Literally 2 hours after the erection update was up (heh heh), my phone was stolen. Read on for a tale of mob justice. From Mbeya town, I took the dalla dalla to Mbalizi town, where I would switch to either a bus or a lorie truck that takes me home to Ilembo. Since I was carrying a bunch of things that I had gotten in Mbeya, I wanted to make it to the bus that leaves at 2. I arrived in Mbalizi at 12:45, and got off the dalla dalla and was carrying a box on my head, a backpack, and a plastic bag. I had just received a text message so I knew I had my phone just after getting off the dalla. My phone was in my little eagle creek purse that I keep close watch of because it has all that important stuff in it. When I got off at the dalla dalla stand, some guy offered to carry one of my bags. I have gotten to know a few people in Mbalizi and some people from my village are there sometimes, but I didn’t know this guy and he took my plastic bag from me and carried it for about a minute until I insisted that I was fine carrying it to the bus. He asked for 500 shillings and I said no, and so he put the plastic bag down and as I reached down to grab it (I later realized) he reached and grabbed my phone out of the eagle creek bag. Right afterwards I ran into two people from my village and they helped carry my bags. About 5 minutes later I was at the bus stand about to buy a ticket when I opened my money purse and saw my phone wasn’t there. I had someone call it and it wasn’t ringing. If I had voicemail this would have been one of those straight-to-voicemail situations. Bad sign. Somehow I immediately remembered the guy from the dalla stand and dropped my stuff and sprinted like a crazy person back to the standi. Luckily, I am the only white person in Mbalizi and as if I didn’t stand out enough I was carrying a box on my head, so people remembered me. I busted out frantic Kiswahili saying “Did you see where that guy went?” “He stole my phone!” “Thief!” “help!” The people, had in fact, seen where the guy went and they said he had ran “that way” and that I should go to the police. My stomach sank, I started doing the math in my head of the cost of replacing the phone and how annoying it would be to get a new number and to try to find all the numbers I had lost.
I was in that emotional purgatory of laughing yet wanting to cry in the Mbalizi police station when Inspector Jumanne walked in. (Jumanne is the word for Tuesday) So Inspector Tuesday walks in and I literally had the exact conversation that I had during a simulation in training where we practiced bargaining at the market, talking with village leaders, and explaining a fake crime to police. He was pretty sympathetic, but I started getting worried when he was inquiring more about my personal life than the crime that had just been committed, so I tried to steer the conversation back by saying, “Soo what do we do now? There are plenty of people out there who saw him.” That’s when Inspector Tuesday and I hit the streets and tried to find people who would ‘cooperate’. He literally did a wave of his hand to two groups of people on the corner, and they rounded up more people, and so on and so on, and then he said that they were going to find the man, because if the police went, the guy would get scared and run away. We then went back to the police station, where he suggested I just “wait it out”, like it was one of those afternoon thunderstorms that will come and go and then it gets really sunny and nice out. Which is pretty much what happened.
In less than an hour, a group of 50 people had found this thief and brought him to the station. My phone was miraculously recovered and returned to me in perfect condition. I was amazed. Tanzanians hate thieves and it apparently is not uncommon for mobs of people to beat up, kill, or burn thieves they catch so I was at least grateful that this man was brought to the station and he still had all of his fingers and was not on fire, but I felt really badly thinking about what might lie ahead for him. I had to face him immediately afterwards to identify him and the policeman was slapping him in the face. I thanked the police for helping me, filed a report, and since the bus left late, I got on it at 2:30, my cell phone safely stored inside my bra.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Monday, October 6, 2008
MeeshRoaf's 2008 Presidential Erection Update
I love learning new languages. I also love listening to foreign peoples’ English accents. The first one I became familiar with was German in 8th grade, which really drew me in with its great songs, the best one of course being “Ich woll ich war ein Lebkuchen mann, oh JA!” (“I wish I were a Gingerbread Man, oh YES!”) I have never met a German person who has actually heard of this song, but the point is that it was catchy and made you more comfortable with the language. Plus it’s just awesome..the thought of being a gingerbread man, that is.
The next was a little bit of Czech while studying abroad in Prague. Czech peoples’ English accents were great because the v’s would be pronounced like w’s. (read: The willage was wary big) This was always a lot of fun, as was saying "Ahojjj" pirate style as the informal "hey".
The Greek vocabulary I learned while bartending on the pirate boat was pretty much limited to “do you want ice in your drink?” or “ good morning, psomas” (psomas = breadman, the local hero at Ios Bakery which was frequented by hundreds of hungry drunk people looking for greasy croissants between the hours of 5-7am.
Kiswahili is rapidly rising on the language likability scale. This is due largely in part to current political climate in America, most specifically the Presidential election between Obama and McCain. Why, you silently ask yourself? Well, the Tanzanian English accent pronounces R’s like L’s and vice verse. (kind of like Kim Jong Il in Team America... 'I'm so ronery..') In fact, the two letters are pronounced so much alike that many Tanzanians will spell Kiswahili and English words with the letters mixed up since they sound so much alike. With that being said, here is a common conversation that can take place between myself (me) and a Tanzanian (tz)
TZ: So, there is a very big erection coming up between Obama and McCain in America in November?
Me: Yes, all the Americans are very excited about the erection. It’s probably the biggest erection we’ve seen in years…much bigger than Bill Clinton’s successful erections.
TZ: Are you going to be able to participate in the erection?
Me: Yes, thanks to the internet and technology these days, it’s easy for anyone to have a hand in the erection. In fact, I think more people will take part in the erection this year than any other erection in history!
TZ: But during Bush’s two erections, were people really happy with the outcome?
Me: Not really, it ended up creating quite a big mess.
Yeah, so pretty much any election conversation brings a smile to my face. Tanzanians are all really excited about Obama and I love their no BS approach and direct way of asking who I support and why. Oh, and I am actually going to be able to participate in the election. I mailed in my absentee ballot application about 3 weeks ago, so assuming Delaware County board of erections follows through, I’ll be able to vote.
Village life is going really well. My tribal nickname is Shali (sounds like Shari, too), which is a common Kimalila name for a woman. I love it, people just yell "We, Shaliiiii!" wherever I go and I go shake their hand (the handshake is the shake, squeeze, shake, snap method..i hope to add a video of it later for full effect) Apparently Shila is the name for a man, so when I say that my mother is named Sheila, that often causes some laughter or confusion..as if someone had named a daughter Bob or something. I did not leave site at all, even for the day, for over two weeks. I’m getting in a little bit of a routine, but no day is ever completely the same. It continues to amaze me how the people here have close to nothing, but will offer you everything they have in a heartbeat. When you have a guest, you are expected to offer them something. They LOVE inviting me into their homes to eat ugali for lunch and to just talk or sit awkwardly. One woman braided my hair into four braids, people in my village were ecstatic and started asking me if people in America braided their hair too. I said yes, but sometimes a little different (picturing little girls with french braids in equestrian clubs riding horses or something) I've been trying to keep chai, bananas or random things in my house so the people who visit me don't leave empty handed. When I first got to site I wasn't cooking because I didn't have anything to cook in, but now every night I've been trying out different styles of the same food. As shannon fitzgerald would say, "The things you're doing with bananas is delightful". Bananas have come in handy, because you can eat them plain, cook the plaintain ones like potatoes, and the sweet ones with some peanuts and sugar for dessert. Getting the jiko lit was an arduous task at first but now it's a lot easier, and I'm starting to use firewood more especially with boiling water because it gets hot a lot faster. Rice and ugali are the staple filler foods, but luckily for me there are a lot of vegetables around here so I don't have to rely on just starch. In my village I can usually get tomatoes, onions and fish on most days, along with some sort of vegetable. So I normally just fry some onions, add some chopped tomatoes and any kind of spices around to make a sauce. Then add the greens and you have your little veggie sauce mixture to go with the rice. Crushed red pepper is used in every meal (thanks to the wonderful alberto's packets sent by dc's finest) Instead of pot holders, I use thick sticks to go under the rim of the sufuria and lift and move charcoals that way too. Baking is even possible--I made brownies! I bought some cocoa powder and did the same type of baking method that my mama taught me in homestay. Always have to crack eggs in a separate bowl from the mixture, though, because there are lots of fertilized eggs that can pop up and a little dead bird just doesn't make baked goods taste that great. I'm usually eating dinner around 9pm and then play the guitar or continue to knit this scarf that grows bigger with every row..it's like the blob, I don't know how to stop it and I'm not sure if I want to!
