Hey hey!

Not much news, but I've got some spare time and internet this weekend in Newala so I figured I'd post some words (and pictures)...

April ended with a Peace Corps Super-Regional (Lindi and Mtwara regions) conference, held in Mtwara town. It's always nice to have the chance for all 24 PCVs in the deep south to get together and catch up. The week-long conference was half catch up/share time with PCVs and staff and half focused on malaria training. Each PCVs local ward's CCA (community change agent) was there to talk about ways we can collaborate together in our respective villages. The highlight of the training was going to a nearby village with a "mobile video unit" that drives around and sets up a projector and shows various movies, this one a 45 minute Tanzanian love-story/fishing action drama/important lessons about malaria learned feature film. Tons of adults and children showed up and piled on the ground and it was really fun! Oh ya and then we spent our last afternoon at the beautiful beach :). It was also great timing for us to get some much needed time together for planning our girls empowerment conference, which will begin in just 12 days. I'm really excited, but I'll be relieved if and when we are finally able to pull it off!

Things are moving slowly in the village, as usual. A few weeks ago the 2nd year students at the nearby teacher's training college had their graduation ceremony. Tyler and I went and got to see Hanako (the JICA volunteer teaching computers there) and Tetsuko (JICA volunteer teaching in Newala) and eat some tasty pilau (Tanzanian spiced rice, special for weddings, ceremonies, etc.). This last week my ward's Malaria CCA (community change agent) had a meeting in my village with some Mamas. Trying to teach people to use mosquito bednets (when they don't have beds) is tricky! Hopefully in June the MVU (mobile video unit) from Mtwara will be coming to Maputi to play a movie, which should be more fun than listening to someone talk about the importance of malaria prevention!

And guess what! Peace Corps finally approved a pay increase of 20%! After seeing prices increasingly rise, some things nearly doubling in price over the last year and a half, it'll be really nice to have that extra 50,000 shillings (~ 30 USD) per month. Speaking of money, I'm supporting my former student, Karimu, during his A-level schooling. He's studying way out west of Songea. It is always amazing to me to see how little money Tanzanians are able to live on, and for just around 250,000 shillings (~160 USD) he can pay for school, room and board in the hostel, his uniform and supplies (of course a calculator for math class!), food and walking around money, and travel to/from home for an entire year! I'm trying to pay this from my modest PC living allowance, so if anyone is interested in helping support an amazing student this year or next year, let me know :)

I think that's it for now! Happy birthday sister (2 days ago)! And happy mother's day ma (tomorrow)!

Poop in a Hole

Hello again! Happy Easter to all!

First off, uploaded some new pictures. And here are a couple of funny videos made by Peace Corps Volunteers. The first one is made by a few PCVs from the newest health/environment class...but maybe it's not so funny if you don't live here.

"Shit Peace Corps Volunteers Never Say (Tanzania Version)"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UP_O_Oyffug
"Poop in a Hole"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koUWaAr-itY

I've currently got a week off of school for mid-term break/Easter holidays. A district wide soccer tournament is currently going on (will go all the way up to nationals in June), so last week we cancelled our mid-term exams, halfway through, in order to prepare. My school is very professional, you family moved there and opened a restaurant and the old man is awesome and gives us free wine and dessert! Came to Mtwara town yesterday for a few relaxing days at the lovely beachhouse. Splurged last night at the fancy restaurant here on a BBQ...grilled red snapper and steak! This morning we cooked a feast of bacon, eggs, toast, and splurged some more for a block of cheddar cheese. Bacon cheeseburgers planned for lunch, followed by cliff jumping into the ocean (today at 4pm is the highest tide of the month), and a game night with some other ex-pats living here. I'll say a pretty good Easter weekend!

