Graduation, A meat feast, A win, A loss and Perhaps a fractured finger

Woo! Yesterday was the 1 year mark of our arrival in Tanzania! It really does not feel like I have lived here for a year. It is funny, but life just seems like life here. Occasionally I have the “woah, I live in Tanzania” moment, but mostly I just feel like I am at home because I have a routine, friends near by and a sense of community at my school.

A couple of Thursdays ago my school put on a graduation ceremony for our Form IV students. Graduation usually takes place before their national exams, which seems a little backward to me, but then again most things here seem that way. The school took the whole day before hand to prepare by building a little shaded area for the guest of honor and the graduates. The next day I got up, put on a dress, put Tanzo earrings in (which means I was getting dressed up) and left to be absolutely bored out of my mind. I was informed the day before by my head of school that the graduation would start at 10am and go until 3:30pm and would be all in Swahili. Awesome. I arrived at school and soon realized that I would be cooking all day with the rest of the female teachers and the village mamas. One would think that I would be as equally upset to be cooking all day, but I was able to wear pants, taste-test the food and was not expected to sit through the ceremony. I was given the all-important task of grating carrots, peeling onions and stirring in the rice. After most of the food was cooked I skipped out of the kitchen to catch some of the graduation ceremony, which, in true Tanzanian fashion, began two hours late. The bit I did catch, however, was the part where the students demonstrate scientific experiments for the audience. To sum up the experience, graduation ceremonies in Tanzania are a lot different from ones in America.

Last weekend after graduation, a few other volunteers from my region and I travelled to Songea to meet up with a bunch of other volunteers. Songea is about 8 hours on a bus from Mbeya and is located to the southeast. We arrived on Friday afternoon and had lunch and dinner with a bunch of other volunteers. Saturday was sports day, 3 on 3 basketball and volleyball. I got roped into playing basketball with two other male volunteers. It was actually a lot of fun considering our second place prize was Lifesavers, beef jerky and a sprained/potentially fractured middle finger, for me. That afternoon/night some of the volunteers who live in Songea asked a Brazilian ex-pat to host a BBQ. It was amazing! We each paid around 10,000/=  or $6.25 for roasted pork, fresh bread, salad, potato salad and three beers. The meat was so tasty because it had been marinated for 24+ hours in a mixture of garlic, parsley, brine and some other mystery spices. He cooked up 25 kilos or 55lbs of meat for around 30 people. By the end of the BBQ we were taking “meat shots”, everyone had to take a piece of meat no matter how full they were. After our meat fest we held a “talent show” at a near by bar, which was followed by a lot of dancing on full stomachs and the smell of meat burps. I ate so much meat I was still full the next morning when I woke up to catch a bus back to Mbeya. The first half of the return trip to Mbeya was smooth until we reached a place called Makambako. From there our group got a little split up and some of us ended up on a really crowded bus, sitting in the aisle jump seats complete with chicken, bus sick Tanzanians, very limited leg space and no fresh air for about three hours. The quintessential developing country bus trip and one I wish I could do more justice, but it is one of those things in life that no description will do and you need to experience for yourself.

After Songea, a few other volunteers decided to go to Matema beach/ Lake Malawi because most of us are currently on school midterm break. On Monday we travelled to Matema, which took a little bit longer than usual because we took public transportation the whole way and had to wait for the bus to completely fill before we could depart. Just as we were approaching Matema the bus stopped at a checkpoint, which they recently established to charge entrance into the village. The check point is clearly a way to get more money out of the white people visiting the lake, even though the sign says that non-Matema residents also have to pay the fee, but the people at the booth would never know unless a Tanzanian came forward and said they did not reside in the town. At the checkpoint a village official boarded the bus and asked us each for 5,000/=, which is a lot considering our living allowances. By this point I was hot, tired and not in the mood to be pushed around by this guy. I promptly took out my laminated copy of my work permit, visa and passport to prove to the guy that I did actually live in the country and was not the ordinary white traveler. The official, after seeing documentation, still would not give us the citizen price of 2,000/= and the Tanzanians on the bus, who we patiently waited for while they loaded all of their goods on to the bus earlier in the day, were getting angry with us. At that point another volunteer and I got off the bus with 2,000/= for every person traveling with us and went to the village office. We finally got the correct entrance price after a mix of help from our bus driver, decent Swahili and my temper because I was tired and hungry. I have to admit after the whole ordeal was over I was pretty impressed that we successfully argued and got our way in Swahili. If someone told me a year ago I would be able to do that I would have never believed them. I should also mention here that we picked up an addition to our party in Songea, Scott, a guy from the states who is backpacking East Africa for a while before he applies to jobs. It is funny how you have an immediate bond with people from home, whom you have never met. I have to give him some credit; he ended up adjusting to the PC way of life pretty quickly, living on the cheap and wearing the same outfit three days in a row. 

Following our rough start the rest of our time at Matema was awesome. We eat simple meals in the village, 1,000/= for rice and beans ($0.62) and made bon fires both of the nights we were there. The only low point of the trip was when my Kindle slipped off my lap without me noticing and I left it on the bus thinking it was in my backpack. I attempted to track it down, but was unable to get it back, probably because someone took it and was going to try to sell it. Good luck, sans charger. Thankfully it was partially insured, but it is still a bummer to lose something that you use all the time and that is a pain to replace. All in all it was a great way to spend the first part of my week off, hanging out with friends, swimming in the lake and soaking up some sun!

Two days ago a couple of volunteers in the area and I hiked Ngozi crater. It was a nice to spend most of the day outside getting some exercise. I am actually really glad that I live so close because anytime any volunteers want to hike they usually call me up and I am able to meet PCVs from all over the country. The people in my village are also happy because they charge a 5,000/= fee per person to hike. (I get to hike for free because I teach at the school!)

Okay time for a slightly funny/ creepy story. On my way into Mbeya this week two different Tanzanian men confessed their love for me and proposed to me. As any sane person would do I politely declined their offer, but the second man would not take no for an answer. As I was explaining why I would not accept him/ walking away, he grabbed his crotch and told me he did not have AIDS. I was not sure whether to laugh or run away, so I did both. Sorry buddy, but the reason I do not want to marry you has a lot more to do with you as a person and not whether you do or do not have AIDS.

Everything else here has been moving forward. It has started raining again here (first time since probably May), so I started to plant my garden. So far I have snow peas, regular peas, zinnias, basil and pumpkins in the ground. Now let’s hope I don’t end up killing them. Hoping that watching my garden grow will pass the time here for the next two months until school break after Thanksgiving time. Speaking of which, since coming to Tanzania and not really experiencing the seasons as we know them I think fall may be my favorite season. I know most people dread it because it means the start of a new school year and the end of summer, but when you go a whole year without seeing the leaves change color, pumpkin pie, pumpkin iced coffee from DD, hot apple cider, apple pie, apples in general, cool fall nights and mornings, sweater/jean outfits, the Head of the Charles, and most importantly Halloween candy ( I <3 you, candy corn!), you think about how much you took those things for granted when you had them.

Hope everyone at home is doing well, adjusting to the cooler fall temperatures and eating all the Halloween candy you can get your hands on! (Almost forgot about jack-o'-lantern Peeps and mini Reese's Peanut butter Cups! )

All my love from TZ

 Practicing for Graduation 

Drummin'