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.

Back to the Mountains

Today is my last day in Dar es Salaam. I've had a really great week, and it's pretty cool to be in a setting that's pretty much the opposite of where I usually am, just because I'm one who likes variety. Having said that, I am looking forward to getting back. The main reason is the weather. It is hot in this town. And I mean really hot. It's quite humid too. Of course in a country like this, there aren't all that many places that are air conditioned, so the heat can be pretty oppressive. It's always lovely to wake up in the morning damp because of your own sweat through out the night. Fortunately I've been staying places with nice showers. It's also going to be nice to just take it easy, because I've been moving at a pretty fast pace all week and keeping busy. I should have at least a couple of days to relax at home in the cool weather. Of course, it likely will be raining back home, but that'll be ok thanks to my new purchase of rubber muck boots. Now wading through ankle deep mud and across small rivers to get to town will be no problem.

In about a month I'll begin teaching again. Things will start at the school before that. I think it will be a lot easier now that the students and I are used to each other. I will work very hard this year with few breaks, but as much fun as I'm having now it's not what I'm here to do. I still have Christmas and New Year's and a short PC conference before all that, so I'll just have to get all of my rowdiness out of my system I suppose. It'll be good to be back to things, actually. I have a good life at Kongei.

That's my short post for a dull day. Have a good weekend.

A New Side of Africa

While I have been here in Tanzania I have seen many sides of the country. I lived just outside the second largest city and now I live in a somewhat isolated valley full of subsistence farms. Yesterday, though, I saw something new. I'm here in Dar es Salaam and I got a call from Matthew, a friend of mine who's another teacher at my school. I told him I was in Dar and he said he is too, staying with a friend of his. We decided to meet up so I went out there. Turns out his friend lived in what many people would call a slum. It wasn't as bad as the worst images you may have seen with pieces of sheet metal just piled together to form some kind of shelter. What it was however was narrow alleyways in which tiny houses were packed together. I've spent a lot of time in the city center of Dar without going out to see how most of the people in the city live. Fortunately people aren't starving, but the high density and lack of sanitation systems causes the occasional rather horrific outbreak of cholera or typhoid or some such disease. It was interesting for me to be there because I definitely seemed to be the only white guy for quite a distance around, but my presence didn't cause the kind of stir I normally do in a rural area. The kids were also real friendly and not at all scared of me. I played with several little girls who seemed pretty excited to have such a strange looking guy around.

Matthew and I spent the afternoon visiting people, eating lunch, and having a couple of beers in a surprisingly nice bar. I can't help but think how shocked I would have been by the place if I went there right after arriving here. I wouldn't have believed that people were raising there families in such an environment. Now however, it doesn't seem like such a horrible life, just different. Of course concerns about health are quite serious, but people, many of them working, are there and leading a decent life. We Americans put such a premium on having our own space that we can't believe that many people don't feel such a need. In fact, Tanzanians are often completely horrified that I live in a house by myself. They think I must be suffering unbearably. This isn't to say that these people probably wouldn't have nicer places if they could afford it, but it certainly isn't as bad as many Westerners would assume at first glance.

I was hoping to post some pictures this week, but I'm having trouble getting this computer to recognize my camera. Hopefully I'll be able to before too long.

Live Turkeys and Car Chases

I was going to post some pictures and try to write about general life over here. I know that my every day life seems just like dull every day life to me, but to a lot of you back home it's probably interesting to know how I'm living. All of this will wait until later in the week though when I will also post a lot of pictures. It will wait because I had a rather interesting experience on the way into Dar es Salaam yesterday.

So right now because my school is a boarding school and we're basically in our summer break, the students are gone as well as the teachers so it's pretty much a ghost town where I live. This has not motivated me to stay at home too much so I've been looking for some stuff to do on my own. A good opportunity is right now when several of my PC friends, including the two guys who were in Mwanza with me, are in town for the Close of Service stuff which largely consists of paperwork and medical exams. They'll have evenings free though, so we'll be able to go out at night in the big city. I figured it'd be fun to come down for the week and just have a good time then go back to Lushoto for Christmas.