I really can't believe it's already halfway through my last full semester teaching here. And I feel like the rest of the term will go by even faster. I'll be back to Mtwara soon for a week-long malaria and sub-regional training for Lindi and Mtwara PCVs the third week of April. Then at the end of May we'll host the girls empowerment conference. It was supposed to be this week, but changes in school break and issues getting grant money from PC meant rescheduling it. Now it will be at the teacher's training college only a 25 minute walk from my house! It has been a frustrating process, with lots of added work and planning to move locations, so it will be a relief to eventually get to the fun part - actually hosting the conference! And since it's so close to my village, I'm hoping to sneak in a few extra girls :). Speaking of girls, one of my very best Form I girls from last year, Upendo, moved schools this year (most good students will transfer to a better school if they are able...it's good for them but sad for me to lose a student that is so enjoyable to teach). She came by to visit earlier this week and it was so nice to see her again...if only I could take her to the conference, too!

And then comes June! And my family will be here! My mom, two sisters, and older sister's boyfriend are coming for about two weeks and I can't wait to see them and show off Tanzania. We're doing safaris at Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater, hanging out beachside on Zanzibar, and ending with a day in the big city, Dar es Salaam. Unfortunately they won't have time to make it all the way down south to my village, but we're hoping to stop at a fellow PCV's site so they can get a glimpse of village life and a Tanzanian school. I'll have just a short June break this year and then 5 weeks off in August/September because...dun dun dun...Tanzania is 2 years behind conducting the 2010 census. So they've changed the breaks to accomodate the census in August (all students must return to their home villages, teachers will do the actual census taking). Also at the beginning of August I'll have my last PC training - Close of Service (COS) conference. And with the additional break, I'm thinking of travelling all the way west to Kigoma and Gombe Stream, where Jane Goodall did all her chimpanzee research. So we'll see!

Oh ya, and I'm old now! I celebrated my 25th birthday a couple of weeks ago in Newala with a few other PCVs. We made beef fajitas and queso and pumpkin cake with cream cheese icing so it was great! It also marked one and a half years living in Tanzania...time sure does fly! Thanks for all the well wishes from home!

And a few shout-outs and congratulations on the exciting happenings for friends and family from home:
wedding of my middle/high school friend, Lindsay!
soon to be wedding of my high school friend, Ali!
birth of baby boy Luke of my college friend, Katie!
getting into UT to my cousin, Sarah!
turning 3 years old to my cousin, Isaac!
getting into Michigan for grad school to my college friend, Jeseth!
...congrats and wish I could be there to celebrate in person with y'all!!

Karimu and PSDN ramblings

Hey again! First off, an exciting new blog change. Okay, so probably not really that exciting. I made my first twitter account and added a feed from my blog. It's under "Sasa Hivi..." (Right now). This has all come about because of lots of work (big thanks!) from my mom and a friend's mom who brought it over, I now have a Kindle with working 3G internet! So I'll be able to check email, facebook, etc. from my house kule kijijini (there in the village). My plan is to give some more frequent small updates between blog posts. Also I added some pictures of my Mafia trip, MSC, and some random pics around my school, so check out the photo stream.

Not much new since my last post, but a few weeks ago my school received some very exciting news! One, out of 60 or so, of our Form IV students from this past year scored high enough on his NECTA exam to continue on to A-level high school. I think I've mentioned Karimu in a past blog post. He used to live with my counterpart next door and just might be the most driven person I have ever met. He literally studied day and night, and when he wasn't studying he was helping to run the school and his house. And he's always smiling which wins big points with me! He scored a C (40-60%) in all subjects except Biology (B) and Math (D). It may not look like it, but this is incredibly impressive considering he didn't have an English, Math, or Physics teacher during most or all of his high school education. Only a handful of other students in the district also scored Division II. Because he moved back in with his mom in a neighboring village right after exams, I hadn't seen him since October. The afternoon after the results were published, I heard a piga hodi (kind of like a verbal knock) at my door, and there was Karimu, with an even bigger smile on his face than normal! Everyone is so proud of him, and rightfully so! He'll likely go to A-level in Ndanda, at a school where a fellow PCV, Mikey, teaches math. So that's also neat and I'll be able to keep an eye on his progress in math :)

