Hard to believe but after only one more week we'll be at midterm exams. In a way time seems to have flown by. It doesn't seem like I'm about halfway through my first of four semesters. This month has been interesting because we have had nine student teachers from the local teachers' college student teaching at Nsumba. It was nice having these students around. They were all bright at seemed extremely dedicated, which is what I have noticed from the young teachers at my school as well. If I'm seeing a good representation of the younger generation of teachers, then it seems like there is indeed some promise in the future of Tanzania's schools. I certainly hope that's the case.
Unfortunately, my electricity has cut off again. I had none for two weeks, had it for a week, and now for the last few days it's been out again. I kind of gave up on getting to use my electric stove too much so today I went out and bought another kerosene one. Now I can cook rice and beans at the same time! Still, the grading papers by candlelight is not getting any more exciting. Hopefully I'll have it back before too long, but I've learned not to get my hopes up. TANESCO, the monopoly Tanzanian power company, has officially become my representation of all of Africa's evil. I haven't figured out exactly how they are responsible for HIV and malaria, but I'm sure there's a connection.
Last weekend I went up to Musoma on the eastern shore of the lake and spent some time with the three PCVs up there. It was a good time and it was nice to get out of town for a little while. I like Mwanza, but as many of you know, I do enjoy a change of scenery now and then. The highlight of the trip was that Meena, my host in Musoma, is an amazing cook, so I had some great food. She even baked a cake, which is quite a feat in a world without ovens.
Other than that things have been more or less routine. I get up before sunrise, hope there is water pressure because bucket showers are a pain, go to school and teach, go out to the road and buy some food, visit with some friends, cook, eat dinnner, read, and in bed by 10 or so. It's become a pleasant routine, sometimes broken with trips to town, a beer on the lake with PCV Ryan, or a movie and some Korean food at Cha's house (he's a volunteer at my school from KOICA, Korea's version of the Peace Corps). It's turning out to be a pretty nice predictable life. And best of all, no one's tried to break into my house in almost a month. Pretty exciting. I think in a couple of months I'll be ready to start thinking about some secondary projects, but I don't want to get ahead of myself. For now I'll just concentrate on doing my job and staying sane. Fortunately the latter is steadily getting easier.
Friday, March 24, 2006
Monday, March 13, 2006
Another world 30 km away
I've been here in Tanzania for almost six months now, so for the most part I'm pretty used to life here. This past Saturday, though, I realized how limited my experience has been. Almost all of my time in the country has been in places that are either urban or the Tanzanian version of suburban. Unlike most PCVs, I have spent very little time in rural settings out in the villages. This past Saturday though I did spend the day in the village, and it was quite a time.
Right now at most of the schools in the area there are student teachers. One of them at Nganza, my PC neighbor Ryan's school, invited the two of us and Brian, the PCV in the town of Misungwi not too far from here, to go up to her family's place in a village outside of Misungwi. It sounded like a good time and something different, and I knew I'd get a good meal out of it, so I went along. It really was an amazing ride. The first thing was that the landscape was completely different even though Misungwi is only about 30 km away. Where I live it is very hilly and wooded and there are huge rock formations, especially right on the lake. Once you get a few kilometers further way though you come to grassland that is almost completely flat. Picture images of the Serengeti without animals and you're pretty close. It was a really beautiful and clear day so the scenery was quite amazing.
Once we got a ways off the main road another difference was how empty things got. Like I said, I've pretty much only lived in fairly densely populated areas. The sheer amount of empty space was amazing. You really could imagine a herd of wildebeast come thundering through at any moment. Another difference is so far from town, Swahili is no longer the predominant language. While most people know Swahili, they mostly speak Kisukuma, the language of the Sukuma tribe which inhabits this region. Brian, living in a much more remote site than Ryan or I and being gifted with languages, actually knows a good bit of Kisukuma, but Ryan and I don't know a bit. Fortunately in the house we were speaking Swahili, which Brian and Ryan have no problems with and I can muddle through.
Perhaps the most significant difference was transportation. By Western standards, my normal transportation may seem primitive. I get around in mini buses about the size of a VW van called daladalas that they cram as many as 30 people into. It's not the most comfortable way to get around, but it's cheap and convenient. I have one come by my house every five minutes or so and get to town for the equivalent of a quarter. It's pretty nice. Out of town, however, it's a little different. So, let's say the closest point any daladala comes to your house is five kilometers, and you just want to drop in for a visit so it's kind of ridiculous to walk the ten kilometer round trip in the heat, but there aren't even any cars around, let alone buses. What do you do? (Oh, and don't think horses. I've actually seen significantly more elephants than horses in this country. I've seen one elephant so far). Well the solution the rural Tanzanians have come up with is an interesting one--bicycle taxis. That's right, a guy with a bike that has a small platform over the rear wheel for the passanger to straddle. Now I have to tell you, I'm not all that comfortable on bike's in the best of circumstances, but when I'm the one pedalling, at least I'm in control of things. Riding on the back over bumpy roads dodging cattle was at first downright terrifying. Once I got used to things and relaxed though, it actually became a pretty fun way to travel. For the sake of our pedalers I was glad it was so flat where we were. They got us there (sometimes alarmingly) quickly and each got the equivalent of 50 cents for their trouble, which doesn't sound like much, but for the time it took it's only a little less than what I make. Once in the village we had a great time walking around and had a great meal, so I was really glad I got to make the trip. I'm also excited because this weekend I'm going to Musoma on the eastern shore of the lake to visit Meena, another PCV. I haven't been up that way yet, so I'm excited about it.
In other news, last Thursday after 15 days my electricity finally got fixed. It was one of the most exciting moments of my life. Grading tests by candlelight, while possibly the most quintessential Peace Corps experience, is no fun. Everything else has been going pretty well and it's only a few more weeks before we have a PC conference where I'll get to see most of the lake volunteers who I haven't seen since Christmas. So, until next time, kwa heri (goodbye).
Right now at most of the schools in the area there are student teachers. One of them at Nganza, my PC neighbor Ryan's school, invited the two of us and Brian, the PCV in the town of Misungwi not too far from here, to go up to her family's place in a village outside of Misungwi. It sounded like a good time and something different, and I knew I'd get a good meal out of it, so I went along. It really was an amazing ride. The first thing was that the landscape was completely different even though Misungwi is only about 30 km away. Where I live it is very hilly and wooded and there are huge rock formations, especially right on the lake. Once you get a few kilometers further way though you come to grassland that is almost completely flat. Picture images of the Serengeti without animals and you're pretty close. It was a really beautiful and clear day so the scenery was quite amazing.
Once we got a ways off the main road another difference was how empty things got. Like I said, I've pretty much only lived in fairly densely populated areas. The sheer amount of empty space was amazing. You really could imagine a herd of wildebeast come thundering through at any moment. Another difference is so far from town, Swahili is no longer the predominant language. While most people know Swahili, they mostly speak Kisukuma, the language of the Sukuma tribe which inhabits this region. Brian, living in a much more remote site than Ryan or I and being gifted with languages, actually knows a good bit of Kisukuma, but Ryan and I don't know a bit. Fortunately in the house we were speaking Swahili, which Brian and Ryan have no problems with and I can muddle through.
