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.