Ok, so how often do you find yourself contemplating going to the bathroom? Maybe only when you're stuck at the end of a long line at the ladies room and you really have to. Or, it could happen when you're on a long drive, stuck in the middle of nowhere and you have 4 year old in the back seat that just doesn't fully understand holding it for just a little bit longer. Let's face it, though, this is not typically something we think about - basically, we have to go, we go, and we get back to whatever we were doing.

I, however, thought a lot about these functions of our body while in TZ and have continued to think about how using the facilities now that I'm back in the States.

First, I cannot tell you how much using a bathroom changed while living in TZ. It became a chore, like boiling water, or washing clothes. It was almost dreaded and when the need arose it was almost like "damn it, I have to go to the bathroom!" Why the struggle? Well, squatting over a hole, while not the worst thing in the world, was just not a comfortable experience. At home, it can be relaxing - shut the door, block out the rest of your house, grab a book (or a newspaper) and sit down for a few minutes. Not in TZ. It was more like make sure your clothes & feet are properly out of the way, get in a squat position that will allow you to balance w/o having to touch the walls, make sure there are no critters in the hole, and try to not stand up when cockroaches run out of the hole while you are mid-stream. Like I said - it was a chore.

Now that I've been home for quite awhile, I've come to appreciate the easiness of going to a bathroom. Not only is it no longer a chore, or just something I do as a natural part of the day, but using the facilities can also be an excuse to get up and walk around, waste a few minutes, relieve boredom as well as bladder, and a change of scenery. At work, if it's a slow day and I need something to do for a few minutes, well, hey - why not go to the bathroom (whether I needed to or not is irrelevant). Been sitting too long? Take a walk, stretch your legs, head to the bathroom.

See, it's a great thing to have facilities like we do. It's a great thing to have a normal function like that be so normal that we don't think about it at all. I, for one, will be forever appreciative that I can go sit on my toilet, take a book if I want, and not have to squat w/ cockroaches again... well, at least not on a daily basis!

Did you ever read those "Choose Your Own Adventure" books when you were younger? Depending on which adventure you chose, the stories & endings could be extremely varied. In the past week and half I've been informed of 4 different endings to 4 Peace Corps Volunteers' experiences.

First, one of the PCVs who helped counsel me when I made the decision to leave TZ also had to leave TZ in May due to negative reactions to the anti-malarial drugs. He had been in TZ for about a year and half and was just finished feeling like he could snap at any moment. Mental episodes are one lovely side effect of the mefloquin and, as it turns out, was a major contributor to my leaving the Peace Corps service before it really even began. I must admit, learning that someone else had left before their service was over for the same reasons gave me some sort of satisfaction. Although it's I've been home for over 6 months, I still feel the need to explain myself at times and often wonder if people believe the extent to which those drugs were messing with my head.

Secondly, one of my very good friends from PC decided to early terminate just this week. She was in my PC "class", went through training w/ me and did a semester of teaching. After a break from school and some time to travel, she realized she was done giving what she could in TZ and her family in the U.S. needed her.

Next, I found out that a great guy I met in Njombe has extended his service for an extra year. He was to be finished with his service this fall, but will be staying until Dec. of 2010. I had hopes of having an experience so wonderful that I would not want to leave. Although it didn't work out that way for me, I'm glad it does work out that way for some.

Finally, the PCV who lived closest to me in Njombe received his COS date for mid-Sept. This means he has finished his 27 months and will close his service in about 2 months.

It's amazing. We all start our Peace Corps experiences the same way. We all start with the same applications, examinations, orientations, and trainings. We all fly over to our countries together, but in the end, we're all alone. We all end our services differently, we all fly home alone, and we all face going back to an American life that has moved on without us.

Finally after being home for 7 weeks, I was able to load video of my duplex at Wende Secondary School in Njombe TZ onto YouTube. Follow the link below & have your assumptions about Peace Corps living standards challenged!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0zRi94CLMI

I tried several times and several ways to load videos onto this blog, but they wouldn't load. I finally got one of them to load on YouTube. If you're interested in seeing a 1 minute video from Njombe during a rain storm, follow the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udnuFDjqjBw

My entire CBT with our homestay families.

Newly sworn in PCVs.

My CBT with our two language instructors.

Swearing in cake.

Mji Mpya CBT.

My homestay family at my going away party.

Tanzanian rainy season.

Seeking shelter from Tanzanian rainy season.

Election day - celebrating the results!

Passing the time - A rousing game of toss the water bottle.

Brian, me, & Harry w/ hippos over my head.

Picture happy group.

Dave, Linda, & Harry under the Mikumi park sign.

Hippo Pool.

African buffalo.

First of all, in Swahili the word "safari" translates as a journey, so what we consider to be a safari is not what the Swahili speaking world thinks of, but none the less, here are some pictures of my safari to Mikumi National Park.

Zebras

Elephants

There's a giraffe in this picture. See it? My zoon wasn't as good as I wanted!

Warning signs outside of the park.

Part of Mikumi National park & African Savannah.

"Studying" Swahili at Mji Mpya.

The choo (pronounced "cho", not "chew"). It's basically the school's outhouse w/ holes in the floor in the stalls. It's not as hard to use as it sounds.

The dreaded Noun Class chart. Pictured are only 3 of the 7 noun classes with all of the agreements we had to learn. AHHHHHH!!!

View of some of the Uluguru Mountains from our internship school.

One of the two buildings of Mji Mpya Secondary School where we learned Swahili & practiced teaching. Mji Mpya translates as "new city" or "new town".

Here are some pictures I took during Sept. The blog posted them in the reverse order that I added them, but I didn't feel like fixing it, so you'll just be going back in time as you look at them.

With my Swahili language group & some of the teachers at our internship school.

Our training class upon arrival in Dar es Salaam.

Waiting around in Amsterdam for our next flight.

Waiting at JFK with all of our stuff.

Our training group in Philadelphia after getting our first shots & waiting for the bus to take us to JFK.

One of the reasons I wanted to try Peace Corps in the first place was to experience a new culture. I didn't realize how much I'd learn about American culture in the process, though. Even more surprising to me was how much I've learned about our culture in the two weeks since I've been home. As Americans we value equality and being fair much more than I even knew. For example, we queue for everything. I never realized this was a cultural thing - I just assumed that people everywhere stood in line waiting for their turn, but that was far from true! In TZ, there is no such thing as waiting in line. People just cut to the front, get their business done, and leave. As an American I had trouble joining in on that as I consider it rude to cut in front of people who were there before me, but it sure got annoying when I was constantly cut in front of by others. I was even told by a teacher at my school in Njombe that they were amazed to watch coverage of our elections on TV and see the Americans line up to vote w/o having armed guards to watch the lines & make sure everyone was peaceful. It's strange to think that something as simple as waiting in line could be part of one's culture.

Other things that I've learned about being American include valuing privacy & the individual. In the States you'd never stand outside some one's window and stare into their house just to see what their lives are like. OK, maybe some people would, but we consider that to be rude, intrusive, and illegal! We also stress the individual accomplishments over community. Although we like our kids to work well with others, in the end it's what people achieve on their own that we remember & value in our culture. Even when making my decision to come home almost everyone said something to me like in the end I had to live my own life & make the best decision for myself. You'd never hear people say something like that in TZ. Decisions there are made in the best interest of the family/community, etc.

Another cultural difference I noticed there, but have thought a lot more about since I've been home, is the love we have for our pets. Here pets are a part of our family & often times we treat them better than people. Of course this is something I've always known, but I never realized how little value pets get in certain cultures. This one was heartbreaking for me. Many Tanzanians have dogs, but they are strictly watchdogs. They beat them, starve them, and do not understand how we could possibly let dogs into our houses, let alone sleep in our beds, and everything else we do to pamper our pets. My host mama could not understand why a former Peace Corps Volunteer she knew cried when her cat ate a poisonous bug & died. Young children there are taught to kick dogs whenever they see them to teach the dogs to fear people. When I was living at my site there was a dog on the campus who would sit on my front porch. Whenever I came outside, he immediately cowered in the corner & whimpered. He was sure I was going to beat him. Now, this is not to say that I don't have any understanding of why animals are not as valued in other countries. When you have work your fingers to the bone just to scrape enough money together to keep your family alive, giving an animal family member status seems a little crazy. Still, the cruelty shown to animals that we love was hard to witness. Again, I know there are Americans who are cruel to animals, but as a whole, we are disgusted by those who treat animals poorly, but in other cultures it's normal and no one blinks an eye. As I sit here typing this with my buddy, Newton, by my side it makes me sad to think how the "where you were born luck of the draw" thing is extended to animals as well as people. Did you ever wonder why you were born American while others were born in 3rd world countries? Animals face the same thing.