Perhaps the most significant difference was transportation. By Western standards, my normal transportation may seem primitive. I get around in mini buses about the size of a VW van called daladalas that they cram as many as 30 people into. It's not the most comfortable way to get around, but it's cheap and convenient. I have one come by my house every five minutes or so and get to town for the equivalent of a quarter. It's pretty nice. Out of town, however, it's a little different. So, let's say the closest point any daladala comes to your house is five kilometers, and you just want to drop in for a visit so it's kind of ridiculous to walk the ten kilometer round trip in the heat, but there aren't even any cars around, let alone buses. What do you do? (Oh, and don't think horses. I've actually seen significantly more elephants than horses in this country. I've seen one elephant so far). Well the solution the rural Tanzanians have come up with is an interesting one--bicycle taxis. That's right, a guy with a bike that has a small platform over the rear wheel for the passanger to straddle. Now I have to tell you, I'm not all that comfortable on bike's in the best of circumstances, but when I'm the one pedalling, at least I'm in control of things. Riding on the back over bumpy roads dodging cattle was at first downright terrifying. Once I got used to things and relaxed though, it actually became a pretty fun way to travel. For the sake of our pedalers I was glad it was so flat where we were. They got us there (sometimes alarmingly) quickly and each got the equivalent of 50 cents for their trouble, which doesn't sound like much, but for the time it took it's only a little less than what I make. Once in the village we had a great time walking around and had a great meal, so I was really glad I got to make the trip. I'm also excited because this weekend I'm going to Musoma on the eastern shore of the lake to visit Meena, another PCV. I haven't been up that way yet, so I'm excited about it.
In other news, last Thursday after 15 days my electricity finally got fixed. It was one of the most exciting moments of my life. Grading tests by candlelight, while possibly the most quintessential Peace Corps experience, is no fun. Everything else has been going pretty well and it's only a few more weeks before we have a PC conference where I'll get to see most of the lake volunteers who I haven't seen since Christmas. So, until next time, kwa heri (goodbye).
Thursday, March 02, 2006
Roller Coaster
It has been an eventful couple of weeks with some crazy ups and downs. School is going really well. My supervisor from PC was here and got a really positive evaluation of me from the administration at my school. On the other hand, my electricity has been out for a week and my best buddy in PC, Nathan, is heading home early. I must say I'm disappointed to hear that news. I was also sick last week so I missed the Nganza graduation (see last two posts) and all my fans (who were the ones graduating) have left and I can't roam the school like a rock star anymore. Oh well, such is life. My buddy Ryan, the one at Nganza, tells me how everyone has crazy highs in lows in the Peace Corps and I have to tell you it's completely true. Most days I'll at some point feel like I'm the luckiest guy in the world to be here and at some point be desperate to be back home. It's a strange roller coaster ride, but it's starting to seem normal. Problems come, but I deal with them. If I can't deal with in by myself, then most likely there are friends or neighbors who can help me out. It's a strange life I'm living here. It's usually not easy, but that's ok. I didn't come here for an easy life.
Not much internet time today, so keeping this short.
Not much internet time today, so keeping this short.
Saturday, February 18, 2006
Security
Yet again there have been many ups and downs since my last update. First, there have been security concerns. On several occasions someone has attempted to reach through the bars on my windows and take anything close enough for them to grab. On one occasion a bag containing my camera and passport was taken, so I lost all my pictures, which is why none have appeared on the blog. Even more serious, though, was last Friday night when I returned to my house with a couple of Tanzanian friends. We caught someone with a crow bar trying to pry open my front door. I'm glad there were three of us, since he had the crow bar, and he just ran away. He did not succeed in getting in, but he did do enough damage to the lock that it would no longer open and I had to used the back door until we could replace the lock this week. Now people stealing stuff is one thing, but the fact that someone was almost in my house is a little more disturbing. Fortunately, my neighbors and the people at the school have been great. My headmaster has agreed to put metal gates on my doors (a fairly common security precaution here) that would probably prevent someone from breaking in. My neighbor, who is also in charge of maintenance at the school, brought someone to fix the lock, is hiring a welder for the gate, and brought students over to my house to clear out all of the large bushes surrounding my house, taking away a potential thief's hiding place. Once those gates are finished I feel like my house will be pretty secure.
On other fronts, things are going well. Classes are starting to feel fairly normal and I think that it will be a job I can handle just fine. I'm also starting to spend more time with the several Tanzanian friends I've made. I think that is helping me feel more part of the community. At first it was extremely hard to feel like I belong there, and in some ways it still is, but I don't feel so out of place anymore.
I've taken some more time to explore some of the areas around the school. As you go away from town from my house, you quickly come to sparsely populated farmland close to the lake. The area is quiet and beautiful and there are always some amazing birds down there. There's even an out of the way place to have a drink, and a really nice hotel/bar they are building that will be spectacular when it's finished. Of course with the speed things get done here, it may not be open until after I'm gone.
An update on my Nganza fan club: they convinced Ryan to invite me to their Form VI graduation on Wednesday. It's going to be quite a party.
On other fronts, things are going well. Classes are starting to feel fairly normal and I think that it will be a job I can handle just fine. I'm also starting to spend more time with the several Tanzanian friends I've made. I think that is helping me feel more part of the community. At first it was extremely hard to feel like I belong there, and in some ways it still is, but I don't feel so out of place anymore.
I've taken some more time to explore some of the areas around the school. As you go away from town from my house, you quickly come to sparsely populated farmland close to the lake. The area is quiet and beautiful and there are always some amazing birds down there. There's even an out of the way place to have a drink, and a really nice hotel/bar they are building that will be spectacular when it's finished. Of course with the speed things get done here, it may not be open until after I'm gone.
An update on my Nganza fan club: they convinced Ryan to invite me to their Form VI graduation on Wednesday. It's going to be quite a party.
Monday, February 06, 2006
School Daze
So I've started teaching and it hasn't exactly been easy. Teaching is something I'm completely new at, and the language and culture barriers I must overcome are often difficult. Also, with recent health scares from two of my grandparents, I've felt guilty about being away from my family during tough times. I've also been profoundly disturbed with the practice of hitting the students with wooden sticks for pretty much every misbehavior, however minor. At one point I was watching a student getting hit and I wondered how I could possibly stomach that for two years. I still don't know. However, having said all that, teaching is getting easier, however slowly, and the students seem extremely grateful that I show up for class--get this--on time. I found out the day school opened I'd be teaching Form II as well as Form III. The Form III classes are great and there are only about 25 students each, but each of the Form II classes has around 60. That makes things extremely difficult and means I can give almost no individual attention. Of course, I expected difficulties like this when I came, so I'm sure I'll manage. As often as I wish I were at home close to family and somewhere I can walk down the street without sticking out like a sore thumb, I feel like I'm doing the right thing and that I will get more and more out of this experience as time goes on. Time, as always, will tell.
One of the more interesting, and I admit quite nice, things recently is that I've become somewhat of a celebrity at Nganza Secondary School, and all-girls boarding school about 1 km from my all-boys boarding school. There is another PCV there, Ryan, so I go down and visit now and then. Ryan tells me that many of the girls were quite taken with me (don't worry, he teaches Form VI, so his students are 20-22). One told Ryan she'd even be willing to marry me if I shave my beard. I must say, it's nice to be a celebrity among those girls in their early 20s. Since they are also graduating in a few weeks, I suppose any relationship can be completely guilt-free, right? With the Nganza girls and a university across the street, opportunities abound.
In other news, the continuing East African drought is fortunately not causing water shortages for those of us lucky enough to be less than a mile from Lake Victoria. However, low water levels are causing problems for hydroelectric dams and there is now power rationing all over the country. I know many PCVs don't have power at all, but it's still nice to have the lights on at night. Hopefully rain will come and we'll be able to have power all the time. It's particularly annoying because I've just gotten my conflict with the power company resolved. They had cut me off because the PCV there before me hadn't paid his last two bills. We'll see how this goes. In reality I'm lucky because as you may have heard the drought is causing famine in NW Kenya. While food prices are rising here, there certainly isn't a shortage. Next month the long rainy season should start, so we'll hope it does better than the short rainy season and actually show up. If it doesn't, the lake may drop low enough that I will no longer have running water. This would be much more annoying than the power problem.
