Christmas Turkey

December in any Christian community I think is hectic with more people traveling and markets bustling with holiday shoppers after a fruitful harvest. It’s especially chaotic when it coincides with the break for most school aged children, and a month of heavy tourism in Tanzania. For many Peace Corps volunteers who teach at secondary schools it is also a time for much needed breaks from our villages and a chance to recharge our relationships with fellow volunteers. The plan as of September was to have Christmas at my house in Mzumbe. I had arranged a teacher friend of mine who raised turkeys to raise a turkey for our Christmas dinner, with instructions to feed it well and make it fat. White elephant gifts were arranged and a bottle of Canada’s finest whiskey held in reserve for the occasion.
Matt from my training group arrived first he had just come from Dar es Salaam he had dropped his mother and his uncle off at the airport; they had come to visit Matt and do a Safari. So days before the other guest would arrive Matt and I where on task mode; we had a turkey to kill and cook, food and drinks to arrange, and a tubing trip to plan (keep reading). We had a great time reminiscing with people from training, running around the bureaucratic halls of the Tanzanian Forestry Department in search of permits…only to be swindled, hiking the mountains, testing local beverages, and biking the never ending dirt roads of Africa. We had a good time…
When Christmas day came and the arrival of the other party guest Matt and I had completed our entire task list except for one: Turkey. As far as cooking the turkey went deep-frying was the choice most liked by the group, and it sounded like an adventure to me. There is something about the possibility of failure in an adventure that I love, to prove the naysayer wrong. Deep frying a 10 kg turkey (that we had spent $50 for because Turkeys are rear here in Africa), 15 liters of hot flammable oil, a open charcoal flame, all to be done by Americans who had never fried a turkey before; ya this has failure written all over it I am so in! The only rule of the day was no beer until the turkey is out of the oil, I have seen one too many flaming Texans on U-tube to know better; “Hey ya’ll hold my beer and watch this?”
The turkey was paid for and would be picked up Christmas morning…of course mom it was after we went to the sunrise church service. So at nine in the morning we had a large live turkey at our Christmas feast so step one: live turkey + sacrifice = delicious food. People where most curious about the sacrifice in this equation. Only three willing to take part in the sacrifice the others had their own task, film and photo crew. I being the good host that I am and I couldn’t ask any of my dinner guests to kill the turkey so the blade was in my hands. I made quick work of it and was complimented on my surgical like knife skills while preparing and butchering the turkey for the fryer, thanks dad for all the red-blooded American service learning field experience. My neighbor Edward was tickled pink to have turkey gizzards, legs, and intestines for Christmas dinner as was I to get rid of them. I borrowed a industrial size charcoal stove made out of a old car wheel and a large pot from my secondary school, the missionary couple was graceful enough to deliver us 20 liters of vegetable oil, and Matt and I rigged up a pulley system to lift and lower the turkey into the oil and a wire basket to cook the wings and thighs. The turkey had to be cooked in two portions torso/wings and thighs in the basket; because Wikipidia said that any turkey over 10 pounds is best fried in two parts. After four hours of fanning flames, balancing pots of hot oil on rocks, checking the turkey with the pulley system and meat thermometer, and making sure no one died. The turkey was deliciously cooked and served around five o’clock and I got to enjoy the first well deserved beer of the day and the most satisfying turkey I had ever eaten before. And for all the fixings I have to thank my great partners in crime in the great Christmas feast that cooked it all from stuffing down to the cheese cake! Everything was delicious and best of all we had a community of good friends and relationships that were made from unlikely cultures and personalities.

Recovering from our gluttonous holiday weekend it was time to get to business. I real adventure, not none of this prissy cooking stuff. It was time to go tubing.

Rungwe Mountain

Since the last update the incoming class of Peace Corps Trainees has finished their training and has been placed as volunteers at their respective sites. A new volunteer was placed near me as a site mate for me at another secondary school in the Uluguru Mountains. She has already decided to return back to America, “It wasn’t what I expected.” I was disappointed when I found out her decision to return before she started teaching but was not taken back.

November I made a trip to the Southern Highlands of Tanzania to work with a fellow Peace Corps Teacher and his students to map a trail from their school Rungwe Secondary School to Rungwe Mountain Peak. I left on a Friday morning and boarded a bus to Mozambique. Before arriving at the boarder of Tanzania/Mozambique I got off the bus at a village where the road to Rungwe began. After meeting up with the other volunteer and his mountain club we had a nice dinner and left for the Rungwe Mountain Peak at 10 p.m. Before I go on I want to preference this story that I was ill prepared for this trip too few clothing and not enough water, two things I should know better coming from Colorado…I feel shame. The night was perfect with no clouds and the stars painted the entire sky, half hour into our hike we saw the biggest of which we would see three, shooting stars. The first shooting star was the biggest one I have seen to date, we saw it shoot across the sky and slowly burn out into the darkness and it was amazing. The hike that night was four hours to the lower tree line of the mountain where the students built two campfires to keep warm until first light. At first light we made the last hour to Rungwe Mountain Peak, Rungwe Mountain is a dormant volcano with a large crater at the top. The crater was the former top of the volcano but now is the size of four football fields, which made for a great piece of land to play Frisbee. The crater was a lot of fun to play in and take a short nap in but the hour down navigating the steep ridge was a sign of the work it would take to climb out of the crater. By now it had been fourteen hours into our hike and I had started to become low on drinking water and the two hour hike out of the crater in the African heat was making me curios; why is it that humans find joy in making themselves suffer? From the summit of Rungwe to the next available water source was four hours back down the mountain, when we arrived at the stream I had never drunken so much untreated water in my life…ever. I am happy to say that I didn’t suffer any major illnesses despite my efforts of drinking liters of untreated water and the handfuls of wild raspberries we ate on our way down. Arriving back at Rungwe School was very sweet it had been 36 hours since I left my home in Morogoro on a bus and then proceeded to climb a mountain; the only sleep during this time came while upright on the bus and a calm nap in the crater of a dormant volcano. The first shooting star we saw that night proved to be a good omen for the trip!

After the trip to the southern highlands it was back at school to wrap up the finale term before the New Year. I was engulfed with work at school as the term came to an end with the preparation of exams, administering of exams, marking exams, getting finale grades together and filling score cards and parent reports out to mailed before we were to be released for our term break.

It's a Baby Girl!

