PC Tanzania 50th anniversary - PCV speech

Peace Corps has been celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, and as one of the first PC countries, Tanzania had its own big in-country celebration a couple of weeks ago. PCVs were able to apply to attend, which I didn't do and now regret. But anyways, here is a speech written by a first year environment volunteer, Dan, who lives near Iringa. I thought it was very well written and powerful (it gave me chills). Thought y'all might enjoy reading it, too.

A couple of helpful Kiswahili references/translations:
ndugu wenzangu = my relatives (relatives is a broadly used term here)
jembe = hoe
mungu akipenda = "if God wishes" (very commonly used phrase...ex: Mungu akipenda tutaonana tena...If God wishes we will see each other again)
nakupenda na moyo yote = "I love you with all my heart" (line from a popular Tanzanian song)

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By popular demand, here is the text of PCV Dan Waldron’s speech at the 50th anniversary celebration on 22 June. Hope you enjoy it as much as those in attendance did:

“Dr. Florens Turuku, Ambassador Lenhardt, Director Williams, Country Director Wojnar-Diagne. Distinguished guests, fellow volunteers, ndugu wenzangu. Take a moment to look around. We are not natural neighbors. We come from different generations, from different states and different countries, from different religions and backgrounds. But tonight we are united in a community of hope, brought together by an unshaken devotion to our common humanity. So it is tonight, and so it was at the beginning of our journey.

50 years ago a group of driven individuals arrived in what was then Tanganyika. It wasn’t a country yet, it wouldn’t be for four more months, and when they arrived, they were greeted by a sign which read “Beware the lions” And there we started. But who were these people, these reckless ambassadors? Reading the first curious accounts, the first letters home from a new frontier, one gets a sense of their characters. Who were they? They were George Schreiber, who talked about embodying “ a pioneer type of spirit”. They were George Johnson, who said “Peace Corps exists as an embodiment of a conviction that the best way to achieve global understanding is to put Americans in contact with other nations.” There were 35 of them, engineers, surveyors, and geologists, from Princeton, Harvard, Michigan. And they were drawn together by a man who stood on the steps of Ann Arbor and told the assembled students that based on “your willingness to not merely serve one year or two years in the service, but on your willingness to contribute part of your life to this country, I think will depend the answer whether a free society can compete.” 5 months later, the Peace Corps was signed into law, with Kennedy again telling us that “We will send those abroad who are committed to the concept which motivates the Peace Corps. It will not be easy:”

Across the nation, people were moved. They volunteered, they went to boot camp (Drill sergeant and all), and they became the first soldiers in an army of peace. 50 years later, that army has fought poverty, hunger, disease, and subjugation in 139 countries, side by side with peoples of every language, tribe, and religion. Kennedy’s words have outlived him. The army fights on. And though it sometimes feels as though our struggle is never-ending, battles have been won, progress has been made.

Yet for all the measurable progress, so much of what Peace Corps does is unquantifiable. There is no box that shows how amazed the children were when the seedlings began to grow, no graph to measure the change that occurred when a woman living with HIV when she realized she had become a leader. And more: how many Tanzanians knew, until the moment they were proven wrong, that Americans could never swing a jembe? How many Tanzanians did not believe that we could dance? And how many of us volunteers never guessed at the number of different ways life could be lived, and lived beautifully, until we came here? We knew about the poverty, but how little did we know about the generosity? These things may be unquantifiable, but they are no less real. Mwalimu Nyerere said "To measure a country's wealth by its gross national product is to measure things, not satisfactions." Many other organizations build more things. Yet I doubt there is another that builds more satisfactions.

Now where do we go from here? The goal of our work is to make the continuation of our work unnecessary. We are not there yet, in fact we are nowhere near the limits of our potential. Success is based on expectations, but it is also limited by them, and we are limiting ourselves, and our communities as long as remain prisoners to what Michael Gerson called “the soft bigotry of low expectations”. Let us never tire of pushing ever upwards. We have come so very far, Tanzanian and American alike, still we have so very far yet to go. This is a party to celebrate 50 years of friendship and accomplishment, but it can be more. Let us stand together tonight and take this anniversary as an opportunity to recommit to the spirit of the Peace Corps, to remember the sense of duty that brought us all here, to do better, to go farther, to try harder. We can expect far more from one another, but we can also offer far more of ourselves. American poet Robert Browning wrote, “A man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven for?” Tonight we have a golden opportunity on this golden anniversary to not set limits on our potential, but rather expand our expectations.

