THE ROCKY WOODBRIDGE JOURNAL

Hello From the Bush

2009-02-03T07:58:00.000-08:00

I know, I know, I’m a total bum for not updating my blog since September. Well, here’s what’s been going on. After Joanna left, we had a flurry of activity leading up to World AIDS Day on December 1. I had written a grant to get gardening and sewing supplies for the orphan group at the secondary school in Kibakwe. It turned out my counterpart was going to be in Dar at the same time I was, so we decided to get all of our supplies together. This involved two days of scouring Dar by daladala (minivans disguised as public transport) to find used sewing machines and supplies. Over those two days, we went to parts of Dar es Salaam I did not know existed. We went to parts of Dar that no one should ever go to. The ends justified the means, though, and we got what we needed. My poor counterpart had to travel all the way back to Kibakwe by bus with four sewing machines. Once I got back to Kibakwe, the onus was upon me to start organizing the students in the orphan group. Here lies the rub. Over half the students in the group were preparing for national exams which run for two weeks, then the other half of the students take their exams over the following two weeks. So we’re looking at a month where none of the students are able to be on the same page. All of this is going on while Carla is trying to show HIV/AIDS videos to the students every week. Another factor that impacted Carla’s project were the sporadic power cuts which prevented her from showing the videos on a few occasions. OK, that was half of October and most of November. Now students are starting to go back to their homes (not all students live in Kibakwe) to prepare their family farms for planting. Simultaneously there’s a nationwide teacher’s strike with varying levels of commitment, so the secondary school headmaster decided to close school a couple weeks early. Students had already stopped coming, teachers were more disinterested than usual, and the students who did show up complained they had nothing to do. As for our clubs at the school, students’ attendance was spotty at best. Nickson and Mama Cocu and Madinda were all doing their level best to encourage the students to show up for the clubs to no avail. As we say in Swahili, “bahati mbaya,” which means, “bad luck.” This expression is used to explain everything from getting a flat on your bike to incompetence of bank employees to people dying. In other words, “you’re screwed.” Now, November’s almost over and we have World AIDS Day, December 1, looking us in the face. Please refer to Carla’s blog (www.carlaintanzania.blogspot.com) to get all of the details of that event. I can’t do it justice compared to what Carla has written. Technically, it was a fantastic event for the community and tons of people were tested for HIV and others at least received education and increased their awareness. Incidentally, it’s not like Tanzanians aren’t aware of HIV and AIDS, but it’s more a case of Tanzanians not wanting to speak openly about these issues and what really causes them and reducing the stigma associated with the disease. In retrospect, the three day event did have an impact on people testing and I’m glad we did it. Also, it was great to have our friend Stephanie staying with us that week. Sorry we didn’t have more of a chance just to chill with you, Mr. Stephaner. After World AIDS Day, we needed a little bit of a break, so we took it easy for a while. After all, the big event was over, students were out of school, and we were free just to hang in Kibakwe, visit with our friends, and reconnect with our village. During this time we began to get more involved in the local PLWHA(People Living With HIV and AIDS) group, Kikundi Cha Upendo (Love Group). This might be the best thing we’ve done since we arrived in Kibakwe. This is a group of HIV+ people, caregivers, and our head doctor who meet once a week to talk about the issues they face and to get education on how to better care for themselves and others. Since we’ve been meeting with this group, I’ve realized that some of my favorite people to work with in Kibakwe, I’ve met in this group. The devotion and amount of compassion in some of the members of this group has made a profound impression on me. We’ve recently started digging a garden behind our house dedicated to benefitting these people. Madinda and I did a short permaculture and double-digging demonstration for the members of the group, and it seems that most people are really into it. Since the heavier rains just started this weekend, we’re planning on finishing the bed prep and planting by the end of the week.

