Home Coffee (Home-roasted, that is) 1:30pm, the jiko is stoked, though it’ll be a while before the coals are hot. This afternoon I’ve come home in the early afternoon to roast coffee, two kilograms of raw beans I bought at the market in Dodoma. I’ve never roasted my own coffee before, here or back home, [...]
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Today is 24 September 2011, exactly one year since the Education 2010 training class arrived in country. It’s amazing how much of this past I remember so clearly, like it was all last night’s meph-induced vivid dream. I remember who I sat with at staging in Philadelphia, who I talked to on the airplane, the [...]
Spent the better part of this week in Dodoma, Tanzania’s capital (and, I learned, one of a handful of national capitals in the world without a traffic light). Peace Corps held a “Super Regional Gathering” for 20-something Volunteers in the Dodoma, Manyara, and Arusha regions which was like a mini-working vacation where we all stayed [...]
I talk a lot about my experiences as a foreigner, about cultural differences that stick out in my mind, but not much about what I actually do as a Volunteer. So here’s a bit about that. I teach math to Form II and physics to Form IV students. Beginning 3 October Form IV students all [...]
The house-place, the home. My living situation in Tanzania is rather safi, with a spacious house all to myself, a bomba (water tap) in my courtyard with plenty of water, privacy, and plenty of room for a garden. To give you a glimpse into my Peace Corps life, I thought I’d just share a few [...]
Since the mission came, with the school and the church, and the shop full of strange things which one needs money to buy, life has changed for the worse for the free pastoral African people. They have been given seeds of alien plants to sow in the virgin forests and of alien beliefs to confuse [...]
As I sit here in the front of our large, empty laboratory, grading my Form II math exams, I begin to realize that perhaps the problem isn’t language, isn’t the lack of critical thinking, and isn’t the lack of well-qualified professional teachers — maybe the issue is that some students just don’t care. Looking at [...]
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There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
A few posts ago I mentioned umiseta which has been taking place at schools across the country in recent weeks. Just like in America sports are a big deal in schools and a considerable chunk of time at the end of the term is devoted to this tournament. Given that my school is conveniently positioned [...]
Quite some time ago I was in a minor traffic accident. The incident happened during PST in Morogoro and until now I have refrained from publicly sharing the details to save family and friends from excessive worry. I share with you now what happened because the story illustrates several important and interesting aspects of Tanzanian [...]
Here, nothing is predictable. I’m learning to take everything moment by moment, to be prepared for everything and to expect nothing. Each week I plan my lessons for upcoming classes, I prepare exercise and activities, review material in the textbooks. Last week I wrote the terminal exam for my math students, planning to teach up [...]
Today the mnada came to town. Today I made my journey to the open field in the late afternoon, filing into the stream of people going and returning, bibis covered in khangas, men herding goats and sheep all tied together with one rope, and women balancing basins full of plastic cups and fruit on their [...]
I’m trying really hard to not become a bitter, resentful Peace Corps Volunteer like so many I’ve met. Don’t get me wrong: I think nearly every one of the PCVs in this country are great and anyone that lasts as a PCV should be commended (it is not easy), but it seems that two years [...]
First it took the village by storm, then the region, and after the press got a hold of the story the entire country it seemed was on its way to Loliondo, a small village in the Rift Valley just north of Mto wa Mbu. Families from Karatu, Arusha, Dar es Salaam, Njombe, and as far [...]
It’s been six months since 39 Americans landed in Tanzania. Four months in the village. Three months of teaching. And by now things are settled, most of us have established some sort of routine, we (think we) know what to expect on a day-to-day basis. I can’t say Tanzania feels like home but it feels [...]
A lot has happened since I began teaching in January and there is a lot I want to write about. Lately I just haven’t been able to find the words to share it all (maybe all the Kiswahili entering into my brain is pushing out the English) but I want to put at least something [...]
Last week was my birthday! And a fine birthday it was. The big day falling on a Friday I spent the morning teaching, ate a delicious lunch of makande (boiled maize kernels and beans) and chai at school, then booked it home to relax for the evening. I listened to my iPod, put on blue [...]
As I’ve mentioned, the climate in my village is far different than the hot, dusty weather of Morogoro. I live on the edge of the Ngorongoro forest and the abundance of trees, both natural and planted, creates a pleasantly mild micro-climate. The afternoons are warm and sunny while the evenings are breezy and the mornings [...]
So I’m sitting here in Karatu at a “hotel” called Rombo Green Park Bar & Guest House. Not a hotel in the conventional English sense but a hotel in the conventional Kiswahili sense, that is, a restaurant. Not a guest house, either. Just a restaurant. I’ve ordered a Fanta Orange, baridi, and I asked for [...]
I got a dog! A nice little companion to play fetch with and teach tricks (in Kiswahili, of course). Her name is Mona (short for Monona, like the lake!) and I’m guessing she’s between nine and 12 months old, though I can’t know for sure. She’s quite fierce (mkali as they say in Kiswahili) and [...]
As of late many trips to Karatu town have been made to buy things for the house: dishes, buckets, basins, khangas, and of course food. And sometimes the most exciting part about the trips isn’t the things I buy, it isn’t wandering through the small paths in the market, the bargaining I do, or the [...]
Christmas 2010 was definitely the strangest Christmas on record. Paff and Carolyn, the other two PCVs in Karatu, came to my village for a couple nights to check things out and to have a very merry Christmas together. We met in Karatu town in the morning, wasted some time drinking sodas, and eventually piled into [...]