Anyway, thanks for the comments and keep them coming. The next two months will be busy, but it's only two more months to Easter break! How sad that I already count the days...
One of the more interesting, and I admit quite nice, things recently is that I've become somewhat of a celebrity at Nganza Secondary School, and all-girls boarding school about 1 km from my all-boys boarding school. There is another PCV there, Ryan, so I go down and visit now and then. Ryan tells me that many of the girls were quite taken with me (don't worry, he teaches Form VI, so his students are 20-22). One told Ryan she'd even be willing to marry me if I shave my beard. I must say, it's nice to be a celebrity among those girls in their early 20s. Since they are also graduating in a few weeks, I suppose any relationship can be completely guilt-free, right? With the Nganza girls and a university across the street, opportunities abound.
In other news, the continuing East African drought is fortunately not causing water shortages for those of us lucky enough to be less than a mile from Lake Victoria. However, low water levels are causing problems for hydroelectric dams and there is now power rationing all over the country. I know many PCVs don't have power at all, but it's still nice to have the lights on at night. Hopefully rain will come and we'll be able to have power all the time. It's particularly annoying because I've just gotten my conflict with the power company resolved. They had cut me off because the PCV there before me hadn't paid his last two bills. We'll see how this goes. In reality I'm lucky because as you may have heard the drought is causing famine in NW Kenya. While food prices are rising here, there certainly isn't a shortage. Next month the long rainy season should start, so we'll hope it does better than the short rainy season and actually show up. If it doesn't, the lake may drop low enough that I will no longer have running water. This would be much more annoying than the power problem.
Anyway, thanks for the comments and keep them coming. The next two months will be busy, but it's only two more months to Easter break! How sad that I already count the days...
Saturday, January 21, 2006
"The Staff Meeting" or "The Depth of Human Suffering in Subsaharan Africa"
Warning: This post is not approved for younger viewers, those with heart conditions, or anyone who is or may be a wuss.
Last Monday it happened. I knew it was coming, but that's not to say I was ready. I walked into the staff room at the school on Monday morning as I always do. Even though we're not teaching yet, we have to "report" every day. This time on the announcements board a message was written by the assistant head master. "Staff meeting today." There was no time on the message, and none of the other teachers knew what time it would start, so we just had to wait.
Now, waiting is the national pasttime of Tanzania. Nothing ever starts remotely on time. You rush to catch the bus that ends up leaving an hour late. School years sometimes end up starting a couple of weeks after scheduled, but some of us aren't quite used to this.
So we waited. Eventually the meeting started, and before I get into the description I'll go ahead and say in lasted five hours. FIVE HOURS! The meeting was also in Swahili. Now I can scrape by in Swahili and usually get a message across, but can you imagine trying to pay attention to someone for five hours in your native language? It's impossible, you can't do it! Inevitably you start to drift. You can't focus. You can maybe pay attention for an hour in your native language, but in another you last maybe two minutes. We went through complaints about discipline and who knows what else and then, sometime in hour three the rain started.
Ok, so we were inside, so it's not like I was getting wet, but it sure didn't help the mood. Ok, well maybe I was really excited to see rain because the rainy season was real late to start and Lake Victoria is at record low levels so it actually probably brightened my mood, but remember that the point of this story is my suffering!
As hour five approached we were served tea. This was quite nice but consider that this was just a clever plot to get enough sugar and caffeine in our systems to take more punishment.
Then, after an announcement that we will indeed be getting satellite TV in the staff room which I'm actually quite excited about the meeting ended, OR DID IT? Afterwards we had to have meetings in our academic departments. NOOOOOOOO! THE HORROR! Ok, so we'd already discussed what I would teach so that meeting lasted about ten seconds, but by then it was well passed lunchtime so it seemed a lot longer.
So that's my tale of inhuman suffering. Wait, you ask, "In a country ravaged by poverty and disease how can you in good conscience call a boring meeting suffering?" My response is: if you think you're so tough, you go two months without a cheeseburger. TWO MONTHS! What's that? You're a vegetarian? Well you really should try chicken. It's delicious.
Last Monday it happened. I knew it was coming, but that's not to say I was ready. I walked into the staff room at the school on Monday morning as I always do. Even though we're not teaching yet, we have to "report" every day. This time on the announcements board a message was written by the assistant head master. "Staff meeting today." There was no time on the message, and none of the other teachers knew what time it would start, so we just had to wait.
Now, waiting is the national pasttime of Tanzania. Nothing ever starts remotely on time. You rush to catch the bus that ends up leaving an hour late. School years sometimes end up starting a couple of weeks after scheduled, but some of us aren't quite used to this.
So we waited. Eventually the meeting started, and before I get into the description I'll go ahead and say in lasted five hours. FIVE HOURS! The meeting was also in Swahili. Now I can scrape by in Swahili and usually get a message across, but can you imagine trying to pay attention to someone for five hours in your native language? It's impossible, you can't do it! Inevitably you start to drift. You can't focus. You can maybe pay attention for an hour in your native language, but in another you last maybe two minutes. We went through complaints about discipline and who knows what else and then, sometime in hour three the rain started.
Ok, so we were inside, so it's not like I was getting wet, but it sure didn't help the mood. Ok, well maybe I was really excited to see rain because the rainy season was real late to start and Lake Victoria is at record low levels so it actually probably brightened my mood, but remember that the point of this story is my suffering!
As hour five approached we were served tea. This was quite nice but consider that this was just a clever plot to get enough sugar and caffeine in our systems to take more punishment.
Then, after an announcement that we will indeed be getting satellite TV in the staff room which I'm actually quite excited about the meeting ended, OR DID IT? Afterwards we had to have meetings in our academic departments. NOOOOOOOO! THE HORROR! Ok, so we'd already discussed what I would teach so that meeting lasted about ten seconds, but by then it was well passed lunchtime so it seemed a lot longer.
So that's my tale of inhuman suffering. Wait, you ask, "In a country ravaged by poverty and disease how can you in good conscience call a boring meeting suffering?" My response is: if you think you're so tough, you go two months without a cheeseburger. TWO MONTHS! What's that? You're a vegetarian? Well you really should try chicken. It's delicious.
The School Year is Set to Begin
Finally Monday I will start with the reason I came to Tanzania. The school year begins this week, and I am ready to have something to do. I've enjoyed my time here in Tanzania, but so far I haven't really accomplished anything so it's nice to finally be getting going. Hopefully all will go well, but I know there will be difficulties as the students get used to their mzungu teacher. Hopefully I'll be able to say how teaching is going before too long.
Saturday, January 07, 2006
New Year in Tanzania
So it's a new year and I'm going to start a new job in a country that is still sometimes quite strange to me. If things go as planned, 2006 will also be the first year of my life that I've spent entirely outside of the United States. I start teaching in two weeks, so it's really time for me to get serious on the preparations. I feel like I'm ready for the job, but we'll see. I am definately ready to start teaching, because at the moment it is a fairly lonely time since I have way too much downtime and I'm not quite at the point where I feel like I fit in my community. Fortunately it does continue to get a little easier and I'm sure once I'm working things will be easier.
As for the ACFGK, I forgot an important Kiswahili word that translates perfectly into a Southernism. The word niliweza can be translated as "I used to could." Have a good new year and enjoy the cold. I hardly remember what that's like...
