Leaving

Now I'm in Dar waiting to go back to America. My flight leaves next Thursday. Before then I have a host of medical appointments and meetings to take care of, then it's good by Tanzania.

Saying goodbye to everyone at my school wasn't easy. They organized a goodbye event for me where the students sang songs for me and everything. A lot of them have cried then and other times in the days before I left. A lot of the girls had become like little sisters to me, so it was very hard for me too. I already miss some of them a lot. I don't know if I'll ever have such a big impact on so many kids again. I am nowhere near to being able to write down a summary of the PC experience and what it's meant to me, but it's probably safe to say in a quick summary that the first year of service was the hardest and the second year the best year of my life. In the next few weeks I will keep writing here and talking about my experiences and my thoughts on returning to America.

During this week I'll just try to have a good time and say goodbye to more people. PC volunteers I've been close to are heading out in a gradual stream that has already started and will continue for a few weeks after I leave. Others have another year to go. I wish I had something profound to say, but I'm still feeling like I did when I rode on the bus through the valley where I lived for well over year, and that is I simply can't get it through my head that after a vacation in Dar, I'm not going back there. I'm not going to go back in the classroom and see those girls again. I'm going to start something new back in America. I doubt it will be teaching, but then it may be. Whatever it is, with what I've been through I know I can handle it.

Forty Days to Go

Exactly 40 days from today I'll arrive back home. It seems to be coming shockingly fast. It's really hitting home now that Isaac, my good buddy in the region who was in my training group, is leaving his site in about ten days. In a month I'll be packing up my things and getting ready to go. As I've written before, I have mixed feelings about this. I'm excited to go home, but I also like it here a lot. It doesn't help that the girls are already starting to lament my upcoming departure. "Sir, when you leave we will cry so much!" is a common comment. Enough of this, it's been quite awhile since my last update, so I should say what's been going on.

The Form 4s have started their exams. The math exam was first. The test was a bit tough this year, so I hope they'll get through alright. The results won't be out for another three months, so nothing to do but wait. Before their exams we had graduation (I'm not entirely sure why graduation is first, but it is) and several other volunteers came for the party. It was a good time. I have a lot of pictures of the event and after party which sometime in the future will be put online. Now that the Form 4s are finished with everything, my teaching load has decreased and I can focus on the Form 2s, which means a lot of testing and grading to get them ready. It's been a lot of work, but I'm finally starting to see some serious improvement, which I think is the result of these kids finally taking things seriously. I think we'll have some good results from them.

As I've mentioned before, most of my teaching was to the Form 2s, so as a result these are the kids I'm closest to. They really are quite upset about me leaving so I've been spending a lot of time after school and some weekends hanging around and chatting with them. I also finally gave into their oft repeated requests and let them play with my hair. Despite the fact that they have to keep their hair cropped short a lot of them keep combs and there have been a couple of times where several of them will be around my head working away. There's always a crowd around watching and vigorous debate about how it would look best. It's all very cute, if a bit overwhelming sometimes. There was no reason not to give in, though. Before I let them, girls would sneak up behind me to touch my hair and sometimes give it a little tug. They've also begged me to find pen pals for them when I get home, so anyone out there, particularly girls around high school age, interested in swapping letters with a kid in Africa, let me know.

There's not too much else to talk about. There will probably only be a couple more posts before go home, but keep reading after. There are a lot of things I want to write about here after I get back. I'm not writing them now for a few reasons. One is that I need a little distance before writing about a lot of generalities of life here. Two, now I don't have time to write to much and since I only get internet every couple of weeks, at most, often I only write what is on my mind that particular time. Also there are certain things that I can't write about while in the PC. I'll leave it at that. Good bye for now.

Pictures

This week we had our Close of Service Conference in Arusha National Park. This is a time when we get together with all those we arrived in country with who didn't end up leaving early. We started with 37 and have 32 left, which I'm proud to say is a very high retention rate. The first of us to close their service and go back leave next week. They had some extenuating circumstances that allow them to leave early. There will be three more at the end of October, but the rest of us will be leaving in November or December. The purpose of this conference was to get us ready to do all the paperwork and other preparations to leave our sites and get back into life in America. I think though that PC also knows what close bond you have with the people you came into the country and trained with and gives us this one last time to all be together. We come in the country together on the same plane, but we leave at different times and return to different places. A lot, maybe most, of the people there I won't see again until I'm back in America. I have no doubt we'll do a good job keeping in touch. Isaac's wedding in December will be a mini reunion as well.

I also have some pictures here I'd like to post. Here's one of me with several of my Form 2s. From leftto right in the back is Neema, then Dora (one of the kids who cooked grasshoppers for me), me (I know I blend in), Veronica, and Lulu. In the front on the left is Grace and kneeling is Eunice.

They were all out harvesting beans that day and I got some pictures of that as well. When they collect all the bean pods, they put them in a pile and beat the pods with a stick to knock the beans out. This next picture is of another form 2, Janet, beating the beans.
You may notice that the students are required to wear uniforms and that all students, even girls like my students, are required to shave their heads. I'm sure that would go over brilliantly with American girls. The first time you teach here it is a bit disconcerting that you look out to a bunch of kids all wearing the exact same clothes, the same race and gender, and with the same haircut. Not at all like an American classroom. This final picture I'm putting on here I'm doing just because I think it's a really cute shot.


This picture shows Nancy on the left, then a couple behind whose faces I can't see, then Neema and Faith. Naomi is the one really hamming it up, then Clever, and Eunice back in the sun. Unfortunately it takes too long to upload pictures, so when I get back to America in a November I'll put a whole lot of pictures up.