If you actually looked at said twitter feed, then you'd know I'm currently in Dar. I've had some meetings the last few days for Peer Support and Diversity Network (PSDN). We met to review the past year and to talk about the transition for the next group of PSDNers, who will be applying in the next couple of months, as well as conduct a training with the PC staff. The majority of what PSDN does is act as a network that other PCVs are able to call when they are going through a tough time or just need someone to listen. Calls are confidential, so a lot of people frankly use it to talk about things they just don't want to jump on the PC gossip train (it is truly insane how fast information can travel from PCV to PCV here, particularly if it is juicy, people are bored, etc.). We record simple statistics on types of calls that then help staff better know what issues PCVs are facing in the field; maybe not suprisingly, romantic relationships are the theme of the majority of calls. PSDN-led sessions are also a part of every PC training, be it sessions on alcohol and drugs, relationships and sex, mental health and happiness, or safety and security. Recently there has been an emphasis on the diversity aspect of it all. Our PSDN group reflects the diversity in Americans and PCVs in general, whose backgrounds, races, sexual orientations, and religions may differ a great deal. This can translate into very different PCV experiences because Tanzanians generally have a very narrow stereotype of Americans: rich, white, Christians. For example, an African-American PCV often faces different challenges than a Caucasian-American. Out of 20 or so PC Tanzania staff, there are only 3 Americans. Although the Tanzanian staff are extremely educated Tanzanians, speak fairly good English, and may have worked with foreigners and/or Americans for years, there are occasional issues/misunderstandings between volunteers and staff arising from cultural differences that leave all involved feeling frustrated. This year PSDN has become much more of a liaison between staff and volunteers, and for the first time PSDN has been involved in staff trainings. Our new Country Director (an American) has been particularly encouraging, and asked us to come this week for a training with the entire staff. Unfortunately I can't say much beyond that the staff was able to hear very candidly from PCVs about issues ranging from alcohol, sex, sexual orientation, race, religion, and gender relations to just general frustrations with Tanzania/Tanzanians. It turned out to be a suprisingly powerful experience for all involved; they were both shocked and thankful for our honesty in sharing some very personal challenges and it was touching to see how much the Tanzanian staff truly care about volunteers and want to know how to better support them. Once again I am reminded how lucky I am to be a PCV in this country. Goal 2 of 3 of Peace Corps involves promoting cultural sharing and understanding, which its much easier to think about when your kijijini, so this week was a wonderful reminder that our Tanzanian staff, supervisors, etc. can be an equally valuable source for these exchanges.

Welp, off again. Headed back on a bus down south tomorrow morning and should be back to my site by Sunday afternoon, ready to start off the next school week. Oh and my counterpart who left in October for university is back at my school during his break to teach biology and chemistry for a month or so. I'm excited to have him back and excited for the students to have some more science!

Mafia, 'Merica, and Teaching: Year 2!

Hey all, sorry for taking a bit of a blog hiatus. It's been over 2 months, so let's see if I can remember some things...

The first of December brought on Mafia Island and...dun dun dun...swimming with whale sharks! It was awesome! We were close enough to touch them, snorkeling along side them. They are HUGE. And have really wide mouths. It was truly amazing. I posted some pics (above water, sorry), but they really don't do the experience justice. The ferry ride back was about 4 hours on very rough sea and encouraged quite a lot of vomiting (not by me, thanks strong stomache). Cultural observation: apparently throwing up over the edge of the boat is not intuitive. Tanzanians throw up on themselves and their clothes and their neighbors and their neighbors' clothes. It's no big deal, really.

Then I went home to America. It was swell. Seeing family and friends was wonderful, as expected! And I ate so much! And it was perfect weather for most of the time. I did burn my legs on Christmas morning, but was lucky that they healed before I had to head back to the land of dirt and poor medical care.