As for the ACFGK, I forgot an important Kiswahili word that translates perfectly into a Southernism. The word niliweza can be translated as "I used to could." Have a good new year and enjoy the cold. I hardly remember what that's like...
Saturday, December 31, 2005
The Andrew Clark Field Guide to Kiswahili, Vol. 1
Christmas was good, but not too much going on now, so I thought I'd bring you the Andrew Clark Field Guide to Kiswahili. The following guide will help you understand the basics should you ever come to Tanzania or at least understand the occasional Kiswahili word I am sure to through on my blog now and then. the ACFGK goes way beyon an ordinary dictionary to give you the nuance behind what you're saying and hearing.
Habari za...: Habari literall means "news." However, it is used as a greating asking you how your doing. The word after za can be anything such as Habari za asibuhi (how's the morning?). The third word doesn't matter really, you always respond with something like nzuri (good) or salama (safe). Responding anything other than the positive only leads to a lot of annoying questions you don't want to deal with. Of course, we in the Peace Corps take this to ridiculous levels like "Habari za cheeseburger." Salama, incidentally, is also the name of the leading brand of condoms, which I think is appropriate.
Shikamoo: This is a greeting you give someone older than you or in a position of authority over you. It literally means "I hold your feet." The response is marahaba which means "delightful." Personally I don't know what's so delightful about someone holding your feet.
Karibu: This word means "welcome." You will hear it when someone invites you into their home or if you are a visitor or new to an area. You will also hear it when offered something, like food (karibu chakula) or tea (karibu chai) or whatever. Also you can offer somone a glass of tap water and say "karibu amoebic dyssentary." The correct response is asante (see below).
Pole: This word is a way to express sympathy for someone from the trivial to the devestating. If you trip or if your mother dies you'll hear pole. It sounds strange, but it's the correct, polite thing to say in either case even though the best translation I've heard for pole is "it sucks to be you." Again, the response is asante (again, see below).
Asante: This means "thank you." You also use it as a polite way to refuse somethign you're offered, whether it's more tea or if some guy on the street is trying to sell you a spear or something. In the case of responding to a pole or an annoying vendor, the best translation is "screw you!"
Safi: This is one of my favorites. It means "clean" but is used as slang like "cool" in America. If something's really cool you say safi kabisa which means "completely clean." The PCVs tend to love this one and I know we will confuse and/or annoy a lot of Americans with exchanges like the following:
Someone else: How was the food?
Me: It was completely clean.
Someone else: But did it taste good?
Me: I just said it did!
Fupi: This means "short." No big deal, but I just think it sounds cool.
Another great thing about Kiswahili is that there are many cases where it doesn't translate directly into standard English, but it does translate into Southern English. For example:
ninyi: y'all
Habari zenu: How y'all doin'?
Kule: over yonder. This actually is the best translation because pale means "there" but kule means a less specific "over there somewhere" kind of thing, so the best term for it probably is "yonder."
So that's it, you're first few words of Kiswahili. You already know as much as a Kenyan! Look forward to further installments of the Andrew Clark Field Guide to Kiswahili.
Habari za...: Habari literall means "news." However, it is used as a greating asking you how your doing. The word after za can be anything such as Habari za asibuhi (how's the morning?). The third word doesn't matter really, you always respond with something like nzuri (good) or salama (safe). Responding anything other than the positive only leads to a lot of annoying questions you don't want to deal with. Of course, we in the Peace Corps take this to ridiculous levels like "Habari za cheeseburger." Salama, incidentally, is also the name of the leading brand of condoms, which I think is appropriate.
Shikamoo: This is a greeting you give someone older than you or in a position of authority over you. It literally means "I hold your feet." The response is marahaba which means "delightful." Personally I don't know what's so delightful about someone holding your feet.
Karibu: This word means "welcome." You will hear it when someone invites you into their home or if you are a visitor or new to an area. You will also hear it when offered something, like food (karibu chakula) or tea (karibu chai) or whatever. Also you can offer somone a glass of tap water and say "karibu amoebic dyssentary." The correct response is asante (see below).
Pole: This word is a way to express sympathy for someone from the trivial to the devestating. If you trip or if your mother dies you'll hear pole. It sounds strange, but it's the correct, polite thing to say in either case even though the best translation I've heard for pole is "it sucks to be you." Again, the response is asante (again, see below).
Asante: This means "thank you." You also use it as a polite way to refuse somethign you're offered, whether it's more tea or if some guy on the street is trying to sell you a spear or something. In the case of responding to a pole or an annoying vendor, the best translation is "screw you!"
Safi: This is one of my favorites. It means "clean" but is used as slang like "cool" in America. If something's really cool you say safi kabisa which means "completely clean." The PCVs tend to love this one and I know we will confuse and/or annoy a lot of Americans with exchanges like the following:
Someone else: How was the food?
Me: It was completely clean.
Someone else: But did it taste good?
Me: I just said it did!
Fupi: This means "short." No big deal, but I just think it sounds cool.
Another great thing about Kiswahili is that there are many cases where it doesn't translate directly into standard English, but it does translate into Southern English. For example:
ninyi: y'all
Habari zenu: How y'all doin'?
Kule: over yonder. This actually is the best translation because pale means "there" but kule means a less specific "over there somewhere" kind of thing, so the best term for it probably is "yonder."
So that's it, you're first few words of Kiswahili. You already know as much as a Kenyan! Look forward to further installments of the Andrew Clark Field Guide to Kiswahili.
Saturday, December 24, 2005
Merry Christmas from Bukoba
It's Christmas Eve in Bukoba, and most of the lake PCVs are up here to celebrate Christmas. I took a long ferry ride across Lake Victoria to get here yesterday, but it's certainly been worth it. The PCVs up here have great sites and it's really beautiful on the western shore of Lake Victoria.
This will be the first Christmas in my memory that I haven't spent in Polk County with my mom's side of the family, so that's real sad. I hate to miss the annual event, but I'm glad I'll at least get to spend Christmas with some people I'm close to. Have a great Christmas in Columbus and I'm sorry I can't be there!
Not too much to report right now. Things at site are starting to feel normal so I'm having an easier time of things but just the same I'm glad to have this little trip. After this it'll be about ten weeks before I'm allowed to leave site again for more than one night. Fortunately now that I have some buddies at the school, that won't be a problem. So anyway, Merry Christmas everyone, and of course, Happy New Year.
This will be the first Christmas in my memory that I haven't spent in Polk County with my mom's side of the family, so that's real sad. I hate to miss the annual event, but I'm glad I'll at least get to spend Christmas with some people I'm close to. Have a great Christmas in Columbus and I'm sorry I can't be there!
Not too much to report right now. Things at site are starting to feel normal so I'm having an easier time of things but just the same I'm glad to have this little trip. After this it'll be about ten weeks before I'm allowed to leave site again for more than one night. Fortunately now that I have some buddies at the school, that won't be a problem. So anyway, Merry Christmas everyone, and of course, Happy New Year.
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Getting Settled In
It's been about ten days since my last post, but things have been moving at a relatively slow pace. I spent most of my time last week exploring both center city Mwanza and the area around my house. I took some long walks along the lake and discovered a very beautiful beach. I have also met most of the teachers at the school and am getting along quite well with them, particularly a few who are around my age. It has been a strange time because for the first time since July I've been living at a place on my own. The privacy's nice but the quiet in a new place can sometimes be disconcerting. Fortunately I have a very nice house with electricity (most of the time) and running water (at least some of the day). That has made certain things a lot easier. Hauling water can really be a drag, especially those who walk a kilometer a more to the lake to carry it home by the bucketload.