I'll start back in school on Monday, then it's only a few weeks until the graduation, then shortly thereafter exams start. I'm going to be very busy for awhile. It'll probably be best to be working hard and not focusing too much on how little time there is left. It seems like either you're impatiently waiting the day you can go back or wishing it wouldn't come for awhile longer. Very seldom do I feel completely content with the passage of time. Anyway, I think I'll be able to post again next week, but after that it will be awhile. Is this Labor Day weekend? If so, enjoy the holiday.

Rats

I don't have my pictures of this with me unfortunately (oh yes, there are pictures), but this post tells the story of my recent and eventually successful battle with rats. Most volunteers have to deal with this problem at one time or another, at least here in Tanzania. Many get cats for this reason. I often on my own in this one though. I did however get some help from Josh, to whom I'm grateful.

It all began in early June. I heard some noises coming from my bathroom and went in to investigate. It was dark so I was using a flashlight (remember I have no electricity). I heard something behind the door, so I peeked behind it and came face to face with a rather large rat (perhaps six or seven inches long, excluding the tail). He was climbing on the door so he was just below my eye level. We both froze and stared at each other for a second, and then he took off with impressive speed. He ran into the courtyard and made it safely to some hiding place. I didn't make too much of it since pests are a common issue here, but then he started causing problems.

The first incident was when my friend Laura came to visit. She had gone into the bathroom to brush her teeth when I heard a blood-curdling shriek. Apparently the rat, who by this time I had named Pedro, had run across her foot. Needless to say she wasn't pleased. Pedro also started making a lot of noise at night, even waking me up sometimes, but I could never catch him. Then came the last straw. Pedro moved on from trash and things and started eating my food. This was completely unacceptable. War was declared.

I bought a huge mouse trap. It looked like it was large enough to take care of even a big guy like Pedro. I baited the trap with peanut butter (rats love peanut butter) and figured Pedro's days were numbered. Unfortnately Pedro was a more worthy adversary than I thought. He managed to eat the peanut butter from the trap without setting it off. He pulled this off not once, but maybe five or six times. By this time I was going on my vacation so I figured that rat problems could wait. Pedro won that round.

By the time I got back from my vacation Pedro had established himself and apparently multiplied. There was another, smaller rat residing in my bedroom somewhere. He managed to hide in my wardrobe, I think. The worst problem though, was the kitchen. Pedro had gone nuts in there and it was quite frankly a disgusting mess. It took the better part of a Saturday to clean it up. He had chewed through plastic bags and wrappings, gotten into my rice and flour, and actually chewed through the lid of my peanut butter jar. I tell you, he loves the stuff. He'd also been kind enough to leave his droppings everywhere. The fighting had escalated. There was no longer possibility of peaceful coexistence. I went to town and bought some rat poison.

I mixed the poison in some peanut butter and left some outside for Pedro and inside for my new roommate. What I left inside disappeared the first night, but I could never find it. This concerned me a bit. However, several days later a lovely odor tipped me off. Apparently it had worked. I followed my nose to my late roomy and managed to find him.I was a bit disgusting. One rat down.

Pedro, not surprisingly, was more formidable. He seemed to have eaten some of the poison peanut butter, but it didn't kill him. He was still running around. I knew with him I'd have to be more creative. I studied the trap and thought about how he could pull off the peanut butter without setting off the trap. I realized that if he came at the bait from certain angles he would be unlikely to set it off with a pulling motion. I realized what I had to do was control the direction of his approach. With my plan ready, I set it in motion. I baited the trap and placed it against the wall. I then put buckets and other obstacles along the trap except for the one side I wanted him to come to. Then I waited. About an hour after dark I heard the sounds of my success. There was a loud snap of the trap slamming shut and a loud racket of steel (from the trap) slapping plastic (of the bucket). Pedro was snared. The metal arm of the trap and caught him right on the neck, pushing it into the steel teeth of the trap. It is a vicous device. Somehow, Pedro was still alive and trying violently to free himself. I was glad I'd had the foresight to tie the trap down. Pedro put up a long fight until it seemed that he was having trouple breathing. After an hour I went to check since it had gotten quiet and found his breathing was quite labored. I actually felt sorry for the guy until I remembered all the chewed vegetables. Pedro died shortly thereafter. I had won.

There was a brief epilogue to the battle. One night recently I heard a noise in my kitchen and thought it sounded like a rat. This surprised me because I thought all approaches to the kitchen were well sealed, and recently I've been keeping it quite clean to avoid rodents and bugs. I walked in though, and there it was, another rat. This one darted into the fireplace and up the chimney. The chimney! That was how he'd gotten in. And before you ask, yes, I live in Africa but there is a fireplace in my kitchen. I figured a good way to take care of this guy would be to, well, use the fireplace for it's intended purpose. So I built a fire. I just kept it going for awhile until I figured he's either run or asphixiate. It seemed to work. For several days he didn't come back. The next day as a precaution though I had baited the trap and put it in the fireplace. Two nights ago, the rat returned. This one set the trap off immediately. Not only was this one a lot dumber than Pedro, he was a lot smaller, so it killed him instantly. Another victory.

My battle against rodents may not be over, but I seem to be holding my own. I doubt there will ever be one who is as worthy an opponent as Pedro, but we will see. Also, I now have help in my struggle. Last night as saw an owl sitting on the edge of the roof by the courtyard. It was a big one, gray and white and quite beautiful. As I watched him he took off and seemed to be swooping toward the ground on the other side of the wall. With the owl on my side, I figure I can't lose now.

One more piece of news. I'll be arriving at Charlotte airport around 2pm on Friday, November 23. That's the day after Thanksgiving. Just over three months.

The Home Stretch

I've started my last semester teaching here in Tanzania. I'm pretty busy trying to get the kids prepared for their exams, so I guess I haven't dwelled too much on how I feel about this. It was actually good to get back. Teaching as gotten much more enjoyable as time goes on. I really do enjoy the work and as great as my vacation was, I'm glad to be back.

