Updates, updates! Myself, along with eight other volunteers from the Singida and Katesh regions, have been working hard to prepare for our upcoming Girls Conference. It will begin next Wednesday in Singida town. Each volunteer will bring five girls from their local secondary school to town for a four-day seminar dealing with women’s empowerment, life [...]
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Tanga During the month of August, I had the opportunity to see my host family in Tanga. School was on break and I decided to use my time off to pay them a visit. After our community theatre workshop, instead of heading straight home I booked a bus ticket east, back to the [...]
Last month marked the peak of the dry season out here in Singida and the surrounding landscape could not be more desolate. Any vegetation we may have enjoyed during the short rainy season has long since turned to brown sticks and the seasonal winds have picked up again and envelop Ihanja in a constant [...]
I broke a tooth today. Not very happy about this. At all. Rice here is sold by the kilo and comes loaded with tiny sticks and rocks. It must be cleaned and thoroughly washed before it is cooked. Apparently today, I wasn’t being as vigilant cleaning as I should have been and am now kicking [...]
Did some spring cleaning, yesterday. My house is spotless right now and it’s such a good feeling. It’s shadow week and this weekend I will be hosting two girls from the new training class who will come out to Ihanja to see my work and what life in the field is really like. [...]
Finally had the chance to do some climbing for longer than a day. When Nathan came to visit, we set aside a week just for bouldering. It was fantastic. I took him to a place known by locals as Mwamringa. It’s just outside my friend Jayce’s village here in the Singida region. Beforehand though, we [...]
I’m really sorry for this recent hiatus I unintentionally took from blogging. Rather than wasting time with excuses, I’ll just fill y’all in on the past few months. Where did I leave off? I suppose Mafia. The trip to the island was an amazing- time to catch up with other PCV’s, long lazy days on [...]
There are certain frustrations experienced universally by Peace Corps volunteers. Like getting sick. Despite taking every precaution of filtering and boiling water, washing hands, etc., you’d be hard pressed to find a PCV who didn’t suffer from a nasty bout of diarrhea at some point or another during their service. Another common struggle is unavoidably [...]
It’s difficult trying to explain to people here that we don’t eat ugali back in the States. They automatically conclude then that there must not be any corn in America. You tell them that actually there is, in fact, corn available. “But…then how…is…there no…ugali…?” Fritos anyone? Same goes for tribalism. Here, and in most of [...]
I never realized how much I loved cereal until I went a year without it. I was be-bopping around my banking town, Singida, the other day when I noticed once again, how swiftly it is developing. Roads are being paved, new shops are being opened- it’s almost unrecognizable from when I arrived last August. Let [...]
Elephants! Last night we had elephants come into our village! It was crazy. In the middle of the night, they came from a nearby forest and be-bopped right into the center of Ihanja. They even crossed the road through our ville. Nobody actually saw them, we all just saw the aftermath. They came and pretty [...]
My little puppy died. Last month all the PCV’s had to go to Dodoma to get a swine flu vaccination. I left little Tanga at Joseph’s house. He died while I was away. I am not sure what happened. I did not ask questions. It was hard for awhile, especially because I couldn’t be publicly [...]
In a couple of weeks, it will have been ten months since I arrived in country! How it flies.
Hope everyone is well at home. I’ve been quite busy lately! My scope of work is now officially laid out for this year. I’m involved in many different things in Ihanja, now, and it feels great. Teaching [...]
Whew, transportation will take it outta ya here! I can’t complain as I’m a lot closer to my banking town than many of my fellow PCV’s but I would just like to mention my journey home last week.
When I was first installed at my site, PC staff gave me a ride from Singida to [...]
“Let’s drink from the cup and share some love and go ahead and laugh cause it don’t cost much.” –Dispatch
I finally saw my namesake, balima- the bird. I had grown tired of disappointing people daily when they asked me if I had seen the little, red bird yet. I had heard there were many in [...]
“OK, so you’re Brad Pitt…that don’t impress me much” -Shania Twain
Connor and Brad
When traveling around TZ, one tends to notice white people, well, because they stick out. A few months ago, Jayce and I were en route to our IST conference when we ran into one such person. His name was Connor and he was [...]
Some women in my vill pounding corn to make flour.
Joseph, my counterpart, has grown to be my best friend in the vill. I’m always amused by the interesting sort of cross-cultural exchanges we seem to have nearly everyday. He teaches me useful things about life in Tanzania and in return, I try and shed some light on American culture. We are also conveniently helpful [...]
“Listen, in high tide or in low tide, I’m gonna be your friend, you know that I’m gonna be your friend.” -Bob Marley
I got a puppy! I had been considering a dog for some time now but held off for several reasons. One, I was unsure of what would happen after my two years [...]
“Woke up this morning, smiled at the rising sun, three little birds sat on my doorstep, singing sweet songs of melodies pure and true, this is my message to you.” -Bob Marley
I have a bird problem. My home, as it turns out, is the local hangout/apartment complex for every sparrow within a 100 mile [...]
Today was great. It rained all morning and I sat on my couch and read a new book I got for Christmas…and ate bugs.