Tanzania spring has sprung and things have been heating up around here. I have been busy helping to prepare for the new volunteers coming in to teach here in Tanzania and best of all officially marking a full year living in Tanzania. 33 new volunteers arrived in the evening of September 19th in Dar es Salaam after 24+ hours of traveling and ready to start their two year journey teaching in Tanzania. They didn’t come empty handed they arrived with a ton of luggage and hundreds of question, and me and two other seasoned volunteers welcomed them in Dar es Salaam and stayed up answering their questions and reassuring them they made the right decision to come to East Africa to teach Math and Science. For me it was a great way to mark my first anniversary of arriving in country and a reminder of how clueless I was getting into this experience and now how I am transformed as a veteran volunteer here in Tanzania. I spent the next five days with the volunteers while they stayed in Dar es Salaam and then took their bus trip to Morogoro, their new home for the next three months and my home for the last year. I was around during their training sessions held by the staff to help interject personal experience and the point of view from a volunteer, my only request of the Peace Corps staff while there was “don’t scare the new volunteers!” I think I succeeded; no one has packed their bags and returned home yet. While in Morogoro I held training sessions on what to prepare for at the Homestay Families that they would be living with the next three months, a session on the town and community of Morogoro with a walk around of town in small groups. The session on Morogoro gave me a new sense of pride of my home community and a reminder of how beautiful it is around here. There is nothing like adding a boost to my moral by looking through the lenses of new enthusiastic volunteers. The training experience has helped in looking back and reflecting on how much I have accomplished in the last year; from my Swahili, cultural integration, working in a Tanzanian school, and just to be able to be comfortable in the community and to feel like ‘welcome to My town Morogoro’.
The overall experience of helping with the new volunteers has been great and a great way to surge forward to the next year. The only down side was the time away from my school Mzumbe, three days spent preparing for the new volunteers with the training staff and the five days with the volunteers. I have been able to get back to site and been busy at school as well.

My neighbor and best friend here at Mzumbe Remy Mpagama have been expecting his first child with his wife Mary. Last week was week 38 of her pregnancy and I had left her and the unborn baby with strict instruction to wait for labor until I was back from my training duties with the new volunteers, we had a good laugh. Two days after returning back to Mzumbe I was over at their home enjoying dinner and Mary was having pains and felt that the time was to be very soon. That night at one in the evening Remy and his wife went to the dispensary at the Mzumbe University where they were referred to the regional hospital in Morogoro and were given a lift with the university’s ambulance. At five in the morning Remy came and knocked on my window and informed me that Mary was at the hospital and the baby was coming. I got dressed quickly and Remy and I jumped on a daladala into town. On the way there we got in accident, our daladala and another daladala got to close to each other at an intersection and hit/scraped each other as we passed. After the drivers got out and decided they were both at fault and no major damages, we were back on our way. Our first stop in town was to the bank so Remy could have money to pay for the hospital bills. But the bank employees had been on strike for the last two days and this was the first day they had been open that week so as we arrived the line for the bank was 50 meters long. Remy’s uncle met us there and held a spot in line as we went to the hospital to check up on Mary. Mary was having complication and it was hard to get a doctor to come and look at here for a diagnosis. I have two South Korean friends who are volunteers at the hospital one a nurse, and another is a doctor. I was able to get a hold of them and with in ten minutes they were both there helping Mary and finding out what was going on, and finding the doctor that was suppose to be helping. They were great! I felt guilty getting special treatment for Remy and Mary just because of whom I knew and being a foreigner, but it’s good to have friends in high places especially when getting treated at a public hospital in Africa. We found out she was having an enema and lost a lot of blood and needed a blood transfusion before she could give birth. There is not blood bank at the hospital and the nearest Red Cross blood bank could take a while to get the blood we needed. Next best thing to a blood bank is a school full of students who would love a free ride to town and a free lunch. Four students with O+ blood and a teacher escort made their way to the hospital. When they arrived and the technician who was taking blood asked if they had eaten that day, none of them had eaten a thing. So I ran with them down the street and bought them some food and they scarefed down the food and it was back to the hospital to give blood. The blood was taken and the transfusion started in a matter of an hour, I am not a blood expert but I can’t imagine too many test were conducted in that time before the blood transfusion was given. Mary was doing well but her contractions were not serious yet, so Remy and I went back to the bank to wait in line. After the bank we communicated with Mary to make sure things were well, and decided to go have some lunch. It was the first time he had eaten since the previous night and still hadn’t slept. We went back to the hospital and waited, men typically aren’t allowed in the pregnancy ward so Remy and I waited outside and a fellow female teacher kept running out side to give us updates every half-hour. At 7:30 PM September 24 Beatris Mpagam was born, 3 kg and healthy. It was a relief both mom and baby were healthy and we celebrated outside and Remy was on the phone calling everybody he knew. It was one of the longest days of my life, I was grateful to be there with my friend and a chance to experience the hospital system here.
It was great to see how our community at Mzumbe Secondary School came together to welcome a new addition to our family here. Not only the students for their blood but all the teachers who stopped by at the hospital that day, the phone calls, and arriving back home that night in a taxi honking the horn and people running to the car to congratulate Remy. Seeing how a community/tribe here rallies together for such an occasion was a great experience and provided a deeper understanding of how every community member owns situation of other community members and a great sense of unity.

Vacation in Paradise; Home of Nuclear Weapons, Global Warming, and Homosexuality

After my Kilimanjaro hike with my partner in crime Jeff he came and stayed at my home here at Mzumbe Secondary School. It was great to be able to have some one from home experience what my life is like here in Tanzania. We spent a lot of our time exploring the area on bicycles; we put a couple hundred miles on our bikes in a two week span. It was enjoyable showing him around and introducing him to my community, it gave me a new appreciation of the opportunity that I have here in Tanzania.
As Jeff left my house to visit the island of Zanzibar I boarded a plane bound for the great U.S of A. to be the best man in my brother’s wedding. After forty hours of single serving cuisine and crying babies I was back home in Colorado and looking out at my beautiful Rocky Mountains, around the people that mean the most to me.
It didn’t take long for me to dive into and enjoy the luxuries of the lifestyle in Colorado: clean water, time with friends and family, high-speed internet, grocery stores, walking my dogs in the mountains, riding a bike peacefully, and beer on tap. It was paradise! I have never experience the sensation of being on vacation at home, it was an anomaly. I knew I would go home after my experience in Tanzania and my perception of the world would change. Now I have come to recognize I love where I come from, even though it has its flaws and is not perfect it’s hard to beat. I suppose it is like the old cliché ‘the grass is always greener on the other side,’ it’s in our nature as humans not to appreciate what is right in front of us. It’s easy to sit and complain and nitpick at the flaws when we live with our comfortable lifestyle around us in the States with our health care system, public schools, country wide infrastructure, and a diverse economy. I know that each one of the preceding comforts any one of which you can get on a soapbox and dissect and point out the flaws but I think it’s important to sit back and think of how far we have come. A hundred years ago think of the state of the union in America and then here in Tanzania for instance; today Tanzania a hundred years later 80% of the population are still farming acres of land with a hoe and praying for rainfall. It only takes a single session of the evening news in the States to become very critical of the state of America and to start counting down to its possible demise, as a Tanzanian once told me “it’s because of Americans fast pace lives we have nuclear weapons, global warming and homosexuality.” I have to make sure I am transparent here; I have serious issues with that comment but it’s poetic in its context that such conclusions can be made if you let the media think for you and only look at things from the surface with an uneducated and critical view of the world.
A good dose of appreciation and optimism is important when being critical of the atmosphere in America and being conscience of our roots; it has been Americans unwillingness not to accept the current state and to believe with hard work there must be and is a better way.