The visiting teacher / field researcher gave me an important lesson on avoiding death by wild animal during our walk into the Ngorongoro forest yesterday. If I want to make it through the remainder of these two years unscathed these are some things I must know. Elephants. Tembo are sensitive to smell but can’t distinguish [...]
It’s now been four days since arriving at site. Today was my first day doing business at the school though it turned out to be more of a day of exploration than a day of getting any work done. As I waited in the staff room for the mkuu to finish his meeting I was [...]
I’ve arrived in Karatu. The drive here took 12 hours: Colin, Paff, Carolyn, Enoch, Lisa, Megan, and I boarded the bus, each with our mkuu, at 6am in Dar. One by one each pair jumped ship and dove into a life in their respective villages. Going to Karatu I was among the last to arrive. [...]
Tomorrow we swear-in and take our oaths as Peace Corps Volunteers. It’s been a long, difficult nine weeks of training, having virtually no free time and eating, sleeping, and studying on a schedule dictated by others. We’ve been living out of backpacks since day one and even though we were considered one of the family [...]
Halfway through training all 39 of us trainees were given an extra day off to have some fun on our own. We hired two coaster buses and made the two-hour journey to Mikumi National Park where we spent an evening roaming through the plains amidst giraffe, wildebeats, elephants, vultures, zebras, and even lions. There isn’t [...]
Training is over, tomorrow we head to Dar, Wednesday we swear-in, and Thursday we arrive at our respective sites. A few weeks ago we had our site announcement ceremony in Morogoro, the day Peace Corps told us a little more about the next two years of our lives and the day our thoughts switched from [...]
Still haven’t gotten around to putting up my pictures from Mikumi National Park but I did manage to save a couple on my jump drive before heading to the internet cafe. PS – To anyone whom I gave my phone number sometime last week, discard that. It [...]
It’s true. Training is over! This morning I had my oral Kiswahili test which marked the official end of training. And I’m so ready to get to Karatu, settle into my nyumba, and get to work in Tanzania. Training went well but after site announcements we all got pretty burnt out and our energy was [...]
This. girl. kicks. ass. Racing stripes, a fauxhawk, and big sunglasses? Get her a fixie and a couple of cupcake tattoos and she’s the new ATX poster girl. Who says Tanzanians don’t have style?
Today marks our first month in Tanzania. We’re settled into our homestays, getting comfortable with the language, we are masters of the choo, and some of us are even a bit disappointed when we don’t get beans for dinner. A lot has happened in this first month and it seems like forever ago we boarded [...]
Morogoro is situated near a beautiful mountain which many of us trainees have been itching to explore. A few days ago we were given that opportunity and about half of us spent the day hiking up and down the mountain side. After three weeks of doing little more than sitting in a classroom all day [...]
Today on my walk to school I came across a boy of maybe three I hadn’t seen before. He took one look at me, froze on the spot, and immediately proceeded to cry, to open his mouth and to wail and to let the tears flow. He ran inside to get away from me and [...]
Maintaining my weight in Tanzania seems to be near impossible. I expected to eat lots of fruit and nuts here, picked fresh from mango and avocado trees and peanut and cashew trees. Rice here and there. A general abundance of fresh, healthy foods, cutting back on the fat and oil intake. Not so. Most definitely [...]
Learning Kiswahili has been lots of fun for me. Every day this week we had a full day of language training so I’ve been learning a ton; on top of that I learn new vocabulary every day at home from my non-english speaking family. I’ve had some slip-ups, though: the first few days I told [...]
After almost two weeks in Tanzania there are a few things I would rather have known before my arrival, and a few things which I have found to be incredibly helpful in the learning process here. Here are a few of those items which I recommend you should or should not bring with you, all [...]
Jumanne 5 Octoba 2010 Today was my third day at homestay and the first day I felt like I was actually communicating with my family on a level higher than a two year old. A couple neighbors came over while Mwasi was cooking dinner and I sat outside chatting with them. It was a slow-going [...]
Jumapili 26 Septemba 2010 I’m in Africa! At this moment the power in my hostel is out and I brought my laptop outside to write. I’m sitting on a bench in the middle of a garden of trees and shrubs, and there is a bustling chatter nearby from fellow trainees finishing their dinner and the [...]
Right now I am in Philadelphia, having completed my staging, settled into my hotel room, and eaten my last meal in America for the next 27 months. (For those of you wondering, it was a house salad followed by spinach gnocci and tomatoes in a sage butter sauce topped with parmesan, and it was delicious. [...]
Sunday evening I arrived in Madison. Leaving Austin was a really, really difficult thing to do because I’ve fallen in love with the city and the people there. I could go on for hours about how amazing of a place it is and how interesting and beautiful the people are, but this blog isn’t the [...]
Monday I received an email from Peace Corps regarding the details of my staging event. “Staging” is Peace Corps lingo for orientation, and mine happens September 22 in Philadelphia — two days after my invitation originally stated. I’m just fine with that, though, because pushing staging back two days means an extra two days at [...]
I have officially accepted an invitation to become a Peace Corps trainee in Tanzania. I plan to depart the United States on September 20 and arrive in Dar es Salaam, the capital of Tanzania, for two months of training in language, culture, adaptation, technical skills, and health and safety. Provided I survive the intense training [...]
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