Hey all, sorry for the long blog hiatus, but all is well
here! See tons of pics, uploaded to my picasa album. A lot has happened in the
last few months, so enjoy my little chapter book:
CHAPTER 1 – MY FAMILY TRIP:
My family’s trip was really great! After a mix-up with my flight from Mtwara, I met them a day late in Arusha, where we started our trip with lunch in Moshi town. We followed this up with about five days of safari’n at Lake Manyara National Park, Ngorongoro Crater, and the Serengeti Plains. They also got to see a PCV friend, Dani’s, village and school for a small taste of Peace Corps life. Ended with three relaxing days on Zanzibar – safi beach resort and Stonetown – and a day of big city life in Dar es Salaam. It was so wonderful to have them here! Check out all their pics from the link on my previous post.
CH 2 - FOURTH OF JULY:
CH 3 – MY NEW REPLACEMENT:
The end of July brought shadow week for the then PC Trainees; this year the trainees shadowed their future sites (or the closest PC site) so we Mtwara volunteers had our first ever shadowers, the 4 new PCVs who will be living down in the deep n’ dirty south. This year is also different due to changing the dates of training; normally there is little to no overlap between PCVs at a site, but now there will be almost 3 months overlap where replacement and previous PCVs will be living together at one site. After much anticipation, I got to meet my replacement, a guy named Drew. We spent a week seeing the site and surrounding area, which worked well since I would be away traveling during his actual move to site in mid-August. Unfortunately for Drew, it also coincided with a national teachers strike for higher wages, so he didn’t get a very good picture of a school with no teachers and maybe one-third of the students showing up. He’ll have about 3 weeks to himself at site before I return in September, after which we’ll both be living and teaching in Maputi until I leave for good, likely sometime in October. It will be quite a change for me, but hopefully my students and school will benefit from the transition time.
CH 4 - COS CONFERENCE:
Following shadow week in early August, I headed up to Dar es Salaam for my last PC training, a 4-day COS (Close of Service, PC jargon for completing your service) Conference with my training class. It was so great to all be together again one last time, and also very surreal to look back over our 2 years and look forward to our post-PC lives in just a few months time. We got to spend it at a nice beach resort, eating amazing Indian food everyday, and watching the Olympics on a big screen so all were happy!
CH 5 – SURPRISE… I’M NOT COMING HOME YET
Big news: I actually won’t be COSing with the rest of my class this November. I’ll be sticking around as a third year extendee, and moving to Dodoma to work with the UN World Food Programme (UNWFP). I’m really excited for the opportunity to stay a little longer in Tanzania, until December 2013, and experience a completely different working environment. I’ll likely be splitting my time between 9-to-5 office work and monitoring and evaluation out in the field, all the while living the city life in a real house with electricity and running water! Some logistics between PC and WFP still need to be worked out, but I hope to have some more info about my job responsibilities and start date soon. In the meantime I’m collecting poop samples (it’s not pretty…) so PC can check me for worms and parasites and give me medical clearance for extension. One of the perks of extension is a month of paid homeleave, which I’ll take this December/January, so stay tuned for more about my holiday travel plans.
CH 6 – NO SCHOOL = MORE TRAVEL (Dodoma, Singida, Mwanza, Kigoma, Gombe Stream, MV Liemba ferry, Kasanga, Kalambo Falls, Mbeya)
School currently also on an unusual and somewhat unscheduled 5-week break while the 2010 census is being conducted, so it’s been a great excuse to have one last big travel with my training classmates. Immediately following COS conference I first travelled with a few friends to Dodoma, and it was great to see my future home for the first time. The second we stepped off the bus I saw mamas selling bunches of grapes and I knew this was the place for me! Also avocados for days, fresh yogurt, and legit Italian and Chinese restaurants! We left Dodoma for Singida town followed by Mwanza, Tanzania’s second largest city nestled on the shores of Lake Victoria, the largest tropical lake in the world. Mwanza had lovely views of giant boulders set against the lake as well as the hustle and bustle of a big city and another awesome Chinese restaurant. We met up with two more friends there and then travelled 15-hours by dirt road and bus to Kigoma, on Lake Tanganyika, the longest and second deepest lake in the world. We spent a day swimming at a beautiful beach (fresh water is such a treat!) and headed the next day to Gombe Stream, where Jane Goodall’s research on chimpanzees is in its fifth generation. After a 3-hour cramped Tanzanian boat ride, we arrived at the isolated stretch of mountainous beach and were greeted by lots of baboons! The basic campsite charged a whopping $15 per meal, so being the cheap PCVs we are, we brought our own – bananas, avocados, peanut butter, jelly, and a loaf of bread. While eating our first breakfast, a baboon got into the cafeteria and stole our entire loaf of bread! They’re super aggressive so it was scary, but mostly we were pissed to lose the staple of our next 3 meals (several hours later we found out that a nice Canadian family we had met there took pity on us and bribed the kitchen to give us a loaf of bread…nice people rock and I wish we had the chance to thank them!). After the baboon mishap, we headed off on a hike to find some chimps. I guess we just had an all-around unlucky day with monkeys, because the chimps had climbed all the way up the first mountain, then