1-day 1 in rain forest2-campsite for night 2

3- day 34,5-day 46-summit7-the shadow of kili during the sunrise8-down from the summit

1-my school2-the main road in the country3,4 - learning self defense at the girls seminar5,6-girls conference7,8 - the ride from my village to Mbeya9,10,11 - the local village center12- mama baraka and i13-15-around my village

Pic 1 shows wheat season where I live2 is just around3 basketball court i made4 my garden5 the hike down to lake malawi/nyasa from my house

It hasn’t been the most exciting blog here this year. Going home in April really affected my psyche. I was feeling too lazy to write anything back in Feb and March because I thought, “Well, I’ll be home soon and then I can just talk about it in person.” Then I returned and for May and June I thought, “Well, I just came back from talking about everything in person…and there went five months. Honestly, those previous two lists I wrote hardly affected me in reality. I find it is just easier to share about the outer things that everyone can be on the same page about. On the other hand, Sharing something that reveals my inner feelings about being here in a blog isn’t something I readily feel like doing.

It has been crazy, however, how I’ve begun to treat time here. I officially end my peace corps service on November 3rd…less than four months from now. (I will do some travelling afterwards which will bring me home around Christmas) Four months seems like absolutely no time whatsoever, despite it being longer than my entire study abroad experience in South Africa and Namibia. And because I was just home, saying hello to someone over two months ago still seems fresh and leads me to think, “I don’t need to send them an email or write a blog so they can know what I’m up to…I just saw them.” …That’s the way it is here with other volunteers who I’m close with. I just saw the Americans whom I’m closest with (geographically and friendly) for the first time since January and February, and that seems normal. We jump back into a weekend of hanging out like it was just last week. (We still tend to know exactly what each other is up to since life doesn’t change much around here) Maybe this ease me straight into adult life in the US where it’s not college and friends aren’t surrounding me 24/7.

Obviously my tone here displays where my head is focused…on coming home. Don’t get the wrong idea either…I still love hearing from people and am back into the mode of wanting to respond back. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves!!! Only four months are left…but there’s still another four more months left!

Teaching here is more normal than ever. I know how I’m going to teach, I walk into the classroom at ease, I can prepare my lessons easily, and I have a good rhythm with my students. Being a fellow teacher has brought its changes…I’m one of the most consistent things at this school. Since Jan 2009, I’m one of 3 teachers that still remain…and I’ve seen probably 30 cycle through. This is the normal school thing. Many of last year’s teachers left to go study at university. The same thing will happen this year. A teacher or two got fired. Some quit because they didn’t like the situation at the school. The headmaster (principle) is different. The secondmaster (vice principal) saw a transition. Three people have held the chair of academic master. We had a new all girls advanced level (kinda like a 13th and 14th grade which is followed by university) in which all 7 girls transferred by the end of the term. This turned into a coed advanced level which initially recruited 1 male. A few months later, another guy joined but both of them left at Christmas. Eventually, the advanced level closed leaving its one teacher to teach ordinary level with the rest of us. Supposedly, advanced level may reopen next year. And dozens of other [of what we would call] odd things have taken place.

With school as predictable and unpredictable as ever, Jess and I had a good June break (students receive two long breaks…December and June). It started with two lazy weeks for me at home. Then Jess brought six girls from our surroundings to join up with 60 other girls and 15 other volunteers for a girls empowerment conference in the nearby town of Mbeya. I tagged along to help out and because two of the girls were from my school. We had a great week full of energizers, learning about HIV/AIDS, decision making, self-defense, computers, sports, and meat at every dinner! These types of conferences have become crazy popular in Peace Corps-Tanzania…almost every region now hosts one at least once a year. They’re a great time, but it can be hard to tell if they’re making a difference. The biggest focus of the conferences is for girls to learn to believe in themselves, learn to stand up for themselves in making good decisions in order to be smart sexually so that they avoid HIV and pregnancy. Yet, the tendency of some attendees is to return to village and continue sexing it up. The same would be true in the US, but it’s hard to imagine here when the consequences are so great. Being in a relationship and having [even safe] sex while being a student can get one kicked out of school. So when pregnancy occurs, they get kicked out in no time. And what happens to the boys? Well, usually you can’t prove who is impregnating so there is no consequence for them. And all of this is without mentioning the HIV prevalence. It’s a strange phenomenon that people are still sleeping around without condoms, especially when almost everyone knows about condoms. There can be a mistrust of condoms, but this is a big topic that I’ll mention at another time.

During the last night of the conference, we held a disco for the girls. Surprisingly, when I went in, many of the older girls we just sitting to the side (Tanzanians love to dance). When I asked one of my students why she wasn’t dancing, she replies, “What do we look like, a bunch of washamba (equivalent of hicks). Why would we dance without boys?” After a week of good sessions about not needing boys to prove one’s worth, this was the finish. Part of me can’t blame her, of course. But whereas in our culture, if we see boys and girls talking, we don’t think anything of it…the odds of them sleeping together is pretty low because they’re probably just friends. But here, I think all of us Americans have adopted the Tanzanian mindset that when we see a boy and girl talking, they must be flirting, which obviously means they’re having sex. The tendency is not to show any public affection (often not to interact publicly). I’ve seen husbands and wives be somewhere publicly and hardly even notice each other. So when people start noticing each other…something must be going on.

Moving on…KILIMANJARO!

After a year of thinking that I wouldn’t climb Kilimanjaro (because it’s pretty damn expensive), I finally decided it’s time to go ahead and climb it. Kilimanjaro is the largest mountain in Africa, the largest free standing mountain in the world (the surrounding land is about 5000ft, the peak is 19,300ft), and possibly the tallest mountain in the world that is easy to climb; no technical climbing is needed. That being said, I had to do it.

Immediately after the conference, Jess and I took at 16 hour bus ride up to Moshi, the bumping town at the base of Kilimanjaro. It was crazy being in this city because white people are everywhere! We’re used to the south, where tourists rarely come and the white people we see are volunteers knowing Swahili. But up north, it’s all tourists checking out Kilimanjaro and the Serengeti. Anyways, we chose the 6 day route for going up and down (5 days is the minimum…you can go up to 9 days or so). We rented warm gear and got started. We went with a Dutch couple and for the four of us, there were 2 guides, 1 cook, and 12 porters. (this is normal. I wasn’t expecting 15 people for the 4 of us, however).

It’s an amazing hike because each day is different scenery. Every day is about a 5-7 hour trek except for summit day. We started at 6000ft and hiked through rainforest and camped at 10,000 ft. The night was already extremely cold. The next day was through moorland with short 5 foot trees. We camped at 12,500ft…above the treeline. This was also above the top of the cloudline down at 9,500ft. We had great weather every day and all we could see out from the mountain was clouds below us…it was a bit like being in an airplane. Anyways, we hiked the 3rd day through a “lunar kind of landscape” as our travel book explained. We reached 15,000ft but then went back down and camped at 12,500ft (a different campsite from night 2). Going slow was key in order to acclimatize. Surprisingly, at the higher elevations, it was best to just keep walking at a “good pace” (as our guide told us 100 times) rather than a good pace with lots of breaks. Taking a lot of short breaks makes one lose their rhythm. Day 4 was a steady climb back up to a campsite at 15,000ft. We arrived at 2pm and relaxed. After dinner, we went to sleep because we woke up at midnight. I’m not quite sure why, but the normal ascent always begins in the middle of the night. Everyone begins between 11pm and 1am in order to reach the summit near sunrise. We got going at 12:30pm and could see the line of headlights for the 50 hikers that had started before us. With our “good pace” we managed to pass most. It was freezing, hard to breathe, and tiring, but all of our group made it to the very peak shortly before sunrise. It was insane to stand at this peak knowing that everything on the continent stood lower than us. And there we were standing next to 60ft thick/tall glaciers in the middle of Africa. Once the sun came up, it started getting nice and warm, but after only 20minutes on top, we started making our way down. It top us 6 hours to reach the top, but only 1 or 2 to return to 15,000ft. We slept 2 hours, had lunch, and went back to camp at 10,000ft. Only our last days hike back down to 6,000ft brought us horrible mud and rain. Overall, it was an awesome experience, filled with incredible beauty and a good challenge. Hiking at 19,000ft is a little tough on oxygen. We were thinking about how funny every looks up there. For the slightest incline, we’d take a tiny step every few seconds…it looked like a bunch of snails.

World Cup

Well, the US might not care much about soccer, but the rest of the world does and now I do too, especially living with a German…the semi game has yet to be played as I write this. It was fun to hear that the US had beat Algeria while we were hiking on the mountain. Some of the porters bring radios and they listened to the games on there. It was heartbreaking, however, to see the US lose to Ghana, the final African team, as I was in Africa. We watched it from a Moshi hotel room. Once Ghana won, we could hear the screams and horns blowing in celebration on the street. A lot of Tanzanians were giving Americans crap for losing. We did have to point out that at least America qualified, unlike Tanzania (whose soccer is pretty bad)

I'm back home because my sister is getting married this coming weekend. It's been great seeing family and some friends. I'll be heading back to Tanzania next week in order to finish my service which ends in November. I think that come November, It will be an appropriate time to return home. Being home, I've realized how much it means to be near family and friends who have shaped me into me.

I was reviewing the list and the only real shocker was the "seeing women's knees." I went to Easter morning church and was shocked to see 15 year old hookers there wearing skirts mid-thigh...but then I realized they weren't. And what's this leggings nonsense. Come on! I feel like women are on the move to slumber parties all over but they're final destination proves elusive to them.

Other than that, returning to the US has been nothing big. It took me a day to readjust to door handles and light switch height (Tz has door handles and light switch on average a foot higher than here despite a shorter population. the light switches are higher, I know, because placing them lower requires more wire). It took me two days to stop talking slowly with extra enunciation. And I got annoyed when I was talking with a passerby for a moment and he looked at his watch and left because he had somewhere to go. I still had more questions for him.

