Heat, Humidity and Henna

School has officially ended for the year and I have been on vacation since the end of November. As mentioned before I was signed up to take the LSAT in Dar, which I did on the 3^rd of December, then traveled to Pemba to visit a fellow volunteer.

Normally I would take the bus to Dar, but I figured since I had some extra time I would take the train. The train is about the same price as the bus, but it takes about twice as long. As far as traveling goes here the train is really not a bad set up. If you purchase a first class ticket on Tazara (combination of Tanzanian and Zambia because the train runs between the two countries), you are placed in a cabin with three other people. The cabin has beds, a table and a big window to take in some really pretty views (I saw elephants as we traveled through Sealous National Park). The first class compartments also have toilets, showers and an eating car with reasonably priced Tanzanian food. Not sure the Tazara people understand the concept of a “captive audience”. The train is overall in nice condition for Tanzania and if you are not a rigid schedule then I might recommend it.

I arrived at the train station at 1 pm for a 2pm departure. As expected the train arrived a few hours late – 4pm. Passing through the train station doors was an experience in and of itself. There are about three or four double doors to the platform, but only one is opened for about 250 to 300 people that are going to board the train. As I think I have mentioned before there is no such thing as an orderly line with reasonable personable space between people. When the Tazara worker announced the arrival of the train people sprung from their seats, strapped their kids to their backs, piled their luggage on their heads and stormed the doors to the platform. I can only describe it as a mix between black friday at Walmart and holding a third class ticket on the Titanic. I jumped in the mix and was squeezed through the doors and plopped out on the other side. After boarding the train, it waited around for a while and then we departed at around 5:30 pm. After settling in and greeting the two Zambian woman I shared a compartment with I found some dinner. Just as dark approached the train stopped because the engine was broken and we had to wait for another to rescue us from an hour and a half out. At this news, I went to sleep. The next day on the train was pretty long. Thankfully I met a Canadian volunteer who traveled from Botswana and we had a few meals and conversations together. It was interesting to hear about how different countries are in Africa even though they are so close to one another. The rest of the train ride to Dar was spend reviewing old LSAT questions and sleeping. At some point during the trip I looked down and saw light radiating from the bottom of the stainless steel of the toilet bowl and realized that when ever I used the toilet what ever I had just deposited was not sent to a holding tank under the train, but directly out on to the tracks-- Darjeeling Limited? The train finally arrived in hot, humid Dar around 9 pm.

On Friday I went to the PC office to get some more work done and meet with the new CD (country director) EB, who was very nice and seemed really excited to be heading up PC Tanzania. Andrea the outgoing CD is headed to Nepal to reopen the post there-- pretty cool. While was at the office I also met three PCVs from Mozambique who were traveling to Tanzania for vacation, but got into a bus accident. After hearing of their experience I have to applaud PC. They take great strides to make sure volunteers are safe and healthy, even if they are not in their host country. After the PC office, I realized that I did not have enough hot weather clothing to survive my trip so I went to the only shopping mall in the country. I was actually surprised to find that it looked like smaller shopping malls in America. It is complete with clothing stores, fast food, atms and a grocery store. All in all it was a very strange shopping experience, coming from the village. I actually felt a little out of place in my mshamba (farmer) kitenge dress and wide eyes.

Saturday around noon I headed to the PC office to take the LSAT. It was actually pretty nice to be the only one in the room, besides Frida my proctor. Overall all I felt pretty prepared for the test since I started studying in April. I felt a little more pressure having someone else time and watch me as I took the test, but nothing that I would not have encountered if I took the test in America. Now I am just waiting for my scores to come back around the end of the this month or the beginning of next month.

After the LSAT, I met up with Justin, another PCV who was headed back to the States for Christmas. I am not sure what we actually talked about because my brain was pretty much fried, but it was nice to see him. Afterward I had dinner with the PCVs from Mozambique. It was really interesting to hear about the PC experience in a different country. As expected there are many similarities between programs, but also many differences. For example because there is a housing shortage in Mozambique many of the volunteers live two to a house. I think living with another person, at times, would be really nice; however, I also feel it would also really change my experience and would probably interfere with my language proficiency. The education system is also different in their country. It shocked me to learn that they were required to pass 50% of their students and many students do not attend school, but just paid teachers to pass them.