The school seems very nice, but I haven't met any of my students yet since they are on break. I have met some of the older students who are in A-level (for advanced). The way the system works here the secondary school is divided between O-level (o for ordinary) for four years and A-level for two. Very few students make it to A-level, and they are on a different schedule than the rest of the students. I will be teaching O-level.
I am taking a trip up to Bukoba for Christmas. Bukoba is a fairly good sized town on the western shore of Lake Victoria. I'm taking a ferry up there with Kathryn, a volunteer from my training group whose site isn't too far from here. We're visiting Rob, Aaron, and Jodi, all from our training group and all in Bukoba. The five of us, plus Patrick (who won't be making the trip) were the six who had all the time in Dar and Zanzibar. We were around each other constantly for awhile, and then all of the sudden I was on my own, so it will be good to see them again. Of course, now it's already getting a lot easier than it was last week since I'm making friends with some of the other teachers. Before too long I'll actually start preparing to teach. The school opens one month from today.
Oh, also my new address is:
Andrew Clark
PO Box 4058
Mwanza, Tanzania
Getting mail always makes my day, so send something! Only 80 cents from the US. Have a merry Christmas.
The school seems very nice, but I haven't met any of my students yet since they are on break. I have met some of the older students who are in A-level (for advanced). The way the system works here the secondary school is divided between O-level (o for ordinary) for four years and A-level for two. Very few students make it to A-level, and they are on a different schedule than the rest of the students. I will be teaching O-level.
I am taking a trip up to Bukoba for Christmas. Bukoba is a fairly good sized town on the western shore of Lake Victoria. I'm taking a ferry up there with Kathryn, a volunteer from my training group whose site isn't too far from here. We're visiting Rob, Aaron, and Jodi, all from our training group and all in Bukoba. The five of us, plus Patrick (who won't be making the trip) were the six who had all the time in Dar and Zanzibar. We were around each other constantly for awhile, and then all of the sudden I was on my own, so it will be good to see them again. Of course, now it's already getting a lot easier than it was last week since I'm making friends with some of the other teachers. Before too long I'll actually start preparing to teach. The school opens one month from today.
Oh, also my new address is:
Andrew Clark
PO Box 4058
Mwanza, Tanzania
Getting mail always makes my day, so send something! Only 80 cents from the US. Have a merry Christmas.
Monday, December 12, 2005
I'm Home!
So I finally made it to Mwanza, which will be my home for the next two years. The area around my house and my school are incredibly beautiful. I'm a 15 minute walk from Lake Victoria, and I can take a short hike up a hill and get a great view of the surrounding area and watch the sun set over the lake. I have electricity and water, but right now the rainy season is late in arriving so the lake is really low. This means that my water is intermitent. Still, since I seem to have water at least some of every day, I can stock up and I won't suffer too much. I hope the rains come soon though, apparently the lake is the about lowest people around here have ever seen it.
My house is perhaps a 20 bus ride outside of the city center. Mwanza is not a beautiful city, in fact it suffers from some horrible urban sprawl, but I like it anyway. There's just something about the activity of cities I find appealing. There are a few really nice restaurants that are too expensive for me to enjoy often. There's even a casino in one of the nice hotels. A great thing about Mwanza is that you can take a ferry from here to other parts of the lake, including some beautiful islands, and hire tours of the Serengeti, which is fairly close. I'm looking forward to having a chance to do that sometime. I've met all the volunteers in the lake region now, and they all seem like good, interesting people. Of course, there was a lot of turnover in this region this time as six of the nine volunteers here were in my training group. Some who are on other parts of the lake I won't see too often, but two of them are really close.
I've met a few of the teachers at my school and they are very nice and helpful. I think they will be good to work with. Classes don't start until January 21, so I have lots of time to get used to things and get to know the area. Readjustment will take a little time since I've been surrounded by people, either my host family or other trainees, ever since I've been in country. Of course, there are lots of people around where I live, but I'm living alone. It will be quite an adjustment, especially all the cooking. I have a kerosene stove and a pretty nice kitchen, so I'll be alright. Real soon I'm planning on posting some pictures both from training and of the area I live. I'm in town now, but I hear there is internet at the university right by my house, so I'll probably be able to get online more frequently than in training. Of course, I will actually be working and have limited funds, so no promises. As for now, it's kind of a relief to be at my site, but I am a little nervous now. I'm now on my own and it's up to me to do my job and make some sort of difference here.
My house is perhaps a 20 bus ride outside of the city center. Mwanza is not a beautiful city, in fact it suffers from some horrible urban sprawl, but I like it anyway. There's just something about the activity of cities I find appealing. There are a few really nice restaurants that are too expensive for me to enjoy often. There's even a casino in one of the nice hotels. A great thing about Mwanza is that you can take a ferry from here to other parts of the lake, including some beautiful islands, and hire tours of the Serengeti, which is fairly close. I'm looking forward to having a chance to do that sometime. I've met all the volunteers in the lake region now, and they all seem like good, interesting people. Of course, there was a lot of turnover in this region this time as six of the nine volunteers here were in my training group. Some who are on other parts of the lake I won't see too often, but two of them are really close.
I've met a few of the teachers at my school and they are very nice and helpful. I think they will be good to work with. Classes don't start until January 21, so I have lots of time to get used to things and get to know the area. Readjustment will take a little time since I've been surrounded by people, either my host family or other trainees, ever since I've been in country. Of course, there are lots of people around where I live, but I'm living alone. It will be quite an adjustment, especially all the cooking. I have a kerosene stove and a pretty nice kitchen, so I'll be alright. Real soon I'm planning on posting some pictures both from training and of the area I live. I'm in town now, but I hear there is internet at the university right by my house, so I'll probably be able to get online more frequently than in training. Of course, I will actually be working and have limited funds, so no promises. As for now, it's kind of a relief to be at my site, but I am a little nervous now. I'm now on my own and it's up to me to do my job and make some sort of difference here.
Monday, December 05, 2005
Zanzibar
So it's my last night in Zanzibar. I've had a blast hear. We spent two nights on the northwestern coast of the island on possibly the most beautiful beach I've ever seen. Even though there are four hotels right in a row, the beaches are very far from crowded. Each hotel also has a restaurant and bar along the beach so there were a few places to choose from. Today we came down to Stone Town, which is a very old town with incredibly narrow streets that wind around like a maze. We spent much of the day wandering through them aimlessly never really knowing where we were. Tonight we ate dinner along the harbor where you can pick out some fresh fish that will then be grilled for you. It was pretty nice.
Zanzibar is an interesting place because of the mixture of African and Arab culture. It's also the most touristy place I've seen so far in Tanzania, so the locals are pleasantly surprised when you speak Kiswahili to them. I'm feeling a lot better about my language skills because as long as I try not to be too deep, I have very few problems communicating with people. I feel confident that I will continue to improve even though the formal lessons are over.
Tomorrow we go back to Dar where we will be until we leave for our site on Thursday. It will take maybe 2-4 days to get to Mwanza. I've been having a great vacation but I'm ready to get to site. I will probably have an opportunity to post again before I leave.
Zanzibar is an interesting place because of the mixture of African and Arab culture. It's also the most touristy place I've seen so far in Tanzania, so the locals are pleasantly surprised when you speak Kiswahili to them. I'm feeling a lot better about my language skills because as long as I try not to be too deep, I have very few problems communicating with people. I feel confident that I will continue to improve even though the formal lessons are over.
Tomorrow we go back to Dar where we will be until we leave for our site on Thursday. It will take maybe 2-4 days to get to Mwanza. I've been having a great vacation but I'm ready to get to site. I will probably have an opportunity to post again before I leave.
Friday, December 02, 2005
I'm Going to Mwanza!
