Habari za Krismas

In an effort to get to know my village better I have been setting out occasionally to have chai and madanzi at a local mkahawa. In case some of you are scratching your heads an mkahawa is usually a little hole in the wall place that serves basic Tanzanian fare; mandazi, chapati, chai, chipsi (French fries) chipsi mayai, wali na maharage (rice and beans) and occasionally meat on skewers. The particular mkahawa that I frequent is the definition of “hole in the wall”. It honestly looks like the incredible Hulk punched a hole in the side of the building because the opening is not a clean cut doorframe, but shards of bricks. The room is probably about 5 feet by 5 feet and contains a small table, two benches; a plastic tub usually full of mandazi and a small sooty corner fire pit…the “kitchen”.  This particular morning the owner of the mkahawa was building an extension to his shop, a small wood hut with a tin roof, so he can cook chipsi mayai without dying of or killing his customers with smoke inhalation. I told him I thought it was a good idea, sat down on one of the benches and ordered my cup of chai and two mandazi. A woman also enjoying her morning grease ball joined me and after a short while went to fetch her daughter. When the woman returned to her seat she was holding her daughter who was crying profusely and clinging to her mother like a toupee to a Politian’s head. Her mother informed me, “anakuongopa” she fears you (I think we can safely add here) because you are white. Everyone around, including me, laughed. I think it is interesting that some children here are so amused by white people and some children are petrified of white people. I guess I was scared of something I do not see on a daily basis or at all when I was three or four years old. On return trip home from the mkahawa I ran into a group of about six  Mzungu-philic Tanzaian youngsters who were all eating boiled potatoes. One of the potato munchers might be my favorite kid I have come across thus far in my service. She was hanging toward the back of the pack and could not have been more than 4 years old, but had somehow gotten a hold of and was wearing her mom’s curly bob wig. Needless to say this made me laugh pretty hard and made me think of that TLC show “Toddlers in Tiaras” because the little girl look liked her mom had dressed her up for a tiny tots beauty pageant. She seemed pretty proud of herself and I guess it just goes to show you that anywhere in the world little girls like to pay dress up! (Reminds me of when Kyle and I used to play Pretty Pretty Princess… never let him win the tiara).

I guess no matter where you are in the world, unless you cannot find that Buzz Lightyear or Tickle Me Elmo doll your child wants anywhere, the week leading up to Christmas drags. This week I learned that I can go about a month without real work before I start going really stir crazy. Of course the best way I have found to deal with this is to eat sleep or clean. I guess this is the answer to the question on the Peace Corps application, “How do you cope with boredom?”. Thank goodness that we will be having a staff meeting on January 3^rd to sort out periods and classes for this coming school year. Yes, it is weird to think, but January 10^th, when school starts here, is the beginning of a new school year! I am really looking forward to teaching, although am still a little nervous being the only science teacher for 440 students. This means that I could potentially be teaching Chemistry, Physics, Biology and also Math for 4 different grades or forms. Clearly this is probably physically impossible, but I know I will probably be teaching at least 24 periods a week with four different preps. I will keep you all updated on how this whole thing pans out. I am pretty sure it is going to get a little hairy because of the Swaenglish (½  Swahili + ½ English= Swaenglish) the meeting will take place in and I will miss some small but very important detail that leaves me biting off a lot more than I can chew.

I hope everyone had a happy and healthy Christmas. From what I was told it was a white one back on the east coast. Unfortunately it was about 70 degrees and sunny here on Christmas, I know that sounds very pleasant for some of you, but in all honesty I would have traded it to be at home! Despite not being home for Christmas, a few other volunteers and myself had a Christmas part complete with tree, Yankee swap, dinner, Christmas cookies and music. I will say there is one good thing about being in Tanzania for Christmas; all of the stores are open on Christmas day.  We went into town on Christmas day to gather food for Christmas dinner and everywhere we went I noticed that most host country nationals were wearing brand new outfits. It would seem that new clothes are a Christmas tradition here. Other than new clothes the Tanzanians spend time with family and eat on Christmas. And far as I know there is little to know exchanging of gifts.

The few days between Christmas and New Years were relatively quiet. A few volunteers came by my site earlier in the week and we hiked down into Ngozi crater. For those you who are keeping track of my trips to the crater this makes number 3. We also went out to get pizza from one of the Mzungu restaurants in Mbeya on the day after Christmas. On the way home, around 8 o’clock we packed seven Mzungu into a daladala. Sadly, I was escorted along with another volunteer into the front seat. If there is one rule while traveling in Tanzania, actually there are many, but the most important one is never sit in the front seat of a daladala. The front seat is known in the small world of PC Tanzania as “the death zone”.  Needless to say I was a little scared to be sitting in the death zone, especially when we were driving on straightaway and the dala driver started to veer into oncoming traffic, aka a semi-truck. I am not sure how most people would react to this situation, but at the time I covered my eyes and screamed…pretty loudly. Thankfully the driver pulled the dala back onto the correct side of the road and proceeded to ask me if I was scared of his driving.  I ended up lying to the driver and then congratulating him on his good driving after he missed our stop then dropped us off further up the road safe and sound. Christmas miracle? I am not sure, but I am just glad that we did not get into an accident. Don't think I will be riding up front again anytime soon.

So I am looking forward to this evening and celebrating the New Year with other volunteers from the region. I think we will be eating dinner out, which means probably means standard Tanzanian fare, chicken, chips and a few Kilimanjaros. It will truly be different to celebrate New Year’s 8 hours before everyone on the east coast (Think about me at 4pm!), but I am looking forward to more new experiences! I hope everyone has a fun and safe New Year’s eve. Say hello to Dick Clark and all of the people freezing their tacos off in Time Square for me! Happy 2011! All my love from TZ! 

Merry Christmas (Eve) From Tanzania!

Hi everyone!

Just wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas before I forgot to. Christmas is clearly not going to be the same here...seriously if you ask a Tanzanian if they know who Santa Claus is they will ask you "What is that?". Also thank you all for reading the blog and posting comments!!! See you all in the new year!

Carly

Woah! Hold up….“There won’t be snow in Africa this Christmas”?!

So, here are a couple numbers for all of you out there. I have been in country 86 days now. I have been at my site now for 24 days. I have cooked about 70 or so meals for myself, successfully started my jiko about 12 times have had 2 sweet dance parties in my kitchen waiting for beans to cook and consequently gone through 3 (Tanzanian) rolls of TP.  I have ventured into my village 30+ times, been laughed at by my neighbors and have laughed at myself about 1,000,000 times.  To wrap up the numbers….there are 6 days till Christmas and 13 until a whole new year!

The past week went pretty well here. I got some more work done on my garden and am planning on planting soon, if I can figure a way to keep the animals out! I also bought some paint, blue and yellow to be exact, and sponge painted my kitchen and painted a pattern in my hallway. I also now have a blue polka dotted shower room! (At least it is not purple handprints on pink walls; my bedroom circa 4^th grade).  I am also now running/ exercising a fair amount because, let’s face it, I have nothing better to be doing with my time, but working off all of the carbs I am currently feeding to my face. Another thanks to the Murphy’s for the 25-minute body circuit that would make you sweat even if you were on Antarctica. Between body circuits, P90x and some running I have been keeping my endorphins up and keeping myself from feeling stagnant.