I don’t know much. I left America a year and a week ago, and I’m just beginning to realize what I don’t understand. But I love this job. There is nothing like it. I said goodbye to everything and everyone I held dear, climbed onto a plane with a large group of strangers, got pushed out at 30,000 feet, landed, and began to plant trees, dig wells, and teach beekeeping. One day, mungu akipenda, I will get good at my job, at which point it will be time to leave. And after all of that, after the level of insanity I’ve put myself and my loved ones through, the thought that will keep me up at night: is how do I get back to Tanzania?

Because somewhere along the way, something changed. We came here as ambassadors from America, to show Tanzanians what America really is. But now…now we have become ambassadors to America, from Tanzania. For the rest of our days we will do all in our power to represent Tanzania: its beauty and its need, its poverty and its riches, its depth of generosity and humanity. The Kiswahili word for together is “pamoja”. It literally means “in one place”. And if that’s the case, none of us will ever be together again. A part of us never left America, the land of the free, the home of the brave. But a part of us will never leave Tanzania, “nakupenda na moyo yote”. That part of us will always be Tanzanian, rising with the sun, gripping the hands of strangers-turned-family, forever exchanging with unguarded smiles the news of the morning.

Because Peace Corps is not for everybody. As Kennedy said, “it will not be easy.” It isn’t easy. It is painful, and it is lonely. But none of us here today have to be here. We could be living closer to our loved ones. We could be making more money. We could be cooler, or more comfortable, and God knows we could be cleaner. But each of us decided that there were more important things to us than comfort, that while a ship in the harbor may be safe, that is not what ships are built for. Everyone here tonight, Tanzanian and American, has dedicated a portion of their lives to the belief that with devotion, and kindness, and insistence on a brighter future, change is possible. Everyone here tonight is part of something greater than themselves. We are all soldiers in an army of peace. An army that marches on, as our President Barack Obama said, “with eyes fixed on the horizon and God’s grace upon us.”

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I'm in Mtwara town for the weekend, staying at our lovely beach house for a goodbye celebration for a few PCVs that are COSing ("close of service" i.e. finished 2 years) in a couple of weeks.  Spent last week at home, cleaning up and grading terminal exams. School starts on Monday, so it's back to work for me. Hope all is well at home!

PS - the video that was supposed to be uploaded in the last post actually did not...my bad. Maybe another time.

Happy 4th of July from Tanzania!

Added lots more pics of my vacation and the high(er) speed internet in Dar even allowed me to upload another video for your viewing pleasure. Check out a bunch of Peace Corps Volunteers honoring the lovely U S of A with quite possibly the worst rendition of our national anthem ever sang. But we were out in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Tanga town, so that's gotta count for something.

Anywho, I left last post off eating good foods in Moshi. We also made it to Arusha and spent a bit of time wondering around the city, which is much bigger and dirtier than nearby Moshi. We did find a legitimate supermarket and walked down every aisle at least once, in awe of the variety of products offered...things I've never seen sold in Tanzania before like rasberries and walnuts and bacon and blue cheese and donuts! A few of our friends had spent the two days prior climbing nearby Mt. Meru and we met them for dinner. There is a restaurant owned by a Japanese man that has a legitimate sushi chef. The sushi rolls were amazing, and complete with a bowl of Udon noodles, was probably the best meal I've had in Tanzania thus far. It was awesome, so we also had to go back the next day for lunch.

After that we headed back to Moshi and spent another day or so before boarding a bus to Tanga town (southeast, on the coast). There were 20 of us PCVs meeting up there for a 4th of July bash. We spent the first day just hanging out and swimming, celebrating a couple of birthdays, and eating a tasty Indian dinner. On Saturday we had arranged for a boat to take us out in the ocean. I must say I'm a bit spoiled now because the beaches in Mtwara and of course Zanzibar are much nicer, but we went out a ways to this huge sand bar that we had to ourselves and had fun swimming and drinking and hanging out. Our guides even cooked us a wonderful meal of grilled tuna, cooked bananas, and lots of fresh fruits (Tanga is the famous fruit producing region). We also went to a nearby island, Toten Island, and did a bit more swimming while some others walked around and looked at some old German ruins and graves. We ended the evening at a bar, drinking beers and watching the Tanzanian wedding that was taking place below (Tanzanian weddings are interesting). The next morning we moved on out, so it was a short but great time in Tanga!

