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.