Finally, my last cultural observation for now is the fact that culture can be used as an excuse. When we noticed things that differed from our culture that bothered us, like the beating of animals, corporal punishment at school, and constantly being called a mzungu (basically pointing out that we were of a different race), the Tanzanians around us would tell us that these things were OK because those things were just part of their culture. Now, cutting in line can be excused away as being a cultural matter, but some things just aren't OK in my book - culture or not. I think that's probably a very "American" thing, also. We are taught to stand up for injustices & to stand up for those who cannot fight for themselves, to be allies & not bystanders. Again - an American culture thing that I guess I knew didn't necessarily happen everywhere, but this experience has brought it to new light.

In all, I'm grateful for the experience I had in TZ & with the Peace Corps because even in the short time I was there, I learned a lot about myself & American culture by experiencing another.

Earlier I posted a blog on how time worked in TZ. Now that I have been home for just over 2 weeks, I have new insight on time. When I look back on my time in TZ it seems like a dream. I remember specific days or events & it seems as though they either never happened or occurred a long, long time ago. Being home it feels as though I've never left - except for the fact that I don't have my own place to live & I'm not at my teaching job anymore. Then I read blogs of my friends still in TZ & it seems like I was just there. Weird. Regardless, I'm glad to be home & when I try to picture myself back in TZ & know I made the right decision to return home. I now have a job working with a lawyer in wills & estates & am still looking for my own place to live & time continues to move on as it always does.

After leaving Tanzania at 4pm (EST) on Thurs Dec 19, I finally made it home at 12:30am (EST) on Sat. Dec. 21. After departing Dar es Salaam, a 9 hour flight to Amsterdam, an hour or so layover there, an almost 10 hour flight to Detroit, my travel plans were delayed due to bad weather and an airport line organization system that I'm still not quite clear about. I missed my connection home due to long lines & could not get a flight out to home for two more days. Instead, I took a flight to BWI, rented a car, & drove home. This was a three hour drive after traveling & being awake for almost 48 hours. Oh well, I made it to the winter wonderland safe & sound.

I debated closing this blog, but I think I will keep it up for the time being. My PCV friends want to keep track of me & I still want to post some pictures & video of my time in TZ to give you a better picture of what life was like there. I will be able to get to a faster internet connection within the week, so I'll wait until then to post video & pictures.

As for now, I'm chillin' in PA (literally, it's 10 degrees F today), looking for a job, looking for a place to live, & visiting w/ family & friends. I have an interview on Monday & am looking at a duplex on Saturday, so I guess things are moving along. If you want to get in touch with me, my old cell phone # is reactivated & I'm using my yahoo email for the most part.

Happy Holidays

Yes, that's right. Due to circumstances of a personal nature, I have made the excruciatingly tough decision to terminate my service with the Peace Corps. I should be home within the week, but as of right now I'm not sure exactly when. I want to thank all of you for your letters, packages, prayers, and everything else you have done to support this endeavour. I am feeling pretty disappointed that things didn't work out better, but I know that this is just another bend in my road. My immediate plans are unclear, but I hope to rejoin the MNMS family in Sept. 09 if all goes well. If you've sent things to my Njombe address I am sorry that I won't be here to receive them, however friends of mine have been instructed to get the packages, open them, and spread the wealth. Know that your gifts are going to other deserving PCVs who will truly appreciate them! If you sent things to my Dar es Salaam address that I have yet to receive I may get them when I'm in Dar prior to my flight home. If they are things I believe would benefit current PCVs more, I'll be sure to leave them in the PCV Lounge where you will be beloved by fabulous people you've never met! If you are a teacher interested in keeping touch w/ a PCV in TZ I can suggest some wonderful people who will be happy to take my place keeping State College in touch with the world. I still want to post more pictures & video I took of my experiences here so you can get a better picture of my life here, but I will do that once returning home where it's faster!

Happy Holidays to you all.

Here are some pictures. Sorry there are so few, but it takes so long to load them that this is what I could get. There may or may not be a video of my new house at the bottom as I don't know if it'll load before my internet time runs out... it's not looking good. Next time I come to internet I'll start loading it first thing & hopefully that'll be enough time!

My homestay house.

Me w/ my Tanzanian sisters and our matching outfits for the swearing in ceremony.

Me with the girls from my language training group in dresses one of the teachers had made for us. We were having Thanksgiving dinner at one of the medical officer's house.

Tanzanian sunset in Mikumi National Park. Notice the sky. What color is it? That's right - it's sky-blue-pink. (That's for my family who're probably the only ones who get that...)

Studying Swahili with the rest of my language training group.

I've gotten some questions via email that I thought I'd post responses to here for all to read. If you have questions about life here, email them to me & I'll get back to you.

1) How do I get to town? Well, it's 8km by car. I can walk the 8km, or I can walk 3km & take a van the rest of the way for about 30 cents. My other options are to walk the "shortcut" which is 4km over a mountain - did it once, it sucked, won't do it again. If I ever get $ I can buy a bike & bike the 8km to town. Either way, it's a lot less convenient than in the U.S. and it's taking some getting used to. It sort of makes me feel trapped at my site, but, bonus, I can't avoid exercise anymore!

2) Where do I use internet? In town there's a few internet cafes, one that PCVs use most often is the Altek. It's pretty fast. Since I have to come to town to buy groceries, I might as well use internet while I'm here - maybe once a week.

3) What kind of furniture did I get made? I had a wardrobe made that holds clothes, books, medicines, and miscellaneous items. I had a smaller version of it made for my kitchen that holds food, pots, etc.

4) What does it look like where I live? No kidding, it looks like PA. I know, you're thinking "Africa - must look like The Lion King, or desert, or whatever", but no. I live up in the mountains where it's green & there's forests w/ pine trees, etc. Seriously, looks like PA w/o the paved roads. Keep in mind that TZ is a big country & just like the US, the landscapes, climates, etc. vary greatly as you travel around the country. I just happen to live in a part of TZ that doesn't look like what we stereotype as "Africa".

5) Do I have a bug on my nose? The person who asked this knows who they are... I thought it would be funny to post an answer! No, I don't have a bug on my nose, but speaking of bugs, I'm done w/ mosquitoes, bug spray & nets. There are still bugs, mostly flies, but not a lot of creepy crawlies to deal w/ so far. We'll see what happens as the seasons change.

6) When am I going to post pictures? Well, as I have more access to internet now, I'll try to post some soon. I'm still in the phase where I'm internet deprived, so when I come to internet (& have to pay to use it mind you) I'm still wanting to use my time & money to email and catch up on news rather than waiting for pictures to load. I'll try to get to that in December, though.

I can't think of other questions, but I know there's more, so ask away.

Don't get used to me being on internet everyday. I just happen to be in town to pick up furniture I had ordered, so I had some extra time before I get the furniture to do some internet stuff. I really don't have much else to post, but I remembered that I'd like a 2009 wall calendar so if someone has one they want to send to me, I'd appreciate it. If I get more than one w/ different themes - hamna shida (no worries) I can use them to decorate my walls! Oh, in case you're wondering why "no worries" is hamna shida and not "hakuna matada" like the Lion King song, it's because hamna shida is Tanzanian Swahili, but hakuna matada is Kenyan Swahili. There's a joke around here, at least all of our language teachers told us this, that Swahili was born on Zanzibar (island of the coast of TZ - part of TZ), anyway, Swahili was born on Zanzibar, grew up in Tanzania (mainland), got sick in Kenya, and died in Uganda. There are some other countries somewhere in the joke, but that's the main idea. Anyway, apparently the purest form of Swahili is spoken in Zanzibar and then the further you get from Zanzibar the more diluted it gets w/ other tribal languages.

