Shadow Week Complete

After proctoring the exam at Abbey Secondary School, Tyler showed me his computer lab. All the students just come to hang out and talk in there. We had to explain to them several times that there were two separate beds in his house and that we were not sleeping together. Tanzanians don’t get that concept. I watched some videos of the students dancing and then showed them that I could “Jerk” also. They laughed at me of course. The students also noticed my fake wedding ring and asked a lot of questions. They wanted to see pictures of my wedding but I told them that I couldn’t because my shoulders were bare. Also, I told them I was 25 years old and they told Tyler that he needed to respect me. He didn’t think that was very funny.

Wednesday I finally got to see my site! We had a relaxing morning and then waited for Mikey to finish teaching. I was pretty much laughing the whole way to my site because of the looks we were getting from people. And then we ran out of gas about halfway there. There are two roads in my village. The Northern road is for a tribe (that I forgot) and the Southern road for the Makonde tribe basically. I arrived at the school and the headmaster was not there. Typical. The second master was trying to figure out what to do with us when the headmaster finally arrived. There were about seven teachers there, which was more than I was expecting. However some are student teachers who will stay until October and some are part time teachers. There are only four classes: one stream for each form. Form 1 is pretty much the equivalent of Freshmen in High School. Most schools separate their forms into streams based on academic achievement, so Stream A is like IB/AP classes, and Stream B is like regular CP classes. I think it might make it more difficult because there is such a wide range of ability.

All the students gathered in one classroom to greet me. There were only a little over 100 students present. This week has been weird for most schools because teachers are on strike, and there is a break from August 3^rd until September 10^th to do the census, so maybe some students went home early. Anyway, the students asked me if I could also teach them Geography. My headmaster really didn’t want to discuss my schedule with me so I still have no idea what I will be teaching!

My house is on the campus, but about 200 yards from the school. It is a duplex shared with the headmaster and his family. I have a living room, 3 bedrooms, choo, bafu, kitchen and a courtyard! There is also solar power. I’m not sure if the outlets work, but I need to buy special light bulbs that are solar power compatible. There is already a bed frame, two mattresses and a table, but that is it. I need to buy all the rest of the things to furnish my house. Two people should be able to visit me at any time with no problem, but if more people do come I think I’ll buy another mattress to put on the floor. (Please let me know if you are wanting to visit at any point so we can start arranging that! I still don’t have specifics on my schedule, but I have approximate dates.)

There is a girls dormitory on campus that houses about 15 girls. I’m hoping I can arrange a meal plan with either them of my headmaster’s family. Cooking here takes so long that I really have no idea when I will have time to cook!

We walked with my headmaster and two of the student teachers to the village center. There we walked through the market, saw the soccer field, and met the Village Executive Officers. Everyone was really nice, but I didn’t really have time to actually get to talk to them. I actually doubt my Swahili will be good enough to hold a good conversation for awhile.

We took a bajaj back to Ndanda and had amazing Chipsi Mayai. Mikey says it is the best in country. We then went to his school’s Fema Club, which is a life skills/HIV prevention group. I don’t know if it is just the language barrier, but the students seemed to go way off topic. There was one discussion question about why teens often have trouble getting out of unhealthy relationships. I automatically assumed this meant romantic relationships just based on the club, but some students talked about cigarette use, prostitution, poverty, etc. It was interesting to see their definition of an unhealthy relationship. I want to start a Fema Club at my school eventually.

Thursday morning I woke up to Jackson calling me to wish me happy birthday. It was a great way to start my day! Tyler is leaving for Amsterdam so he had to pack a bunch of his stuff. We finally got on the road around 9. His school’s driver, Frances, drove us to the daladala stop. Frances asked for my number and I’m kind of grateful he did because that is one more form of transportation in case of emergency. It took about an hour and a half to get to Masasi (to the West). We immediately got on another bus going to Newala (back to the East). There is a weird triangle between Lindi, Mtwara and Masasi, so in order to get on the Southern road you have to go to either tip of the triangle first. It is probably only about 50km or less from Ndanda to Newala, but because we have to go in a “<” shape, it took about 5 hours. Stephanie, an environmental volunteer, met us on that bus.

We arrived in Newala and dropped our stuff off at a nice guestee. We ate, walked around, and hung out by the fundi. Katie was picking up some awesome pajama pants from the fundi. I bought a kitenge and left it there to be made into a pencil skirt. During this time we also found out we had been added to the Airtel plan! This means we can call any Peace Corps Volunteer or Staff in country for a flat rate of 5,000Tsh per month. Phone calls here are normally made my purchasing vouchers (papers with codes) and then you are charged per second you are on the phone. It can get quite pricey! Anyway, we wandered over to a bar and I had my first legal drink! There were about ten of us there and it was fun just to get to know everyone. I would say it was a typical 21^st birthday, except for the fact that I was in bed by 10pm.