Yesterday I hopped on the bus at 6 in the morning yesterday and made it to the bus station here in Dar a little before noon. I left the station hoping to get a daladala (the crazy, but dirt cheap, mini buses that are the primary mode of transportation) but it was a really busy time and it seemed like it would be pretty hard to get on one. A taxi driver then offered to take people into town for 1000 shillings each (about 75 cents). The dala is only 300 shillings, but no waiting and a more comfortable ride seemed quite worth the extra cash. So I get in with three other people and we're riding toward town. All of the sudden the car in front of us brakes pretty hard to make a u-turn, which wouldn't be so bad if his brake lights had been working. Since they weren't, our driver didn't react quite quickly enough and had to slam on his brakes. He managed to avoid hitting the car in front of us, but the dala behind us slammed into our cab (no one was injured at all). The taxi driver and the daladala driver were pretty irate at the guy who they believed (somewhat fairly) caused the accident. So the dala conductor jumps out of the dala and into our cab and we start chasing they guy! At this point I was thinking two things. One was that I couldn't come up with any scenario where something good would come out of this car chase. The other thing I was thinking was should they succeed in the chase that it would be pretty hard to explain to Peace Corps how I ended up involved in some horrific incident of vigilante justice. After some ridiculous swerving through traffic and a couple misidentifications of the car in question everyone realized we had lost the other driver. I was pretty relieved about this. So the dala and taxi guys traded insurance information and I ended up getting into town, a little shaken up but completely unharmed. The only other annoyance was at the hotel where I had made a reservation. Apparently making a reservation doesn't mean they hold a room for you, but that they'll give you one if it's available when you come. I decided it wasn't worth explaining to them what the word reservation means so I had to go to another hotel for the night. No big deal, but it wasn't exactly the smoothest afternoon. Fortunately I met up with several friends and we went to a really amazing Ethiopian restaurant and had a good time. I think it'll be a good week here in Dar.

As I mentioned, when I get back to Lushoto I'll start putting together our Christmas celebration. I think the highlight of this is that I'm going to get a live turkey from some of the nuns around and we're going to cook that hopefully with mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, and green beans. I'm going to have to slaughter the turkey, so that will be a new experience for me. I'll write about that, don't worry. Fortunately Isaac, another volunteer in the region, has killed a turkey before and can give me advice.

Another funny thing that happened yesterday was a Tanzanian guy who saw me assumed correctly that I was in the Peace Corps and said, "Ah, Peace Corps, askari wa amani!" which basically translates to "guardians of peace." That was pretty cool and made me feel like a superhero. As I'm in Dar I have access to cheap and sometimes free internet, so there'll be more this week.

The End of Year One

My first school year as a teacher is over. It’s been quite a time and I’ve learned a lot from the experience. I’m really glad to have time off, but I’m certainly not dreading the start of another year. For the next month or so I’ll be meeting new volunteers in the Lushoto area and showing them around and I’ll be traveling around a bit. It should be a real good time. I’ll do my best to fill you in on what’s going on.

First off, I was really pleased with how my Form Ones performed. About a month before the final exams I gave them a tough math test that they really bombed. I was pretty angry with them for not preparing and in one class I was yelling at the students. Finally a tiny 12-year-old girl named Theresia put her slightly trembling hand up, her eyes big as saucers and asked, “Sir, will you cane us?” Well, that was too cute so it softened me up a bit. I also thought it was funny that they thought I might hit them. As I’ve mentioned before, corporal punishment is quite common in the schools here, but fortunately at my school now it’s quite uncommon because the administration doesn’t allow it. I guess my students figured that like some of the other teachers, every now and then I would resort to hitting them. So anyway, apparently this test really scared them and they studied really hard for my final. The grades were really good. I’m real glad about that because after they had done so poorly in the previous test I had doubts about how well I had gotten through to them. It’s an interesting kind of pride a teacher has when his students perform well.

Now the school is closed and the students have all gone home, and almost all the teachers have left as well. It’s now really quiet since almost all my neighbors are other teachers. Since there’s so little going on there I probably won’t be at home too much, though I will likely be in the area a lot because I think I’ll want to go around the area and visit the new ones in their sites. A lot of them are in new sites that I’d like to check out and if their settling in time is anything like mine they’ll be real glad to have visitors. The first few months at site was the most difficult time of my life. That’s not to say it was bad, it was just really, really hard. Every day I considered going home for awhile. Once you get four to six months in, for most people, you can make it the whole way and now I’m really glad I didn’t leave. In fact in the last several months any ideas of leaving early seem pretty crazy. Of course the Charlotte 49ers in the Final Four would be a perfectly logical reason, unlikely as it is, but as often happens I digress. The point is I know that these kids are going to be going through a tough time and I hope I’ll be able to help.