Sunday morning I went into town to buy a ferry ticket to Pemba for the next morning. Not surprisingly I was told that the schedule on-line was wrong and the ferry to Pemba had actually left earlier in the morning. Making a split second decision I bought a ticket to Zanzibar (Unguja) and one to Pemba for the next morning, then rushed home to secure a hotel room on Zanzibar and pack. The ferry ride to Unguja is actually really pretty once you leave the Dar harbor. The water is a tropical blue and the air is extremely salty. On the trip to Unguja you see many of the local fishing boats or dhows. They vary greatly in size, but all look the same. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cnj1h_tM1w) When the ferry beings to approach Unguja, you get the feeling as if you've been transported back to the times of the spice trade. The smaller islands are green and some posses tall white towers. The Unguja harbor is filled with dhows, fishing vessels with Swahili phrases written on their canopies and large cargo ships. One of the first things I noticed, besides the beautiful sunset, were the beautiful historic buildings that make up Stonetown, one of the more famous towns on Unguja. They are very closely set and are usually white with beautiful lattice work balconies. After leaving the ferry and having my passport stamped by immigration I attempted to find the Flamingo hotel. Foolishly I thought it would be relatively easy to navigate Stonetown, but I was completely wrong. This was yet another time I was glad I spoke Swahili because I was so lost in the narrow alleyways that I had to ask for  directions. I arrived at the hotel a little worse for wear and was given a room with three beds for the price of a single, since all of the singles were booked. I should also mention here that on this trip I found the surface of the sun-- Unguja/Zanzibar. It was over 90 degrees and about 200% humidity-- no lie. After peeling off my sweat soaked clothing and showering, I headed to an awesome restaurant, which I am currently forgetting the name of; however, it is located right around the corner from my hotel and looks like something out of Swiss Family Robinson. Half of the restaurant is located up stairs and the other half is covered over by a vine ceiling. After sitting down by myself, I ordered a non-alcoholic mojito (Zanzibar is about 95% Muslim, so alcohol is pretty hard to find) and sweet and sour prawns with basmati rice. My meal was absolutely amazing. Maybe the best food I have had in country to date. After dinner I found my way back to the hotel.

Sign on Unguja that says ,"Don't park cars here"

Monday morning I somehow found my way back the port for my 7 am ferry to Pemba. On board I met two really nice Germans who were on vacation to escape the cold weather and get some SCUBA in. I have to say I really admired that they lived a pretty reasonable life at home in Germany so they could save up for a really nice month of traveling. They said they had been to Fiji, India, Philippines, some countries in South America and a handful of other place I forget. I guess if it was just me and my spouse I would opt for a lot of traveling too! After arriving in the Pemba port I boarded a coaster that took me three hours to Doug's site in Konde.

Notes on Pemba: Pemba is very different from Unguja because the natives are not as used to seeing foreigners who are not Muslim and as such I was forced to cover my head whenever I left the house. I should say I was not forced, but I was stared at and attracted unnecessary attention if my head/ hair was exposed.

The town of Konde is mid-sized village located on the Northern end of Pemba. Doug lives in your typical PC house complete with two bedrooms a living/kitchen area, courtyard and toilet room. His house is situated right on the road, which means many of his students and other people from the village come over to visit unexpectedly at all hours of the day. While I was at his house about 4 people a day came to say hi, sit awkwardly in silence in his house and stare at me. This occurrence is something I am actually quite used to here. Tanzanians, for some reason, like to visit each other and then just sit around not talking. After about 10 or 15 minutes they get up, say goodbye and leave. I really have no idea why they do this, maybe to save face, but it is strange none the less.

Henna Artist

After downing about 2 liters of water, or the amount I had sweated out since 7 am, Doug took me over to the house of one of his students where a Henna artist was waiting. Thinking I would just have a nice small design drawn on my hand I sat down on a mat on the floor surround by about 20 people all curious to see how the henna would look like on white skin. After about a minute I realized I would not be getting the small intricate design I longed for, but I would be getting the real thing. The artist covered both of my arms up to my shoulders and both of my legs. After she was finished two girls filled in the paces with an orange dye and I was left to hold out both of my arms until the henna dried. It was a pretty tiring process. After about 2 hours, a few tubes of henna, some laughs from the onlookers I looked like I had just stepped out of the tv show Miami Ink. Doug and I thanked the mamas and the artist and said good night to everyone. I bolted right for the shower to rinse off the encrusted ink on my skin and to see the final project. To be honest I would have never opted for the full works, but I said to myself, when in Rome.