Speaking of vacation, after my last post I attended the wedding of Steve Veryser, a former PC volunteer who was marrying a Tanzanian girl he met in the first of his three years of service. I met Steve during training when I visited his site for a few days for my "shadow visit" where you go see a volunteer at site to get an idea of what life's like there. He gave me some interesting, and I see now quite true, advice about being a volunteer. He said, "there are some people who come here hoping to change the world, but they all went home." I can see now that he's quite right. You're not going to come here and fix all the problems of Tanzania or even your one school. You can do some good of course, and I'm sure that I have, but the main motivation for this kind of thing has to be, well, selfish. Otherwise during one of the many times when you're beating your head against the wall because it seems like nothing you aren't accomplishing anything you'll give in and go home. If you're here for what you'll get out of it, how you will change, and the with the idea that you'll have a positive impact, even if it's quite small, you'll do fine. I've always been idealistic, and I still am, but I also have a very practical mind and I have certainly learned a lot about what I can and can't do to help people here, and what the people here need to do for themselves.

Anyway, back to Steve, we hung out a few times later on as well, and we ended up having an interesting parallel in our service. He started in Mwanza, like I did, and then had to change sites to a rural mountous region, only in his case it was the Southern Highlands instead of Lushoto. So The wedding was quite interesting because it was obviously a mixed crowd. The wedding was done in Tanzanian fashion and most of the guests were Tanzanian, but Steve had his dad and a group of eight or nine current and former PC volunteers to act as his family. The wedding was a blast, and we tried to mzungu it up for Steve a little bit so he could feel a bit more at home. I think his dad particularly appreciated it because I think he was pretty overwhelmed by the whole thing.

I took some great pictures of some of my kids harvesting beans the other day, but this computer isn't cooperating with my camera, so I'll post them in a couple weeks.

That's all for now. Enjoy the rest of your summer. We're about to head into springtime up here.

Chimpanzees

Updated: Pictures from Gombe. I uploaded them on flickr, which I'm not yet too familiar with, so I hope it works ok.

The trip to Gombe National Park went extremely well. We flew out to Kigoma on the 6th. Josh and I were immediately impressed with the town. Kigoma is quite small, but it's a nice, well-organized town that offered a lot of nice places to eat and drink. There are few tourists so none of these wasn't much catering to the tourist crowd, which was fine with us. We found a great bar right away where we got a good dinner of chips and goat meat. The next morning we asked around about information to get to the park and found we could hire a private boat for a ridiculous amount of money, or we could take the "lake taxi" which is basically a floating dala dala. This means that hundred or so people were piled in a small boat that puttered up the lake at around 5 mph. We got on just before it left so we were forced to settle amongst the cargo in the bottom of the boat. To let you know how packed it was, I counted 16 people who I could reach out and touch without stretching. Needless to say, it wasn't the most comfortable ride, but it got us to the park for a 2000 shillings, or less than two dollars.

We were dropped off at the park guest house, which has about six rooms and was empty when we arrived. On the boat with us were two girls from the University of Edinburgh and an Australian woman who's been travelling around East Africa. They had managed to book ahead of time, but we had not because the only way to communicate with the park is by radio. Fortunately, there was plenty of space. The house was located right on the lake shore and surrounded by the forests of the park. There were frequently baboons wandering around the house. Lake Tanganyika is extremely beautiful, and quite big. If I'm not mistaken it's the fifth largest freshwater lake in the world, and the second deepest (almost a mile in places). Very steep mountains come right out of the lake. The mountains are densely forested in the park, but unfortunately outside they've been stripped bare of trees. Deforestation is a problem all over this country. However, wherever you are the lake is gorgeous, and I will grudgingly admit I found the lake perhaps even more beautiful than my beloved Lake Victoria.

In the morning a park boat came down to the house and took us to the park entrance, perhaps three-quarters of a mile down the lake. When we got there, we paid the fees (getting the residence rate was a big bonus for us) and hired a guide. The way it works is you walk into the forest and hope to come across some chimps. If you do you are allowed to follow them around or sit near them for an hour or so, then you must move on and look for another group. You can't get too close because chimps are susceptable to human diseases. A TB outbreak a few years ago reduced their numbers by a third and now there are fewer than 100 chimps in the park.

When we set out into the woods I was immediately taken aback by how beautiful and unspoiled the forest was. Except for the trail, there was no sign of human activity. We quickly saw some baboons and a couple of kinds of monkeys (the park is quite thick with them). Of course, we were really waiting to see the chimps. We didn't have to wait too long. We'd been walking maybe 45 minutes when we stopped because we heard some crashing in the trees. We looked up and a huge male chimp came swinging down the tree and landed right in front of us. He was huge! I guess we don't usually think of chimps as that big because the ones you see and movies and things are pretty small, but this was a big dude. He had to weigh over 200 pounds. He started to walk down the path the way we had come. Quickly another chimp came down after him, then a mama chimp with a baby clinging to her and finally a juvenile. They all proceeded down the path and we followed them from a distance. The first two quickly went ahead out of site, but we were able to watch the mama and the two young ones pretty well. The baby rode on his mama's back while she walked down the trail. The others didn't pay too much attention too us, but the baby was extremely curious and kept peeking over his shoulder at us. It really was an incredible site. After awhile we let them move on and we turned to walk farther into the forest.

I quite enjoyed the walk through the woods. We went by a small building Jane Goodall had built to study the chimps from and then heard on the guide's radio that some of the research assistants in the park were watching another group feeding in the trees fairly close to us. We walked to where they were and sure enough, a mother with three children were in the tree eating. The oldest child looked almost fully grown, but the other two, who are twins, were quite young. They were way up in the canopy of the huge tree, so we could only see them from a distance and the view was often obscured, but we sat near the base of the tree and waited for them to come down. It was worth the wait.