Speaking of the new group I got to meet most of them, though they don’t move in until the first week of December. I’m here in the Tanga region, which is divided into two parts. There’s Tanga Juu, the Lushoto area, where I live. Juu is Swahili for “up” or “above” because we’re up in the mountains. Then there’s Tanga Chini. As you may have guessed, chini is “down” or “below.” This is the area near Tanga town on the coast. The two areas are physically close together, but the roads winding their way around the mountains make travel between them somewhat difficult. They also have very different climates because of altitude differences. So in the two areas we have four in Tanga Juu and one in Tanga Chini starting their second year. We’re getting loaded up with new ones. If I’m counting correctly we have a total of nine coming to Tanga region, six Juu, three Chini. I guess I may as well mention that of the nine, seven are girls, which led to my rather ridiculous happy dance on the streets of Dar es Salaam. When I told Josh (my good buddy and fellow Lushoto volunteer, and only other available guy in the area) the news he bellowed a celebratory “Sweet Fancy Moses!” It’s lucky for all involved that they sent more than one girl to the area so that Josh and I won’t necessarily be engaged in an epic battle for some poor girl’s attention. By “epic” I of course mean pathetic.

Besides closing the school it’s been interesting couple of weeks. Right when we were closing the school I had two trainees come visit for a few ideas so they can see what Peace Corps is like once you get to site. We had a real good time. One of the ones who visited will be in Tanga Chini, not too far away. After a hanging out at my place we went up to Josh’s and met up with all the trainee shadowers who came up to the area, seven in all. We had a good party and hiked around a bit. Josh lives next to a big mountain that has a great view of the Kenyan plains from the summit. Unfortunately when we got up there it was so foggy we couldn’t see much, but it was still a good hike.

After the trainees left I went down to Dar for the Thanksgiving celebration at the Ambassador’s house. It was a great party. Over 100 PCVs showed and he was ready for us. Apparently he imported 20 turkeys from Brazil and had a well-stocked bar. There was even cold draft beer which quite frankly was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. It’s kind of odd how much you miss the little things. We had a good time down there and even went to the movie theater. I emphasize “the” since it’s the only one in the country. Now I’m up in the Kilimanjaro region visiting some people in the area before heading home.

I’m updating this later on. I’m back in Lushoto awaiting the arrival of the new volunteers in two days. Several of the current volunteers will be here in town to welcome them. It’s been a bit strange being at the house with none of the other teachers around. The first day was good because I wanted to just have some quiet time, but I may get bored before too long. Fortunately, there will more travel, people to visit, and I just got a lot of great reading material and puzzle books in the mail (thanks to mom and Aunt Becky). As for now, I hope that I can recharge and hopefully begin to write some more detailed things about my experience so far. I hope I’ll have time to go to the school and use the computer a lot and prepare some long posts during the break. No promises though. I’ve learned not to put too much stock in planning over here.

It's been awhile

My arch nemesis TANESCO, the monopoly power company here, has been beating me into submission. For well over a month there was no electricity during the day, making it ridiculously expensive to use the internet at the places that have generators. A lot has happened since my last post. I don't have too much time for details but I'll give a basic rundown.

I have now been in Tanzania for over a year and I'm more than halfway through my Peace Corps service. This blows me away. It doesn't seem like a whole year, yet America does seem a distant memory. I think the next year will fly by for me. We'll see. I think I've gotten quite well adjusted so I hope that in the next year I can really leave my mark.

I had a great visit from two RPCVs from Jordan who were travelling through East Africa on their way home after finishing their service. They stayed at my house for a few days and came to the school and talked to the students. It was real cool having them around and hearing how different PC service is in Jordan, which is much more developed but lives under the threat of terrorism.

I got stung just below the eye by a Nairobi fly, a rather nasty insect. If you don't know what it is, Google it, no doubt you have more internet time and bandwidth than I. Basically it meant that for a few days I looked like Mike Tyson had punched me in the eye. Fun stuff.

It's now the short rain season. That means maybe once a week it will rain for two days straight and the valley I live in becomes a muddy swamp. I've never seen rain like this. Fortunately a day of two of sun dries it out quite nicely. However, rain at the wrong time can basically cancel any travel plans.

