Training!

Here's a couple blogs! Sorry for the complete lack of organization.

Today is Jumatatu! Aka Pill Day. We arrived in Dar on a Wednesday and we took our malaria pill right when we got there. Its a weekly pill, so forever after Wednesday will be called Pill Day. I haven't gotten any of the insomnia or weird dreams people talk about being associated with the malaria, which is cool I guess, though I was looking forward to some sweet dreams.
Since Sunday, I have....

- Gotten a haircut! I paid an I think not overcharged price of 2000Tsh ($1.25), hopefully because of the very limited Swahili I used with them

- Had my placement interview! After giving us a few weeks to get settled and really think about what characteristics we want for our site, we had our interviews with the people who decide where we get placed. My main thing was I want somewhere coldish. I'm sure I could get used to this heat, but I think I'd really like being in a colder place, maybe up in the mountains in the Kilimanjaro region or something. We shall see! I also said I'd prefer a boarding school. Kids are much more likely to attend school regularly and you can more easily organize after school activities. I said I'm happy with electricity and water, or not. I think most (but not all) teachers have electricity either at their home or at their schools. I also said more rural (up to 6ish hours to the nearest banking town) is fine, or not.

- Got rained on for the first time! It was excellent. The roads weren't dusty for once, it was cool, and rain is awesome. Its rained a few times before at like 4am, and I always get excited, and then by the time I get up its always stopped. But today is rained until mid day sometime. My mama made me bring an umbrella to school though, which was super not Pacific Northwest of me. Sorry.


Swahili is going well, if slowly. I've gotten good at saying "tena tafadali" (again please) and "sema pole pole" (speak slowly).

Just cause I should practice, here's some Swahili for ya. I'll talk about what I do on a daily basis, because that is basically all I know how to say...Plug it into google translate to see what I (hopefully) said.

Jumatatu mpaka Jumamosi, ninakwenda shuleni. Ninatembea kwenda CCT (Christian Center of Tanzania?? I'm not sure...) au Morogoro Secondary. Morogoro Secondary nitafundisha fizikia wiki kesho. Huamka saa kumi na mbili na nusu asubuhi. (This won't will translate to 12:30 in the morning. However, time in Swahili is weird - the day starts at 6am and ends at 6pm, so basically you need to add or subtract 6 hours to get from English time to Swahili time. Anyway, saa kumi na mbili na nusu asubuhi = 6:30am). Hukula chakula cha asubuhi (chai, ndizi, chibati na/au mayai). Na rifiki zangu, hukwenda shuleni kujifunza Kiswahili. Ninapokuja nyumbani, ninasema "Shikamoo Mama." Mama Hilda anasema "Marahaba."

Okay, I'm cutting that short. Basically, my days are busy. In three months we are learning a new language, learning to be teachers, learning how to stay alive in a very new environment, and learning how to operate in a different cultural climate. Not this weekend but the next we get a full two day weekend, and are planning for a super short safari are in the works! Apparently we should see a good number of the Big Five. Should be most excellent.

Oh I was watching the news on TV with my family today, and they translated some for me. Apparently many doctors are on strike in Tanzania hoping for better pay. When bus drivers go on strike, people are late getting places. When doctors strike, people die. Its a pretty nasty situation apparently. We'll see what happens.

Ah, something totally unrelated. A few days ago, we got to see some experienced PCV Education volunteers teach a class of Form 1 (9th grade) students. It was eye opening to see the level of English of the students, which is pretty low. Even in technical classes like math and physics, a lot of time will need to be spent on making sure students understand the English. Lots of repetition! We also learned how to speak "special English" as they call it. Special English is English meant to be easy for English learners to understand. Speak slowly, very e-nun-ci-ate, pronounce your T's strongly and since Tanzanian's are used to British English, spell and pronounce words like the Brits. A-lu-minium is my favourite meTal. Yeah. Its tricky and will take some getting used to. Sadly, speaking with a full on British accent is apparently not so useful. Maybe I'll do it anyway.

