Disclaimer: The contents of this web site are mine
personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government or the Peace
Corps.
Greetings from Tanzania! I know I have a little explaining
to do. Since I didn’t bring a computer to country, I have been unable to type
or post anything to keep you all in the loop about the happenings here. I will
do my best to fill you in on the last 10 weeks and I will do better about
keeping it up consistently now that I have a computer.
I am a member of the
Tanzania Education Peace Corps Class of 2013. Since my arrival in Tanzania on
July 5, I have been a Peace Corps Trainee. My group of 41 colleagues and I flew
from Philadelphia, to Johannesburg South
Africa, and finally to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. We stayed at a beautiful place
called the Kurasini Center for 5 days while undergoing crash courses in health,
cross-culture, and language.
On the 10th of July, we boarded a bus and
traveled 5 hours northwest to Korogwe, Tanga where we spent the next 9 weeks of
training. Upon arrival in Korogwe, we were fed a quick lunch and quickly swept
away to be dropped off at our homestays. Talk about nerve racking! All we knew
were the names of our host parents and the name of the internship school we
would be teaching at. The van pulled up
to a nice house on what seemed like a main road and said my name. I was greeted
by my mama with open arms, she helped me carry my things into my room (which
was big and nice!), and then we sat down to get to know each other. Sounds nice
right? Now, remember that I had been in the country for 5 days and knew how to
tell her no more than my name and that I was from America. Oh, and my mama
speaks absolutely no English, so we resorted to gesturing and drawing which
truly shows the value of non-verbal communication.
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| Front view of my homestay |
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| the shop my mama owns/runs and Heather and Jason |
My host mama’s name is Monica and she runs the duka attached
to the front of the house. She sells miscellaneous items like bulk food as well
as razor blades, soda, toilet paper, cell phone vouchers, etc. My host baba’s
name is Herman. I didn’t see him as much because he is a doctor and travels
often. He is focusing his efforts on mass distribution of medicine to remote regions
of Tanzania to people suffering from NTD (Neglected Tropical Diseases). Baba Herman speaks English very well, so the
few occasions when he was home was a breath of fresh air because we could sit
outside and have interesting conversations comparing life in America and
Tanzania. I have 3 brothers: Richard
(13), Lazaro (12), and Raphael (10). They are all in primary school here, which
is taught all in Kiswahili, so I helped them with their English homework and in
return, they helped me study Kiswahili.
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| My little Emanual |
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| Baby Harriet |
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| Me and my homestay family... I had just showered |
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| A daily occurrence at homestay. Taking dried corn off the cob, cleaning it and bagging it to get ground into ugali flour |
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| I found an Idaho shirt. I was so excited :) |
Anyway, my host
family welcomed me with open arms and taught me what it was going to be like to
live here for my next 2 years. I learned how to cook traditional Tanzanian food,
wash clothes and dishes by hand and keep a house clean.
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| Cooking maandazi every morning to sell at the shop |
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| Picture of our backyard where we cooked, washed dishes and clothes, etc. |
During training, we got the great opportunity to travel a
couple of weekends to see the Tanga Region. Our first trip was to Tanga town, a
very hot city located on the ocean. The ride is short, and after being at
homestay a few weeks, it felt like a
mini-vacation. A few of us walked up to the Yacht Club on the beach where we
were able eat burgers and drink beer by the water, as well as play on the
beach. It was a beautiful, relaxing, and much needed day to give our brains a
Kiswahili break.
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| View from the deck where we ate lunch |
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| Lauren holding the tiniest crab! |
A few weeks later, we had the opportunity to head in the
opposite direction to the majestic mountains of Lushoto. Although the bus ride
was a little longer, the selling point of this trip was the stop for lunch at
the Irente Biodiversity Reserve run by a Swiss couple. We had their picnic
lunch which was comprised of food all grown on the reserve, including Rye
bread, 2 kinds of jam, guacamole, fresh cut veggies, fruit juice and 2 kinds of
cheese. Yes, I said CHEESE! Needless to say, everyone gorged themselves. Then
we went for a hike out to the lookout point where you could see for miles. It
was absolutely gorgeous and of course my pictures don’t do it justice.
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| Picture of Joel taking a picture |
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| Cody wasn't feeling well, but this is a great pic |
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| and we feast! |
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| our cool chameleon friend |
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| The view from the view point |
Of course the main purpose of Peace Corps training is to
prepare us for our 2 years of service, and to do that, we needed practice as
teachers and language training. This all took place at our internship schools,
which was a secondary school near our homestay houses where we met several days
a week with the other 3 or 4 members of
our CBT (community based training). While at CBT were able to step in as
teachers for a few weeks and teach a few lessons, run a classroom, and really
get a feel for the challenges we would be facing these next couple years. We
were able to get an inside look at how the Tanzanian School System works to see
how we would be fitting into the puzzle. Internship teaching only lasted 4
weeks, but by the end, I felt more confident in my ability to cope with the
language and sometimes cultural barriers that I am going to come across every
day.
As my 10 weeks as a Peace Corps Trainee came to an end, I
took some exams and mostly soaked in the last bit of time I had with my
homestay family. Sadly, on September 9,
I had to say goodbye to my lovely family and head off to Dar es Salaam
again. On Thursday, September 12, all 40 of us (one was absent) dressed up and
headed to the United States Ambassador’s residence where we were officially
sworn in as volunteers to begin our 2 years of service. The residence was
beautiful and the ceremony was great. I lead the Tanzanian and American
National Anthems!
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| Swear-in photo of everyone together |
The next morning at 3am, we packed up our bags and loaded
costa to head to the Dar bus standi where the 3 of us heading to Njombe (and
our heads of schools) boarded the bus to Songea for an 11 hour ride. This bus had less leg room
than any bus I have ever been on, so it was a fairly uncomfortable 11 hours. Eventually
we made it to Njombe and stayed a couple of nights in town to rest and pick up
a few things before heading to site.
I have been placed at Maria Nyerere Secondary School (named
after the 1st lady of Tanzania) in Wangama Village of the Njombe
Region. This is an all-girls government boarding school with a small staff of
10 teachers for over 500 students. The
school is on the top of a hill in the Southern Highlands, and the views are
phenomenal- it kind of reminds me of The Sound of Music. It gets really cold
here in the winter and the wind blows all the time. No, really, all the time…
but I welcome the wind as an opportunity to explore wind power. My house is beautiful and more than I ever
expected to have during my service. I have glass windows (because it gets so
cold), a private courtyard with water spigot and a garden.