The mother came down first and sat at the base of the tree waiting for the kids. We were actually quite close to her so we could watch her for awhile. She just sat there, looking up at the kids and waiting. After awhile of the twins came crashing down in reckless, youthful manner, I suppose. Finally the other twin came down, with his older sister helping him. She was encouraging him to go on his own but sometimes he would grab onto her for support. The most amazing thing was when the little one grabbed hold of her and she swung down a vine and passed maybe ten feet in front of me. Once they were all on the ground they went off somewhere else. Overall, we watched this group for about an hour. Other than occasional glances, the chimps barely seemed to notice our presence. We were extremely lucky to see two groups in the same day (before lunch!) and watching the chimps was amazing.

The rest of the day in the park was also nice, although we were done watching the chimps. There was a beautiful waterfall where we ate lunch, then we climbed to the top of a mountain they call Jane's Peak. From there the view of the park and the lake was amazing. At the end of it, we walked down the mountain to the park headquarters and sat in the shade by the lake having a beer. There were some mischevious baboons around and one came really close to snatching my bag away. Baboons are notorious for stealing peoples bags looking for food. On the Serengeti they're even known to jump into the vehicles.

Later on we went back to the house and had a swim in the lake, which was great. The house would be great to stay in just for the beach and walks through the woods. The next morning, we got back on the packed boat for the trip back to Kigoma. We spent the rest of the time in Kigoma just relaxing until our flight yesterday, and now I'm back in Dar for the moment. It was an amazing trip. I think I may have enjoyed it even more than the Serengeti because it's nice to be doing it all on foot instead of from a vehicle. It was also a lot cheaper to do, except for the plane tickets. Once you get to Kigoma, you can do what we did in the park for less than $100 per person, but it would be about $60 more for a non-resident. I definately would like to come and do this trip again.

This was quite a long post. I hope to put up pictures soon. It's a lot harder to photograph the chimps than it was lions, elephants, and giraffes, etc. because you had to shoot through the trees and because they were also moving quite quickly much of the time. I'm hoping I have a few good shots though. If you want to know more, here's a link to Gombe.

School's Out

We finally have closed the school for a short two week break. Right now I'm in Dar es Salaam waiting to fly across the country to Kigoma to enjoy a couple days in Gombe National Park where we should be able to see some chimps in the wild. Josh and I were hoping to take the train, but it's booked solid for the next few weeks. Thanks to an infusion of funds from Stateside, we can afford the flight, though, so all's well. This week we've just been hanging around Dar trying not to spend too much money. Unfortunately good food and beer can be awfully tempting. We haven't broken the bank yet, so we should be alright.

Shortly after we get back Steve Veryser, a former volunteer and a buddy of mine, is getting married here in Dar, so I'll be attending that. He's marrying a Tanzanian girl he met his first year of service. He extended for a third year which he finished in December. He got a teaching job then and has been working her since, but they plan to both go to grad school in America before too long. It should be a fun wedding.

As usual, we've bumped into other Peace Corps people in Dar, so it's been a good time. It's hard to believe that we're coming up on two years being here. A lot of people are kind of in a malaise and are ready to finish, but as I mentioned before my feelings are a bit more mixed. Once I get back to school in a couple weeks, there will only be a little over three months of teaching for me, then exams. It's going to go by really fast.

It's the 4th of July. There's not to much going on in Dar about that, not too surprisingly. The one place where there is a celebration is at the American Embassy, but this year Peace Corps Volunteers aren't invited. It's a long story, but I do assure my loyal readers it's not this guy's fault. I'm sure we'll have an opportunity to have a drink in honor of America.

I did have an unpleasant experience the other day. Josh and I were at a bar near the hotel and some guy comes up to talk to us which happens all the time in such a social culture, especially if you stick out. So we greet this guy but it quickly becomes clear he's a barely coherent drunk so we try to ignore the guy. He then starts yelling at us accusing us of being racist because we don't want to talk to a black guy. It was the first time that'd happened to me here. Even if people are assuming your just a rich tourist they quite seldom resent your presence or say something unfriendly to you. It's the kind of thing that you should just ignore becaue it's just a belligerent drunk, but you almost feel like jumping up and yelling at the guy about how you're no tourist or some miner here to make a ton of money and you've been here living with the people as they do, etc., etc., and you want to say "my problem with you isn't your skin color, it's that you're a drunken ass!" Of course that wouldn't help things, so you just ignore the guy and complain about him later. Of course, like I said, this is an extremely rare thing, but it's irritating.

I may be able to post again soon with the ape report. I'm excited. Happy 4th.

Unasikia baridi? That's a big yes.

Right now most schools in Tanzania are closed, but we're still open to tutoring for Form II and Form IV students because they have their national exams this year. Most of my teaching is in Form II so these are the students I've become closest to and will often refer to as "my girls." It's a bit of a drag to be around when most of the other volunteers are taking vacation, but if I have to be at the school, at least my girls are too. They've been constantly expressing disappointment that I'll be gone in five months, and I must admit, if it weren't too late to make such a decision, I'd probably cave at some point and agree to stay another year. It's all for the best I suppose.

I actually am starting to think about going back home now that's getting close. Unfortunately I have few plans. I'm excited to be back, but I know that readjustment can be pretty difficult. I think the best thing will be to find some kind of job, even if it's one I'll only want to keep for a year or two, to at least have something to keep me occupied. Well, there's still lots of work to do here before that comes up.