So now I'll write a few reasons why I'm excited to return to my home in Tanzania. This list is smaller because lots of things are the reverse of the list in the last post (ie. In Tz, I don't pay ass-high prices for an avocado. btw, I was shocked to see how little avocados are here...I've never seen one in Tz which is even close to their size here)

See my Tz friendsMore walkingThe ability to be social with friends and acquaintances at any timeThe food (i've been pumped eating burgers and chips and stuff here, but whoa, this food does shit to my bodies)Living in natureBetter weatherNot feeling as time rushedAwesome dressing stylesWatching 5 new movies on the plane ride

This is more for my own entertainmentDriving a carGetting transportation whenever I wantPumping gasEvery road is pavedCurbsBiking on paved roads without mountainsRegulation filled vehicles (rather than 20 people in a van...literally 8 people standing inside)(the transportation list could continue)Unpredictable precipitationNo threat of electricity going out at night if I heat waterGuaranteed hot showersEvery store has aislesNot being able to walk to get all my basic needsNot being stared at alwaysHearing only one languageDrinking water straight out of the tapReal ovensChocolate available at any storeRegular ice creamRefridgeratorsAss-high prices for fresh produceNot being asked for thingsBeing able to do things without being asked what or why I'm doing itNo swahiliPeople don't greet each otherPeople are too rushedPeople being asses when things don't go their wayNot being able to go to a neighbor's for food anytimeHaircuts that aren't 50 centsSeeing close friends more than once every few monthsSeeing a friend only once every few months is a long time apartBeing one of many white peopleCold milkNot getting fresh milk delivered to me by a kid dailyLibrariesReliable electronics, CDs, DVDsFast internetInternet access at homeWomen wearing pants everywhereSeeing women's kneesStrollers (I've concluded strollers are stupid)Crying babiesCrying babies not being breast-fed in front of meOutfits that matchMen all where ties to waiste lengthLack of clothing made from colorful clothBuying bricksA lack of carpenters, tailors, welders, and other tradespeople who are not around the corner to make anything I want quicklyLunch at noonBowls of cerealLack of public transportationNo giraffes or elephants visible from the freewayNo marketWalking outside without dirtying my pants with either dust or mudSoft soilgoing bowlinggoing to movieswintera variety of sports fields other than soccerAngry parentsconcertsand on

First of all, Afrika is pronounced "Ah-free-kah." Secondly, Mzungu is pronouced "white guy." It tends to be my habit to try and adapt to a culture when I'm immersed in it. Maybe excessively I behave passively in order to avoid doing something outside of the culture. A consequence of this results in not sharing my culture.So here I have been in Tanzania, doing the Tanzanian things, speaking the Tanzanian language, doing whatever to fit in. Visit people regularly univited and stay and sit to be social. Go to church. Farm. Eating. Trying to carry a thing or two on my head. And that list should go on...actually those are bad examples. But why was I doing them? Because I wanted to fit in and be a Tanzanian. Now are those things bad? No, but I was driven to do them out of a made-up pressure in my head that if I want to be a good Tanzania, that's what I should do.Now I'm just starting to do what I want rather than living up to the expectations of here. I danced at the confirmation party yesterday like a silly uncoordinated white guy. I farmed in my garden how I wanted to do it (just started...doing carrots and chives in the first bed). I stayed home and read during good visiting hours. Frankly I'm less social now but it's good for me. I still am the mzungu whether or not I have the good tanzanian habits down. I still don't understand a lot of cultural issues. But these days, I don't care. I visit with people if I feel like it, not out of pressure to be Tanzanian. I go to church because I feel like it, not because people are gonna ask why I wasn't there. I go to Jess's when I feel like it without guilt of hanging with the other Mzungu too much. And when I dance, I'll start with the Tanzanian thing and add my own white boy twist to it. Maybe it's not obvious here, but I put in a lot of effort to try and be social in the community. This means walking around regularly and stopping by people's homes. Ironically, when visiting someone's homes they want to feed me and have me stay for hours. As a result that they aren't that receptive to a short visit at all, I tend to visit less. So their making me want to stay longer makes me less apt to visit. Then when I am visiting and want to leave, they ask "why?...you live by yourself...what are you gonna do at home?" There's no concept of enjoying individual time or reading a book for fun, writing a letter, whatever. But I'm done staying because they don't understand. I'm gonna go to my home by myself and refill how I need to do it.

I thought this was gonna be a little more poetic than it was...whatever...I studied engineering.

We have terminal exams this week...meaning my first year of teaching is done. which also means i'm halfway done. I have the option to extend for a third year. I would enjoy it here, and frankly it'd be more comfortable than readjusting at home, but I think i'll be ready to return to the places I miss by next November. That way I can do what white people do and I'm not going to get asked billions of questions along the way. ...Oh, that was the other part of it. There are things I avoid doing here because I just don't want to be bogged with questions. For example, I don't run outside for exercise because I'd have to stop and explain to everyone on the way what I'm doing. I dressed up for a Halloween party (in town and away from my site), but I didn't even try explaining there was an american holiday called halloween. Imagine explaining that when the concept of costumes in general doesn't exist!

I am starting a basketball court...don't know if i mentioned it. The students made a smooth clearing by using hoes to make a dirt half-court. I had a carpenter make a backboard for $8 and now a guy that does welding is making a hoop for a few bucks. We should be up and running by the end of the week. Basketball isn't foreign to Tanzania, but it's really only found in cities and not villages.

I'm currently reading "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" ... a book I've been longing to read since my first Youthworks summer in Rosebud. Really, it brings my heart back to the West and reservation life. In addition to missing MN and Valpo, I still greatly miss SE Montana.

Here's a sample from the Bulongwa Times. I was frankly amazed to see this quality. This was done by a student

So I would've put these in a nice story-telling order, but its a pain in the butt to do that in blogger, or at least i think so.

On the left we have the school cook with some students. They all wanted a picture next to the rice!!!

Now we're at graduation (which the rice was cooked for). Lovely band with some students. They can play, but for some reason tuning to each other is a missed concept. Every song has a drum beat from the keyboard. Awesome! These are the instruments that they use at our church. I prefer when they don't use them, actually.

Still at graduation. This guy in the front can rap like whoa!

The graduation cooking crew eating their meal off to the side.

Some of the graduation cooking crew. Yay for mama baraka (that's your girl, mary) smiling big in the front!

Computer room with form III. I made them laugh and quickly caught it. They don't like to smile in the pics, ya know!

Assembly at school. Can you find the white guy?

Philip's going away speech. He was my german housemate. So we hosted a party at our house. He left in August. Now I'm actually living with another german named Moritz. He'll be with me for a year...also a teacher at school.

Having fun and joking around is beyond any cultural boundary. Look at these guys...what fun!!! Ha, they're teachers. For serious, sometimes I might make life sound too serious here, but we're joking around just as much as i would with friends in america.

Netball match. My school kicked butt, winning 20-4 or something. It's like basketball without dribbling but when you catch it you can't move, like ultimate frisbee.

girls only

form I in the computer room. these guys have got proper facial expressions, eh?

Staff football team. We're ballers. We had a few matches where we played our students and one against teachers of another school. It turned out their team was still mostly students. We're ok. I whiffed on a ball where I was literally 4 feet in front of an open goal. I received a perfect cross. luckily we still won.

At the football match. The two guys are my students. They like to "look smart." We wore suits when we went to football matches in high school, right? Wow, just realized I said football earlier without even remembering the term soccer.

Form II in the computer room. Students are students no matter where you are...trying to be badasses. At my school here, students dodge class all of the time, lie with wild excuses about being late. Kids are kids. They think american students are angels. They're shocked when i say we dodged class too (well, i didn't anyways. ha. seriously though. skipping started in college for me) They seem somewhat satisfied by this fact as well...like it justifies they're dodging

philips going away party. They're getting into 'bags' or cornhole. Thanks rog for the specs. mine is 2' by 3' with an 8' hole. oops

philip with a baller at his party (that's my jacket he's wearing). you know i'll be coming home with a short-sleeved suit coat!

Back of my house...cooking preparations for philips party. we started at 10am for 4pm dinner. that's how its done!

other view. It's great. Five students helped out. Mama Doto, my good friend, led the cooking

wide view of the computer room with form IV's studying

from my house. (well, 1 minute walk to the view)

(it's a sunset by the way...if you didn't guess it, i revoke your priveleges to read my blog)

nice view from the front yard at my house. pic taken by philip.

Dinner preparations back in june at my house. The meal was maple dijon dill pork, pesto noodles, amarula pudding, and something else...i forgot. who says you can't get fancy in africa.

teachers after graduation. there's moritz. we are actually only 5 teachers total now at school. Over half of our staff left to continue studies at university. So now we have 5 teachers to teach 9 subjects for 3 forms. do the math...it's not enough. 3 of us teach the same 3 subjects. thus, physics, chemistry, and math are well-covered. other subjects not so much.

Me and some students after graduation.

Mama doto's twin sons' birthday party.

Me, ma doto, and the kids.

Luvanyinya football pitch. it's a 30-45 min walk from my house. Surrounded by mountains on all sides. You can't beat it. This is a students' match.

Jess and Mama Doto.