Since I have returned to Tanzania I have been able to dive back into school. My first week back everyone was curious about my travels and wanted to know where their gifts from America were. I don’t think that I broke too many hearts and was able to get gifts for the important people around me here in Tanzania. This week I have been busy with being teacher on duty and working with other teachers grading exams for our school and other surrounding schools, we have been putting in nine hours a day grading exams. When a student asked me how I like grading, it gave me the perfect opportunity to give him the definition of the word tedious.
Another great advantage about going home was that I was able to meet up with an old teacher now colleague at Rocky Mountain High School. We were able to organize pen-pals for our students. Today my students finished there first letters and I hope to have them in the main soon, to say they are excited about the project is an understatement! It has already been a great way to open up dialog about teaching English and American Culture, and my hope is they will learn more about there own culture too. My only issue now is that I have students other than my own in the school asking for pen-pals their age; so if any one out there would like to write a student here at Mzumbe please let me know.
In the next couple of weeks the new group of education volunteers for Peace Corp will be arriving and am looking forward to meeting them, and being some what of a veteran volunteer for them. But more than that it will mark my first year here in Tanzania, I survived and still loving my time here!

Kilimanjaro

We started our hike on a Friday with a tour company Jeff’s host family helped set up for us. We deemed our group the ‘Motley Crew’, our guide was named Simba and our assistant guide was Sam. Our first sign that we got a discounted tour company is when we were stopping by Simba’s house to pick up things like cups and other cooking equipment from his house on our way up to the trail head. We would also find out this morning that our party of hikers had grown from our original four; Maja and Jacob (Danish volunteers) and Jeff and me, to five with Eno a middle-aged educator from Southern California added at the last minute. We knew we were going budget because I would not settle for paying too much and as I have learned here, every price in Tanzania is negotiable.

We got to the trail head Machame Gate where our route would start nicked named ‘The Whisky Route’ and of course Jeff and I being the traditionalist that we are had to bring some whiskey…it’s tradition, and who are we to argue that. To get through the gate we had to wait for all the porters and guides to get weighed to make sure that they were not caring more that 25 kilograms each and that all the porters had appropriate gear. There were about thirty porters at the gate begging for the use of their services wishing that a tour company would miss plan and need additional porters. By the time we had all our porters check in and made their weight and had paid our park fees around $100 U.S. a day each, we were on are way but not before watching at least two other companies go through the gate while our Motley Crew got organized. The first day was an easy six hour hike through the rainforest to Machame hut which was a nice start to the week. We had a light drizzle but it was a good day for hiking. We were fortunate enough to see a troop of black and white colobus monkeys on our way, the only animals we would see the whole trip. We arrived to Machame hut in good spirits and excited for our first night on the mountain. We came to our camp with our porters hurrying around to set up our tents. We were initially concerned to see that we had five small three person tents for five hikers and fourteen crew (guides, porters, and cooks). We were supposed to have three tents for us five hikers which meant that fourteen crewmembers were going to sleep in two tents. We had a group meeting and agreed that Jeff, Eno, and I could share so that they could have three tents for the fourteen of them; it was reassuring to know that they wouldn’t freeze at night with all those bodies in their tents.

Day two we woke up to fog and clouds and a light drizzle that wouldn’t stop on this day. We left Machame Hut and had a five hour walk for the day that would bring us out of tree line and to Shira Cave huts. Shira Caves are more like a group of about four scattered rock outcroppings that you might be able to fit a compact car under, which use to be popular places for the porters to sleep, but with new park regulations no one is allowed to stay in the ‘caves.’ Up until Shira Caves I had been doing my hike in Chaco sandals because I only had sandals and a pair of waterproof trail running shoes, not an ideal situation but my beloved hiking boots didn’t make it into the luggage back in Colorado. By this time most the Tanzanaias on the trail knew I was Ubungo which means I am not just a tourist, but live in Tanzania and can speak Kiswahili. When we arrived at Shira Caves a group of porters gathered around and was getting a kick out of me wearing sandals in the cold and me explaining to them that in Colorado sandals are always in season 12 months a year and that they weren’t just your any ordinary pair of sandals but Chacos.

On day three I finally swallowed my pride and wore my trail shoes, because our hiking professional Eno from Southern California a faithful member of the Sierra Club who has climbed every major peak in Southern California had informed me that his club would not allow someone with sandals on the trail regardless if he had a pack or not; we were hiking with day packs on with water and extra clothes in them while our porters carried our packs, very nice backpacks… on their heads. With my shoes tied tight we started off on our five hour hike to Barranco Hut. The day started off like the last cold, foggy, and drizzling. And the thing that started dawning on all of us was our camp would be one of the first ones up in the mornings but always the last group to leave, the Motley Crew was always a bit disorganized. It was about noon on our hike up to Lava Tower that day that the clouds cleared and the first glimpse of Kilimanjaro since our departure from Moshi town, and our first look at Mount Meru the only other prominent mountain around. It was beautiful and so surreal. For the last 48 hours we had been walking in a big cloud only able to see 20 meters around us and now in a matter of moments we were on the highest free-standing mountain, on our way to the highest point in Africa. Of course we had to stop and take a million pictures not knowing if this would be the only time the clouds would clear, after some time our guide Sam had a look like ‘you guys can’t honestly be taking more pictures.’ After filling our memory cards on our cameras we continued on to Lava Tower and stop for lunch at its base. Lava Tower is at 15225 feet which would mark the highest point of the day and it would mark the highest that Jeff or I have ever been on a mountain. Below Lava Tower was our first encounter with Thompson Safari Tours. Thompson Safari Tours is a U.S. based tour company that caters to the Champagne hikers, with their starting rate for a hike on Kilimanjaro being at least four times the cost we paid to hike. Talking with some hikers from the group they informed us this was the first time some of them had ever been hiking. Thompson Safari’s spared no expenses, with porters carrying everything from a sit down toilet to a shower tent up for the guest. If our Motley Crew was the budget tour company, Thompson Safari represented the other end of the spectrum. From this day on we always took great pride passing their group on the trail, it was like the kids from the other side of the tracks the ones who had to wear sandals to hike in but could still kick your butt. From Lava Tower we had to descend to our next Camp Barranco, and by the time we had reached camp we had walked back into the clouds. That night the clouds lifted and we had a beautiful night sky with a bazillion stars and a near full moon.

Day four started as usual as we watched all the other camps wake up and leave before us. And today we had to go up great Barranco, a stair step scrabble to the top of a ridge which we could see from our camp. It was comical watching people that morning in a continuous slow moving line of hikers and porters up this staircase of a climb to the top zigzagging across the mountain side. The climbed proved to be fairly easy that day with the slow pace that was forced by the staircase and the short hike to Karanga camp. We couldn’t believe it when we saw that for lunch Thompson Safari’s porters started ahead and set up two large tents with tables in them for the hikers just to eat lunch in. When they would finish their lunch the porters would take down the two tents and move ahead and set them up again at a different camp for the evening. Karanga camp was blessed with beautiful weather and an early arrival. Spent most the day sitting in the sun with clear skies around us and a sea of clouds below, reading a book, and watching Jeff chase ravens around that had swooped down and stolen his package of cookies. It was quiet humorous to see this raven flying away with an entire package of cookies and Jeff running after him and our porter friend Ayoubu telling me that the raven must be more cleaver then Jeff, a joke that would prove not to get old for the rest of our trip. In Jeff’s defense he did get his cookies back but felt he should relinquish some of his cookies to the raven for its gallant effort.

