but the stuff you have and how you're helping out?"

I just wanted to say how much I idolize you. I can't imagine myself doing that, I really can't. If I had to do what you have to do though, I don't think I would think about how hard and tiring it was, but think about having fun, and the bright side of things. It makes me think, even though you guys have a much harder life, are you happier then we are. To me it feels like you live life to its fullest, and we, well we live it, but use many different shortcuts in life. Once again i think you are an unbelievable little girl, including everyone like you in Africa, and hope someday I can visit Africa, and help whoever needs help!

Kgali Genocide Memorial Center, Day 7

Kgali Genocide Memorial Center

Saddest day ever. I think I cried the whole day. No the best way to end the trip, but it was very emotional being there. Even though it wasn't a good feeling, I was glad I got to experience the feeling. It was horrible. My sister and mom waited outside, but when i got back my mom took a peak while I watched my sister. It was very sad, but it gave me a lot to think about!

Lake Kivu

Lake Kivu

Most beautiful lake I have ever seen in my life, so far. It was just so beautiful. I think this was the whole families favorite day. It was like we were all at the beach together, except the water and the view being much better that in Santa Barbara. We stayed there the whole day; playing and having fun as a family. Very glad I had that experience!

Rusumo Falls, Day 5

Rusumo Falls

Here we had a guide named Shan, and he guided us through until we got to the waterfall. When we were 10 mintues away I could already hear the water crashing down. When we got there it was awesome. It was so beautiful I sat there for a long time thinking about, well, everything. Shan told us a story about the genocide. He told us how many dead bodies flowed down this river. I started crying, but I held back my tears so know one suspected I was crying. I just couldn't believe a war happened here, and dead bodies flowed down here as well. It was very sad to hear. 

Akagera National Park, Day 4

Akagera National Park

This place was very beautiful. My sister, my mom , and I would hide in the what we could near a lake, so we could watch elephants or buffalos, or ect. up close. It had a lot of lakes, and our whole family was tempted to jump in and swim in one of the lakes, but we weren't aloud to.(darn) Out of all the seven days of doing stuff this was my sisters favorite one. I was glad she liked it. I was also glad I liked it as well. We sometimes crouched there for what seemed like forever, but finally a cool looking animal would come along and take a drink.

Nyungwe Forest National Park, Day 3

Nyungwe Forest National Park

1 word A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! It wasn't the most beautiful and luxurious forest in the world, but man all the animals and birds! It just took my breath away. I mean it had so many sounds, especially coming from the birds. I don't really know what else to put other then what i already put; A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! 

Mountain Climbing, Day 2

Mountain Climbing

Again first time doing something new. This time it is mountain climbing. Today I went mountain climbing. My sister and mom didn't go, so I got to go all by myself!(oh ya) A women named Angeline helped me get into all my gear. She was the one who was going to climb with me, just to make sure I was safe, or something bad didn't happen to me. I was very glad an experienced mountain climber was coming with me. If she wasn't there i would have probably chickened out. The mountain was pretty tall, but it had many wholes and cracks where you could put your hands and feet. Then I was off. At the top I took about a thousand pictures!(literally)! It was amazing, and I will definitely do it again someday. 

Mountain Gorilla Trekking, Day 1

Mountain Gorilla Trekking

Today was my first time gorilla trekking. I was so excited, but my little sister was a bit nervous, so my mom stayed with her most of the time. I went up ahead. We followed a gorilla trekking expert named Dan. He was very nice, and very good at finding gorillas. We found in total 18 gorillas: 6 full grown male gorillas, 5 full grown female gorillas, and 7 baby gorillas. We stared at them for a long time. my sister was still a little nervous, but it looked like she was kinda enjoying it. They were very entertaining to watch, and I hope to do it again someday!

Imagine....

Right now I am with John in Pittsburgh. He is teaching me a lot about Lost Boy's program, and every time I hear about a Lost Boy's story I cry. It is just so hard to hear what they have been through, and how much pain they suffered. Today I am lucky to share their pain with them. John showed me many pictures of his family, he would talk on and on and on about them, but it would never get tiring. I just wanted to keep listening from every detail to the last detail that he said. He would also tell me how he is going to help as many Lost Boy's as he possibly can. Dedicating your life to help others must feel great inside. It probably covers all the pain inside. Since he would always say I am going to help other, that is what I was born to do, I would decided to ask him if you help others are you still going to have enough time to help yourself. When I said that he looked at me and said, "I will do what I must to help others in need". I could tell he was still thinking about the question, but that's all he said. I felt kind of embarrassed. I thought I might have gotten him angry, but he just moved on to a different topic like nothing happened, so I went along. John asked if I wanted to meet some of his friends who were lost boy's and I said, "Of course"! After I met many, many friends of Johns it was time for my plane to leave. At the airport I said my good byes to John. We hugged about 5 to 10 times in a row.  I felt kind of strange, but I also loved it. While on the plane I thought to myself what John had taught me. He taught me many things, but one that stuck out to me was when he said, " Whenever you think you lost someone close just remember they are never lost forever. When I thought of what that line taught me, and how the line must feel to John I think i cried the rest of the flight.

Veteran's Day

My grandpa, Walter Welkom, served our country in World War II. He was in the Signal Corps, which was in charge of maintaining and repairing the radio equipment. He was stationed in the Philippines, and had to deal with digging equipment out after mud slides. Malaria was widespread, and he got it.