Since for the first three months we're just supposed to meet as many people as possible and get to know the village before we start actual projects, every day I just walk from the school or health center or peoples' homes. It's actually pretty exhausting but paying off pretty well because I'm realizing I can understand more and more things when I go to village meetings or to the different churches. Went to the Baptist church last week, it was great--they have a choir for OVC's and play the ngomba (drums). I’ve had several meetings in the vitongoji, or hamlets, or sub-villages that are technically a part of Ilembo but more isolated from health and education services. These meetings consist of myself and a teacher, Joseph, from the secondary school who is interested in teaching life skills and gender analysis/community development, and we facilitate/ask questions and the villagers do most of the discussing. Or at least that’s theoretically what could be happening. I have found a couple people who I think would be good committed counterparts, but for now doing these meetings and using PACA tools (participatory analysis for community action) is a good way to find out what villagers in different areas, genders, and ages think are the biggest problems in the community and how their daily activities differ. For example, the women and men are both working in the farms from 7am-2pm, but the women are also choting water, carrying babies on their backs while they work, and preparing the meals while the men pumzika, or rest. The women in the village so far have been kind of afraid to talk about what they think are the biggest problems in the village (many have told me after the meeting that they want to learn about family planning, which I am working with the health center to create a health library and weekly mamas group meetings there. The consistent answer for both men and women as the top health problems in the area are that there are lots of orphans due to HIV/AIDS and that many PLWHA’s cannot afford the trip to town to receive ARV treatment. The doctor at the health center is trained to administer ARV's so I think that later on we should be able to bring the ARV's to Ilembo health center and that way soooo many people would be able to walk here and receive treatment. I have a feeling that it could take a while, but when I have mentioned the possibility to people who are HIV+ but not taking ARV's, they were really excited and said that they would definitely come to receive treatment. Thanks to everyone's interest in supporting the orphans here!! I am trying to get a web site together, but the first step here is to actually mobilize a group and community volunteers who can be trained to counsel and work with them. The money would go to school fees, notebooks, and uniforms so that at least they can stay in school, and then later doing life skills training, girls' empowerment, and permaculture. There is a lot of space next to the primary school that during the rainy season should be able to catch plenty of water and if the kids themselves started a garden and maintained it well, they could really have great access to a ton of vegetables and not just eat ugali.
This amazing nurse from Hawaii and founder of a really really small (herself + 2 other people) but cool group called Every Child, Every Village (Everychildeveryvillage.org) is leaving in a few months and gave me 6 copies of a Kiswahili version of Where There is No Doctor. She has been doing projects with kindergarten classrooms where herself and volunteer artists and some local artists do educational painting in the classrooms. The finished products are incredible, I want to post some pictures later but the main point of her project is to not just have kids learning through memorization alone. There are paintings that can allow them to practice counting or identifying colors, animals, body parts and letters. And the greatest part is that it makes the classroom look so so much better and a more effective learning tool for young kids, since most aren’t lucky enough to have a whole bunch of books to practice with at home. I hope to start a project like this since there are plenty of empty walls and there could be so much potential to do a more health related model or ones geared towards different age groups..like one in the health center area and one in the primary and secondary schools. Some of the kids in the village have already demonstrated talents for drawing, acting (graduation party skits) and even gymnastics.
Oh yeah, graduation parties. Graduation parties of all sorts were had over the past 2 weeks. The first party I went to was thrown by TYCS, a group of Christian students. Apparently my mzungu status makes me an automatic member of the High Table, or Meza Kuu, along with the headmaster, village leaders, teachers, and guests from out of town.
During our swearing in ceremony in Kilosa, we were the ones graduating and I remember being so jealous of the guests of honor at the Meza Kuu drinking sodas or bottled water during the several hour long ceremony, and then being the first ones to eat. As I stood in the line with my host family and about a hundred other people, I remember feeling envious of the Meza Kuu, their hands greasy with chicken meat, scraping up the last remains of the mchicha/tomato/onion sauce with heapfuls of rice or pilau (spiced up rice), well before I was even within reach of a plate. Now that I have experienced the Meza Kuu, I realize that my envy was justified and I felt really badly being treated so well as a guest, but the good thing was that sitting at the Meza Kuu offered a great view of the gymnastics or "acrobats" section. The gymnastics performance during one of the graduation parties literally came out of nowhere. The form3 students were doing back handsprings, back flips,diving through bike rims and they even had a ring of fire which reminded me of Old School, but fortunately and remarkably no one was injured like Frank Ricard. (KEEP YOUR COMPOSURE!!!) The ceremonies were so much fun though, lots of dancing and people wanting to take pictures with the mzungu. Tanzanians don't look into the camera when pictures are being taken. In fact, they will be smiling every second of the day but when a photo is taken, it is time to be serious and stare into the eyes of the person with whom you are being photographed, or just stare blankly off into the distance. At first I was smiling in every picture but now I am starting to like the idea of this non-conventional picture pose.
So thanks to those who have gone through the painful process of placing an international phone call or sending letters and packages, it’s so fun to be able to talk to friends and family many miles away as I walk past goats/pigs getting slaughtered (scariest sound EVER), chickens trying to run into my house and cows with intimidating horns. It is incredible that cell phone service is available in incredibly remote parts of the country. I was able to charge my computer while in town so I hope to be able to type as I go and then upload entries whenever I come in every couple of weeks. My house is starting to feel like home (Kelley Price: Making a House a Home) thanks to the addition of furniture (wooden couch and chairs and table) that a fundi in my village made..it's nice having guests over now because we all have a place to sit.
I’m pretty sleep deprived right now so I’m just going to say good night and I hope that the excitement of this big elrection has enough stamina to last until the first Tuesday in November.
The next was a little bit of Czech while studying abroad in Prague. Czech peoples’ English accents were great because the v’s would be pronounced like w’s. (read: The willage was wary big) This was always a lot of fun, as was saying "Ahojjj" pirate style as the informal "hey".
The Greek vocabulary I learned while bartending on the pirate boat was pretty much limited to “do you want ice in your drink?” or “ good morning, psomas” (psomas = breadman, the local hero at Ios Bakery which was frequented by hundreds of hungry drunk people looking for greasy croissants between the hours of 5-7am.
Kiswahili is rapidly rising on the language likability scale. This is due largely in part to current political climate in America, most specifically the Presidential election between Obama and McCain. Why, you silently ask yourself? Well, the Tanzanian English accent pronounces R’s like L’s and vice verse. (kind of like Kim Jong Il in Team America... 'I'm so ronery..') In fact, the two letters are pronounced so much alike that many Tanzanians will spell Kiswahili and English words with the letters mixed up since they sound so much alike. With that being said, here is a common conversation that can take place between myself (me) and a Tanzanian (tz)
TZ: So, there is a very big erection coming up between Obama and McCain in America in November?
Me: Yes, all the Americans are very excited about the erection. It’s probably the biggest erection we’ve seen in years…much bigger than Bill Clinton’s successful erections.
TZ: Are you going to be able to participate in the erection?
Me: Yes, thanks to the internet and technology these days, it’s easy for anyone to have a hand in the erection. In fact, I think more people will take part in the erection this year than any other erection in history!
TZ: But during Bush’s two erections, were people really happy with the outcome?
Me: Not really, it ended up creating quite a big mess.
Yeah, so pretty much any election conversation brings a smile to my face. Tanzanians are all really excited about Obama and I love their no BS approach and direct way of asking who I support and why. Oh, and I am actually going to be able to participate in the election. I mailed in my absentee ballot application about 3 weeks ago, so assuming Delaware County board of erections follows through, I’ll be able to vote.
Village life is going really well. My tribal nickname is Shali (sounds like Shari, too), which is a common Kimalila name for a woman. I love it, people just yell "We, Shaliiiii!" wherever I go and I go shake their hand (the handshake is the shake, squeeze, shake, snap method..i hope to add a video of it later for full effect) Apparently Shila is the name for a man, so when I say that my mother is named Sheila, that often causes some laughter or confusion..as if someone had named a daughter Bob or something. I did not leave site at all, even for the day, for over two weeks. I’m getting in a little bit of a routine, but no day is ever completely the same. It continues to amaze me how the people here have close to nothing, but will offer you everything they have in a heartbeat. When you have a guest, you are expected to offer them something. They LOVE inviting me into their homes to eat ugali for lunch and to just talk or sit awkwardly. One woman braided my hair into four braids, people in my village were ecstatic and started asking me if people in America braided their hair too. I said yes, but sometimes a little different (picturing little girls with french braids in equestrian clubs riding horses or something) I've been trying to keep chai, bananas or random things in my house so the people who visit me don't leave empty handed. When I first got to site I wasn't cooking because I didn't have anything to cook in, but now every night I've been trying out different styles of the same food. As shannon fitzgerald would say, "The things you're doing with bananas is delightful". Bananas have come in handy, because you can eat them plain, cook the plaintain ones like potatoes, and the sweet ones with some peanuts and sugar for dessert. Getting the jiko lit was an arduous task at first but now it's a lot easier, and I'm starting to use firewood more especially with boiling water because it gets hot a lot faster. Rice and ugali are the staple filler foods, but luckily for me there are a lot of vegetables around here so I don't have to rely on just starch. In my village I can usually get tomatoes, onions and fish on most days, along with some sort of vegetable. So I normally just fry some onions, add some chopped tomatoes and any kind of spices around to make a sauce. Then add the greens and you have your little veggie sauce mixture to go with the rice. Crushed red pepper is used in every meal (thanks to the wonderful alberto's packets sent by dc's finest) Instead of pot holders, I use thick sticks to go under the rim of the sufuria and lift and move charcoals that way too. Baking is even possible--I made brownies! I bought some cocoa powder and did the same type of baking method that my mama taught me in homestay. Always have to crack eggs in a separate bowl from the mixture, though, because there are lots of fertilized eggs that can pop up and a little dead bird just doesn't make baked goods taste that great. I'm usually eating dinner around 9pm and then play the guitar or continue to knit this scarf that grows bigger with every row..it's like the blob, I don't know how to stop it and I'm not sure if I want to!