My address has been changed to:

Rebecca Henry

Peace Corps Volunteer

PO Box 959

Njombe, Tanzania

East Africa

The East Africa part is not always needed, so use it or not. However, the rest of the rules still apply as far as using padded envelopes, filling out the declaration slips strategically, and using religious stuff. Please be sure to write the Peace Corps Vol. on it as it saves me some customs fees! Things sent through the PC address will make it to me, but start using the new one as I'll get it sooner! I hope letters will get here now! Pass along the new address & don't forget to read my other new blogs for more info on my new place. Karibu Njombe (You are welcome to visit me in Njombe!!)

Yes, it's the holiday season, so I'm taking advantage & begging! Here are some other things, in addition to other blog list I made a few weeks ago, that I could use. I love Goodwill clothes, so any clothes I ask for, please don't spend lots of money! Clean out your closets, go to Goodwill, etc. Njombe is about 65-70 degrees now w/ my house colder w/ the concrete floor (remember - no heating in houses here!) so I need more warm clothes ASAP!

CDs: The Weepies (any of them), Carbon Leaf (indian summer)

DVDS: ANY!!!!

Slippers - warm & fuzzy

Leggings/yoga pants (size L any color)

Socks (shoe size 8.5) any color but white!

Long sleeved Ts (size L)

Magazines (Readers' Digest, Cosmo, People, whatever!)

Nalgene water bottle (or any reusable water bottle)

Hot chocolate

Warmer weather clothes (goodwill stuff is great!)

Snack foods!!!

Books - any & always!

Thank you a million times over.

My house is half of a duplex. There are 2 male teachers who live on the other side of my duplex. They seem nice, but play music loudly 24/7. That could be a problem. My house has a livingroom w/ a couch, coffee table, & two chairs. My bedroom has a bed and a desk/chair. My kitchen has a coffee table, pots, utensils, and buckets. My bathroom has a shower, spigot, and toilet. Yes, there's running water in the bathroom. The water is cold, though, so I'll only be using the shower on warmer afternoons! Don't worry, I'll still bathe! I have a solar shower I can hang and put warm water in. My spare room has NOTHING in it. It won't for a long while as I have no money to furnish it. I hope to at least get a mattress at some point for visitors. Otherwise it's the couch or sharing a bed w/ me! Actually, I did hang a laundry line in there as it's the rainy season here so drying clothes outside won't be happening. Saturday I managed to buy 2 jikos (stoves) one kerosene and one charcoal. Now I can boil water. I got some food, too, but have been fed much of the time I've been here, so haven't cooked much other than tea & eaten some mangoes & bananas. There are 5 teachers who live on my campus. The two who live in my duplex, one other guy who lives near the dorms, and a woman who has a family on campus. Campus is in a field with no village to speak of since we're so close to town. The kids left for vacation last week, so it's basically deserted. I'll be spending a lot of time in town, I guess. Hopefully not spending a lot of money though! Oh, yes, I have electricity, too. It's a nice set up & many PC friends are jealous. All of the amenities in the world don't make up for the lack of nearby companions, though. I'd give up much of it to have a PC roommate (yes, roommate - I know!). All in all things are going well, but it is going to take some time to feel like home. I ordered some furniture for clothes, books, and kitchen stuff. Once that comes (tomorrow??) I'll be able to start unpacking and decorating a bit. Feel free to send house warming gifts!!! Anything you have duplicates of in your kitchens, etc, that you want to get rid of would be welcome in TZ.

Ok, so if the mental & emotianal stress of Peace Corps was hard before, it just got harder. In the past week I moved 6 huge pieces of luggage on and off buses 6 times went 3 hours of my way to turn around and go back not to mention that Dar was a million degrees and 100% humidity. I'm not exaggerating. We were all totally soaked w/ sweat and we weren't even moving around. Then we had to lug bags around - fun fun. Anyway, that's not even the tough part. Saturday I went to my new house and things were ok. I woke up Sunday morning and wondered if I could get out of bed. I was an emotional wreck. Thank goodness for text messaging and 100 texts for 400 shillings (40 cents) per day. Friends of mine got me out of bed and going for the day and I felt much better. I spent the day w/ my 2nd headmaster (like a vice principal). His family fed me, he showed me around town (for hours on end) fed me again, and then took me home. Now I'm back in town with current volunteers and they're showing us around (more) and we're getting to buy things we need. Peace Corps didn't give us nearly enough money - I spent my entire settling in allowance on furniture for my house. I had the basics, but no place to put clothes, kitchen stuff, books, etc. Basically my stuff is all still in bags. I will hopefully get my new furniture Wed. and can move in. Now I'm spending money I brought from home & money I saved the past few months. I have no access to my bank at home because my ATM card had to be replaced, so I'm hoping my money holds out. We have no idea when we get paid again - yes, we've asked, but no one really seems to know & just keep telling us to ask someone else. Tough, tougher, tougher. I guess if it was easy everyone would do it.

Yep - 3 posts today. It's a miracle. Decent internet & time to spare. Read below for the other two posts I managed to get up today. First, sorry there's no pictures yet. I have yet to have excess time to wait for them to upload and/or pay for the internet time to wait. Once I get to my site I will have more time and better internet access and I'll put up a bunch of pictures from the past 2 months. Hopefully after that I'll be more timely w/ pictures. Secondly, I passed both my written and oral final exams for Swahili. Go me - I'm still pretty weak in my mind, but I guess I can do enough to survive. Unfortunately it's been over a week of using strictly English, so I'm losing Swahili quickly. I'll be in my village next week, though, so I think I'll get it back then - I hope! Yesterday we spent 8 hours learning how to put a garden in at our sites & how to properly use a minimal amount of space. The point is to help us, but to also help the villagers see how they can maximize the food they grow, even if just for themselves. I'm not sure if I'll be getting on the garden band wagon - it's really not my thing, but knowing I could grow lettuce & other veggies that I can't get here is tempting. We'll see how bored I am in Dec.!

Time is short. One more week to independence & cooler weather!!! Happy Turkey Day to all (ok, I know it's next week, but I don't know when I'll get to internet again!)

Ok, so is it bad to ask for gifts for Christmas? Oh well, I'm not really asking for gifts, but if you feel in the gift giving mood, there are some things I'd love to have.... you might want to wait for my new address to send things!! Here's some items I could use at my new place:

1. Lipton noodle packets - any flavors

2. Mac & Cheese (remove noodles from box, place in ziploc bag w/ cheese packet & cut out directions - fits better in padded envelope this way)

3. Granola Bars (Quaker Chewy are my fav.!)

4. CDs (I need new music!! Mama Mia soundtrack, Jack Johnson stuff (or is it John Jackson?), or better yet, burn me a CD of your favorite music!!)

5. DVDs - the same 8 movies for 2 years??? Ahh - need new movies!

6. Scrub bottoms for sleeping in - size L

7. T-shirts - any kind - am sick of the 4 shirts I've been wearing for 2 months! Size L

8. Long sleeved tees for cold Njombe weather (NO collars!) size L

9. Wall maps - USA, Tanzania, and/or World maps

10. Seed packets (hidden in other things in the package) for lettuce, spinach, asparagus, etc.

11. Seasoning packets like ranch, taco seasoning, etc.

12. Books - DUH, that's a given!!

13. Any other fun stuff you might want to send!! (P.S. Chocolate seems to make it here fine!)

I cannot stress enough the importance of trying to get items into padded envelopes instead of boxes. Priority boxes seem to make it ok, but all boxes are more subject to customs and/or not making it through at all. I've yet to hear of a padded envelope that hasn't made it through in a timely manner! PLEASE try to send padded envelopes - they seem to be making it here better than letters have been! Happy Holiday season to you all. Eat some turkey for me!!

My address will be changing shortly. If you want to continue to send items to the Dar address they will eventually make it to me, however it may not be for awhile as PC will send them along w/ cars that are headed to our area. As I'm an 11 hour ride from Dar, it may be awhile. Feel free, though, to still send stuff to that address. I should have a new address around Dec. 1, so if you want to wait a week or so, you can send along items after I get my new address. I hope to post it as soon as I get it as there is good interet near the Post Office in Njombe.

Well, it's official. I received my site placement this morning. And the winner is....

