'Merica

I ended up moving out of Econolodge on March 10th-only 23 nights spent living at a hotel! Not too bad, right? I spent the next 4 nights at our Country Director's house. It way such a nice change of scenery: a yard, dogs, a refrigerator, microwave, stove top. Just being able to help prepare a meal helped me feel better. Since there had still been no real diagnosis from the doctors, I was informed on March 13th that I was going to be med-evac'ed the very next day. I arrived in San Francisco on Friday afternoon. I have spent the weekend just relaxing with my family. I haven't made it out in the world yet...we went to two restaurants and that was a little overwhelming for me. Tomorrow I will need to drive for the first time, so hopefully that isn't too hard of an adjustment. Thankfully some of my friends will be coming back to Modesto for their Spring Break, so it'll be nice to catch up with people.

I am here in Modesto until further notice. Right now my status is a "Medically Evacuated Volunteer". After 45 days (there is dispute whether those 45 days started in Dar or started in America, so either April 1st or April 29th) if I am still not diagnosed and/or still present symptoms, then I would be "Medically Separated". If that were the case, I have one year from that date to request to be Reinstated. If I were Reinstated, I would be allowed to go to back to Tanzania and finish out the last 18 months I have of my service. However, best case scenario is that the doctors will cure me before my 45 days are up and I will just return to Tanzania right away and return to site. So far this week, I have appointments with a general care physician, neurologist, and optometrist. Hopefully these three doctors will at least be able to feel out the situation and then maybe refer me to specialists.

Thank you everyone for the concern and support. This is all I know at this point. Everything is still very indefinite, but time will tell.

Ninaumwa...Nipo Dar Bado

Wow, a whole month has gone by already! This was supposed to be my most eventful, busy and rewarding month. I was going to help interview kids for academic scholarships with Jiamini, an NGO a former PCV created in Newala; I was going to be observed and critiqued by a Peace Corps staff member; I was going to collaborate with the SMILE crew who flew into Newala for a week long trip to fix technical problems and train more teachers to help run sessions; I was going to be finished with Baseline (English Orientation Course) and begin teaching real lessons true to the syllabus; I was going to show a movie as a reward to my students who scored a 60% or higher (also known as the A and B range) on their Baseline Examination; I was going to teach Math for a month while Tetsuko was on vacation; I was going to hang out with the primary school kids who come to visit after school; I was going to kill the rats that have infested my house; I was going to host a Valentines Day party….well, you get the idea.

So what have I accomplished? I was able to finish Baseline and grade 122 notebooks and examinations in two days; I was able to teach Math for a few periods; I was able to really get my students involved and excited about learning English; I was able to introduce my counterpart to some villagers that I had talked to a few times that have cats (we need a cat to eat the rats, and yes, this little Mzungu is friends with more villagers than my Tanzanian, city slicker counterpart); I was able to provide my house for everyone else to celebrate Valentines Day; and last but not least, I was able to get struck with some unexplainable illness which has landed me in Dar es Salaam for 17 days so far.

I’m currently living at Econolodge at the corner of Drug Alley and Road Construction. Please, feel free to send my mail here from now on (just kidding, but it really feels like that). Thankfully other volunteers have been in and out for various reasons. Most of my time I have spent “Bibi-sitting” Patrice, an older volunteer who also took care of me like I was her daughter. The staff here knows my name and I’m the go-to girl for other volunteers to make reservations. Besides the staff, I have also befriended an older taxi driver, the shwarma guy, the man who sells coconuts, the shoe repairmen, the cashiers at the closest grocery stores, the street children, and the rice mama who serves lunch. In my free time I enjoy washing my laundry in the shower and standing with my arms up in front of the air conditioner.