Trying to not get the dye on my clothes

The next morning we found some coffee in his village and I was hit on/ proposed to by every single man in the village. Apparently in training they forgot to mention that henna is a huge turn on to Muslim men. I was also asked by a rude man at the coffee stand why I did not have my head covered. I simply said that I did not feel I needed to cover my head because I am not Muslim and that if I was a Christian then that would be reason alone to not cover my head. I am not sure he really understood my response and from then on to avoid anymore comments I put a scarf over my head. That night in the village I was also proposed to by a man at the fish table. On the mainland men will ask white women to marry them, but after they are told no once or twice they usually drop it. The Pembans are different. This man would not let it go. He insisted on marrying me. He took it so far that Doug got involved/ really upset. This incident is just one of the few things I have learned to shake off here. The culture is so different sometimes that you cannot get upset, you just have to deal. After our coffee trip, we checked out the new secondary school that was built buy a Chinese construction company, but backed by some Germans. The school is really beautiful and looks like schools you would find in Southern California. The rooms are connected, but the walkways in between are open. All of the classrooms have three fans, outlets and nice blackboards. The school is also equipped with three nice labs and teachers' offices. Needless to say any volunteer who laid eyes on this school would probably start to salivate.

On my last full day in Pemba, Doug took me to the beach to go snorkeling. The road to the beach runs through a really cool forest with monkey and tropical trees. The first beach we went to was absolutely beautiful, but because of the wind and the rain from the day before the water was a little cloudy to snorkel, so we headed over to a place called Swahili Divers. The reef right off of the resort is small, but filled with colorful fish, sea urchins, coral and seaweed. The water was aqua blue, bath water warm and really salty. I have to say that snorkeling in the Indian Ocean has to be one of the coolest things I have done during my service, as far as traveling goes. After returning home we both passed out from being exhausted and later had dinner at a neighbors house. There are two American families with 7 kids between them that live with in a few minutes of Doug. At Sandy and Reed's house we had red snapper for dinner and played some board games until the power went out and the heat was pretty unbearable without a fan. I have to admit he is very lucky to have them around, especially because he lives in such a different community then most of us on the mainland.

Beach in Konde (Northern Pemba/ Indian Ocean)

In the morning I woke to a monsoon outside and the unpleasant thought that I would have to be traveling. After trying to find the bus to the port I was told that it had already left and that I would need to take the slower dala back down the island. This was not great news because if the boat left on time I would definitely not be on it. After swearing like a sailor and realizing my pants were now see-thru because of the rain I got on the dala in hopes I would make my boat. Amazingly five minutes down the road Doug called my phone and said he had found a car that could take me to the port... another sanity saving moment in this country. In the end I made it on the ferry with my ticket in plenty of time. Although he may not agree I had a really great time visiting Pemba and Doug! Thanks again!

The ferry back to Unguja was a little stressful because I realized that my preferred method of transportation home, the train, was completely booked. So I called up my trusty taxi driver Stella who found me the last ticket on a bus home for the next day! I arrived, sweaty again, in Unguja, fended off my suitors, found a ticket on the ferry to Dar and waiting the hottest, most uncomfortable line ever. To make matters worse we had to wait around for another 20 minutes in the hot weather because the ferry had been over booked. We arrived back in Dar at 7pm, where my plan to take a taxi to the hotel was quickly abandoned when I realized there were no taxis available. Left with no other options I set off to find the hotel on foot, in the Dar, by myself without a map. I eventually ran into three women who out of the kindness of their hearts escorted me to the hotel. Later I met up with some volunteers for Indian food and a chance to catch up. In the morning I headed out on the bus, which was actually air conditioned and had reasonable leg room and arrived home around dark.