Since for the first three months we're just supposed to meet as many people as possible and get to know the village before we start actual projects, every day I just walk from the school or health center or peoples' homes. It's actually pretty exhausting but paying off pretty well because I'm realizing I can understand more and more things when I go to village meetings or to the different churches. Went to the Baptist church last week, it was great--they have a choir for OVC's and play the ngomba (drums). I’ve had several meetings in the vitongoji, or hamlets, or sub-villages that are technically a part of Ilembo but more isolated from health and education services. These meetings consist of myself and a teacher, Joseph, from the secondary school who is interested in teaching life skills and gender analysis/community development, and we facilitate/ask questions and the villagers do most of the discussing. Or at least that’s theoretically what could be happening. I have found a couple people who I think would be good committed counterparts, but for now doing these meetings and using PACA tools (participatory analysis for community action) is a good way to find out what villagers in different areas, genders, and ages think are the biggest problems in the community and how their daily activities differ. For example, the women and men are both working in the farms from 7am-2pm, but the women are also choting water, carrying babies on their backs while they work, and preparing the meals while the men pumzika, or rest. The women in the village so far have been kind of afraid to talk about what they think are the biggest problems in the village (many have told me after the meeting that they want to learn about family planning, which I am working with the health center to create a health library and weekly mamas group meetings there. The consistent answer for both men and women as the top health problems in the area are that there are lots of orphans due to HIV/AIDS and that many PLWHA’s cannot afford the trip to town to receive ARV treatment. The doctor at the health center is trained to administer ARV's so I think that later on we should be able to bring the ARV's to Ilembo health center and that way soooo many people would be able to walk here and receive treatment. I have a feeling that it could take a while, but when I have mentioned the possibility to people who are HIV+ but not taking ARV's, they were really excited and said that they would definitely come to receive treatment. Thanks to everyone's interest in supporting the orphans here!! I am trying to get a web site together, but the first step here is to actually mobilize a group and community volunteers who can be trained to counsel and work with them. The money would go to school fees, notebooks, and uniforms so that at least they can stay in school, and then later doing life skills training, girls' empowerment, and permaculture. There is a lot of space next to the primary school that during the rainy season should be able to catch plenty of water and if the kids themselves started a garden and maintained it well, they could really have great access to a ton of vegetables and not just eat ugali.
This amazing nurse from Hawaii and founder of a really really small (herself + 2 other people) but cool group called Every Child, Every Village (Everychildeveryvillage.org) is leaving in a few months and gave me 6 copies of a Kiswahili version of Where There is No Doctor. She has been doing projects with kindergarten classrooms where herself and volunteer artists and some local artists do educational painting in the classrooms. The finished products are incredible, I want to post some pictures later but the main point of her project is to not just have kids learning through memorization alone. There are paintings that can allow them to practice counting or identifying colors, animals, body parts and letters. And the greatest part is that it makes the classroom look so so much better and a more effective learning tool for young kids, since most aren’t lucky enough to have a whole bunch of books to practice with at home. I hope to start a project like this since there are plenty of empty walls and there could be so much potential to do a more health related model or ones geared towards different age groups..like one in the health center area and one in the primary and secondary schools. Some of the kids in the village have already demonstrated talents for drawing, acting (graduation party skits) and even gymnastics.
Oh yeah, graduation parties. Graduation parties of all sorts were had over the past 2 weeks. The first party I went to was thrown by TYCS, a group of Christian students. Apparently my mzungu status makes me an automatic member of the High Table, or Meza Kuu, along with the headmaster, village leaders, teachers, and guests from out of town.
During our swearing in ceremony in Kilosa, we were the ones graduating and I remember being so jealous of the guests of honor at the Meza Kuu drinking sodas or bottled water during the several hour long ceremony, and then being the first ones to eat. As I stood in the line with my host family and about a hundred other people, I remember feeling envious of the Meza Kuu, their hands greasy with chicken meat, scraping up the last remains of the mchicha/tomato/onion sauce with heapfuls of rice or pilau (spiced up rice), well before I was even within reach of a plate. Now that I have experienced the Meza Kuu, I realize that my envy was justified and I felt really badly being treated so well as a guest, but the good thing was that sitting at the Meza Kuu offered a great view of the gymnastics or "acrobats" section. The gymnastics performance during one of the graduation parties literally came out of nowhere. The form3 students were doing back handsprings, back flips,diving through bike rims and they even had a ring of fire which reminded me of Old School, but fortunately and remarkably no one was injured like Frank Ricard. (KEEP YOUR COMPOSURE!!!) The ceremonies were so much fun though, lots of dancing and people wanting to take pictures with the mzungu. Tanzanians don't look into the camera when pictures are being taken. In fact, they will be smiling every second of the day but when a photo is taken, it is time to be serious and stare into the eyes of the person with whom you are being photographed, or just stare blankly off into the distance. At first I was smiling in every picture but now I am starting to like the idea of this non-conventional picture pose.
So thanks to those who have gone through the painful process of placing an international phone call or sending letters and packages, it’s so fun to be able to talk to friends and family many miles away as I walk past goats/pigs getting slaughtered (scariest sound EVER), chickens trying to run into my house and cows with intimidating horns. It is incredible that cell phone service is available in incredibly remote parts of the country. I was able to charge my computer while in town so I hope to be able to type as I go and then upload entries whenever I come in every couple of weeks. My house is starting to feel like home (Kelley Price: Making a House a Home) thanks to the addition of furniture (wooden couch and chairs and table) that a fundi in my village made..it's nice having guests over now because we all have a place to sit.
I’m pretty sleep deprived right now so I’m just going to say good night and I hope that the excitement of this big elrection has enough stamina to last until the first Tuesday in November.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Ratatouille..the dead kind
I can only wish that the rats that lived with me could cook like that little lovable cartoon chef of a rat. Instead, they are offering the spices of feces and urine which unfortunately don't go well with my rice. So, to put it nicely, I fed them a form of poison that ultimately resulted in their death. This is the only time i'm going to use the poison, though..I've got a kitten coming my way in a couple of weeks from the secondmaster, so we'll let nature take it's course after that.
I'm trying to attach a picture of one of the orphans, Anna, in my village. There are apparently many many orphans and whenever I ask where they live, people just respond in the local language by saying "they exist." This has made my search a little difficult, but thanks to the headmaster of the primary school I have a good start..many of the children's parents died when they were only 2-5 years old, and they are living with bibis, babus or aunts that barely have enough food and money to take care of their own kids, let alone to send the orphaned children to primary school. So I am trying to start a group for the orphans and their caretakers..eventually hoping to do sustainable projects but for right now I am trying to find sponsors (like you guys) to help those who are finishing up primary school secure funds to go to secondary school. (Primary school is free, but secondary school isn't) Otherwise, being an out of school orphan puts you in pretty much the highest risk category there is for a kid in Tanzania to get pregnant, STI's, HIV or all of hte above. So let me know if you are interesting in sponsoring an orphan, just so I can get an idea..I think there are about 30-40 in my village.
This is a short entry but just wanted to throw in a pic of my house (its the one in the center there in between all those trees) I am going to try and upload more since this one worked, maybe I'll be back next week for some quality photo upload time. Glad to hear the Steelers are 2-0, and thanks to those who have already written letters to my new home..I got them pretty quickly! (Jenee, mom and pat oswald...thank you!) Alright this is rambling so I'm gonna go and try to find some more orphans. Bye bye!
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Processed Meat
Processing is a term that Peace Corps liked to use during training after we had a session or an activity that was worth discussing. It usually involved a flip chart, markers, and maybe some "I felt" statements. Believe it or not, even you may have "processed" something once or twice or many times in your life under the guise of remedial terms like "recapping" or "reviewing" or "talking about". Most specifically, a lot of processing was done during college on Saturday and Sunday mornings after a fun night out. This type of processing was best served hungover. Now that you may or may not know what "processing" is, it is time for me to start the process of processing my first week at site.
During my first week at Ilembo, I:
During my first week at Ilembo, I:
- Went to a funeral
- Witnessed the delivery of twins (circleeeee of liiiifeeee)
- Learned how to knit from a how-to-knit book from the 1970's.
- Played Shania Twain's "You're Still The One" on the guitar upon arrival at site at 11:30pm for my headmaster, village executive officer, and site supervisor. I'm glad that this song has been in my repetoire for almost 10 years and could be useful finally.
- Had a mouse jump out of my box of granola bars and run over my hand.
- Ate two consecutive twin hard boiled eggs
- Saw a thief get tried in the village court
- Helped over 800 kids in remote villages near mine get vaccinated for measles and take vitamin A and mebendazole as part of a national campaign for vaccination sponsored by unicef and WHO. There was a great deal of off-roading in ambulances and hundreds of screaming, crying terrified children. The fear of getting shots is universal. One kid actually hit me and a health center staff member on the head in hopes of escaping.
- Painted two walls of a room in my house a color called "Apricoat"
- Made a water filter.
- Accidentally went to a CCM (the ruling party) meeting and played the TZ version of UNO, "last cardi" with them.
- Played soccer on the top of a mountain
- Drank approximately 30 bottles of Pepsi that people in the villages kept on force feeding me.
- Bathed once. It's really cold and I have to chote wat
- Rode on a Lorie truck to town (takes about 3.5 hours including dalla dalla) next to a woman who was 9 months pregnant
- Made mac n' cheese.
- Learned some of the tribal language Kimalila.
- Made at least 15 kids cry because they have never seen a white person.