In other news, it's cold (the title to this post asks, "Are you cold?"). In the mornings you actually see your breath. I live just a few degrees from the Equator. This isn't supposed to happen. Of course, most of the time it's really nice because we don't experience the oppressive heat of most of the country. In fact, I do kind of enjoy this weather because it isn't horribly cold, and it's fun to tell shivering students stories about snow and ice and to let them know that they don't really know what cold is.

I've had a lot of visitors recently. Patrick, my old buddy from the Lake Victoria region, came with his lady friend for a few days. Josh, Laura, Isaac, and Krista, all volunteers here in the Tanga Region, have been up at various times as well. It's been a lot of fun having visitors, and it's always quite exciting for the students.

Another event not too long ago was our big Memorial Day Party. Nine of us gathered in Korogwe, a transit town down the mountain where Dan lives. We got a goat and paid some guys a couple of bucks to kill it, skin it, and gut it. They also got to keep the liver, so they were pretty pleased with the deal. Then we pit roasted the whole thing. It was pretty fantastic. Goat meat is actually quite good. Not surprisingly, it's a bit like mutton, though usually tougher. The pit roasting worked quite well to keep it nice and tender though. The people around were pretty shocked at our cooking methods though. Over here the only way they ever cook meat is to hack it in bite-sized pieces, then fry it, boil it, or grill it. Unfortunately the cuisine here is normally uninteresting (quite unlike Ethiopian food, which is amazing), so cooking something good and sometimes very elaborate is always a big part of any Peace Corps gathering. I've actually become a pretty good cook and I'm looking forward to having real kitchen facilities and easy access to a lot of ingredients that are pretty hard to come by over here, like a lot of spices. It also will be nice not to have to pick rocks out of rice, beans, and other things like that before you cook them. As far as material things go, probably the top ten things I miss from home are all related to food.

As usual, time is money in the internet cafe, so forgive my fast, unedited typing. If all goes as planned, five months from today I should be back on American soil. Remember, tasty things to eat and drink make the best welcome home presents.

Goodbyes and Grasshoppers

The sad news this time is that one of the volunteers in the area, Rachael, has gone back to America, due to the situation back home. We'd become pretty close and she was our place to stay in town, so I'm real sorry to see her go. Fortunately that's the only bad news to report.

Yesterday I was talking to two of my students who seem to be quite fond of me despite the fact that they're failing my class. They do try, it just seems that math is a bit too much for them. Anyway, at the moment there are these huge grasshoppers everywhere. I guess it's their breeding season. They asked me if I'd ever eaten them. This question isn't as strange as it sounds because the Haya tribe on the western shore of Lake Victoria, not too far from where I used to live, eat them all the time, and I actually have had them before. They fry them up and they're actually pretty good with some salt. They make a good greasy, salty snack, which is an American staple sadly rare over here. When I told them I liked them they one said, "well, we will cook some for you." I didn't take her seriously because the students at the school don't have the means to cook anything. Much to my surprise, as I was leaving yesterday, they came up to me with something wrapped in paper. Turns out they had spent the afternoon catching a bunch of them and had somehow managed to talk one of the cooks into frying them. They were pretty good, if a little bit overdone. Consider that the Tanzanian version of the apple for the teacher. It's going to be hard to leave these kids.

Right now we're getting prepared for the end of term exams. After that we have a three week tutoring program for the exam year kids, which include all the ones I'm teaching. And after that, it's the chimps! I suppose that's all I have going on.

Short break and back to work

We had a week off from school that I am proud to say I made the most of. It was mostly quite intense with a short relaxing interlude at the beach.

Just a couple of days before the break I celebrated my 26th birthday, and the students were very sweet and sang to me at the morning parade they have every day before classes. Some also gave me cards that they had bought or made. It was very nice.

A couple of days after that was the big party I had been planning for awhile. It was a huge success. It had originally been planned for just one night, but it extended into two, with the second night even bigger than the first. We cooked chilli one night and cooked a chicken and a duck from the school the second night. Thankfully the sisters were kind enough to kill and clean the birds for us. There were fifteen people sleeping in my house and despite the remoteness of my place we managed to keep well supplied. I have to thank Kajuna, another teacher and my school and a good friend, for a lot of help getting things together. He helped me organize a lot of things like having crates of beer delivered. This is a big deal because they had to be pushed about five miles over the mountain on a bicycle. This upped the price a little, but it was well worth it. Some people from quite a ways away managed to make it out, which was quite nice.

Afterwards we went into Lushoto for a day and did a little hiking and had a nice relaxing dinner. I went to Dar the next day and went to the beach for a couple of days before going to a short meeting in Dar I had to attend. This gave me a couple of days to enjoy a place with actual nightlife. It was a successful trip because I discovered a great Chinese restaurant, and Irish pub, and a few other new places. I love where I live, but there are quite a few fun things you can't do in the village. I was, however, quite glad to come back and get out of the heat.

School's been back in session this week and the rains have finally come. I'm glad I bought some rubber muck boots because I've been wading through sometimes ankle-deep mud to get to school every day. Today, however, it's actually sunny, so it was a pleasant walk to get into town.

The exciting news coming up is that in July Josh and I are planning a trip to Gombe Stream National Park. This is where Jane Goodall studied the chimps and there you can basically hike up and hang out with them because they're used to people. I'm really excited about this. I won't have any time off until July, and that will be my last break before I come home in late November, but I definately think it'll be a good one.

Other than that, life goes on as usual. I'm going to be working really hard and trying to push these kids as much as I can. The Tanzanian syllabus for math in Form 2, which is mostly what I teach, is way too long for one year, so it's a struggle to get all the material in. So far we're in decent shape, but now I'm moving into geometry, which the kids really seem to struggle with. I think I'm going to have to make some teaching aids to try to help them visualize things a bit more. This is the kind of thing that's a bit of a struggle for me because I always found geometry very intuitive, so it's a little more difficult for me to figure out how to explain it. Fortunately I shouldn't be too pressed for time and I'll be able to do extra sessions with them on the weekends. The main problem, as usualy, is that too many kids just think math is too hard and don't even want to try. Well, in the next few months, we'll see how good a motivator I am.

