It Finally Begins...

Well, it finally happened; I am now officially a Peace Corps Volunteer! This has been a pretty crazy week. It was really tough saying goodbye to my host family. They took me out for a really nice dinner on our last night to a place that had excellent pizza and a playground that I of course made full use of with my 8 yr old and 2 yr old siblings. I gave them a few gifts, including a DVD slideshow with a bunch of the pictures we took together over the last few days, and they really enjoyed that. I’m going to miss them a lot, but we are already planning our visit to Moshe together when I come back to visit them in Morogoro in a few months.

We went back to Dar for 4 days after leaving Moro. It was nice to get to see more of the city, since we didn’t really have time right when we flew in. We did a walk around with a current PCV and she showed us where the nearest Subway was. Oddly enough there isn’t even a McDonald’s in Dar but there are a few Subways. It was exactly like a US one, with an English menu and all. Actually it was pretty weird to be in there ordering such familiar food in Tanzania. We also saw some of the really nice hotels (none of which we’ll ever stay in) and found an actual bookstore which was cool. I got a few more Kiswahili children’s books because I think they’re really fun to read.

Wednesday was our swearing in ceremony at the ambassador’s house. Oh man was it ever swanky. I was smart and planned ahead for the occasion by getting a shiny orange short-sleeve suit jacket (very common here – the short sleeves, not the shiny orange color) made in Morogoro before coming, to match the shiny orange pants I had bought several weeks before. It was extremely hot, but I was happy with how it turned out.  Our whole group put on a little comedy skit, that didn’t really go over with the locals since not too many people here understand American sarcasm, but we all entertained ourselves at least. And Hannah and I gave our speech, which was cool. They televised a lot of it apparently on one of the national TV stations, and the picture of our group swearing in was on Page 3 of the papers the next day, so we were celebrities for a little while. It was funny on the bus on the way to site, one of the people I was travelling with was in the picture, and everyone kept pointing and whispering to each other when they saw him.

Saying goodbye to everyone on Thursday morning was difficult, especially since we had to leave at 4:30 in the morning and I didn’t sleep the night before. And if there’s one place you do not want to be at that time, tired, hungry, and sad, it’s the Dar bus stand. Possibly the most hectic place in the country, though I didn’t lose any luggage. But there are a good number of new and old volunteers that aren’t too far from me, so I’m sure I’ll be seeing many of them often enough.

The bus ride to site was about 12 or 13 hours. But the final hour or so of the trip was absolutely gorgeous. Tons of big forest preserves, which you don’t really see elsewhere in the country too much, and just tons and tons of green hills and mountains all over (actually pretty brown now since it's the dry season). I went with one of the other trainees to his school, since its only about 10km from mine. Both his and mine are a ways off the main road, uphill, so you can see all the hills as you drive up, it’s incredible. Finally got to my house at around 8:30 at night. I got to meet the PCV I’m replacing, Jack, and he’s great. We should have no problems living together for a couple months.

The house is really nice, and pretty big. It has 2 bedrooms, a kitchen, and living room in the main area, but then there is a courtyard that connects it to another part with the bathroom and jiko (cooking room) and bathing room and such. There’s also a patio in front with the most spectacular view of the hills. And a great place to watch the sun rise and set. I really can’t explain how much I love the views, and pictures can’t really do it justice. I thought there were a lot of stars in Morogoro, but here it’s the clearest sky I’ve ever seen. Somedays I may have to just set up my tent and sleep outside. It’s pretty cold now, though it sounds like it’s getting warmer than it was. I like that though, just like good camping weather. There is running water, though it isn’t very clean, and they use a generator on the school grounds from 7 to 10 at night for electricity, which goes to my house too, so I have no problems charging things at nights.

Today I sat in Jack’s classrooms while he taught and introduced myself to the students and teachers. I’m going to start out teaching Form 3 math, but will probably add physics at some point, and also a small computer class of sorts in the evenings when there is electricity. The school just got about 7 laptops to use. There’s about 500 students, so obviously not everyone can use them, but most likely it will be the A-level (form 5 and 6) students who will. The school just started its A-level program a couple years ago, so there are much fewer of them.

