So a bunch of people have visited me here and they haven't been featured on this beautiful blog yet (because, let's be honest, we all thought this blog was long dead). We'll start with that.
Ya have to read the whole thing though (or just skip to the bottom) because I'll tell ya about my new job in a new city and when I'm coming home to America!
So there's a lot to write and not a long time to do it, so I apologize for the limited/terrible writing. Lots of pictures though!
My Parents Visit
First off, my lovely parents came to visit. It was pretty great. They came in November-December last year (yes its been that long since I updated shut up). Here you can see them at my house on Thanksgiving. (They are the old looking ones on the right.) Thanksgiving at my house came a bit of a tradition, mostly because my house was big and has electricity. The first year we cooked chicken, so last year we had to go a little bigger - turkey! There are approximately 7 turkeys in Tanzania, but after a lot of detective work (...I called a dude and then called another dude), and a taxi ride with a live turkey at my feet, we had a turkey dinner for Thanksgiving! Rachel (bottom right) slaughtered it. She's a badass.
Prepping the turkey!
After checking out the hot destinations around my site, we did an intense hike, safaried, and went to Zanzibar.
I had done a hike where you start up in the mountains then hike down to Lake Malawi and its super beautiful. So I thought we should do that, except start at a slightly different place. Turns out I'm bad at maps or something, because instead of starting in the mountains, we started at the bottom of the mountain and had to climb the mountain the first day. The above picture is on the first day before we knew the horrors to come. Not pictured is us walk along a dirt road unsure of where we were or where we were going at ten o'clock at night. So yeah, I'm a pretty good guide. But anyway, it was still cool and we finally did make it to the beach and had a day or two of well deserved rest and relaxation.
And then we went on a safari...
Look its two park employees. However one knows how to track lions and one doesn't, so you can be the judge of who is cooler.
These are elephants.
Elephants eat trees. Not like leaves, trees. This tree is apparently particularly tasty. Also see anything through the hole? Yeah we're artsy.
This is a bird. I don't care about birds but maybe you do. So this is for you.
LEOPARD!!!
So yeah a safari basically involves driving around in a car a bunch so I won't really talk about it with words. As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. That's me and Emily in our safari gear. Just kidding safari gear is stupid.
My mother surveying the street scene. She approves.
So then we went to Zanzibar, land of spices and white beaches.
I "accidentally" got the parentals to buy the VIP ferry tickets to Zanzibar, so we took the journey sitting on leather couches. Nicest way I think I've ever traveled.
We went on a spice tour. She liked it SO MUCH!
There are lots of cool doors in Stonetown, Zanzibar. Its like their thing. As this picture demonstrates, Stonetown historically was inhabited by giants.
Sometimes my father starts dancing awkwardly. One of many traits we share.
You can tell from our faces that we really really love these ties. They are so FUN!
So yeah, it was an excellent time with excellent adventures!
Next up,
Grandma and Aunt Barbara Visit
This trip started out with a bit of a hiccup - the airline Grandma used somehow decided she could make a negative 10 hour layover (as in arrive in the evening and leave the same morning). As amazing as she is, this didn't work out but she still made it to Dar es Salaam - just a day later than expected. Though there were a few hours when we went into international-lost-grandma crisis mode, all turned out well and Emily and I were there to greet both Grandma and Barbara at the airport in Mbeya.
While searching for food after picking up our visitors, we ended up walking straight through a big political rally.
Despite the issues, Grandma was unfazed.
Along with creating an impossible itenerary, the airline also lost Grandma's luggage, so our first priority was picking up a nightgown at the local market.
Our adventures started off with some ambitious sightseeing, including this hike down to a river to see a natural bridge. My neighbor Lucas Mafren acted as guide. I'm fairly confident he likes my grandma a lot better than me. That's fair though I guess.
Checked out this beauty.
We hung out at Lake Malawi for a few days just like with my parents. This time we didn't do the death march hike beforehand so were able to enjoy the beach instead of mostly sleeping and nursing our wounds.
Grandma living the high life in a canoe carved from a mango tree.
Food! Actually looks pretty gross but I think that's a very tasty peas in coconut with rice dish (trust me its good).
Tanzanian children are super cute. Its a thing. I tried to give them some clothes my parents brought for them but they just ran away and so I chased them and then I felt weird because I was chasing children. Story over.
Hanging out with my students.
Just for the record, here's proof I was actually teaching as well as doing all this fun stuff with all my visitors.
I couldn't take too much time off during the school year. After all the fun of my site and the beach (and a night at Utengule Coffee Lodge) , I sent Aunt Barbara and Grandma off in a safari car to safari it up at Ruaha National Park and then to Zanzibar. From what I hear, they had an excellent time.
Library, Conference, Exams
So along with all the visitors, life at site continued. Beyond teaching lots of physics and working on a variety of projects with a bunch of great students in the Science Club, I was also involved in a project to bring new, quality books to the school library in desperate need of quality resources.
This is Deo, we learned Swahili together.
Science club: can you use four 4's and any operator (+ - * / ! ( ) etc.) to get any number from 1-20? Okay that's math not science but whatever.
Grading exams: This used to be a significant part of my life. Its not anymore. I'm so happy.
We did a "Critial Thinking Conference" with a bunch of PCVs in the Mbeya area. Mostly it was for younger students (middle school aged). I brought some of my older students (18-19 years old) who helped lead the conference. Excellent work by all.
In May, my students took their final national exams that determine if and where they can go to college (think SAT but more so). This was what they've been preparing for a solid two years, so it was a stressful time for both students and teachers. I just recently got the results back - though by no means amazing (physics is a tough subject), scores were better than they have been in the past. Got some congrats from my school's Headmaster, but the best part were the texts and call from former students thanking me.