Tuesday, I found out my couches were ready to be picked up, so I went down to Mbeya with my counterpart to purchase cushions for my couches. I would like to say right now that my counterpart, Madam Yolanda, has been awesome, patient and very helpful. It is thanks to her that I did not get ripped off today while buying cushions and transporting them home! After buying the world’s ugliest cushions (brown, black and white animal print), but before returning to pick them up, our trip to Mbeya also involved us walking around the market and looking around for used clothing. I have not talked too much about being white here in Tanzania, but today was a pretty white day for me.  Everywhere I went people were shouting ‘Mzungu’ (white person) at me and people in Mbeya see white people all the time. I have no idea what set off the people in the market, but I now know what it must feel like to be a celebrity. After the market experience, we headed home on the dala with my cushions in tow. I am not sure if I mentioned it before, but there are no gas station rest stops in Tanzania or if there are there are very few, instead men come running up to the windows of buses, cars, dalas and trucks with everything from water, juice, hard boiled eggs, corn on the cob, mandazi (fried dough), loafs of bread, cashews to underwear, belts, umbrellas, flip flops, stools and phone vouchers. It is really quite a show. They literally sprint after the vehicle until it stops, then harass you to buy whatever they are selling, if you are white you will be asked to buy without a doubt. I think my favorite part of this whole experience is when a passenger is attempting to bargain with the running concession stand as the vehicle is departing. This exchange usually involves a lot of shouting, flying money, goods tossed at the vehicle window and if the passenger is lucky… their change. Needless to say I often do not take part in this ritual because I am white, usually carry my water with me and don’t have enough Purell on my person to even think about putting my hands near my mouth (Dad, I know you are proud right about now).

Wednesday was a complete pumzika (rest) session along with a little laundry, an afternoon run and a visit into my village for a soda. One of my favorite (and one of the only places) to go in my village is the main duka or store. The duka sells things such as, eggs, soda, TP (which is really expensive because Tanzanians don’t really use it), batteries, plastic flip flops, pens, margarine, candles, bread (occasionally), candy, baby formula, kerosene, cooking oil, juice and a few other things that are not coming to mind right now. It is one of my favorite places for a few reasons; 1) it is really the only other place to go hang out besides at my house 2) I get to speak Swahili when I venture there or really broken English with a boy who works there and insists I only speak English to him and 3) It plays American music really loud… i.e Jordan Sparks and a Shania Twain remix, which is pretty good, but I think I only think that because I have not heard any new music in about three months.  I know the most important reason I like venturing to the duka is reason #3. Today I sat outside the store on a plastic stool given to me by the kid working there and drank a soda. The whole time I sat outside the store the music was blaring and every time a customer came up to buy something, instead of turning down the music the conversers would just shout above it.  I can attest that common sense gets lost when listening to Shania Twain on full blast, but I could not help but find the situation humorous, so much so I was laughing out loud to myself in front of my whole village.  Guess it is not enough that I am white, but now I am the crazy white girl whose name no one can say.

Today, a couple of volunteers and I hiked into Ngozi Crater because the entrance to the hike is right across the road from my site. The hike is pretty interesting because you have to hike up to the rim of the crater and then down into to get to the lake (last time I only hiked to the rim). On our way up to the rim we ran into a group of Tanzanians who worked for the government, but were on a work retreat. Let’s just say that jeans, kitten heels, dress slacks, dress shirts and ties are not proper hiking attire (maybe The North Face or Patagonia should focus their efforts in Tanzania).  I have to give these people credit though. They were probably unaware of what the hike required and all seemed to be very happy yet, wamechoka (tired).  Some of the group actually hiked down into the crater and we ran into them on our way down. They made the four of us stop and take a picture (see below) with them, which was pretty entertaining. (You are not going to not take a picture with four white people if you run into them, right?!).  The rest of the hike down into the crater was pretty steep and a little hairy because of all the erosion from the rain. Round trip the hike took us 5 hours, the last one of which was spent in a torrential downpour  and would be something I would definitely do again. The lake was very beautiful and pristine minus the very real threat of schistosomiasis (no swimming!).

So the holidays are creeping up and I am missing home more than I can say. Here in Tanzania, as many of you can guess, there is/are no Christmas lights, Christmas specials on TV, candy canes, cocktail wieners, Reece’s Peanut Butter Christmas Trees, Christmas music, snow, Starbucks red cups, people ringing a bell for the Salvation Army outside Stop & Shop, Aunt Sally’s blue cheese smashed potatoes, sound of plows outside my house, Aunt Sue’s baked brie, cheese balls with the nut covering, snowman novelty ice cream that Grandma used to buy, kasheshe at the local shopping center, Aunt Leanne’s ham rolls (I eat pork again), family Christmas cards  (Thanks, Grandpa. Got yours in the mail the other day!) or sugar cookies.

This Christmas I will be celebrating with other PCVs from my region and without most of the aforementioned, but it is Christmas…it matters who you have in your life and not what you have, right? We are planning on having Christmas and Christmas Eve dinner, pancake Christmas breakfast (super pumped…one of my favorite foods), a nice pumzika session and a yankee swap Tanzanian style on Christmas day.  

 I wish you all happy and safe holidays. Please think of me every time you hear Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas” because you know I will be jamming on this side of the hemisphere. All my love from TZ. 

Generosity and Woah…Kuku in my chumba

I have survived my first week at site, which to some may not seem like much, but the fact that I have washed clothes, cleaned my house, jumped on a bus and also walked to a near by villages to buy food and cooked is amazing!

This week I have also started to get to know the people in my village who will be my neighbors for the next two years!  Earlier this week on another of my runs through the shamba (farms), which surround my site, 6 or 7 women stopped me and offered to give me some potatoes from their field. I informed them that I was exercising and did not have a bag, but would return shortly. Upon returning to the field with a bag, one of the women filled it completely full as she smiled at me and asked me if I liked “chipsi” (French fries).  I thanked them profusely because I did not have much else to offer them. I can only hope my gratitude comes across when I attempt to speak Kiswahili. A similar occurrence happened the next morning as well. After returning from my run my neighbor gave me a mango and an avocado. I am absolutely amazed how generous people are in my village. [Even as I write this…a Bibi from my village came over to give me greens! Ironic?] The majority of the people are farmers, growing mainly potatoes and corn. Currently, I am living on a small amount of money, as far as American standards are concerned, about $153 a month, which is more than enough to survive on, but the people in my village are living on much less than that.  It amazes me that these people who depend on their crops to live can offer me even a bag of potatoes without expecting anything (I did offer to pay them). To finish my story… I attempted to walk home (about 2k) balancing the bag of potatoes on my head because I figured I should try it (everyone around here can do it, why can’t I) and no one was going to see me if I failed miserably. Let’s just say it went pretty well, as far as first times go.

Also this week, in order to keep myself occupied and to potentially gain favor with my agrarian cohorts, I bought a jembe or hoe. I ventured down to Uyole, a neighboring town, on the coaster (where I was proposed to by the conductor.. long story) to purchase it.  Let me just say, I have never seen so many people so excited and/or confused. Honestly, had I known that every other person in town that day was going to ask me if I was a farmer I may have reconsidered going. People were absolutely shocked that a white woman bought a jembe and was going to start a garden. Today, I actually started my garden, which will probably take me all week to get up and running as I have to clear the small plot of land, build the beds, build a fence and plant the seeds!

This past weekend I ventured back to Tukuyu to see the town and meet up with some other volunteers. Friday night we ate kiti moto (pork, but which literally translates in Kiswahili to “hot seat”), which was surprisingly good and had a few drinks. Saturday we ventured to the market for some chipati, mandazi (Tanzanian doughnuts) and chai. I also picked up a few buckets, beans and a clay pot. Upon returning home yesterday I realized that I had red dots all over my skin…. flea bites, to be precise. The volunteer I stayed with Friday night has indoor/outdoor cats that are apparently carry fleas, so I soaked my clothes in soapy water overnight and am currently applying hydrocortisone cream hourly. Thank goodness the bites are only on my arms, but I feel pretty unclean. On a similar note, I talked to another volunteer this weekend whose dog had puppies, so I will be getting a puppy come the middle of January! I will also be giving said puppy flea baths every other day!! In addition, after taking my de-flea bucket bath, I was changing in my room when I heard a really strange noise. I turned around to see a kuku (chicken) standing in my chumba (room).  I screamed fairly loud purely because I did not expect a chicken to be in my house, let alone my bedroom.  I am not sure who was more shocked the chicken or me, but lesson learned… from now on I am no longer leaving my front door open.