Hello all. Finally a few pictures. The first picture is my house. I really like it, though I must admit it's pretty big for just one person. As you can see it's a nice, solid structure. Those Catholic missions like to build stuff out of stone, which is pretty cool. To the right of the house you can make out a big concrete tank which holds my water supply and that for the other houses around. It catches rainwater from the roof of the big house in the background as well as getting fed from a spring on top of the mountain. The brick part of the house is the walled in courtyard, which is really big and probably my favorite feature of the house. It's a good place to sit outside while cooking or looking at the stars or something. Also great for parties.

The other picture is of the valley I live in. My house is to the left of the tree with the purple flowers. This picture was taken during the dry season so there's nothing in the fields there except for some banana trees. During the rains there's a lot of corn, tomatoes, cabbage, and a bunch of other things going there. The picture is taken along the road that goes to the school so every day I walk across that valley. It's quite a nice commute.

The last few weeks have been pretty good. St. Patrick's Day was every bit as much fun as that holiday should be. We even avoided a fight to the death between the volunteer with Irish Catholic roots (Clare, named for the county in Ireland) and the one with Irish Protestant roots (me). Guinness truly heals all wounds. The week at school has been ok, except my kids have gotten a little lazy and bombed a test I gave them. I'm going to have to push them to get their act together. The national exams are are a really big deal here and they're a long way from ready. Who would have thought that 14-year-old girls would be short-sighted?

I had a dinner at a neighbors place last night with a bunch of the teachers. It was to celebrate the one month anniversary of the birth of their latest daughter, which is traditional to do. It was a nice time, but the best part was how the new baby's older sister, Sharon, who's three, finally overcame here fear of the scary bearded white guy. All it took was having a little neighbor boy come by who was obviously terrified of me. Sharon decided to show him how afraid she wasn't by coming up and climbing on my lap. I think after that she realized I wasn't so bad, despite white skin and a hairy face. So there you go, a little understanding spread by the Peace Corps, with quite a bit of help from some desire to show off.

The only other thing that's been going on has been heavy pressure from my headmistress, my students, and other teachers to apply for a one year extension. I was surprised to find that a big part of me really wanted to stay an extra year, but I decided not to, so I'll be back at the end of November as planned.

That's all for now. Have a good Easter everyone.

Life is Seldom Dull in Africa...

It's been quite a week. The worst thing is that Matthew, who was my best friend among the teachers at my school, has abruptly resigned and left after a row with the administration. I don't want to point fingers other than to say there is a lot of blame to go around in the conflict. I think it's really unfortunate because Matthew was very dedicated to the kids. He's planning on going back to school in August, so I wish him the best and hope it works out.

In a kind of bittersweet moment I witnessed very pointedly one of the big differences between African and American life. One of my students was gone for a few days this week. Kids can't really get away with skipping class at a boarding school like this, so you always notice when their gone. She left because her younger sister died. The first thing you notice here is that no one thinks it unusual that a 15-year-old girl would lose her little sister. Just because it's not uncommon doesn't mean they are jaded to such losses though. Far from it. In fact, when the girl arrived back at the school on Thursday, word quickly made it to her class that she was back and about 50 girls ran out of the class and surrounded her with choruses of "pole" and "karibu," meaning we're sorry for your loss and welcome back. It was such a huge outpouring of sympathy and genuine joy to have their friend back with them. So this girl for the next half hour was in the middle of this mob of other girls in a situation that I think most Americans would find unbearable, but she was obviously greatly comforted and moved by the whole thing. Life here is such a constant mixture of joy and sadness. No wonder my first year in this country was constant emotional turmoil.

Another event this week was I attended the A-level graduation at Kifungilo Secondary School, another Catholic girls' school in the area that is one of the top 20 schools in the country. Another teacher and I walked there. By road, this journey would have been more than 25 miles, but we went over one hill, across a valley, then straight up a huge and ridiculously steep mountain, on the top of which was the school. The walk was no more than three miles but took about two hours. This was a steep mountain. The school sat atop the mountain and had amazing views. I was amazed that we had just pushed straight up it. Fortunately we managed to get a lift by road much of the way back because I think the slope would have been fairly dangerous going down. It was also nice to see this really great school that was beautifully built. It almost looked like a German hamlet complete with stone-paved streets. My goal if to outperform Kifungilo in this year's exams. Right now they're number 2 in the region and we're number 3. Unfortunately we have a way to go, but I have confidence in my girls.

I'm sorry, but after more than a half hour of trying, it seems this internet connection is too slow to upload pictures.

Fashion note: my Form 2s, who now seem to see themselves as my little sisters trying to help a hopeless older brother, tell me that they love my hair but my beard has to go. Not to worry, I won't let my students ruin my dashing hippie Peace Corps volunteer good looks. The beard stays.

A Day in the Life

As I've mentioned in earlier posts, I've settled in to the point that my life seems comfortable but quite ordinary. It has occurred to me though, that my life is not ordinary for most of my readers, so maybe now would be a good time to talk about what a normal day is like for me.