So, yeah. Pretty standard first week moving in stuff. A little bit about Ilembo: It takes about an hour from Mbeya town to Mbalizi by dalla dalla, then 2.5 hours by truck or bus to Ilembo. I'm only about a 10-15 minute walk from my house to where the bus comes. It's a bumpy dusty ride but the scenery is absolutely gorgeous. It's like lord of the rings (lots of rolling green mountains), but no midgets. Almost everyone in my village is a farmer, and there is no electricity in the village at all. The health center has a generator and a few people have solar panels, but for the most part it's incredibly dark at night and you can see a million stars. (BIOBAY style!)
By day, the weather is so nice and great for going hiking and walking around introducing myself to everyone. When I first got to site, I was the last person to get dropped off in my region by my Village Executive Officer (VEO) and site supervisor, whose name is Danston and who I like to call Ted Danston. He actually looks a lot like Jamie Foxx. Anyway, it was dark the whole ride to my site and I was basically dropped off in refugee fashion. I showed up, there was a lantern in my home, a bed, a jiko charcoal stove outside, and a table and some chairs. That's it. It was about 11:30pm when I got there, and they asked if I was okay to spend the night there or if I wanted to go to a neighbor's house. I said I was fine, and following the refugee delivery format they told me to stay put and they'd come check on me in the morning. This was of course after Ted Danston asked me to play a song on the guitar, which is when good old Shania Twain came in handy. Somehow I slept pretty well and got a taste of the noises of the house..I'm on top of a small hill that's a part of a valley, so there's a lot of wind that blows through but I really love my view and the area around my house. I'm very close to the secondary school and my next door neighbor is a teacher at the primary school who has an adorable 2 year old daughter named Gloria. Everyone in Ilembo is very religious, and I am strategically placing the mass cards and medals that people gave me before leaving the US in my home because there are many people who are Catholic and are ecstatic when I say that I was raised Catholic as well. Most of the kids here have been spared the influence of American pop culture, so I received a lot of blank stares when I tried to play the Shakira or 50 Cent card upon meeting some of the students. I'll have to brush up on some gospel tunes. There is a man in the village who is a pastor at the baptist church, but also owns a hardware shop and makes and plays electric guitars! He has rigged this interesting battery powered amp system and I don't know how to translate "jam out" I have said that we should teach one another songs and he could be a part of Blue Band.
My house does not have any electricity or running water or ceilings. It's brick on the outside, cement walls and a tin roof. When you walk in the front door, there's a room that will eventually have a place to sit and hang out, and then there is my bedroom on the left. There's about a 10 foot hallway with a room on each side, and then a door that goes to the courtyard. My choo, kitchen and bafu (shower) are all outside, but I'm really happy I have an enclosed courtyard. The nearest water sources are a well and a natural spring, only about a 5 minute walk from my house. Thankfully, when any of the students see me leave the house with buckets, they run and grab them from me and carry them on their heads for me. I will learn how to do this, but since I have to go up and down a pretty steep hill to get the water, it's not the ideal place to practice, so I welcome the help. Some of the other volunteers have been swamped with people coming to their house and cooking and cleaning for them, but I feel lucky because the people of Ilembo are so friendly and excited about me being there (and also a little confused), but they haven't been overbearing (except with sodas!) and many come by my house to talk or just see what I am doing, but no one has been too forceful or invasive. Kids just come knock on my door and I let them in and give them trail mix and peanuts since that is all the food that I have in my house thus far. On Fridays, there's a huge market that for every other day of the week is completely empty, but every Friday people from all over the area come and it's absolute dusty chaos. I just withdrew money from my bank yesterday and so now I am able to pay for some furniture to be made and to buy things on market day, which I'm excited about because I'm looking forward to making the place feel more like home. This has been rambling, but hey, that's processing for you. Hope to be able to come back in a couple of weeks to use internet, and also sorry if you are trying to call me and not able to reach me...the service is usually good but since my solar charger adapter for my phone is broken, I can't keep my phone on all the time. if you are trying to call, maybe send a text and then I will text back when I have it on. Hope everyone had great finale to summer last weekend and I expect Steelers updates on Sundays now!
New address:
Ilembo Secondary School
PO Box 1731
Mbeya
Tanzania
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Fievel Goes [south]West
After a long anticipated site announcement, I'm headed to the small village of Ilembo, about 70km (or a 2 hour truck or Lorie ride) from the large town of Mbeya. I'm really close to the border of Malawi and Zambia, and am really really excited to see my new house. I'll be close to the primary and secondary schools, as well as the health center..according to the description, all seem to be within a kilometer of my house. Tomorrow I move out of my homestay, which is very bitter sweet since I've had such a great time with them and my CBT group. All of us trainees are moving to MATI (the agricultural school where we meet every week) and then we have our swearing in ceremony on Wednesday. After that, I feel like it could take a couple of weeks to get all 46 of us installed into our villages. This year they're doing something new, which is Peace Corps vehicles are taking us as far as our banking towns, then current volunteers in the region and the VEO (village executive officer) are meeting us and taking us to our houses. It'll be really interesting to move all of my stuff around, which has accumulated greatly since arriving thanks to the dozens of books and buckets I've picked up in these past couple of months.
Hope everyone's doing well back home...this is my new address (or so I think) although letters and packages still will be received at the dar es salaam PO box, but i won't be able to get them until i go back to dar again which probably won't be for a while.
Ilembo Secondary School
P.O. Box 1731
Mbeya
Tanzania
If you are sending me a package, please write Peace Corps Volunteer under my name so I don't have to pay the $30 fee to receive it which apparently is what happens in the post training life. I should still be able to get cell phone service, but there might be a chance that my number will change if CelTel doesn't work there..I'll letcha know! It's been great talking to people who have called and I've been getting some of your texts too! A fellow trainee's mom, (Kate!) called when a bunch of us were together during shadow week, and it was really cool passing around the phone and talking to her as if it was like we were back in the states just saying hey to Joe and Sheila, Alane Hnath, Jenny Losego or Janet Sodini or the Dorans or PKB. So feel free to call and I plan on writing a great deal of letters once I get to site because I will not have electricity or running water. I don't know that much about Ilembo or Mbeya yet except that the climate is nice (gets decently cold but never very hot) and that there is a lot of great fruits and food in the region. Feel free to google and wiki research (a la Perryville) and send me interesting fun facts (Jack, I think this is your area of expertise).
My site is new, which means I'm not replacing anyone and I'm pretty excited about it. Myself and 4 other trainees are getting sent to Mbeya region, and most of them are new sites. As of right now I think the closest volunteer to me is 4 hours away, but that might be different once I get there and see where the current volunteers are..Mbeya seems to be a region where they're trying to start more sites and place new people, so there's lots of room for creativity which I am happy about. I'm pretty excited to demonstrate and teach permaculture, which is pretty much gardening on steroids and for those who really need it to be able to live without worrying about food, especially PLWHAs. This guy Peter Jensen (great name) came and did a great presentation on it and we got out there trying these new digging techniques and finding out different ways to catch and control water...all stuff that I never thought I'd be that excited about but he showed us actual examples of how it has helped Tanzanian families and it is pretty easy to teach, so I'm looking forward to starting a garden at the school or health center in addition to one in my yard.
In my site description, it says that these are the current community groups: Goat keeping, fish keeping, mama mkubwa NGO (big sister NGO), Timber group, and also the health center is trying to get an HIV/AIDS prevention training going, so it seems like a wide variety of stuff going on.
Also, when I was in Dar (which was such a huge change from being in the village) I got to see DARK KNIGHT!!! Our arrival coincided with the opening weekend here and I saw it on "The Biggest Screen in East Africa" which is what was actually written under the doors of the movie theatre as you walked in. In addition and more importantly, I bought a guitar in Dar once I found out I was moving pretty far out there and definitely not having electricity. Let's hope that bad boy makes it to Ilembo in one piece.
Miss you all a lot, not sure when I'll be on next but please write me and I'll write you a candlelit letter back from MBEYAAAAAAA! Enjoy the rest of your summers!
Hope everyone's doing well back home...this is my new address (or so I think) although letters and packages still will be received at the dar es salaam PO box, but i won't be able to get them until i go back to dar again which probably won't be for a while.
Ilembo Secondary School
P.O. Box 1731
Mbeya
Tanzania
If you are sending me a package, please write Peace Corps Volunteer under my name so I don't have to pay the $30 fee to receive it which apparently is what happens in the post training life. I should still be able to get cell phone service, but there might be a chance that my number will change if CelTel doesn't work there..I'll letcha know! It's been great talking to people who have called and I've been getting some of your texts too! A fellow trainee's mom, (Kate!) called when a bunch of us were together during shadow week, and it was really cool passing around the phone and talking to her as if it was like we were back in the states just saying hey to Joe and Sheila, Alane Hnath, Jenny Losego or Janet Sodini or the Dorans or PKB. So feel free to call and I plan on writing a great deal of letters once I get to site because I will not have electricity or running water. I don't know that much about Ilembo or Mbeya yet except that the climate is nice (gets decently cold but never very hot) and that there is a lot of great fruits and food in the region. Feel free to google and wiki research (a la Perryville) and send me interesting fun facts (Jack, I think this is your area of expertise).