I returned to Tanzania and had about a week to get over jet lag. I did it in the worst possible way. Like opposite of getting over jet lag. I arrived at about 8 am, went to my friend's apartment, showered, and got in bed for just a "little nap." Little nap turned into all day and I woke up at about 6 pm and ate some dinner. Then some friends convinced me to go out for a few beers, and what can I say, I missed those big Tanzanian beers. Well that turned into going to a safi (nice) club, that has a 20,000 shilling cover (3 days pay). Needless to say, we stayed out way too long and I didn't get to bed until 6 in the morning. Then I slept all day, again. So I was basically nocturnal, but I got over that after not too long. I also had 4 days of 'Mid-Service Conference' at the Peace Corps office, which consisted of a mix of medical check-ups and general training sessions. It was really fun, and the first time my training class has been back all together since March. The next and last training our class will do together is COS (close of service) Conference in early August.

Finally getting back to my village and house was nice. The new school year started up right away in mid-January and we're 3 weeks into term so far. It's been a bit strange because none of our Form I or III students decided to show up until the third week, so our school was few as were our classes. Our teachers are still few...just 3 of us. We have been promised "at least 2, not more than 3" new teachers, but I won't believe it until I see it. My math levels are a bit different, and I've got 5 levels now, but I'm only teaching Form I and II physics this year (beyond that, sciences are optional for students). I have not been asked to teach Form I English again, but I suspect I will unless we receive an English teacher. Teaching math is still usually enjoyable, and I feel a lot more confident this year as a teacher. Many topics I've already taught and have class notes for, so that also cuts down on the prep time which is nice. I'm hoping that our Form IV and Form II math results at the end of this year will show a lot of improvement, as the students would have atleast had 2 years of regular math instruction beforehand. I've enjoyed teaching physics so far more than last year. For starters more current Form IIs (last years Form Is) are my favorite group to teach, most being still active and motivated and not too jaded by their chances for passing to give up yet. A few of my Form IIs that don't participate a ton in math class are interested in physics and ask a lot of questions which is nice to see. I still feel like the physics concepts they are expected to learn is way over their heads and not aligned with their math skills, which makes it difficult to teach. For example, the Form II syllabus starts with 'Static Electricity' which allows for a couple of demos (rubbing plastic pen in hair and then attracting little pieces of paper), but mostly the concepts are not intuitive or possible for them to see. All of this is also in English which makes it a million times harder for them to follow. They often ask me to describe the concepts simply and in Kiswahili; even if my Kiswahili vocabulary was good enough, the concepts just aren't simple. My students have no prior knowledge of atoms and electrons and energy and that's just the start of it. Next comes concepts like capacitance and circuit design and current electricity, things I didn't really learn about until college engineering courses. I think standing in front of a classroom that is paying attention and WANTS to understand a concept and trying but failing, either because of English or my ability to dumb down a concept, is the worst feeling in the world as a teacher. But then I have my classes that I come away from on such a high. One of the biggest struggle Peace Corps teachers have here is how to encourage students to think critically and problem solve, in a system that has only ever asked them to just memorize an answer or process. If I give students exercises that differ at all from my examples in class, they don't know how to solve them. Teaching them to combine multiple concepts to solve a problem seems impossible. Given all this, I had a student ask a question during class the other day that demonstrated critical thinking. It was shocking and awesome and I couldn't stop smiling! We were going over the laws of exponents, dividing powers of the same base, specifically. I just finished an example showing that 3^10 / 3^4 = 3^(10-4) = 3^6. This particular student, the best Form III by far, raises his hand and says something along the lines of "Madam, if it is the other way around and 3^4 / 3^10, do you have a negative exponent and what does that mean?". This was amazing on so many levels, firstly because negative  numbers are really really difficult for them and few students know that 4-10=-6 and also because we hadn't been over negative numbers as exponents yet, and mostly because I have never had a student ask about exceptions to laws or use my examples to lead to more difficult questions. Ha, I don't know if any of that made sense to y'all, but it was most definitely the highlight of my teaching thus far.

I've also been working the last couple of months on writing a grant to get funds for a girls empowerment conference that the PCVs of Lindi and Mtwara regions will be hosting. Got just a few changes to make but hopefully we'll get approval soon and some much needed money. The plan is for a 4-day conference during the mid-term break in early April. Each volunteer will bring 4 girls from their secondary school to Ndanda, where we'll have sessions teaching life skills, anatomy and reproductive health, STIs and HIV/AIDS, decision-making and communication skills, and goal-setting and career planning. It's going to be a lot of work but I'm really excited and can't wait for my girls to participate.

