President, tornado, Darryl's graduation

My first month here at site has been full of adventures! My one of first weekends, my school held a celebration for the Catholic Student Association of Tanzania. The students used local materials to construct a large tent-like structure to hold the ceremony under.

This ceremony was just held with students, faculty and 2 honored guests from the church. There was a lot of singing, dancing, and food and cake! In Tanzania, it’s customary for the recipient of a party to feed cake to guests, and this celebration was no different. Catholic students that were being honored that day bought cake and fed it to whom ever they chose (I had like 4!). This celebration started Friday and continued through the weekend with singing and dancing until late Sunday night. 

The ceremony structure made of wooden poles, straw and cloth

The Form IV members of  Catholic Student Association posing

The Catholic celebration was just a warm up, because then 2 weeks later was Form IV Graduation. The O-level (ordinary level) secondary schools go through Forms I-IV (the equivalent of 8^th-11^th grade), and after Form IV, they graduate and continue onto A-level (advanced level) Forms V and VI if they pass their National Exams in November. For the Form IV Graduation, parents and family members came to witness and celebrate. There was singing and dancing, plays and gift giving. It was an all-day event, and everyone was so happy, even the guests got up and danced during the music gap fillers between events. It was so fun to be a part of. Then we had a huge Tanzanian meal together: parents, teachers and students, because sharing a meal here shows that you care and is an important part of culture. Unfortunately, schools are not equipped with hundreds of plates and utensils, so everyone ate off of paper plates with their hands. But the food was good!

The method of transportation for many family members to my small village for graduation

Students parade into the ceremony

A couple weekends later, I was invited to a graduation at a nearby village (an hour away by bus) where a fellow Peace Corps Education Volunteer named Darryl teaches. So, Friday morning I caught the bus from my village to his. His graduation was very similar to mine with shade tents of local materials, singing, dancing and food, except that Darryl played guitar and sang! They also put on a fashion show and did some very impressive acrobatics. It was a great time. That night we were invited out to the after celebration the teachers were having in the science lab. This consisted of more eating and dancing. They loved to laugh at how we danced! Tanzanian’s are so welcoming, I felt right at home and comfortable at this new school and village.

Painted in the dirt to welcome parents and visitors to graduation

Darryl singing a song he wrote at his schools graduation

Darryl in at a pig raising project at his school

Graduating Form IV students 

These models in the fashion show were dressed as Masai

Impressive acrobatics

Taking photos in the Tanzanian style

 The next morning, Darryl and I woke up early to catch a bus to Njombe town where we quickly caught another bus to a small village called Kipenguere about 1 hour south of my village. Why, you ask? Well, on the day of Darryl’s school’s graduation, the President of Tanzania, Dr. Jakaya Kikwete, came to Njombe town to officially declare Njombe an independent region. About 2 years ago, this area used to be part of the region to the north called Iringa, but after the census, they decided to separate it to create new region. Just goes to show the pace of life here in TZ, when the President comes to officially open it 2 years after the fact. Anyway, the next couple days after his appearance, he traveled around to remote villages in Njombe to greet the people and just make an appearance. Darryl and I couldn’t pass this up, so we made our way out for the festivities. We arrived in Kipenguere at a soccer filled all decorated and full of people awaiting the President’s arrival. We joined the crowd, and not 20 minutes later were pulled through the crowd to the front (they spotted the mzungu). We were then asked what villages we were representing were escorted to seats just 50 feet away from the President’s table.

We went from this view in the crowd...

to this view!

The President's table just 50 ft left of our chairs

When Dr.Kikwete arrived, the crowd was full of energy, and they sang and danced to welcome him. Kikwete was accompanied by his wife and all of the Ministers of Tanzania. All of the Ministers proceeded to give speeches, followed by the First Lady, and finally Kikwete himself. 

students from a local elementary school sing and dance to welcome the President

His grand enterance

And his arrival

The First lady giving her speech

Dr. Kikwete giving his speech

Dr. Kikwete greeting Father Caleo

 About 20 minutes after the President left the building (or the small outdoor dugout-like structure of the soccer field…), Darryl and I witnessed a small dust devil, several hundred yards away. It grew larger and larger and eventually lifted the roof off of a housing structure! It was the closest thing to a tornado I had ever seen, and boy was it cool!

Toto, I think we are in Kansas!

It is the beginning of rainy season here, which means I have been experiencing more storms lately…

Like last week, my house flooded. But I feel like I have written enough already, so I will save that story for another post J