My site is new, which means I'm not replacing anyone and I'm pretty excited about it. Myself and 4 other trainees are getting sent to Mbeya region, and most of them are new sites. As of right now I think the closest volunteer to me is 4 hours away, but that might be different once I get there and see where the current volunteers are..Mbeya seems to be a region where they're trying to start more sites and place new people, so there's lots of room for creativity which I am happy about. I'm pretty excited to demonstrate and teach permaculture, which is pretty much gardening on steroids and for those who really need it to be able to live without worrying about food, especially PLWHAs. This guy Peter Jensen (great name) came and did a great presentation on it and we got out there trying these new digging techniques and finding out different ways to catch and control water...all stuff that I never thought I'd be that excited about but he showed us actual examples of how it has helped Tanzanian families and it is pretty easy to teach, so I'm looking forward to starting a garden at the school or health center in addition to one in my yard.
In my site description, it says that these are the current community groups: Goat keeping, fish keeping, mama mkubwa NGO (big sister NGO), Timber group, and also the health center is trying to get an HIV/AIDS prevention training going, so it seems like a wide variety of stuff going on.
Also, when I was in Dar (which was such a huge change from being in the village) I got to see DARK KNIGHT!!! Our arrival coincided with the opening weekend here and I saw it on "The Biggest Screen in East Africa" which is what was actually written under the doors of the movie theatre as you walked in. In addition and more importantly, I bought a guitar in Dar once I found out I was moving pretty far out there and definitely not having electricity. Let's hope that bad boy makes it to Ilembo in one piece.
Miss you all a lot, not sure when I'll be on next but please write me and I'll write you a candlelit letter back from MBEYAAAAAAA! Enjoy the rest of your summers!
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Meeshloaf con Queso
I'm on the move! It's currently shadow week and I am staying with a current volunteer in the southern highlands, near the town of Njombe. It took a 10 hour bus ride to get to Njombe and then another hour and a half really small bus ride to her village. On the smaller bus, there are these nimble men who can scale the sides of the bus much like spiderman. I was just riding and then saw a shadow outside the window directly to my left that turned out to be a man who was just climbing around, making sure the bags were staying on top. The scenery is gorgeous out here, and the weather is actually pretty cold..kind of like late winter weather. This has resulted in a lack of sweating, which myself and I'm sure those around me appreciate greatly. Another important fact is that Njombe has cheese, and lots of it! I guess I should have put this before cheese, but the president of Tanzania actually visited her small village the day before I arrived, which everyone was pretty excited about. The girl I am shadowing is an education volunteer named Laura, and she teaches math at the local school. Her house doesn't have electricity or running water, but it is brand new and she keeps it in really great condition. Myself, Linnea (a fellow trainee) and Laura all thankfully love cheese and baking so we were able to make some delicious food, including a mexican night where I made guacamole, Linnea made salsa, and Laura made some sort of cheese dip that was pretty much like fondue. It was so good and a nice change from rice and beans. You might also have noticed I was finally able to upload a couple photos (how observant of you). These are some pretty great ones from the safari at Mikumi. Thanks to the awesome zoom on my camera (thanks DGI!), I was able to get some pretty amazing pictures. I wish I could do mass uploads but it seems that the java script is still the enemy of all the computers in Tanzania so far, so I can only do a few at a time.
I'm heading to Dar on Sunday and will find out my site announcement on Tuesday..so I'm really looking forward to finding out where I'll be for the next couple of years, and then for all of you guys who want to come visit, we can start planning some trips. Did Brett Favre really get traded?
Also, HERE WE GO STEELERS, HERE WE GO!! I'd appreciate a text after the pre-season game so I can know exactly how many more touchdowns we scored than the Eagles.
Feels great to have a break from homestay and get to see some more parts of the country...getting really excited to move to site. Hope everyone's doing well!!
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Are You Afraid of the Dark...MEAT? (and red, white and blueloaf leftovers)
One image comes to mind: The Couch (was it pink, peach, orange? Ahh they liked to keep us enthralled from the start) amidst a plain black background, just waiting to tell the awkward pre teens that everything was going to be okay. As my older siblings and parents went out to parties to rejoice with friends, family, or loved ones, I watched them drive away with their perms I so desperately wanted (thank you mom for deceiving me with our hairdresser and friend, Sharon Strezlecki by saying that I had to legally be 12 in order to get a perm at Sharon’s and that we were too loyal to her business to go anywhere else).
My parents would wish me a good night, but in the back of their heads they were counting down the years until I could get my learner’s permit and be the family’s designated driver. Until then, it was known that I couldn’t really contribute to the family in any substantial way. Luckily, Gram lived with us and since my parents cleverly told both of us individually that we were in charge of the other, the balance of power was stable. We’d each make little decisions/demands that we would claim would be in the best interest of the other. When diabetic Gram wanted the regular mint chocolate chip ice cream, I suggested the sugar-free Edy’s cookies and cream because “I liked that flavor better.” I had a different strategy when it came to SNICK. I knew Gram’s “I’m just gonna rest my eyes” nap stage would approach at about the same time every night…around 7:45. On Saturday nights if she and I were alone, I would make sure to play about 10 rounds of the keep it up balloon game. If it was right after a birthday party, the slightly drained helium balloons were great because they took such a long time before it could ever hit the ground. Whether it was me running around in circles throwing the balloon in front of her so that she could get it every time, or whether it was because of her insulin levels, that nap came around like clockwork so the problem of “bedtime” or arguing what to watch on TV never arose.
There were many shows that encompassed SNICK. ‘All That’ was like a pre-teen SNL that actually popped out some C and D listers like Amanda Bynes, Keenan and Kel, and the one very large woman who recently had a cameo as ‘that’ cheerleader in Dodgeball who fell on the guy’s face during tryouts. Then there was “The Secret Life of Alex Mack”, the telling tale of a coming of age woman, Alex Mack, who could inexplicably turn into a metallic puddle of mysterious magical liquid. Even though she could transform between stages of matter in seconds, she was still just that girl next door going through the same struggle to be accepted in middle school. The star, Larissa Olenick, hasn’t been seen since the movie “10 Things I Hate About You” (may you rest in peace, Heath Ledger). Then there was “Are you Afraid of the Dark?” The thing about this show was that, despite what you might have admitted out loud at soccer practice, it was actually a pretty scary show. The introduction itself (the leprechaun, the creaky attic) was terrifying and the whole campfire ending with the dust being thrown into the fire…wow I am getting chills just thinking about it. I know some people (me) would watch AYAOTD with one eye ready to be covered just in case something crazy happened. After all, this was before the FCC put out those ratings…we had no idea what could happen! I think if AYAOTD were to be re-released today, it would fall under the TV-14 or dare I say…TV-MA category. I don’t know..I guess we never will.
Soooo I had a point and everything but apparently I needed to get those feelings about SNICK out there in the open. I feel so exposed, but I also feel ready to move on with my life. It feels nice. Anyway the SNICK/Training in Kilosa, Tanzania parallel came into play when some people started asking me if it was scary at night here or what creepy noises I heard, thus ALMOST asking the question “are you afraid of the dark? Also, training is a lot like middle school and being in that awkward stage again since there are a lot of rules, you can’t drive, and you can’t always understand what people are saying.
After being here for a little over a month, I am still loving it and am very happy with how much Kiswahili I am picking up and the wide variety of topics on which we are being taught/trained. Each week 2 different Peace Corps Volunteers (PCV) currently serving come to training to talk to each of the groups to see how everything’s going and answer any and all questions that we might have. Their official title is PCVOTW (Peace Corps Volunteer of the Week). I love the obsession with acronyms the peace corps has, because back in the days of g-chatting every day all day, it was always fun to just list a random set of 4 or 5 letters and see how many different acronyms you could come up with. Jack Gaynor and Tim Naylor had a great aptitude and skill for this incredibly difficult and mentally rewarding brain exercise. Saturday I had a test on Health terms and the Tanzanian Health system, and the first section was just a list of 15 acronyms that we had to decipher. I actually knew most of them, but when I didn’t it was fun to make them up. For example, one was CHAC which apparently has to do with home based aids care, but I wrote Community Health Action Committee. Just sounds great doesn’t it? I wonder if any of the made up ones that people came up with will replace the real one because it is a level of cleverness they have never seen before.
Last Sunday my host mama taught myself and the 4 other girls in my group how to make chocolate cake! The ingredients were a tub of the “blue band” margarine butter that is ubiquitous in this town, some sugar (sukari), flour (unga), vanilla (no translation) and yeast (?) and cocoa powder. The tricky part was actually cooking it since there are no ovens, but what basically happened is the pan was heated on the charcoal stove outside for a while, then a thin coating of oil was poured into coat the pan, and then a large flat try was put on top of the pan with the batter in it, and the charcoals were moved to the top tray pan, so it created a convection oven type deal. It worked out really well and was a fun Sunday treat. Since there are a bunch of coconuts around, I’m thinking the cake could be spiced up by mashing up some peanuts in a mortar and pestle and trying to make a chocolate peanut butter icing with coconut shavings that normally get wasted since most families just use the milk from the coconut shavings after draining it out. Besides the very nutritious chocolate cake, we had a whole morning last week during which 4 of the health groups, led by one of our medical officers, Edith, cooked a traditional Tanzanian lunch of rice, ugali, beans (maharage), beef (nyama), mchicha, karambachi salad (tomatoes, onions, deliciousness), chapati, and I led an entire hot sauce movement where we made enough PiliPili to feed all 30 people. Edith wanted us to make sure we knew how to boil water and clean our vegetables (we soaked them in bleach) so that we could avoid getting the lovely diarrhea that makes its way around these parts pretty frequently. I don’t think anyone got too sick after that meal though, so that was encouraging.