It’s a boarding school, so most teachers and students live in dormatories on the school grounds. There’s also a soccer field, and basketball hoops. There seem to be some very smart students in Form 3, some of them are older and are either repeating the classes to do better on the national exams or have gone back after not completing the first time. I will probably start teaching on my own next week or soon after, so I can’t wait to see how it goes.

It is all very exciting right now, though there was a little bit of that “welcome to Africa” feeling when we finally were going to our sites. Training was great, but it wasn’t at all like what I was expecting before I came, and now we’re finally starting what we came here to do. I can see it may become a little overwhelming, just trying to adjust and integrate into the school and community, especially after replacing someone else, but one thing that’s helping a lot is being able to speak the language relatively well. Some people go to sites where they don’t even speak Kiswahili at all, just tribal languages, but luckily mine is not like that so I can use everything I’ve learned up to now. I still love learning the language, but definitely will need to try and teach in English, since the students must learn it.

Soon I should be getting a new, permanent mailing address for my site, so I will post that as soon as I can. Thank you so much to everyone who has sent letters so far, it’s always a great surprise! Can’t wait to tell you all more about site as time goes on. I can tell this is going to be a great location for me.

***Update*** (kinda like those episodes of Unsolved Mysteries for anyone who used to watch that)
I actually wrote this post several days ago, but could just now get it uploaded. Check for some new pics of the house and last few weeks of training. Also, I updated my current mailing address.

The first few days at site have been very good. All of the other teachers are very friendly. The next two days the school has off for Eid, but I will probably begin teaching next week. Right now I'm trying to clean up, reorganize the house to my liking. It makes me think back to when I would stay up all night thinking how to rearrange the furniture in my room, except now I have a full house to work with! I might even try to repaint the inside if I have time. There's also a large supply of scrap wood on the school grounds, so I'm hoping to be able to build some furniture as well, though there's plenty here already for the amount of things I have.

I'm also apparently living in Chicago, Tanzania, because I've already seen several people wearing White Sox attire. The driver of the school car has a Sox hat, and one of my neighbor's kids was wearing a Konerko shirt the other day! I don't think they really know the significance (or what baseball is) but I feel very ashamed that I didn't even bring any of my Sox stuff with, and now I'm being outdone in my own village! I guess maybe I can just paint the Sox logos all over my walls.

Site Announcement and Shadow Week

I just got back from my week-long shadow trip to Iringa, which is about a 5 hour bus ride south of where we’re staying in Morogoro. But before I talk about that, I can also finally say where I’ll be living and teaching for the next two years. The closest major town is called Songea, though my site is halfway between Songea and Njombe, the next closest town. It’s waaay south in the country, actually not too far from the border with Mozambique and pretty close to Lake Malawi also. I don’t know a ton about the area, but it’s called the “southern highlands” and apparently there are a lot of beautiful hills around there that resemble something like the Irish countryside. It will also be a bit cooler which I am excited about. I'm soo excited!

I mentioned this earlier I believe, but a lot of the trainees from our class will be in a different situation this year (myself included it turns out) where we will be living with the volunteers we’re replacing for a couple months, before they finish their service. So I’ll be replacing another math teacher and will live with him until mid-late ish October I believe. I know I’ll be teaching Form 3 Math, just like in my internship teaching, and may possibly add other levels or subjects as time goes on. My school has around 300 students, most of which are boarders, so it's a pretty small school. And it’s coed, which is the only thing I really asked for in my placement interview.

I’m really excited about going to site, especially after this week of shadowing. It was awesome to just have a less structured routine and to see daily life for a current volunteer. The woman I shadowed is an environment volunteer, so her life is much much different from what mine will be, but that made it really cool to see for a week’s time. Her village is about a 40 minute walk up a hill from the tarmac road. It was interesting because I guess before coming I had kind of a stereotypical image of what an “African village” looked like, with clay walls, straw roof, water pump for the whole village and all that, and this place kind of fit that stereotype perfectly. All of the places we’ve been so far have been more developed for sure, so we hadn’t gotten to see that true village setting.

We had an awesome time, it was me and one other shadower, and then the PCV we stayed with, though there was another group relatively close by that we did some things with as well. We went to the primary school in the village to introduce ourselves and answer questions about America. Also, we got to shuck corn with the students, while goofing around with them and singing each other’s national anthems. They loved it. Got to meet a lot of the other people in her village too (there aren’t too many) and went to a meeting for their cow project. The two PCV’s in that area are trying to bring cows to the villages in order to improve their diets and generate some income. HIV is a really big problem in that area, and most of the villagers are just subsistence farmers who grow corn, so they end up eating nothing but ugali every day. It’s really sad because there were tons of orphans in the village because of that.