And now my summer vacation has finally come to an end! I got to see a lot of Tanzania and it was especially wonderful to get to spend time with so many other volunteers along the way. We counted that we saw 22 of the 34 other volunteers from our training class, while also getting to meet lots of other volunteers from the different classes/sectors which is always fun. Yesterday we left Tanga for Dar and spent today, the actual 4th of July, just hanging out and interneting. We had ourselves a traditional American lunch - a Subway sandwich, bag of Doritos, cold Pepsi, and Twix bar for dessert - followed by a tasty Lebonese dinner. Tomorrow morning we're headed back down south so I should make it back to my village on Wednesday. I've been gone a whole month now so I'm pretty ready to get back home. I've spent too much money and consumed too many tasty calories so it's about time for me to get get back to my village life of cheap living and lack lusture cuisine. Unfortunately, I've got all my terminal exams to grade, term grades to calculate, and what is sure to be a rat trashed house to clean. Fortunately, the next school term doesn't start until July 18 so I've got several days to do it all and relax in my village before getting back into the teaching grind. Also my school was finally able to procure the wood needed to build furniture for our science laboratory, so when I get back we'll be able to get started on that with some local carpenters and hopefully have a functioning lab for next term!

Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend - eat some potato salad and deviled eggs for me! Love and miss you all!

Moshiiiii

Hallo, hope all is well. Short update as I'm hanging out in a lovely cafe in lovely Moshi enjoying some wifi and real coffee, so life is good. Moshi is by far the most developed city I've been to in Tanzania, more so than even Dar es Salaam. There are American and European tourists and ex-pats galore, and I'm still getting used to seeing so many foreigners. The variety of food here is pretty amazing, and best of all is its plethora of cute little cafes that serve lattes and cappucinos and sandwiches and salads - you can easily forget you are in Tanzania! (Just ordered a lunch of pasta salad with feta cheese!). Today's our fourth day here and other than a nice little hike out to a nearby waterfall, we've been filling our days eating yummy foods (can you binge eat for a whole month?). We've also done a bit of shopping at expensive boutique stores, which we also balanced by heading to the used clothing market to pick up a couple of Goodwill rejects. It's been especially fun to see so many friends, as Moshi is a favorite vacation/gathering spot for volunteers. Last night we went to a cool little bar that has an outdoor movie theater set up; The Shining was playing, complete with bats flying across the projector screen for added atmosphere! On Monday we'll head up to Arusha to meet some friends for sushi (seriously) and spend a day or two exploring the city.

My apologies for everyone that was grossed out by my last few poop updates, so this will be the last and least graphic one - I'm happy to report that my bowel movements are back to normal! As I'm sure you've noticed, the two most talked about topics among PCVs are food and poop, and it's suprisingly difficult to get out of that mindset as I'm writing blogposts for non-PCV readers.

Time for lunch, so more later with pictures.

Iringaaaaa

Hey hey short update from the beautiful southern highlands. On Friday Katie and I headed from Zanzibar to Dar. That evening we "unofficially" visited the new education class trainees that arrived in Tanzania on the 15th. Getting new volunteers is quite exciting for all of us PCVs in-country, and I can't wait to see who ends up near us in Mtwara. Then we took a pleasant 8 hour bus ride to Iringa, arriving Saturday evening. We met our friend and fellow PCV, Glenn, and went out from some Chinese food and a couple of beers before heading to bed early. Glenn left early the next morning on a bus and Katie and I slept in and explored the city a bit. We went and had a wonderful brunch of vegetable and cheese omelettes, french toast, and homeade yogurt at a local restaurat here that is an absolute favorite among volunteers. Then we walked a bit out of town and climbed a big rock to get a nice view of the city. After a long afternoon nap at the hostel, we ordered delivery pizza (say what?!) for dinner. On Monday two other PCV friends, TJ and Carly, came into town and we all went for a wonderful lunch of avocado bacon paninis! We spent the afternoon shopping, had some Tanzanian food for dinner, then headed back to our hostel to watch a movie. This morning we had another tasty breakfast and then went in search of the used clothing market (where all the clothes that don't sell at Goodwill end up). Now we're hanging out at a lovely cafe...it's run by a local mission that hires only Tanzanians with disibilities - all the wait staff are deaf and others are employed in making clothes and crafts for sale. What else...Iringa is cold! I do not have appropriate clothes so I'm freezing my but off once the sun goes down, but the hostel provides warm blankets so I'm sleeping well. I suppose it's a nice change from the hot south, but I'm still a Texan and I'll always prefer sweatin' to shiverin'.

Poop update: Thanks for the concern for my health, but I'm doing fine! My fever and headache lasted for just 2 days or so and I've been getting plenty of sleep since. The diarrhea lasted for 5 days; it seemed to be clearing up yesterday but I've had to run to the bathroom twice while trying to type this post so I guess its back. Of all places to get diarrhea I suppose its not so bad because I've had access to western toilets the whole time which is a nice treat and would not be the case at home down south. But we haven't been letting my pooping damper our vacation too much and we've still been eating well..lots of dairy which is probably stupid but when's the next time I'll get ice cream and yogurt? Tomorrow I'll take some immodium to clog up my intestinal track before embarking on a long bus ride, and hopefully I'll be back to pooping solidly in no time.

