A mwafaka and overdue update

The past two weeks = whirlwind adventure. 

After wrapping up at school, preparing two exams (which were not even given to my students because midterms will be after our week long break) and packing I started my journey to IST (in-service training). 

Rule #1: When traveling in Tanzania always carry a roll of TP

Rule #2: Just because transportation is usually available and reliable it will inevitably fail you when you need it the most.

After lugging my huge backpack out to the road by my site to wait for a coaster, my counterpart, Yolanda, told me that all of the coasters running from Tukuyu to Mbeya went on strike and that I may not be able to get to town. I was shocked, of course, but then I remembered rule #2 (also refereed to as Murphy’s law). Thankfully after attempting to flag down five private vehicles and four very full dala dalas (the smaller slower bastard child to the coaster) I was stuffed into an almost full dala and forced to sit on the 200 degree motor with only a mama’s purse to block my taco (butt) from being scorched. About two minutes into this particular dala ride I became the in-flight entertainment-- being white, perched on a hot motor in a crowded dala and able to speak some Swahili has its perks (refer to rule #6).

Rule #3: If the bus ticket says 1 pm trust your own math and be at the bus station at 10 am.

The first leg the journey to IST took us to Iringa, which is about 5ish hours on a bus or 6 on a coaster from Mbeya. The town of Iringa is on located on a hill and is climatically about the same as Mbeya – cool. Iringa has some really nice places to eat American food—seriously almost died the morning I had veggie omelet with toast and a cup of coffee at Hasty Tasty. Iringa is also home to Neema’s Crafts. All of the crafts at Neema’s are made by people who are blind, deaf or have a physical disability. The upstairs at Neema’s is also a café, where you can get every thing from lasagna and Panini to carrot cake and a cappuccino. I will definitely be hitting up this place for zawadi (gifts) before I come home.

After Iringa we headed to Morogoro and CCT where all of our IST sessions took place. Our bus tickets from Iringa to Moro said that the bus was going to leave at 1 pm, but between the volunteers we did the math and realized that the bus would arrive at around 10 am, which it did, three hours early. Clearly the men at the Sumry bus office cannot do math.

Going back to Moro was interesting after four months of being at site. I was definitely less frustrated with the language and appreciated the city much more, especially because I feel more culturally adjusted.  IST sessions started on Monday and included everything from PST (pre-service training) feedback to project management and grant writing. After a few days, all of our counterparts arrived and we began to have group sessions encompassing teaching life skills, HIV/AIDS awareness, alternatives to corporal punishment and hands on teaching. Overall IST was really informative and I feel like I have a renewed sense of purpose and the tools to see a secondary project through from start to finish at my site!

Outside of the sessions IST was a lot of fun. I got to meet up with the other 35 volunteers from my training class. We shared our experiences and a ton of laughs over our first four months at site. Some of the PCVs in the group also organized an IST prom, which was a huge hit with the group. During our down time we also got to go swimming at a local hotel, watch some March Madness on a flat screen and enjoy pizza, burgers and Indian food! We also threw a sick dance party, watched Harry Potter 7 on a projector, swapped movies and enjoyed not having to cook for ourselves. The mamas at CCT took good care of us; making us uji (like grits) with toast and eggs for breakfast, mandazi and chapatti for chai, rice, potatoes, greens, beans, meat, fish, chicken and pasta for dinner and lunch. Which reminds me to inform you all that contrary to popular belief women volunteers in Tanzania gain weight. To combat this issue I bought a scale before leaving site and am now reducing the amount of carbs that meet my mouth. I must say this is not an easy task because flour, pasta, potatoes and rice are the staples here.