Ps. picture coming

A program that is helping Rwanda

Here is a program who is trying to help orphans with AIDS

http://www.usaid.gov/stories/rwanda/fp_rwanda_aids.html

Cheapest tickets to Bolivia

Cheap flight to Bolivia, La Paz.
http://www.tripadvisor.com/CheapFlights?m=12016&travelers=1&cos=0&nonstop=no&airport[0]=SBA&nearby[0]=no&airport[1]=LPB&nearby[1]=no&date[0]=11/7/2009&time[0]=anytime&date[1]=11/14/2009&time[1]=anytime&seg=di

Money converter

American Money to Rwanda money (amafaranga=money)
$1.00=$570.00
$5.00=$2,850.00
$10.00=$5,700.00
$20.00=$11,400.00
$50.00=$28,501.00
$100.00=$57,001.00

7 things I would like to do in Rwanda

1. Mountain Gorillas Trekkinga
2. Want to go mountain climbing
3. Nyungwe Forest National Park
4. Akagera National Park
5. Rusumo Falls
6. Lake Kivu
7. Kgali Genocide Memorial Center

Language of Kinyarwanda

Here you can learn some words and phrases in Kinyarwanda!

http://morganinafrica.blogspot.com/2006_02_01_archive.html

Cheapest tickets to Kagali

Cheap flight to Kagali. http://www.cheapflights.com/flights-to-kigali/santa-barbara/

Sight

October 5, 2009
Emmanuel has arrived from Ghana at 10:00 a.m. He looked kind of nervous when he first came in through the door, but once we chatted, and taught each other the other’s languages, I could tell we were already becoming a family. Once he had packed everything in our spare room upstairs, we both headed of to the Granada Theatre. He said he had never seen a play before, and I knew I hd to show him one, that he would think it is amazing. When we got there he froze up like a frozen statue. That is something I will never forget. We went to go see, the play, Nutcracker. While we were watching the play I looked over to where Emmanuel was sitting, and just by looking at his face I could tell this looked like magic to him.

Sound

October 6, 2009
Emmanuel woke up at around 6:00 a.m. He also then woke me up, and we decided to head down to the beach, so we could see the sun rise up. So we headed of to Santa Claus beach. I will never forget how he had said, “I want to go to Santa Claus beach, because we might see Santa there.” My mom dropped us off at about 6:30, and we headed down to the beach. Suddenly Emmanuel stopped and said, “What is that crashing noise? At that moment I realized, he had never heard an ocean before. Then I replied, “That is the ocean.”

Taste

October 7, 2009
Again Emmanuel woke up at 6:00 a.m., and again woke me up too. I wasn’t mad, but I did wish he would sleep in more. We played some board games until my mom woke up. I even taught him how to play Jin Rummy. When my mom woke up we were both in the middle of watching some tv. Mom made breakfast, and was a breakfast I will never forget. Mom had made some pancakes, hash browns, eggs, bacon, toasts, and even a yogurt befai. The first thing Emmanuel did was say, “Do you always eat this much?!”

Smell

October 8, 2009
Emmanul and I woke up at 6:00; and I was getting use to it, we had leftovers from last breakfast, played a game of Jin Rummy, woke up my mom ad sister, then left for the pier. When driving Emmanuel wouldn't say much. He would just stare out the window, and have a thinking expression on his face. Whn we arrived it was cold, but we had fun anyways. The first thing we did was look at the dolphin fountain. Mom handed us each a penny, and we all made a wish. Them we went to the Ty Warner's Sea Center. We spent about 3 hours in there. I got kind of bored, but Emmanuel was loving it, so we stayed for as long as he wanted. It was about lunch time when we finishd in the sea center, so we went to Moby Dick. Aftr lunch, we headed down to the end of the pier. When we got there it smelled of dead fish. He said he was use to this smell, but not as strong as it was on the pier. he sai he liked the pier, just didn't like the strong smell of dead fish.

Touch

October 9, 2009
Today I got 30 more minutes of sleep. WE had oatmeal and yogurt for breakfast. All of us played Go Fish, since it was the only game Sara(little sister) could play. In the end I won, but Emmanuel's was very close. We din't know what to do that day. It was very cold, so we didn' want to go outside. We sort of chilled at home, ad ate. Suddenly the living room lights went out. y mom got another light bulb from the cabinet, and tried to reach the light's lamp, but she couldn't reach. Emmanuel offered to put it in. " How do you do it?" Mom explaind, and handed over the light bulb. When Emmanuel felt the bulb, he just stood there staring and feeling. I remember standing there for about 30 minutes, until finally he moved, and put the bulb back in.

Introducing a person

October, 10, 2009
Emmanuel woke up at the same time as usual, and of couse then woke me up. We played his favotite board game Candyland, and we played another round of Jin Rummy. We had a very special breakfast cooked by Emmanul himself. I wouldn't say it was the best, but it was ok. We then went to a place thats very special to me, Santa Barbara Middle School. I remember wanting to show Emmanuelall of my teachers. I knew I had to introduce the people who made Emmanuels visit possible, and so I introduced all of my teachers. I introduced John the last.

Emmanuel's lesson

October 11, 2009
Today was the last day of Emmanuel's visit. I wanted to cry, but I held it in. He was so much like family, it felt like a family member was moving away for a long time. It felt horrible. I knew a lesson woul always stick with me though. A lesson that only he could teach me(well only he could teach me in my family). You are never to old or to young to get up at 6:00 a.m. in the morning. I am going to remember this all my life. I never thought I could do it, but I can. Thak to Emmanuel!