So as mentioned above this week was also the first week of cooking every meal for myself. I will say that I am thankful mangoes here are wicked cheap, about 15 cents or 100 tsh per mango, because they are great for breakfast/ a snack. I am also thankful that Rise Up Coffee, a company owned by a returning Peace Corps volunteer (RPCV), sent me a small package of free coffee because I have only been able to find instant coffee so far. My diet this week consisted mainly of rice, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, garlic, pasta and tea. I was brave this week, however, because I ventured to the butcher for some steaki. I must say it was pretty intimidating. Most butcher shops in Tanzania are little isolated sheds with a window with bars. You walk up to the window; greet the man, flies and the large slabs of meat hanging on hooks behind him; get the courage to ask him in Swahili for a 1/3 of a kilo, then watch him wrap it in newspaper. It was honestly quite an experience and if anyone has ever considered being a vegetarian or an ax murder I advise you to visit a Tanzanian butcher shop. Another cooking adventure I had this week is one I and probably too many other people have taken for granted, cooking beans. If anyone has ever cooked beans before it takes a while, as you have to soak them over night and then cook them for at least 2 hours (kidney beans). If you are in Tanzania, however, you must factor in the extra hour that it takes some of us, me in particular, to light the f’ing jiko (charcoal stove). I would like to take this moment to say that my jiko and I have currently reconciled, but it was touch and go there for a little because it wouldn’t light and I was favoring my kerosene stove.

As far as Tanzanian culture goes I feel I am starting to get the hang of it, as well as the language. Just as life in Tanzania is slow, so is the learning process. I still have many moments of “holy crap I live in Africa” and many other moments that could only happen in Tanzania (these are affectionately known as ‘Karibu TZ’, Welcome to TZ, moments).  My one hope is that I begin to get into a routine once school starts in January. My counterparts, Tanzanian teachers at my school, have been really nice and constantly want me to piga stori (tell a story) from home. They are also very interested in American culture and what my life was like at home. Currently, I have been explaining to them that in New England it is currently freezing cold and probably snowing, something they occasionally experience here between the months of June and August.

So all in all this week went pretty well; flea bites, one marriage proposal on the coaster, three hours of bean cooking, a chicken in my bed room and a bag of potatoes. Not too bad. As always I hope everyone at home is doing well! I miss you all! All my love from TZ. 

Swearing in/ First few days at site...

The past week has been pretty life changing and liberating to say the least. Last Sunday all 38 PCTs traveled to Dar for swearing in. We once again shacked up at the Mzimbazi center, which was a lot more fun this time because we could actually speak Kiswahili to the people who live and work there.

On Monday we had a meeting at PC HQ going over logistics and money matters while at site and on Tuesday we met our mkuu (aka Our new school’s principle/ head master). My mkuu is a really sweet guy.  He was wicked excited to meet me. He was also super stoked to be receiving a PCV.  After a very awkward conversation and group session with him we had a free afternoon, so I traveled into Dar with Glen and Enoch (fellow PCTs). It was nice to be able to walk around and see what Dar actually looks like because the last time we were locked up for five days. Overall the outing was a success for a few reasons: 1) We didn’t get robbed 2) We found a shop, kama (like), CVS that had air conditioning [Oh yeah, forgot to mention Dar was one big sweat ball, 89 degrees every day and humid) and ESPN on the tv. 3) I bought a really cool navy blue dress for swearing in and some beaded sandals. 4) We made it back to the center safely in a taxi. Later that night the ritual pumzikia session took place and then we headed to bed.

Wednesday morning and swear in day rolled around. We arrived at the US embassy at around 9:15ish, went through the hairball that was security and finally made it to our seats.  The embassy, I thought, was a fitting, but also strange place to hold the ceremony because it seemed too much like being back in the states to me. The offices looks just like offices in the US and the building had all modern conveniences, aka a western toilet, sink and water fountain.  Any who, the ceremony took place in the main hall of the embassy and the country director for PC, Andrea, spoke as well as Ambassador Lenhardt and Director General, Tanzania Institute of Education, Paul Mushi. Two of the PCTs from the class read a speech we had written and we all sang a kind of sappy song in Kiswahili. After we took our, oath (officially making us PCVs) and about a million group pictures we were welcomed onto the lawn of the embassy for cake, which was amazing, meat kabobs, samosas and sodas.  Later in the day, around 5 or so, we rolled up to the Ambassador’s house for an early Thanksgiving dinner which was not quite like Mom’s, but still amazing. The Ambassador’s wife, Jackie, greeted us and was eagar to find out where we all hailed from in the states.  As for dinner…. we had everything; pasta salads, salads, chicken (turkey is wicked expensive here), gravy, mashed potatoes, rolles, stuffing, cranberry sauce, corn bake, veggies, pumpkin pie, apple pie, brownies, cookies, ice tea, coffee and juice. Needless to say we left the Ambassador’s house completely stuffed.  That night at the center many of us did not sleep because we had to be up and at the cars by about 3:45am. I think I slept for maybe 2 hours total.

The next morning we all said goodbye to each other in the pitch black and headed to the bus stand with other people who were going to our region. Saying good-bye to everyone was such a bazaar experience; we were put together for the past 2 months, we bonded over the most random, yet significant things and then we are suddenly separated from one another, two days travel for some, and have to live on our own and start all over again in a community of strangers. After arriving at the bus stand, our driver got into a bit of an argument with the man who was supposed to move our luggage to the correct bus. Actually, I wouldn’t really call it an argument; our driver held the man by the collar and was shouting at him. Honestly, not much fazes me after being in this country for the last 2 months, especially when I am half a sleep, but I was legitimately scared. After lugging our own bags to the bus, we boarded for what would be the most awkward 13 ½ hour bus ride of my life, but then again how many of those can I actually say I have ever been on? Just this one I suppose. The whole trip I sat next to my mkuu and because I didn’t sleep the night before the first 3 hours must have been pretty boring for him because I just slept.  In case you were all wondering, this bus did stop to let us go to the bathroom, once literally in the bush and another time at a legitimate rest stop.

I arrived at my new home for the next 2 years in the pitch black, aka 7:30 pm. Boarding students from my school were there to welcome me and take my bags. Let me just say here how reassuring it is when you arrive at your new home in a strange place and you can’t even see what it looks like. My bags were brought to the mkuu’s house, which honestly at first made me nervous because I thought I was going to have to stay the night there, but it was only a brief stop to meet the other teachers at the school, his family and have some dinner. After the first meeting, my new colleagues dropped me off at my house.  They showed me around and I unwrapped my mattress from the plastic and headed to bed. The next morning was like Christmas morning because I had a huge present to unwrap…. I opened my curtains to see what my new home looks like! The school is really cute. It is comprised of about 4 identical long buildings and is surrounded by a bunch of smaller teachers’ houses. The backdrop is green rolling hills that are home to pine and eucalyptus tress. About 7 villages, which all feed into my secondary school, surround the area.  There are two small dukas (stores) in my village that sell the basic necessities, soap, soda, eggs, bread, kerosene, salt, sugar, flour and other random items. The next nearest town Ndaga has a daily market and is located about 3km from my site.  Apart from the chickens that frequent my doorstep, I am very pleased with my site. I live smack in the middle of an agrarian society and as far as I can tell my neighbors are very nice and super welcoming (the girl next door gave me potatoes from her shamba (farm) for free).  Hopefully, I will fit in even more once I get to work on my garden.

For all you who are wondering, I have electricity, but it turns on when ever Tanseco ( The CL&P of Tanzania) feels like it and a water source 10 feet from my house. I also have two bedrooms, a choo (toilet), shower room, storage room and kitchen.

