Random Thoughts 24-25 June

Today I walked to the butcher’s carrying my little sister on my back using a khanga and then walked home with the meat balancing on my head. Yup…I’m pretty awesome. I feel like a true Tanzania now. When I’m with my siblings or anyone else from my family I definitely get a lot less attention, so I love going out with the kids.

I now have seen two chickens being carried around in plastic bags…alive. One was being marched down the aisle of church and the other was carried onto the daladala. They seem so calm just hanging out in their plastic bags waiting to be killed.

My sisters and a neighbor girl all painted their nails today. I now have gold nails with random “sequins” of other colors. Pretty tacky looking, but they were staring at me until I started painting them. A lot of things here are offered and then when I’m unsure, they keep staring until I do what they want.

Karibu means “you’re welcome”, but is often used to welcome you somewhere. I actually didn’t realize until two days ago that it can also be used in response to thank you. It seems odd or like you did something wrong, like you didn’t say thank you. I’m trying to get used to it though.

Last night when my mama and I got our matching dresses, Catherine went back and forth between us saying “mama, dada, mama, dada”. Today as I was holding her she kept pulling down my shirt to try to breast feed. Everyone was staring but not thinking it was weird or inappropriate.

I made everyone in my family friendship bracelets. They said I’m a fundi and should open my own shop. It’s a gift that keeps on giving. Thank you Marissa for teaching me, and thank you Kleinfelder family for all the string.

It is weird to think that I won’t see summer for another year. It is normally about 85 degrees here, but it is technically their winter. Today it even rained. I do miss pools and the beach.

This morning I got given a foot long sugar cane by the neighbor of another volunteer. The 3 year old was just gnawing on it and then started hacking it with an axe. I’d never eaten a sugar cane and it was delicious. I ate about a half inch and gave the rest to my family.

I’m really trying to upload picture of my family and my living situation. I have my own room (but I think they moved beds around because there are 2 beds jammed in another room). The kids start school at 8am I think. I am usually gone by 7:20 so they are just barely getting up and dressed. I’m still confused about when they eat and bathe in the morning because I’m served chai alone and I’ve only seen other people shower twice. When I get home (somewhere between 5-7pm) we all sit around outside where dinner is prepared on the coal cooking burners. I either study/practice pronouncing things or I help prepare the meal. I think they think I’m pretty worthless at cutting anything but their knives are so dull! We eat dinner around 8pm. Sometimes I’ll play cards with the kids, sometimes they watch part of a movie on their dad’s laptop, or sometimes they will just go to bed right after dinner. Us adults sit at a separate table and continue sitting there for at least a half hour after eating. I then shower and am in bed around 9:15pm.

My bathroom, or “choo” is a hole in the ground. They installed a toilet paper roll just for me! I take bucket baths twice a day. The shower room is tiled with just a small hole in the ground for a drain. There are two 5 gallon buckets…one with freshly boiled water which I mix with a few scoops of room temperature water. I use a plastic cup to scoop water over my head.

So far, I have only had a few ants and one mouse in my room. A lot of other volunteers have serious problems with pests. My house was actually just built (my family moved in 3 days before I arrived) and they “mop” every day. Also, they cook outside even though there is a kitchen type area inside. I think that helps keep bugs out. 

Also, my mom is going to post a blog about how to contact me. I would LOVE letters or emails. Tell me about YOUR life. It is hard to explain my life to others, so honestly it would be really nice to hear about life in the USA! 

XOXO

CCT Week 2

This whole week we have been going to CCT for technical training. We learned how to teach more effectively and had to teach two micro-lessons. Some people were really unsure of what to do and spending almost two hours making lesson plans. It is hard because we are teaching to English speakers who have a college degree, yet our lessons are directed towards 14 year old ESL students. Also, we have to reduce our lesson down to 10 minutes instead of a 40 minute lesson or 80 minute lesson. I think my microteaching lessons went pretty well and I did learn a few things from current volunteers. Any suggestions for classroom activities, or learning games or songs would be greatly appreciated! There have been a few volunteers who have come back to talk to us and demonstrate. Two out of three of them talk in “Simple English”, that I think is very condescending. I understand that we need to speak slower and articulate and pronunciate clearly, but it seemed to deter from the lesson. Also, we are supposed to only speak in English to our students. One volunteer tries to use very basic Swahili, but she mispronounces the word. All of the trainees are trying to stifle their giggles, so I can’t imagine how her actual students feel. So I have learned: no Swahili at all in the classroom (I will have someone translate if needed), I will speak slowly but not too slowly, and I will try to engage the students as much as possible.