The following day would prove to be a nice easy hike to Baranco camp the last camp before our summit attempt. The hike was just three hours and Sam and I lightened the mood by teaching the rest of our group a simple little song in Swahili that became our marching song. I believed it might have started to annoy some of the other hikers around, not so much the song it self but the fact that we were passing other hikers out of breathe and we had enough to sing a nice little song that goes like this:

Jambo!

Jambo Bwana!

Habari gani?

Nzuri sana

Wageni, wakaribishwa

Kilimanjaro

Hakuna matata, hakuna matata

We arrived at Barafu Camp knowing that we were going to need to spend the day resting because we would be leaving that night at midnight to start our summit attempt with the expectation of reaching the summit for the sun rise. Barafu Camp was on a steep ridge just below the base of the glaciers at the top of Kilimanjaro. Day five was blessed with great weather and great views of Mawenzi peak from Barafu Camp. This to me seamed very unusal to have consitend good weather at this altitude. I am use to the peaks in Colorado where storms seem to roll in and out every couple of hours. The mood around camp was somber and full of anxiety. Jacob, one of the Danish volunteers, was feeling pretty ill, partly from the altitude and party from some dysentery he had acquired. I think we were all nervous, it was like the night before the big game. We tried to sleep and rest but I don’t know if we a got a single continuous hour of sleep before we would leave.

We awoke at midnight to a very cold evening and a slow start, again. We didn’t leave camp until one a.m. and Jacob ended up staying behind to get a full nights rest and he would start later in the morning after us. We were blessed with a full moon and it was a memorable feeling walking up the mountain that morning by moon light to see head lamps dance on the mountain side from the other hikers. This hike would prove to be exponentially more difficult then the rest of the days. The weather was cold around -10 Celsius, our water ended up being so cold that it was upsetting our stomachs at that altitude, and all of us were dealing with some degree of altitude sickness. The hike was slow, especially when we were walking on the snow fields, and the thin air influencing everyone. The push to Stela Point proved to be the most taxing. We were walking on a snow stair case and every step you took required its own breath. When we reached Stela Point we took a nice break and now had Uhuru Peak in our sight the highest point in Africa, the summit of Kilimanjaro, and dawn was upon us. We all got our second wind and pushed to the top. Jeff and I were talking as we prepared for the trip and the investment that it was for us and joked that if we didn’t reach the top that we would end up crying. But when Jeff and I reached the summit we both got choked up with the emotion of what we had accomplished and the beauty of the summit at sunrise. We were surrounded by glaciers and the beauty of God and could see for miles around. We had accomplished what we set out to do: 03˚04’35 South 037˚21’14 East elevation 19,340 feet…priceless!

The descend back down to Barafu Camp was enjoyable doing rapid mountain descent down scree fields and to see Eno who had fallen behind on our way continuing on to the summit and then to see Jacob on his way up to the summit feeling better than the night before. We got back down to camp by eleven a.m. and finished our whiskey and enjoyed a peaceful nap in celebration waiting for Eno and Jacob to return. That afternoon we would pack up and descent to Mweka Hut. Arriving at Mweka hut was notable putting to rest a very long and taxing day.

The finale day from Mweka hut to Mweka Gate was very tough on the knees dropping 15,000 feet in a matter of twenty four hours, pain that could only be healed with cold beers. The last day was a bit frustrating because it was the day to tip our guides and porters. The night before Simba came to our tent and did his nightly “How you feel everybody?” check in and game plan for the next day. Where he informed us that he should receive a 30% tip and just to give him the tips for the rest of the group and he would distribute it how he saw fit… We didn’t see it that way at all and I had to explain to him the concept of tipping, which is no way customary in Tanzania culture but is expected on Kilimanjaro and Safaris from tourist. Long story short some- of the guides and porters were very happy with their tips and others felt short changed. I guess you can’t please everybody.

The overall experience of Kilimanjaro was great. The finances of the entire trip definitely left its wounds on this volunteer but wounds that will easily be forgotten in time for the sake of an experience with a good friend and a great adventure that will never be forgotten.

No Food; No School

Thanks for all the birthday love, and congratulations Khloe(little sister) on Graduating!

My first birthday in Tanzania went well celebrated with some pork, friends and a chocolate cake that has been waiting in my pantry for the last five months for such a special occasion. It was goood!

For my birthday my friends from the University Jueng In, Brenda, and Danny treated me to a trip to Udizungwa Game Park. It was an amazing trip; we went on a hike to some water falls and were able to see a bunch of monkeys. My favorite part of the trip was swimming under the waterfalls and watching monkeys swinging from the trees, a dreamlike experience. Udizungwa is best known for the 14 different species of monkeys, two of which are only found in that region. We only spent one day in the park but I already want to go back. The park contains three major peaks and many large mammals other than the primates. The majority of the park is only accessible by foot and for many of the trips you must be accompanied by an armed guard; I hope to go back for a multi-day trip.

Around school things are a bit quiet now after term exams for ‘O’ level and all off my students have gone home for a six week break, which also means break for me! As far as the ‘A’ level they to have been heading home because our school is being forced to close because our food suppliers have failed to receive payments for the food and has stopped delivering the food. Since all the students at Mzumbe are boarding students the school has been forced to shut down completely. It is very frustrating knowing that we are the number one boy’s school in all of Tanzania and not having simple things like food requires us to shut down the school completely. It is important to note are school did get a new satellite dish and TV last week....Thanks Tanzania Department of Education; the resources are being well managed! I have just finished marking my term exams and am very pleased with the results from my students; they worked very hard for me. I initially had felt bad because they had 2.5 hours to complete the exam and no student had finished working on the exam, they all worked to the very end. They had some challenging questions on graphing, a skill they are unfamiliar with but worked hard none the less.

On the lighter side of things I have been doing a lot of hiking around Mzumbe I did 60 km in three days this last week, and found a short cut over the mountain to Mgeta village where my nearest Peace Corps neighbor lives. By taking the short cut I was able to cut a seven hour hike down to five hours, but the trail was very steep but beautiful. On the thirteenth of June I will be hiking Mount Kilimanjaro with my long time childhood friend Jeff. He has been working in Moshi for the last couple of weeks on a tree project to help the issues of deforestation around the Moshi area, so I will meet up with him this week before our Kilimanjaro Trip. I am really looking forward to the trip and hope we are successful; it is ‘winter’ time here so we hope the weather will cooperate for our summit attempt and so we can get some good pictures. I am very interested to see how cold it actually gets; Kilimanjaro is the only place in Tanzania that has snow. I am preparing for cold nights but I anticipate the days should not be bad.

After my Kilimanjaro trip I will return home and enjoy some down time around the school by reading some, attending weddings and preparing for the up coming semester that is if we ever get food back to our school.

Elway on the Daladala

Things at school are keeping me busy enough, I am teaching three different classes so I have three different preps to keep up with, but I am happy to be busy at school it keeps me out of trouble. I have even been having Saturday and Sunday classes for my form four math students because they have regional mock exams at the end of this month. No I am not torturing my students with weekend classes; they asked to have classes on the weekends…not me. My students here at Mzumbe don’t fall into the common mold of Tanzanian students they are some of the best in the country and they know what it takes to do well on the national exams, and the truth is they are at a all boys boarding school and there just isn’t all too much to do around here.

