Karibu Kwangu (Welcome to My Home)

The week before Easter, I had my week-long break from school, so I decided to take the opportunity to get a closer look at my home town of Njombe. For the beginning of the break, I took my tent on the road to a small lake a few miles outside of town, where other volunteers and ex-pats sometimes go for water skiing and other fun things. But most of the time it's just an empty space that offers a quiet retreating point with a beautiful backdrop. A very nice Tanzanian man keeps up the place and provided a roaring fire each night, which was much appreciated during the now-beginning cold season of Njombe (which actually is COLD, go figure!). Aside from the hordes of raging siafu (vicious biting army ants), it was extremely pleasant, and a very nice way to regroup after the first few months of teaching. Why haven't I been taking advantage of this place more over the last 2 years?!

After that, I visited a village called Uhekule near Njombe, where there is an ex-Peace Corps volunteer who has stayed in Tanzania for seven years now, and has built an orphanage for kids in the village. I had been meaning to pay a visit for quite a while now, and so it was really nice to finally see the place. The kids provided a warm welcome by literally jumping all over me and asking me to do Spiderman impressions. I guess they don't get enough visitors... The orphanage is fantastic, though. It's been up and running for 2 years now, and gives a home to 11 kids from the village, and the other village members seem to have taken very well to it.  There is also a fantastic kitchen, so we made some very tasty fajitas, and I paid for my stay by making my own specialty - banana pancakes.

Following these small excursions, it was back to the Chani Hotel in Njombe for the 2nd Annual Njombe Jam. For those who didn't read about it from last year's blogs, Njombe Jam is Peace Corps Tanzania's newest Easter tradition, started last year by myself and a few other Njombe PCVs. Volunteers from all over the country compete, representing their home regions, in a decathalon of events seeking the right to claim nation-wide superiority among Peace Corps Tanzania.  Events include basketball, bags (cornhole for those from Indiana), Mario Kart, a relay race, egg toss, and of course the Easter Beer Hunt. And if you think I indulged myself by making over-elaborate poster-sized brackets for each event, then you know me all too well. There was a great turnout, and even better, Njombe came out victorious! I was particularly excited that we won the one event I really cared about, 3-on-3 basketball. I believe our victory can be credited to a pre-game viewing of Michael Jordan highlight films, followed by a mandatory screening of Space Jam. For two straight years now, we have tried to make a Stanley Cup-esque trophy for the tournament, and for two straight years now it has been lost/stolen. At least this year I was able to get a picture!

Since my return to Wilima, I have been teaching my normal classes, and was very pleasantly surprised to see a Form I student of mine get a 100% on my Physics midterm exam, and another get a 98% for math. I was particularly happy because both of them were female students, and girls in general tend to get more easily discouraged in math and science in this country. Over the last week, I've been getting through the greatest predicament of my life - too many avocados!! I got a gift from the school of a 10-liter bucket full of them, which is just the tip of the iceberg of how many the school has gotten this year. So I've been averaging about 4 per day for a while now... and loving it!


Next weekend is my second installment of science competitions - this one will take place at my school and will be a 6-team competition including students from the nearby school that also has a Peace Corps teacher. I plan on trying out some new variations, like Jeopardy-style academic competitions, together with some of the activities that were a big hit last time in Njombe. This competition however will consist of older students, Form III and IV, so it will be interesting to see how their designs compare to the Form I and II students from last time. I've sent in my application for Peace Corps extension doing these kinds of competitions around the country for the next 6 months to 1 year following my end-of-service time in mid-July. So now I play the waiting game to see what they have to say about my idea, but I will be sure to keep the updates coming as I find out more!