Getting to and from CCT has also been an experience this week. We were told on Monday that we would be taking a daladala for the first time. Instead, we were surprised when our Peace Corps van showed up at 7:30am. We arrived on time. For some reason, our LCF (Launguage and Cross-Cultural Facilitor) didn’t think we needed to leave earlier. We have to take 2 daladalas on the way to CCT. We arrived 45 minutes late on Tuesday and then an hour late on Wednesday. So now they are going to send the van for us every day! On the way home it is about 2 miles to the daladala stand at the traffic circle, which we have been walking every day. Then the main road daladala takes us maybe 5 miles. Then we can either walk the next 2 miles or take another daladala. So it can take us a little over an hour to get home or about 2 hours depending on the daladala schedule and if we decide to walk or not. I like walking for the exercise but I don’t like walking IN the road. I have almost been hit quite a few times. There is really no sidewalk or anything. So motorcycles, bicycles, and sometimes cars are driving on the side of the road where people are walking. Also, we get stared at a lot and little kids yell “muzungu, muzungu, muzungu”, or “good morning, teacher”, which can get a little bit annoying.

Two days ago we met another muzungu on the road, but she doesn’t speak English. She was actually from Brasil and her husband is going to be the next president of Kenya. Dr. Sammy talked to us for about 20 minutes. He has been to 53 different countries and knows 40 languages. He was the youngest person in parliament in Kenya. They have a “cappuchino” kid. They live in Brasil half the year and then in Boston the other half. They are missionaries, which is why they are in Tanzania now.

I have 2 local “friends” now. One guy, William, works on the daladala and Theresa is a friend of my mom. My siblings took me over to “grandfather” (actually they were saying “to get flowers”) at William’s house and it was very awkward. The next day he saw me though. Then Theresa saw me walking down Mazimbu Road and yelled “Alllyyyy”. It was so nice to get called by my name finally! Also, our LCF, PJ is really cool too. He is 26 and we just found out that his host family left to go to a funeral so he has been very lonely for the last 3 days. He texted all of us last night and my family thought it was the funniest thing that my teacher was texting me.

My baby sister Catherine has started to like me now. She loves to play with my hair. My other siblings still think I’m pretty weird. I think they are mostly shy. I told my first attempted joke the other day. I told Patrick, the 9 year old, that I was going to pull his other tooth out tomorrow. He put his hand over his mouth and his eyes got huge. All the adults thought it was hilarious. He lost one front tooth the day before I arrived and the other front tooth is lose. Emmanuel, the 13 year old, loves to dance, so I played some American music for him yesterday. I found out that the other mama is actually my mama’s sister and my dad is putting her two girls through school so they can support their mom later in life. My dad speaks English to me a good deal, but really only to have deeper conversations. Last night I was telling him about the great room and how that is basically my dad’s house and the real house is my mom’s house. He thought it was so funny that my parents are still married but have their own spaces.

We are at our school now doing language training. After we are done, we all might hang out or I’ll hang out with my family. Tomorrow, I’ll probably end up going to church with my family and then we are going to pick up dresses that were made for me and my mama. We are going to be twins!