Christmas this past year was spent with the Cs in Dar. We are so grateful to this wonderful couple for welcoming us, and other volunteers, so readily into their home. The Cs invited us and another PCV couple to celebrate Christmas dinner with them and other friends. This involved a Christmas feast akin to an American-style holiday, complete with turkey and all the trimmings and pumpkin pie and cookies. Now, here’s the downside to a wonderful meal like this when you’re accustomed to eating rice, beans, and local greens: my body reacts to the richness of this food by rejecting it. That’s right, later that night I refunded the meal. I spent the next day recuperating down the street at the Js’ whose house we were staying at for part of the holiday. All in all, it was a fantastic Christmas and a great bit of relaxation before receiving our visitors from the US.

On December 28, our wonderful friends, Brooke and Mike, arrived from the US for a much too brief, two-week visit. After the first night in Dar, we catapulted them right into village life by going straight to Kibakwe the next day. Brooke and Mike were fantastic guests, Mike helping with watering the garden and Brooke baking her first cake over an open fire. There were some violations of our very stringent shoe system in the house, however. Anyone who has ever visited our house is familiar with our systems and probably resents us for them, but it is the only semblance of control we have living in this country. As we like to say, “We do what we have to on the inside” (fans of Good Fellas will get the reference). Of course, Brooke and Mike were beloved by all our friends in the village, and there was even a gift exchange with Madinda and his family (I’ll post pics as soon as I can). After several days in the vill, we moved on to Morogoro and a one-day safari in Mikumi National Park. We had a fantastic time and even got to see a couple of male lions languishing right on one of the roads in the park; this is not typical of most parks, especially Mikumi. Side note: I never got tired of Mike saying,”Hey Lion, that’s a crazy mane you got. How ya doin’? Say hi to ya mutha for me.” Finally, it was on to Zanzibar: Stone Town and Paje Beach. Here is where we met up with Stephanie and proved that you can have two sets of friends become friends, but you need to know what you’re doing. I mean, c’mon, who doesn’t love Brooke and Mike and who doesn’t love Little Mr. Stephaner? Needless to say, it all worked out, and we had a great time in Stone Town and on the beach in Paje. It was the perfect end to a perfect visit. Other PCVs will know what I mean when I talk about the post US visitor hangover. After you have your tearful farewell at the Dar airport, and you’re faced with going back to the village (sometimes a multi-day bus trip), and you’re more homesick than you were before, you just don’t feel like doing anything for a few days. Of course, we all get over this and get back into the swing of things, but it’s tough for those first few days after a really good friend leaves.

Since Brooke and Mike left, we’ve mainly been doing logistical work and planning what we’ll do for our last months before we return to the US. This has involved continuing to meet and work with Upendo Group (PLWHA), meeting with the headmasters and certain teachers of both the primary and secondary schools in Kibakwe, and trying to figure out what else can be done in the time that we have left here. We have become more involved in working with our newest Mpwapwa VSO (Volunteer Service Overseas) volunteer, Peter, a delightful palliative care nurse from England. Since he arrived in October of last year, he has been working with a local NGO that provides home-based care for PLWHAs through a paid volunteer network. When his work brings him to Kibakwe to do home visits, we usually tag along to provide translation services. This has given us an opportunity to see some of the tougher cases of people living with AIDS. Actually seeing patients in their homes and witnessing the obstacles they have to proper health care makes you realize how easy it is for someone to fall through the cracks in this country. Peter has been a great inspiration to all of us working in Mpwapwa district. He has a tremendous amount of compassion and has the opportunity to improve the lives of many people here, and I know he has already done this in the short time he’s been here.