I presented a challenge the other day for my form three students who are taking my Additional Math class. Since I will be teaching them for the next two years and be responsible for teaching them the entire syllabus before their form four exams, our challenge…best scores on the exams in all of Tanzania; I hope by putting this out there it motivates me to play my role.

The rainy season is slowing to an end and I am very thankful for it! I was falling into cabin fever and needing time outdoors, and a chance to walk to the market with out getting covered in mud. My bike here has been great to get out and see the country around me and the other small villages scattered around me. I stop now and then and talk with the villagers and they are always happy to get to talk to a foreigner who knows Swahili and I have even picked up a couple of greetings in the local tribal language Uluguru. I find it quiet calming when I ride through villages other than mine and I here people say “Luka, Luka,” if not much changes around here during my time here at least I know I have penetrated people’s lives.

I have established one truth in my experience so far here in Tanzania, neither I nor any other foreigner is going to be the catalyst for change here in Tanzania …

I want to set it straight that I didn’t have an idealistic notion that I would change the history of Tanzania while I am here. A wise man said to me once “The world doesn’t need more problems it needs more solutions.” It easy to point out problems but it is the solutions that are rear and valuable. I find my self sitting back to think about the problems that are holding back Tanzania from water shortage, food shortage, feeble schooling system, poor info structure, and the 7% prevalence nation wide AIDS pandemic (many argue it’s much greater) just to name a few. From the AIDS problem alone many other problems are fostered like a dieing work force, a huge population of orphans, and I huge financial drain to the economic resources. These problems are very transparent to any one who stays in Tanzania for a significant period. Many good nature Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Governments see the problems and offer support and money to those needy causes. The truth of the mater is that not all of the resources make it into the appropriate hands and corruption runs rampant in all areas of commerce, and it’s the Tanzanian leaders who are slowing progress for their country.

With the thought of so many problems lingering in my head I wonder what the solutions could be. I have come to believe that the best work here in Tanzania needs to be done by Tanzanian’s they have to own their situation and own the idea that the best resources already lie within their country. Tanzanians of all walks of life from government officials to the farmers in the fields need to own up to the ides that the solutions lie in the hands of the people, it’s not going to come by means of foreigners coming in and waving their magic wand and sprinkling it with money.

The people here love their country and their culture; and a great sense of unity exists here in Tanzania and a pride to be Tanzanian above all else. Tribalism has plagued many African countrys’ and it was the first president of Tanazania, Nyerere who was able to unite the people as a proud Swahili speaking East African country. They have growing markets in agriculture, mining, and tourism. The time has come for another great leader to come out of Tanzania and push it forward to a new Tanzania; one who believes that Tanzania has the resources to move forward and one who can persuade the masses to play their role of prosperity with out corruption.

There is a good amount of wealth in Tanzania and people are ready to invest in the future, but the money is distributed to a select few, and the rich keep getting richer. There was an article in one of the Tanzanian papers last week that was pointing out the need for Tanzania to move away from foreign aid and that many developed nations U.S. included where not helping out enough. Reading it made me think the writer to be a spoiled child that believes she is entitled to what ever she desire and if she can’t get it, it is at the fault of somebody else.

This last Saturday I had a man from a neighboring village that I had never met before come to my house, he told me that he heard their was a Peace Corps Volunteer from America at Mzumbe so he wanted to pay me a visit… What he really wanted was money. His story was that his sister was in the hospital diagnosed with AIDS and he needed money for ARVs (Anti-Retroviral) because they ‘lost’ the last prescription and she wouldn’t be able to get a refill for another three weeks from the dispensary. I was first skeptical when he showed me her card for ARVs, the card is distributed to individuals who can benefit from ARVs it has the patient’s name on it the medication their taking, the dispensary they are getting them from and the dates they receive medication and the dates which they are eligible for a refill, I have had a chance to work with these cards before at our PEPFAR workshop. These ARVs are given out for free to people who have been diagnosed with HIV; this program is financed by the money from PEPFAR. The card seemed to be a forgery by all accounts, stats about the recipients CD4 T-cells was missing and it only had one date of doctor visits on it. And that he said they ‘lost’ the ARV’s was not adding up, and knowing that there is a black market for these ARV’s; people who get the ARV’s for free and turn around and sell them for money. After talking with this man for some time and being convinced that he was just looking for a hand out told him I couldn’t help him out. For the rest of the day this bothered me… Could he be telling the truth? He wasn’t asking for a lot of money, I could afford to? Could I start giving hand outs to every person who came to my door? I even thought about going to his village and tell him I changed my mind. But what I couldn’t understand was that he walked out of his village, through another village, through Mzumbe University campus with its health center, passed by my secondary school and all the other teachers home’s, and came straight to my house on top of the hill, and asked the white foreigner for money.

On my way home last week in the daladala which is the public transportation system here best described as clown cars, for the reason that the amount of people and chickens they manage to shove into a daladala is unbelievable. I saw John Elway on my daladala, I couldn’t see his face but he had his Broncos #7 Jersey on with Elway on the back. John Elway in Tanzania riding a daladala! John Elway is black right…?

My encounter with John Elway on the daladala had me thinking on the way home, about how small this world is becoming. With internet, cell phones, and transportation everything and everyone is playing a more integral role in the prosperity of man kind. The relations we have with our neighbors are just as valuable as the relations we have around the world. What many of us are willing to through out others around the world utilize with great pride and resourcefulness, the market has expanded across the globe. So the leaders of tomorrow need to see the value in keeping good relations and a concern of the welfare of all ‘market players.’

The aid coming into Tanzania is a great thing for this up and coming country with so much to offer the world, but Tanzanian’s need to realize this and find leadership with in to push forward through the corruption and own up to the idea that they are the solution for their issues. With out this leadership Tanzania will never get over the hurdle of entitlement, and forever be dependent on foreign aid.

Maasai and Turtles

The rainy season is in full swing and the good news is that there is going to be a good harvest this year if the rains continue on; bad news it rains everyday for most of the day and there is mud EVERYWHERE you go. Since the rains have started I have put a good dent into by collection of books and am running out of things of interest to read, the volunteer before me was a big science fiction reader… I am not.

A couple of weeks ago before the rainy season was in full swing I got a chance to go to a Maasai village on their market day. The village market is on Fridays and I heard about it from some teachers at school and mentioned to Haji I wanted to go on Friday to visit and he was excited because his family lived near by that same village. So I met him on a Friday morning with our bikes and we started the hour bike ride to the village. I went with my Tanzanian friend Haji who has been a great friend because he is always getting dragged a long on my adventures here at Mzumbe. I like to have my Tanzanian escort because he knows everybody and can bull shit with the best of them… he’s the Zach Smith of Tanzania (inside joke). The down side, Haji likes to hold my hand… here you have to understand that it’s the way friends roll in Tanzania, homosexuality is illegal here so people of the same sex here hold hands and it doesn’t imply they’re gay like it does in many other cultures… I still feel really uncomfortable about it to be honest and always find myself pulling my hand away like a kindergarten student when they have to hold hands with the opposite sex for the first time in dance class.