I have also had some pretty cool experiences being a “socialite from the bush”, as I like to call it. I got invited by our Country Director to have dinner with Aaron Williams, the former Peace Corps Director. He was a little intimidating, but we laughed and talked about stories that only Peace Corps people can relate to. Then I ran into Raf, the owner of Swahili Divers where I got PADI certified in December. He invited us out to dinner, along with his wife and three other successful Europeans at their super swanky hotel. They were a fun crowd that told us hilarious stories of their world travels. One day when I’m rich and famous I’ll pay it forward to some poor kids and say, “This one time I was a poor Peace Corps Volunteer living in the bush…” Another really nice person “adopted” me for an afternoon. A thirty-something businesswoman from Poland who married a Tanzanian drove me to a spa so we could both get pampered. She was so lovely, but it was also really random. I love how loosely the term “friend” is used here. Five minutes after meeting her: “Since we’re friends I can tell you this…” I also caused quite the splash going to Funky Orbits, an ex-pat place similar to Fun Works, but with a swimming pool. It was nice to be able to get out and exercise a little bit.

As for my health, I am improving. I was having really horrible headaches, which originated in my eyes and my eyes were very photosensitive. The headaches and photosensitivity have become less severe, but I am still abnormally tired. I have had a CT scan, ultrasound, blood tests, eye exams and physical exams and they still don’t know the cause of the headaches. However, we did find that my liver is having some problems. Not sure if the two are related, but they want to keep a close eye on my liver until the end of my service. This means I’ll be in Dar every two months for blood tests. I can’t wait to travel 12 hours by bus to then by poked with a needle and turn right back around!

My mom wanted me to write a special blog about my first hospital experience. Remember, Newala is technically a town, not a village, with a population somewhere around 200,000. We are one of three hospitals in Mtwara region (which I’d say is about the same size as the San Joaquin Valley). So here you go:

Wednesday, February 13: Called the doctors to ask how I should treat these headaches. Tested myself for malaria. Took my pulse. Took my temperature. Reported back to Dr. S with normal numbers. He still wanted me to go to the hospital. I put on my new shoes from America. I walked very slowly to town. It took me about 20 minutes to reach the hospital. I walked in the gate and asked the guard what to do. He said something about a notebook but told me to go to this window to write my name. I waited about 10 minutes at that window. A student greeted me. The receptionist laughed at me when I told her I didn’t know what to do. She said I needed to buy a notebook. Walked back out the gate to the first duka I could find. Bought a notebook for 200/= (about 12 cents). Returned to the window. Wrote my name on the notebook. The receptionists then wrote my name, sex and age on the first page of the notebook. She told me to pay at the next window. I paid 500/= (about 30 cents) to see the doctor. They told me to wait inside. Ok, well where inside? I saw some benches so I sat down. There was one door for women, one for men. I was aware of movement of others on the benches and had to speak up and move quickly to keep my place in line. I looked down at my blister from my new shoes. I ripped it off and yellow stuff oozed down my foot. One large mama came up and collected all of our notebooks and put them in a cardboard box near the door. She put them in the wrong order-the first people were on the bottom of the pile. I sat there listening to 2 other patients say they had malaria. No, they probably didn’t have malaria. People stared at me, the only white person in the hospital. Big Mama waved me into the doctor’s room. It was an empty office except for a desk, which was littered with papers. I told him in Swahili that my head hurt and I needed to test my heart (blood pressure) and temperature. I asked him if he knew English. He said yes. I called Dr. S to have him explain also so that there was no confusion. He walked out of the room to find a blood pressure cuff. He took my blood pressure. The only English word he said was “hypertension”. He told me my numbers in Swahili and all numbers were normal in my mind. He wrote me three prescriptions. I couldn’t read his handwriting. He never checked my temperature. I walked out of the room. Dr. S told me not to buy the medicines until he confirmed what they were. I went to the dispensary. Gave the lady my phone to read the medicines. She hung up. Called Dr. S back and he was laughing. The doctor prescribed me three medicines to treat a urinary tract infection. I didn’t buy the medicine. I walked out in more pain and more pissed off than I had been when I got there.

This whole process from the time I left my house until I returned (I took a bajaj home) was about 2 hours. What a waste of time! But hey, now I’m in Dar with the nation’s finest doctors!

Integrating with Play-Doh

The end of this week has been pretty uneventful. Thursday and Friday I taught as usual. Another teacher was teaching Form 1 AB Friday so I couldn’t complete my lesson with them, but that just means we will catch up on Monday. The students are still required to do “cleanliness” every day after school.