We've started doing "micro-teaching" which is just 10-15 minute mini presentations in front of other volunteers. I've done one's on distance vs displacement, equilibrium, and gravity. I think on Friday I'll switch over to math and do something on probability. They are pretty useful I think, and fun to prepare. Its nice to get to use the mathy side of my brain once in awhile with all this language clogging up the other side. In a week and a half things get real, and we'll start teaching a few periods a week at a secondary school. Woo! I'll be teaching either Form 1 or 3 (9th or 11th grade) I think. I think probably physics, but it could also be math. We'll see!









Today is finally Jumapili! (which means Sunday, but is also the name of one of the training directors, which is confusing)

After three weeks, the six-days-a-week schedule is starting to hit me pretty hard. It's nice being busy, and I feel like I'm learning a lot, but man you really don't have much free time. Today I just hung around the house with my host mama and sister. My host dad apparently works seven days a week, so who am I to be complaining about six days a week. We did some laundry and I caught up on Swahili homework with the help of my host sister.

Yesterday a friend showed me a slot on my computer that accepts SIM cards, so I thought I might be able to get internet without the annoying USB dongle that I use now. When I put it in though, it not only didn't work at all, it also got stuck in my the slot. I have no idea how to get it out. So if anyone happens to know how to get a SIM card out of an Asus netbook, I'm all ears. Now I'm using the SIM card from my cell phone. On the brighter side, I found a deal to get 24 hours of internet for 500Tsh, which is a steal.

At one point for some reason, my internet got super fast, so I opened up Google Earth to try and figure out exactly where I am. With the help of my host mom and sister we found the secondary school that I'll be teaching at which is only a couple kilometers away, but couldn't get oriented enough figure out where the house is. The satellite imagery is surprisingly good – you can make out individual houses.


So some friends wrote me a list of questions – I’m going to start trying to answer them.


Do they have pillows?
Yes, they have pillows.


Do they use pens?
Yes, they use pens. But seriously, THEY DON’T HAVE MECHANICAL PENCILS AND I AM GOING TO DIE IF I DON’T GET SOME SOON. Seriously. Send me mechanical pencils stat.

How much does stuff cost?
Stuff is pretty cheap compared to the dollar. I don’t know my economics terms very well but I think the dollar’s purchasing power here is about triple here than in the states. Beer at a bar costs anywhere from $1 to $1.75; a cooked meal costs between $1.50 and $7. A room at a super fancy hotel in Morogoro costs $30, a cheap hotel would probably be $5-10. You can probably pay a lot more for a hotel room in a bigger city like Dar though. It’s nice to think about stuff in USD, especially when you are getting ripped off, because in dollars everything is really really insanely cheap. But then you remember you make about $5 a day, so thinking in terms of dollars is just silly.

The currency is the Tanzanian Shilling (Tsh), with a conversation rate of about 1600Tsh=1 USD. Basically, it’s awesome, because you can carry around 10,000 notes and feel like a badass.


How’s the beer?
I like it, but I don’t have high standards for beer. Its plentiful, cheap (at least in dollars, see above…), and has cool names like Safari and Kilimanjaro to remind me I am in Africa. Oh also they have these 3oz (or so) bags of hard alcohol you can buy for 500Tsh at bars. So that's like just over a quarter. Apparently they are TERRIBLE. Haven't had one yet, we shall see.


Do they have a movie theater?
Apparently there is a real one in Dar somewhere, but I didn’t see it. However, right down the road from my house there is a building that I think may be a movie theater of sorts. At first I thought it was a bar, but it has a screen and projector and a bunch of bootlegged DVD’s displayed outside. Will be investigating further.


What do you do at night without electricity?

I have had electricity all the time since I’ve been in Tanzania. It seems like about 80-90% of volunteers have host families with electricity. Apparently it goes out fairly regularly, but it hasn’t happened yet. We also have running water. Pretty often the water will stop for between a few seconds and a few hours. This morning it went out mid shower, which meant I had half a bucket bath. Oh, yeah, I still have a showerhead The water isn’t potable, but I got my homemade water filter up and running a couple days ago, so I have fresh clean water to drink without boiling or having to buy bottled water. Yay!