I will be in Iringa Region in the district of Njombe living about 8km outside of Njombe town. This is a good thing! I'm closer to the town than any other PCV and there are a lot of PCVs in that area. This means I'll be visited a lot by PCVs who're coming to town. I'll also be able to get to internet fairly easily (like once a week or so). The town also has a store that sells cheese!!!! This is a big thing! The weather is really nice there, too. I was there on my shadow visit last week and it was the "hot" season - I was comfortably wearing jeans & a t-shirt. Guess I'll have to load up on warmer clothes for the cold season in June/July when they get frost. Keep in mind that the houses are not insulated or heated! I'm excited, though. I'd like to get my haircut as soon as I move down there since I won't need to keep it tied up anymore! My site is a new site, so we don't know too much about it. The sheet provided by the headmaster says the house has electricity, water & a "western" toilet, but since no one's been there before we really don't know what it'll have. PC has checked the house out for safety, security, etc. so it'll be livable. The school is a boarding school for about 550 students, 8 teachers, and my house is on the school campus. That will have its own benefits & drawbacks, I'm sure. Don't get excited about the "boarding school" name. Many TZ schools are boarding schools because the kids have to walk for hours to get there and/or there's little transportation & BAD roads to the school, so they just live at the school. Some of my friends from training are nearby (like 25km to 110km which is hours by TZ travel standards), but they'll have to come to my town for banking & better groceries, so I'm guaranteed to see more of them than others will. Some of my other good friends are further away, but visitable, while others I won't see for a long time :( That's just the way it goes I guess. I'm not replacing another volunteer. This means my house will have minimal things & I'll have buy most everything (like kerosene/charcoal stoves, buckets, pots/pans, dressers, couch, etc) and figure out how to get it to my house. That part is a pain, but I guess it'll give me something to do in Dec. plus the school has no one to compare me to! Another benefit of Njombe? No mosquitoes, no bug spray needed & no mosquito net needed!! Yeah! I still have to take my malaria meds each week in case I decide to travel to other regions & there are some mosquitoes in Njombe, just very very few! I'm so sick of bugspray & being claustrophobic under my net!

Tomorrow we head back to Morogoro to our homestays for about 5 more days. Then we move into a training center for a day or two for our swearing in. Then back to Dar to catch buses to our sites w/ all of our crap! Basically I have to drive 3 hours one way to turn around and drive 11 hours back the other way. Grrr - doesn't make sense to me, but oh well.

Other than that, I'm doing well. Tonight PC is having Thanksgiving Dinner (a week early) for us because on Thanksgiving Day we'll be on buses traveling to Dar (I think)or to our sites.

Oh, went to a dentist in Dar yesterday. It was a Swedish dentist in a Swedish hotel - weird, but a totally normal dentist's office - smelled like all dentist offices do! He took impressions of my teeth & recommended I get a Maryland Bridge (had one about 10 years ago) instead of another flipper so I didn't have to worry about it breaking "out in the bush" as he called it. He has to send them to Nairobi to get it made, so, after I get to my site I'll have to come back to Dar sometime in Dec. to have it installed in my mouth.

Yippee - more 12 hour bus rides w/ no bathrooms & by myself - YIKES!

Until I get my new address keep sending stuff to Dar - should be a new address w/in the next 2-3 weeks.

This slogan from PC from years ago is SO true. However, what the general public might not understand is that the "tough" part doesn't really refer to living w/o creature comforts, cooking over charcoal stoves, squatting to use the bathroom, bucket baths,etc. That sort of stuff isn't really tough. The tough part comes from the daily emotional exhaustion. First you can't communicate well, then randomly waves of "I want to go home" wash over you for unknown reasons. Then, an hour, minute, etc. later, you're fine & the prospect of staying here for 2 years is perfectly reasonable. The cycle continues constantly and it wears you out. It really is tough. However, at the same time I'm loving being in Africa & realizing that I might possibly make it here. Currently I'm in Njombe (see TZ map) and it's nice here. The weather is cooler & there are lots of volunteers around to hang out with. We're staying in a hotel for the last little bit of time here so all volunteers & shadowers can hang out together. We get REAL toilets & hot showers. It's so nice!!! I sent a post about my trip here to be posted from at home, so Iwon't repost it - it'll just be posted after this one& be a little out of order. Oh well. Anyway, I got my hotel room for last night all to myself (awesome) and there were no lightbulbs in it. Not a big deal until it got dark while we were out. So, we returned from our adult beverage consumption & my room was DARK. (Africa is DARK - can't explain). Anyway, I was able to go to the desk& tell them that I needed light in my room now (as opposed to later when they usually do things) in Swahili, I was understood & the guy came up & got me a lightbulb & showed me how to get the lightswitch on the wall into just the right position so that the light in the bathroom would stay on. Moments like that make me feel like I'll make it here. One day at a time is all I'm promising myself or anyone else at the moment. I'll find out in 3 days where my permanent site is, so be on the look out for new address, new info, etc.

Tomorrow I take a 12 hour bus ride to Dar for some adminstration stuff & to go to the dentist - yuck! Thurs we head back to our homestays for 5 more days.Thanksgiving day they ship us off to our sites where we can't travel from for 3 months - yep, Thanksgiving,Christmas,Hannukah, New Years all on our own! We plan to get together w/those who live close to us, I hope! School starts 2nd week in Jan, so it'll be a long 6 weeks alone, but I hope to enjoy the solitude & being on my own again after living w/ a family.

New book ideas I'd love to get:

Look Me In the Eye (don't have author on me)

Dewey by Vicki Myron

Going Hungry (again, no author w/me)

Duchess (i think?) by Philippa Gregory

The Longest Trip Home by John Grogan

I've finished Twilight #3 (Eclipse) and am about to finish Second Glance by Jodi Picoult. I've now read all of her books- send new ones if she comes out w/them!

Miss you all!

Yes, We Can.

YES! Obama WON!!! I am SO excited. This morning PC drove us to town to watch the results come in at a hotel w/ satellite & CNN. The rain here messed up the satellite & kept us from seeing McCain's concession speech, but we did see Obama's speech. It was so fun. (saw McCain later on a rerun of the speech). There we were 33 Americans in a Tanzanian bar cheering on our new leader, singing the National Anthem, celebrating, etc. It was such a fun day - even if I did have to get up when it was still dark out! The international reaction was almost more fun that being in the US for this historic event. TZ shares a border w/ Kenya, so everyone here is overly excited. Apparently all of our names are now "Obama" because all day walking around town we'd hear "Obama" yelled at us from all corners, newspapers shaking our direction w/ his picture on the cover, etc. They are as excited for us as we are. It's a good day for our country & our history.

Onto PC things. I'm doing well & not necessarily thinking about coming home all of the time, but it is still a thought... Swahili still sucks beyond belief, but I'm just coming to terms w/ sucking at it. Oh well - we can't be good at everything. I'm learning a lot of humility here! Our favorite thing to do while sitting around relaxing & not practicing Swahili is to talk about food. Although TZ food really is very good, it's monotonous and we miss the variety of food here - especially cheese. Funny story that maybe only my family will truly get, but here it is. I was swimming w/ some friends at a hotel pool last weekend and we started talking about food as usual. The conversation lead to cheese & a friend was talking about how she missed Laughing Cow Cheese. This is a big thing in my family, so I commiserated missing Cow cheese. Afterwards we went to Pira's - this westernized small grocery store (about the size of a large walk-in closet) and wouldn't you know it - they had Laughing Cow Cheese! So, of course we bought it (for 1900 shillings, about $1.90) and ate the entire wheel! Training is all but over. I have some tests left, shadow week where we visit a current volunteer for a few days & then some final things before being shipped off into the unknown parts of TZ by ourselves - YIKES! If I ET anytime soon, it'll be during Dec. when I'm all alone w/ nothing to do for an entire month!!!! Buy calling cards & call me!

The hot season is in full swing. It's HOT. Like over 100 in the sun during the day, but still cool at night. It's a heatt I can't explain. The sun is literally right on top of us being so close to the equator. The temperature difference between the sun and shade is 15 to 20 degrees, though, so we just head for shade or sit inside a lot and it's tollerable.

Please keep letters & care packages coming. They truly are the lifesavers of the week when they arrive. Books are great, gummy candies, whatever you can think of! Letters, too.