Thursday was our last attempt at doing SMILE. After untangling a wire for 15 minutes, electrocuting myself, and running around like crazy trying to locate all of the equipment we gave up. There were no plugs in the intended classroom for the electricity coil to be run to, so then we had to move everything to the library. Once it was all set up, there was apparently a problem with the voltage and it wasn’t enough to power everything. So after speaking to Paul, we decided to allow only 25 Form 2 students in my house once a week. We will track their progress every week for at least 6 months. Maybe after the school construction has been finished we can allow some more students to participate just for fun. Paul needs consistent data of the same students.

Friday Tetsuko and I walked to town in the midst of a rain storm. We had a leisurely time. We got kiti moto (3/4 kilos of pork), she printed copies of math worksheets (and I fell in love with the shop owner’s daughter), I had a pair of Masai sandals custom ordered for me and then debated on the price, we bought sugar and matches (and found out the store owner speaks perfect English and she has a cow so we can buy milk from her next month), got juice from Juice Man, greeted so many people in the market, saw madafu (young, sweet coconuts that you drink) on the ground and kept being pointed in different directions, finally asked Juice Man to buy me madafu if he saw them and I would pay him back. We spent about 2 hours just wandering around and “integrating”.

Yesterday Kathryn came into town as usual. I picked up 6 packages for Jen and Deirdre (other volunteers) so they don’t need to worry about coming into town during posta business hours. Because of that I had to take a bajaj home and since I had a bajaj, I decided to buy flip chart paper finally. Flip chart paper is just giant pieces of paper that you can use for teaching. It is really expensive and I was trying to get the school to provide it, but that hasn’t seemed to happen yet. So now I can write longer passages and dialogues before class instead of scratching it into the blackboard tiredly during class.

Some little boys that play near my house came by yesterday. They kept wanting to practice their English, so they were screaming “Good Morning, Madam!”. I kept responding to them in different voices (mostly for my own entertainment, haha). I decided to give them Play-doh as a gift. I explained that it couldn’t touch the dirt or the color would go away. All 5 of them sat in a circle and helped each other build things. Usually 2 boys would be at work and the other 3 would hold the leftover Play-doh or the parts which were waiting to be added to something else. The made a pikipiki (pink with blue tires) and a bowl and a star. They loved it! Then some more of their friends came over and so they started yelling “Come-ear” (come here) and then one of them started saying “Sema ‘come here PLEASE”. So that turned into “Come-ear-eat.” They wanted me to give some more Play-doh to their friends.

The weather has improved. It seems as if the tropical cyclone passed by with no damage. We just have had intense rain (which forced me to hang my clothes inside after 3 days of them partially drying only to get soaked again), but today it is finally sunny again!  I actually do like the overcast skies because then the jua kali (fierce sun) can’t burn you up! As I was going to sleep on Thursday night I was shivering. I was wearing sweatpants, socks, and a t-shirt. Temperature according to my thermometer clock? 74.5 degrees. Freezing!

Once again, I do feel very safe here and I think Peace Corps does their best to inform us of any issues. Here is the blog entry from Kory who was stuck in Masasi the day of the riots. It is very detailed. Thankfully I decided not to go to town that day and I was sitting safely at home on the phone, communicating with everyone about the riots.

http://pcvfunk.blogspot.com/2013/02/those-are-bullets-surviving-riot.html?spref=fb

January is Over Already?

The first week and a half of school has gone great so far! After rearranging the schedule, I’m actually only teaching Form 1s. At first I was a little disappointed but now I realize that I can spend extra time making sure the Form 1s have the best year possible. I picked out some free periods on the schedule so I will be teaching each stream (class) 4 days a week- 2 double periods and 2 single periods. The single periods aren’t ideal, but I figure it’s more than they would have, so even if they can’t absorb that much in only 40 minutes, at least they are being exposed to English two more days each week. Right now it is still their English Orientation Course, AKA Baseline. The lesson plans are pre-written so it has been really easy to teach so far. Last year the Form 1s completed 6 units of Baseline. So far we have completed 14 units…and we still have a week and a half to go! There is no schedule for Baseline, so there is no accountability for the teachers. I have been going every morning and sometimes am the only teacher the Form 1s have all day. Last night I created a “master notebook” with all of the notes, so today the students who registered late (AKA arrived 3 weeks after school began) copied all of the notes and I marked the other students’ notebooks.

