Pre-Thanksgiving Fun

Just a follow-up first: yes, the cows were all released. Turns out there were three different owners. One owned 2, one owned 3, one owned 10. So the 10 cows were released about 35 hours after being imprisoned because that owner had to figure out how to pay the large fee to release them all.

So what have I been up to at school? Well, Form 2 NECTA’s have been going on for the last two weeks. Now they are done with school, so we only have Form 1 and 3 at school. I teach Form 1 in the mornings so I teach, talk to the other teachers for awhile, then return home to work on computer issues and do whatever I want to do. On Monday night I finally fixed the problems with SMILE! Well, on one computer. I am still trying to figure out the other computer. So we did a SMILE workshop on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons with the Form 1 students. They were excited to have it back. Also, their terminal examinations begin in one week. It is weird because they just took their mid-terms about a month ago. I designed my exam based on the units we have covered together and I even told them which topics/dates to study from their notes. Hopefully these tactics will improve their scores. All of the other teachers sit around looking at old examinations or practice exams in books and they choose the hardest questions. It doesn’t even matter if they have covered the topic yet-if it is from a NECTA it must be a good test question. I also typed my exam in an easier-to-read format and saved it in PDF so things can’t get switched around when the secretary goes to print it. First, I need to get rid of the virus on the computer that is attached to the printer so that I can transfer the file via USB drive. There are so many viruses here!

In other news….I did get a cement walkway in my backyard. The fundi built it over the top of an ant hill so they pushed up through the middle leaving lovely little holes. Then as I was trying to hop over the wet cement to go inside I slipped on my rug and landed in the wet cement, making two deep holes. I paid that fundi and he said he would return in the morning to fix the ant holes but he never returned. My Mkuu finally found another fundi a week later so he fixed the hole and kind of smoothed out my mess from falling. But the cement is different colors and looks a little odd. I keep telling myself it is only for functional purposes; if I wanted it to look nice I would have never gotten it done in Tanzania.

I’ve also had a bad week with bugs. I decided to jog a little on my new walkway so I was doing “laps” one afternoon and got bit by something. At first I thought it was a bee but then I saw there were two bite marks. Basically my whole tricep on my left arm was swollen, feverish, and bright pink with a blackish-looking area, which I think was the poison. The swelling started to go down after 3 days and finally disappeared 6 days later. Then one night I had my mosquito net down but decided that it was fine to leave it un-tucked because Tetsuko’s cat had killed my mouse. (yay!) I woke up at about 3am hearing little footprints so I sat up and this giant black spider/beetle came walking onto my pillow! I got up to go get the spray but then he disappeared. I finally found him the next afternoon wedged between the mattress and the bed frame.  Yuck!

This weekend we all went to Mtwara to meet all the shadowers (the new PCVs who are still in training, but will eventually live in Mtwara region) and gather for an early Thanksgiving feast. I left my house at 5:10am and walked a half hour to the bus standi for the 6am bus. I loved the walk. The air was so fresh, it wasn’t hot and not many people were out yet. By taking the early bus I arrived by 10:30am, thus beating the heat. Anyway, we relaxed at the beach house as usual and when evening rolled around everyone was in charge of cooking/reheating their dish. I cooked carrots and we also had canned corn, stuffing, deviled eggs, macaroni and cheese, Tanzanian cabbage, ground beef, rolls, mashed potatoes, and a pie. It was awesome to see what we could all produce in Tanzania! Sadly though I think I am becoming lactose intolerant so I spent the rest of the night in pain or in the bathroom. It was also so ridiculously hot that the only way I could fall asleep was with a wet kanga over my body.