Morogoro Week 1

We arrived in Morogoro on Tuesday June 12^th. It took us about 3 hours by bus. As we went on a scale, we weighed 10,200 Kilos! And that was after everyone had left any unnecessary luggage in Dar. I ate my first ice cream cone here and it was delicious! We arrived at CCT, which will be our home base for the next two months. It is so much prettier and cleaner than the Msimbazi Center in Dar. The food is better too! We ate, did a quick introduction and then were delivered to our host families. I was really anxious about meeting my host family. When I first arrived, my mama just kept saying “Karibu sana” (You’re very welcome) over and over and over again. I thought this older man was my Baba (dad), so when my Baba came home from work later that night I was very confused. I still don’t know who the other man is or how he fits in. What I do know is that my Mama and Baba have 2 kids together, and my Mama has another kid from a previous relationship. My Mama’s mom lives here too. Then there is a mother and her two kids who stay here/maybe work for my family? So I have 5 siblings: age 1, 6, 9, 11, 13; 2 Mama’s, 2 Baba’s, and a Bibi. They are all super nice, but sometimes it gets frustrating not being able to understand each other. Thankfully, most of them know at least a few English words, but that doesn’t really help when trying to form sentences.

Our classes at CCT seem a little bit redundant to me. I would have preferred to do a little bit of language training every day instead of cramming all of it into a few days and then have days of pretty much nothing new. We did learn how to make water filters out of 5 gallon buckets. My 13 year old brother helped me make it for my family. Other than that, we have mostly been learning more health things and learning about the Tanzanian culture and educational system. Tanzanian culture is actually very similar to Arab culture, so maybe I’m just assuming everybody else already knows what I came to grow accustomed to. Next week we start our internship at a local Secondary School. All instruction is done in English at Secondary schools here.

Yesterday morning I ran into my Baba in the hallway and I forgot to put on my khanga. I was so embarrassed, even though normally I would feel very modest while wearing yoga pants. Nobody washes their hands here. There is trash everywhere on the streets. The inside of the house is always kept very clean. My house has no electricity or running water. Children (and come adults) just stare at me (and other PCVs) as we walk in the streets. If we say anything in Swahili, the kids think it is hilarious. Kids are very timid. My baby sister still won’t let me touch her. The neighbor girl seems to like me more than my siblings. I taught the kids how to play Uno today, but we called it Moja (1). Most people speak very softly, so besides not speaking the language, I can’t hear what they are saying in the first place! “Shikamoo” is a greeting for elders here. It is very important to show respect by “shikamoo”ing someone. I get “shikamoo”ed all day by people, even by some who are my own age.

Tomorrow I will go to church with my family in the morning, then get a dress made, get my hair braided and wash my clothes. Yay! On Monday we will start taking the daladalas to CCT. The very first day, Jeff, another PCV, got his whole wallet stolen while on the daladala. Hopefully no one else gets pickpocketed. Thankfully it is normal for women here to carry money in their bras, so I think that reduces my risk.

So far everything is going really well. I love all the people I’ve met and have definitely had great bonding experiences with some of them so far. The language is coming along slowly but I’m sure I’ll be fine. It is gorgeous here in Moro with the mountains looming in the distance. On July 27^th I will know where I will be placed for the next 2 years!

First Week

My first blog in Tanzania! The first time I had the opportunity to use the internet was on Saturday. I rushed to my room after class and wrote up a blog, only to find out the internet café had randomly closed early that day. Now I’m at Peace Corps Headquarters. So much has happened in the last week and there is so much to write, so please excuse my fragmented thoughts.

June 3^rd I left Modesto and flew to Philadelphia. I arrived and met 3 other PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers) in the airport. Two of them were going to Burkina Faso and Alice is with me now in Tanzania. She is one of four “older” volunteers. I picked up a cold or something on the plane and she gave me Emergen-C right away (not that it helped…I’m just starting to feel normal). Anyway, got to the hotel. Met Emily, my roommate. Met about 15 other West Coast volunteers (they sent us all in a night early because of travel time) downstairs for a late dinner/drinks.

June 4^th-Staging Day! Emily and I met about 6 other volunteers downstairs as they arrived from the airport. We walked around in search of the steps from the movie Rocky. No luck. Staging started at 12:30 and we basically turned in paperwork, got our official passports (I’m now an employee/volunteer? of the federal government!), a travel debit card, and travel reimbursements. We met everyone, talked about core values  and expectations(check out the Peace Corps webpage), did some situational skits, talked about anxieties and aspirations. It was such a great feeling knowing that 46 other people in the room had been feeling the SAME way for the past month/year about our upcoming departure. We all knew why we were there and what we were there in spite of. About 15 of us went to dinner together at a sushi place and literally had the whole restaurant to ourselves. It was a great time! We went back to the hotel and I called people to say my goodbyes. Although now I’m reassured communication won’t be that bad, it was still hard to say bye. I took my last shower in America and finished packing. We all met in the hotel lobby at 2am.