down the other side and up a second mountain. I was not prepared for a hike, only bringing my leather beaded Masai sandals consisting of a measly 2mm worth of sole. I ended up going barefoot, walking up rocks and streams and fighting our way through brush and vines. I will never ever forget to pack proper shoes again. But 6 hours of hiking later, we finally made it to the chimps and were well rewarded! We got to observe them from just a few feet away and it was truly amazing. And is there anything cuter than a baby chimp?! We spent late afternoon back at camp, relaxing and swimming and soaking feet in the cool lake water. The next morning we headed back to Kigoma in time to catch an afternoon ferry, the MV Liemba, which travels every two weeks all the way down Lake Tanganyika into Zambia. It’s an old German ship built before WWI, and purposely sunk during WWII to keep it from the British, but now in working order. It also had an interesting passenger mix of Tanzanians, Congolese, Zambians, as well as several German tourists. And like any Tanzanian mode of transportation, it was overcrowded with people sleeping on every inch of floor space. But we had lots of downtime for reading and playing cards and enjoying the views of the lake – sunrises over Tanzania and sunsets over the Democratic Republic of Congo - for 2 days on our way down to Kasanga, the last stop in Tanzania. From Kasanga we were able to take a 2 hour boat ride and a 2 hour hike to the border of Zambia to see Kalambo Falls, the second tallest waterfall in Africa at about 215 meters. It was big! My dinky sandals broke this time, so another barefoot hike for my poor, poor feet. The next day, following a 15 hour bus ride from Kasanga, we finally reached Mbeya town, where we’ve been hanging out the last few days at a friend’s apartment and playing on the internet.
VERY SHORT EPILOGUE:
Tomorrow I’ll head south to Njombe and then the following day to Songea, for the big annual PCTZ party. After that I have to go back to Dar for my medical check-up, and then finally head back to my village in time for school to start on September 10th. HAPPY LABOR DAY!
CHAPTER 1 – MY FAMILY TRIP:
My family’s trip was really great! After a mix-up with my flight from Mtwara, I met them a day late in Arusha, where we started our trip with lunch in Moshi town. We followed this up with about five days of safari’n at Lake Manyara National Park, Ngorongoro Crater, and the Serengeti Plains. They also got to see a PCV friend, Dani’s, village and school for a small taste of Peace Corps life. Ended with three relaxing days on Zanzibar – safi beach resort and Stonetown – and a day of big city life in Dar es Salaam. It was so wonderful to have them here! Check out all their pics from the link on my previous post.
CH 2 - FOURTH OF JULY:
The morning my family left from Dar
es Salaam, I took a bus up north to Lushoto, a lovely city up in the mountains
on Tanga region. I visited a fellow PCV’s house in the nearby mountains, and I
must say it is the most beautiful part of Tanzania I’ve seen. Then we met up in
Lushoto town with a few other travelling PCVs and did some nice hiking around
the area, ending at Irente Farms where we bought homemade cheese, jam, quark,
and bread for a delicious picnic dinner. After Lushoto we headed east to Tanga
town for a 4th of July celebration with a big group of PCVs, most of
them from my training class. Similar to last year, we hired a boat out to a
sandbar where there was plenty of swimming, beer drinking, and fish bbq eating
to be had. We ended the night with a bonfire and smores (all the fixings direct
from USA)! After Tanga, I headed back down south to Mtwara region, stopping in
Ndanda for a going away party for the COS’ers of the region – 8
health/environment PCVs finishing their 2 years. They’ve been here my whole
service, and I saw a few of them quite often, especially my sitemate Tyler, so
it’s been strange here without them and they are greatly missed! Finally I made
it back home to my village in time to start a very short 4 weeks of school.
Teaching kama kawaida (as usual), so
let’s fast forward 3 weeks…
CH 3 – MY NEW REPLACEMENT:
The end of July brought shadow week for the then PC Trainees; this year the trainees shadowed their future sites (or the closest PC site) so we Mtwara volunteers had our first ever shadowers, the 4 new PCVs who will be living down in the deep n’ dirty south. This year is also different due to changing the dates of training; normally there is little to no overlap between PCVs at a site, but now there will be almost 3 months overlap where replacement and previous PCVs will be living together at one site. After much anticipation, I got to meet my replacement, a guy named Drew. We spent a week seeing the site and surrounding area, which worked well since I would be away traveling during his actual move to site in mid-August. Unfortunately for Drew, it also coincided with a national teachers strike for higher wages, so he didn’t get a very good picture of a school with no teachers and maybe one-third of the students showing up. He’ll have about 3 weeks to himself at site before I return in September, after which we’ll both be living and teaching in Maputi until I leave for good, likely sometime in October. It will be quite a change for me, but hopefully my students and school will benefit from the transition time.
CH 4 - COS CONFERENCE:
Following shadow week in early August, I headed up to Dar es Salaam for my last PC training, a 4-day COS (Close of Service, PC jargon for completing your service) Conference with my training class. It was so great to all be together again one last time, and also very surreal to look back over our 2 years and look forward to our post-PC lives in just a few months time. We got to spend it at a nice beach resort, eating amazing Indian food everyday, and watching the Olympics on a big screen so all were happy!