James' Visit
Yet another excellent visitor! The magnificent James Bauer came to visit and we had a magnificent time. He liked it so much he stayed an extra week or two. Sadly I got a call literally when he was flying here saying I needed to start my new job early, so I had to send James out on his own for some parts of the trip. Worked out very nicely though - think he enjoyed venturing out on his own and hanging out with a bunch of other Peace Corps Volunteers. In fact, he might even apply to Peace Corps himself (hint, hint James).
Hung out with my neighbors at my house.
Ate some good food, drank some good beer. Or at least, cold beer.
Hiked some nice hikes.
Swam in some nice lakes and oceans (this one is on Zanzibar, but we also went to Lake Malawi)
An elephant! Safari-d it up, saweeet!
Safari car got a flat, so we stood guard for lions, no big deal.
I even got to show James the Peace Corps office in Dar es Salaam, where I'm working now!
Anyway, James and I did lots, really deserves its own blog post in itself. Just ask us when we're in America together. We'll be the guys wearing awesome matching suit jackets. I sadly can't find a picture, but they are orange and they are amazing. Get excited to see them.
Leaving Site
So as I alluded to before, my adventure with James ended up actually being my permanent departure from site since I started my "extension" job early. Anyway, it ended up being a rushed departure. In some ways it was nice - ended up doing all my goodbyes in a couple of very long days. Tanzanians are really good at goodbyes. As I went from house to house, both close friends and came out to say goodbye. There was one common difficult question "if you like it here, why are you leaving?" I think it was sincere, and I took it just to mean they liked me so much they wanted me to stay! In general though, they made goodbyes easy. They thanked me for my work at the school, told me I'm welcome whenever I want to come back, and we were done. No long drawn out goodbyes, but also solid closure. I had also already said my most difficult goodbyes to some of the people I was closest to at site - my students.
I was touched especially by my last goodbye at site. Probably my best friend at site, Freddy, came and said goodbye to me the day before we left. We were leaving at 5:00am the next morning. Though a great guy, he (like most Tanzanians) have a very loose sense of time. If something is said to take an hour, you should expect two. If an event is to start at 3, expect it to start around 5:30. Anyway, this is all to say I had never seen Freddy "on time" to any event, ever. I told him we'd be leaving and he mentioned something about maybe getting up to say goodbye the next day. I knew not to expect him. Amazingly though, at 4:50am the next day, there Freddy was at the front door, not even on time, but early, here to say goodbye one last time.
Anyway, I'm hoping to get back to Mbeya and my site soon - might even have a little farewell party. We'll see.
Pre-Service Training - Again!
So I got called away from site to go through Pre-Service Training (PST) again. This is the 3 month training people go through before becoming full Peace Corps Volunteers and head to their site. Its what I went through right when I arrived in Tanzania a little over two years ago. This time though, they were low on training staff so asked me to come in and help out with training. It was a fun and very busy time. Consistent 6 days, 60 hour weeks. I was involved with everything from leading sessions to setting up the chairs every morning to figuring out the logistics of sending 61 volunteers on buses to their new site across Tanzania. This time was a little different from my time as a trainee. I didn't get the experience of living with a host family, but got the perks of living in a hotel room with a hot shower and AC! It was exciting to see all 61 Volunteers Swear-In at the U.S. Ambassador's residence in Dar.
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New Job
Finally, a few weeks ago after the new class of Volunteers had sworn in and headed off to site, I started my more "permanent" job. I'm extending my assignment as Peace Corps Volunteer by one year to work as a Peace Corps Volunteer Leader. This means I'll be headed home for good in mid-September, 2015. But I'll be home for a month soon, see below! So yeah, I moved out of my place in Mbeya and moved into my new house here in Dar where I'll be working in the main Peace Corps office. Its a huge change from the village where I did laundry by hand, routinely cooked on a charcoal stove, took bucket baths, etc. I now live with a lot more creature comforts (my house basically feels like its in America - and it costs more than I've ever paid for rent in the states). Its also difficult though - living in a big, hot, dirty city can be tough and surviving on a volunteer stipend while living and working in a very well-to-do part of the city brings its own challenges. I'm really excited about the job. In practice I'm a glorified intern - I'll be helping out in a lot of different areas, programming and training, admin and logistics, grant-writing and review, monitoring and evaluation. Though most of my time will be spent in Dar, I'll also be travelling for trainings and going out to visit folks at their sites and potentially develop new sites as well (this is huge as Tanzania's Peace Corps program is continuing to substantially increase its numbers). So far, working with Peace Corps staff has been an amazing experience. They really are the best of the best in their fields. Having the experience of being a Volunteer in the field has allowed me to act as a liaison between Volunteers and staff, by bringing the Volunteer perspective to discussions with staff and also explaining to PCVs the huge amount of work, often unseen, that staff does every day. It's also giving me the opportunity to see how an international development organization works - something I'm becoming more interested in being involved with after Peace Corps.
and last but not least...
I'm Coming Home!
If you extend your service for a year, Peace Corps gives you a month-long trip back home! If you haven't heard, I'm officially going to be home November 16 - December 15, 2014. Over Thanksgiving I'll be visiting relatives with my family in the south, but other than that I expect to be in Washington. So, lets hang out!
Oh and why am I leaving right before Christmas, you ask? Because my sister is coming to visit me! She'll be here over Christmas and New Years and we're going to have a grand old time. But that's a story for another day (like a day after its happened). So for now, I'm done!