I didn’t really sleep that night so went out to the beach around 5:30am and rested and talked to Drew for a few hours. We all lounged around in the morning. The mama had told us that 10 people were coming to the beach house for the night but we didn’t really make plans. We had 14 people there originally, then 4 shadowers left, and 1 person was MIA. The 10 people showed up and it was a crazy mess but we finally figured it out. In short, only 3 people stayed at the Beach House and the rest of us left our stuff there all day still pretending it was our space, and then slept at Tanya and Gillian’s house. During the day we went to this traditional dance festival which was held at the stadium. It was put on by ADEA which is like an art college. They have really cool products and also have an adjoining museum with old costumes, masks, and pictures of dances. They had some things from the museum on display and a “carnival” which included sling shots, bows and arrows and this game where you hit a spinning top with a whip to keep it up. I got in line to try the bow and arrows and then these kids tried to cut in front of me. I told them to get behind me and they thought I was so weird! Then we got called to the front of the line since we are white. The bows strings were made of twisted animal hide that still had hair on it.  I wasn’t very good, but I’m happy I tried and gave some Tanzanians something to laugh at. There were also a lot of vendors selling some food that I hadn’t seen before. One mama told us to buy her root (it looked like cassava but it was thinner and you could eat the skin) because it was “dawa mpenzi”, or lover medicine. She said if we ate the root then we would get a lover. It kind of tasted and looked like a dirty French fry. We also tried “churros” that were a little too tough and chewy for my taste. We only watched about half an hour of dances. I sat on the main steps with all the kids. My legs were hanging down into the entrance area where the performers came out. My favorite act was the dancers on stilts. Two of them had to go back inside because of technical issues, but then they returned to the stage. Otherwise they were so graceful and were jumping around and spinning!

All in all a good weekend! We woke up at 4:45am today and took a bajaj to the standi. I got back to Newala at 10am! I bought tickets to go to Dar later this week. I wanted to leave Saturday but for some reason the bus doesn’t go Saturday, so we are leaving Friday now. We will arrive in Morogoro on Saturday and be there for 2 weeks for IST (In-Service Training). I’m excited to see everyone and have a break from teaching!

Cowschwitz

My Uncle Doug has been sending me short stories that he writes based off of pictures. One of them was called “Cowshwitz”, a play on words (Auschwitz but for cows). Funny coincidence that our very own Biology Laboratory would become Cowshwitz!

Everyday around 2-3pm about thirty cows are herded behind my house. They graze for a while and then their herders move them onto different grounds. Apparently, the herders got distracted yesterday and let 15 cows run rampant. It is illegal to let cows graze on the property of any government institution, so there was only one thing to be done: herd the cows into the Biology Laboratory.

All last night I kept thinking the “moos” sounded incredibly close. As I walked to school this morning I realized the smell was incredibly close too! 15 cows and 2 goats are still locked in the room. They are standing in their own feces and have had no food or water for almost 24 hours. They can’t simply be released because this is a huge legal issue.

The herders broke the law by allowing their cows to wander onto school grounds. The Mkuu then reported the loose cows to police yesterday. He took photos of them “destroying the environment” for evidence. The herders finally went to the police this morning to claim their cows. They now need to prove they are the owners. Also, there is a fee to reclaim each cow. The fee will go to the school to pay for the damages. It is a total of 480,000/= ($300). A grown cow can be sold to the butcher for 800,000/= so these herders are losing a ridiculous amount of money. Once they pay the fine, then the cows will be released.

Check out the photos under "Newala Day Secondary School" in the Photo section to the left.

Other exciting things: A fundi came to look at my backyard because I want a concrete walkway to get to my choo. He will come with a team tomorrow and lay the cement. I'm so excited that I won't have to trudge through puddles just to go pee! I need to go with my Mkuu soon to buy the cement bags. A fundi came yesterday to fix my front porch light, since I “need to leave it on for safety”. I don’t really care either way. If I leave my house after dark I am never alone.