Our shadowee was also a master cook, so we ate like kings all week and learned how to make many tasty dishes, like cinnamon rolls, deep dish pizza (close enough), banana pancakes, cookies, a pineapple cake of sorts, and other things. Learned how to master the art of baking with a charcoal stove. They give us a Peace Corps cook book before we go to site apparently, and it looked pretty fantastic. I'll have to try to come up with my own recipes too!

 There was also an amazing view of the sunset each night since she was a ways up the hill. In Iringa town we did this hike the first day up to the top of a giant rock and you could see the entire town. Iringa apparently is also the dairy capital of Tanzania because in town we got ice cream, yogurt, and milkshakes. And we got to meet up with quite a few other PCV’s passing through the town, and I met a few who I’ll be living nearby at site.

So yea, now that I’m back in Moro, we’re be here until Sunday morning, doing things for site prep and taking our final language tests and such. Then we go to Dar for 4 days or so, and our swearing in ceremony will be August 24th. It should be a lot of fun, it's a big party with all the PC Tanzania staff and also all the heads of the schools we'll be going to. I guess each year they have the volunteers do a sort of talent show with singing and dancing and whatnot, and also make a speech in both Kiswahili and English. Another girl and I were picked to do the speech, so we'll see how that goes. And then the next day we go to our sites, they don't waste any time. I’m so excited, just can’t believe training is already almost over. Can’t wait to see my village and school!

Training Update

Hi all! I just realized today marks the start of week 8 out of 10 of our training - crazy how fast it's gone by and yet it still seems like we've been here so long. But I'm very excited because in 2 days we find out our permanent sites! My host baba has a lot of family that lives in Moshe, near Kilimanjaro, and he keeps telling me he really wants me to teach there. I try to tell him I don't really have too much say in it, but maybe he has some pull within Peace Corps...we'll see. I'm sure I'll be happy wherever I go.

But on Sunday we leave for our week-long shadow sessions. I'll be going to Iringa, which is about a 5-7 hour bus ride from Morogoro I think, so not too far. Some people have a 12+ hr trip ahead of them. I heard it's much colder there (40's or so at night?). Also the volunteer I'm staying with is an environment volunteer, not education, and they tend to live in more remote parts of the country. I talked to her on the phone and she said she is definitely living out in the bush, no electricity or running water for sure, and the closest secondary school is a 2 hr hike from her house. It's gonna be great to be able to see that side of Tanzanian life, at least for a week! I think we'll get a chance to try our hand at teaching at least one day, too.  Oh, and apparently my host volunteer is an amazing cook. She is notorious among other volunteers for making some mean cinnamon rolls. She asked me if there was any food I was missing from home that she could make, and I said I'm from Chicago so if there's anything I'm missing it's deep dish pizza, but that's probably out of the question. But she said she thinks she can make it. I'm definitely stealing the recipe if it works out.

I made burritos for my host family the other day, with chipati, rice, beans, and guacamole. It turned out well, but the chipati didn't quite have the durability I was hoping for, good thing people here are used to eating most messy things with their hands. But they loved the guacamole. I tried to tell them you can eat it with literally anything. And they thought it was funny when I said another name for burritos was taco's, because apparently "tako" means butt in kiswahili. Oh, cultural exchanges...

Tomorrow's my last day of teaching at my school here in Morogoro. We prepared a short speech in Kiswahili to say in front of all the students and teachers to thank them for having us, and they will have a little send-off party for us.

In other exciting news, one of my Kiswahili teachers, Makasi, just had a new baby girl today (his wife, that is). They had been expecting it for a while now, so one of the other trainees in my group, Athena, said if it was a girl he should name it after her. And Makasi said he would, and apparently did, though I'm pretty sure we all thought he was joking. She was really excited. I'm willing to guess they are the only two Athena's in Tanzania.

That's about it for now. Just really excited to find out where I'll be living for the next two years! Thanks to everyone who's been keeping in touch, it's always great to hear from you.