Overall I had an amazing trip. At times I felt like the Brave Little Toaster (great movie) traveling and dealing with unexpected events by myself (for the most part) and at other times I felt like a tourist-- lost and frustrated. This trip made me realized how much I like the area in which I live. It is not too hot, but sometimes too cold. The people are also friendly and more accustomed to people from other cultures or religious backgrounds. I thought the Zanzibar islands were absolutely beautiful and that the Indian Ocean, around the equator, should be seen by everyone at least once in their lifetime. Traveling by myself also gave me a new sense of confidence and “can do” attitude. I think there are many times during a volunteer's service when they start to think they are incompetent or that the experience as a whole lacks adventure and excitement. My remedy for either of these situations is travel. I have never felt so proud of myself in this country as I did on this trip. There were many times where I could have just thrown in the towel and headed home because things did not go the way I had planned. Save for one time, when I missed the bus and was practically crying and screaming, I kept my stuff together. I have said it before and I'll say it again after this whole PC experience I will never complain about traveling again in the US. Hell, I may even be the first person to be smiling while being interviewed on TV because I snowed in at an airport at Christmas saying, “not as bad as the time I lived in Tanzania”. The lesson here is people appreciate that you can book your Amtrak ticket online, that your cell phone alerts you that your flight is delayed before you leave your house and that if something says it is going to depart or arrive at a certain time, it does.

Well I have a few more things to add, but I feel this post has gone on long enough. Hope everyone at home is doing well. Miss you all!!!

All my love from TZ.  

Konde

Thanksgiving, man. Not a good day to be my pants. - Kevin James

Not too much to report since my last blog. School is officially closing on Friday, but our exams ended today. After grading 288 exams and proctoring three exams for a total of 10 hours I am done with schoolwork and ready for Thanksgiving!!! Thanksgiving will, of course, be spent this year in country again. However, not to worry the volunteers in my region have collaborated and put together a stellar menu for Saturday (we are delaying because tomorrow is not a holiday here!). I am on pumpkin pie duty, Kat is making mac and cheese, Rebecca is on mashed potatoes, I think someone is getting chicken or turkey? (currently going the veggie route due to the last bout of salmonella), Jess is on cake for TJ’s and Anna’s birthdays. I think I will probably chip in with a veggie dish and possibly another dessert. Going to make the pie from scratch, even the filling. I will let you all know how it turns out.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving I wanted to give my top 10 list of things I am thankful for, in no particular order (save #1),

1. a. Life!

     b. My family and friends!!!  (Miss you all sooo much, it is not even funny)

2. Being a PCV.  I know I complain about the bad times, but really I am thankful for every experience – bad or good.

3. Care packages… seriously anyone who has sent me a package in the last year; you have no idea how much they mean to me. I am not quite sure where I would be without Velveeta, candy and magazines.

4. Electricity—enough said.

5. Apples and Diet Coke (luxuries here)

6. The waterspout outside my house

7. The fact that I have (knock on wood) not contracted malaria—yet.

8. My students, even if some are as sharp as marbles.

9. Support from everyone at home! I do not think you all know how much I value your well wishes and encouragement. It has not been an easy road, but knowing people are keeping tabs on me back at home is comforting.

10. The fact that I am doing what I love to do and that I feel like I am making a difference, even if it is small.

Everything else is going well. Next Wednesday I will be heading to Dar to take the LSAT, then I am headed to Pemba to visit a fellow PCV for some sun and some R and R. After that I am probably going to be returning home to decorate for Christmas and to start prepping applications for law school. I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving. Eat lots of food, watch lots of football and take a long nap on the couch. Like last year, if you plan on going to Walmart on Black Friday, my advice to you is to wear a suit made of chain metal and a helmet, so you are not trampled to death!

Here are some T-giving quotes to leave you with…

“The thing I'm most thankful for right now is elastic waistbands.”- unknown, but brilliant

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. “ -John Fitzgerald Kennedy

“Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare.  They are consumed in twelve minutes.  Half-times take twelve minutes.  This is not coincidence.”

  ~Erma Bombeck

“A lot of Thanksgiving days have been ruined by not carving the turkey in the kitchen.” - Kin Hubbard 

All my love from TZ

Wedding Crasher

This weekend I finally put the lumber in my backyard to good use and completed about 2/3 of a fence before I ran out of nails. Once I have it finished I will no longer have to worry about people watching me while I wash my laundry or dishes. I may also have a place where I can sit outside and enjoy the sun—in shorts!

2/3 of my fence...