Alright onward with the weeks events, the 1^st  day at site after being introduced to the school before it was closed for break by the Mkuu, I ventured to Mbeya, a larger city about an hour coaster ride from my site, for a PCV Thanksgiving / welcome to the region dinner. Even though it was my second Thanksgiving dinner it was still amazing. All the PVCs in the area brought something, we had everything from chicken (again), green bean casserole, stuffing, pumpkin dessert, bread, chili to cake, guac and chips and fried rice. Everyone in the region is super nice and they were really excited to see the newbies.  The next morning I headed home and stopped by the market on the way to pick up some goods for the house; pots, buckets, baskets and other necessities. Sunday my Mkuu and another teacher from the school took their sons and me on a hike to Ngozi/ Crater Lake. The hike to the rim of the crater took us about 2 hours, but was well worth the long upward hike. The lake is absolutely beautiful and is surrounded by steep, heavily vegetated walls and was formed when Mt. Ngozi, a former volcano, blew its top. Yesterday was relatively uneventful. I did some laundry, P90x, spoke with a fundi about some furniture and a dresser and four village children took shelter in my house for a very awkward 30 minutes as it poured and hailed outside. This might be a good place to mention the climate of my site. Usually it is not too cold. At night I would say it creeps down to the mid 50s and high 70s during the day. It had also started to rain every afternoon, hence the “rainy season”. It is currently “summer” here because we are in the Southern Hemisphere, but come June and July, I am told, my site will have snow in the morning. Talk about Christmas in July!

 This morning I went for a run and was stopped by about 10 people expressing their sympathy because they thought I was running because I had to, until I explained I was exercising. One Bibi (older women), after hearing my explanation, put down the hoe she was carrying on her head and preceded to run and do jumping jacks. I was absolutely floored and thought she might lose all of her limbs or I would have to do CPR on her. In the late morning the secretary to the Mkuu came to tell me that I was needed by the Mkuu for our unscheduled trip (not surprising) to Tukuyu to meet the heads of education in the region. After a few brief meetings, I ventured out on my own to find lunch, chips mayai, basically deep-fried potatoes baked into an omelet ( Jordo you have to try this! I think you would really like it) and a few items, while my Mkuu waited in the longest bank line I have ever seen.

So far the first few days at site have been relatively uneventful. I have speaking as much Swahili as I possibly can and venturing out into my community as much as possible. I am looking forward to going back into Mbeya this weekend for a tour and to see how everyone else is faring in his or her village. Before I forget, I am now cooking for myself! So far only rice, potatoes and veggies, but I hope to gain some confidence and visit the butcher for steaki at some point this week.

As always, I hope things are going well back in the good ole US of A, everyone had a great Thanksgiving and no one was trampled at Walmart on black Friday.  As promised I have updated my address:

Carly Traub, PCV

(Third Hut on the Left)

Isongole Secondary School

PO BOX 222

Tukuyu, Mbeya, Tanzania

Not sure what my plans for Christmas are here. We are allowed to travel for either Christmas or new years, so we will see what emerges...

Miss you all. All my love from TZ!

At Site!

Just arrived at site! I have no idea what my school or the area looks like because I arrived after dark. We left Dar this morning at 6 am, but I have been up since 3:30am. After a 13 and 1/2 hour bus ride I had a light dinner with my Mkuu (head master) and his wife. I also met some of the other teachers at the school. After some talking and dinner the teaching staff dropped me at my house, which I will post pics of later! Just wanted to let you all know that I swore in yesterday day and am officially a PCV! Also, not to worry I had Thanksgiving dinner at the U.S. Ambassador's house last night. It was delicious! Happy Turkey Day everyone at home!!!

Swearing in Pic!!!

Shadow week/ Last week of Home Stay

Hello All! These past two weeks have been pretty eventful for the following reasons

1. I received my site assignment
2. I traveled to Lushoto for my shadow week.
3. We wrapped up training/ home stay!

So...let's tackle #1 first. My site has changed from my original assignment. I was originally placed in the Iringa region, but was asked to switch because a volunteer wanted to teach A Level, but was not placed at a school with A level. My school in Iringa had A and O level, so I was asked to switch to a school that is only O level. I will now be living in Mbeya in the Rungwe region and teaching at Isongole Secondary School! I have neutral feelings about the switch because I know I would be happy at either site. I do not know much about my new site, except that it (supposedly) has electricity and water. It is also in a region of a country that gets 3m of rainfall each year and is cooler. I will be about 30 minutes from my banking town and other volunteers, which will be very nice. I will also be in a region with a lot of mountains and lakes, which means lots of hiking and being outdoors in my free time! I will also be very close to the border of Malawi and Zambia. I am pretty excited to be able to travel to some other countries, while I am here and it is even better that they less than a days bus ride away! I will try to keep the blog updated as more details/ a new address become available.

Alright on to #2... The adventure to Lushoto started two Sunday mornings ago at 6 am. I left the house with chocolate cake, chips mayai and hot meat (prepared by my host mama) after being told to comb my hair... We drove to Chelinze, which is about an hour from Morogoro, to catch the bus to Lushoto. After waiting around for a good 1 ½ hours, we boarded the bus. It was a pretty sketchy coach bus with small lightly padded seats and people standing in the aisles. One of the first things I noticed, upon boarding the bus, was a cardboard box under a seat a couple of rows in front of me that contained not one, but three chickens. After getting settled in I took a nap, ate some cake and everyone who boarded the bus along the route inevitably hit me walking up the aisle, pulled my hair or “unknowingly” shoved their butts in my face. After a couple of hours of the above occurring, the bus veered off of the main road at Mombo up into the hills around Lushoto.  The road to Lushoto starts off perfectly fine, but one soon finds themselves on a coach bus traveling on a one lane road winding up the side of a mountain….in Africa. We reached Lushoto about 1 ½ to 2 hours after leaving the main road. There we met up with our host, Theresa, a second year PCV who is actually extending for a third year! Theresa was quick to inform us that about ½ hour outside of Lushoto the road is dirt and that because of the recent rains instead of the trip taking the normal 3 hours it could take up to 5. (Keep in mind at this point my dear blog readers that I have not seen a bathroom since about 5:30am) The ride up to Sunga was really nice because as we climbed in elevation the temperature dropped to a comfortable, what I would guess to be, 55-60 degrees. We arrived at Sunga Secondary School, where Theresa lives and is a teacher at about 4:30-5:00 pm ish. We were quick to find that there is no electricity or running water at her sight. We were also informed that a teacher from another school who was proctoring exams would be staying with us…a last minute surprise! After lighting a few candles and prepping dinner we went to bed. The next couple of days followed relatively the same pattern. We usually got up at 6:15ish, started some hot water for tea on the jicho/ kerosene stove, did the dishes from the night before, ate some breakfast and if you were me, did a little bit of yoga in the brisk morning air! Most of the mornings this week Eula and I would venture out for a good walk, about 1 ½ to 2 hours, (I should note here that on one of our walks we were actually lucky enough to see Kilimanjaro in the distance with snow!) come home and bake something for later in the day and then watch/ help Theresa review with her students for their exams. One day Eula and I got to teach a class on drug awareness… let’s just say it was quite an experience. We tackled every question from “Can I get a shot from the doctor to mask the pain in my ankle so I can play football?” to “If I take amphetamines then I can stay up and study more, right!?”. One afternoon our walk consisted of a jaunt into the local rainforest, which I thought was pretty cool, temperature wise. The climate of the Lushoto area is identical to that of Northern California, even down to the eucalyptus trees, which were imported by the Germans. Saturday afternoon our travels took us up to Mambo View Point (www.mamboviewpoint.org). MVP is run by a couple from the Netherlands and is a resort/ camp place set upon the highest peak around. We walked up to MVP in the morning, met the owner and went on a guided hike of the area and a cave with the owners dog Zua in tow. The walk down to the caves was really interesting and steep. At one point I turned around and looked back up the path we had just come down only to hear bells and to see about 40 goats and sheep coming down at us followed by three children yelling and poking at the flock. I could only compare this moment to the way Mufasa must have felt in the Lion King just before he was trampled by the heard of wildebeest (A this point if you have no idea what I am talking about please go watch the Lion King again). We eventually reached the cave, in one piece, and climbed inside (I actually almost got stuck!). The cave was formed long ago by rockslide caused by an earthquake. After our adventure in the caves we climbed back out and straight up hill. It was actually a little scary, but we eventually reached the viewpoint without any major problems, save for the fact that I had to help the guide carry the dog up the steep parts of the trail (i.e. over boulders). The view was absolutely beautiful and we could see in almost 360 degrees. We eventually walked back to MVP, had soda and tea and headed home. Sunday Eula and I traveled back to Moro and to spare you the details about the bus ride home it was exactly the same as above, basically people sitting in my lap for too many hours (5:30 am- 3:30 pm). All in all the shadow week was really nice and a welcome break from CCT, language classes and home stay. I really learned to bake on a jicho this week (breakfast bread, French bread, banana bread, chocolate cake [Monday was Theresa’s birthday, but we burnt the cake a little, pole] tortillas, etc.)