The kids being kids

Don’t get worried about me after reading this post. I just decided to get more personal. No new issues here; just new writing style which displays it. Well it’s picture time. It’s time to get to know the people. It’s hard to know what to write about here. Many people in the US are just curious about the African life. What about toilets, food, electricity, etc? These were my questions a year ago. For me, the questions now are about the people and cultural differences that don’t come through upon first impressions. My questions are asking how do I tie in my cultural needs in a foreign place (I can’t always compromise to fit into the culture or to be sensitive) My questions ask what really matters and how do I focus my energies there. My questions ask how do I live the teaching of Jesus here and how can that clash with culture. It’s this last question which I feel like writing about today. I think we can often forget how much our religion is tied to our culture. So when going cross-culture, what’s the deal? I find that there are things I find as universal teachings of Jesus, but if I try acting them out, people can see this as disrespecting or being oblivious to their culture. This mostly comes into action due to certain privileges relating to my age and status as a teacher as a leader. Whereas I grew accustomed to leading by getting my hands dirty and working alongside people (especially at Youthworks), if I try to sweep a classroom because the students were complaining that it wasn’t their turn, they violently pulled the broom from my hands and wouldn’t let me near it. “Sweeping isn’t the job of a teacher, much less a man,” would be their thought. Instead, I’m expected to stand on the sideline and watch. Now I know this can be similar in the US (maybe different situations where Jesus is more radical), but there’s a different perception when acting counter-culturally if you are already on the outside of the culture. It is seen much differently than acting counter-culturally within one’s own culture. Rather than service, it can be stubbornness in sticking to that white man’s culture. Secondly, how do I balance trying to follow the teachings of Jesus with certain developmental theory cross-culturally. Jesus says if I lend something, to not ask for it back. I’ve lent money here as well as other things. Frankly, I am not in much need of it being returned and the people whom I lend to are in more need of these items. However, this is a culture of not returning something unless someone pursues you to get it back (this is not entirely true, some strive to return things). Now maybe if I was Tanzanian, I’d say ok. However, I’m white and there’s already a view that my skin color means money (not exactly false). Even Tanzanians have admitted to me that there is an unhealthy dependence on foreign help from white people, bringing about some Tanzanians not taking responsibility. So while I’m here trying to help people help themselves, I need to not perpetuate a view of free money from the whites. Maybe you think Jesus doesn’t know what he’s talking about, but I think he does. So if he’s telling me to forget about that debt, but forgetting about that debt is only making people dependent, what am I to do? Now I would have to counter somewhat about where am I getting this value that people should be independent. The conflict probably comes that only half of Jesus’ words won’t work. We probably should be dependent upon each other…two way traffic here. Instead, dependence is too one way and exploited by both sides on micro and macro scales. So as a kid runs alongside me asking for money or candy, should I give it to them? I’m probably going to say no unless I’m in my village with the kids I’ve seen before. If it is a question which they would ask even to a Tanzanian, then I’m willing to help. However, many kids, mostly in tourist areas, see white skin and think freebies are available. I’ve been in the most obscure areas where foreigners don’t pass and heard shouted, “Naomba pesa!” “Give me money” or my favorite “ Give me MY money.” Now I can’t be upset about the impolite way of asking because that is the translation of how you would ask in Kiswahili (that is, in Kiswahili, you don’t ask for things. You request things with a statement. This takes some adjusting to). Where are these kids learning this? It’s because tourists or missionaries from back in the day used to give freely (or should I use carelessly, I don’t know). It can be as simple as a piece of candy up to thousand dollar projects. People have grown accustomed to assuming they could get money and then finding out how to use it. This is in contrast to finding true needs and then searching out money. Likewise, kids ask for candy not because they need it, but they assume they can get it for free. However, maybe they do need money for something legitimate, so I gotta go back to Jesus again and wonder. It’s not just me as the victim of constant asking that thinks this, some elders disapprove of the children’s behavior. Other elders join in, no doubt. A marine who initially entered Iraq told me when they “liberated” (whatever, not my first choice of word) a city, they kids came running out and the marines threw out candy to the kids. The kids were so happy. But now, I just gotta wonder what kind of effect that created to the view of what we provided. (Forget about the war for this statement) I was recently reminded of an encounter with my good friend from Namibia while I was there. She was earning about $100/month as a living. Thus, I was sitting in a much more comfortable economic situation. We were in a taxi one day and I tried to pay the $1 fare for each of us. She was planning on paying, so when she saw my attempt, she scolded me saying, “Bret, Accept the blessings you receive!” So when a guy here offered to give me $8 for something I gave him, rather than arrogantly rejected because $8 isn’t anything to me compared to him, I simply accepted. I wanted to tell him to keep it, but I saw that he was adamant in offering something in return. We can become pretty arrogant even in our giving. I understand simplicity more deeply now. If I had few things and no extra money, people could view me as a person who can offer myself. Instead, people often view me as a source of getting things. I want to give. Instead, having stuff to give is a hindrance to giving. They look there and stop. I want to give love. However, I find that my energy for it is low and often I fail at loving. Maybe it’s because I get worn down being asked for stuff instead. Maybe I just gotta give myself fully to God first. The fully in that statement is the kicker. (I’m reading Mother Teresa right now, Ha!) So yeah, being in a new place can get one thinking in circles, ha! College had these thoughts too, though. In college however, we just sat around talking about it theoretically for when we’d actually be in the real world. Now I’m in that world and there’s limited people to talk to it about. Theoretically, I thought it’d be easier to live it, but complications like these get in the way. So I gotta wonder if it all goes to simplicity. I think I mentioned pictures. Well, let’s do it. I had 9 Americans for PA staying in my house for a week. I’m making a 100 word crossword for Physics study.

It's out! Get it while it’s hot! The first ever Bulongwa Times was released last week. We pulled together a staff of 6 students and put the first issue out. It’s complete with News, Short stories, Announcements, a brain teaser, sports info, a cartoon, and HIV advice. My hope is that it will help students’ English, improve some students English skills, and provide a forum on HIV. I think it’s going to be successful in these fields. My favorite line has got to be “The leader of sports and games at Bulongwa Secondary School was very confident when he was talking with the sports editor of Bulongwa Times Mr. Edger. They will be the winner and score two goals against Mwakavuta School, bringing Bulongwa into second place.” Every article needed some heavy English revision with me, but hopefully they’re learning from it. I’m thinking of putting brain teasers in that will help enhance critical thinking (especially mathy/sciency brain teasers but not necessarily). So please email me any that you’ve got.

anyone know if you can upload files onto a blog?

Important things first! When I originally thought about doing the Peace Corps, I thought I’d be overwhelmed with extra time. Therefore, I figured that I’d probably be able to practice guitar a lot, learn the harmonica, read every book which I’ve been wanting to for 5 years, and then some… But oddly enough, that free time hasn’t been too present. Between being busy preparing things for school, spending time with Tanzanians, hanging out with my nearest Americans, and conversing with my German housemate, I haven’t done too much…until now! This guy can now juggle! Well, it turns out that a day of practice can get you doing the juggling basics of three bean bags. And yes, I’m literally using home-stitched bags filled with beans (red beans, to be precise).

In addition, I had a local carpenter construct a board for playing “bags” as we called the game at Valpo. This also includes 8 hand-stitched bags filled with beans. It’s a little nicer scenery here than Valpo, however. I think I got the dimensions off on the board. It’s 2’x3’ with an 8” diameter hole centered 8” from the back. Back legs are 12” and front are 4”. If anyone knows the real dimensions, let me know.

The recent latest…lots of TV and movies. DVD compilations are available with about 20 movies on one DVD for $4. We’re watching a lot of “Leonardo Dicaprio vs Matt Damon” which includes all three Bourne movies, all three Oceans movies, Titanic, the Aviator, Gangs of New York, the Good Shepherd, and some other goodies. This compilation is a keeper. Philip, Jess, Marie, and I had a Bourne marathon last weekend. Philip is pushing for watching Titanic. Apparently he was too scared the last time he watched it at age 11 in a theatre (it’s for 12+ in Germany…his mother snuck him in. No wonder why he was scared!) On the TV front, I’m on an Arrested Development hook and watching the first 15 episodes of The Office Season 5 has gotten old (I still gotta go to get the rest of the season from another volunteer). The nearest large town to me is also home to the largest concentration of volunteers in the country (now around 20 or something), so we have a “stow” at one hotel. In this stow are 10 shelves of novels, hundreds of movies, and dozens of TV shows of DVDs. Some of us have electricity and laptops…what can we say? Oh, “Slumdog Millionaire” was a good one!

Maybe you notice a discrepancy with my lack of time and all this TV/movie watching. Well, we’re talking about two different time periods. My second term at school started one month ago, and I’ve adjusted in such a way now that a lot of time opened up. And since Philip leaves this week, I’ve spent the last month watching DVDs with him every evening rather than reading in bed by myself. Once he leaves, I’m hoping to drop the DVD-watching addiction, but maybe it is too deep now.

Wedding! There was a wedding in the village three weeks ago. It was the event of the winter! I didn’t know the groom or the bride, but everyone is excited to have the mzungu come. It was probably one of the most fun weddings I’ve been to. It felt like going to a college party and recognizing a majority of the people there, but you’ve never really talked much with them. Only this was the opportunity to talk AND dance with them. Weddings here have strange similarities with America, but also some big differences. They’re less of a big gathering where you circle around and socialize, and more of a show where you sit and watch the opening of the wine and cutting of the cake, everyone lining up to give gifts, everyone lining up to offer congratulations, everyone lining up to receive their food. Lots of beer. Little dancing (until the end at 1:30am and all the chairs were cleared. Then we danced it away til I don’t know what time). The bride and groom figurines on the cake were white folks…that gave me a chuckle. A few weeks ahead of time, all of the guests receive a “contribution card.” Once they pay, they get a card for entering. And they mean business about those cards!

Philip and I had a good journey two weekends ago. On Saturday, We hiked with two Tanzanians to Matema Beach on Lake Nyasa. On Sunday, we hiked back. It’s over a vertical mile of elevation change. That was exhausting. But I’m now an expert (mwenyeji as they say…that is a “local”) with knowledge of all 3 paths to Matema. Some people make the journey weekly, however, to bring fruits to sell at the local market. Up one day, down the next…every week. They do it because it’s two different climates. In my area, it is cold, so wheat, peas, peaches, apples, pears are the main crops. Down the mountain, there’s bananas galore (they’re known for being banana land…in a nearby area to Matema, literally every meter of land without a house has a banana tree), papaya, mango and that type of stuff. It’s crazy that 5 kilometers is the difference between growing wheat or mango. Literally, mangoes can’t grow near my home and wheat can’t grow there. Wheat is an incredibly beautiful crop when planted on a mountainside. The greens were gorgeous, and now the golds are coming soon. The way it blows in the wind is wonderful.

Most of my efforts now involve working with the school computers. I’m really finding a peace preparing them and getting established there. Maybe it’s because the computer room is up the hill from school and I can literally sit in a calm environment while working technical stuff. I’m learning a lot about placing permissions on files and folders and other things to make a user friendly environment in Windows 2000 for use with people lacking in English capabilities. I got too tired of students saving in random places, creating weird documents, opening programs that don’t apply to them, and such.