Saturday afternoon I decided to get my butt off of my couch while taking a study break and walk into the village to get a soda and attempt to be social. Along the way I ran into a fellow teacher who had a soda with me and then suggested we “crash” the wedding celebration that was happening near by. I should note that in Tanzania you are usually given an invitation to an event and you RSVP by sending in a small donation and bringing the invitation to the event. However, because of the culture randos usually show up and you have to accommodate them as well, so as not to offend anyone. I figured this could be a unique experience, so we set off. Along the way we made a pit stop at the local pastor’s house for another soda and some conversation about the potato harvest—stimulating. Eventually we made it to the celebration, which was taking place outdoors. About 200 people from my village were gathered around the bride, groom, maid of honor and best man, who were standing in front of a home made stage decorated with brightly, albeit not matching, fabric and balloons. When we arrived people were presenting their gifts to the new couple and the emcee was blaring really loud Tanzo music.

I should explain that the presentation of the gifts is probably as far as you can get from the way it is done in the States. At home a couple (the bride) signs up a William Sonoma or Crate and Barrel for the place settings, silverware and expensive cheese board. The gifts are then selected by wedding guests online, or in the store and conveniently wrapped and sent to the couple’s residence or brought to the reception and left on a table. The whole process is decidedly very discrete. In Tanzania, the people presenting the gift or gifts buy what they think a new couple would want and gather in a group to pitch in money for said gift. At the reception the gifting group dances holding up their unwrapped gift to the bride and groom. While hollering, blowing whistles and bouncing up and down.

During the twenty minutes I spent at the reception the bride and groom received, plastic plates, glasses, bed sheets, a mattress, a suitcase, buckets, basins, rice, potatoes, blankets and my personal favorite—firewood. Not quite the Margaretville blender or the KitchenAid mixer, but necessities nonetheless. Also during the brief time I was there I noticed that the bride looked absolutely miserable, almost on the verge of tears and I honestly have no idea why. I mean I could probably guess and say that she was shy and did not like people, the marriage was arranged or she registered for the Fiestaware and the plastic plates were just not cutting it. All I know was that she did not look like she was thrilled to be married or even at the reception. After about 20 minutes, the emcee finally spotted me amongst the guests (not too hard) and announced, in Swahili, that a white person was present. At this I looked around for the white person when I quickly realized he was talking about me, I blushed and two minutes later made a timely exit. Actually being singled out was uncomfortable because I consider myself a part of the community, but also interesting for the same reason; most of the people present knew I was there long before he said anything, but did not make a big deal about it because they see me everyday. I either teach them or their kids or buy things from their store or produce stand. It was really only a big deal to the emcee, who probably came from Mbeya. I guess in the end I was comforted by the fact that no one was really surprised.

Saturday night, while I was washing dishes on my back porch, a baby kitten made her way on to my back porch. After looking around for her mom or owner I took her inside and gave her some milk, made her a bed and a litter box. The next day I asked my mkuu if he knew of anyone missing a cat, to which he said, “If you found a cat, you should keep it”. So, long story short I now own a cat, her name is Patagonia and she is the 4^th animal to live in my house here. Hopefully I will not have to put her down, bury her or give her away – like her predecessors.

Neighborhood Girls

Everything else has been going well here. I am still in the middle of studying for the LSAT, as well as writing a grant for a school library! I am actually really excited about this secondary project because our school is in desperate need of a library and one thing I really miss about home strangely enough is a quite environment to sit and read that is not my house. The mkuu and I went over a list of things we would like to see in the library to which I added couches and chairs. At first he thought this was absurd, but after I explained that a welcoming atmosphere would make the students want to sit, stay and read. He seemed to understand where I was coming from and so when our library is finished it will have a reading corner! It will also, hopefully, have a mural drawn by a student. The other teachers and I decided that we should have a mural contest and the student with the best idea/ skills will have the privilege of decorating one of the walls of the library. As an aside, it is amazing to me that some of these students are wonderful artists, but the teachers or the school system here do not foster any creativity in them. Maybe by initiating a mural contest at school some of the students will realize that they do posses a valuable skill besides memorization of random facts.

Also while I am on the topic of secondary projects, I am still looking for a group to adopt my basketball court project. The group would raise money and then come to Tanzania to help build the court at my school for a week. If you are reading this and know of any groups who may be interested please tell them to contact me for more details!!!!!

Well I have to finish up writing this grant so I can send it to PC for revision, we will see how many times this takes… I have heard horror stories. Hope all is well at home and that everyone has his or her power back! Miss you all!