I have been helping another teacher, Joyce, with her English. Today she invited me to her house at chai. Her daughter is adorable and has just started to walk. She actually started to cry when we left. Joyce’s husband lives in Dar, so she has hired a house girl (she looked about 12 years old) to take care of the baby and cook during the day. I kept catching the house girl staring at me while we were eating. I just feel so bad that Tanzanians think we need special treatment. Everyone takes off their shoes when entering a house, but when I do they tell me my feet will get dirty. Everyone sits on a mat to eat, but I get a chair. Everyone eats with their hands, but I get a fork. I just want to be treated like them instead of a fragile piece of china!

It's Raining, It's Pouring

This weekend was an awesome mix of Tanzanian and America. About 15 volunteers gathered in Ndanda (near my old village) and we celebrated Halloween. Besides the comfort of being around so many other Americans, there were still constant reminders that we were in fact still in Tanzania.

Thursday it started to pour-our second rain of the season. Consequently the power went out and I’d forgotten to charge my computer. So I took two naps, ate some leftover curry, attempted to wash dishes holding my phone (as a flashlight) in my mouth, sat in the dark, and then finally realized I had candles and an extra computer battery. So, I watched Harry Potter and listened to it storm outside. It rained all night and I didn’t sleep well because of all the weird noises. Also my mouse that lives in my kitchen started chewing on silverware and it sounded like someone was wiggling the deadbolt. Thankfully it was just the mouse.

When I woke up Friday I found a dead chameleon in my yard and some puddles inside my choo. I didn’t notice any leaks in my house so that’s good. Tetsuko and I started walking to the bus stand in the pouring rain. Not many people were on the streets so the people who were sitting under stoops got a good laugh at us. We arrived 25 minutes later at the bus stand just before the bus left. It was a larger bus than usual so there were still seats at the back. The back is the worst place to be because you get more air when you hit the potholes. I shrugged off my soaking wind-breaker (that does NOT double as a rain jacket, in case you were wondering) and tried to dry off. My window was broken and kept rattling open so I continued to be rained on as I was being thrown out of my seat with every bump. Finally some people left so we moved up a few rows…only to have the ceiling leak on me. The good news was that we were driving super fast and stopping less because no one was waiting in the rain, so it only took 2 hours to get to Masasi! We walked to a mgahawa (café) to get chai. It was around ten o’clock, so chai time! However this mgahawa was making dagaa (sardine-type fish) and spinach. They looked pissed off that they had to walk in the rain to go buy us food from another mgahawa. While we were waiting we huddled around her jiko to stay warm. When Steph finally met us there they informed her that there was no more food anywhere. We made our way back through the standi and one Tanzanian proclaimed “It’s raining today!” He was pretty observant. I then forgot I was supposed to buy oatmeal for a friend so I ran back to buy it and got a phone call saying the bus was leaving. So I attempted to run through the mud and hopped on the bus again. The rain had started to let up, but we were all still soaked. The dala we were on just magically turned on their air conditioner! I have never been inside an air conditioned bus in Tanzania and I wasn’t quite expecting it with the rain. So I sat through an hour of shivering until we reached Ndanda. We were able to change into dry clothes and I wrung out my hair. Tetsuko and I (in my silky purple genie pants) then went to a fundi college which is near the mission. She wanted to buy wine, so we asked around and stepped into a sketchy warehouse door. The guy laughed at us when we asked to try the wine, but quickly brought over fairly full “taster” glasses. So we tried all 4 types of wine and then bought some bottles. We also went to the leather workshop, but it turned out that they only make shoes. We walked back to the mission and made reservations for my family for when they visit and we also made reservations for lunch the next day. This is the only place I have ever made reservations in Tanzania. Next we went to eat lunch, but once again they had “no food”. I ordered 3 things before they were finally able to provide me plain chipsi. I had wanted rice and chicken but there “was no chicken” even though there was chipsi and chicken. The chipsi place is inside the same compound, but they didn’t understand the concept of buying the chicken from the chipsi guy and then reselling it to me. After an hour of waiting we finally ate. Steph and I started creating a Peace Corps board game. For example, “You pooped you pants-move back 3 square”, “Traveling to Dar in the dry season….but it still takes 15 hours. Move to ‘Flat Tire’”. When it was finally time for dinner, we passed the ATM that has been sitting there since I moved to site. It was open! I went inside and the entire ground was littered with moths and I was getting dive-bombed the whole time. Then we tried 2 places but they didn’t have food. So we finally waited 2 hours for chipsi mayai. During that time the electricity went out and we also peed off behind the tables because the bathroom had too many cockroaches. Also, a crazy man came over to talk at us. We kindly asked some other customers to remove him. On our way back home some of the others had asked us to pick up a crate of beer. There are no 6 packs or anything like that-you buy one single beer and then you return the glass bottle or you get charged a fee. Anyway, the bartenders were wasted and we had a great time talking with them. One of them was marketing the beer we were already going to buy by saying “This my beer. I drinking Senator. Goooodd! My beer gooodd!”