Of the most juicy things that I could share about my work, I can’t share them here. Ask me about them if you want the juice (it comes full of pulp).

I’m receiving some flak (I don’t know what the word should be…flak?) from some teachers for initiating a reward system where students receive fake money and then can buy school supplies or candy from me. The problem is that I can afford to buy supplies to give away whereas they don’t have the disposable income for it. It’s totally understandable, but it makes me wonder if I should stop. Although fake money could also buy things not worth money, such as certain permissions at school or points in classes. We’ll see what continues. I want to emphasize more positive reinforcement. I didn’t come to punish (plus I’m a pushover. If you don’t care about learning, there’s not much I can do by punishing you to help you get motivated. Just get out of the way so those who are passionate can learn. This is a somewhat different perspective than I’d take in America. Here in Tanzania, there’s such a drastic difference in abilities and much fewer opportunities.)

Dust season has arrived. My biggest recommendation for a packing list would be dirt-colored pants. If we’re walking along a road and a car drives by, we run for cover away from the road. Literally it can be like a dusty sandbox extending forever.

Well, I know it’s been quite awhile. So let me start out with something for your National Geographic African enjoyment. As I mentioned briefly, my parents came last month to visit me. We made a few stops, and so here’s a look at our safari (Kiswahili for “trip” or “journey”) in Ruaha National Park. The monkey is from Jozani National Park on Zanzibar.

So, I feel that it’s finally time to get at the heart of some writing. I’m saying this before I actually write, so maybe we’ll only make it to the ribcage. Theoretically, I suppose that I could have plenty of things to write, but I’m no professional here. I studied engineering, all right… So give me a break, man! To gather my thoughts and experiences from my ongoing time here takes some ingenuity. The other problem, as I think I mentioned already, is that I don’t want to write about topics sensitive to certain people here or politically related. These might come in due time though. Well, now I’m rambling again…See what I mean about putting an engineering major on writing prose or whatever this is called.

We can get at least to the ribcage of my experience because I’ve now filled you in on the logistical details of my living and working situations. But now…where to begin? Let’s take it back to school last term.

My first term teaching was an adventure. After Youthworks, I grew perfectly comfortable speaking in front of groups of a classroom size. But when I first entered the classroom to teach, damn I was nervous! I didn’t know much (slash anything) about teaching other than what I experienced. During my few periods of teaching at training, I sweat through 2 shirts, and not just in the armpits. To adequately explain a physics topic to an American student is a big job…and they’ve grown up with a foundation for independent thinking. Now imagine entering your first ever classroom, and you don’t know how things work in their culture and you don’t know their language. And only now do I realize that only 5 students understood the words that I used, much less the concepts. So yeah, that originally forced me to do lots of laundry.

But then I arrived at Bulongwa in January. Now I had my own classroom and a full year ahead of me. The same problems existed, but at least I could speak some more of their language. Except now I was unsure of teaching strategies. Yeah, we talked about them and heard what worked for previous volunteers, but in terms of implementation, I was clueless. Teaching an individual lesson was fine, but how was I supposed to really pull things together especially when they are uncomfortable with doing anything that I do not explicitly tell them (and I mean explicitly list it off for them). It was a fun process learning however. I tried some lab practicals and found that the students have no understanding of following very specific step by step instructions. This was proven in computers as well. We spent the month of May learning how to save. With written steps on the board, they still needed me to lay it out for them. I even checked each student off – that they could save – and the following week they didn’t know where to start.

(This picture is of Lake Nyasa...not a National Park. But I live up in the mountains to the left)Without a doubt, this really caused me to become frustrated, and I directed it at them. But this wasn’t fair. Every volunteer has experienced this in the classroom, which shows how some foundation is lacking which we take for granted. Spatial reasoning and that other stuff isn’t practiced from a young age here. Childhood toys are few, but creative (Philip says they are toys that German children used in 1900…makes sense since Tanzania was under German control in those years. But while German toys have developed, Tanzanian kids seem to still enjoy these basics). One toy is like a wooden top and a stick with rope on the end like a whip. They use the “whip” to start the top, and then keep it going with the whip. Another toy is to take a 5 gallon (here we say 20 litre) pail lid, punch a hole in the middle and put a 20cm rod through it. Then they use another stick to balance the lid on end and push it along down hills. They other ‘toy’ is football. They take lots of plastic bags and tie them together with rope until a nice ball of good diameter is formed. Both Philip and Jessica had soccer balls (it feel awkward saying soccer… because it truly is a football). After 2 months, both were torn to shreds from lots of use.

Moral is (as mom says, right dad?) that if I had grown up without legos and puzzles and all that, step-by-step instructions would be a new concept. So how do I teach them to follow these now…? …yeah, I’m not to sure, ha! Gonna start simple and just keep practicing.

Ok, kama nilivyosema kuhusu creating strategies in the classroom… One of my favorites was to create competition between students by racing to answer questions for stickers. Stickers seem to be losing appeal, however, so I’m starting Bret Bucks for next term. These might be easier to hand out ( you know, peeling off little sticker 30 times in a period takes some effort) and I could use them for all kinds of positive reinforcement. They’ll be able to cash in by buying new exercise books, pens, candy, points on exams, etc. I’m excited about this idea. Very much so! It should really bring a boost to the classroom.

In the classroom, I also do an example on the board. Then I invite a student to do another example on the board. This really helps to relax the environment and to deal with the language barrier problem. I’m still baffled on how to give assignments. If I give overnight assignments, they mostly copy. And corrections of assignments are difficult because if we do it together, they lie. If I collect it, I collect their whole notebooks (because they are like their textbooks). But then they need their notebooks for studying at night. Also, they are often clueless on doing problems, even if an identical example is next to them. And attendance is the goofiest thing in the world. Excused and unexcused absences leave me baffled, even after discussion with teachers. So when 10 students didn’t do an assignment because they weren’t there… well, whose legitimate? Woofta, it’s too complicated.

So maybe you are thinking I’m all frustrated and depressed because I’m writing about these challenges. But no, that’s not so. I wouldn’t be throwing “woofta”s in if I was hopeless. In fact, I haven’t actually said the bad stuff…check out the next paragraph! I got my ideas for battling each of those challenges. It’s a dynamic type of deal. I start teaching tomorrow for the new term. The term actually started last week, but maybe 80% of students were chased home to bring their school fees. They’ll trickle back over the next few weeks.

Now that you’re curious about this paragraph, let’s do it! 33 of my 44 Form I students got single digits on my mathematics examination. Maybe 10 students got 0. The funny thing is that we had a comprehensive assignment one week before the exam and they did great. Exam nerves, I suppose. I was about to be depressed until I learned that even the good Tanzanian mathematics teacher at my school got the same results with his Form II. And then so did many other volunteers. On their national examination, a 10 is a somehow average score. So what’s up for this term, you ask??? Well, we’ll see!!!

So yeah, there’s a little of Bret’s thoughts related to school. As you can see, school is a bit hit and miss, but life is still great. (and I promise you that the classroom is an enjoyable experience. One time I might have joked about confusing the word for mosquito with one for penis… (mbu, mboo) “D” is my math man, getting on the board and tearing those questions up. “A” is my guarantee for giving a difficult question a guess (despite almost always getting it wrong…not without a good laugh though). And “S” is my female master of algebra, kicking the crap out of all the boys (not a common thing in this country).

Switching thoughts…

I feel that most people, when thinking about an African village, think about women carrying stuff on their head, no electricity, fetching water, big bugs, odd foods, etc. I can’t say I have all of those things (my spiders aren’t too big, but I like them. They chill in the corners and catch other bugs. No brains for food yet, just spoiled milk. And I have electricity…much of the time), but even so, I don’t think twice about any of it anymore. When the water stops coming from the pipe, I go climb down the hill to get water. I walk outside without a second thought about using Swahili. Why wouldn’t you carry water on your head and babies on your back…it’s the most practical. And if cooking is as easy as 2 minutes in a microwave, no wonder why America is fat (Even though I eat way more food here. Ask my parents. 1 cup of dry rice is now how much I can eat at one meal). I went to Dar es Salaam in the beginning of June. It was my first return to a city since November. We went to the (1 of 3 or something) mall and watched a movie and shopped at a real grocery store. We ate at a restaurant that was basically like a coffee shop. And I was hit with some culture shock. To see rice from Mbeya neatly packed on shelves with logos and set prices… whoa! I’m used to buy my rice from a big sack where they measure it with a litre cup or beam balance and then throw it into any generic plastic bag. And sometimes the price is 1200, sometimes 1400. Who knows? I still get a little weird seeing news footage from Times Square or something. It’s funny that reverse culture shock happened in this same country.

When I return home, a few things will be weird… I can buy food from anywhere. I can buy food that’s out of season. I will pay higher prices for fresh produce. I can’t walk down the street and find every type of little store. I need to drive to get around. I can drive. People will not all be staring at me. And oh yeah… I can buy an awesome hamburger (not some mcdonald’s crap (not that I get mcdonald’s here).

Oh, and of course the safari wouldn’t have been complete without some Lion sex… If you want the video, talk to my dad. It’s totally uncensored, complete with some romantic roaring!

Well, my parents just left. They came for 2 and a half weeks. We travelled to Zanzibar, stopped by my old homestay in Morogoro, went on a Safari in Ruaha NP, and came to my site in the village. They say they loved the village the most. It was there that they learned how to cook ugali on a firewood stove, farm with a jembe, carry water or maize on the head, and dress like a tanzanian. One of the shocking parts of the trip for them was transport. We were on buses for maybe 40 hours.

As of right now, I'm on break from school. I'll teach an introductory computer class for teachers the last week of June, and then school starts again in the beginning of July.

Ok, later

i suppose its a little hard to see. and actually, this was not a bad spot for smaller vehicles. there were maybe 20 trucks lined up waiting to pass however. our small bus (actually van) passed no problem. some places actually have massive pits/holes in the road

I got my file back...