All the cooking this week has actually inspired me to try my own Julie & Julia experiment, PC style. I thought it would be really cool to cook my way through the entire PC cookbook that we received during training…we will see if this actually happens, but it could be entertaining! I also might be training for the Kilimanjaro half marathon at the end of February… we will see if this actually happens because I have no idea what the running conditions at my site will be like, but many volunteers run the full or the half and it would keep me motivated to workout here and give me something to do and it would counter balance all the cooking.

Lastly #3, Today is the last day of home stay. Honestly, I was petrified day one of home stay. I think most people would be. I did not speak the language and I moved all my stuff in the home of complete strangers on a different continent. After 6 weeks of home stay my view of families here has completely changed. There would be times I during the past weeks I would come home from Kiswahili class extremely homesick and after spending 30 minutes back at home with my host family it would disappear. I have found that families here are really no different than families back in the US, at least my host family wasn’t. Mama yelled at my host brother and sisters, my siblings had arguments between themselves, we had chores (I had to mop by bedroom floor), we watched television while eating dinner and mama sang while she was cooking dinner.

So…because last night was the last night of home stay our families threw our CBT a going away party. It was pretty awesome. The party was held outside underneath a tarp at Sarah’s house. Mike’s Baba, who I consider to be the mayor of Kila Kala, (our neighborhood) was the emcee for the event. We kicked off the party by joining in the Tanzanian version of the electric slide. All of our sisters started the dance and we eventually joined them. On that note now might be a good time to explain how my self-confidence has changed since joining the PC and living in Tanzania. I can honestly say that I am not as shy as I normally am. Before getting up to dance in front of people (sober), volunteering to lead a group activity, read allowed or be involved in any type of performance was really difficult, but I rarely feel that people here are judging me, even though they all stare because I am white. Moving on with the rest of the story… the rest of the party was pretty interesting… before dinner we were introduced with our families, one of our Babas said a prayer, our LCF said thank you to our families, we drank sodas and we had to cut the cake. The cutting of the cake is a big deal at Tanzanian parties. Our LCF/ Swahili teacher, Kondo, cut the cake into bite size pieces and then fed the five PCTs cake off of toothpicks, then each of us fed our parents a piece of cake off of toothpicks, while everyone else was singing. It was pretty interesting, but surprisingly not awkward. After the feeding of the cake we all ate a meal that was prepared by all of our Mamas, kabobs, potatoes, beef, cabbage, cooked banana, pineapple and watermelon. Following dinner we each said thank you to our families, I went with the half Kiswahili, half English speech, which was a smart move (Another thing I would have been terrified to do before coming here!). Post dinner we also presented our families with gifts and were presented with gifts. I received about four Tanzanian leis from my family along with a traditional Tanzanian outfit that Mama had made for me! Our families each received a family picture and when we returned home I gave my family some postcards, silly bandz (thanks Aunt Leanne!), lollipops and a jar of strawberry jam (something my family and I enjoy and something they would never buy for themselves). Over all the party was amazing and something I will never forget, but my night did not end there. Upon returning home Mama asked me if I wanted to attend a send off party with her, after hearing stories from other volunteers about their experience at these events I decided I had to go. For those of you who are wondering what a send off party is it is party to say goodbye to the bride before she is sent to marry her fiancé. It is usually put on by her parents and by contributions from the attendees. Mama and I arrived at the party and I was surprised and happy to see another volunteer, David, was there with his family (the only other white person at this event mind you). The party was held at a local restaurant, there were probably over 300 people and the theme colors were turquoise and pink. A send off party here in Tanzania is very well orchestrated and almost seems choreographed. If anyone from the immediate family moved anywhere, they did not walk, they danced. There was a ton of dancing and lots of bongo flava music! There was also the ceremonial cutting of the cake, which at a send off party is done by the bride to be and her maid of honor. At one point I got up to get my three complimentary sodas. Upon retuning to my seat the bride to bed was making her entrance, so I had to awkwardly stand in a space of sitting people, needless to say I stuck out and it did not help that I am a tall mzungu. My favorite part of the send off party was the video camera. Many send offs involve projection screens that are hooked up to a video camera, which makes its way around the party taking video of the guests and bridal party. Since the party was outside and it was dark the extra lighting for the camera was as bright as a big mac’s headlights and almost blinding. Once again, I feel I should remind my readers, I was one of two wazungu at this event, dressed in my new outfit Mama had given me and big white beaded Masai earrings. I stuck out like a sore thumb when that camera panned around the party and constantly found myself laughing when I could see myself on the screen. As awkward as it was, I can honestly say that the whole night I never felt like anyone was really staring at me, which was a nice change! It turned out to be a pretty late night, but I am really happy Mama let me tag along. I am sure I will never forget that experience and now I have a few new party traditions to bring back to the states with me! So… Asante Sana, Mama. Nilifurhahi kwenda. Niliimba na nilicheza juu ya Kiti changu. (Thanks Mama, I was happy I went. I sang and danced in my seat).

To wrap up my home stay experience, it was proven to me that experiences that you are afraid to partake are usually the experiences you learn and grow the most from. Take home message, folks, do things that scare you!!! I think it was Eleanor Roosevelt who said, “Do one thing every day that scares the shit out of you”.  I will miss my family dearly and if I am ever back in Morogoro I will be sure to stop in and say hello, hopefully in more Kiswahili, than English. They have taught me so much and I can only hope I have taught them a few things along the way too.

Okay so here is part of the blog where I ask for a little support from everyone back at home. As I will be moving to a new site (the school has never had a volunteer and my house has never been lived in) I am asking anyone who wants to send me some homemade artwork, quotes or pictures via mail that I can decorate my house with. I am not sure what my address at site is yet, but once I do, mail will reach me faster than it would be sending it to the address listed on the blog right now.

Once again I hope everything is going well at home and that you are all looking forward to Thanksgiving pour some gravy out for me and maybe some mashed potatoes. Wednesday is swearing in and I will be spending Thanksgiving Day on a bus to my new site, but Thanksgiving weekend I think I may be visiting other volunteers in the area! Also thanks to all of you who comment on the blog! You have no idea how nice it is to read your comments after a long day. Miss you all. All my love from TZ. 

Full Mzuka

Sorry folks, relatively uneventful week.

More teaching and CCT days occurred. Aron, a PCV and resident Bill Nye, orchestrated our POD day this week. It was pretty awesome we basically learned how to do complex labs, with less dangerous chemicals and minimal resources. Who would have thought syringes double as pipettes and plastic water bottles as beakers?

Another PCT, Sarah, and I ventured to the Fundi this weeks to have skirts and head wraps made for about Tsh 9,500 about $6.60, material and all.  Both turned out surprisingly well, so I went back on Monday with material for a wrap dress… We will see how it turns out on Saturday! (Hopefully I’ll upload some pictures)

The highlight of the week was going to Saba-Saba market with my host Mama and Mama mdogo (Mom’s little sister). Saba-Saba is a used clothes market and is in full swing on Sundays. I don’t really know how to describe the seen, but it is a cross between a flea market and a super Goodwill/ Salvation Army/ Thrift store. You can buy every thing from plastic sandals to used New Balance sneakers to soccer jerseys to used underwear. My favorite part of the market was probably a place I referred to as “Kasheshe” (chaos).  At the back of the market about 10-15 men stand on tables next to huge clothes piles of clothes and hold up items until someone buys it from them. They are yelling and bargaining with the people below them. If they don’t get bites on an item they simply throw it back into the pile next to them and try to sell the next item they grab. The whole scene is really loud and crowded, but you can buy a pretty nice dress shirt for Tsh 500 or about $.30. I was disappointed that I did not stop to buy real 7 for All Mankind jeans when I saw them, but what the hell was I going to do with them in 80 weather? The Daladala ride from town back home was also a pretty awesome site. After waiting for about 20 minutes for the dala to fill up at the bus stand dala passengers’’ emotions were running high as well as the temperature within the dala, so my host mama took it upon herself to yell at the driver “Tunaweza kuandoka!!!???” (Can we leave?).  It was definitely a “Go, Host Mama moment”, but seriously I would not want to mess with her! On the short trip home she also broke up a small fight at the back of the dala…I think my mama should rethink her job as a nurse and become a personal bodyguard.  