One final thought - there really is a color called "sky-blue pink" - If you don't believe me, come to TZ and watch the sunset. There is no other name for the color than "sky-blue pink". Dad - all those years you thought you were being a smart aleck. Wrong.

hi all - yes it's finally me posting from TZ. Thanks to Diane who posted my word docs for me last time! The sign in stuff was in Hebrew and I couldn't switch it to sign in! Things here are good, but as you may have heard I think about coming home just about every day. It's a weird phenomenom to describe because there isn't any one thing that is bad here and the conditions are fine. I just am still attached to my life at home. I'm giving myself one day at a time to get attached to life here, but may decide to put a year in and head home. We'll see!

In other news, Swahili is still frustrating, but getting better. I understand more than I can speak, but that will come with time I hope. Last weekend we went to Mikumi Nat'l Park and saw giraffes, elephants, zebras, buffalo, hippo, alligators, baboons, etc. No lions, though. No pictures either - I don't have enough time to load them. Maybe someday.

I've read four books so far: Twilight, New Moon, Mercy, & Vagina Monologues. I am currently reading Three Cups of Tea.

What do I need sent to me? Tissue packets - lots of them! Baby wipes - travel packets like from Target or elsewhere. Granola Bars, Hot Tamales (the candy - for a friend!) something to shave the dead skin off of my heels,letters, newspaper articles. I get mail and/or packages every week and it's fabulous so keep it comin'.!!

I started a blog at home that I didn't save to my flashdrive so I'll attempt to recreate part of it here.

The Five Senses According to me in TZ.

Sight: I see - beautiful sunsets/sunrises, lots of trash, nice smiles, people picking their noses (socially acceptable here), goats being walked on leashes

Smell: Oil cooking, animal smells, dagaa (dried sardines that stink to high heaven & they make sauces, etc. out of them),

Hear: Animal noises in the morning, babies crying, the Mosque calling, the choir at mass w/ my family (awesome, but LONG service)

Taste: Good food, but lots of oil to cook w/, cold sodas after school that will never taste as good at home, treats from home that are savored, great fruit - better than any at home

Feel: Heat & sweat on my skin (it's about 95 everyday now), dust on my skin, breeze that changes from hot to cold in a moment (like swimming in a pool and finding hot spots/cold spots), dust on my feet all of hte time.

Ok there's more, but that's all I can think of right now!

Time

Time takes on a completely different meaning here in TZ – literally & figuratively. First, the time it takes to do normal everyday tasks is tripled here in TZ. There is no running water at my homestay, so taking a “bath” takes on new meaning as well as more time. First, you have to prep the water – boil a small amount for heat, then add cold water to temper, put it all in a bucket. Then take the bucket to a room (indoors) that resembles a large telephone both. Take all of your shower belongings & a pitcher of sorts. Take bucket bath. It conserves a lot of water compared to what we do in the US, but takes more time. Getting places also takes more time. I ride a bike to school everyday – not fun on the “roads” here in TZ. (imagine BMX racing/x-games) You can catch a daladala, but that takes time to wait for it & to wait for 20 people to “banana” (squeeze) into a van built for 8. Cooking takes forever on the small kerosene or charcoal camping-type burners they use to cook on. My family has several which lessens the time, but it still takes a lot of back breaking time to cook that way. It’s amazing how my mama can put several hot dishes on the table when they were all done at different times. She puts a plate on top of the serving dishes w/ hot coals on the plate to keep the contents hot.

In the other sense, time is literally different here. There is “English” time which all watches & clocks are set to & then there’s TZ time which everyone goes by. Since we live close to the equator, they get 12 hours of daylight & 12 hours of dark everyday. Therefore, their time is based on sunrise. Sunrise is at 6am, so that is the beginning of time for the day. At 7am, (1 hour after sunrise), TZns say it is 1 o’clock. Basically, add or subtract six hours from TZ time to get English time. It’s funny how they refer to it as English time because when you hear them talk about it, it’s like the Amish at home talking about us as the English!

Homestay

My homestay consists of a mama, baba, and 2 dadas. No, not two fathers, 2 sisters. Baba is father, dada is sister. My sisters are 14 and 10, both fabulous, but still shy around me. Mama and Baba are both teachers at the school where I go for Kiswahili everyday. Mama teaches Chemistry & Biology. Baba teaches civics/government/history. I have my own room w/ bed, desk & mosquito net. I’m still living mostly out of my suitcases, but that’s ok as I’m not dragging them around anymore. We have electricity, but not running water. My older sister or mama take kerosene type containers to a tap every other day when the water is sent to our village to collect water for the next few days. Sometimes the water isn’t sent when it’s supposed to be & water gets tight. I do have an indoor bathing room & indoor toilet facilities, but nothing quite like home! It takes all of my yoga training to get into the correct squat position to use the porcelain hole in the floor. It’s actually easier than it sounds. Mama boils water w/ ginger in the morning for chai which is fabulous. Dinner is many dishes usually rice and/or potatoes, cabbage of some sort, fresh fruit, beans, chipati (like a flour tortilla or crepe depending on who makes it). I’m eating well, so my hopes of a PC diet are fading. We have chai-break at school everyday around 10am which is a great break from the day. US schools should have this! My sisters help me with my homework at night & we’re usually in our rooms between 9:30 & 10. My family has piglets, 2 dogs, ducks, and chickens. The roosters are the worst (everyone’s not just ours) as they crow constantly starting around 3am. It makes it hard to sleep through the night. I swear one hangs out right outside my window just to piss me off.

Daily Routine

There is very little time for me to do anything here other than study, so few letters have gone out and I’ve made no trips to town to check email, post blogs, or even buy a phone. We have classes every day M-Sat from 8-5. This is after getting up at 6:30, bucket bathing, eating breakfast, and riding my bike to school – up hill no joke. (ok, slight grade to the “road” i.e. dirt path w/ rocks thrown in, lots of chickens, people, motorcycles, other bikes, etc.). We study either Swahili or TZ education system all day long. Then ride home again. I usually hang out w/ my friends from PC until 6 or so, and then go home. Then I bathe again, try to help w/ dinner which has been refuted thus far, do my homework, try to talk to the girls, eat dinner between 7 & 8, go to bed after studying flashcards. Repeat. The only variation would be on the days when we meet w/ one other language group (5 more people) or on Fridays when the entire group of PC Eds. (33) meet to do fun things like inoculations, or learning to prick our fingers and make slides that we send to Dar in case we might have malaria. Yes, I really had to prick my own finger and make slides of my own blood. My shot count is up to 5 total. I still have 4 more that I know of. Today, being a Friday, I was with the entire group where we had sessions on malaria (thus the finger pricking lab), we made our own water filter system out of buckets & ceramic filters, and reviewed some PC policy stuff. Fun Fun!

Eidd El Fitr – The end of the Ramadan. As I am not Muslim & neither is my family, why is this important? We had a day off of school. It was great to sleep in and relax. It also meant the end of the Mosque’s calling at 3am to remind the Muslims to eat before sunrise. I do not mean this to be in anyway anti-Islamic, but the calls from the Mosques are not pretty. The chanting uses an “ugly” part of the voice and, to me, it is not a comforting sound, but a jarring noise, regardless of the time of day in which I hear it.

Transporting goods – it’s amazing how many ways there are to transport goods here that I cannot get over. The women carrying items on their heads is forever amazing to me. Apparently many of them have spinal problems in their necks due to carrying loads over many years, but I still think it’s awesome to watch. I’ve also seen amazing loads carried via bicycle that I would never dare to try – of course I can barely carry myself on my bicycle without falling over! The carts of bricks being pushed/pulled by several people is amazing to watch. It makes me realize how wimpy we are as Americans. If we have a heavy load to find someway to roll it to a motorized vehicle and then drive it to where we are going. No such luck here. Also, the way the women carry their babies in kangas is amazing, too. They tie those cloths around them in such away that their kids are never going to fall, plop in the kid, and off they go w/ both hands free.

Speaking of kangas – they are the most useful pieces of material ever. The brightly colored pieces of cloth serve as towels, shirts, dresses, skirts, water strainers, cheese cloth, baby carriers, and a multitude of other purposes. Ironically, however, their guinea hens which are the most annoying creatures in the world (more hated by me than the roosters) are also called kangas. Why? Do they have many useful purposes of which I am not yet aware? Currently they just make a lot of f-ing noise and fight w/ each other!