A random list of crap

Let’s start out with a recent adventure to bring your mood away from Western efficiency. I live about 25km from Matema Beach on Lake Nyasa. Lake Nyasa is at an elevation of 1500ft and my home is 7300ft. Jess and I decided to hike down because you must loop around if you go by car… probably 250km. We started at sunrise with hopes of beating the clouds and rain the is typical of every afternoon. Sadly, the clouds hit by 9am. We couldn’t see down from the mountains until 3pm. By this time, the rain had hit and was a running river in the trail. Meanwhile, we passed people hiking up. My favorite was a middle aged woman carrying a load on her head, barefoot, and actually nursing while hiking up in the rain. We reached the town on the road by 5pm, wet and tired. No more buses were passing during the day. We jumped on a pickup to a neighboring town. Then we were told that the road to where we were going was full of water. If we wanted, we could have got a ride to the edge, waded through chest high water, and caught another car on the other side. We stayed that night in this random town. The water was still in the road in the morning, so we jumped on a trailer pulled tractor with 50 other Tanzanians. We passed through water up to the axle of the tractor in the midst of rice paddies. No problem.

Teaching

Well, I suppose it is finally time to discuss why I came to Tanzania…to be a teacher. This has definitely been a source of some great joys and great frustrations. Let me start by discussing the framework of the Tanzanian education system…

Students begin their primary school at the same age as us in the United States. Their primary school education is in Kiswahili except for their one English period. In many rural parts of the country, school is where students first learn Kiswahili, so English is really a third problem. The big language problem here is that most primary school English teachers do not really know English. Therefore, by the end of primary school, students generally know “Good morning teacher” and “How are you?” “I am fine.” Primary school has 7 grades called standards. If a student performs well in primary school, they may be able to attend secondary school. I believe only about 20% of students continue to secondary school, but I might be off here.

Secondary school starts with “O-level”(ordinary) consisting of Forms I through IV. At most schools, students study 9 subjects every year: English, Kiswahili, Civics, Geography, History, Math, Physics, Chemistry, and Biology. The biggest challenge here is that they begin learning every subject in English. All notes and exams are written in English, but teachers (including myself) often use Kiswahili to help in explanations. Otherwise, most students would understand almost nothing. Also, imagine starting to learn physics in the equivalent of our 8th grade. Secondary schools are almost entirely passed on helping students to pass the National exams after Form II and Form IV. Students take exams in each subject and then are ranked in divisions similar with the US letter grade scale. However, the scaling is much different… A: 81-100; B: 61-80; C: 41-60; D: 31-40; F:

So I had prepared a pretty long blog outlining the education system of Tanzania and then specific aspects of my work (I am a teacher after all, which I have yet to discuss here). However, I saved it on my flash drive only and now it has a virus that won't even allow me to open it. So I guess you'll have to keep waiting a bit for the full update there.

Life is pretty smooth and routine now. Let's take my yesterday...

Wake up at 6:30. Read and eat porridge. Walk to school. Prepare lessons. Teach. Drink chai. Teach computers. Walk to the school kitchen. Eat ugali. Play volleyball. Pick up my new bookshelf and make an order for the wooden structure for playing bags (Oh yeah). Go home. Read. Watch Burn after reading with Philip. Sleep. It's a bit like college. But here's why it is not... walking or biking only. Carrying all of my water up a hill for home use. No washer. No electric stove. No homework. No checking email every 4 hours. Other than that, it feels like normal life.

A few challenges include some difficult cultural perceptions from both sides. No enough time in the day (like college). Figuring out how to make students learn when not done in their native language. Figuring out how to help students learn to use computers. Death and illness.

I'll get a good update here soon

Favorite ways of passing the time

Piga stori (tell stories): This is the standard way to spend time as a Tanzanian. Often, it’s just chilling outside in the grass on a nice afternoon, shooting the shit.

Form I (grade 8): I act like anything with these punks (I mean that in a good way). The class is about 40 students, and I teach them Math, Physics, and Computers. They probably think many strange things about me…such as

1. I have an obsession with Chipsi Mayai (Eggs and Fries fried together)

2. I have an endless supply of stickers (which I don’t…please send, and then I will)

3. I make bad jokes referencing bongo flava songs

4. I make odd noises when I’m surprised.

5. Some days they have no understanding of what I’m teaching.

6. Sometimes I scream like a football coach when telling them to shut down computers. For example, “CLICK START! DO IT! UNAWEZA! CLICK IT! COME ON! BONYEZA! …THAT’S RIGHT! CLICK THE SHUT DOWN! BONYEZA! DO IT! SINGLE CLICK! MARA MOJA! NOOOO! NOT THE RIGHT CLICK! KUSHOTO! YES!!!! THAT’S IT! … NOW CLICK THAT OK! DO IT! UNAWEZA SANA! DOOOO IIITTT! CLICK OK! YEEEEEAAAAAHH!” and then we finish with a double high five like our team scored a touchdown.

7. I may have taught them high fives, pounds with explosions, chest bumps, and to reply to “thank you” with “you are welcome.” Manners are very important.

8. I run competitions in which they must translate my English time telling into Kiswahili, but I say it as fast as I can. This is enjoyable for me because they don’t even understand my English at half speed.

9. I make them act out types of forces with their bodies. Attractive and repulsive forces are always fun because you need a partner.

Kupika na jiko la mkaa (cooking with the charcoal stove): My rice is being perfected…the key is to put all of the coal on the lid once the water is mostly absorbed. Burning ain’t possible, baby! Rice is pretty much with everything. The favorites include sweet and sour chickpeas, peanut sauce, any old beans, and curry peas. Without the rice, the favorites include chocolate fudge cake, banana pancakes (the new staple, I must say), banana bread, banana muffin (one big one (as in 8”)), spaghetti all with the fresh and natural stuff, and mango chutney. We even managed burgers, meatloaf, and fajitas one time, but that was with come help. Without cooking, guacamole is always nice, but then you gotta cook something to eat it with .

Kutembeatembea au kuendesha baiskeli (walking or biking): Just going on a walk in the woods or riding around is nice. A Tanzanian understands these terms differently, however. To walk around means stopping by and visiting people. I like this, but sometimes I don’t want to run into anyone. And biking must happen with a specific destination or mission in mind. Just going around for fun and exercise? What?

Tetris (tetris): That’s right. Just playing tetris. I’m stuggling to beat the previous volunteers score on one of the computers. 30 minutes ago, 3 other teachers and I were all blasting away at tetris. I’ll let this segue into some stuff about computers…So at school we have a computer lab with 12 computers running Windows 2000. I one or two periods per week of computers to every form and I also teach the teachers on Wednesday and Friday afterschool. The first lesson I taught focused on setting the mouse on the table and learning to single and double click. I think we finally have the double click down. Now, I’ve been teaching WordPad and how to Bold, italicize, change font, etc. Even some of the teachers had zero experience, but they’ve picked it up much quicker because they understand english well. One teacher, however, is already picking up formulas in Excel.

Kupiga gita (play guitar): It doesn’t happen as often as I’d like, but my site mate (Jess) brought a guitar back from Dar for me. Good deal.

Kusoma (reading): This also happens much less than I’d like. I’ve been reading Wind in the Willows for 1 month. This may or may not be children’s literature… Surprisingly, I do not get much free time for reading. If I have it, I might cook something more complicated or bake, do chores (sweeping…this is a much dustier continent, washing clothes takes some time, no dishwasher either. But I do have a blender…fresh juice if you come visit!), or go visiting.

Angalia mpira (watch soccer): Our school occasionally plays a neighboring school. One of my favorite parts is the field. It’s stereotypical, but one field is in this lush green valley between mountains without sidelines and wooden logs tied together as goals. Also, the Africa Cup of Nations (or something) is happening right now. Tanzania is one of 8 teams in it. It’s the first tournament of its kind because only domestics players are eligible. Anyway, I wander over to a neighboring teacher who has a TV and satellite (if you have a TV, you need satellite for TV) to watch. It’s much more exciting when watching it with 4 Tanzanians and a German. They like soccer much more than any American. I gotta say, I am a football (as in soccer) fan.

Kula chakula mgahawani (eating food at a café): One of my best Tanzanian friends is a café owner with 8 year old twin kids. She was best friends with the previous volunteer and I guess I’m following in his footsteps. She’s easy to joke around with and I also went to her after my worst day at school. She doesn’t know english, so it’s also fun to chat with her in Kiswahili because she speaks in a way that I can understand her completely. I chat with the other teachers in kiswahili, too, but if I get stuck, we can easily resort to english. Back to the mgahawa… by a café, I mean a small room where she cooks all the food and you eat whatever she has cooked. The menu (which is the same as any mgahawa) might include chips (fries), meat or beans with rice, chicken, or chipsi mayai. That’s basically it, but it’s always good. I usually buy pork every Saturday at the market and bring it to her for her to cook. She fries it in oil. Tasty like bacon. I don’t mind the oil because I’m not eating any processed food and some of the only fat I eat is if I put oil in my food.

Chill with my fellow Americans every now and then: This is always fun, but it varies quite a bit from chilling in the US. If you were to watch Peace Corps Volunteers communicate, you might become very confused because we mix in a good deal of Swahili. Some words are just easier to say. Sometimes there just isn’t the english to explain it. A favorite activity (when at site) is cooking. Cooking here takes much more time (as in maybe 2 hours, sometimes 3 or 4), so when the company arrives, that’s the time to get elaborate.

Making wine: My first batch is apple. We’ll see how it turns out…it’s in the aging phase.

Kuwasha moto (have fires): This hasn’t happened yet, but my first batch of firewood was given to me yesterday. Students brought some to my house as part of punishment for fighting over a girl, for being an agent for these players, or for being the girl. I’m not gonna say anymore about that. But I’ve got 3 fireplaces; one is used for cooking with the kerosene and charcoal. Now the other two will have their uses. Night and mornings are cold! And it’s nowhere near June, the coldest month.

Ways in which I don’t enjoy spending my time

Kuamka (waking up): Despite always getting at least 8 hours of sleep, I still always hit the sleep button until 7. It’s just not bright enough in my house at 6:30.

Kuosha vyombo (wash dishes): Where’s the dishwasher? Or at least a really nice sink with reliable water supply. I don’t mind washing clothes except that it needs to be done at least weekly or the stack gets too big. All clothes get worn until they smell or are dirty.