I'm sorry I haven't updated in awhile, especially because a lot has happened since I last posted. The biggest, most exciting news is that I will be in Mwanza. Mwanza is the second largest city in the country and is located right on Lake Victoria. I will be living inside the city limits about eight kilometers south of city center teaching at Nsumbe Secondary School. It is a fairly large school that is in the process of converting to an all-boys boarding school. It also has a very good reputation in Tanzania, so I'm excited at the opportunity. I'll be living in a three-bedroom house on campus that is within walking distance of the lake. My neighborhood is also home to a university and a seminary, so there will be a lot of students around. Mwanza is the point where many Serengeti tours leave and there is also a national park on an island in the lake you would take a ferry to from Mwanza. Supposedly it is an amazing park that has a population of chimpanzees, but is the least visited of all of Tanzania's parks because of the relatively remote location. Mwanza also has some great restaurants including Indian and Chinese places right on the lake. For those of you who may wish to visit, I will have lots of space and you can fly straight into Mwanza. If you're a little squeamish about living the Tanzanian lifestyle, they will soon complete a five-star hotel 2-3 km from my house that will be ridiculously cheap by Western standards. So basically, karibu Mwanza (that means you're welcome in Mwanza)! I am extremely happy about my site.
In other news, Thanksgiving at the Ambassador's place was great, and the food was great, while it lasted. Fortunately I wasn't at the back of the line and I got my fill of turkey and dressing. I did feel pretty bad when I found out it had run out, but there wasn't really anything I could do. I must say though that it was real cool of the ambassador to invite Peace Corps somewhere where there was an open bar.
This past Monday I moved out of my host family's home. I will miss them, especially little Tina, because they were really great to me. Before long I'll post some pictures of them. The day after I left was the swearing in ceremony, so I am now officially a Peace Corps Volunteer. It's a pretty exciting thing. I am so, so glad that training is over and I can get on to my site. Even better, I get a week-long vacation first.
Right now I'm in Dar es Salaam. They are driving us out to our sites and all the cars are out taking other people now so the six of us in the lake region have to wait for them to return. Fortunately PC is covering our living expenses while we're here. Yesterday we went to a beautiful beach resort outside of town and stayed in these great huts right on the beach for $8 a person. They also had a bar and great food. The beach was absolutely beautiful and the water was great. We had a blast, but it's going to get even better because today we got permission from the country director to go to Zanzibar! We don't need to be back here at the PC office until Thursday, so we're going to take the ferry out to Zanzibar for a few days. If you don't know anything about Zanzibar, look it up on the web. It is an amazingly beautiful and exotic island off the coast of Tanzania. Zanzibar was briefly an independent country before it joined with Tanganyika in 1964 to form Tanzania. A lot of PCVs take vacations out there and it sounds pretty amazing. Since over land I am about 2-3 days away from Dar where you take the ferry out there, it will be pretty difficult to make the journey out there later. I'm glad I have the chance now.
Sorry this jumped around a lot, but a lot has happened. I'll try to post about Zanzibar and first impressions of Mwanza ASAP. I should arrive in Mwanza on the 10th or the 11th. And seriously, anyone's welcome to come. I am not free to travel during school, but I am always free to have visitors for up to one month.
In other news, Thanksgiving at the Ambassador's place was great, and the food was great, while it lasted. Fortunately I wasn't at the back of the line and I got my fill of turkey and dressing. I did feel pretty bad when I found out it had run out, but there wasn't really anything I could do. I must say though that it was real cool of the ambassador to invite Peace Corps somewhere where there was an open bar.
This past Monday I moved out of my host family's home. I will miss them, especially little Tina, because they were really great to me. Before long I'll post some pictures of them. The day after I left was the swearing in ceremony, so I am now officially a Peace Corps Volunteer. It's a pretty exciting thing. I am so, so glad that training is over and I can get on to my site. Even better, I get a week-long vacation first.
Right now I'm in Dar es Salaam. They are driving us out to our sites and all the cars are out taking other people now so the six of us in the lake region have to wait for them to return. Fortunately PC is covering our living expenses while we're here. Yesterday we went to a beautiful beach resort outside of town and stayed in these great huts right on the beach for $8 a person. They also had a bar and great food. The beach was absolutely beautiful and the water was great. We had a blast, but it's going to get even better because today we got permission from the country director to go to Zanzibar! We don't need to be back here at the PC office until Thursday, so we're going to take the ferry out to Zanzibar for a few days. If you don't know anything about Zanzibar, look it up on the web. It is an amazingly beautiful and exotic island off the coast of Tanzania. Zanzibar was briefly an independent country before it joined with Tanganyika in 1964 to form Tanzania. A lot of PCVs take vacations out there and it sounds pretty amazing. Since over land I am about 2-3 days away from Dar where you take the ferry out there, it will be pretty difficult to make the journey out there later. I'm glad I have the chance now.
Sorry this jumped around a lot, but a lot has happened. I'll try to post about Zanzibar and first impressions of Mwanza ASAP. I should arrive in Mwanza on the 10th or the 11th. And seriously, anyone's welcome to come. I am not free to travel during school, but I am always free to have visitors for up to one month.
Saturday, November 19, 2005
Njombe
So the last few days I've been in the Njombe area and last night we came into town. I was visiting Steve, an education volunteer about an hour out of town. His site is right in the highlands and is absolutely amazing. I'm really hoping to get placed down here now. Njombe is a pretty nice town too and there are a lot of PCVs in the area. They seem to be a pretty tight group because it's a little bit isolated from the rest of the country, though not as much as some places. The weather here is beautiful. It's not hot and there are no mosquitos. I was actually a little bit cold last night. In just two days I will find out where my site is, so I can't wait. Of course first I have to get through the seven or so hour bus ride I have tomorrow. It actually won't be that bad because the scenery is amazing and we go through one of the national parks. On the way down I saw an elephant, some giraffes, antelope, a zebra, and some baboons. It was my first good look at wildlife here so I was really excited. Unfortunately there was no time for pictures. This afternoon we're going to take a short walk out of town to one of the waterfalls. A lot of the PCVs in the area came to town this weekend so we should have a pretty good group. I really can't contain my excitement about being done with training in a little over a week.
Last night I had a really interesting conversation with a Tanzanian and a couple of PCVs about Tanzania. We were talking about how Tanzania has been so successful in uniting all the different groups of people (an amazing feat compared to so many African countries) but has so far been so unsuccessful at pulling people out of poverty. Grant, the Tanzanian, was very frank about the certain areas where Tanzanians themselves are to blame. For example, many people here focus on providing one day at a time, never looking to go a bit beyond and build for the future. On the other hand, Tanzanians will always share whatever they have with their neighbors in need. In America of course, people tend to look out for themselves and other people's problems are other people's problems (of course, I'm generalizing). We agreed that there must be some sort of medium of doing for yourself but helping others who are in need. Part of the conversation came around to what motivates us to leave the wealthy world behind and come to Tanzania. It's an interesting question. I suppose it's because the wealth of the West isn't enough to satisfy us, and yet more wealth here would make life so much easier and in many cases possible where now it is not. At the same time, the sense of community and of caring for others that exists here would make life in America so much easier and better. I think our two societies have a lot to learn from each other, and I think I'm incredibly lucky to have that opportunity. I am just blown away by how much I've already gotten from this experience even though it has hardly started. Again, I can't wait to get done with training and get to my site! Hopefully next time you hear from me I'll be able to tell you where I will live for two years.