All my love from TZ

Emotional Roller Coaster

Last weekend, Sarah, another PCV, and I had an interesting conversation about emotions. We both came to the conclusion that emotional states here, for some reason, are extremely magnified. Things that would make you relatively happy at home can just about make your month here. For example, getting NYT crossword puzzles and a few magazines in the mail will make me smile all day long, combine that with a few packets of tuna and crystal light and I may as well have won the damn lottery. Conversely, the smallest disappointment can make you feel like you are stuck at the bottom of a 30-foot well with no one around to hear your screams. Every day here I feel like I am on an emotional roller coaster and just wondering when I am going to hit the highest point of the day or the lowest. Granted some days the average of my emotional state tends to be higher, but today has not been one of those days.

This story really began yesterday, so that is where I will start. I was listening to the news on VOA and realized that there were some terrorist acts that took place in Nairobi as a result of Kenyan forces entering into Somalia. I called up Peace Corps because I was concerned they would not let me travel to Nairobi to take the LSAT in about a month. As suspected, I am not allowed to travel to Kenya and in all honesty do not really want to be anywhere near people and hand grenades. I then contacted the people who give the test and explained my situation. Unfortunately, they are going to make me pay the extra money (a lot of extra money) to have the test moved to Dar. I could have done this earlier, but was going to take it in Nairobi to save money. On the upside they are going to let me take it in Dar, which I guess they did not have to agree to. Anyway, this coupled with the fact that Sunday morning I woke up with another lovely case of food poisoning set my week off to a really horrendous start.

Moving on, this morning when I was going to teach my first period class and realized the majority of my students were not in the classroom, but being punished for arriving to school late, I went and rounded them up in front of the teacher on duty without permission. Looking back, it was a poor decision not to ask first, but they were using my class time to punish students.  I admittedly did what I did out not out frustration and because I wanted to teach my students for a full period, but because I needed an emotional pick me up. My latter intention completely backfired in my face (Yes, Judy, if you are reading, I may have asked for this one). After class I felt guilty about what I had done and went to apologize to the teacher, whom I had wronged. [I should mention that culturally Tanzanians will not tell you if they are angry with you unless they are extremely angry with you.] Being less than thrilled to see me, he told me he was angry. I apologized to him and tried to explain that I know I live here and am expected to follow Tanzanian culture and in America what I did would not have been looked favorably upon either. I also tried to justify my actions by explaining that it is not easy for me to follow another culture 24 hours a day 7 days a week and as a result my behavior sometimes breaks down. After my explanation he seemed to understand my position, but still insisted I stole my students so they would not be hit because I do not approve of corporal punishment. I agree with him that I do not approve of it, but stated that I knew there was nothing I could do about it and was more upset that he was taking up my class time.  After all was said and done I called up and vented to Kat, who was really gracious and listened to me even though she experiences the same situation daily at her school, then made a cup of coffee.

Lesson learned from this situation: (maybe more like hypothesis reconfirmed) emotions are extremely amplified here and I think whenever I enter into a charged situation I need to keep a better charge of my emotional state and account for huge fluctuation. All in all, sometimes, as my father says, you have to eat a little crow.

All my love from TZ. 

Tanzanian Jack-o'-lantern

It is mid-October, which means fall is in full swing at home and spring is here! This means I no longer have to wear legging underneath my skirts, sleep in a sweatsedo, worry about heating my bath water or the electricity being off for 23 hours a day. I am proud to say that I have finished the syllabi for math and physics and my classes are currently in review mode—lord knows we need it. Sadly, I believe some of my students have the retention of a [insert animal with poor memory here]. Alas, I am attempting to combat that with plenty of interactive review before exam week (mid November) and the end of the school year (Friday, November, 25^th).

Everything else seems to be moving along here. Last week the form four students all across Tanzania took the national exam (NECTA). This meant that we had about five visiting teachers sent to our school to invigilate (proctor) and two policemen with guns to guard the tests. [Seriously, these guys don’t have better things to be doing?] Hard to believe, but we said good-bye to Andrew (a volunteer in the Education class before me) this week. He is finished with his two years of service at the end of the month. His leaving got me thinking of how much time I have left here and how much time has already past. Strange to think that I will have lived at my school for a whole year at the end of November! New health and environment volunteers arrived this past week as well and we will hopefully receive some new people in early December, right around the time I will be traveling to Nairobi to take the LSAT.