Anyways, the only other exciting news that comes to mind is my water tank! I'm not sure if I mentioned it before, but a 2000 liter water storage tank was installed on a raised platform in my courtyard in November. While I was home for the holidays, it was collecting rain water and I came home to a full tank! It has a little faucet and it is crazy and easy and like having running water. I also don't have to filter it before drinking so I have been drinking like 3 liters a day just because I can. It's awesome for hygiene...washing hands and feet and hair and dishes and filling up bucket baths and clothes washing buckets and I just couldn't be happier with my tank. I hope it will last through dry season so I won't ever have to worry about having enough water again. Yay water tank!

Help build a basketball court!

Hello, it's me again!

My sitemate, Tyler, is a health volunteer and helps out teaching at his local secondary school (about a 2 hour walk or a 30 minute motorcycle ride from my vill). He's been working on raising funds to construct a basketball court there and is still about $500 shy of being able to start building. If you're interested in learning more about the project and donating: https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=621-223

I know Tyler and his school would be very appreciative of any help you can give!

And happy World AIDS Day! As in the rest of Africa, AIDS is a huge issue facing Tanzania. Learn more.

Welp, I'm nearly off on official vacation! I'll leave my village on Saturday morning and take a bus to Lindi town to meet up with a volunteer from my training class who's down here visiting. Then on Monday I'll head to Mtwara town, where I've given myself and early Christmas gift and booked a glorious 55-minute flight up to Dar on Monday evening. We'll meet up with a few other volunteers and head out to Mafia Island on Tuesday. After a few days on the island, I'll head back to Dar and spend a couple days running errands, and then be on my flight home to America on the evening of the 12th!!! Just 2 weeks until I get to and see many of you, experience the awesome-ness that is Austin, and escape the heat with some cool weather!

How to Kill A Turkey

Happy Thanksgiving to you all! I'm in Mtwara with a bunch of other PCVs, celebrating the holiday on the beautiful beach. We had quite the feast on Thursday, complete with turkey!!! Here's how that goes down,

Tanzanian style:
1. Find a turkey...they're not so common
2. Pay for a turkey...50,000 shillings ($32) for ~8 lb turkey...about a week's pay for a PCV
3. Put turkey on leash and tie to tree until ready for the big event
4. Tie turkey hanging from tree
5. Cut off turkey's head
6. Drain turkey's head blood into bucket
7. Pull out feathers
8. Put in pan and marinate with butter, rosemary, and thyme
9. Bake for 2 hours at 425 degrees...thankfully a missionary couple living here let us use their
beautiful new oven for the cooking

The turkey was pretty small to feed over 20 of us, but we all got to savor a few delicious bites! Katie  and I also used all the turkey drippings to make some bomb cornbread dressing and giblet gravy so it  felt just like home! We had quite the tasty spread, only missing cranberry relish. It was all delicious!

Aside from Thanksgiving, we also got to celebrate a few other milestones together. Thursday marked me,  Katie, Ghee, Leslie, and Will's 1-year anniversary of swearing-in as Peace Corps Volunteers and Friday  our 1-year anniversary of arriving at site. There were also two volunteer birthdays (Ben's on Thursday,  Katie's on Friday), so it was a fun few days!! And today the newest Health and Environment training class has site announcements, so we'll learn who else will be joining us down here in the deep n' dirty south in mid-December.

I'll be heading back to my village on Sunday, where I'll have some time to relax because school is finished for the term. Although we wont officially close the school until December 2nd, the students finished their exams this last Tuesday and I finished up all my grading before heading out for Thanksgiving. So I'll have a few days to relax before leaving on my next vacation...Mafia Island. Me and 4 other volunteers will brave the notoriously rough 3-hour boat ride out to the island (off the coast a bit south of Dar) to spend a few days there. It's currently whale shark season and we're going to swim with them (don't worry, I hear they've got little mouths and can't eat people).