Most recently, we went to Dodoma to help Peace Corps with the IST (In-Service Training) for the Health and Environment volunteers who just arrived at site in August 2008. Our presentation, which we gave with the help of our counterpart Madinda, dealt mainly with program design and management. Basically, a fancy way of saying project planning, or “How do you do a project in your village and make sure it doesn’t turn to crap?” Honestly, we’re still trying to figure this one out, but we have picked up some pearls of wisdom along the way. We were brought in as the voices of experience. Madinda was there to help the new Tanzanian counterparts who accompanied the new volunteers get an idea of how it is to work with Americans, what is expected of them, and how to bridge the cultural and linguistic gap. I think everything went fairly well and I believe our presentations were well-received by the volunteers and the counterparts. I’ve said it a million times before, and I’ll probably say it a million more, Madinda is a rockstar. This man, who only has a seventh grade education, has more conviction, integrity, and compassion than most Americans I have known. For a Tanzanian, especially a Tanzanian in our region, to have these qualities is incredibly rare.

VISITORS

2008-09-08T07:16:00.000-07:00

We recently had the good fortune of receiving a visit from our very good friend Joanna. She was able to spend three weeks with us here in Tanzania. After picking her up in Dar, we went to Paje Beach on Zanzibar for a few days in order to ease Joanna into Tanzania. We had a great time swimming and relaxing on the beach. I think Joanna enjoyed the time to decompress from travelling. We continued our journey by returning to Kibakwe for one week. I think this may have been Joanna’s favorite part of the trip. We had a blast just walking around the village, introducing Joanna to people, and hanging out with our friends at our house. She had some clothes made by Mama Cocu and we did a lot of cooking and baking. After that, we travelled up north to Arusha and Tarangire National Park and Ngorongoro Crater for a few days of safari. The parks were fantastic and we even saw a few black rhinos (through binoculars) at Ngorongoro. Despite Arusha being my least favorite city in Tanzania, we did manage to find some really nice people at the kanga (a traditional cloth imprinted with a design and a single idiom) shops near the bus stand and at Mt. Meru Masai Market. My best interactions with Tanzanians while travelling have been in marketplaces where they’re not expecting a white person to be able to speak Swahili. The average vendor at a Tanzanian marketplace welcomes the opportunity to talk about international politics with a foreigner in Swahili. When we were on safari, we spent one night at a tented lodge near Karatu and Lake Manyara. Absolutely beautiful. Views of Lake Manyara from a wooded hillside and great accommodations. On the way back, we stopped in Morogoro for a night to have dinner at Oasis and relax before going on to Dar. It was a very sad farewell saying goodbye to Joanna at the Dar airport that night, but knowing that we will see her again back in the US in the spring made it ok. We also received a visit from a Peace Corps Trainee who’s at the end of her training. Margaret Mary, who by the time I post this will be at her site, came to “shadow” with us for a week at our site. Shadow week is designed to help trainees get an idea of what to expect once they get to their sites and see what life as a volunteer is like. We asked to get only one trainee since we don’t have a lot of room at our house and, as one of our COSing friends put it, “That’s better because if there’s more than one they can gang up on you.” As it turned out, Margaret was the perfect guest. She was up for anything, always offered to help, brought gifts (though not necessary), and was just an absolute delight. Shadow week is usually pretty chill since it’s one of the only times during training that PCVs are able to be away from their homestay. Most PCVs understand this, so we try to let the trainees plan what to do during their shadow week. As I said before, Margaret was up for anything so we mainly hung out with our friends, walked around our village, cooked, baked, went to visit Ben for a day, and relaxed. All in all, I think it was a really good experience for all of us. I’m really glad we decided to do it. After shadow week was done, we went back to Dar with Margaret for site announcements and then on to Kilosa to help Peter with permaculture training. It was tough being away from our site for so long, but I think the trainees found it helpful to have us around after site announcements to address their questions and apprehensions.

Above are pictures from Joanna's visit to Zanzibar.
Below are pictures of Carla and I with Margaret Mary, our shadow, and at bottom is her at site announcements.

WHAT’S GOING ON IN KIBAKWE?