Saturday we wandered into town to get chai. I greeted my Makonde carver friends, a duka owner and this other guy at the standi. It was nice to have people remember me and just ask how things were. During chai other volunteers kept arriving so we had about 12 people smashed into this little tiny “room” that has one table and 2 benches. After chai I went with two other girls to look for Halloween costumes. We found some piles near the soko. Piles are basically all the leftover clothes from thrift stores that no one buys, so they donate them to Africans and they make a profit. I found some black PVC snake skin pants, a crocheted weird top and a normal shirt. About 5 Tanzanians came over to help us find things-shoving stained clothes, XXXL shirts and other random things in our faces. We walked around the soko a lot and haggled with the vendors. One of the piki drivers that I had gotten to know came over to say hello and when he left he gave me the wiggly finger! I was so grossed out. Ew! I returned to Mikey’s for a few minutes and then went with Drew to show him around the soko. When we were walking back we decided to play bao. I’m so happy we did! Drew had a great time and the Tanzanians loved that we were just hanging out. I also got a tour of the back part of their carving shop. It is incredible what they design! We then went to our lunch at the mission. There was watermelon, pasta, soup, rice, meat stew, vegetables, salad, and rolls! It was served buffet style and was very fancy. It was only 3,500 which is the price of chipsi and a chicken leg. Afterward we wandered through the mission, but it was all mostly just private rooms. We found a door up to the roof and got a great view of the surrounding hills. Then we walked into the actual church. It is very basic, but “modern” compared to the surrounding areas. Mikey was at a graduation ceremony so we stopped by his school and climbed on chairs/windows with the other Tanzanians who were not allowed inside. Then I pretended to car-jack a kid’s homemade toy car. Everyone stared at us but were kind of amused by the fact that we were amused. Then we went to Chem-Chem to swim. The bajaj ride was super expensive because there is no gas, so prices have doubled, but it was still worth it to swim. Three of the Fathers joined us towards the end of our swim. Our bajaj driver kept taking pictures of Charolette so we told him it was 500/= per picture. We went back to Mikey’s, got changed (this time I wore my purple genie pants, a tank top, and a flowery lacey sun hat) and went to town to eat. My favorite duka guy said “Umependeza” and hugged me he was so happy about my outfit. The Halloween party started…we had: Minnie Mouse, Creepy Gym Teacher, Soccer Players, a Genie, a Ceiling Fan, two Tourists, a Sharobaro Masai, and some other costumes. I was Jasmine half the night and then I was a rock star with my snakeskin pants. It was a good time!

Traveling back was not nearly as bad because it wasn’t raining, but it also took a lot longer. I took a nice long “shower” when I got home. For the next 3 weeks I will only teach one class each day. I could tell by today’s lesson that the Form 1’s are already losing concentration because less than half the school is there.

I’ve been meaning to do a blog of prices and conversions. I found this that David made in Masasi. Masasi is 2 hours West of me and the closest place to buy “safi things” like oatmeal. Prices for things are fairly similar to the soko in Newala. Remember 1,600/= equals $1

http://pctanzania.org/sites/default/files/food-prices.pdf