Anyway, there’s a pretty good chance as a teacher I’ll have access to electricity throughout my service. We’ll see. I’ll know where I’m placed in a month or so!

Toms shoes – are they there?

I haven’t seem ‘em. I did see a girl wearing a Mercer Island Half Marathon sweatshirt though. Cool.

Have they heard of Seattle?
Although they may be wearing Seattle area clothing, no, they definitely haven’t heard of Seattle.

Can you get Chinese food?
Yes! I went to a place that had a large selection of Chinese food last night. Got fried rice because it was cheap, even though I eat rice twice a day, every day. How silly. Anyway, yeah, it’s not common by a long shot, but yeah, you can get it in Morogoro. Indian food too!


Transportation
So most people just walk places. Kids walk to school, most adults walk to work, I walk everywhere. I'm probably walking 4-5 miles a day, which is a nice excuse to not exercise at all ever. Lots of people bike as well. People will carry impressive amounts of stuff on bike trailers. Charcoal for stoves is delivered by guys on bikes with giant trailers. Daladala's are either small buses or large vans that act basically like a bus system in bigger cities. They follow general routes, but aren't consistent and are private and not regulated at all. Each daladala is individually owned, so there isn't any sort of schedule. Since I live relatively close to town, I haven't ridden a daladala in Morogoro yet, but I rode one in Dar. I'll probably ride one fairly often once I'm at my site. Motorcyles taxis are also really common. They are super dangerous and Peace Corps explicitly forbids volunteers from riding them. Normal taxis are also common, though relatively expensive. In town, there's a fairly good number of private cars as well. Large buses are the main means of transportation between cities.


Coffee

The idea that Tanzanians grow good coffee for export and drink the bad stuff seems pretty accurate. Instant coffee that I think must be decaffeinated is ubiquitous, but I haven't seen real coffee being served anywhere. I'm sure its available at nice places though. Chai tea is super common though, and I am growing to accept it as a viable alternative to coffee. I think it has a decent amount of caffeine too!


What do they eat for breakfast?
Well the most important thing is that Tanzanian's actually eat breakfast twice. Its genius. One they call "chakula cha asubuhi," or "food for the morning" and the other they call "chai" or "tea." Maybe they are copying the Brits? Anyway, chai time is around 10am and the reason to stay awake during those early hours. Common breakfast foods include bananas (of which I have at least two every day), doughnut like fried bread, something somewhere between a tortilla and a pancake, bread with jam, chai, and these excellent potato ball things. Its basically like a mini chicken pot pie that has been fried. Its amazing.

Host Family and Morogoro

So I'm writing this from the room in my host family's house in Morogoro. I spent a few days in Dar Es Salaam, 99% of the time being spent in the Mbazi Center, where we slept, ate, had info sessions, and got injected with every vaccination ever invented. I am now literally immortal. Which is good because I've learned from the medical sessions that almost every plant and animal in Africa can and probably will kill you. So far though I'm healthy minus a few strange bug bites here and there. We also had sessions on cultural adjustment (girls, don't be offended when people call you fat, its a compliment) and safety and security (U.S. Embassy official advice: don't ride local public transit called dala dalas. Peace Corps advice: yeahhh, we aren't paying you enough to ride taxis everywhere so get used to dala dalas). We did a quick walk around downtown Dar. It was about as expected - very crowded, dirty and busy. The streets are full of people selling all kinds of ware. Its easy to get a full meal along with some grocery and even clothes shopping, all while stuck in traffic (which, by the way, is virtually guaranteed to happen). It was cool to see all the hustle and bustle of a large city in the developing world. Our group stood out pretty obviously, and we got groups of street children running up to us shouting "wazungu!" (white people!) a couple times. We also visited the Peace Corps Tanzania headquarters, which is in Oyster Bay, a really nice part of the city. Lots of embassies and NGO headquarters are right around there, which were fun to see.