As I type this blog, I am listening to Bongo Flava, aka Tanzanian pop music. It is something that has continued to grow on me especially because it is all my Tanzanian family watches on TV at night, besides Pretty Girl 2, a story for another time. Bongo Flava = Full Mzuka (total excitement). It comes on the TV or the radio and I instantly find myself wanting to dance. At this point in my blog I would also like to thank Bongo Flava for helping me with my Kiswahili…it is nice to listen to and I am learning the language! I also feel I should mention that Bongo Flava can be heard all day long in the neighborhood I live in and can never be played loud enough or early enough in the morning. So here is to the solo DP (dance party) that will occur weekly to Bongo Flava once I reach site!

Another prominent feature in my life now a days is food, or rather carbs L. My host Mama is an awesome cook and I cannot hold it against her that the staple of every Tanzanian’s diet is carbohydrates, for good reason, but when my meal consists of rice, potato, yam and kiti moto (pork, which translates literally to “hot seat”) I get a little scared. I love my Mama’s cooking, but once I get to site, oil, carbs and salt are going to have to be all but gone from my diet.  On the upside I have been attempting to run in the mornings here about 3-4 times a week depending on how I am feeling. On that note, yes I have had some issues with bowel movements,(now is a good a time as any to mention it, right?), usually after I have eaten Kachembali, (raw tomatoes, cucumbers and red onion with a citrus dressing), but no majors so far.

This coming Sunday another PCT, Eula, and I will be traveling to Lushoto to shadow a PVC who is teaching O level Biology.  I am pretty excited to travel with Eula! I would describe her as having the combined personalities of George-Ann and Liz (Mom you know what I am talking about!)  and she is some one who has been a great sounding board during PST. I am also excited to travel to the northern part of Tanzania. Lushoto is in the Tanga region (Northeast) and should be cooler temperature wise than Morogoro, where it has still yet to really rain since we have been here.

Today (Thursday) also happens to be the last day of internship teaching at Morogoro secondary school! I would like to thank them for allowing the five us to enter their classrooms and the brains of their students for the last three weeks! I will miss the people at the school, especially my students, and the daily walk to school. On a similar note I will also miss the “school bus” I see every morning. Said “school bus” is actually a sedan, probably a ’95 Toyota Corolla, with about 10 children stuffed into it. I usually pass the school bus on my way through the Sokoni on the way to school and crack up every time I see it. There are usually three kids between the ages of 6-8 crammed into the passenger seat and seven kids packaged into the back seat. (This clearly goes against all airbag and seatbelt warnings) All of the kids have the “deer in the headlights” look plastered on their faces as the pass buy. Clearly this school bus is not safe and probably not something that I should find joy in, but the scene makes with laugh without fail every time I think about it or see it.  Guess it is the true meaning of “car pooling”…

As always, I hope things are going well at home! If you ever find yourselves bored I love to read letters! You can send them to the address on the side of the blog or next week hopefully I will be able to update to my address at site. Either way I will get a letter if you send it. On that note, if anyone ever wants to burn a CD with new music and send it….I would love you for ever/ definitely bring you something back when I come home to visit at some point. Oh also shout out to Andy Irons, hope you are surfing the eternal clean barrel… so bummed to hear about him.

I also hope everyone is enjoying the cooler weather, pumpkin pies, hot apple cider and the fact that the holiday season is right around the corner. All my love from TZ.

Tayari or not....

Where to begin? Since my last blog post things have moved relatively quickly as far as Tanzanian time is concerned.

[Now might be a good time to mention that Tanzanian time is nothing like American time. In the US time is considered to be money, here in Tanzania everyone seems to have enough time and not enough time can be spent enjoying others’ company. So, things in general move pretty slowly here, i.e. events do not start on time and people are not always where they should be at the specified times. The concept of time here is something I am slowly adjusting to and slowly starting to appreciate living in the moment and enjoying the people around me.]

For instance in the past week, I took my mid LPI (language proficiency interview) and written exam, hiked up into the Uluguru mountains, taught my first class, cooked an American dish for my family and assisted in the killing of another chicken.

In a previous post I posted a picture of the Uluguru Mountains that form the backdrop for the town of Morogoro. This past Sunday a group of about 20 of us (PCTs) took a guided trek up into the mountains. It was a beautiful sunny day and our hike started at about 8:00 am. We broke up into two groups to decrease the likelihood of theft. By about 10:00 am the second group caught up to the first group and we hiked as one large group and by about 8:15 am I had broken out into a full sweat. I don’t think I have ever sweat so much in my life besides in a BWC body circuit when the Murphs would not open the doors to the let the breeze in. Okay, so….back to the hike, our first stop was an old German hotel called Morningside. It was built in 1911 as a resort for the German colonists in Tanzania, but has since gone to ruin. The building is run down and covered with writing, bright tropical orange flowers and vines. Morningside is now primarily used by one of the local universities for soil and agricultural research.  The hike up to Morningside was absolutely beautiful. People have settled all the way up the mountainside and it was amazing to see that most of them were farmers. It rains often in the mountains because of the elevation so irrigation is natural and plentiful. They grow everything from carrots and cabbage to bananas and avocadoes.  I was completely amazed to see beds of crops on steep mountainsides! After stopping at Morningside we continued on through small hill top villages to a local waterfall, which I also found to be very beautiful. The people who lived in the village near the waterfall followed us down and watched all 20 wazungu enjoy the scenery. The waterfall was not flowing at its max rate because it is currently the dry season in Tanzania, but it was still an aesthetically pleasing sight nonetheless. At this point most of us realized that not only were we soaked with sweat, but also we were wicked sun burnt…. After stopping at the waterfall for about twenty minutes we continued our hike down hill to home. All in all I had never been on a hike quite like this one. The trail was very narrow and steep at times. We arrived back in Morogoro at about 3:30 and even upped with our tour guides.  The guides cost each of us Tsh 11,500, about  $7.66. It was nice to discover that the money that the national park receives from guided tours goes to the people in the villages that the tours pass through. If anyone is ever in Morogoro for an extended stay, I highly recommend taking a guided tour up into the Uluguru mountains.

This past Tuesday night I decided to take matters into my own hands at home. I was going to cook a dish for my Tanzanian family, come hell or high water. Too many times I have been kicked out the kitchen and told to go watch TV (we get three channels in case anyone was wondering) because of my poor knife skills and my apparent inability to stir rice. So, I went to the super market in town (more like a Cumbies) and picked up a package of bow tie pasta, which surprisingly enough my host family referred to as macaroni. Anyhow…I made homemade pasta sauce (tomatoes, garlic, onions, green peppers, carrots and salt) and pasta for my family. I was pretty impressed with myself because I made the whole meal over a charcoal fire. My host family enjoyed the meal, but found that it lacked salt….