CH 5 – SURPRISE… I’M NOT COMING HOME YET
Big news: I actually won’t be COSing with the rest of my class this November. I’ll be sticking around as a third year extendee, and moving to Dodoma to work with the UN World Food Programme (UNWFP). I’m really excited for the opportunity to stay a little longer in Tanzania, until December 2013, and experience a completely different working environment. I’ll likely be splitting my time between 9-to-5 office work and monitoring and evaluation out in the field, all the while living the city life in a real house with electricity and running water! Some logistics between PC and WFP still need to be worked out, but I hope to have some more info about my job responsibilities and start date soon. In the meantime I’m collecting poop samples (it’s not pretty…) so PC can check me for worms and parasites and give me medical clearance for extension. One of the perks of extension is a month of paid homeleave, which I’ll take this December/January, so stay tuned for more about my holiday travel plans.
CH 6 – NO SCHOOL = MORE TRAVEL (Dodoma, Singida, Mwanza, Kigoma, Gombe Stream, MV Liemba ferry, Kasanga, Kalambo Falls, Mbeya)
School currently also on an unusual and somewhat unscheduled 5-week break while the 2010 census is being conducted, so it’s been a great excuse to have one last big travel with my training classmates. Immediately following COS conference I first travelled with a few friends to Dodoma, and it was great to see my future home for the first time. The second we stepped off the bus I saw mamas selling bunches of grapes and I knew this was the place for me! Also avocados for days, fresh yogurt, and legit Italian and Chinese restaurants! We left Dodoma for Singida town followed by Mwanza, Tanzania’s second largest city nestled on the shores of Lake Victoria, the largest tropical lake in the world. Mwanza had lovely views of giant boulders set against the lake as well as the hustle and bustle of a big city and another awesome Chinese restaurant. We met up with two more friends there and then travelled 15-hours by dirt road and bus to Kigoma, on Lake Tanganyika, the longest and second deepest lake in the world. We spent a day swimming at a beautiful beach (fresh water is such a treat!) and headed the next day to Gombe Stream, where Jane Goodall’s research on chimpanzees is in its fifth generation. After a 3-hour cramped Tanzanian boat ride, we arrived at the isolated stretch of mountainous beach and were greeted by lots of baboons! The basic campsite charged a whopping $15 per meal, so being the cheap PCVs we are, we brought our own – bananas, avocados, peanut butter, jelly, and a loaf of bread. While eating our first breakfast, a baboon got into the cafeteria and stole our entire loaf of bread! They’re super aggressive so it was scary, but mostly we were pissed to lose the staple of our next 3 meals (several hours later we found out that a nice Canadian family we had met there took pity on us and bribed the kitchen to give us a loaf of bread…nice people rock and I wish we had the chance to thank them!). After the baboon mishap, we headed off on a hike to find some chimps. I guess we just had an all-around unlucky day with monkeys, because the chimps had climbed all the way up the first mountain, then down the other side and up a second mountain. I was not prepared for a hike, only bringing my leather beaded Masai sandals consisting of a measly 2mm worth of sole. I ended up going barefoot, walking up rocks and streams and fighting our way through brush and vines. I will never ever forget to pack proper shoes again. But 6 hours of hiking later, we finally made it to the chimps and were well rewarded! We got to observe them from just a few feet away and it was truly amazing. And is there anything cuter than a baby chimp?! We spent late afternoon back at camp, relaxing and swimming and soaking feet in the cool lake water. The next morning we headed back to Kigoma in time to catch an afternoon ferry, the MV Liemba, which travels every two weeks all the way down Lake Tanganyika into Zambia. It’s an old German ship built before WWI, and purposely sunk during WWII to keep it from the British, but now in working order. It also had an interesting passenger mix of Tanzanians, Congolese, Zambians, as well as several German tourists. And like any Tanzanian mode of transportation, it was overcrowded with people sleeping on every inch of floor space. But we had lots of downtime for reading and playing cards and enjoying the views of the lake – sunrises over Tanzania and sunsets over the Democratic Republic of Congo - for 2 days on our way down to Kasanga, the last stop in Tanzania. From Kasanga we were able to take a 2 hour boat ride and a 2 hour hike to the border of Zambia to see Kalambo Falls, the second tallest waterfall in Africa at about 215 meters. It was big! My dinky sandals broke this time, so another barefoot hike for my poor, poor feet. The next day, following a 15 hour bus ride from Kasanga, we finally reached Mbeya town, where we’ve been hanging out the last few days at a friend’s apartment and playing on the internet.
VERY SHORT EPILOGUE:
Tomorrow I’ll head south to Njombe and then the following day to Songea, for the big annual PCTZ party. After that I have to go back to Dar for my medical check-up, and then finally head back to my village in time for school to start on September 10th. HAPPY LABOR DAY!
I lot has happened since we have talked last but I'm living in Boston now. If you come up to visit your sister let's get together!
ReplyDelete...There's always a group of traveling Germans!
ReplyDelete