Kusimama ndani ya gari lenye watu ishirini na tano wakati wa kusafiri toka Bulongwa mpaka Makete. (Standing in a large van type of car with 25 other people during the trip from my site to Makete) I’ve had to do this twice now. It involves standing hunched over for 45 minutes on rocky, bumpy, windy roads while being squished around 5 other immediate people and feeling like vomiting at the end. But hey, it makes things more interesting.

Kutembea nje kwa sababu mvua inanyesha kila siku (walking outside because it rains everyday): The rain isn’t too bad, but it makes for dirty shoes and pants. Plus it makes for ugly roads. But there’s always at least some sun everyday. The upside is that the rain makes everything lush and green (good for farming) and people are not required to fetch water. Just put the bucket below the roof edge. Once the rain stops, however, I’ll be wishing for it again because the dust will come.

Vipindi tisa ijumaa (9 periods on Friday): I teach every period of the day on Friday. Tuesday and Wednesday, however, I only teach 2 periods, so I guess it evens out. Thursday is an 8 period day.

Ndugu (bugs): Because it’s cold, they aren’t really an issue. I only write this because yesterday these weird mango flies invaded my bathroom. The last 8 times I’ve entered, there’s 8 more of them chilling on the wall or in the tub. I smash them all. There are some nice spiders, but I don’t mind them. I wish more would come to eat these other darn things. I saw some kumbikumbi the other day and got excited. Sadly, there were not enough of these flying critters to fry up and eat. During my homestay, we caught them and fried them… “flying termites; very tasty when fried” (that’s what my Kis-Eng dictionary says!)

Njaa inaumwa (I’m hungry): Despite liking cooking, sometimes I just want instant food rather than needing to cook. If this need hits, it’s off to the mgahawa. Peanuts store nicely, however (but they require cooking first…gotta be roasted).

Some people have said they’ve enjoyed reading the blog so far. Frankly, I have been pretty unimpressed with it myself. So I am going to kick it up a bit and write on my computer ahead of time rather than rushing it while at the internet. Sorry if new lengths or the change bores you to tears. Also, I do not totally remember what I’ve previously written, so you might get a review. This will be good for your exam later.

Mom especially requested some pictures, so here’s a bunch from my site. It’s the easiest way to describe some of my environment. Let’s take a quick house tour to start. First of all, we need to go back to Christmas time. It’s not Christmas without a tree, right? (that’s not really true, of course. Hahaha) So Jess and I went outside one night, chopped this beauty, duct taped two of the lower branches on there, and decorated. Now, Christmas lights were unattainable so we just threw on some lightbulbs of course. Later we added some red playing cards with safety pins and a star fashioned out of tubing and red string. A masterpiece, really. You may also notice Obama chilling with us. Congratulations (Hongera)! Other side notes include the electricity being fully functional at the time, even with a working lightbulb in the room! But what’s romantic (not relationally, that is) about nabbing a tree at night and decorating it with lightbulbs if you are not going to do it by lantern and candlelight? You might have noticed this other individual in the picture that is not me. Maybe you missed her because you were so taken in by the beauty of the tree. She is Jess, my nearest Peace Corps Volunteer. We live about 3km or a 30 minute walk away. We are probably the closest two volunteers in country. So we spend some time together a few times each week. Sometimes it is planned and other times we happen to pass each other in Zambia. (WHOOA, what am I doing in Zambia, you ask? Don’t worry, I’m still in Tanzania. It’s a village name) The most unusual aspect about being so close is that we share mutual Tanzanian friends in our village. I have yet to hear other volunteers to have experiences like this. Also in our corner of the world is Marie. She lives in Makete…we’ll get there later.

Let us continue the tour to the sitting room during the day. The color-coordination is struggling a little bit, but it’s fully functional just like the electricity (usually). I want to take you back to the Christmas tree picture for a second, which is also in the sitting room. In the background, you may notice a door. This is a permanently locked door to Philip the German’s side of the house. If either of us need something, ex. Mkaa or batteries or sugar (yes, Philip borrowed a cup of sugar once because stores had closed), we can just holler through this door.

Now we move into the kitchen with my lovely sink system. Also shown in the left behind the chair are my kerosene stove and a glimpse of my charcoal stove. I don’t like the sound of charcoal stove, so I need to say that again in Kiswahili. Unaweza kuona jiko langu la mkaa. (mkaa=charcoal if you were confused a few sentences ago) All the cooking goes on in this second of three fireplaces. You may have noticed the fireplace back in the sitting room too. I discussed getting firewood with some teachers back in December. They asked if I could wait until January and the students will be able to go chop it for me. I’m still waiting on giving the order for this one. Basically I can make anyone younger than me do anything for me, especially since I am a teacher, a position that holds respect. I’ve watched other adults have students run and fetch other adults for them (who are 10 minutes away). I stopped by a pastor’s house and we requested some sodas, so a kid ran for 20 minutes to go buy and bring us the sodas. Kids fetch water, carry stuff, and anything else you need. If I need to fetch water, I’ve usually done it myself. One time, however, a kid passed and took one of my buckets and carried it for me on his head. Mind you, we had to climb straight up a hill with 20 Litres of water in each bucket. This may seem cruel, but the students won’t have it any other way. They want to carry stuff for me. Also, other adults find it ridiculous if I’m carrying a heavy bag. I’m a teacher for goodness sake! Students carry stuff for me of course! (if that sounded sarcastically mocking, it wasn’t meant to be) So, if I want firewood, the students will cut it for me and bring it to my house from 20 minutes away. Let’s get back to business. I’m fully equipped with cooking supplies on those lovely shelves. I even picked up a blender the other day. Mango avocado juice: MMMMM! Questions have come up about baking. Baking is no problem. I’ve baked a few breads, and other delicious desserts. We simply elevate a small pot on three small stones in a large pot, put the lid on, and put coal under and on the lid. BAM! 350 degrees no problem. Baking times have varied from 15 minutes and burnt to 1 hour for the same foods. Consistency is spot on! The one problem with food here is that almost everything needs to be cooked, and this takes preparation. I’ve tightened my belt a few notches. This is not because of a lack of food. Instead, I eat extra healthy…all fresh organic produce, usually over rice. My favorites which I’ve cooked include falafel, peas, mashed potatoes, meatloaf, chili, and guacamole.

I thought about throwing the bathroom picture in, but that’d be unnecessary. Instead, I’ll just say the water has been out for over 2 weeks. It’s questionable whether it will return. But this is no problem. I try to keep four 20L buckets of water at hand always. I have my kitchen sink, which you saw. Usually, it rains and I just stick a bucket out back under the valley in the roof. Full bucket of water in five minutes! Otherwise, there’s a constant flow of water from a random pipe in the side of the hill nearby. But I have to walk straight up for 10 minutes. This creates dilemmas because then I need to use one third of my fetched water for my bucket bath to clean of the sweatiness. Good exercise however! But remember, the students are always nearby too! I have a western sit toilet, but I’d prefer a squat or drop choo because they use less/no water. I need 7L everytime I want to flush mine well. Therefore, heavy rains=better smelling bathroom. I try to keep it fresh even without the heavy rains.

Ok, let’s move outside to my porch and do some chores. Of course a good rustic experience isn’t complete without handwashing your clothes while looking at the mountains and then taking a picture of yourself doing it! This is really the only time I wish I had running water always. A good washing takes 40L or so. Usually, I can’t get motivated to wash because of the missing rainfall and minimum water (I don’t want to chote just to wash!). Then the clothes piles grows and more water is required. It’s a bad cycle. But I don’t mind washing. It’s a chill and relaxing time. I throw some tunes on and it’s extra good.

Now you are going to pivot your view 60 degrees right. There’s a better view from the front of my house. Very nice, especially in the morning. We are looking north. The only bummer is to see the sunset, I need to walk a few minutes to the left.

Let’s take a 1.5 hour bike ride up the mountain. Actually, most of it was pushing the bike on foot. Even gear 1 on my trek wasn’t cutting it. So now, the cell phone tower are 50 feet behind me and we can see my house from a different view. I think the picture is self-explanatory.

Oh yes. Now we take our bike 2 minutes to the other side of the peak of the mountain and we can see Makete. Very nice. It’ll be another 20 minutes on the bike to arrive from here. In Makete, I go to the bank, pick up some awesome parcels like its Christmas every time, do a little extra shopping, and visit Marie. She’s a fellow Peace Corps computer teacher who just started with me. We made chapatti with hummus and guacamole on Friday night, then chapatti and guacamole on Saturday night with some apple crisp beforehand, and some banana pancakes with some leftover guac on Sunday morning. Wow, guacamole is good, especially at 20 cents per huge avocado, 18 cents for 4 tomatoes, 18 cents for 4 onions, 9 cents for a huge garlic, and 4 cents per little lemon. The trip to Makete is 15km: 3 hours by foot, 1 or 2 hours by bike depending on the direction, and $1.80 (as in 2000 Tsh (Tanzanian Shillings)) for a 45 minute bus ride. Excellent! Wear a helmet on that bike!

Makete was fun, but let’s go back to Bulongwa. The ravines are very nice and green. Corn is a big crop. Other big crops here include potatoes and wheat. Fruits include pears, apples, and peaches. I had 7 peaches yesterday and they were delicious!...somewhat small and tart however. A friend gave me a sack of apples the other day as a gift. I think there were 200 apples in the bag. I need to finish typing so I can begin my apple crisp and applesauce soon.

Philip and I went on a mission two weeks ago to see Lake Nyasa (Lake Malawi). Along the way was rather nice. You can see here some of the steeps slopes of the areas. They grow wheat on the very steep slopes.