The next day, however, I was brought by my teacher to a random place in town that specialized in making “kitimoto” (literal translation: hot seat….real translation…pork) Seeing as my send off party in Perryville involved an entire pig roast, I could not turn down this opportunity. After Neema, my teacher, took myself and Mary, the only other non-vegetarian from my group (the rest ate lunch far away this day) to the kitimoto place, I began to wonder if I should actually go through with it. There were just grills and 2 men behind them with fresh pig meat hanging behind them. It was less than a dollar for a half kilo and about 1.50 for a half kilo of meat grilled with tomatoes, onions, and the like. Since we eat the same thing everyday, I was excited for the variety but they forgot our order and my stomach was getting hungrier by the second. Right as they were bringing out our plate of so much pig meat, my teacher got a call saying we needed to go to a meeting with a local NGO at that very moment. We ate for a couple minutes, since time in Tanzania is completely different from that in the US. Here, they say “time is the servant and tool of the people.” Apparently it is not uncommon at all for meetings to start 2-4 hours after the original time. Even still, since we are Americans, we didn’t want to let a little bit of dark meat prevent us from getting to this meeting that were already late to. So, the kitomoto people were kind enough to wrap the heap of pork in newspaper and put it in a plastic bag. And yes, we brought this bag of meat to the meeting and tried not to offend the Muslim women who were on the board of the NGO called WAHUJA. Their organization is really great—it’s a mamas group that started out with 27 members back in 2004, but now only 7 women remain because you have to pay fees to support the orphans and sick in the community and the members could not afford it. In a couple weeks we are going to visit PLWHAs (people living with HIV/AIDS) in the area and hopefully get to see what some of the challenges this particular NGO faces (outside of the obvious funding) and see if there is anything we can do to help. I was surprised to find out at the meeting that my Host Mama is a member of WAHUJA..I was so proud to see her up there! Some of the women can’t even tell their husbands that they are doing this or else he would get mad and demand that they keep the money. My mama’s case isn’t like that, but now my language skills are okay enough to ask her about it and I’m looking forward to visiting people at home or in the hospital with her.
Red White and Blueloaf---belated 4th of july edition
The internet was not doing so well this week, but let me just say that we had a FIELD DAY 2008. Yes, that’s right. 6 teams of 11 people, Americans and Tanzanians all mixed together. It was really nice of them to let us do this. I of course volunteered to help decide events and teams and such. After all, it was only a year ago that Field Day 2007 occurred, only under much many different circumstances in Washington, dc. Here, I had the day before at lunch to figure this out, but all worked out well. We had a RELAY RACE in which you had a raw egg in your hand the whole time that you passed off from partner to partner, and the first person had to spin around 6 times dizzy bat style, then put on 2 kangas and a hat, throw a Frisbee to their teammate on the other side, and then run backwards with a bucket with a huge water bottle inside of it, pass the egg to the next teammate, and so forth. The very last person to run to the other side had to do an egg toss to the first person on the other side. At this point, most people’s eggs were half broken in their hand but the rule was that if your egg broke on the toss you had to do 10 kicks of the can can, which one group did and looked fannntastic. Most of the Tanzanian staff (some were 70+ years old) had never seen a relay race, and they LOVED it and want to repeat field day every other Friday, if possible.
After the relay race, we did a team rotation of 20 minute soccer, volleyball, and ultimate Frisbee games. Ultimate Frisbee is now another favorite of the Tanzanians..our team won all 3 games and completely dominated in Frisbee..we were passing like crazy and it was pretty incredible to see people pick up the game so fast. Even for those people who didn’t want to play in any of the sports after the relay, it was a really nice day outside just to relax and take a break from class and regular training for an afternoon. We also had to sing the star spangled banner at the request of the Tanzanian staff, some of whom knew all the words.
The finale: TUG O’ WAR…pretty much the most perfect ending to a tug of war I have ever seen. Since there are only about 11 guys in our program, the first tug of war was Tanzanian men vs. American men. After all the anticipation and build up, the rope BROKE within 2 seconds. It really was such a wonderful ending to a ridiculous day.
I heard some great 4th of July stories from some of you but I hope that everyone had a great time..let me know how you’re doing! People are getting mail here so definitely write me letters. It’s pretty fun to get them. Mary Beth and Frank Monastero win the award for first letter received and it only took about 12 days. Thank you guys!
P.O. Box 9123
Dar es Salaam
Tanzania
Keep your Pets close, but your sense of Detachment to African Pets Closer
Also, wanted to save some bad news for last: remember Pili Pili, the adorable little kitten that lived here with my family? Well, about 10 days ago, pilipili got eaten by the neighbor’s dog, whose name is SIMBA. Simba is now on the death list… Niedermeyer…DEAD…. Simba…DEAD! Haha the best/worst part about the story is how I found out. I came home from school one day and said “wapi pilipili?” and the kids just started laughing and said one of maybe 3 english words that they know “haha pilipili DEAD!!!” over and over again. I still have pictures of pilipili on my camera and they will be posted, so I just wanted to prepare you for that. Lots of PCVs have pets at their sites so this was a good lesson to learn now..not to get too attached to pets in Africa. Also, a couple nights later, one of our guard dogs, Peggy, was stabbed in the ribs with some sort of knife. It wasn’t a good week to be a pet in the Kondo family. We have no idea who did it but Peggy is a trooper and seems to be doing fine. Anytime your pet starts acting up, just kindly tell them that at least they’re not getting eaten or stabbed and they should start behaving.
I go to Mikumi National park this weekend which is a trip that we organized and we get to go see all the safari animals that you think about when you hear Africa, so everybody go watch the lion king and I will let you know how it compares and if there are any young adult sambas. Love and miss you all!
Monday, June 30, 2008
New Month's Eve Sampler
Wow. Ants. One small ant = weak. Thousands of ants = powerful. I thought i was just being paranoid yesterday morning at about 6am when i got up to use the choo and returned and i put my foot up to the window and saw a couple ants crawling on it. Then i waved my flashlight around the room and saw that thousands of tiny ants were covering nearly every square inch (or centimenter i guess) of cement floor, and had created quite a trail along the perimeter of the wall. I started yelling and did the typical "ahhhheughhhhghghg" and ran outside of my room and just yelled "WADUDU" which means insects right into my sisters' face. I was shaking every inch of my body and literally had "Ants...in my pants." She ran and grabbed a heavenly can of bug spray aka straight up poison (not fda regulated..ahhh breathe it in) which she sprayed all over the floor. I then swept the thousands of ants out of my room after allowing time for them to cease living and then washed all of my clothes. At least it was a Sunday which meant I had no school and really had nothing better to do.
There was no clear source of this en masse ant movement, so I think the only reason was that I had literally just hours before spoken to my parents on the phone while in my room and when they asked about the bugs I said that there were actually more bugs in my place in DC and had a nice little chuckle. The ants must have started organizing their forces at that moment so as not to be shown up by the district of columbia.
I tried to post some pictures but it didn't work again...sooo you'll have to just settle for my cell phone number, which i just purchased. I can send and receive text messages most of the time which is pretty cool. Feel free to send me some love!
+255 (country code) 078 395 1912
Happy new month's eve!
There was no clear source of this en masse ant movement, so I think the only reason was that I had literally just hours before spoken to my parents on the phone while in my room and when they asked about the bugs I said that there were actually more bugs in my place in DC and had a nice little chuckle. The ants must have started organizing their forces at that moment so as not to be shown up by the district of columbia.
I tried to post some pictures but it didn't work again...sooo you'll have to just settle for my cell phone number, which i just purchased. I can send and receive text messages most of the time which is pretty cool. Feel free to send me some love!
+255 (country code) 078 395 1912
Happy new month's eve!
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Ingredients
I'm sure many of you at this point are lying awake at night wondering...HOW in the world does one make Meeshloaf? It is certainly one of those questions that great minds have struggled to figure out for centuries.
Let me put your mind at ease by providing a very simple recipe. Here are some of the ingredients, and as always, please add as much crushed red pepper as you desire.
1 malnourished kitten named Pili Pili (which means hot peppers)
30-162 chickens (kukus)
7-10 children, with at least 3 sisters (dada) and 4 brothers (kaka)
1 large cow (n'gombe)
2 'guard' dogs named Bobby and Peggy (mbwa)... important sidenote: these dogs are cute but are so scrawny they make Lola look like the hulk, i think people just have the dogs to protect from other peoples' scrawny dogs.
Approx. 15-23 buckets in varying colors of red, blue and green (these are useful for bathing, cooking, and washing clothes, although usually not all in the same bucket)
3 charcoal stoves
10 lbs of rice
1 mosquito net
1 Mama
1 Baba
1 Kanga for casual wear (google it)
1 Choo (pronounced Cho) aka hole in the ground toilet.
1 Solar backpack
1 Kiswahili-English dictionary
3 liters of Safari, Serengheti, Tusker, Kilimanjaro, or any of the other awesomely named Tanzanian beers. (kilimanjaro is also the main brand for the huge bottled waters..i wonder if this confusion has lead to any poor decisions on the part of visitors)
The internet here is, much like most of the Peace Corps trainees' digestive systems: fickle. I might be able to read your emails but not respond to them. My last posting was pretty giddy, but it was after my first 2 days of being a student again so I guess you could say I was like a little schoolgirl again. The primary schoolkids here are great at laugh at me and the other trainees a lot when we try to greet them, but the way I handle this is by whipping out the FRISBEE and throwing it to them. (MVP of the packing list so far is hands down the frisbee, so thank you Mr. Benjamin Detofsky for that last minute addition)
Most of these kids look about 5 years younger than they actually are, which has resulted in a FANTASTIC Tanzanian doppleganger of Gary Coleman whose real name is Ali. He's 7 years old but as tall as a 3 year old. (so about as tall as gary coleman) Ali is incredibly athletic, and like most of the kids here, became semi-professional at frisbee in about 10 minutes.