2008-09-08T06:49:00.000-07:00

The following is a glimpse of what it’s like in Kibakwe right now: it’s the midst of the dry season and mosquitoes (and Malaria) have returned, but it hasn’t rained yet, it’s starting to get warmer – 80s daytime, 70s night, people are starting to clean their farms and burn agricultural waste from last season, fierce winds in the afternoons and lots of dust, and everybody’s hoping that we’ll have more rain this year than last. Our biggest challenge in Kibakwe right now is that of water. We are trying to have the intake at the water source up the mountain, rebuilt and enlarged so that we will be able to get water every day of the year without interruption. Right now in Kibakwe is the time of year when the water supply gets cut regularly. Early on it only gets cut for a day and comes back at night, but as we get closer to the rainy season the supply can be cut for up to three or four weeks without a drop. And just because it’s called the rainy season, it doesn’t mean we get rain every day. We recently hiked up the mountain to get pictures of the intake and the supply line in order to inform whichever engineers we choose to do the project. We’re hoping to work with an American in Dodoma that we recently met if his busy schedule will allow. The condition of the intake and the supply line is a little disappointing. There are several leaks in the line, some have been repaired with plastic bags and some are just gushing water into the woods. The intake itself is just a 4’ x 4’ concrete box with the supply line and a cheese grater filter in it. This is what supplies all of Kibakwe with its water. In other news, I’ve recently started going to watch an old woodcarver named Kumwemwetea. I’ve known him for about a year, but only recently have we begun to develop a friendship. A couple of months ago we asked him to carve a few things for us and when he brought them by we started talking about art and carving and if he’d mind if I came to his house to watch him work. Well, he loved the idea and I recently went over there to watch him work. He uses a traditional adze called a tezo in Swahili to rough out the shape, then chisels made from long bicycle bolts, and he finishes with a small curved knife. Finishing consists of sanding and finally coating the wood with hair grease – essentially Vaseline. It was great to watch the old timer work and hang out talking with him about why the Tanzanian youth have no interest in learning this skill. Talking with Kumwemwetea, I realized that he really enjoys doing this. It’s not just about selling it. I found myself thinking, “He reminds me of most other sculptors I know: he’s totally down to earth and unpretentious, he’s telling the kids to shut up and sit still, and he’s working with a cigarette dangling from his mouth.” At that point I realized I wanted to learn about woodcarving from this guy. We’re planning on going up the mountain to cut wood when I get back from traveling and I’d like to get some traditional carving tools made for myself. It’s been so long since I’ve done any sculpture, I think it’ll do me good to start carving with Kumwemwetea on a regular basis. I know I have my creative outlet with the drawing club at the school, but my need for working in 3D is pretty strong. My sculptor friends out there will understand when I say that there’s just something about the transformative aspect of sculpting: of starting with one object that you can hold in your hand like a lump of clay or a piece of wood and then turning it into another, better, more actualized object that you can hold.

The Pictures above are of our water source, a two-hour hike up the mountain from Kibakwe. As you can see the intake is a small square cistern with a pipe attached to it (see photo at left). Pictured with Carla are our counterparts, Madinda and Mama Cocu.

To the right and below are photos Kumwemwetea carving and his finished work. Below right is a picture of him sharpening his knife on a stone he carried from the mountain.