Last night I had a really interesting conversation with a Tanzanian and a couple of PCVs about Tanzania. We were talking about how Tanzania has been so successful in uniting all the different groups of people (an amazing feat compared to so many African countries) but has so far been so unsuccessful at pulling people out of poverty. Grant, the Tanzanian, was very frank about the certain areas where Tanzanians themselves are to blame. For example, many people here focus on providing one day at a time, never looking to go a bit beyond and build for the future. On the other hand, Tanzanians will always share whatever they have with their neighbors in need. In America of course, people tend to look out for themselves and other people's problems are other people's problems (of course, I'm generalizing). We agreed that there must be some sort of medium of doing for yourself but helping others who are in need. Part of the conversation came around to what motivates us to leave the wealthy world behind and come to Tanzania. It's an interesting question. I suppose it's because the wealth of the West isn't enough to satisfy us, and yet more wealth here would make life so much easier and in many cases possible where now it is not. At the same time, the sense of community and of caring for others that exists here would make life in America so much easier and better. I think our two societies have a lot to learn from each other, and I think I'm incredibly lucky to have that opportunity. I am just blown away by how much I've already gotten from this experience even though it has hardly started. Again, I can't wait to get done with training and get to my site! Hopefully next time you hear from me I'll be able to tell you where I will live for two years.
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Howdy from Dar es Salaam!
Howdy everyone. Sorry for the errors in the last post, the Morogoro network is a bit unreliable. Fortunately I am now in the bustling metropolis of Dar es Salaam, which I'm really enjoying. It is much nicer and seems a lot safer than I expected. Tomorrow I will leave for three days of shadowing a volunteer in Njombe, which is in the southern highlands not to far from Lake Nyasa. I'm very excited because I love mountains and I hear there are two patches of rain forest and several waterfalls within walking distance of town. Also it is actually very cool there and there are almost no mosquitos. From what I know about it I'd think I'd really like it if that is where I am placed. The only drawback is that it's almost 12 hours from DSM. Monday we will find out where our site actually is. I am very excited and hope that I'm in the highlands, either north or south.
The other big news is that I now have a phone. Anyone who wants to call can because it's free to receive, but keep in mind that I'm 8 hours ahead of EST. The Tz country code is 255 and my number is 787 212 257. I really would love to hear from everyone, so please feel free. Also you can try to send text messages because I can receive them, but I'm not sure how well they work with international calls. Also keep in mind that there are many places in country where service is not very good, so sometimes you may not be able to get through.
In other news I have been having a great time the last few days. Dar has been a lot of fun and it has been so nice to be out of Morogoro and see some more of this country. I also had quite an experience last week because my buddy Wes's host sister had a send-off. This is a big party a bride's family throws a few days before the wedding. My host mama was the "matron" which means she is the maid of honor but in the send-off it is even more involved. She is almost as much a part of things as the bride. It had quite a lot of interesting ritual and was quite a party. Wes, Michael (another trainee) and I even participated by opening and spraying champagne and then running around the room giving everyone a little in their glasses for the toast. It was a lot of fun and incredibly hard to describe. If you ever have a chance to attend an East African send-off, I highly recommend it. I imagine I'll see quite a few before I leave. It was also a very late night. We didn't get back home until 2:30, which was quite late considering we're up with the sun pretty much every day.
I hope the post goes through this time. Thanks for the comments and keep them coming. Hopefully I can post soon after Monday to tell you where I will live for the next two years.
The other big news is that I now have a phone. Anyone who wants to call can because it's free to receive, but keep in mind that I'm 8 hours ahead of EST. The Tz country code is 255 and my number is 787 212 257. I really would love to hear from everyone, so please feel free. Also you can try to send text messages because I can receive them, but I'm not sure how well they work with international calls. Also keep in mind that there are many places in country where service is not very good, so sometimes you may not be able to get through.
In other news I have been having a great time the last few days. Dar has been a lot of fun and it has been so nice to be out of Morogoro and see some more of this country. I also had quite an experience last week because my buddy Wes's host sister had a send-off. This is a big party a bride's family throws a few days before the wedding. My host mama was the "matron" which means she is the maid of honor but in the send-off it is even more involved. She is almost as much a part of things as the bride. It had quite a lot of interesting ritual and was quite a party. Wes, Michael (another trainee) and I even participated by opening and spraying champagne and then running around the room giving everyone a little in their glasses for the toast. It was a lot of fun and incredibly hard to describe. If you ever have a chance to attend an East African send-off, I highly recommend it. I imagine I'll see quite a few before I leave. It was also a very late night. We didn't get back home until 2:30, which was quite late considering we're up with the sun pretty much every day.
I hope the post goes through this time. Thanks for the comments and keep them coming. Hopefully I can post soon after Monday to tell you where I will live for the next two years.
Saturday, November 05, 2005
Saturday, October 22, 2005
Only 26 short months left. Where does the time go?
Last Sunday I came into town to use the internet, but the Morogoro network was down. Fortunately, I bumped into Nathan, one of my good PCT buddies and we decided to go have a soda. We ran into some PCVs at our watering hole of choice, Mama Pierina's, and later went out for ice cream where we met an Australian man and Irish woman travalling together. Our now fairly large group ended up having quite an exciting afternoon. I ended up getting to do everything except what I set out to do. Such is life, especially in Africa.
The last two weeks have been very good. Each week is easier and going by faster than the week before. I'm making a lot of progress with the language and am to the point where I can get basic information across and understand simple things said to me. Teaching has started off great too. My first lesson was a little rough, but the second one went extremely well. I am becoming extremely confident about my ability to perform both in the school and in this culture. I know it's going to be far from easy, but at the same time I know I can do it.
I'm enjoying the Swahili. As I mentioned, it's really coming along, but it's also a great sounding language. The language uses a lot of prefixes for agreement between nouns and adjectives and subject prefixes for verbs. The cool thing about that is that it means Swahili often lends itself to a lot of fun alliteration. For example: "Watoto wetu wawili wafupi walikuwa wanifunzi wazuri." That sentence means, "Our two short children were good students." The stuff with the noun-adjective agreement is pretty complicated and to large extent it seems arbitrary why a noun is in this "class" or that one. The class of the noun is what tells you what prefixes you will need on adjectives, numbers, and even the Swahili word for "of." This aspect of the language is what I'm finding hardest to learn.
As exciting as linguistics are, I will move on to different things. I am definately getting comfortable at home. Communication is much easier and washing clothes by hand and bucket showers now seem pretty normal. Pretty soon our training schedule will get much more exciting. We're going into Week 5, and in Week 8 we will visit Dar es Salaam and shadow a volunteer in the field. The week after that is Thanksgiving and we have been invited, along with all PC staff and volunteers, to the US ambassador's residence for Thanksgiving dinner. We just found out about that this week. Needless to say it's a very nice surprise. Five days after Thanksgiving, we swear in, and then it's off to our site.
We still don't know our sites, but that's mainly because Peace Corps hasn't matched people to sites yet. We talked to them about what we want in a site, but I figure I'll most likely be ok with it no matter where it is. I did tell them I like mountains though. It would be really great to be in the southern or northern highlands, both because of the scenery and the weather. Time will tell, I'll find out in about a month.
Unfortunately, I'm running out of computer time. It's very hard to focus my thoughts so quickly. I may start writing the entry before I come and just type it in here. Things are still going well, and I appreciate the emails, letters, and comments posted here. Keep them coming. Bottom line of my situation is that while it's far from easy, I'm having a good time and I'm adapting well. Until next week, or perhaps the next.
The last two weeks have been very good. Each week is easier and going by faster than the week before. I'm making a lot of progress with the language and am to the point where I can get basic information across and understand simple things said to me. Teaching has started off great too. My first lesson was a little rough, but the second one went extremely well. I am becoming extremely confident about my ability to perform both in the school and in this culture. I know it's going to be far from easy, but at the same time I know I can do it.