On Tuesday, we took a threeish hour bus ride to Morogoro, 200km east of Dar. It was really really great to get out of the city and into rural Tanzania. My host family's village (though urban in comparison to the site I'll be living at, probably) is a polar opposite of the city I left in Dar. My house is on a very long, very very very bumpy dirt road. The road becomes impassible by car about 20 meters past my house. The village I live in is what I think of when I think "Africa" - much more so than Dar was. Women dress quite conservatively and often wear a traditional colorful cloth, called a konga. People tend to walk slowly and have long, complex greetings with others they meet walking on the street. Tiny markets are available all over the place with people selling fresh food. Cars are seen only once in awhile - most people walk or get a ride on a "piki piki" or motorcycle taxi. I walk about half an hour to the Morogoro Secondary School, where I'm learning Swahili and eventually will be student teaching. Its a large school, with about 20 classrooms, each holding at least 50 students, often many more. Though the school is very dilapidated physically (broken windows, nasty pit toilets, etc.), the staff we met seemed very dedicated and the school has a good reputation. I will be spending most of my time at this school, either learning Swahili with a Tanzanian instructor and four other volunteers, or student teaching. We also meet up with the full class of Peace Corps Trainees about once a week. Training is pretty intense. We have full days of training (language or otherwise) 6 days a week, and then spend a lot of the 7th day on chores. Two weeks ago, a late night out was staying out til 4am. Last night I went to a bar and stayed out til it was dark. Didn't make it home until 9pm. It was a crazy night!

So that's basically what I've been up to. Here's some other stuff I thought of talking about...

Eating:
I've mostly been eating rice, beans, potatoes, and bananas. There are bananas growing all over the place, and its a strange day if I haven't had one with at least two meals. Rice (sometimes with curry), potatoes and beans are both super common. Ugali is also very common, though I've had it just once. Ugali basically looks like very very firm mashed potatoes, but its made from a corn meal type thing. Its filling, though has absolutely no flavor. Its often eaten with vegetables or meat. Speaking of meat, I've had chicken, beef, and goat. All meat, but chicken in particular, is quite a different experience here. I'm used to fat American chickens, often with all the bones removed. Here all chickens are way skinnier as they run around all day and are served with lotza bones. Its also common to get served a not so normal part of the chicken, for example, its face. Kinda gross. In general though I'm actually really enjoying the food. Its super carb heavy, which is how I eat in the states anyway, so its pretty awesome. A lot of stuff is totally cool to eat with your hand here, like ugali. Eating with your hand is pretty great, though it is taking me awhile to get used to, especially because I need to do it with my right hand (I'm left handed). Historically (and for many still today), toilet paper was nooot used, so the left hand was for dealing with that whole situation, and the right hand was for eating. Naturally, people give me a strange look if I start eating with my left hand.

Sleeping:
I sleep under a mosquito net, which is this big net that hangs over your bed and you tuck into the mattress to create a insect free zone. It also sorta feels like you are camping which is pretty great. Apparently all animals in Africa decide to wake up and make as much noise as possible from 1am-3am (and the roosters dont stop then), so sleeping through that is a bit challenging. My bed is super comfy though, and I'm generally exhausted and sleep very well every night. Staying up until 11pm tonight to finish this blog is a major major achievement for me. You are welcome.

Host family:
I'm living with the Musiba's. Stay at home mom Hilda, dad Julius has a windshield repair shop in town, and 14 year old daughter Mary is just starting secondary school. They speak English very well, but are also excited to help me learn Swahili, so it seems like its been a good fit. Tomorrow they are going to show me how to wash clothes by hand. Excellent. I haven't been able to do much outside the house with my family yet, so hopefully tomorrow we can walk around the area or something.