Lo and Behold! We came to the ridgeline of the mountainous highlands in which we live. This looks out over Mbeya region and Malawi. Despite its beauty, those clouds are blocking the view of Lake Malawi…Bummer! We walked 2 hours to the ridgeline and another 1 hour to this spot. We visited Utengule (the neighboring village) and met the local Lutheran Pastor upon arrival. He invited us in, and we gladly took a seat. This is when a boy ran, literally, 20 minutes to fetch us some soda. In the meantime, the pastor invited us to chai. We enjoyed our tea and wheat bread over some English conversation. Then we enjoyed our soda as well. This is very standard for Tanzanian hospitality. Whether you previously know a person or not, they always begin with “Karibu” and “Karibu sana” about 20 times. This is translated as welcome, but is much more encompassing than the English translation. I know I can approach someone’s home as soon as I hear a “Karibu” (this occurs every time, mind you). If I meet someone on the road and they throw out a “Karibu kwetu” (welcome to our place), I know that I can and should visit them. I can do this at any time without further invitation. Just show up and enjoy some good conversation, usually in Kiswahili, and usually over chai. When welcomed in a home, it is not unusual to suddenly be left alone in the sitting room as the host is preparing chai or some other food. Once the food or chai is set out, a “Karibu” always goes with it and I know I can dig in. My one issue is that they give me 5 big chunks of bread, or 5 potatoes, or a heaping scoop of rice or ugali. Being an mzungu, I am not accustomed to consume food in such quantities. Therefore, I usually joke about my mzungu stomach. Mzungu=white person. I like my home here because tourists do not come through, only NGO workers so I do not get haggled. Only some kids and a few teachers call me mzungu. With the teachers, a good laugh always comes when I call them “mwafrika” (African) in reply to their calling me mzungu. I am becoming more of a “mwafrika,” however. I can now consume my chai directly after being boiled. I’ve burnt my lip enough that when I come home, watch out! I’ll be drinking my tea boiling! Also in Kiswahili, whenever talking to someone older than you, you always begin a greeting with “Shikamoo” in which they reply “Marahaba.” I’ve said both plenty of times. However, young kids like to stare and say “Mzungu.” I like replying with a “Niamkie vizuri.” (Greet me well) They instantly realize oops! And say “Shikamoo” like they should. The elders like it when I teach the kids like this or if I teach them games.

Look! We’ve now left the pastor’s house and it’s noon. The clouds have blown over! We can see Lake Nyasa and it was only a 3 hour hike from my house. Kule chini is Matema Beach, which I will visit one of these days. In terms of directions here, everything is either “kule chini” (down there) “kule juu” (up there) “mbele” (in front) or “nyuma” (behind). So it’s sometimes hard to get directions. It’s also either “karibu” (near) “bado kidogo” (not quite yet) “si mbali” (not far) or “mbali sana” (very far). These can be anything. But if you stretch it out like “kuuuule juu,” it means it’s way up there.

As Philip and I returned home, we passed an old bibi carrying firewood and decided it would be a good picture. As I was taking the picture, she turned so I quickly put the camera away. Oh man, she sure gave out a good chuckle. Somehow, she knew what we were doing. But you notice her carrying all that firewood… woooah! Mainly only the women carry stuff on their head. But they can carry anything: buckets of water, firewoods, bags of fruits, etc. I tried carrying a little on my head and my neck got sore very quickly. You also may notice that she is what we call a “bibi” (like grandma) or “mzee” (elder). The bibis, and not the male babus, work the fields like crazy. The women are the main ones that I see who do all of the farming, including the 75 year olds swinging a hoe. Especially the elders like to speak in the tribal language, Kikinga. I’ve started learning some basics. They love it when they hear me say Kikinga. Many volunteers learn some Kiswahili, so it’s not uncommon to see wazungu speaking some basic Kiswahili. But to see a mzungu say “hulongu” after “Mapembero vavene” gets them excited.

And finally, here is one of the buildings of my school. It’s got a nice backdrop. Classes started 2 weeks ago. I’m teaching Form I and Form III Physics, Form I Math, and computers to Forms I-IV. We have a computer lab with 13 Windows 2000 computers. In total, I teach 21 periods, but this may vary as I may begin teaching the A-Level Form V English. Well, it’s been an enjoyable entry for me and I hope it was for you. I’ll save further talk about school for another day. Inatosha leo (It’s enough today). Karibu Tanzania!

Huh, it’s 5 minutes later and the power went out. It’s time to fire up the lantern and a candle or two! 30 more minutes of music before the battery is gone on this computer. But maybe the power will return shortly. There’s no knowing! I just got some cooking of mashed potatoes to do…

Welp, it’s been another 5 minutes and the power’s back. There you go.

And now it’s a few days later when I’m posting this and my water has returned. Not bad.

Merry Christmas.

I just spent my Christmas at a previous PC volunteer's house with 15 other volunteers at an orphanage. It was some good times. I hardly even realized Christmas was almost here without the proper weather. Either way, we celebrated in style with tons of food, candlelight, and a general atmosphere that reminded me of family.

It's been almost 1 month now that I have been at my site. In terms of the logistics, I live in a safi (nice) house with electricity and running water. The only appliances I use are a hot pot for water, battery chargers, and computer. As of tomorrow, I'll be throwing a blender into the mix for some fine juices...primarily mango banana right now...It's mango season baby! As for the running water, I have a flush toilet and bathroom sink. I hooked up a house to this sink so that I could fill up my buckets for all my other needs. Other than that, everything is pretty simple. Cooking is over charcoal or a kerosene stove. We've used a 2 pan system with rocks to make an oven. I have come to love cooking. It is so exciting here where there is only fresh organic produce at prices of 15 cents per mango, avocado, bunch of tomatoes, 10 bananas, etc. I feel that cooking might be one of my best skills attained when I return home. The problem here is that basically no food is readily edible. Everything has to be cooked or cleaned extra well. I'm excited about the bread baking potential. I've become a master at roasting peanuts as well (maybe not quite yet...) Yeah, I suppose this is a pretty conversational tone in the way I write. By the way, the chacos are usually covered in dirt, but the color still was a good choice.

I've started developing a few good tanzanian friendships. Some are with some english when I want to express well (mainly with the teachers cuz they know english). Others are all in kiswahili because they don't know any english. Kiswahili can limit conversations a little bit, lakini napenda kuongea kwa kiswahili. Ninajitahidi kwa sababu nikijifunza, nitaweza kuzungumza na watu wote hapa. Labda nimekosa kidogo kwa kiswahili changu...

There's an AIDS non-profit a few hundred metres from my house. some good people down there. but they also have internet! (which i still probably won't reach more than 2x per month.

I've also got a few close wazungu (white people). A german lives in the other half of my house. I feel a little bit like college because we've watched band of brothers on my computer to 1am a few nights. Not too many nights ago, I helped him slaughter a chicken for dinner. We started at 7pm, but it took longer than we thought so we ate at 11pm. Another peace corps volunteer lives a half hour walk away and I see her several times per week. I feel that her presence really helps me in processing everything here. Another volunteer is a 45 min bus ride away in my banking town. If I want to go to the nearest big town, however, it is about 125 km and can take 5-? hours. Rainy season is kicking in so this might reach the 8,9, or 10 hour mark. THus, i don't plan on leaving again anytime soon.

alright, i'm babbling and rabblin now. kama kawa. but life is about to take a normal pace. I finally begin teaching for real on Jan 5th. math physics and computers (we have a lab!)

The pics sounded popular, so here's a few more.

I figure I better put in some Mikumi pics from our park visit.

Mikumi again. This looks nothing like where I will live.

Lushoto on the shadow visit. We did some gardening. I'm hoping to have a garden at my site.

Here's a pic from near Lushoto where I shadowed. This is the opposite side of the country from where I will be, but I'll be in the mountains like this.

This was our favorite view in the neighborhood. It was along our bikeride to school.

Kayenzi Secondary, where I did my internship teaching.

Some of my Form I at Kayenzi.

Assembly every morning at Kayenzi.

Training is nearing its end. We stopped learning Kiswahili 2 weeks ago. I would say that I have enough grasp of the language to discuss most topics with simple vocabulary. Once we finished language training, we went to various regions to shadow current volunteers for 5 days. I went by myself to Lushoto in the Tanga region to shadow a married couple. It was an amazingly beautiful location tucked away in the mountains with lush green everywhere. Much of Tanzania is actually mountainous woodlands rather than the stereotypical semi-arid savannah like the Serengeti. In Lushoto, I visited a few schools with the person I shadowed. As I stood in the mountains, I could see up to 5 schools from one location. Settlement was everywhere. The secondary school at which they taught was a Catholic-run all-girls boarding school. Therefore, it was well-funded and the students came from throughout the country.

Whatever. After the shadow, everyone traveled to Dar where we learned our sites! On Wednesday, I learned that I’ll be teaching in the Makete District of the Iringa Region in the Southern Highlands! Here’s what I know so far. The school is a small co-ed private school run by the ELCT (Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tz). There are 200 students…most of the girls board and only a fraction of the boys board. I’ll be replacing a current volunteer who is just finishing up. A few current volunteers tell me that my site is absolutely gorgeous, tucked away in the mountains. I’m a full days hike from Lake Nyasa (Lake Malawi). My house is supposed to be massive with 4 fireplaces because it’s also very cold. There’s frost in June and July. I’ll have electricity (but reliability of electricity in Tz means I’ll probably have electricity a majority of the time. I also have running water. The “bush” aspect of my site lies in the fact that the roads to get there are abysmal. During rainy season, the road to Njombe (the nearest big town) can be impassable at times…we’ll see.

Next Wednesday, we swear in as volunteers. Then my head of school will lead me out to my site. I’ll have over a month to get settled in before teaching begins in January.

I’m not sure what kind of internet access I’ll have at site. I might be updating only once a month or less. Now that I’ll be settling into 1 place, I’ll start writing about various aspects of Tanzania, its education, and whatever comes along. I’ve got 24 more months for sharing. Once I figure out my mailing address, I’ll send it out in an email.

I’m sitting here typing this on my laptop in my family’s living room while we watch the video of my sister’s wedding from last year. I’ve now been to 10 “formal” parties with my mama. 3 weddings, 3 confirmations, 1 send-off (1 week before the wedding), 1 engagement party, 1 pre-wedding party to thank a donor, and 1 post-wedding party to thank a donor. They all are essentially the same format in which the whole event is run by an emcee and a load of formalities are followed. Everyone in the families is introduced, cake is cut, champagne is shaken, gifts are given (this alone takes an hour), everyone cheers the bride and groom, and food is often prepared by a conglomeration of mamas. And of course, the same songs are played 5 times a piece at every wedding.