I'm enjoying the Swahili. As I mentioned, it's really coming along, but it's also a great sounding language. The language uses a lot of prefixes for agreement between nouns and adjectives and subject prefixes for verbs. The cool thing about that is that it means Swahili often lends itself to a lot of fun alliteration. For example: "Watoto wetu wawili wafupi walikuwa wanifunzi wazuri." That sentence means, "Our two short children were good students." The stuff with the noun-adjective agreement is pretty complicated and to large extent it seems arbitrary why a noun is in this "class" or that one. The class of the noun is what tells you what prefixes you will need on adjectives, numbers, and even the Swahili word for "of." This aspect of the language is what I'm finding hardest to learn.
As exciting as linguistics are, I will move on to different things. I am definately getting comfortable at home. Communication is much easier and washing clothes by hand and bucket showers now seem pretty normal. Pretty soon our training schedule will get much more exciting. We're going into Week 5, and in Week 8 we will visit Dar es Salaam and shadow a volunteer in the field. The week after that is Thanksgiving and we have been invited, along with all PC staff and volunteers, to the US ambassador's residence for Thanksgiving dinner. We just found out about that this week. Needless to say it's a very nice surprise. Five days after Thanksgiving, we swear in, and then it's off to our site.
We still don't know our sites, but that's mainly because Peace Corps hasn't matched people to sites yet. We talked to them about what we want in a site, but I figure I'll most likely be ok with it no matter where it is. I did tell them I like mountains though. It would be really great to be in the southern or northern highlands, both because of the scenery and the weather. Time will tell, I'll find out in about a month.
Unfortunately, I'm running out of computer time. It's very hard to focus my thoughts so quickly. I may start writing the entry before I come and just type it in here. Things are still going well, and I appreciate the emails, letters, and comments posted here. Keep them coming. Bottom line of my situation is that while it's far from easy, I'm having a good time and I'm adapting well. Until next week, or perhaps the next.
Sunday, October 09, 2005
Updating already?
That's right, I was here just three days ago, but I'm back at the internet cafe. We are still training hard, but on Sundays we have the day off. Earlier I washed all my clothes by hand. That was quite a chore, and now my knuckles are rather raw. Fortunately one of the girls who works for my family helped me out. Tomorrow I will start observing math classes in Kihonda Secondary School. I'll probably observe three or for classes, and then teach my first lesson. Friday we practiced teaching to each other in our language groups, and I think I did ok for the most part. I need to speak slowly and carefully because my students will not be that proficient in English, and I need to practice writing on the chalk board because I'm not used to that and my hand writing is terrible. I'm feeling good about it though. My organization was good and I think I am able to present the material in a way that will be understood.
Communication is improving day to day. I am getting much better at understanding what people say to me. Most of the time I'll still struggle to find the words to respond, but I'm definately making progress. I'm still impatient for training to finish so I can get to my site. I believe it's seven more weeks before I swear in.
Communication is improving day to day. I am getting much better at understanding what people say to me. Most of the time I'll still struggle to find the words to respond, but I'm definately making progress. I'm still impatient for training to finish so I can get to my site. I believe it's seven more weeks before I swear in.
Thursday, October 06, 2005
First Two Weeks in Morogoro
It has been a very hectic two weeks. This will likely be stream-of-consciousness, so bear with me.
My host family is great. They are a fairly young couple (mid 30s) with two little girls, 6 and 1 1/2. The older is in boarding school and I haven't met her yet. The little one, Tina, is really cute and hopefully I can eventually post a picture. Baba (dad) speaks fluent English but since I'm learning Swahili, we try to communicate in that until we hit a brick wall, then we'll use English. Mama speaks some English too, so when communication is really necessary, we're ok. There are also two girls at the house who are hired to cook, clean, etc. I found out one of them is Mama's younger sister (Mama has 19 siblings). We live in a village called Kihonda outside of Morogoro. It's about a 45 minute bus ride from there into town, so unfortunately I probably won't be able to update this as much as I'd like. I'm doing my training and internship teaching at Kihonda Secondary School. Our training group has four people with our language and cross-cultural faciliator, a Tanzanian named Peter. Peter's a great teacher and a nice guy and I feel like I'm making huge progress in the language considering I didn't speak a word of it two weeks ago. I will also begin teaching a lesson or two week after next, so I'm a bit nervous about that.
The last two weeks have been very fulfilling, but also challenging and stressful. Communication with a lot of people is very frustrating because very few people speak English. We also have very little down time. We did have some time off last Saturday though and several of the area Peace Corps Volunteers were in town. They were all extremely laid back and said that training was intentionally like a boot camp and that the actual service isn't so quickly paced. They all seem to be having a great time and to love what they do, so I am extremely excited. I just am kind of impatient to get through training. The people I'm training with are great, so I hope I will be posted close to some other volunteers so that we can visit each other.
Tanzania is a really great place. The mountains here around Morogoro are beautiful. The food is good, though there isn't too much variety. A lot of rice and beans and a spinach-like vegetable (called mchicha). The coolest thing though is that I am yet to have a meal without fresh fruit. My house actually is very nice by Tanzanian standards. We don't have a shower, but we have a tap in the shower room and choo (squat toilet). We also have electricity and even a TV. It is extremely unlikely I'll have such luck at my site. I'll sign off for now. There are about eight more weeks of training, and then the swearing in. I hoping I may get in here on a weekly basis to update, but that may be too optimistic. Until next time!
My host family is great. They are a fairly young couple (mid 30s) with two little girls, 6 and 1 1/2. The older is in boarding school and I haven't met her yet. The little one, Tina, is really cute and hopefully I can eventually post a picture. Baba (dad) speaks fluent English but since I'm learning Swahili, we try to communicate in that until we hit a brick wall, then we'll use English. Mama speaks some English too, so when communication is really necessary, we're ok. There are also two girls at the house who are hired to cook, clean, etc. I found out one of them is Mama's younger sister (Mama has 19 siblings). We live in a village called Kihonda outside of Morogoro. It's about a 45 minute bus ride from there into town, so unfortunately I probably won't be able to update this as much as I'd like. I'm doing my training and internship teaching at Kihonda Secondary School. Our training group has four people with our language and cross-cultural faciliator, a Tanzanian named Peter. Peter's a great teacher and a nice guy and I feel like I'm making huge progress in the language considering I didn't speak a word of it two weeks ago. I will also begin teaching a lesson or two week after next, so I'm a bit nervous about that.
The last two weeks have been very fulfilling, but also challenging and stressful. Communication with a lot of people is very frustrating because very few people speak English. We also have very little down time. We did have some time off last Saturday though and several of the area Peace Corps Volunteers were in town. They were all extremely laid back and said that training was intentionally like a boot camp and that the actual service isn't so quickly paced. They all seem to be having a great time and to love what they do, so I am extremely excited. I just am kind of impatient to get through training. The people I'm training with are great, so I hope I will be posted close to some other volunteers so that we can visit each other.
Tanzania is a really great place. The mountains here around Morogoro are beautiful. The food is good, though there isn't too much variety. A lot of rice and beans and a spinach-like vegetable (called mchicha). The coolest thing though is that I am yet to have a meal without fresh fruit. My house actually is very nice by Tanzanian standards. We don't have a shower, but we have a tap in the shower room and choo (squat toilet). We also have electricity and even a TV. It is extremely unlikely I'll have such luck at my site. I'll sign off for now. There are about eight more weeks of training, and then the swearing in. I hoping I may get in here on a weekly basis to update, but that may be too optimistic. Until next time!
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