Here in Tanzania, there is a certain flying insect called kumbikumbi (no clue what the English name is). It lives underground and emerges in huge swarms after heavy rains. After surfacing, [...]
“We came for salvation, we came for family, we came for all that’s good, that’s how we’ll walk away.” -Avett Brothers
Let me tell you about my baba. When I arrived in August to my village, I first met the village officials of Ihanja. I then met a soft-spoken old man named Mzee Mkuki.
“This [...]
“My heart is dancing to a November tune.” -Avett Brothers
There’s a saying popular among PCV’s: “The days will go by slowly, but the weeks, quickly.” I could not agree more. My daily routine is pretty mundane now but here we are in November, October having come and gone. I still feel like a newbie but [...]
“Start tearing the old man down run past the heather and down to the old road. Start turning the grain into the ground, roll a new leaf over” -Counting Crows
You can feel the anticipation in the air. Everyone is waiting. Will it be this week? Next week? Right now we are in Ihanja, stuck in [...]
“I may be surrounded by a million people, I still feel all alone. I want to go home.” -Michael Buble
Well, the first stinging waves of homesickness have finally arrived. I’ve been expecting it and considering the climbing season and loving family and friends I left behind, am frankly surprised it took this long. I wish [...]
“Ain’t it good to know you’ve got a friend.” -James Taylor
I have a friend and her name is Beatrice.
When you show up to be “installed” at your site, you generally come with nothing, completely relying on the kindness of others to help you get settled into your new life. I arrived in Ihanja two [...]
“Take a piece of tinsel and put it on the tree…” –Ween
I would like to take a moment to describe the bliss that is receiving mail here in Tanzania. Let me preface this by noting that it is easy to feel detached as a PCV. The language, surroundings, well nearly everything is drastically different from [...]
“Reba dipped the ladle for a taste of her creation and she knew that what she made would be the finest in the nation.” -Phish
Beverage Anyone?
My wine is done! Did I mention I made wine? Well, if I didn’t, I made wine…and it’s done! A fellow PCV had passed out recipes during training. Three weeks [...]
I regret to deliver the sad news that a fellow Peace Corps volunteer, a young man named Joseph serving in southern Tanzania, passed away last week in a rock climbing accident. I only had the privilege of meeting Joe once but learned from the stories told by close friends at his memorial that he was [...]
“A man walks down the street, a street in a strange world. Maybe it’s the third world, maybe it’s his first time around. Doesn’t speak the language. Holds no currency. He is a foreign man, he is surrounded by the sounds, sounds…” -Paul Simon
Not So Fast, Slick
I have come a long way since the first [...]
One more flip of my calendar. I can’t believe September has come and gone. Only 23 more months to go. So what have I been up to? Well, aging for one. I celebrated my 24th birthday this September. It was one to remember (but then again, how could it not be?). I was able to [...]
“…gonna rise up and find my direction magnetically…” -Eddie Vedder
Mambo marafiki zangu (Hello, my friends)!
I hope everyone is doing well at home! I miss y’all! I am swiftly becoming accustomed to my new life in Ihanja and am enjoying the fact that I no longer feel like a visitor. I have yet to find anything [...]
O.K., so what I really want are letters! I miss my friends and family a ton and want to know what’s going on back home. And to be honest, I could survive without stuff from the States. However, if you do feel so inclined as to send me a package, any of the following would [...]
“Even though the wind may now be howling, the stars are bright and they push me on and on. There’s a half moon rising…”
-Yonder Mountain String Band
I am happy to announce I have finally arrived at Home Sweet Home! Singida is arid, dusty and WINDY! [...]
“I will travel, I will travel, I will travel ‘til my country home is found…” -Avett Brothers
Big news everybody! Training is over, I just took my last tech test and we have received our site assignments. I will be working and living for two years in a village in…
Singida! (pronounced sin-GEE-duh)
I’m [...]
“Are you feeling, feeling, feeling like I’m feeling, like I’m floating, floating up above that big blue ocean, sand beneath our feet, big blue sky above us…” -Avett Brothers
Spoiled. That’s the only word suitable to describe this past weekend (“rotten” if you want two). Peace Corps [...]
“You know there’s always more than one way to say exactly what you mean to say.” -Fastball
Supposedly, Kiswahili is one of the easiest languages in our world to learn. There are only five vowel sounds total and the emphasis is consistently placed on the second to last syllable [...]
“My home is with the hills and trees around me. The ceiling holds the moon and stars above…”
-Trampled by Turtles
Greetings from Lusanga! Today marks day 20 in my village of Community Based Training. Like I had mentioned in my previous blog, after our brief stay at the Msimbazi Center in Dar es Salaam, we traveled [...]
Mambo y’all!
Whew! It has been, perhaps, the most overwhelming and exciting four days I have ever experienced! I don’t have time to give all the details but here’s the overview:
Goodbyes:
I spent most of Friday and Saturday saying goodbyes, checking off the last items on my to-do list and double-checking my luggage. Three of my best [...]
Its time to move on, time to get goingWhat lies ahead I have no way of knowingBut under my feet, baby, grass is growingIts time to move on, it s time to get going -Tom Petty
It is now four days until my departure to staging and I never thought this week would come! It has [...]
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