June 5^th-The buses left at 2:30am to drive us to JFK airport. We arrived at 5am…3 hours too early to even check in to our flight! We had a crazy camp with 47 people, and their crazy amounts of luggage. Some guys even started playing Frisbee. Our flight left at 11am for Johannesburg and that’s when I lost all sense of time. I think it was a 15ish hour flight? Since I was sick I slept about 10 hours.

June 6^th-We got to Johannesburg and had another 6 hour layover. Yay! The airport was FREEZING, I was not feeling my finest, and it was just a long wait. Then it was another 4 hour flight (which I slept completely through again, thanks to my cold!) until we arrived in Tanzania! Peace Corps staff literally met us as soon as we stepped off the plane. They helped us through immigration and to collect our baggage. The airport in Dar es Salaam is probably just a little bit bigger than the Long Beach Airport. I didn’t see any planes pulled up to the building-they were all just parked on the tarmac. We had a huge truck and two vans to take us and our luggage back to the Msimbazi Center Hostel where we are staying. While driving we saw the passing daladalas (vans which have about 30 seats) PACKED FULL of people. The joke is “How many Tanzanians can you fit on a daladala?” “Always one more.” So we felt pretty lucky to have our own transportation. They did a brief introduction of about 15 PC staff members and got us started on malaria meds. I’m taking two at the moment: Doxycycline daily for the first 10 days and Mefloquine weekly for forever. I swear I thought the doctor was calling it “METH”loquine for the longest time and I was thinking that probably wasn’t a good drug choice.

June 7^th -An interesting start to my first day in Tanzania…I thought we had the entire 2^nd floor of one of the dorms for Peace Corps. The night before we decided that I would do a wake up call for everyone. I had slept in my underwear because it was so hot and I was about to shower, so didn’t think it was necessary to get dressed. I was just supposed to knock to make sure people were awake. The third door I knocked on this Tanzanian came out without a shirt, stared at me, and started talking to me in Sawhili. He knows English too. Still really bad because my shoulders and knees were showing, I was in a towel in front of a man and it just was bad all around because of my lack of Swahili skills. Now I see him everywhere and he says “Alllyyyy, come here. Sit. Hujambo”. It turns out he is a traveling soccer coach and he and his friends are eager to talk to us every night.

We follow pretty much the same schedule every day and so much stuff has happened I really don’t know which day it happened. Anyway, normal schedule is: Breakfast 7-8. Class. Chai (tea break) 10-10:30. Class. Chakula (food) 12:30-1:30. Class until about 5. Rest time/Frisbee/Studying/Cards. Dinner 7-8. Hanging out/Studying/Cards. Sleep around 10.

Class the first day was just intense. Very inspirational and really made me think about why I’m here. Formula of the day: Small Doable Action with Immediate Measurable Visible Results=Sustainable Behavior Change. Basically, grassroots is key and 1 strong relationship is more important than 100 acquaintances. We had a whole session about how to avoid diarrhea. We also had a great 10 minute conversation about distinguishing between a pet chicken and an egg chicken. Still not sure about that…I think we are allowed to have chickens. Someone from the US Embassy came to talk to us about safety and security. He freaked us out as to what COULD happen, but statistically nothing of the sorts happens to volunteers, so I think I’m safe. Integration, Mitigation, Response. We started language training on Friday. We have had a total of 5 hours and I feel that is basically a semester of language skills right there. I’ve been practicing too with the soccer coaches. I’ve been asked for my bride price, my contact info, and told by many people their name/their dad’s name, etc is Aly. I say no, it is Ali. If any of you get a chance to search for a YouTube video “Better Days”, a PCV made it when she returned, urging people to volunteer. Our director, John, played it for us. We spoke about religions, cultural differences, homestay expectations, etc also. We got assigned to our Community Based Training (CBT) groups. There are 5 volunteers total in my group. We also got assigned host families whom we will meet on Tuesday! Apparently my host family has two kids, one who is “about this age” (as Jumapilee put his hand to mid-thigh level).