I have been a lot more active and wander the streets of Newala more often. In part, it is because Lisa (the new volunteer) lives in a different neighborhood so I have found different routes leading to her house. It is really nice having another American so close! On Friday I got to shadow her at work. She is working with TZ21 whose goal is to install computers at every primary school in Mtwara region. They were checking installation preparedness at each of the schools, so we went out in the bush in a private Land Rover (with air conditioning and all!). I sat in on some of the meetings and other times I would wait outside and try to talk to the local kids. For the most part, the schools were unprepared for the computer installation. The main issues: teachers who attended TZ21’s training were no longer teaching at the school, there was a new Headmaster who had not been informed of TZ21’s plans, there was no paperwork or any documentation to be found of what was expected of the school, they complained there was no money to fund the required security items (a locking wooden cabinet, 2 tables, 2 chairs, a metal grill for the room the computers would be in, a strong support beam to mount solar panels, a leak-free ceiling).

One of the schools in particular was heartbreaking. There were two buildings. The original building had been made out of mud, sticks and cow poop. The roof was collapsing, there were huge holes in the walls, no floors, and destroyed chalkboards. Thankfully they weren’t using that structure anymore. They built a new cinderblock building-one long hall with 5 rooms (to teach 7 grades). There are still no floors, the blackboards are still trashed, and the rooms just look so sad and dreary. To make matters even worse, the school was being run by 4 teachers who all looked like they were less than 30 years old. This means that as soon as teachers’ contracts expired at this school, they got the hell out of there. But that also makes it unstable for the students because there is no one who knows the history of the school or who has been there long enough to gain the respect needed to run a school.

On Saturday all hell broke loose in Masasi. Masasi is my banking town that is about 2 hours away by bus. Natural gas has been discovered in Mtwara region and government officials are wanting to build a pipeline all the way to Dar es Salaam to then process the natural gas there. The people of Mtwara want the gas to stay here, in turn creating jobs and revenue and providing a steady supply of gas. A few peaceful riots had happened in December and earlier in January, but for some reason things got very violent in Masasi. Somewhere between 4-9 people were killed. The rioters burned down several government buildings and private residences. There was gunfire, and the police set of bombs trying to disperse the crowds. We had 3 volunteers who had gone to Masasi to bank that day. Two of them got caught in the gunfire and then they had rioters board their bus, armed with shovels searching for government officials. A smaller riot broke out in Newala later that day (about a half mile from my house). The police once again had to set off bombs to disperse the crowd. Peace Corps put us all on lockdown so I didn’t leave my house for two days. Now everything is fine. I feel completely safe. Not sure how things are being resolved politically, but there have been no more riots.

In other news, students are working on “school cleanliness” every day after school. On Monday I decided I’d ask them if they could sweep my backyard. Ten minutes later, all my grass was cut, the leaves were thrown out and all the dirt was swept. Payment? Stickers were all they wanted. And I’m sure they were happy I didn’t beat them like the other teachers. The next day my trash pit got re-dug so the wind doesn’t blow my trash everywhere. Today they tidied up my walkway to school. It’s amazing!

Deirdre spent the night here on Monday. One of her villagers came to Newala Hospital to deliver her baby, so we decided to go visit her. They don’t provide food when you are a patient at the hospital, so we made rolls and a potato stew. The woman’s husband had to sell his bicycle the day before to pay for firewood to cook their meals, and also to pay for her medical bills. Everyone in the maternity ward was so happy/amazed/confused to see Mzungus visiting a Tanzanian at the hospital. We greeted the Mama’s whole family and they were so welcoming. Apparently when I go to visit Deirdre I’m going to sleep at that family’s house. It felt so good bringing so much joy to a few people.

As we walked home from the hospital we saw people going into the disco where we had gone on New Years Eve. We decided to check it out. Apparently it was an invitation only event for all of the District Officers. But who needs an invitation when you’re a Peace Corps Volunteer? We even got announced during the introductions. We only stayed for maybe ten minutes because we felt out of place and didn’t really understand what was going on. Today I was eating lunch in town, sitting talking to the waitress and this guy came over and kept greeting us. I gave him my usual glare, but then he asked me why I had left the celebration early. Suddenly he started speaking perfect English and we had a great conversation. He is a Social Worker at the Hospital and I asked him if it would be possible to shadow him a few times. He works many different cases: Orphans and Vulnerable Children, exemptions for the elderly, family counseling, etc. He said he spends most of his time in the bush evaluation people there. I am so excited I made that connection. Even though all of the evaluations will take place in Kiswahili I’m sure it will still be a meaningful experience and it will help me improve my language skills.