Wednesday, I took my written Kiswahili exam as well as my oral interview. I felt that both went very well, but they were just for practice and as a progress marker. The final exam, in a couple weeks, is the one that will determine whether or not I will be sworn in as a volunteer or not. Thursday, I taught my first class in a Tanzanian classroom. To prepare for the lesson, earlier in the week I visited the class to see where they were in the syllabus. After a little deductive reasoning I learned that they were studying plant and animal cells, so that’s what I prepped for. [Note on Tanzanian classrooms: They are similar to American classrooms and also very different. They are set up relatively the same way, but there are in some cases two or three students to one desk and the school is run in a more “old school” way than one might be used to in the US. For instance, when I entered the classrooms the students are programmed to stand and greet me, “Good afternoon, Teacher” to which I am to reply “Good afternoon, Class. You may sit”. ] All in all I felt the class went very well considering the fact that last year I taught a class of nine students every day and Thursday I taught a class of about 35 or so.

This past Saturday all 39 of us took off for our Trainee Directed Activity, a trip to Mikumi national park. Mikumi is located a little west of Morogoro and was about a 1 ½ - 2 hour drive.  Overall the trip was pretty awesome. Mikumi is the fourth largest national park in Tanzania and is home to many animals. Saturday afternoon after we checked into the hotel we headed to the park to catch the animals in the late afternoon. Upon entering the park we spotted a couple of African elephants. On the safari we were lucky enough to see giraffe, impala, warthogs, zebra, oxen, more elephants, a hippopotamus and a pride of lions. At times it was hard to wrap my mind around the idea that I was viewing these animals in their natural habitat. One of my favorite parts of the day was when we stopped at the watering hole and saw a hippopotamus and a pride of lions. The lions were napping and then fighting over a leftover carcass meanwhile the hippo about 150m away is lolling in the water opening its mouth every so often. Besides the animals the park’s landscape is also very beautiful. I was in awe of some of the trees that were going there. They are much different from anything at home and something straight out of standard Africa savannah photo. Upon exiting the park we also saw the most amazing African sunset. It was a combination of red, orange, pink and yellow. The full moon rise was also very pretty. The next morning we woke up at 5:00am to get breakfast and to the park before the sun got too high in the sky. The second trip into the park was just as good as the first, if not better. We saw many of the same animals, minus the lions, but we were able to get much closer in the vans to them.  Waking up at 5:00am did not do much for my level of consciousness, so I slept most of the trip on the bumpy dirt roads and only woke when people in the van spotted animals. When we arrived at the watering hole our guide allowed us to venture out of the van because there were no lions around, there were, however, many wildebeest and zebras getting their fill of water for the morning. Overall, the mini safari was pretty awesome.  *One take home lesson from the whole trip is that it does not take long for three men to change a blown tire on a bus. One of our buses blew a front tire, not once, but twice and I was pretty shocked at how fast and easy it was to fix. Honestly, in the US I would have just called AAA, but these guys could put them to shame.  To entertain ourselves on the side of the highway while the van was being tended to, we played a game everyone likes…. throw rocks at a stone pillar and see who can hit it first from a reasonable distance. Seriously this game can keep one occupied for a good chunk of time.

This coming week is week 5 of training. We will be teaching more and hopefully observed by the PCVs of the week, other teachers and our LCFs. At the end of the week we will be told where we will be going for shadow in week 7. Shadow is a weeklong and about 2 or 3 PCTs travel to a PCVs site live with them and teach at their school. 

Something I have neglected to post in previous posts, or touch on enough in previous posts is how my name is completely unpronounceable by Tanzanians. There is some thing about the “rl” complex in my name that throws everyone for a loop. For instance, earlier in training when one of the LCFs was announcing our CBT groups he read everyone’s name, but mine and just added “and this person too”. My host mama for instance likes to call me Karen, while her little sister likes to call me Carrie. I tried to spell my name in Swahili to see if that would help with people’s pronunciation of it, but it turns out the closest combination of letters I could come up with, Kali, (Kah-lee) means sharp or fierce in Swahili. Prefect for me, for those of you who know me well enough, but it really throws the Tanzanians off. So…. I remain Karen, Carrie, Carolyn and “this person”.



Mikumi National Park |(yes I took this picture)

Once again I hope everything is well in the States. If people want to write, I can receive letters at the address above. Thank you so much to the Pearlsteins! I was so happy to receive your letter this week! Thank you for thinking of me! A return letter will soon be in the mail.  For those of you who are wondering as I am writing this blog post it is pouring outside! Finally some rain to suppress all of the dust….or create a ton of mud. The next blog I will report back as to my preference….mud or dust? We shall find out.

Maji on my kichwa

Thought I would blog again today since I have had some down time and my CBT is so close to the Internet cafe. The past few days have gone well. Saturday I did laundry the "real" way for the first time. This consisted of putting my whites in a bucket (ndoo) with a disproportional amount of water to soap (about 1:3). After scrubbing, I kid you not in this order, the collar, armpits, waist and the rest of the shirt well, you then place it in water to rinse, ring it out and let it dry. If you try to stray from the order, you will be asked if you have actually washed the article of clothing. After all my whites were done I naturally progressed to washing my darks. (It would be good to note here that kangas will bleed the first time you wash them.) The whole washing process start to finish took me about an hour and consisted of me laughing at myself and my neighbors watching me.

Sunday was our first "day off" in a while and some of the volunteers met up in town for lunch. I spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out with my host family. They speak in Kiswahili to each other, so most of the bonding I do with them is listening and trying to follow their conversations. At one point during the afternoon I overheard them talking about the lack of water and the current drought that the area around here is experiencing. My host brother and sisters then rounded up some buckets and kangas and started to head for the door. I quickly inquired into where they were going, to which they responded, " you sit and rest, you must be tired". Not wanting to be left behind, I asked where my bucket was and said that I drank the same amount of water as a large camel everyday, so I should be helping to get some too. When we got to the well I realized that my family members had brought the kangas for the space between their heads and the buckets. So needless to say I walked home with water (maji) on my head (kichwa). The walk home was about 1/3 to 1/2 a mile and my host family members periodically asked me if I was tired (unachoka?). When I got home my host mom's little sister, Mam dogo (little mom), was actually shocked that I was able to carry the water, even though a lot of it ended up on me... still haven't figured out the graceful bucket-on-head swagger yet.

Yesterday in place of language class we had a cooking class. My CBT group members and I spent from about 10 am to 2:30 pm preparing a meal that consisted of chicken, rice, ugali, tomatoes & onions, pea medley, banana bread (our American dish) and a couple of other veggies. The only problem with the preparation of the meal is that it included the killing, plucking and dissembling of two chickens. The cooking also included a lot of fire lighting, since things are usually cooked on charcoal stoves, and tons of smoke. After the preparation of the meal I decided that when I move to my sight meals are going to have to be very very simple because even preparing rice can take about an hour (the rocks have to be taken out, the rice has to be soaked, the fire has to be made, the water has to boil and the rice has to cook).

Everything else seems to be going well and I feel like communicating with my host family seems to be getting easier everyday. I am looking forward to teaching in the school we have been studying at starting next week! Hope things are going well stateside. Will try to blog as often as I can! Miss you all! Oh...also Facebook message or email me if you would like my cell number here.

Saturday in Morogoro

Sorry it took me so long to blog, but I hope you are all enjoying the events of the past 2 weeks. Today is Saturday in Morogoro which means I had Kiswahili class this morning! This afternoon we took a field trip into Morogoro, bought cell phones and had lunch. Every time I walk into to town I feel more comfortable about leaving here, but also more aware of my surroundings. Not much else has really gone on. Last night a bunch of PCTs and a couple PCVs went to the local ex-pat hangout for pizza! (I miss cheese). This afternoon I will get to do laundry for the second time here and properly for the first time, which I am pretty excited about. Tomorrow I plan on studying lots of Kiswahili while my family attends church. I am pretty excited to have a day to myself! This coming week will consist of more Kiswahili lessons, micro-teaching in our groups and more CCT time! I hope everyone is well in the states!