I finish school in less than three weeks. I'm excited about the break. I should get some travelling in. I can't believe I've just about finished a whole year as a teacher. That actually suprises me more than making it a year in Africa.

When the Jordan RPCVs were around I went to Tanga for the first time. It's a fairly large town on the coast. Got some fish, went to the beach. Good times.

In a few minutes I'll be hopping a bus to Mlalo to visit Josh for the night. He has promised pork and cold beer. Frankly I can't think of a better offer. Until next time, remember that just because I can't update very much doesn't mean I'm in bad shape. No need to worry just because I'm in Africa.

Life in Africa Isn't All Fun and Games

Warning: Parts of this post will be disturbing for some readers. At least the events described were disturbing enough to experience.

So the last post ended with the words "I can't help it if I'm lucky." Man, was I asking for it. Within 12 hours of writing those words it seems a virus carried on some food that I ate brought about my worst week in Peace Corps. It started with vomiting, a slight fever, and then things got serious. I think everyone is familiar with the word diarrhea, but I submit that most Americans don't really understand what that word means. I do. I was reminded approximately every one or two hours for three straight days, then five or six times a day for a few days after that. Oh, and I have a squat toilet. Up to then I had seemed to have a stomach of steele, but I now know that's not the case. I can safely say that was my worst week in Peace Corps. A week in bed running to the bathroom every hour with only my satellite radio for company. Actually, that's not fair, a lot of the teachers came by and brought me food and things. They were very good to me.

I continued to feel sick all of last weekend and finally Monday felt pretty good. Monday was the first time in nine days I managed to eat two meals on the same day. That was fantastic. Needless to say I was still pretty weak most of this past week. This weekend I came into Lushoto again to get out of the house and since I was out of food. I hope I never get a bug like this again, but these things happen. Life in Africa ain't always pretty.

Since I've recovered things are going well. In two weeks we have graduation at the school so everyone's focused on that right now. For some reason they do graduation before the national exams which I think is a big mistake because now the students aren't very focused on anything except the graduation. All the classes do a song and a dance performance as part of the ceremony so they are spending a lot of time rehearsing. It should be real nice and I'll try to get some pictures put up here. That's all I've got for now. I may not be able to post as often now because there is only electricity for two days a week now. I think many of my readers already know how I feel about the power company here, so I won't go into it.

So the moral of today's post, kids, is don't eat raw vegetables from questionable sources. Bad things happen when you do that. Really bad things.

The picture is taken from Mbelei Secondary, the school in the foreground. This is where Isaac, another PCV teaches. I went up to visit him last weekend. He lives on top of a mountain while I'm on the floor of the valley. If you look directly above the building in the middle of the picture, at the back of the dirt area, you can just make out a rooftop in the valley below. That's Kongei, my school. Interestingly enough, despite what is obviously not that far, it took me over three hours to get from my site to his. That's how transport goes in the mountains.

I didn't get to write in advance this time, so not much to write. Tonight it's movie night because fellow PCV Becky was recently in America for her sister's wedding and brought back some movies. Exciting stuff.

School's still going well. The students are working, but it was a week of difficult material so sometimes it felt like I was beating my head against the wall trying to get them to understand. That's going to happen sometimes, no matter how good the school. I can't let myself get too spoiled at Kongei. It seems that now I'm experiencing Peace Corps Lite not because of the urban setting, but the quality of my school. As Bob Dylan said, "I can't help it if I'm lucky."

Small Victories

Last week I got up to Mlalo where we had a get together of many of the volunteers in the region. It was a nice time. Hilary, the second year who hosted the shin dig, is a great cook and the proud owner of a meat grinder and a grill. That’s right, we had grilled burgers! We even had home made buns to go with them. Not only that, but she baked a cake, and made potato salad (first time having it in 11 months) and humus. It was amazing. When I have to live off my cooking, such days are really appreciated. I’ve really been spoiled so far since I’ve spent time with at least one other volunteer every weekend since I came to the new site.

School is going really well. I am really impressed by my students, especially the Form IIIs. Of course when you’re teaching they’ll be times when they don’t understand something the first time you explain it. My experience before was that most students gave up on math a long time ago so they just let it go and you really struggle to figure out when they are or aren’t getting it. My girls here at Kongei ask questions when they don’t understand! That’s right, they know that just because they didn’t immediately get it doesn’t mean that they can’t eventually figure it out or perhaps it could be explained better. I can’t tell you how exciting this is for me. In the practice Form IV national exams this year Kongei scored 5th out of 70 schools in the region and as good as the Form IIIs are they can perhaps do even better. By the way, with the attitudes this country has about women, it’s especially gratifying when a girls’ school does so well.