In other news: my electricity at my house is fixed; according to the fundi there are many rats living in my attic; I bought a new mattress today so I don’t need to roll out of the hole in my bed every hour; tomorrow Tetsuko and I are making ginger, BBQ’d pork; Juice Man greets me by name now; I got another proposal by an old man at the market; my spare room is now a storage room for a kid who is supported by Baptist Missionaries who are now leaving the country; two Form 3 girls asked me to “practice spoken English” with them; I finally decided to hire a house girl to wash my clothes and my sheets twice a month; I have had many people compliment me on my improved Kiswahili; after the kids finish “cleaning the environment” I proposed they try cleaning the library; I found carrots and avocados at the market last weekend and was ecstatic….

Also, just another huge THANK YOU for all the packages and mail. Still haven’t gotten around to writing each of you individually. I’m so sorry!

Here are some links about the riots:

http://www.thecitizen.co.tz/component/content/article/37-tanzania-top-news-story/28399-leaders-troop-to-mtwara-as-44-suspects-arrested.html

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324329204578269942829075484.html

IST & Prom

My last week teaching at school was a complete mess. The students were hauling furniture around, digging trenches and cleaning the environment (or “practicing cleanliness) all week. Tetsuko eventually gave up on teaching because the students were never in class. There will be modifications made to the Administrative Block so all of the offices were moved into the computer lab. So even though I had finally fixed the SMILE problems, SMILE sessions couldn’t continue. The secretary was very upset about the move because she was also supposed to be typing all the annual examinations during this time. Unlike most teachers, I typed my exam myself, saved it in PDF, installed anti-virus on the computer so I could safely transfer it, and then printed it.

On Wednesday and Thursday I played a review game with my Form 1 students. I walked into class with two of the beating sticks and it got dead silent. The only reason teachers bring sticks to class (every day) is to beat them. There were three components that correlated to the three sections on their exam. For the first section, parts of speech, I read a sentence and then said one word. On the blackboard I had written all the parts of speech: noun, verb, adjective, etc. Then they had to point to the correct part of speech with the stick. The first team to point to the correct part of speech got a point. Then we did some true/false and short answers about HIV. Finally, we focused on routine activities. I would say the main verbs (like wake up, play, read, cook, etc.) in Swahili and then they had to write it in English on the blackboard. For Form 1 A & B the boys won, for C & D the girls won. I gave them pipi (candy) at the end of the game and that turned into a disaster. Scraped knees, kids falling off desks, fist fights-it was horrible. I will never give out candy again…maybe a movie night will be the reward next time.

So that was my Thanksgiving. Jen also came over in the afternoon and we watched TV shows and ate scalloped potatoes. I stayed up really late and got to Skype with everyone who was celebrating Thanksgiving in Modesto. It was nice to be able to see everyone and say hello even though my day wasn’t festive at all.

Friday morning I left my house at 4:45am and walked to the standi. The reporting time for the bus was 5:00am but as usual, it didn’t arrive until 5:30am. We did leave at 5:45 though! They have fixed the road so it was a lot less bumpy, but we still didn’t arrive in Dar es Salaam until about 5:30pm. We were harassed as soon as we got off the bus and then just hopped on a daladala which we thought went to Posta. Well, we got stuck in horrible traffic so we finally got off the dala and flagged down a taxi driver. He started off at 15,000/= but I got him down to 6,000/=. I still feel like I get ripped off sometimes. Finally, 14 hours later, we arrived at Econolodge.