Weather – So, this is Africa, and it’s hot here. However, it’s cool at night with breezes almost all of the time. For the past 3 days it’s rained on and off. It starts out really hot and then the temperature drops instantly – seriously. It’s like you go from sweating to cold in one minute. Later it rains. It’s great. It’s pretty dry here, too, so as long as you can get into the shade, the heat’s not so bad.

Swahili – It’s hard. Let me try to explain. Swahili has 7 noun classes. Depending on which class your noun is in, that noun will determine the prefixes of your adjectives and possessive words. For example, say you wanted to say “That is her new table”. First of all, there is a different “that” for each noun class. (also, different these, this, those…). So, before you can say the word “that” you must go through your mind and figure out which noun class “table” is in and then determine which “that” word you’re allowed to use. In this case, “table” is in the n/n noun class, so we use the word “ile” (pronounced ‘ee-lay) for “that”. Then you have to also figure out which possessive word to use. In English, “her” is the possessive meaning the table belongs to her, but in Swahili, you have to again refer to the noun class to get the prefix for the root possessive “her” ---ake. So, we go to the n/n class, look up the prefix for “…ake” and find that it is a “y” and we get “yake” (pronounced yah-kay) to use for the “her”. Finally, we also need to figure out what prefix, if any, is used for the adjective “new”. In the n/n class, only some adjectives get prefixes to match their nouns, but “new” is one of them. The root for “new” is “pya” and it gets the prefix “m” in the n/n class, so we get “mpya” for “new”. So, we put that all together and for “That is her new table” we get “Ile ni meza yake mpya”. Literally translated means “That is table her new”. AHHHHH. It’s not necessarily hard to memorize the prefixes (different for singular and plural as well), but there is just NO WAY to learn which class all of the nouns are in. Basically, you just have to give it your best shot and prepare to have people correcting you ALL OF THE TIME. Try to make that sentence plural and you have to start all over!

I do pretty well when things are written, but oral is difficult. I’m constantly asking people to repeat themselves, “writing” the sentence in my head, translating what I “see”, then saying in English what I think they said to check myself (which must be really annoying to constantly hear repeated what you just said), then trying to construct a phrase in my head, hear it in my head first, then say it, and then check if it was right and/or listen to the correction and say it again. Needless to say I practice oral Swahili the least because it takes so much effort, but it is what I should be practicing the most. Grrr. In about a week I have a Oral Proficiency Exam and a Mid-Term written exam. I’m not too worried about the written one, except that I forget a lot of detailed rules, like changing certain things in past/future tense, but not in present, but the oral test will be hard. We are at least aware of what the testers will be talking to us about, so I can practice a little.

Family/Homestay – things are going pretty well in my homestay. One of my sister’s had the chicken pox the other week. My Mama firs told me she had small pox and I was about ready to get on a plane home! Now she’s better and my other sister has a really bad cold. I’ve been downing the Airborne trying not to catch it. I think they’re allergic to me or something! My family is pretty quite and subdued – much different from the community oriented family I expected. Not a lot of visitors/visits, not a lot of extra people around most of the time. Usually, it’s just the 5 of us which suits me just fine. Some of the other families have houseboys/girls who do a lot of the work and random family members that they can’t quite seem to place. My family is from out of the area, so we don’t have a lot of that. Also, both of my parents are teachers, so they aren’t working in the community/fields/etc. during the day. Like I said, though, I prefer the quiet life and if I had to be socializing all of the time, I might go crazy. Of course, it might help my Swahili, but oh well!

In good times & in bad – I have my ups and downs and there are times when I want to jump on a plane home. One night last week the PCTs stayed in town after a large group meeting to have dinner. This mean we missed our PC vehicle ride home and had to find our own way back. It got dark, we couldn’t get a taxi, and then the electricity went out. I didn’t feel like I could communicate at all and it was so frustrating to not be able to get where I wanted to be, when I wanted to be there, not be able to ask for help (& it sucked to have to ask for help), etc. It became a moment when I realized that nearly all of my independence has been stripped away. That really sucks. As someone who’s taken care of themselves for as long as I can remember, enjoys living alone, and doing things on my own, not being able to be independent was almost a deal breaker. It didn’t help that when I finally did make it home, my neighbors had an all night vigil for someone who had died. The church choir they hired for the event (not kidding) sang from 10pm-5am so I got one hour of sleep and then had to get up and go to school. Those are times when I wonder why I was dissatisfied with my life in PA and think how easy it would be to go back to it. Then I stop myself and force myself to think about why I wanted a change and that if I came home I wouldn’t have my “easy” life back because I wouldn’t be able to get my job back until next year, I don’t have my own place, etc. etc. and then I think I’ll make it here one more day. One more day becomes a week, and so on. A few people have thought about ETing (early termination), but as of yet everyone we started out with in Philly is still here. Apparently when we get our sites and are left all alone is a big time to ET as well as the one-year mark. I can understand that. When I’m having a bad day, I have other PCTs who are going through the same thing and help pick me up. I also almost always have a translator around for when I get stuck. When I’m on my own, most of that support is totally gone. One bad day could turn into many w/o people to help pick you up. I can also see why people leave after the first year. On one hand, people don’t think they’ve made much of a difference or aren’t helping and want to call it quits. Also, I could see having enough of an experience to last a lifetime after 1 year and just being ready to be home. I try not to think too much about where I fit into those possibilities and just focus on one day at a time. As for good times, I can’t think of specifics. Mainly, I’m just enjoying my new environment, friends, schedule, etc. Next weekend we are supposed to go to Mikumi National Park if it gets organized, so that should be fun. It also marks our halfway point, so after that only a few more weeks of living w/ host families, learning Swahili non-stop, etc. Next week we start “internship” teaching. Basically that means that we practice teach, but as our school has few teachers to cover all of the classes, it also means that we are to be regular teachers at the school. I’ll be teaching Form IIA Math. All that means is that it’s a group of kids in their 2nd year of “high school” and the A means that they’re one group. There’s also IIB, IIC, and IID. There is no difference in the groups, just they had enough kids in form II to break them into four groups. Everyone takes the same classes. There is also not one specific math class that I’ll be teaching. Each form has a syllabus that covers some geometry, some algebra, some trig, some statistics, etc. So each year, each form, gets a little of everything. Next week I’ll be starting a new unit w/ Form IIA. Basically the teacher showed me what had been covered and what hadn’t been and I can do whatever I want in what hasn’t been covered. They need to do congruency in triangles, similarity in triangles, and transformations. Basically a lot of geometry stuff. Thank goodness I spent all of that time doing geometry last year w/ my high school kids! Thanks guys!!!! Form II also includes trig using trig tables, which I’ve never done (all on a calculator!), so I’m really glad that’s already been covered! I’ll probably only teach them for a few weeks before we’re done, so it’s not like I have to finish all of the leftover topics. Now to pick what I want to do…

Health, Food & Weight

Thankfully it seems my body has adjusted well to Africa. I have not had any digestion related problems, as have some of my friends, so I am thankful for that. I’m sure it’s a bonus that my mama is a chemistry & biology teacher. She understands the pathogen risks much better than some other host families. She tells me why she does not reuse animal fats after cooking & boils our water correctly rather than just heating it up a bit! As for food, I’m eating more than I did at home. Breakfast is tea & bread w/ jam and/or eggs of some sort. Chai break around 10am each day includes tea & some sort of chipati or donut-like thing. (Although today we had boiled yams which were just about the worst thing I’ve ever eaten – like eating wet chalk). Lunch is prepared by a local mama and brought to the school for us each day. It’s usually beans & rice and/or potatoes, some sort of stewed something for on top, some sort of veggie either cooked or raw (raw tomato & cucumber salad w/ salt/lemon is YUMMY!) and then some fresh fruit. I’ve stopped eating the after school chai because I feel like I’m eating all of the time! Dinner is eaten anywhere between 7:30 and 9:00pm – so late! We eat beans, rice, stewed meats (a tomato based sauce w/ coconut milk is my favorite), fruit, veg, etc. Almost everything is cooked in sunflower oil, so I’m eating a lot of fat : (. However, once I’m on my own I won’t have to cook w/ fat anymore. The amazing thing is the sunflower oil they use is produced by them. The grew sunflowers & harvested all of the seeds. My Baba cleans the seeds & then presses the oil by hand & they use it to cook. Amazing!! With all of those things considered, (not being sick & eating a lot), I haven’t lost a pound as far as I know!!!