The Maasai is one of the largest tribes in Eastern Africa and semi-nomadic, they are one of the few tribes whom are not farmers but herders. Much of Tanzania has been left as an open rage for the Maasai to run their cattle and goats, which is the primary source of meat in Tanzania. The Maasai are one of the few tribes whom for the most part still wear their traditional garments of blue/red material worn like a toga called a shuka or konga. They are a tall people that usually carry a sword in their belts, a long stick to keep the livestock in line, wear lots of beaded jewelry and have the stretched out holes in their earlobe; they are easy to pick out of a crowd. I like to think of them as the cowboys of the Serengeti; taking care of business, dressed to party, but they always remember to wear their peace maker.

So on Fridays the Maasai village has their market and all the herders will come into village with their livestock. In a field adjacent to the market all the animals which are for sale are kept. So local butchers come with their trucks and buy livestock and the Maasai can get new sandals, sword, beads, clothing, cooking material, and ex...

When Haji and I arrived on bikes of course I was getting the usual stares which I have come to like to think it’s because I am so dam good looking and not just because I am white, and it was a one of those ‘wow I am in Africa’ moments. A hundred or so Maasai all walking around catching up on the news with each other selling hides and other things, taking advantage of buying a cold Coka -Cola, and eating some roasted meat with livestock walking around. Haji knew one of the girls working a booth at the market so we left are bikes there and were able to walk around and look at the goodies, I purposely left my wallet at home because I knew I would have bought a couple of ‘impulse swords’, what could I do with a sword… As we were walking around I was wondering out load if one of my fellow teachers was there because he runs one of the butchery’s at Mzumbe. Before I could finish my sentence he was standing in front of me introducing me to his friends, it is nice to stick out of the crowd sometimes people find you. After talking with my teacher and sharing a drink I continued walking around and dreaming of Halloween costumes to be, we decided to embark to go visit Haji’s family.

Mind you that every time I go somewhere with Haji we have to meet his family, Tanzanian’s families are huge all cousins are brothers and sisters and all aunts and uncles are mothers and fathers so I have met a lot of his ‘family’. This time we were going to meet his 100% biological real parents whom lived ‘near by’ the market, ‘near by’… another 45 minute bike ride in the opposite direction from home. It was really nice to meet his parents and show my Swahili skills off (limited still but getting better) and to get out of the rain storm that had started. They were disappointed we couldn’t stay for dinner because they were going to kill a chicken for us. Haji’s mother said that I could get a wife for some goats if I wanted. I told here I was only in Tanzania for two years and she said that would be ok my wife could have other husbands. I am opting for the single life for now…

A phenomenon that occurs during the rainy season is that snakes, turtles and frogs come out from hiding. I thank got I haven’t seen any snakes and always walk with a flashlight at night because I am afraid to death of snakes and I joke with my teacher friend that if I ever see one around my house I m coming to his house and will make him come over and kill it. The other day one of the students killed a black mamba and a staff member killed a viper… YA I watch where I am going when I am walking around. As far as the turtles go I haven’t seen any walking around but I have had two different people come from the near by villages in the mountains and ask me to buy turtles they have found. I just don’t see why they thing because I am white I will want to buy a turtle… their must be a rumor floating around that the Whiteman wants to buy turtles. To put I stop to the rumors, I DON”T NEED A TURTLE.

Coincidence…HIV/AIDS at the Home Front, Two Weeks After My Return From the PEPFAR Conference

This weekend I went and had my weekly Sunday lunch with my Tanzanian Family, the food was delicious as always (beans and rice) and small changes of had been made around the home. New screens on the windows, two new plates, two new GLASS drinking cups, and a new pair of shoes for Mama Rachel; most women after having their first daughter change their name to Mama ‘first daughter’s name’ because of the pride in being a fertile women, so hence my sisters name is Rachel. The new things around the home sound very minimal to our culture in the States but are a big deal for my family here. My Tanzanian father had started his new job with the city of Morogoro in the pay role department in January, and now the reality of what it means for the family is materializing. The excitement on my fathers face when he served me lunch with the new dishes it was like a average student coming home from school with his report card and showing his parents his first ‘A’ on his report card, he couldn’t wait to see my expression. After I commented on the two new sets of dishes we were using, he eagerly got up and with great pride showed me the new shoes he had bought for Mama Rachel. My family is the new “Robinsons” on the block, not many house holds in my family’s village drink with real glasses.

After dinner while looking through the new calendar with my father and telling him of my excitement on getting a new bed made this week for my home he informed me that my mother’s brother was ill. He had been ill off and on for some time and he was now in the hospital very ill. The family had been urging him to go see a doctor for some time now because many believed that he had AIDS, because of his frequent and numerous illnesses. This time he had fallen ill to Malaria and his immune system was so weak the typical medications weren’t working. I asked how the family was dealing with it and he told me it was really hard because he is still young at 30 and the family had to keep at his bed side at the hospital to take care of him. The constant travel from their village in the Uluguru Mountains and the time away from their farms’ during this crucial time of the year before the rains was going to take a hard toll on the family emotionally and financially. After talking with the family some more and giving my condolences to Mama Rachel I knew I should help, my time is consumed at school so I gave them a little money. Tanzanians don’t have health insurance here and the only type of insurance comes by means of family and community support, so as part of the family I felt it was my place to help.

That week my friend who is from the same tribe as Mama Rachel, Luguru (the people of the mountains) we decided to try and make it to the top of the peaks near my home of Mzumbe. The peaks have sat and taunted me since the day I had arrived in Morogoro much like Long’s Peak back home on the front range in Northern Colorado. So this was the day we would make our attempt, he nor I didn’t know if there is a trail to the top or not but we would go as far as we could to find out. We started early in the morning and rode our bikes as far as they could take us and left them at a friends hut to watch until we would return in the afternoon. On our way up I wanted to stop and give my condolences to Grandmother Rachel, I was able to find her waiting for the daladala (public transportation: vans stuffed like sardines with people) to go and care for her son at the hospital. She was very happy to see me there and after talking to here for some time and expressing my grief for their situation we were off.

I have gotten a sense of what a celebrity might face going out in public in the States. Being white and walking through small mountain villages in Tanzania where they only see white people in town we didn’t walk by anyone with out the double or triple glance. Little school children running after us and following us up the mountain, with many people wanting to talk/ask for money and wondering why I want to walk to the top if I don’t have a purpose. You just want to walk? Yep, just want to see how far we can go! A culture that spends long hours on the farm and only walking the mountains when they have to bring fruits and vegetables to town for the market and return with supplies for the village they couldn’t understand I wanted to go for fun. It was hard to try and describe ‘fun’ because Swahili lacks the vocabulary for ‘fun,’ this helps to give a deeper understanding of the forthright culture the Tanzanians have. By early afternoon we had now gotten passed the many homes and farms that scattered the mountain side and were getting closer to the top and the pitch of the land was getting much steeper. I started to realize that the water I had brought was not enough and would have died to have a Powerbar… my prayer was answered by a local porter coming down the mountain from the village on the other side of the mountain. He was doing the hike with a large basket of cassava roots, these of which were carried balanced on his head which is the customary way. We stopped and talked to him for a bit and he offered us some cassava root; delicious when eaten raw once you get passed the ‘woody’ flavor and packed full of nutrients much like a Powerbar, and spoke of a cold water spring inside the forest on the other side of the mountain. He said he didn’t know of a trail to the very top and said it was impossible because of the land. I was momentarily disappointed accepting that we might not make the summit, but now that my 1.5 liters of water was down to drops the mere mention of COLD WATER was ringing in my ears. So we continued on making our way higher and higher at points using my hands to help up the trail the whole time thinking to my self that the villagers on the other side do this a couple times a week and with huge baskets on their heads… I was impressed to say the least. At the top of a small pass adjacent to the summit the rain forest had started to thicken up and only momentary glances of the summit or at least what I thought was the summit, were only possible when the thick forest offered a window and the pitch of the land was just right. I was starting to understand why without a trail to the top the summit was a fantasy and would involve better planning, large machetes, and ropes and tackle.