My host family is hilarious. They love to laugh a lot and smile, and so do I, so even if we don't know what the other one is laughing or smiling about, we really don't care--the first night I was there we broke the ice of awkwardness and transcended cultural boundaries when one of my younger brothers who is about 15 asked me to sing a Shakira song. "Meeshie--sing. Shakira!" I feigned shyness and then of course started singing "my hips don't lie" in a Robert Goulet voice about 30 seconds later. Every night since I sing another American song and the 7-10 kids that maybe live there, maybe just hang around sometimes, all sing along. My short wave radio picks up a a lot of stations, and when I help out with the cooking after school I bring it outside and we all sing songs and the best part about them not being able to speak much english is that i can sing in the tune but make up words and everyone is happy.
Special shout out to the ladies of Duberstein Group for my amazing camera...I have taken a few pictures which I tried to post and hopefully show up on here..my host family loves it when I take pictures of them, especially my mama!! She got all excited and then posed next to her pink mosquito net which matched her dress at the time. My Baba works for the District Council Government and my mama runs a Duka, or shop, in town that allows her to sport the latest village fashions. No one in my family really speaks english but this has allowed me to practice the Swahili I'm learning every day a whole lot. I go to Kiswahili class from 8am until 5pm, but we have a daily chai break at 10 and lunch at 2, which breaks up the day pretty nicely. It's pretty exhausting but also a lot of fun exercising the language part of the brain again, and I'm really happy with how the language learning is going. As it did with both German and Czech, singing songs is helping me the most. In fact, myself and the 4 other women in my training group wrote a song in Kiswahili and actually sang it in front of the Local Ward Government council (translate: 6 village leaders in a classroom who deadpanned us until the end of hte song when they smiled and clapped..it was a good test of personal will and yet another experience of looking ridiculous in a foreign country) My favorite part about training is that it is done by Tanzanians and not americans in the Peace Corps. We met the country director and staff when we first arrived, but since then have been in the hands of the tanzanian staff members and now our host families, who feed us so much and will do anything for you (if you can translate it!) Also cool is how 3/4 of the villagers in my village of Manzese-A are Muslim, but there are Christians and Muslims living side by side and really peacefully..no one is really that strict in either case, but people just get along great here and lots of Masai come into the village and use walking sticks, own cows, and have really cool gaged earlobes. Most of the conversations get more complicated than the initial how are you and where are you from, so that is when the song singing comes in handy.
I'll try to get back on here in a week. bye byeeee!!
Let me put your mind at ease by providing a very simple recipe. Here are some of the ingredients, and as always, please add as much crushed red pepper as you desire.
1 malnourished kitten named Pili Pili (which means hot peppers)
30-162 chickens (kukus)
7-10 children, with at least 3 sisters (dada) and 4 brothers (kaka)
1 large cow (n'gombe)
2 'guard' dogs named Bobby and Peggy (mbwa)... important sidenote: these dogs are cute but are so scrawny they make Lola look like the hulk, i think people just have the dogs to protect from other peoples' scrawny dogs.
Approx. 15-23 buckets in varying colors of red, blue and green (these are useful for bathing, cooking, and washing clothes, although usually not all in the same bucket)
3 charcoal stoves
10 lbs of rice
1 mosquito net
1 Mama
1 Baba
1 Kanga for casual wear (google it)
1 Choo (pronounced Cho) aka hole in the ground toilet.
1 Solar backpack
1 Kiswahili-English dictionary
3 liters of Safari, Serengheti, Tusker, Kilimanjaro, or any of the other awesomely named Tanzanian beers. (kilimanjaro is also the main brand for the huge bottled waters..i wonder if this confusion has lead to any poor decisions on the part of visitors)
The internet here is, much like most of the Peace Corps trainees' digestive systems: fickle. I might be able to read your emails but not respond to them. My last posting was pretty giddy, but it was after my first 2 days of being a student again so I guess you could say I was like a little schoolgirl again. The primary schoolkids here are great at laugh at me and the other trainees a lot when we try to greet them, but the way I handle this is by whipping out the FRISBEE and throwing it to them. (MVP of the packing list so far is hands down the frisbee, so thank you Mr. Benjamin Detofsky for that last minute addition)
Most of these kids look about 5 years younger than they actually are, which has resulted in a FANTASTIC Tanzanian doppleganger of Gary Coleman whose real name is Ali. He's 7 years old but as tall as a 3 year old. (so about as tall as gary coleman) Ali is incredibly athletic, and like most of the kids here, became semi-professional at frisbee in about 10 minutes.
My host family is hilarious. They love to laugh a lot and smile, and so do I, so even if we don't know what the other one is laughing or smiling about, we really don't care--the first night I was there we broke the ice of awkwardness and transcended cultural boundaries when one of my younger brothers who is about 15 asked me to sing a Shakira song. "Meeshie--sing. Shakira!" I feigned shyness and then of course started singing "my hips don't lie" in a Robert Goulet voice about 30 seconds later. Every night since I sing another American song and the 7-10 kids that maybe live there, maybe just hang around sometimes, all sing along. My short wave radio picks up a a lot of stations, and when I help out with the cooking after school I bring it outside and we all sing songs and the best part about them not being able to speak much english is that i can sing in the tune but make up words and everyone is happy.
Special shout out to the ladies of Duberstein Group for my amazing camera...I have taken a few pictures which I tried to post and hopefully show up on here..my host family loves it when I take pictures of them, especially my mama!! She got all excited and then posed next to her pink mosquito net which matched her dress at the time. My Baba works for the District Council Government and my mama runs a Duka, or shop, in town that allows her to sport the latest village fashions. No one in my family really speaks english but this has allowed me to practice the Swahili I'm learning every day a whole lot. I go to Kiswahili class from 8am until 5pm, but we have a daily chai break at 10 and lunch at 2, which breaks up the day pretty nicely. It's pretty exhausting but also a lot of fun exercising the language part of the brain again, and I'm really happy with how the language learning is going. As it did with both German and Czech, singing songs is helping me the most. In fact, myself and the 4 other women in my training group wrote a song in Kiswahili and actually sang it in front of the Local Ward Government council (translate: 6 village leaders in a classroom who deadpanned us until the end of hte song when they smiled and clapped..it was a good test of personal will and yet another experience of looking ridiculous in a foreign country) My favorite part about training is that it is done by Tanzanians and not americans in the Peace Corps. We met the country director and staff when we first arrived, but since then have been in the hands of the tanzanian staff members and now our host families, who feed us so much and will do anything for you (if you can translate it!) Also cool is how 3/4 of the villagers in my village of Manzese-A are Muslim, but there are Christians and Muslims living side by side and really peacefully..no one is really that strict in either case, but people just get along great here and lots of Masai come into the village and use walking sticks, own cows, and have really cool gaged earlobes. Most of the conversations get more complicated than the initial how are you and where are you from, so that is when the song singing comes in handy.
I'll try to get back on here in a week. bye byeeee!!
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Mzungu Meeshloaf
Well hello there! I have learned about a dozen new greetings in Swahili, but so far my favorite is "Mambo?!" which is an informal "hey" or "what's up" and then you respond back "Poa" (cool) or "Safi" (clean) or "Freshie" (fresh). Since the internet in Kilosa town is scarce, let me just say that Tanzania has been amazing thus far. It took about a day to get to Dar es Salaam, but it was pretty much a blur and we were welcomed in very warmly by everyone at the Msimbazi Centre Wednesday night in the city. We stayed there for 3 nights and got introduced to the country staff and received our sweet medical kits. (The chew it yourself pepto tablets have already come in handy) At this point I still knew no Swahili and was pretty confused when everyone greets you and says hey Mzungu!! and you have nothing to say back. On Saturday we got on a bus and went a few hours to Morogoro, the 5th biggest city in Tanzania. No high rises or anything, but a gorgeous town settled at the base of a mountain, and we got to do some intensive language classes and then pretty much relaxed and enjoyed the training site at St. Thomas center before we headed off to roughing it for the next 2 years! Monday we left for Kilosa, which is where I am now. I am staying in a village called Manzese and living with Mr. and Mrs. Kapeya Kondo. I really like my family a lot and although they do not speak much English (Baba, or the father, can speak a few words), the many kids that either live there or just hang around ( I can't tell which yet) are great teachers and like looking through my books and showing me things and teaching me new words. The smallest child, Harifa, is only 5 and I gave him a ball to play with yesterday and he loves me now and I can understand some of the things he says since he speaks in simple sentences. The family dynamic is incredible...my sisters definitely do most of the grunt work around the house, but I have helped out with some of the cooking already and have been eating great meals since I got here! Rice and beans are the norm, but there are lots of meat and fish and potatoes in stew form, so there is pretty much something for everyone to eat. There are a bunch of vegetarians in the peace corps group but they seem to be doing well.