I wake up at 6:30 in the morning to get ready for school. I usually make some tea and have some fruit for breakfast, get dressed, and I'm on my way to school by about 7:15. I have to leave my house and walk across the valley through fields of corn, tomatoes, beans, and many other crops. This is always the most beautiful time of the day because the sun is just starting to peek over the mountains and it gives the valley a lovely soft glow. Right now it's a particularly nice walk because butterfly migrations are coming through and at any given time there are thousands in the valley. I walk for about a kilometer and then I'm at the dirt road that leads to the school and walk about another 100 yards. I should note that when it's been raining (as it is often) this walk is much less present because the valley quickly becomes a muddy swamp. When it's dry though, it's great.

When I get to the school around 7:30 the students are all on the parade grounds, a big paved courtyard by the main office, where they listen to any announcements and those who have misbehaved are assigned punishment. Usually this means they will have to carry sand or gravel (for construction work at the school), fire wood (for cooking), or manure (for the farm). Then they are all dismissed to their classrooms and classes begin at 7:45. Students here are divided in to four forms, Form I being the first year of secondary school and Form II the second, etc. Each form is then further divided into streams, so you have Form IA, Form IB, and so on. Each stream is made up of about 40 students at my school, and each has it's own classroom that the students stay in all day. The teachers go to the class when their subject is scheduled. We spend the time when we aren't teaching in the staff room, where we each have a desk, and prepare lessons or grade papers or often students will come by with questions. There are nine periods in a day and I teach between four and six of them each day, so I have enough down time to get my grading done. Of course in a lot of those free periods I end up helping out other teachers because we do a lot of team teaching in the math department. This is a really good thing because too often in this country there is absolutely no flexibility in teaching style.

When I go to the classroom, one of the girls will say, "school motto" and the students stand up and say the somewhat corny school motto, "Forwards ever, backwards never. Good morning, sir!" I then say, "Good morning, how are you?" Then they say all together, "We are fine, and how are you?" Then it ends with me saying, "I am fine, you may sit down." Then they'll take their seats and we'll begin class. In math we usually teach them two periods in a row. Each is 45 minutes, so when I go into the class I have and hour and a half with them. I like having the much time because I will spend the first 45 minutes to an hour teaching them the material with many, many examples. Then almost every class I give them several problems to do for the rest of the time while I go around and answer questions and check their answers. This is the most valuable thing I do with them for a couple reasons. One is that the only way I've figured out to actually get kids to understand math is through repetition and lots of practice. The second reason is a lot of them will ask me questions and I'll sit down by the desk and explain it to just one or more often several of them. Especially with the language barrier, it is a lot easier to explain things to them one at a time or in a very small group. I think it also helps that I will sometimes explain to them a little bit in Swahili, which I refuse to do when I'm in front of the whole class because I'm also supposed to be helping them learn English. The students really seem to get a lot out of the individual attention, particularly the ones who are too shy to come to the staff room to ask me for help. When the period ends I leave and tell me to bring their notebooks to me later for me to check. I probably check each student's work once a week or so.

During the day we have a tea break for 15 minutes and lunch for 45 minutes. The lunch has to be so long because they feed the students in two shifts. The breaks are fun because we have a fairly small staff and we get along quite well, so it's nice to have the meal together. After lunch there's only an hour and a half of the school day left. At the end of the day the students usually have work to do cleaning the grounds or helping with the farm. Sometimes I stay around and help supervise, or if the students aren't working and have questions I'll help. Usually I leave by 5 and walk back home.

When I get home I turn on my blessed satellite radio and listen to Morning Edition on NPR while I do any chores around the house like sweeping or washing clothes. Sometimes I go cook with some of the other young single guys who are teaching at the school, but usually I just cook for myself. My diet varries based on what's in season and how long it's been since I've been to the market. If I have a lot of fresh vegetables I'll often make a stir fry with fried rice or a vegetable and potato curry. I also can make some pretty amazing tomato sauces now, and I can buy pasta at the one shop near my school, so I'll make that a lot now. Of course a lot of times I have some food that's been sent from home like tuna or something. After cooking and eating (by this time it's dark so I'll be going by candle and/or lantern light) I'll start heating water for a bath. I don't have a shower or anything, so what I do, which is what most people here do, is heat a pot of water, pour it in a bucket, then add cold water until it's the right temperature. To bathe you scoop water out from the bucket and pour it on yourself. So basically, you get wet, lather up, then rinse. It's actually a process you get used to, but showers are pretty great when you can get them. By this time it will usually be about 8 or 9. All I'll have to do then is read, if I want to brave candles or use a flashlight, or listen to the radio. I usually go to bed around 10 or so. So that's my normal routine. Feel free to comment with questions. This is all mundane and ordinary, so I don't know what you may find interesting.

One more quick thing, it looks like I'll be home by Thanksgiving, so all my faithful readers only have to hold America together for nine more months.

More Fun With Animals

This is my new friend, Bob. Bob (the one on the left) is a monkey. He lives at one of the nice mountain lodges in the area. Bob and I get along really well so I've stopped by to visit him a couple times. Sometimes they have him in a cage, but they let him out to play sometimes. He also grooms by beard and hair for me. Isaac's theory is that Bob likes me because he thinks I'm one of his kind, what with all the hair. So as you can see, I'm not an enemy of the entire animal kingdom, just turkeys.

Right now I'm in Dar es Salaam because a filling that a crazy Swedish dentist put in my tooth last month (with no novacaine) has come out. This, as you can imagine, is a bit of an inconvenience since I must travel for six hours to get to the nearest decent dentist. Oh well, this is Africa.

School's going ok. My students are still working, but the results on the first test were a bit disappointing. It's hard to get them to study hard this early in the year I guess.

The results for last year's national exams were released. My school did quite well, which is great. Tanga Region, where I live, was unfortunately the lowest-scoring region in the country overall. Sadly this reinforces stereotypes a lot of the country have about the local tribe, the Sambaa. They're kind of seen by some as backward and lazy, kind of like the South sometimes is stereotyped in the US. There isn't anything like the tribal tension here as there is in some other countries, but people will dismiss this tribe as lazy (if they seem to lack ambition) or greedy (if they have ambition). It seems to be a can't-win. Oh well, such things happen everywhere I suppose.