Added some more pictures of food and such. Tomorrow Katie and I will hop on a bus from Iringa to Moshi, which should take about 12 hours. Can't wait to spend a week in the wonderful north, with views of Mt. Kilimanjaro!

As always, much love from Tanzania!

Dar and Zanzibar

Been away from site for about a week and a half now. PSDN training in Dar was good - lots of practice with active listening, common issues faced by volunteers, etc. Add in good food and good friends and you've got a good time. Then Katie came up (had quite the scare hearing about her bus accident...you can read about it in her blog) and we headed to Zanzibar on Sunday. We spent the first two days with a couple of other PCVs from our training class, Doug and Eric as well as Eric's friend Chris who is visiting from America. The first day we spent just wondering around the streets of Stonetown, which is so old and beautiful and quaint feeling. The island is something like 99 percent Muslim and has a strong mix of Arab culture, so that it doesn't feel like it is the same country as mainland Tanzania. Then we headed to the beach and watched the sunset, grabbed a beer, and found some street food for dinner. Monday we took a spice tour, which was really great. We went out with a guide to a spice plantation a bit out of Stonetown and just walked around and looked at all kinds of different fruits and spices and herbs, got to taste a bunch, hear about their medicinal uses, etc. The tour was complete with a tasty lunch and a trip to a nearby beach that was isolated and beautiful. After a delicious dinner, the boys left on an overnight ferry back to Dar that night, so the next day Katie and I were able to get in our shopping fix and also got some henna done. We also had an amazing Indian lunch with Claire, a PCV that lives near us down south, and her boyfriend Rob who is visiting from America. Yesterday Katie and I took a daladala to a village called Nungwi, about an hour and a half north of Stonetown. We spent a relaxing day at the beach, and even enjoyed a pitcher of Sangria! Unfortunately I got sick (of course the first time is when I'm vacationing in Zanzibar) - that morning I had diarrhea, had a headache all day, and by afternoon started coming down with a fever. Last night my fever was really bad and I still have diarrhea if I try and eat anything, so I've literally spent all day today lying in bed and sleeping. Not really the plan for our last day in Stonetown, but at least I got to enjoy the first few days. We had planned to meet up with a PCV that lives here and another PCV that is in town for dinner tonight, so I'm hoping I'll feel up for that in a few hours.

Well that's about it for Zanzibar. It is truly beautiful, and if you ever make it to Tanzania you must take the short ferry over and check out its beautiful beaches! I added lots of pictures, so have a look. Tomorrow we'll head back to Dar and then take a bus to Iringa on Saturday morning.

Highs and lows of the week

First, I added some recent pictures if you wanna check 'em out. I know I keep posting pictures of white people vacationing, when what everyone really wants to see is pictures of my students and villagers and Tanzanians' lives in general. I'm still pretty uncomfortable whipping out a flashy, nice camera in front of poor people, but one of these days I'll be brave and go crazy taking pictures in my village. Until then, you'll just have to use your imagination...pole sana (so very sorry)!

I just arrived in Mtwara town after a relatively pleasant (no breakdowns) 5-hour bus ride. This leads me into the highlight of my week. Drum roll please...tomorrow I will be...FLYING ON AN AIRPLANE to Dar es Salaam. Yep. Replacing a 15 or so hour bus ride on unpaved roads with a 1 HOUR flight is my idea of a good deal. The road up to Dar is not so great at the moment and volunteers have been getting stuck, which sucks for them, but meant that we (me and Toni, a health volunteer down here who is also going up to Dar for PSDN training) were able to convince PC to book us flights as a matter of volunteer safety and security. The few volunteers that have flown before give raving reviews of the flight, which even includes a snack service. Other people are just as excited as me about the prospect of my flight; my counterpart, Mr. Likulu, has never been on a plane and asked me to tell him all about it and take lots of pictures. And as ridiculous as it sounds, I am even excited to go through the airport security process!