This past week I embarked on a new adventure in the spirit of fall in New England, I bought two pumpkins. One I used to make pumpkin cookies, pumpkin bread and pumpkin curry and the other I had a bear of a time carving into an African Jack o’ lantern. The food actually came out really well, but I was disappointed that the left over pumpkin I had spoiled before I could use it to make ravioli.  Speaking of cooking I am actually amazed how far my ability has come over the past year, I am no Julia Child, but I can now make noodles from scratch, grill steaks and make a mean curry. Hopefully after service I will continue to cook from scratch, but will all of the convinces that are available at home and that have been unavailable in the past year I am not sure how true that statement will prove.

So seeing as there is never a dull moment here, this morning was no exception. On my way to teach my first period of the day I was followed by a boy about 10 years old who was dressed in tattered clothes, carrying homemade toys and wearing two broken sandals. At first I did not think much of the situation because kids follow me around here a lot, however when he walked into my classroom, I was a little scared. All 80 of my students started to laugh when he continued to walk further into my classroom and closer to me. At this point all of the students looked at me and seeing the panic on my face because the kid was giving me the hairy eyeball, got up and chased him out of the room.  After they came back in the room we all had a good laugh. Apparently he is a mentally handicapped kid who lives in the village and escapes from home every once in a while, which would explain why I have never seen him before. This morning I was also visited by James from Peace Corps because he was doing new education volunteer site visits in the region. I was surprised when he asked me if I was going to Tanga for the new health and environment volunteer training and I said I wasn’t. About a month back I applied to be a facilitator and teach a session on the Tanzanian education system and teaching in Tanzania. Apparently the staff liked the idea, but never contacted me about it? Not quite sure, but I would have really liked to do the session…

Miss you all! Good luck next weekend to people racing in the Head of the Charles. Wish I could be there!

All my love from TZ. 

"That’s been one of my mantras — focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”

Living in Tanzania when it is down pouring outside and no electricity would probably leave anyone with a lot of time to think and I am no exception. Yesterday morning when I turned on my MacBook Pro to check my email and the news, as I do every morning, I was shocked and saddened to learn that Steve Jobs had passed away. As the day wore on most of my friends on Facebook had posted some sort of tribute to him, which got me thinking about how much I admired him not only because he helped to develop half of the technology that is sitting on my coffee table, but because he liked to keep things simple.

After having lived in Tanzania for almost 13 months now, I appreciate simplicity more than ever. I see where Steve Jobs was coming from when he wanted his products, and possibly life, to be simple and streamlined. He appeared to live a very modest life, considering that his net worth was more than the GDP of most countries, and to be in love with his job. Living here has taught me that simple is good and that less is definitely more. After this adventure is over and I return to the land where life can be complicated by luxuries that are taken for granted, I hope that my life is simpler and more streamlined than it was before I left. Does this mean I will be giving up running water, hot showers, a dishwasher, car and eating processed food, no probably not, but I will hopefully have a more stripped down and simplified view of life; I hope that I continue to find the joy in the small things. Here I get excited about Nacho night, being able to watch “When Harry Met Sally” on a Saturday night with a bowl of popcorn or talk to my parents on the phone. I also hope to enjoy my work at home as much as I enjoy my work here.

To look at a bigger picture, I think the ideologies of Steve Jobs and the Peace Corps can be considered one in the same. Change the world, but keep it simple.  As a Peace Corps volunteer I am aware that what I am hopefully doing is initiating change on a small scale, but small is simple and affective. I like to think of the ideas I share with my students as a small rocks thrown into a placid lake. I think one could say the same thing for Steve Jobs contributions, although his ideas were more like simple boulders. I am not sure change could manifest itself in a more simple way than the ripple effect.

So thank you, Steve, for my all of my computers and iPods (without them I have already expired here due to boredom) and for showing the world that no matter how advanced we become we can still keep it simple.

Everything else is going well here. Yesterday it rained from 1 pm to about 12am and I thought that the rain was going to wash out my garden, but it is still standing as of this morning. On the bright side, I will not have to boil drinking water for the next week and tonight is nacho night in Tukuyu!

All my love from TZ

*Title quote from Steve Jobs

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'