Krismasi na Mwaka Mpya

Well another holiday season has come and gone here in Tanzania. Christmas this year was very low key, a few volunteers and I had a small party. We made pizzas, drank wine and sat around talking and playing games. Christmas morning we had a late brunch at 4 pm, but it was complete with bacon, homemade cinnamon rolls, eggs, fruit salad, left over salad from the night before and banana bread! This year we also celebrated Boxing Day, December 26^th with a pasta lunch for about 40 PCVs. I am amazed that only a few people pulled off cooking for so many people with two charcoal stoves.

My Tanzanian Christmas Tree

Kat and I on Christmas Eve

I should note here that Christmas in Tanzania is not the same as Christmas in the States. They do sell Christmas decorations here, but nothing along the lines of what you would find at home. Small strings of Christmas lights, garland and a few fake trees. People here do not really decorate the exteriors or interiors of their homes or give gifts. They get new clothes for Christmas, go to church and then have a big family meal. The meal usually consists of pilau, which is rice with spices, meat and potatoes mixed in, chicken, plain rice and some sort of mchuzi or meat sauce. This meal is typical of all Tanzanian celebrations, graduations, birthdays, Easter, etc.

For New Year's this year a bunch of volunteers went down to Matema beach on Lake Nyasa or Lake Malawi. Getting to Matema is usually a full day affair, but we arrived Kyela in record time, thanks to a crazy coaster driver and hopped on another car to Matema because of good timing. We stayed there for about four days relaxing in the sun, playing Frisbee and having a great time! Every night we would all sit around a bonfire with a few beers just talking until we got tired and headed off to bed. Luckily it only rained one afternoon! New Year's Eve was celebrated with another large fire and a car full of Tanzanians who pulled up on the beach and started blaring music out of their car. All in all it was a great trip and a great way to spend my last holiday season in country.

Escorts to Boxing Day Party in the Village

I am currently back at home wading through 144 student report forms that I need to finish filling out in the next few days. Unfortunately all of the forms are filled in by hand and I offered to average all of the grades and rank the students- thank goodness for Excel. School starts on Monday and we are supposed to have a full Form 1 roster and then some. Supposedly 300+ standard VII students passed their leaving exam to go to Form 1, but we only have space, right now, for about half of the students. My headmaster is currently looking to move classes and other forms around to accommodate them. If 300 Form 1 students do end up enrolling, I may be teaching all of them Math and Physics. Even thinking about it makes me feel like I am in a dark tunnel with a train bearing down on me and all I am see is the head light. I am hoping that if this is the case another teacher will pick up my Physics section and I will just be teaching Math.

On Sunday all of the Education volunteers from my class will be heading to Dar for Mid Service Conference-- MSC. Mid way through service was November, but because of other trainings and holidays MSC is usually slated for the second week in January. As far as I know we will be having medical check-ups and some small training sessions at the office. I am not really excited to travel all the way there and then all the way home only to start school again. I am hoping it will be fun to see everyone and spend a few days getting some work done at the PC office.

Well, not much else to report back. A few weeks ago we received three new Health and Environment volunteers, Cindy, Brandon and Andrew. All great additions to what other PCVs call the Mbeya Fraternity. I am still waiting for my LSAT score to come in. It will hopefully be here by the end of the week, then my applications can be completed and submitted.

I hope everyone had a great holiday season!

All my love from TZ.  

Bed full of kids...