So of course last night i typed 3 blogs and saved them on my flashdrive in anticipation of coming to find internet today & my computer that I'm on has no USB drive, so I won't be using what I typed. TIA - this is Africa! Oh well. A quick update. My homestay is going well, although after living alone for so long I think I'm having a hard time adjusting to not being by myself. I look forward to the day when we get our sites and our own places - but that's 2 months away. My Mama & Baba are both teachers at the school where i learn swahili & have 2 daughters, 14 & 10. I can't post personal details, but you can ask me in snail mail or email what you want to know. Time moves slowly here as it takes forever to do most things - get from one place to another, cook dinner, take a bath (have to get water & heat it first), etc. etc. It's a hard adjustment to make. The bugs are not too bad & have seen no critters around other than a gecko. He eats the mosquitos, though, so he is welcome. I have electricity but no running water. I got a phone today & so if you want the # email me. I don't know when I'll get back to you, but someday! We have school six days a week form 8-5 everyday. It's exhausting especially because the d--- roosters keep me up most of the night. They are retched creatures & I hate them! The food is good, but I do miss the variety of home. Wearing skirts isn't too bad bec. it's cooler than what the guys have to wear, but I still will not wear them at home. Ok, My time is running out. No time to proof read. Send snail mail & padded envelope packages under 4 pounds when you can!

1) The electricity goes out while your baggage is going around on the conveyor belt & you have to search for 33 people’s luggage (x 2 each) with flashlights. How did the conveyor belt continue to move? No idea.

2) You can fit 10 people into a car made for 5 & still arrive alive.

3) You have an entire meeting devoted to diarrhea including the four different types, when to call the doctor & when to wait it out, how to take a stool sample, and discussions about the pros & cons of a fresh sample vs. a solution.

4) You dress as a sign of respect to others and not as an expression of yourself.

5) You sleep under a mosquito net at night.

6) You get excited about things like electricity & running water

7) You need vaccines for things like yellow fever, rabies, meningitis, Hep A, Hep B, & Typhoid all at the same time.

8) You have Oscar-worthy dreams once a week courtesy of malaria prophylaxis.

Overall things are going well. Most of the people I’m with are great – sharing similar interests, goals, reasons for choosing the PC, etc. However, as in any group of 33 people, there are few personalities that will either take a while to figure out, warm up to, or just clash with for 2 years. The age range is 22-67. Our youngest member had his 22nd birthday on our first full day in TZ. We haven’t seen much of TZ yet as we are basically sequestered in our hostel in Dar & being shuttled back & forth to PC Headquarters. On Saturday we leave for one of the PC training centers in Morogoro Region. If you look on a map, this region is very large, so it doesn’t give a good idea of where we’ll be, but I cannot post our exact location on a public blog for security reasons. We’ll spend 2 days in Morogoro Region in another hostel before beginning our homestays. We’ve been given a schedule for the full 10 weeks of training, so pick a day & I can tell you what I’ll be doing on that day! You know me, I like a schedule, so I’m just fine with the daily breakdown of events. It looks like we’ll be going on a weekend trip to Mikumi National Park one weekend in October. We are all already looking forward to a weekend where English will be the primary language used & heard.

Apparently I will have to pay to receive all packages sent to me, so keep them as light as possible and/or tuck some cash inside to help replace money I’ll have to spend to pick them up! Remember – not listing valuable items on the customs declaration slip will help to ensure the item’s safe arrival & cut down on costs for me. Also, if Peace Corps is not apart of the address, it will be returned to the US. The address is part of the US Embassy & w/o the PC in the address they don't know which agency we're with & send it back.

Today's the day! Staging (orientation to everyone else) was a good experience. Sunday I met the 30 other people with whom I'll be going through this adventure. I am not the oldest, but I may be the second oldest. There is one gentleman whose age I will not hazard a guess, but I'm definitely not the oldest. There are some others who are around my age, but a bit younger. There are also others who've had some teaching and work experience, but for the most part everyone is fresh out of college with in the last few months to within the last year or so. Everyone seems great so far. With a bunch of math/science people who all think alike, we're bound to get along. Staging was full of activities to get to know one another while at the same time preparing us for this huge undertaking in front of us. We looked through the history of PC, how we fit in, what it might feel like to be the new person in town as well as to be a person living in the village with a volunteer coming in and other such in-service type activities.

This morning we head off to vaccination clinic where I'll receive my yellow fever vaccine as well as my first does of malaria medication. Then we board a bus to JFK to catch a flight to Amsterdam. Then it's off to Dar es Salaam via Kiliminjaro. We'll arrive in TZ about 24 hours after we take off. Yep, I have to be wearing a skirt when I get off the plane... but not on the plane, so I'll be changing on the flight. Then we spend 3 days basically sequestered in Dar before being driven to a TZ training site in the Morogoro region. For security purposes, I cannot post exactly where in that region we'll be located, but if you want to know you can send me an email & I can tell you. We'll spend 2 days at a training center before being shipped off to our host families, also in the Morogoro region. Then starts intensive language, culture, technical, health & safety training. I'll be with 5 people for 8 hours a day 5 days a week and then the entire group on the 6th day. It should be pretty intense, but I'm looking forward to it.

I may not get to internet for at least a week, so keep the snail mail coming & if you email just don't expect to hear back for awhile!

.... fill in the blank. I'm asked so many questions about leaving. Am I packed?? YES, but I can't carry the load!

Above are my 2 allowed checked pieces of luggage plus one carry-on. The hiking pack weighs about 30 pounds and the duffel weighs about 40 pounds (at least they did the last time I weighed them which was 2 weeks ago & I've been shoving more stuff in...). The carry-on does not look heavy in the picture, but it has 2 toiletry bags, my laptop, electronic stuff, a book, and changes of clothes in there. I didn't weigh it - it's heavy!

Other questions... Am I nervous? Not really. I'm tired of living in between worlds. My old life has moved on without me and I haven't moved on yet. I've given up my job, family, friends, Newton, car, etc. & I'm still here! So, I'm not really nervous, but more anxious to get going. I'd probably be more nervous if I let myself think about it too much, so I just don't.

Am I scared? Yes & No. The unknown is always a little scary, but being the unknown I can plead ignorance, so I'm not really, that scared - yet!

Am I fluent in Swahili? NO.

Did I get all of my vaccinations? NO (none actually - that starts Tues. morning. Vaccination clinic anyone?).

What age/math will I be teaching? NO CLUE

Am I going with other PCV who'll be in TZ? YES (all 28 of us will be teaching math/science/IT in TZ & will be together on & off for the first 3 months)

Did I register for my absentee ballot? YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, etc. (one "yes" for each person that's asked me that, plus a few extra for my brother who seems to be getting early onset dementia & has asked me several times!)

So, after all of these questions of "Are you..." I guess, if I had to fill in the blank with "I am...", it'd be that I am hopeful. I hope I'm not the oldest one in the group. I hope I don't get sick from the shots. I hope I can wear my contacts. I hope I can adjust quickly to the heat. I hope I learn to speak Swahili fast. I hope I am as good of a teacher in TZ as other people tell me I am at home. I hope I can make it the entire 2 years. I hope my buddy doesn't forget me & forgives me. I hope everyone who has said they'll write to me does. I hope I love it there so much that I won't want to leave (don't worry, I'll come home!). I hope I find the change I was looking for. I hope people come to visit me. I hope I'm not saying "what did I get myself into?" as soon as I get there.

The end of my favorite movie of all times, The Shawshank Redemption, sums it up just about perfectly (except substitute "Indian" for "Pacific"):

"I find I'm so excited I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it's the excitement only a free man can feel; A free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as beautiful as it has been in my dreams. I hope."

The last few weeks have been full of farewells. It has honestly been harder than expected to say goodbye to family & friends. I knew giving up Newton would be rough, but I figured the rest would be ok because I knew I'd be able to communicate with them in some manner. Newton was hardest, but the rest turned out to be pretty hard, too. It's amazing to find out how much people like you when you leave! Anyway, I had some amazing surprises, dinners, gifts, & get togethers. Thanks everyone! Here's some random pictures of some of those moments.