Then I'll head back up to Dar for a couple of days to await my flight home to Austin on December 12! I CAN'T WAIT!!! It's been increasingly hard to think about much else, and it will be so so so great to see lots of family and friends and celebrate Christmas and New Years there. I've also been having really vivid dreams/day-dreams about various foods and I can't wait to go to my favorite restaurants and the grocery store and satisfy all my food desires.

Fall Break Travels

Hi all! This will be a short post, hopefully more info and pictures later... This week was our fall break at school so I've been doing lots of traveling. Last weekend was Songeafest, an annual party thrown by volunteers near Songea town. Katie and I took a notoriously shitty but always interesting road west from Masasi through Tunduru and on to Songea. It was a two day bus ride with an overnight in Tunduru, and not at all fun, but now we can join the proud few PCVs who have made the trek. The first day was just your typical shitty bus ride on a shitty unpaved road, nothing we aren't used to. I guess we got a little too cocky though because the second day was by far the most uncomfortable ride I've been on in Tanzania thus far. The two bigger buses were already filled up so we ended up squished into the back row of a daladala, the normal Tanzanian transport that looks like a van but is stuffed with like 40 people. I've been on plenty of daladala rides before, but they normally last for less than 30 minutes to take you across a big town like Morogoro. This one lasted a torturous 7 hours, through a windy and hilly game reserve on the bumpiest dirt road I've ever been on. But we arrived safely and relatively on time, and were the first PCVs I've ever heard of whose bus(es) didn't break down for hours along the way so I'd say we were pretty lucky (a friend that took the road during this last rainy season spent a whopping 21 hours on the second half of the journey). And the party was fun, complete with a volunteer talent show, sports competitions, and a few dance parties. The next day I traveled with several other volunteers up north to Tukuyu, a town very close to Mbeya town. We stayed the night with a PCV living there and the next morning headed out to Matema Beach on Lake Nyasa (Lake Malawi). We spent a wonderful two days enjoying the gravel beach and freshwater lake, surrounded by a beautiful mountain view, and enjoyed our nights making beach bonfires. Yesterday we headed back up to Mbeya town (where I spent "shadow week" during training, if you remember), where I am now. Unfortunately I spent the night battling bouts of diarrhea (for only the second time since arriving in TZ but unfortunately once again during a vacation). I've spent the day inside near the toilet but have managed to get in a few good naps. I couldn't resist forcing down homemade banana bread and cinnamon rolls for brunch and am going to attempt going into town this evening for dinner, but more specifically to eat a famed creamy avocado burger which I had the pleasure tasting during shadow week and is easily the best burger I've eaten thus far in Tanzania. Tomorrow Katie and I will take an all day bus back to Dar (not doing the Tunduru path again), spend the night, and hop on another all day bus bright and early to head back down south. We'll stop in Ndanda for the evening for a little goodbye get-together  for the Mtwara/Lindi education volunteers down here who will be COSing in the next month. Then finally back to my village on Sunday to prepare for teaching Monday!

As far as school is going, we've got just one week before our Form IVs take their big national exam so it will be a crazy next few weeks. The full week before I left for break, our Form IIs and IVs also took mock national exams so it feels like its been mostly testing and invigilating (proctoring) for me and the students, but things should settle down for about a month between Form IV exams and Form II exams in early November and I will hopefully be able to get some more teaching in. Despite writing all my midterms, my school ended up officially canceling midterms for Forms I and III last week because there were only two of us to invigilate all the exams which just wasn't possible. Although it will be nice not to have to grade lots of midterms when I go home, I'll probably spend the next week testing them during classtime because I'm a fun teacher like that. It feels like this term has flown by and will just continue to do so until we end in early December. And then, if you haven't heard the news, I'll be traveling home to Austin for the holidays - December 13 to January 4!!! Can't wait to see lots of wonderful family and friends!

Speaking of home, yesterday marked my one year anniversary leaving Austin (headed to Philadelphia for "staging") and Saturday will be one whole year in Tanzania. Can't believe it has gone by so fast, and I hope the next year is filled with as much fun, excitement, good friends, good travel, and of course satisfaction teaching my students!