This picture on the left is at the soccer match mentioned in the previous post. Those are the Kayenzi students and another Peace Corps Trainee, Erik. We just scored our first goal! Tunashangalia!!! GOLI!!!

This is the netball game. It was played right next to the soccer field at the same time as the soccer game. Those are the sweet Uluguru Mountains in the background. I get a nice view of them everyday. These last two pics are from Educare private school. A very nice school with glass windows, electricity, and a dusty grass-free soccer field.

This picture is at Kayenzi School before our volleyball match with the students. Our school is a bit out there.

Here is a picture of part of my homestay family in our houses sitting room. This was taken during Joyce's engagement party. Joyce is my sister sitting there in the middle. Second from the right is my mom.

As for my upcoming schedule...I have one more week of the same old training. Then we have language tests and go to shadow current volunteers in the country for 5 days. Then we head to Dar, we'll hear our site placements, come back to Morogoro for swearing-in as a volunteer, and we head to our sites on Thanksgiving day.

Thursday was probably my favorite day I have had in country so far. It also contained many aspects of my days during training. So here it is…

My CBT (a group of 5 of us that go to the same school together to teach and train) met at Dave’s house. Erik’s bike had a flat, so I carried him on my handlebars for the 5km to school. Plenty of Tanzanians got a good laugh at this because they are always hitching each other. We studied Kiswahili for an hour and then I had to go teach Form IIIA (grade 10 with the good students).

I had an 80 minute period so we covered the basics of electrolysis. The students have the same classroom all day and the teachers go between them. Like all classes, I walked in and the class monitor said, “Attention.” All of the students stood up and greeted me with a “Good Morning Teacher.” I respond with a “Good morning, how are you?” Their response is always, “We are fine,” so I taught them a few adjectives the other day like “stupendous, excellent, fantastic, fabulous.” They’ve probably already forgotten them, but that’s ok because they are not the most commonly used adjectives. After the greeting, I drew a diagram on the board and invited students to come up and label each part, which they did so eagerly. We had covered the diagram in the previous class. We carried on and I lectured about electrolysis of CuSO4 solution with copper electrodes. Then they discussed in small groups electrolysis of CuSO4 solution with platinum electrodes…and they knew what was up. I have to be very thorough about writing everything on the board because most students have no textbooks. Their notebooks become their textbooks. I proceeded to discuss applications of electrolysis and asked if anyone could elaborate on the meaning of purification of metals. The all-star student, who is a girl, stands up (the students always stand up before talking) and discusses that when metals are mined, they have impurities and electrolysis can cause the impurities to fall out. She was discussing this in English, which is not their first language and the students mostly only start learning in English in form I. Primary school is taught in Kiswahili, but they do have English class. I wonder how much they learn because it is common to get a “Good morning” from young children even at 5pm. Anyways, we finished class with a few questions about me and America. I tried explaining in Kiswahili, which they love. During another class, we had a 20 minute discussion about America. This discussion included the questions: “Do you know Jay-Z (or Akon, Alicia Keys,…)?” “Do you like Barak Obama?(the most popular question)” “Do you watch WWE? (which is usually followed by a discussion about whether wrestling is real or fake)” and also more serious questions about schooling in America, Bin Laden or Bush and the War in Iraq, religion, etc. These students are eager to learn.

After the official class period, I continued to talk outside with a couple students to continue these same questions. This was following by chai and bites in the staff room. At 11am, it was game time. We had arranged to play the students in Volleyball. So…all of the Form III students had the afternoon off to come play/watch us play a game of volleyball (which even had scorekeepers). The wazungu (white people) and Big Boy (our Kiswahili teacher) took one set and the students won another. There was some good playful taunting and encouragement. We then played a set where we mixed students and teachers. This included some good phrases like “Twende kazi” (let’s go to work) or “tengeneza” (build it…as in set it up). The fact that the students had no class to come play volleyball isn’t surprising. I was supposed to teach on Tuesday, but there were 8 of 30 students in the class because it was game day. After school was a big soccer and netball match, therefore, most everyone just hung out outside during school in anticipation of the matches.

After school, some of us headed to a neighboring school because it was another game day. We arrived to watch the girls playing netball and the boys just starting soccer. The games are awesome to watch. It has a pep atmosphere just like the US. The students from each school gather together and taunt the players and other fans, they dance and chant cheers to drums, and after every goal in soccer everyone rushes onto the field. After my school, Kayenzi, won in netball, there was some intense taunting between fans until decent sized rocks started being thrown and everyone scattered about. Everyone gathered back to watch the rest of the soccer in which my school won 4-1. While watching the games, I chatted with students to practice my Kiswahili because they are excited when we use it. Some students can’t really speak English as well. So we practice their English also.

After the game, an older male student decided to me and another female home because it was getting dark. On the way, the male student held my hand for awhile. This is very common for the same genders to hold hands. In fact, it is rare to see opposite genders holding hands in public. If they do, they are not respecting tradition. Any PDA is not traditional in the culture. Despite the awkwardness of how to hold another boy’s hand as we walked down the street, it was also very flattering because good friends only hold hands in this manner.

So, it was a good day.

Today, we will be taking our kaka and dada out trick or treating to each others' homestay families. Should be good.

It's been 2 weeks since the last post and there is plenty to say. However, I've only got a few minutes on the computer now.

We are now about halfway through training. Kiswahili is coming along. I'm starting to be able to say some things without much thought. I've resolved to really start studying vocabulary because it is the primary limiting factor. Sentence construction and verb conjugation is straightforward, so there is not too big of a problem here. Kiswahili becomes a little difficult due to something called noun classes, in which every noun belongs to one. Each noun class (there are about 8) has it's own way of saying adjectives, "of," possessives, subject and object markers. There is no "the," however, which can simplify things.

I started teaching last week. I taught one 40 min and two 80 min classes of Form I (grade 8) and one 80 min class of Form III (grade 10). It was me on my own, and I loved it! More to come about teaching later.

We just returned from a weekend a Mikumi national park. We saw elephants, impala, giraffes, wildebeasts, cape buffalo, baboons, crocs, hippos, warthogs, and probably a few other things. Safi sana.

Welp, time's almost up. Peace

OK, I typed something out earlier but it was such a jumbled mess. I was trying to explain cultural info in the midst of the basics. So, I thought I'd start things out by first explaining my situation here in Tanzania.

Right now, I'm sitting in an internet cafe in a 'suburb' of Morogoro, which is 3 hours west of Dar es Salaam. I biked 5 minutes from my house to get here where I pay Tsh1000 (about $1) for an hour of very slow internet. My house is that of my host family's. My host family consists of Mama Mganga (56 yrs old), Jouney (20 yr old cousin), Stella (15 yr old cousin), and other cousins or siblings that come in and out for short or extended periods. In Tanzania, however, cousin essentially means sibling. So I live with my awesome Mama and a few siblings. They are a middle class family with my mama being a nurse. Her husband died in 2005. It's a nice house, I have my own room with my own bathroom. It's got a sink, shower (no hot water), and a western toilet! A toilet conversation can come at a later post. My family is great and I love conversing with them in my broken Kiswahili or their somewhat broken English. They emphasize that I should "Be free and feel at home." After 2 weeks of living there, I finally feel exactly like that...like I'm at home.

There are 33 other Peace Corps trainees. We are divided into 6 groups for our CBTs (community based training). So, I am in a CBT with 4 others, 3 of whom are Minnesotan. The 5 of us train together with our LCF (language and cultural facilitator) who is a Tanzanian. For training, we bike 5km to a nearby secondary school. We take up a classroom and study swahili or learn how to be a teacher, especially in regards to teaching in Tanzania. I will observe a few physics classes this week and will probably start teaching a few periods next week. So far, however, the bulk of our training has been focused on Swahili. It's going well. I can introduce myself and communicate with my family about my plans for the day or week or whatever. Having the homestay is vital for learning and PRACTICING language.

A typical day is as follows...

6am (sunrise) wake up, relax, bathe, take chai (by myself, no one eats breakfast here)

7:30am: jump on the bike

8am: start training

10am: chai break with the teachers in the teachers lounge

10:45am: training

1pm: lunch at the secondmaster's house. his wife cooks for us

2pm: training

5pm: return home. i want to start running consistently. when i come home, i usually relax a little, chat with my family, help/watch the cooking which takes place outside over coals, watch TV in my house, enjoy a soda at a bar with other PC trainees, study language, and i always take a second bath...deodorant is hard to comeby here and the dirt is always getting us dusty.

8:30pm: dinner

10pm: bedtime

The regular training is Mon-Thursday and Saturday. On fridays, all of the trainees meet together from 8am-4pm. On these days, we learn about culture, safety, and health. Only 6 vaccines so far. Maybe 1 or 2 more to go.

Sundays involve going to church, coming home to chakula (food), washing clothes by hand (which take a couple hours, even with help), mopping my room, and maybe regularly coming to this internet cafe. Our schedule is fairly busy, and it's hard to take extra time. There's always something I can be working on, whether its doing homework, studying language, learning to cook in order to kill all the bacteria and parasites in food, or just trying to converse in Swahili.

I have about 10 pages worth of topics to mention now that you understand my living situation, but I figure I got time to type those up. I have about 6 or 7 more weeks with my host family, and then I'll become an official Peace Corps volunteer in the end of november.

Peace

Well, I'm in Tanzania. I'm gonna keep this quick because I've only got a few minutes on the internet, and I'll probably only have internet once every couple weeks.

Anyways, it's great. We started homestays a week ago and i love my familia. everday involves coming home and saying "Shikamoo, mama....habari za jioni...habari za kazi...habari za (anything)" (how is...) which you always respond "nzuri" or "salama." We've been studying kiswahili pretty intensely and already i can tell my family that i'm going to school and then to a friends before coming home at 5. my family speaks some english, but it has to be spoken very slowly. they speak swahili very slowly for me.

anyways, things are good. I'll update in the next week or two with details.

Baadaye!