Mzungu Meeshloaf. The word Mzungu is great. It's not an insult, but some people get annoyed by it. Picture about 30 kids screaming MZUNGU at me and then running to hug me as I walk home up the mountain. they all smile and say HOW ARE YOUUU? The kids say it to any white person they see, but the word actually means "one who walks in circles" because way back when many Africans thought the same white man was walking in circles through all the villages in the country because they had never seen a foreigner before. I'm running out of internet time here but I''m going to try to write more tomorrow and post some pictures of my family!
love and miss you all!
kwa heri!
meeeeesh
p.s. everyone here calls me MEESHIE and i love it. take care!
Mzungu Meeshloaf. The word Mzungu is great. It's not an insult, but some people get annoyed by it. Picture about 30 kids screaming MZUNGU at me and then running to hug me as I walk home up the mountain. they all smile and say HOW ARE YOUUU? The kids say it to any white person they see, but the word actually means "one who walks in circles" because way back when many Africans thought the same white man was walking in circles through all the villages in the country because they had never seen a foreigner before. I'm running out of internet time here but I''m going to try to write more tomorrow and post some pictures of my family!
love and miss you all!
kwa heri!
meeeeesh
p.s. everyone here calls me MEESHIE and i love it. take care!
Monday, June 9, 2008
Something to satisfy the empty stomach
So I'm not sure how long I'll be able to keep up the meeshloaf/meatloaf metaphors (sorry to ruin the surprise if you didn't pick up on the connection), but I'm hoping I'll have enough up my sleeve to last for the 27 month duration of my time volunteering in Tanzania. Plus, it entertains me to think about how much it might annoy some people after the initial "aww, I miss that Meesh and her wacky sense of humor" phase wears off.
First thing's first. I would like to take the space to acknowledge the well known Olympic Gold Medalist in speed skating, Joey Cheek....not for contributing all of his winnings to needy kids in Darfur, but for utilizing his creativity and knack for useless word combinations to come up with the term MEESHLOAF last summer while dining in the fine kitchen of 1453 Harvard Street...where dreams are made and then squandered due to excessive napping caused by the lack of light. I will miss that place. So yes, in July 2007, the word Meeshloaf was born, and despite all the other profound and remotely relevant titles I could have named my blog, I came back to this and decided it was the most appropriate fit for me...and for you, my avid readers I left behind. Plus, Meatloaf is just plain delicious, and also the singer of "Paradise By the Dashboard Light", a Santoro family favorite.
Cutting to the chase...it is 1:48am and in typical me fashion I am getting this blog up literally less than 5 hours before I need to check out of the hotel and begin the trek to Tanzania. For those of you who don't know or have short term memory loss, I am leaving the country to serve as a Health Education Peace Corps Volunteer in Tanzania for over two years. I don't really have the time at this moment to give you the textbook definition of what I'll be doing, but I promise to keep you updated as I'm doing it as frequently as possible.
Here's what I know:
1. I am currently sitting in a Holiday Inn lobby in Washington, DC where for the past two days I have gone to pre-departure training, which rekindled my love of ice breakers and impromptu group skits.
2. I have to check out at 5:30am and go to a government clinic to get some immunizations and start taking anti-malaria pills. The first thing that comes to mind when someone tells me they're shipping me off to a government clinic is pretty much a hatch scene from LOST, circa Claire's abduction by The Others in Season 2.
3. I fly out of Dulles at 3:30pm. We land in Frankfurt Wednesday morning deutsch time, then head to Zurich. From Zurich, we fly to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and arrive around 8pm.
4. My mailing address from June 11 until August 20 will be:
My name
P.O. Box 9123
Dar es Salaam
Tanzania
....aaaaand apparently it might actually get there. we will see what happens, but please be adventurous and try because I would love to receive actual written mail and do not want to have to write myself fake letters so that the other campers think I'm cool. (read: Danica from Wonder Years' character in the 1990 made for TV movie, Camp Cucamonga) http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Camp_Cucamonga/60035492
5. I will most likely not be able to get in touch for at least a week once I land, but i WILL be purchasing a cell phone so I'll be sure to put that number up once I have it. And you will have to call me, since it would most likely cost a small fortune for me to make an international call.
6. Once I land, myself and the 48 other people in my training class (we are all either health or environment trainees) head out to about 300Km outside of the big city of Dar es Salaam (henceforth shall be known as just Dar), to a district called Morogoro. We will stay at a hotel for 2 nights and get more shots and initial survival language training, until we go to the small town of Kilosa nearby and move in with our Host Families and new homes where we will be living for 10 weeks during Pre-Service Training (PST...does not mean pacific standard time, but that would be cool) So I will be living in Kilosa until August 20, at which point I will hopefully be sworn in as a volunteer and then assigned to the site where I will call home for 2 years.
7. I'm going to learn Swahili. Or Kiswahili. Or at least find out when I should say the Ki and when I can leave it out.
As you probably guessed, I'm feeling extremely excited but the slaphappiness is starting to simmer down as I realize my wake up call is for 4:40am, and it is now 2:15. I can't thank you all enough for the wonderful goodbyes and send-off parties. I appreciate all of your encouragement, advice, words of caution, and just plain old love that was heavily present along the east coast this past month. I'm really lucky to have friends and family that would put their livers and hearts through so much distress, just for the sake of a long farewell. It was truly inspiring.
The next serving of Meeshloaf (ha ha) might not be for a while, so grab a snack, check often and tell others, because at the dinner table of the world wide web, there's always an extra plate.
First thing's first. I would like to take the space to acknowledge the well known Olympic Gold Medalist in speed skating, Joey Cheek....not for contributing all of his winnings to needy kids in Darfur, but for utilizing his creativity and knack for useless word combinations to come up with the term MEESHLOAF last summer while dining in the fine kitchen of 1453 Harvard Street...where dreams are made and then squandered due to excessive napping caused by the lack of light. I will miss that place. So yes, in July 2007, the word Meeshloaf was born, and despite all the other profound and remotely relevant titles I could have named my blog, I came back to this and decided it was the most appropriate fit for me...and for you, my avid readers I left behind. Plus, Meatloaf is just plain delicious, and also the singer of "Paradise By the Dashboard Light", a Santoro family favorite.
Cutting to the chase...it is 1:48am and in typical me fashion I am getting this blog up literally less than 5 hours before I need to check out of the hotel and begin the trek to Tanzania. For those of you who don't know or have short term memory loss, I am leaving the country to serve as a Health Education Peace Corps Volunteer in Tanzania for over two years. I don't really have the time at this moment to give you the textbook definition of what I'll be doing, but I promise to keep you updated as I'm doing it as frequently as possible.
Here's what I know:
1. I am currently sitting in a Holiday Inn lobby in Washington, DC where for the past two days I have gone to pre-departure training, which rekindled my love of ice breakers and impromptu group skits.
2. I have to check out at 5:30am and go to a government clinic to get some immunizations and start taking anti-malaria pills. The first thing that comes to mind when someone tells me they're shipping me off to a government clinic is pretty much a hatch scene from LOST, circa Claire's abduction by The Others in Season 2.
3. I fly out of Dulles at 3:30pm. We land in Frankfurt Wednesday morning deutsch time, then head to Zurich. From Zurich, we fly to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and arrive around 8pm.
4. My mailing address from June 11 until August 20 will be:
My name
P.O. Box 9123
Dar es Salaam
Tanzania
....aaaaand apparently it might actually get there. we will see what happens, but please be adventurous and try because I would love to receive actual written mail and do not want to have to write myself fake letters so that the other campers think I'm cool. (read: Danica from Wonder Years' character in the 1990 made for TV movie, Camp Cucamonga) http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Camp_Cucamonga/60035492
5. I will most likely not be able to get in touch for at least a week once I land, but i WILL be purchasing a cell phone so I'll be sure to put that number up once I have it. And you will have to call me, since it would most likely cost a small fortune for me to make an international call.
6. Once I land, myself and the 48 other people in my training class (we are all either health or environment trainees) head out to about 300Km outside of the big city of Dar es Salaam (henceforth shall be known as just Dar), to a district called Morogoro. We will stay at a hotel for 2 nights and get more shots and initial survival language training, until we go to the small town of Kilosa nearby and move in with our Host Families and new homes where we will be living for 10 weeks during Pre-Service Training (PST...does not mean pacific standard time, but that would be cool) So I will be living in Kilosa until August 20, at which point I will hopefully be sworn in as a volunteer and then assigned to the site where I will call home for 2 years.
7. I'm going to learn Swahili. Or Kiswahili. Or at least find out when I should say the Ki and when I can leave it out.
As you probably guessed, I'm feeling extremely excited but the slaphappiness is starting to simmer down as I realize my wake up call is for 4:40am, and it is now 2:15. I can't thank you all enough for the wonderful goodbyes and send-off parties. I appreciate all of your encouragement, advice, words of caution, and just plain old love that was heavily present along the east coast this past month. I'm really lucky to have friends and family that would put their livers and hearts through so much distress, just for the sake of a long farewell. It was truly inspiring.
The next serving of Meeshloaf (ha ha) might not be for a while, so grab a snack, check often and tell others, because at the dinner table of the world wide web, there's always an extra plate.
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