Throughout Tanzania it is currently the rainy season; even as I write this blog entry it is raining outside. As many of you know at home I am from the Northeast, which is no stranger to rain, but I do not think I have ever seen flash flooding and massive amounts of mud like I saw this past week in Moro. The side walks and gazebos around CCT, where we were staying, would flood with 2 to 3 feet of water within minutes and after the rain ended there was so much mud that you had to walk barefoot to go anywhere. The water also flooded the dirt roads around Moro, making transportation almost impossible. Thankfully I never had to experience the rains during homestay and the dry season. Speaking of homestay I went back to visit my host family, but only my mama’s little sister was home. It was great to go back and actually be able to have a conversation with her. It turned out that my mama was in Tanga on business, my baba and two sisters were at church and my brother, Gabe, is now actually going to secondary school in Dar. Glady, her mom and dad also moved out of the house and now live in a neighboring village.

All in all IST was really fun and I was really glad to see everyone and hear that their first four months were much like my own, full of ups and downs, but none the less enjoyable. I think IST also broke a lot of stereotypes I had held about Tanzanian teachers. I used to think they were pretty lazy, unenthusiastic and unable to come up with creative ideas on their own. After our first group session, however, where we were split up into small groups (3 volunteers and 3 counterparts) and needed to brainstorm teaching ideas together I was really impressed by many of the Tanzanian counterparts. They were really enthusiastic and came up with some really great, creative, original ideas. I am not sure if they felt the pressure because they were in a group or if they just do not feel like they can suggest things at school, but I was really happy to know that Tanzania is not lacking people, especially teachers with good unique ideas. 

Rule #4: Never travel without sunglasses, a raincoat, a copy of your passport and a book

Rule#5: If you board a bus with 20+ empty seats something should seem fishy.

After IST I stopped again in Iringa for one night on the way home and then continued my journey the next morning. My bus left from Iringa at 8:30 in the morning and I was ecstatic to see that there about 30 empty seats on the bus. Figuring people did not want to go to Mbeya on this particular morning I thought nothing of it, until about 30 minutes into the trip when the bus stopped outside a primary school and 25 8 year old boys all wearing red sweatsedos rushed towards the bus. Seriously the first thoughts into my head after laughing out loud on the bus were, ‘oh holy hell’, ‘I hope they peed before they got on’ and ‘I hope their chaperones sedated them’. The boys were all actually well behaved (apart from staring at me most of the trip, even though one of their chaperones was white) and nodded off after they were given juice boxes and cookies.

Rule #6: Speak the language, even if you are hot, tired, frustrated and carrying 50+ lbs on your back

After a 5-hour ride in a sea of red, I jumped off the bus in Uyole to avoid an extra hour of travel to my site. Realizing that I did not have any food at home and not wanting to assume my village had food, I walked into the market carrying two bags and my huge backpack with yoga mat attached to it. Try explaining that you are not a tourist while carrying three bags through a market... that is where the Swahili comes in very handy. Finally I made my way out of the market with tomatoes, peppers and carrots and on to a bus. Upon returning home I realized that my house and bedroom, especially, had been taken over by rat/ mouse poop. Honestly when you are dead tired from traveling, hungry and depressed because you had to leave your friends Tanzania surprises you with rat poop, 2 hours of cleaning and the task of pulling 30+ ticks off of the dog [The dog spent the two weeks outside because he is afraid the fellow teacher who was taking care of him. The dog is also actually going to be going to a new home soon because I am too busy to give him the attention he needs and the villagers are not very fond of him]. In the long run I appreciate these defining moments and know they are doing wonders for my patience level, but in the moment I want to collapse to the floor and cry or scream.

Now, I am thankfully back into the swing of things at site, happy to be home, not force fed by the mamas at CCT and glad that I have a week break to refocus my life before school starts again.

I hope everyone at home is doing well. I was sorry to hear about the freak snowstorm the other day. Guess I should not mention that Moro was about 75 to 80 degrees every day with 1,000% humidity. Best of luck to Kyle, Jordie and Brown Women’s Crew in your upcoming races this spring! I’ll be rooting for you and UCONN Men’s Bball!

All my love from TZ!