Bryan, Darla, & Me: Part of my amazing team @ MNMS - Everyone else was out to lunch when I was looking for people to take this picture! Sorry!!!

My bestest buddy & companion, Newton.

The yummy bakery cake from my sister & her family.

My other half, Amy, & me at one of my farewell dinners.

Diane, Lisa, Eric, Ruth, & Dad @ another dinner.

Mom, Amy, & Virginia @ another good bye feast.

Eric, Bryan, Martin, & Diane @ my surprise picnic.

Mark, Dan, Cody, Amy, & Me @ surprise picnic.

One week ago I had my own apartment, my own things, and my cat. Within the last week I moved out of my apartment, put all of my things in storage, and gave my cat to my sister & her family. That was so hard that I don't really want to even think about it. I know he'll be loved & well taken care of, but I miss him & I know he misses me :-(. One week from now I'll be getting ready to register for staging (i.e. orientation) in Philadelphia, so basically I'm living in limbo. Last week the school year started without me, so I'm officially out of work, too! It's strange to not have my own place, my own space, my own job, and all of those other things. Maybe it's good I have this limbo time because it's helping me to be ready to get going - mostly so that I have something to do! Extended summer vacation isn't as fun as it may sound. My friends are working, my life is in storage, and my Newton is now living below the Mason-Dixon Line, so there's not a whole lot for me to do except sit around and wait.

You may have noticed that there is not a place to post comments on my blog. Although I'd be interested to hear comments, I've read several blogs from TZ saying that their internet connections make it difficult to open the comments, so I figured there was no point. Also, as the owner of this blog, I'm responsible for any content on it, including other people's comments & frankly I only want to be responsible for what I say. So, if you'd like to comment on the blog, or just want to drop me a line & say hi, you can write me a letter or send me an email instead!

How do I pack for 2 years? Well, I don't. We basically pack for a few months & by that time we'll have been able to purchase whatever else we need. PC provides a packing list, but says that we can't pack all of the items on the list- we have to decide what is appropriate for us while making sure we also bring the required items. This made it hard to pack as I wanted a "pack this" and "don't bring that" list. We are limited two 2 pieces of checked luggage, totaling no more than 80 pounds with no more than 50 pounds in one piece, plus 1 carry-on. There are also linear dimension restrictions on the luggage. After all of my packing struggles, here's what I think I've ended up with!

Luggage:

1 rolling duffel 6500 cu.in. capacity

1 backpack 5000 cu.in. capacity

1 carry-on backpack

Clothes, linens, etc.:

3 skirts (PC required)

2 dresses (PC required)

1 pair jeans

1 pair khaki pants (converts to capris)

1 pair khaki capris

1 pair denim capris

2 pairs shorts (to wear under skirts/dresses)

5 short sleeved shirts

4 cotton Ts

2 long sleeved button down shirts

1 sweatshirt

1 windbreaker

Socks, underwear, etc. (LOTS)

2 pairs Chacos (sandals)

2 pairs Keens (shoes)

2 pair sneakers

1 swim suit

1 slip (PC required)

2 hats

3 hair bandanas

1 bath towel, 1 hand towel, 1 washcloth

1 pillowcase (signed by my friends at MNMS!)

1 laundry bag

1 quillow (quilt that folds into a pillow)

Pharmacy (literally - I'm taking a pharmacy):

PC gives us a medkit for our sites, but I want the meds I want when I want them!

Tylenol

Ibuprofen

Immodium (I hope I don't need this much...)

Pepto Bismol (... this either!)

Afrin

Sudafed

Expectorant

Prilosec

Rolaids

Bonine (like Dramamine)

Thermometer

Airborne

Neosporin

Hydrocortisone

Bandaids

Contacts (PC discourages their use, but I'm trying it)

Contact solution

Soft lips (w/ 20 SPF)

Sun screen

Bug spray

Deodorant

Soap/shampoo/conditioner

Toothbrush (2) & toothpaste

Razors

Baby wipes

Antibacterial wipes

Germ X

Small packs of tissues

Tweezers/clippers/scissors

Hairbrushes

Ponytail holders

Bobbypins

Electronics:

Laptop & accessories

Camera & accessories

AA & AAA batteries

Flashlights

Voltage adapter/converters

Ipod & accessories

Speakers

Flash drives

DVDs/CDs

Calculator

Household items:

Rubber dishwashing gloves

Hanging storage containers

Plastic bags/tupperware

Bag clips

Locks

Solar camper's shower

Duct Tape

Rope

2 small paring knives/peeler (PC suggested)

Measuring cups/spoons (PC suggested)

Egg carrier (PC suggested)

Other stuff:

Books

Bible

Sewing kit

Safety pins

Sunglasses

Photo albums

Pens/pencils/paper

Stationery/address book

Journal

Earrings

24 (math game)

Powdered drink mixes

Fruit snacks

PC materials

2 stuffed bears (both from people near & dear to me)

Bike helmet (PC required)

Wow, that's a lot of stuff as I look at it! I actually had more (mostly duplicates of stuff, like 2 duct tapes & several contact solution bottles, etc.), but I took out the extras & boxed them up to send to myself. If you're wondering why I have few educational items packed, I have two good reasons. First, they didn't fit! Second, I won't need them until I start teaching in January, so they are packed up in boxes ready to be sent. Those boxes include things like a gradebook, markers, more math games, chalk, folders, office supplies in addition to my duplicate personal supplies that didn't fit in my bags. Here are some pictures of my attempts at packing!

Laying out some of the clothes I want to take. Notice the entire bed, lots of soft mattress space, lots of cushy clothes, and the 1 hard folder that Newton chose to sleep on while helping me pack!

My duffel surrounded by some of the stuff I was trying to fit into it!

A look inside my duffel. Notice how full it is & I still had to fit in all of those bags that were surrounding it plus my helmet!

Anyone who knows me at all, knows I love to read. This is especially important as I head off to a land where TVs, internet, & other typical U.S. entertainments are hard to come by! That being said, I'll be packing books to take with me. Soon, I'll post a list of what I packed to take with me to TZ for 2 years, but as for books, I'm currently planning on taking Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson & David Relin; Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver; Twilight by Stephanie Meyer; New Moon by Stephanie Meyer; and The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith. I hope to be able to pack all of these & maybe a few more, but weight restrictions may require me to pull a few out & have them sent to me later.

What can you send me? LETTERS & BOOKS!!

Here are some authors I've read & books I'd like to have if anyone wants to send some!

1) I've read most of Jodi Picoult's books, but still have not read Mercy or Second Glance. Also, she tends to come out with a new book every year, so feel free to send any new ones!

2) Khaled Hosseini - I read both The Kite Runner & A Thousand Splendid Suns, but if he comes out with another one, feel free to send it! Also, if you enjoyed those books & have others you think I'd like, send them.

3) I've had The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch on my list to read for over a year, but sort of forgot about it. As he died recently, I was reminded of his book & am interested in reading it.

4) I've read most of Chris Bohjalian's books, but haven't read Idyll Banter: Weekly Excursions to a Very Small Town. He seems to publish about once a year, so new books by him would be appreciated.

5) I've just recently discovered Barbara Kingsolver. I read The Poisonwood Bible over the summer & am taking Animal, Vegetable, Miracle with me. However, she has a long list of fiction books that I'm sure I would enjoy. I believe she might have another nonfiction book, or two. Anything by her would be great.

6) I've also started reading Sophie Kinsella, but haven't read any of the books she's most famous for - the Shopaholic books. I've read The Undomestic Goddess, Can You Keep A Secret? & Remember Me?, but she has a ton more that would make good reads.

7) Many of my students were reading the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer last year. A friend of mine recently gave them her highest recommendation, so I purchased the first two in the series to take with me - they're the only two in paperback. However, if the next two in the series, Eclipse & Breaking Dawn come out in paperback, or you don't mind sending a hardback, I'd love to read them. Also, I was told she has another book, The Host, that is a good read.

8) I also have a wishlist on Amazon.com that is mostly books, so that would be a good place to get ideas of books to send. (search for rehenry1@yahoo.com in the wishlist search)

9) Finally, if you have any paperback books or light hardback books that you've enjoyed reading & don't mind parting with, please send them! If I've read them, I can pass them along to other volunteers.