This is short, but I'm planning on updating tomorrow too.

Back to School

Unfortunately the computer I am using today refuses to acknowledge my flash drive. This is unfortunate because I brought some good pictures I wanted to post. They will have to wait until next time.

So the school year is underway. So far it's going well and it has been an easy transition back into things. I have a slightly heavier load than last year, but I don't mind. Teaching seems a lot easier than it did before I think largely because I'm more comfortable in the classroom. It's been great to see the other teachers. I get along well with all of them and have become quite close with a few. In short, as odd as it may sound, I now feel quite settled into a normal, comfortable life. As much fun as I had during the break, I'm glad to be back into it. I can't believe how quickly my time here is winding down. I only have ten more months! I guess some people at home may think that sounds like a long time, but I can't believe how soon it will be over. Oh well, I'm just going to make the most of it and I think I can help my students do well on their exams. Time will tell.

So my life's back in routine, but here's some rather unusual information I've come across lately. You may or may not know that hippos can be quite dangerous. In fact there are many areas of this country that have a bit of a hippo problem. My buddy and fellow PCV Patrick who's over on Lake Victoria not too far from my old place lives in a small remote village right on the lake. They've had a few people killed by hippos apparently. This kind of thing isn't too uncommon. Because of this, sometimes the villagers may decide a hippo is too dangerous and must be killed. As you may imagine it's not exactly easy to kill a hippo. Now, however, I have finally learned the common method for killing a hippo, but it is only real effective if the hippo is in a fairly small pond. If you have problems with lake hippos, I don't think it would work. Sorry, Patrick.

This method takes at least two guys. One has a gun and the other has a very large stick, almost like a log. This method is very dangerous for the guy with the stick. The guy with the stick goes up to the edge of the pond and begins to stir up the water. Apparently this annoys the hippo and it will walk out of the water. Of course if the hippo walks out toward the guy with the stick, it's bad news. Anyway, once the hippo is out of the water they guy with the rifle shoots it. Hippos, though, are quite large, and one bullet seldom does the job. Irritated by the bullet, the hippo will return to the water and the process much begin again. Sometimes it can take half a dozen shots or more to finally bring the hippo down. There are no hippos around here, so I haven't seen it firsthand, but I wanted my faithful readers to know how to protect their loved ones from a dangerous hippopotomus.

That's all for now, hopefully next week there will be pictures.

Holiday Fun

New Year's on Zanzibar was a good time, which really isn't a big surprise. Going to a tropical paradise with a dozen or so good friends can't really be a bad time, can it? What was just as good, and perhaps more interesting, was Christmas.

As I mentioned before, the nine new volunteers in the Tanga region and I were celebrating Christmas at Rachael's house. Rachael is one of the new ones. Her house is on the edge of town and big, so it works well as a meeting place. I'd gotten word that some nuns in the area had a turkey they wanted to sell, so Neil, one of the new guys, and I went to the their farm to take it off their hands. The turkey was big. It was a little bit awkward carrying it back to Rachael's house, but we got it back and put it in a dog house that for some unknown reason is in her front yard. We nailed some boards across the door to keep the turkey in there until the next morning, Christmas, when we had to do the deed.

As before, Neil and I were on turkey duty. Early on there was a little trouble as we disagreed on the method of slaughter. I was in favor of cutting the throat, but Neil pointed out that the PC cookbook tells us to kill chickens by shoving a knife through its skull. After some debate, we decided we could do that. Neil took the knife while I held the turkey. The first stab did not get through the skull. The second did, and we were relieved that it was stabbed through the head and dead. Or so we thought. I let go of the bird, but then it jumped up, spread its wings and squawked with the knife sticking out of its head! It was like some kind of bizarre horror movie when the monster jumps up after you think its dead. Fortunately we acted fast. Neil grabbed the bird and I started cutting its head off. Unfortunately the good knife was in the turkey's head. Our backup knife wasn't exactly what you'd call sharp. After much hacking and sawing we finally got the turkey's head off. Neil and I were slightly traumatized, but better off than the turkey I guess. After that Dan helped us in the long process of plucking and pulling out all the innards. Once all that was done, it actually looked like a big old Butterball. Fortunately, it just fit in the oven we had. We made stuffing, gravy, biscuits, mashed potatoes, and a vegetable quiche to go with the turkey. It was an amazing meal. The turkey and everything else was delicious. I have to give the credit for the great food to Christa and Clare, two girls who have a Mama Clark-like flair for food.

Other than the moments when I found out how much of a killer instinct I don't have, Christmas was great. It's real tough being away from home, but I like the new group of volunteers a lot and it was nice getting to know them a little bit. In less than two weeks I'll be teaching again. I'm real excited, I feel like the next 10 or 11 months will fly by. Before all that starts though, I have mid-service conference where I will have a host of extremely thorough medical exams. I'm feeling pretty good about my health and even think I'm parasite free. We'll find out soon enough.

The other interesting incident was yesterday when I tried to go back to Lushoto. Turns out a bridge on the only road that heads up that way from Dar went out and it was impossible to travel. After waiting by the side of the road for hours, it turned out our options were to walk past where the bridge was out and hope we could get on a bus on the other side (talk about a leap of faith) or we could turn around and go back to Morogoro, which wasn't too far back. We have some friends in town here, so it seemed like the better option. So here we are. We'll be down here until our conference because at this point we'd just have to turn around and head back once we got home.

That's all for now. I hope everyone's having a happy new year. To everyone at home, remember I'm coming home this year. Seems pretty hard to believe.