Since we got in so late, Drew and I decided to stay in Dar for an extra day. So that is when the eating began. Let me review what I ate in a 24 hour period: half of a chicken, garlic naan, chipsi, 2 pieces of bread with jam, banana, papaya piece, chai, ice cream bar, 2 hamburgers, fruit slushie, and then we went to a buffet where I ate salad, soup, rice, 4 kinds of curry, chunks of meat, falafels, flan, cake, and 2 bowls of ice cream. Basically all we did all day was eat and go to Mwenge. Mwenge is an area of town with a big market. First we hit up the “piles” which is just piles of used clothes. I found a t-shirt and my prom dress. The guy in charge of one of the piles kept saying he loved me, so I put him to work finding my prom dress. I ended up paying 500/= ($0.30) for an 80s dress with shoulder pads. Then we went to looked around the souvenir area. We were complemented over and over again on our Swahili skills and given discounts accordingly. One man who was stoned out of his mind was laughing hysterically about how Mzungus would buy his paintings for $40, but because I was “Tanzanian”, I would only have to pay 5,000/=. Then he led me in the back to give me a zawadi (gift) and it turned out to be a brick-sized chunk of weed. I politely refused but he insisted on giving me a gift so I left with a slingshot, two bracelets and a keychain for free. It is crazy how much money they make off of white people and how easy it is to get respect just by knowing their language!

Zack got into Dar that evening as well, so we all traveled to Morogoro together the next morning. I literally got off the daladala, crossed the street and sat down to eat with the other volunteers who had already arrived. It was basically like no time had passed, even though we have not seen each other for almost three months. It is also very interesting to hear about different peoples’ living situations and the dynamics of each region. Our training group (CBT) had two volunteers who were medically separated…so it is just us three now. We are sharing a triple in one of the safi houses.

The training has been…going. I feel like I’m in high school again. I do not do well sitting still all day. We have had follow-up sessions on safety & security and medical. We have had many sessions on how to write grants and then do the follow-up evaluation. Katie, the girl who I replaced, had already had her Computer Lab Grant approved, but it was too late in her service to actually use the grant money. So I will re-apply for the same grant. We also talked about other secondary projects which we could do without any grant money. I have so many ideas, but the whole point is this isn’t MY project, it is THEIR project. So I need to have a meeting with my Mkuu or an all-inclusive staff meeting to discuss ideas. Then we will have to create Committees to do the work. Also, I have a “counterpart” who is supposed to be my number one “go to” person for the next two years. My counterpart’s name is Frednand and he teaches Accounting and Bookkeeping at my school. On Thursday all of the counterparts arrived. They have had sessions to learn more about Peace Corps history and procedures, and also cultural differences. Most of the time we divide groups based on subjects taught, so my counterpart goes to the Math sessions and I go to the English sessions. So I haven’t seen him too much, but I’m hoping he is getting something out of his sessions.

I went to visit my home stay family briefly on Wednesday evening. I had gone to my Baba’s office and asked where he was because I wanted to surprise him. He was in Arusha for business, so I told his co-worker that I was his daughter. His co-worker looked very surprised and then asked for my name. I got a call from my Baba about ten minutes later. I’m guessing his co-worker called to alert him that some crazy Mzungu claiming to be his daughter was looking for him. Anyway, so my Bibi has moved to Tanga. Catherine (the baby) is scared of me again even though she apparently points to my old room and my chair and announces that they belong to Dada Aly. The four other kids were in the middle of tutoring when I arrived (which is VERY rare in this country). I spoke to Jamila and Mama only in Swahili and we laughed and had a great time as usual. My Baba is doing well and asked me many questions. I will go back at some point to teach my Mama how to make Spinach Pasta and also just to hang out some more.

Yesterday night we had Prom! It is a Peace Corps tradition…dress up in wacky outfits and celebrate the 6 months we have been together. There is a very Mzungu restaurant, Dragonaires, very close to CCT, where we are staying. They were having a “Latin Night” so we got to order burritos and tacos and guacamole. . I’m currently taking antibiotics and anti-parasite medicine (whatever that’s called?) so didn’t drink, but they even had Margaritas! I coordinated all the food ahead of time so I was a little busy all night but besides a missing Prawn Enchilada, everything went smoothly. We had a great time dancing and taking ridiculous pictures. It was almost like a cross between Halloween and Prom because some of the outfits were just crazy. Gotta love shopping/going to fundis in Tanzania!

So that’s all. We finish training on Thursday. I will get my PADI certification on Pemba in about two weeks. My family will arrive in exactly one month. Life is good. 

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!