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
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| Practicing for Graduation |
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| Drummin' |