So I'll try to wrap up the post on another high note, but first to bring you all down a bit...Tuesday was probably the worst day of my Peace Corps service thus far. All week I was invigilating (watching students take exams for 6 hours/day) the Form IV Regional Mock NECTA exams. On Monday afternoon, a small group of my top Form IV boys had come to my house and asked for help solving some math problems, which I'm always happy to do. Karim, our very top student that lives next door with my counterpart, even brought over a page of more problems late that night and asked if I could solve them and give him the solutions to review the next morning before the exam, which I also did. None of this was odd, because these students in particular are very motivated, like math, ask lots of questions, are constantly reviewing old NECTA problems, etc. Well the exam rolls around on Tuesday and, upon opening the exam, I was shocked to see about 75% of the questions I had solved for them the previous day. I don't remember the last time I was so shocked, angry, and hurt all at the same time; I was almost to tears. Not only did the students cheat (in the extreme), but they used me to do so. They all know my feelings about cheating - they've gone so far as to tell my counterpart they don't like when I invigilate because I stay in the room the whole time and watch them so they are unable to cheat. If it had even been any other students I don't think I would have been so angry, but I absolutely did not expect it from these students and I was so disappointed in them. They later told us that some students somewhere in the region managed to get ahold (my counterpart assumes teachers were involved) of the test in advance and texted them the questions. Everyone seemed much more concerned about how they managed to get the questions, than the fact that they cheated so badly. Unfortunately there were no consequences at all to the students. If students are cheating on my tests, I can take away points or give them a 0, but there is nothing I can do when it is for another teacher's exam or NECTA. With no consequences its not hard to imagine why students wouldn't at least try to cheat; it just seems to be so ingrained in the education system here that there is really nothing I can do about it but accept it and try not to take it personally...

But now I have 6 weeks off from school and I am starting my vacation and I promised to end on a high note... so one more piece of exciting news:  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is visiting Dar next weekend. I may actually get to meet her, since I will be around the PC office for training....we'll see!!

May

Hey hey hope all is well at home! I'm in Lindi town for the weekend hanging out with a few other PCVs. I was just trying to think of what has happened over the last month but I honestly I can't remember...the only thing that comes to mind is a description of one of my Form IV students, Hassani. Hassani, who is one of the few students that is taller than me, is a pretty cocky kid and this last month he has taken to wearing a woman's purse around his neck all day, every day. And I mean a woman's purse - a big, black leather bag that hangs around his neck...during morning assembly, between classes, and my personal favorite, sitting at his desk during class. You cannot imagine how funny it is to look up and see a tall, teenage boy wearing a purse around his head as he's working on math exercises! And I think he's starting some kind of fad because lately I've seen other students holding Hassani's purse, too. So I'll keep you posted on that one.

Anyways, school has been pretty crazy lately getting ready for the end of the term...I'm not sure who's more restless for a vacation, me or the students. Next week our Form IVs will take a regional mock NECTA exam and then the following week Forms I-III will take their terminal exams. Teaching is pretty much over, and I spent the last week writing my 8 exams as well as typing all 28 of my school's terminal exams which ended up being quite the undertaking! This week I'll do a bit of teaching and also invigilate (what they call proctoring here) the Form IV exams. Then on Tuesday, June 7th I'm off to Newala then up to Dar for a few days of Peace Corps training. I'm on PSDN (Peer Support and Diversity Network), which is made up of 12 volunteers from around the country. We're basically a resource for volunteers to call if they're going through a hard time at site. So I'll be getting some training on counseling and active listening skills as well as enjoy all the food options Dar has to offer. Then Katie will head up to Dar and we will commence SUMMER VACATION 2011...

First stop, Zanzibar. That's right. We will spend an amazing 5 or 6 days enjoying the beautiful island, swimming in the Indian Ocean, eating amazing foods, etc. Then we'll head to Iringa, which is west of Dar on the road out to Mbeya. It is supposed to be amazing and has a fairly large ex-pat community, which means it is well stocked with food and entertainment that white people enjoy. There is, get this, pizza delivery and iced coffee. We'll also get to see a few PCV friends that live in the area. Then we'll head back to Dar and then up to Arusha and Moshi for a week. This is a huge tourist area (base for Mt. Kilimanjaro, Serengeti, Ngorongoro crater), so they are supposed to be very nice and stocked with food straight out of an America grocery store. I'm especially looking forward to eating a famed banana split in Moshi. We'll also visit with a few other friends in the area which will be fun. Last stop is Tanga, where we'll meet up with a bunch of other volunteers for a 4th of July party. We'll charter a boat to take us out to a little island so it should be really fun...of course there won't be a BBQ and potato salad but sometimes you just gotta make do! Then off to spend the last couple weeks of break at home in my village before the second term starts July 18. I really can't wait!

Also, Peace Corps Tanzania finally got a website up and running. I haven't really had a chance to check it out, but maybe it's got some interesting stuff? http://tanzania.peacecorps.gov/