Being a foreigner:
Though you definitely get a lot of stares, people are overwhelmingly happy to see us. I get a lot of "Karibu sana Tanzania!" (very much welcome to Tanzania!). People get excited when I manage to spit out a few basic greetings in Swahili. Its definitely an interesting experience being a minority really for the first time.

So that's all I can think of off the top of my head. Post you're questions, I'd love to answer!

Another post coming soon with pictures. In case that doesn't actually happen, check the facebook album at https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151031670774515.485414.510569514&type=1&l=ad2203db1b

In Dar

I've arrived in Dar! I'll be here until Tuesday. The journey was long and I didn't sleep more than an hour or two for some very long amount of time (Monday at 4am to Wednesday night), but all is now well. We are in a hotel/conference center here. Its pretty big and relatively nice - we all have our own rooms with bathrooms and showers even! The showers are pretty basic without hot water, but compared to what I'll have in a few days, this is pretty nice. We aren't allowed to leave the compound for a few days since we don't really know any Swahili and haven't gone through basic security training yet. So, I haven't seen too much of the city. Just the ride from the airport was pretty interesting though. Anyway, once I've got some pictures I'll update again.

On the Plane

From June 6...

I’m on the plane from JFK to Johannesburg now and have some down time (15 hours of it to be precise) so I’ll talk a little about the last few days. Oh yeah Mom, don’t even worry, I just did a little walk around the plane, blood clots got nothing on me. My first official event with the Peace Corps was what they call “Staging.” My class all met in a conference room in a hotel in Philadelphia for seven hours or so. We did some paperwork and officially moved from Peace Corps Invitees to Peace Corps Trainees. We won’t become full-fledged Peace Corps Volunteers until August 15^th, when we will have our swearing in Ceremony, which is apparently a fairly fancy-smancy event. When we got our PC passports I was a little disappointed – it’s just a normal old passport with a little sticker on it saying I’m a Peace Corps volunteer. How boring, sad. But, it does have my Tanzania visa in it, which is pretty cool, so I guess it’s okay.

I had some confusion on the number of volunteers that would be going with me; it turns out there are 47 of us in my “class.” There are a total of 160 volunteers in Tanzania. What I didn’t know is there are multiple stagings each year for Tanzania because they are broken up by the type of job you’ll be doing. So my staging was an education specific one. There are volunteers in Tanzania involved in environmental and health sectors as well, but those trainees get their own staging events.

So staging was about what you’d expect it to be. It was a bunch of people meeting for the first time, and about to head off to a really different environment together. There were lots of get to know you activities, and then a bunch of high level discussions about expectations, fears, safety issues, and the like. It was pretty interesting and a great way to start getting to know people.  My fellow trainees seem like a really great group of people. Everyone was pumped up to finally be going and made what could have been a pretty dry conference really fun. I guess this should have been obvious, but I was really struck by the geographical spread of people backgrounds. I think there were three other Washingtonians, but there were folks from every region of the States.  My roommate at staging was a guy from Pennsylvania. Amazingly, a few months ago he met a friend of mine who I studied abroad with and went to college with. Small world! Most were fairly recent grads, though there were a few older people too. Though there were some people who had just graduated a few weeks ago, probably the typical situation was someone who graduated a few years ago and wanted a break from the normal working world. I’m not sure about my group specifically but I guess the average age of Peace Corps volunteers is 28.

So after staging ended, we I was planning on getting a little sleep before the 2:00am departure time for the airport. Instead I went out and celebrated the birthday of another trainee and didn’t end up using the hotel room except for storing my luggage and a quick shower. No regrets! I didn’t get much sleep the night before staging either though, so I’m running on fumes. Strangely, I took a couple hour nap on the plane already and feel good to go again. It’ll hit me at some point…

We got to the airport hours before we could check our bags (better safe than sorry I guess), so here we are with all our luggage sprawled out on a floor of the lobby. Sorry for the terrible image quality.

The last 36 hours or so have been pretty intense, but I’d say my first day and a half with the Peace Corps has been pretty great. We’ll see what the next 36 hours brings.