Entries since 9/22

 9/23

Currently in transit to Zurich…long long day, but I thought I would write something quickly.  So far so good…

Staging went very well. I arrived in Philadelphia after being stared at and taking a train from Kent , negotiating the NYC subway with my backpack and two bags. Little side track here… I actually put my bags down when I got to the subway turn style and mentally prepared for the task at hand. Needless to say I made it through, but it was a little hairy at times!  After I arrived at the hotel we registered, signed some paperwork and then proceeded to meet from 2-6:30. Our meeting was well organized and covered basically what we should expect and the core goals of Peace Corps. At the end of the meeting we had to pick groups leaders for our voyage today. After a considerable pause I volunteered myself as leader of group 6! Woop, woop! Big doings. Actually, not really I just had to collect money, make sure no one was missing and no one left bags in the hotel.  After the meeting a bunch of us met up and went out for hand drawn noodles in China town, which were actually delicious, and a few beers at a bar. This morning we left for the airport at 9:30am, arrived at about 1:00, played a sweet game of Catch Phrase while sitting in the airport, checked in (checked bags weighed 33 lbs and 32 lbs… way under the 80lbs limit) and took off for Zurich around 7:00pm.

Lucked out on the plane because I got a middle row seat on the isle with an empty seat  next to it! Think it belongs to one of the volunteers who did not arrive at staging…..Everyone is still super nice and I feel I am making friends. Our group of 39 ranges in ages from 21 to hmmm not exactly sure, but probably near 60. It is surprising to think people have left their (adult) children, husbands and fiancés at home.

Spirits are high amongst all of us. Everyone, including myself, seems eager to get to Tanzania and get the lay of the land.  I think people in general are very happy to be amongst people who are in the same mindset as themselves.

For those of you who are wondering buffalo wings and a miller lite was my last meal in the states!

Till later,

Carly


9/28ish

Greetings from Tanzania!! We arrived on Friday night at 8:15 to Nyrere Airport in Dar and were greeted by Andrea and Mama Salome, the country director for PC Tanzania and the PC safety and security advisor. After collecting our bags we were escorted to a truck where we placed our bags and hopped on to two buses and headed for the Msimbazi Center in Dar. The ride from the airport was a sight. Even though it was dark we could see many Dala Dalas  (public buses) and people along the side of the roads, on the roads, walking, well-orchestrated chaos is the only way I can put it. After a 20 minute drive and 10 car horns later, we reached the center. After a brief sack, bananas, bottled water, cookies and a peanut butter sandwich we were shown to our rooms.  After brushing my teeth with bottled water and negotiating my mosquito net ( it takes some work!) I slept for about three hours due to the 7 hour time difference.

The next morning we woke up to a breakfast in the dinning hall of chapati (a cross between a crepe and a pancake and now one of my favorite foods!), hard boiled eggs, bread, muffins, tea and instant coffee. After breakfast we had a meeting followed by “chai”, which includes tea and a small snack and another meeting before lunch. After lunch, which usually consists of rice, meat sauce, collard greens and small slightly fried potatoes here, we had another meeting followed by some shots and another snack!! After snack we all got to hang out under a covered area that has seating. To spare you the repeat, the past three days here have consisted of eating, meetings, shots, socializing and sleeping.

Our meetings during the day have consisted mainly of things we should expect, how our pre-service training (PST) will run, outside projects for us to do, security talk given by people from the US Embassy, a short briefing on Tanzanian customs, dress and religions.

During our down time we have been playing ultimate Frisbee, soccer, cards and learning some Kiswahili.


 10/2
Sokoni!

Today we finally left the compound and travel with our CBT groups (Community Based Training) to Morogoro. We were planning on taking the Dala Dala, but it was too crowed, so we walked the 15 minutes to town. The walk was a little bit scary because in Tanzania they drive on the left side of the road and people walk on the left side with traffic, so you have to constantly be aware of other cars or piki piki (motorcycles).



Mambo!  10/3


Today I officially moved in with my host family!! My house is located very close to the CCT where we had been staying the last couple of days.  I was pretty nervous to meet my host family, but then quickly realized that 38 other people were going through the exact same experience at the same time. It is also comforting to know that another PCT, Mike, is my next door neighbor. My Baba, Gabriel, is a teacher is at Kila Kala Secondary School and my Mama is a nurse at the local hospital. I have two dada Jackie and Violet and one kaka Gabriel.  Another woman and man who work at the school also live in the house with their daughter, Gladness, whom I call Tumbo (belly). They were all very welcoming! When I arrived at the house I was greeted by my moma’s sister Nerehma. She showed me to my room and helped me to hang my mosquito net. After I settled in my kaka and I went on a walk to Kilakala school.  There I met about five boys who live and study at the school. It was nice to practice the little Swahili I know, i.e. how to say my name, where I am from, what I am doing in Tanzania and the food I like.  So once I exhausted my Swahili I sat up on a wall with them and started talking about the US and Tanzania. Many of their questions were serious and about things they had heard about America. During the first week of training as trainees were are constantly reminded that we are ambassadors for the US, so today was very rewarding because I officially feel like I was helping bridge a gap.  Another topic of conversation was my religious beliefs. (Note: It is very common in Tanzania to ask someone what religion they are and if they are married or single. This is something we as Americans might file under invasion of privacy, but let me assure you they are very open topics in Tanzania.) I found it hard to express my beliefs to them and to explain that I do not go to church and wouldn’t consider myself a practitioner of any religion. This honestly astounded the boys I was talking to and prompted them to ask me to attend church with them on Saturday.  The also told me to stop by anytime I wanted so I can practice my Kiswahili and they can practice their English….definitely thinking of taking them up on this offer! Gabriel and I walked home from the school and had dinner with the family. Before dinner my Baba also asked me what religion I was. This time I responded that I was Roman Catholic because I really did not feel like causing any unnecessary confusion. About ten minutes after that conversation with my Baba, my kaka put in a Christian concert DVD in to the player.  I thought the gesture was very nice.  I know that it was to comfort me… nothing reminds me more of home than Wazungus singing about Jesus.  Dinner was pretty standard, rice, meat with sauce, plain spaghetti, bananas and collard greens. (Okay…side note about the food here. It really is not bad. Everything is made with spices and tastes really really good.)  After dinner my kakas and I exchanged pictures of our families. Then, My Mama, who was on safari (trip), arrived home. She greeted me with a big hug and the normal “soft landing” Tanzanian greeting. (Note: the “soft landing” greetings consists of about 3 to x number of greetings before real conversation beings… ex: How are you? What is the news of home? What is the news of school? How are your children?...etc.)
My room is located off of the kitchen and nicer than I had anticipated. I have a double sized bed, a chair and not a whole lot of space in my room.  

10/5

Kiswahili lessons are fun….

On Monday our CBT group started Kiswahili classes with Kondo our LCF (Language and Culture Facilitator… yes another acronym).  The past couple days have been relatively the same so here is a summary of what my days for the next couple of weeks will consist of:

6:00am                  Wake up
6:01am                   Negotiate my mosquito net
6:30 am ish           Bucket Bath
6:45-7:15am         Breakfast at home
7:30am                   Walk to Morogoro Secondary School with Mike
8:00 am                  Swahili class (we usually start the day by “hammering” grammer) *
10:00 am               Chai time!!!
10:30 am          More Swahili
12:00ish           Lunch (Chakula cha mchana)
1:00 pm          Swahili time again!
4:00pm ish           Freetime (usually consists of hanging out with my brother or going                                                   to town)
6:00 pm           Time I should be in the house by because the sun is setting
8:00 pm                 Dinner with the fam
9:30 pm ish          Bed time

*One of my favorite parts of the day is the first half and hour of Swahili class. During this time my fellow PCTs and I talk about our awkward experiences at home and get a chance to ask Kondo about cultural issues we may have encountered.

The only time this schedule will not hold true will be on days we meet as a group at CCT. CCT will usually take place on Fridays and will mainly used as a day to go over how to teach in Tanzanian schools and personal health and safety.

So far things are as I expected them to be. Homesickness comes in waves, usually when I am frustrated with the language, and I constantly feel like I am on an emotional roller coaster. The highs usually last a while, but the lows come at inopportune moments. Surprisingly, I have not once felt homesick while at home with my host family. In fact, I have found their family dynamic similar to most American families apart from the fact that they only speak Swahili to one another.