The next day we got to the standi around 8 but the bus didn’t leave until 8:40. Most of the road to Mtwara is unpaved. It is about 150km and is supposed to take about 4 hours. It took us 9 hours. We broke down (I think it was the transmission) and after over an hour of them trying to fix it, another bus showed up. All of us transferred to that bus and a little while later our front tire went flat. They switched out one of the double tires from the back wheels to the front. We drove about 100 yards, got stopped by police for inspection, and then the front tire blew out again. They spent another hour working on it there, then we drove about five more minutes and pulled into a mechanics shop. At each spot we stopped, a crowd came out to watch us. While we were at the mechanic shop I decided to pee behind a chiken coop. I guess my skirt was dragging on the ground and I ended up peeing all over my skirt. We finally got on the road again and we were about 30 minutes from town when we stopped on a hill. At first we thought we ran out of gas but then we decided the driver had just stalled it and the engine was hard to start. Their solution: putting the dala in neutral, letting it coast backwards down this hill, and therefore starting the engine. It worked. Needless to say we were dusty, dehydrated, hungry, and tired when we arrived at the beach house.

We spent Friday night and all day Saturday hanging out by the beach and relaxing. I bought Pringles and chocolate in town! We checked out the fish market and took multiple bajaj rides. We swam in the ocean with a ton of teenagers who were staring at all of us. The house is owned my Germans and is a gorgeous, European style gathering point. We had a refrigerator even!

Today we woke up at 4:30am to catch our bus into Dar. It took about 9 hours also, but apparently we made really good time. I think it is over 500km from Mtwara to Dar. I was a little scared at some points, but we arrived safely. There is a good portion of the road that is unpaved (but they are working on paving it), so imagine high-speed off roading in a giant 100+ person charter bus. I’m pretty sure I got whiplash. Nick was guess-timating the inches he flew away from his seat every time we hit a bump. We spent the afternoon in our room with a fan and then we got shawarmas for dinner and ice cream for dessert. Yummy!

At this point I’m so tired of traveling, I can’t wait to get back to Morogoro! Being on squished, tiny buses with no air conditioning gets a little old. Plus we had so many issues with transportation. The bus only stops once for a potty break, but I don’t feel comfortable peeing in the bush in front of everyone, so I purposely dehydrate myself. On top of that, you don’t want to eat either. And you can’t really sleep because it is too bumpy and loud. And you’re sweating everywhere because no one wants to open the windows because of the dust.

Ok, I’m done ranting. I did have a great shadow trip though and I’m so glad I got to travel as much as I did and meet so many Volunteers. Here are a few jokes I learned

Peace Corps: The longest vacation you’ll ever hate. (One of Peace Corps’ mottos is: The toughest job you’ll ever love.)

“How many Peace Corps Volunteers does it take to change a lightbulb?” “None. They don’t change anything.”

“What is a Tanzanian midget’s favorite sport?” “Kung-Fupi!” (fupi=short)

Package Note

Also, many people have expressed an interest in sending me care packages and such. I do NOT NEED any of these items, but if you feel like you want to send them, I would be forever grateful.

*Stickers or Self-Inking Stamps (for awarding students)

*Cut outs of newspapers (comics, local news, etc)

*Chocolate Chips

*Any magazines/catalogs that children, teens or 20-somethings might enjoy (Highlights, Popular Science, Time, National Geographic, Popular Mechanics,etc.)

*Fun Math or Science Activity ideas that are easy to do with little materials

***Candy/Snack Food-(Rice Krispie Cereal & Marshmallows, Dove Individual Milk Chocolate, Maple & Brown Sugar Oatmeal Packets, Munchies Snack Mix, Starbursts, Sour Patch Kids, Gum, Macaroni and Cheese, Cream Savers, Apple Gummy Rings, Cheetos, Banana Laffy Taffys, Mini Reese’s, ANYTHING you can just add water, oil, eggs or milk to)

*Words to American nursery rhymes

*Purse-Sized Hand Sanitizers

*Travel-Sized Shampoo, Conditioner, Body Wash, Face Wash (even ones stolen from hotels!)

*Printed Photos (of anything! For me, or for my students to look at)

*Pretty Smelling Anti-Bacterial Hand Soap (in a pump bottle)

Send to:

Alyson Hite PCV

P.O. Box 218

Masasi Town, Mtwara

Tanzania