At last we reached the legendary COLD WATER spring on top of the ridge. Now the question at hand: Do I drink un-boiled water in a land of some of the worst parasites known to man? or go thirsty? …The water was brisk, COLD, and refreshing! When we arrived at the spring some of the porters where there eating sugar cane and drinking water on their way back to their village, they were very friendly and begged for us to continue on and come and visit, with promises of a wife for me and many other gifts. They said that their village never gets guest because there is no road and it is very difficult to get to. They informed us that it was about another two hours, and when we asked if we would make it back to our bikes before dark they just laughed… We continued on our way to get some more pictures of the forest and the beautiful landscape and a hope to get a window past the trees and a panoramic look of my school down below, but decided to return after the trail started dropping down the other side of the mountain and fear we wouldn’t make it back before dark. I was able to make it back right at dusk dead tired, sunburned, thirsty, and feeling thankful for the day in the Uluguru Mountains.

The following week I got news that Mama Rachel’s brother had passed away and I brought the family an assortment of fruits and my sympathy for their loss. My feeling of bewilderment and invisibility that I hadn’t fallen ill from my game of Russian roulette with the COLD WATER was disparaged by the gratitude of the life I live, when others aren’t as fortunate.

HIV/AIDS "If You Focus On the Problem You Can't See the Solution"

I have just returned from the PEPFAR (President’s emergency plan for AIDS Relief) conference in the Mbeya region of Africa, mandatory for all volunteers and our Tanzanian counterparts. The trip over all was a lot of fun to meet up with fellow volunteers and hear how their experience has been going. PEPFAR is using its resources in education and supplying care to those living with HIV/AIDS with counseling and medication for free to those that have tested positive. As far as the conference dealing with PEPFAR it was great to have a forum of discussion with Tanzanian counterparts but it was hard to feel big responsibilities to help with such a wearisome problem, mixed emotions, and many unanswered questions.

For starters the HIV/AIDS epidemic is very trying matter for Tanzania with a country as a whole at about 7% with 1.3 million estimated Tanzanians affected, and this is data from 2005 which to date is expected to be much more prevalent. I had a chance to visit another volunteer’s site where his village had a 30% prevalence of HIV/AIDS. So I am 100% on board with doing what I can while I am here to help out. Many of the funds are being dumped into education. 99% of the population knows about HIV/AIDS, but only about 22% of the at risk population is using condoms, and the vast majority is contracting HIV from sex. Then once they have tested positive for HIV they get free medical attention that would not be available without PEPFAR funds. We had a chance to sit and talk with some Tanzanians that are living with the disease and that was a priceless experience, so very grateful for the medication and a chance to share their experience. So a long story short, Tanzanians are very aware of the disease and how it can be prevented but are not changing their behaviors. So the question I couldn’t keep asking is how can you make the next step and change their behaviors? That’s the billion dollar question…

I have been living in country for 5 months now and have witnessed a country engulfed with poverty, but understand I am still not fully aware of the complexity of the situation. What I do know is 90% of the population are farmers and rely on the weather and God’s will to survive and see the next day. Many go uneducated and get dropped out of the education systems just to return back to being farmers. In a world where water is a luxury; free instant pleasures are priceless! Trying to stop that and tell them they need to wear a condom so they don’t contract a disease that with kill them in a couple of years if untreated and treated for FREE can give you another 10 years, the problem doesn’t conceptualize them to change their behaviors. The answer I see more beneficial is giving more people a positive future to invest their behaviors in. So is dumping all this money $15 million into education and being a broken recorded best directed or better directed in development projects? Could Bush’s PEPFAR and his visiting Africa a big publicity stunt for him and the U.S.? Could they believe that development is the solution but know if resources are directed there it would create a country/continent that would require more precious natural resources and be a threat? I don’t want to imply any of this as facts or even my own opinion but these are the questions that I couldn’t get out of my mind and stressed over. What I know is that I am a teacher and I believe in education so, while here I will continue to be the broken record until a better solution is presented (please feel free to comment I would love to hear opinions/facts/stories).

I am still really enjoying my students and have been impressed with what they come to the classroom with, meager means but a lot of motivation and brilliance. I wish there was more that I could give them, I find my self asking many questions in a Socratic way unrelated to mathematics to get them to talk more about their country and culture. At the end of the day they are the future and the ones who have to make the changes and own the responsibilities of this country.

Duck In Water

It is very comforting to be back in the classroom and be back somewhere I am familiar with and comfortable. Granted there are only screen windows, painted chalk boards, and a beautiful view of the Uluguru mountains from my classroom; I feel like a duck who has finally found some water. The challenges are starting to become more actualized now that the classes have started. For starters the Tanzania school system has a much regimented syllabus for the teachers and tells you how many periods should be taught for each subject, so my joy of authentic hands on learning is being handcuffed to their syllabus. Part of me says to stick to the material and the format but…it sucks and I don’t think I am going to be able to stick to this format of regurgitating material as fast as possible and just so that we can get through the entire syllabus. I am not here to try and mirror the teaching style of Tanzanian teachers but to show them the advantages of alternative pedagogic techniques, but will present a lot of challenges when all I have is chalk board, chalk, and a single text book, and the only reason we have a text book is because we are the “special” school in Tanzania with the top students so our budget allows us to buy some text books. Since the teacher is the only one with a text book ( a few of the students from better means have there own books; two) a teachers perceived job is to right the text book down on the chalk board and the students are then to copy them down in their notes……sorry just had to get that out.

Things are going good starting to get to know more of my neighbors around my school and been getting invited over for dinner and what not…ya I am kind of a big deal around here. I had a young couple who where just married in August over for some American food so I made them spaghetti (I know it’s not “American” but popular in America), they said they really liked it but…they could have been just being good guest. I will see how eager they are to come next time a ask them to come over for dinner.

Next week the new Peace corps education volunteers we are going to an Aids conference in Mbeya which is in the south western region of Tanzania. I am really excited to be doing some traveling around and seeing more of Tanzania and to reunite with some of my fellow peace corps volunteers from my training group, I am sure it will be a good time. Since I am the only one from our training group who hasn’t left our training region Morogoro, I believe I am anticipating it the most.

Well I need to get back to school I have class to get ready for, one last thing before I sign off I am calling Jeff K. out… I got a letter from your Mom yesterday (Thanks a lot Susan it was very nice!), but haven’t heard from you since Christmas! It nice to hear how you all are doing, keep in touch!

School Starts

Vacation IS OVER!