Another small victory I’m very proud of is with the local primary school kids. They would always shout “Good morning, sir!” when they saw me home in the afternoon. So now and then I would call one over and explain in Swahili that in the afternoon you don’t say “good morning” but “good afternoon.” Apparently the few I explained this to told all the other kids because now when I’m walking home I hear, “Good afternoon, sir!” Because of that, even if I left today, I think my Peace Corps service would be a success. Fixing the little things, that’s what it’s all about. One little thing down, only eight million to go.

Now that I’m getting more used to life in Tanzania away from the big cities, certain things have become easier. For example, now that I’ve been here awhile, that 50 minute walk to the road seems like nothing, and in fact I’m lucky to be that close. I can’t just walk out the door and hop on a daladala, but I have an easier time with transport than most volunteers. There are two towns I can get to in an hour and a half at the most. Granted, one of those towns, Soni, is barely more than a village and Lushoto’s no Mwanza, but I can get most of what I need. The variety of produce is amazing and most things are cheap so I’m not going to run out of money, which I could have done in Mwanza if I wasn’t careful. I’ll easily be able to save lots of money for travel which is going to be very nice.

So I have the satellite radio now, which has been amazing. I can listen to the BBC, CNN, and (oh boy!) NPR as well as lots of music stations. The sound quality is great too. The only problem is I am going to go through a lot of D batteries until (and if) I get hooked up with electricity.

Two more things. Some of the other teachers who are about my age are interested in having American pen pals. If anyone's interested, let me know.

The Cold and Wet

One of the biggest differences at my new site is the weather. Lushoto is very cold and wet. Now of course the temperatures aren't freezing or anything, but you have to understand that buildings here are not built for cold. There is no insulation, let alone heat. In fact, often the windows don't have glass. This means that though it's not that cold, you can never get out of the cold so it kind of slowly seeps into you. I've kind of gotten used to it, but I find that I can't sit still too long before I get too cold and have to move around. They tell me that things will warm up in September. I hope so.

It's also raining quite a lot. No one seems to be able to tell me if it's the rainy or dry season because it's not torrential rain, but steady drizzle. It's enough to make many of the roads a muddy mess and there are some areas around where buses aren't running. Fortunately I can walk to the paved road in just under an hour so it hasn't really affected my transportation. Of course, walking in a cold rain doesn't make for a fun walk. Between the more or less constant cold rain and the fact that I live in this steep valley almost makes me feel like I'm living in a Scottish glen. For those of you who haven't known me that long, I spent about six months in Scotland and am quite attached to the Scottish highlands so this is quite a nice feeling.

Today I'm heading up to Mlalo, about two hours outside of Lushoto. Two volunteers are up there, Josh and Hillary. Josh was in the same group as I was in training and is one of my best buddies in Peace Corps, so I'm glad to be in the region with him. Hillary I've met a few times. Several of us are going up to Hillary's for a party tonight and are returning tomorrow. Fortunately they haven't been getting too much rain up there so we should be ok getting there and back. Again, I marvel at the great PC social scene here (no offense Ryan and Brian, but there are actually girls here, so, well, you know).

Things continue to go well at school. There are the usual frustrations with students used to rote memorization and not really thinking about a problem, but I feel like I'm starting to get through to a few of them. I actually am really lucky with the quality of my students, so I have hope. Also I'm getting along really well with the other teachers and am liking the whole working environment.

My friend Richard from Mwanza came to visit this week. He's a university student who was studying near my old site. It was really cool to have him around for a night, although the poor guy was freezing the whole time. Most Tanzanians are not used to the cold. Unfortunately his wallet was stolen on the bus so it's not just wazungu who have problems with theft.

Ok, well that's it for today. It's actually warm and sunny today so maybe that will keep up. It's hard to believe I'm starting to get close to a whole year in Tanzania. Until next time.

Life at Kongei

I found out my school has a computer. There’s no internet, but at least I can type things for this blog ahead of time. Since half of my internet time was usually just typing, this makes things much easier for me. I can either pay for half as much time, or spend more time feeding my insatiable appetite for news. All in all, this works out very well for me. The only weird thing will be that I’ll often post these entries days or even a week or two after writing them, so I’ll try to keep the dates straight.