We went for our first steps outside the compound on Sunday. Since Sunday is a day of rest it was apparently very calm. I thought it was crazy. It is hard to remember to look the opposite ways for traffic. Then some guy on a motorcycle on the sidewalk almost ran me over. Lots of people on bikes on the sidewalks too. There is trash, rubble, uneven pavement, buildings that look like they are about to fall over, beggars, tons of bank security with AK-47s, crazy traffic. It hurt for my to breathe because the air quality was so horrible. Anyway, we took a daladala into town. There were maybe 50 of us in the van? It actually wasn’t as bad as I’d thought, but it definitely got quite warm! I bought my first kanga. It is really pretty-purple and white with leaves and little suns. It says “SIJA CHOKA BADO NAKU PENDA SANA.” This means something along the lines of “I will never get tired of loving you.” Kangas are pieces of colorful fabric (about the 3’x6’) have “101 uses”…skirt, head cover, shoulder cover, towel, bag, privacy shield, blanket, etc. There is always a phrase printed on it so it’s really important to have someone fluent double-check. You don’t want to buy one with a provocative or political message. Others were “You are unhappy, but He put me here”. “Praise the power of God.” “A gift from my Mama.” “Hello to you all.” We also saw some guy about our age recording a music video. We ate at the YWCA. I watched two other volunteers return their kuku (chicken) to be re-cooked. I don’t really eat the chicken even though it is served at every meal. It really creeps me out for some reason. As we were coming back on the daladala, there was another daladala next to us with drums playing and two girls’ butts hanging out the window “dancing” to the music. It was definitely an experience to walk around Dar, but I wouldn’t say that it is my favorite city.

LOVE YOU ALL! I’m getting a cell phone and internet dongle in a few hours. I’ll post more information then. Basically all I know now is that all incoming calls and texts are free. So things like Skype (you’ll have to buy credit for skype to call my mobile), an international SIMcard (Saleh?), or regular calling cards are all good options. Also, there are a lot of websites/apps/programs that offer free international texting. If anyone has any information about any of this, please comment on here or email me!

Random things: Our Homestay Coordinator, Jumapilee LOVES to say “shit the bricks” and “shit hits the fan” and then laughs like crazy.

Apparently if you are ever alone in a room with anyone of the opposite sex, if the door is closed, you are “doing it”.

Chai means tea. There is no other type of tea, so it isn’t chai chai, it’s just chai.

Rats and roaches will probably be new roommates at my homestay.

It is currently 84 degrees in my room-feels cool.

I have now used a choo (pronounced cho) 3 times [pop-a-squat hole in the ground bathrooms]. We will pretty much only be using choos from Tuesday on.

The entirety of Peace Corps has the same budget ($350 million) as the US Military Band. “You may just get a dollar, but you can still make change.”

Mzungu means white person, but it is not rude for people to call you a mzungu.

About 1,600Tsh is equal to $1. I’ll be living on about 5,000Tsh per day. So even though something converts to being only $0.40USD (like a soda), that is really a treat.

Clumps of my hair are falling out. Not sure if it stress or change in diet? Pretty much all we eat is starches, some meat, some fruit, and tea.

Roosters wake me up every morning around 5am. There is also a call for prayer at 5am for the Muslims. It sounds like it is right outside my window, but we are in a gated Christian affiliated compound.

The word for brother is “kaka”. Sorry Jackson.

My favorite phrase to say is “lala salaama”, which means “sleep peacefully”.

So far we have only gotten 3 vaccines: Rabies #1, Meningacocol and Thyphoid. The thypoid really hurt and hardly anyone could lift their arms higher than their shoulders.

We created our own Gatorade mix, called ORS (Oral Rehydration Supplement). Add 6 teaspoons of sugar and ½ teaspoon salt to 1 liter of water. Shake.

I got about 30 mosquito bites on my legs last night. I didn’t feel any mosquitoes on me though.