I am starting to get use to the African way, every thing falls in the “gray area”. By gray area I mean if you say “I will be there!” translation “If the planets a-line and if God wants me there I will do my best to be there.” One of my teachers I think put it best the other day, “Everything in Africa will happen soon…but soon rarely comes.” “Mungu akipenda,” if God likes (God must like to be late in Tanzania). It definitely has its down sides with trying to be ambitions here and get things down and organizes things, but when in Rome; do as the Romans. I have a felling that I might have to use this for my benefit.

Well all the students are back from holiday and are reporting this week to school. The school doesn’t feel like a ghost town anymore and it’s starting to feel like a school around here. Students are just reporting this week, which my understanding is mandatory for them to be here but is not enforced…so classes in theory will start next Monday, we will see. While students are reporting this week we teachers are grading exams for the A-Level practice exams. The Math department has the most number of tests because every student has math, and it has been a tedious process. After three days of four of us grading we should wrap things up in the morning. When I say four I mean me and the other teachers if God wants them there. I spent the first day by my self grading for the first four hours, and was the last one there too. It’s been a good experience getting to know some of my teaching staff, and I am getting familiar with the material. The teachers and I had a good laugh about them getting paid for grading and me “volunteering” to do it. The teachers are actually getting paid extra above their salaries to grade these exams and me free labor from America (The irony just occurred to me). Don’t get me wrong, I came to do what ever I can to help there educational system I happy to be doing my part.

I have started opening the computer lab for students two nights a week and it seams to be going well (it gives me time to type my blog) and make my self available for A-level students before their exams. So far the students I think have just come to try and test the new teacher, a student came with a integration problem that took me a couple of hours at home to get worked out and one sleepless night, reminded me of college. Some times the best way to solve a problem is to go to bed and try it in the morning, but it always seams follows me to bed. The computer lab is great because it’s the only air-conditioned building at our school. Right now we have eight working computers and I am hoping to try and get some more working, my knowledge of computers is being challenged. There is another IT specialist at the teachers college in my region I am hoping can help me out with my knowledge gaps.

It is a bit challenging for me because the volunteer before me was a computer teacher and his knowledge of computers was a lot more than I. So teachers are coming to me with problems with their own computers and the lab computers aren’t all working and I am expected to fix them with my magic computer wand. It has been hard to try and replace a volunteer. People expect the same from you good things or bad things and I have to remind them even though we are both Americans we are very different people. But easier said then done, a lot of people have known a lot about America and won’t change their minds. First: All Americans are rich and money is not an issue, All Americans are white, All Americans own a gun, and my favorite All Americans have a magic computer wand I keep mine in my back pocket. For the most part I try and educate them about our culture but I have had conversations with people who had intense denial that there are Muslims living in America.

In short I have gained a lot of respect for foreigners in new and different cultures. When coming to Tanzania it was obvious I was going to have to adjust to cultural differences like the big three: language, religion, and food. But have realize just how deep culture runs!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

I don’t know where to begin it has been almost a month since my last entry… Well I am moved into my new house, and it’s starting to feel like home. I got a fresh coat of paint on the walls and my hammock stretched out in my living room, very nice for an afternoon nap or a quiet place to read a book. I just finished reading Green Hills of Africa by Ernest Hemingway, Dad you have to read this book its about big game hunting in Africa (Tanzania and Kenya) and he talks about Elk hunting in the Rocky Mountains it made me home sick but just about anything makes me homesick now a days especially around the holidays.

I have been spending my time doing everything but teaching. Most the students have been on break since I have got here so I don’t start teaching until the second week in January; I am really looking forward to start teaching. It’s still unclear what classes I am teaching it seems that every time I talk to the head of the math department his story changes, the lack/miss communication has been a bit frustrating but from what I have heard from other volunteers that have been in country they say “get use to it.” I got my bike running really good and have been riding that every day around my village and up in the mountains. I busted up the rim the other day and it took me half a day to get it fixed (Dad the vice grips were great advice), a reminder that everything is a little harder hear with lack of resources and that the bike has to last me two years. I have been enjoying cooking a lot at my house everything from pizza to beef stock. I have been getting my bread recipe down and find the hardest part is keeping the ants away while the dough rises.

For Christmas I had another Peace Corps volunteer Nora, a Korean volunteer, and two students from the Netherlands over to my house for beef stroganoff, the power went out that night so we cooked with charcoal and celebrated by candle light, A Christmas I will never forget. We did a white elephant gift exchange and sat around and played liars dice. For my white elephant gift Nora and I went to sabasaba for our gifts. Sabasaba is a huge out door market on Sundays it’s like a giant flea market. The biggest thing people go for is clothing and the majority of it is used clothes from the states. Some of the shirts that you see people wearing are pretty funny considering they probably do understand what they say, like “Dip me in honey and through me to the lesbians” or “Americas Next Miss America” I found some pretty cool shirts for my self. When you ask them the price it is ridiculous so you have to bargain with them, it’s a lot of fun to practice my Swahili and bargain with these guys if you can make them laugh your in, but it is hard being white they perceive you as having a lot of money and always try and rip you off. While we were walking around the auction part of the market a guy came up and was telling me to come see his shirts, which is not that unusual. But what was unusual was he was touching me and grabbing my shirt to follow him, which was annoying. While telling him off and trying to get him to stop with out being physical; his friend came up and bumped into to me and I grabbed his hand as it was already half-way down my front pants pocket going for my money. Both the guys ran away before I could think twice, if I would have cried “THEIF” the men would probably been beaten to death, the Tanzania believe that mob brutality against thieves is more affective then police and the court system. It’s a catch 22 because you want them men to be punished but at what cost, it would be hard to have someone’s death on your shoulders…but no harm they didn’t get anything and got away. I was flustered for a while about the incident and was shook up more than I thought I would be I expected that it would probably happen sometime while I was here and thought I would just be considered with the material loss. Having another guys hand in your pocket feels very evasive.

Now is Tanzania’s short rainy season and the hottest part of the year. So ya I sweat, I sweat a lot here. The good thing about this time of year is that its mango and pineapple season and they are delicious to say the least. I had never eaten fresh mangos like I have here in Tanzania; I try and eat one everyday so good. With most good things there are consequences…possible death. My house is surrounded by mango trees which is great most of the time because they provide great shade and keep my house cool. My neighbor has this HUGE mango tree that is bigger then the cotton would trees in my back yard in the states. This mango tree drops about 200 delicious but deadly mangos from it every day. The mangos are the size of softballs and are pretty heavy and walking out of my house I now keep my eyes up at its branches because I have had a couple of very close calls and there is no way to avoid passing under this massive tree, I have to walk under it every time I leave my house. The second I hear one dropping through the leaves I pull my head in like a frighten turtle and walk a little faster. The only time I feel safe is when I am on my bike and have my helmet on, thinking about wearing it as a permanent fixture but I am sure I would be referred to as the crazy white person on top of the hill, for now I keep my eyes to the heavens(literally).

Some people have been asking about cheap ways to call me and through the volunteer grapevine one of the best ways is through Nobelcom.com which is a calling card that is cheap. Love reading your messages on the leave a little love section! Congratulations to Jeff and Corey on graduating, keep me in touch on your plans. Well my meat loaf and peas and carrots smells about done so I should go, ya I am eating good hear maybe better than at home because I have the time to cook and lots of fresh vegetable(so you don’t have to worry Mom).