The week of July 17 was a really good one. I’m really getting the hang of the school and how things work here. I already feel at ease in the class as I did at Nsumba. I also like the teachers here a lot, and it’s nice that I have my own desk in the staff room. I didn’t have a desk at Nsumba, so it was harder to get any work done at school, so I usually took it home with me. Here I can get everything done at school so I’m always really done when I go home for the day. I think that’s a luxury many teachers in America don’t have. The highlight of the week though was my old buddy Wes came through.

Now by “old buddy” I mean from training. My dad and my brother, who visited recently, are the only people I’ve seen since I came to Tanzania who I knew before, well, I came to Tanzania (or, actually two days before when we had staging in DC). So, since we were in the same four-person group in training, he’s as old as my Tz buddies get. Anyway, his girlfriend’s visiting from America and they’ve been doing a wee bit of traveling and they decided to come through our area. My new place isn’t so far out of the way and Josh, who was also in our four-man group, is around here as well. Wes and Christina, his girlfriend, came here on the 17th and stayed for the night, making them my first visitors. It was a real good time catching up. Tuesday they left, but they came back Friday and we went into town to Ness’s house (the volunteer in the area with a house in town, so a frequent gathering place) where we met Josh and Jen. Wes and Christina could only stay one night, but the rest of us stayed for the weekend. I had a great time. Yet again I think it’s nice to have so many other volunteers around and be in a region where people from other regions, like Wes, can visit without too much hassle. I love my site, but there’s not too much there. There’s the school, but that’s it. Even the nearest village is 5 km away, so it’s nice to get out and be in the bustle of town and see some friends. Plus, I need to go to town anyway for banking, internet, and buying food, so it’s great that when I go to town there’ll usually be some friends there.

The area where I live, as I’ve said, is pretty remote, so at the moment I’m still very much a curiosity. On walking back from the road not too long ago, a couple kids shouted, “MZUNGU!” and began to walk after me out of curiosity. Gradually more children joined the group until I was walking down the road with a pack of about 20 kids right behind me. It was somehow both cute and a little disconcerting. They stayed with me until the one daladala that goes to the village 5 km past my house came by and I hopped on for the last 2 km back to my house. It is a nice, though long, walk to my house from the road. The other times I’ve made the trip I’ve gone by bike taxi. The first time I tried that, I was scared out of my mind, but now I enjoy it quite a lot. At 1000/= (about $.85) I’m pretty sure I’m getting overcharged, despite haggling a little bit. Of course, just knowing Swahili immediately got the price down from 2000/=, so I guess 1000/= isn’t so bad. By the way, the /= is the symbol for a shilling, the currency here.

So, like I said, things are going really well. Sometimes it’s slow and there’s not a whole lot to do at night in the dark, but things are really good. I miss Mwanza and the lake a lot and a lot of the people back there, but the moves going as well as I hoped. Luckily, yet again I’m in a place where it never gets as hot and humid as I’m sure it is in NC right now. It’s still pretty cold here and should be until September. Enjoy the rest of the summer.

Week One

So far things have been good here in Lushoto. The school's been good and my students seem excited to have me there. I'm getting along well with the other teachers and even adjusting well to life without electricity. It's quiet and peaceful here, which is nice, but I will miss the more things to do Mwanza has to offer.

One encouraging thing is that my school seems to have a lot more resources than my old one. There is a well-stocked library as opposed to a pile of a couple dozen books. And perhaps the most shocking, almost all of my students have a math text book. Before in a class of 50 maybe two or three would. I don't have to tell you this makes things for me and my students much, much easier. I suppose that the difference is that now I'm at a Catholic school instead of a public one. Even at a good school like this, though, they struggle to get enough teachers. Perhaps because it's not right in town. Anyway, so far it's been great and I'm excited to be at Kongei.

Today I made the walk to the road and it was very nice, except for one disturbing incident. Apparently a truck hit and killed a child and there was a big crowd around the stopped truck. Some women were wailing and many of the men had knives and machetes. I've heard a lot about mob justice here, even for accidents like someone getting hit by a car, so I really didn't want to stick around to see how things turned out. The hardest thing to deal with here is how common a child's death is. If it's not malaria it's a car accident. It's also disturbing that it's so common you almost get used to hearing about the death of the child or grandchild of someone you know. Life goes on though.