IT’S BEEN MONTHS…

2008-09-08T06:37:00.001-07:00

…literally, it’s been months since I’ve posted on the Rocky Woodbridge Journal. I apologize for the long internet silence. We’ve been pretty busy over the past few months with workshops, organizing clubs, writing grants, having a visitor from the US, and lots and lots of travelling. Also over the past couple of months, we have lost most of our Mpwapwa crew. Our good friends Loni, Holley, James and Jane, and James and Christy have all returned to the US after finishing their two years of Peace Corps service which leaves only four of us here in Mpwapwa: Ben, Thad, and Carla and me. Having good American friends that you can periodically hang out with in your region is crucial to the psychological wellbeing of most volunteers. We have a few good Tanzanian friends, but sometimes you just want to speak English with a fellow American that will know where you’re coming from. Having said that, we’re still doing well here. To be honest, since we’ve been travelling so much over the past few months, we crave being in our village for more than just a week at a time. When we are here, we find ourselves incredibly busy. We’re usually at the secondary school meeting with different clubs and organizing with a few of the teachers. Carla has started an English club, my Art club is still going well, and we’ve started working more with the Tumaini (Hope) club for Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC). Carla’s English club is going well. She’s working with the students to improve their basic conversational skills. Even though most subjects are taught in English, it amounts to little more than a teacher copying out of the book and onto the blackboard and then the students copying into their notebooks. There’s little to no comprehension of the language and that’s true among the teachers as well. Carla is doing her level best to make English club a fun time for the kids. Meanwhile, my art club is moving right along. There are only a few students who are really serious about drawing and they show up for every session. I’ve basically given them a place where they can draw for a couple hours twice a week. My main objective with these kids is to foster in them that they can draw whatever they want, not just from magazine photos of rap artists. I’m trying to encourage creative thought which is not highly valued in Tanzanian culture. If you do something outside of the group or outside the norm, you’re judged for it. We’re working on drawing skills and projection techniques for enlarging pictures. I’d like to be able to do a mural with these students eventually: one that they conceive of and design themselves. Tumaini Club is a group of 59 secondary students that are Orphans or Vulnerable Children (OVC). In the developing world, and specifically in Tanzania, OVC is a term used to describe a person under 18 who has lost at least one parent and/or is living under difficult circumstances such as alcoholic or abusive caretaker, elderly or disabled caretaker, financial hardship, etc. The members of Tumaini (the Swahili word for hope) are currently working on a vegetable garden at the secondary school, from which they sell mchicha (a Tanzanian variety of spinach) to local vendors. Recently, we’ve been working with Carla’s counterpart, Renfrida, and secondary school teacher Mr. Nickson, both professional tailors, in order to diversify the club’s activities. Renfrida and Nickson have agreed to teach sewing fundamentals to the club members. Our hope is that the students will be able to supplement their small vegetable gardening enterprise with a sewing business. I am currently writing a small grant to acquire a sewing machine, sewing supplies, and garden tools, so that Tumaini Club can have a fighting chance for success. All too often the case is that students lose interest in activities for lack of proper equipment, insufficient supplies, and lackluster leadership. We’re trying to lead by example: we’re at the school when we say we will be, we do what we say we’re going to do, and we’re trying to teach that it’s better to earn by hard work than asking for handouts. Also, we are teaching the club members about different gardening techniques like permaculture. The students are just happy to be doing something different. Along those lines, we just acquired a volleyball from James and Christy and we’re planning on teaching the students how to play. Mr. Nickson is really excited about this. Every time I see him he asks if I’ve downloaded the rules yet. It’s really refreshing to see this type of enthusiasm in the village and it makes our job here a lot easier. I’ve included some pictures so you all can get a visual of what I’m talking about. Enjoy.

Clockwise from top left, James (Short), Thad, Loni, James (Tall), Carla, and Christy, James (Tall) by himself, and Loni, Christy, and Holley

A MONTH IN THE VILL

2008-06-07T06:25:00.000-07:00

Greetings from Kibakwe. We're only about a month or two away from our landscape going from green to brown. The desert has already started reclaiming Kibakwe by occupying the recently harvested fields. Even though the daytime temperature doesn't fluctuate much year-round, Tanzanians complain about how cold it is right now(50s overnight, 80s during the day). Honestly, this is close to being my ideal climate, but without seasonal change it gets a little confusing as to what time of year it is.

Well, the past couple of months have been busy. Carla and I both succeeded in organizing and conducting two one-day workshops on the topic of HIV/AIDS education. Each Training Of Trainers(TOT) was conducted at the secondary school on consecutive Saturdays in May. The first one was for HIV/AIDS support groups which are composed mostly of concerned members of the community with little no formal education. They absolutely loved the seminar, found it to be really helpful, and were so appreciative of the opportuntiy to learn. The second group was the Kibakwe area primary and secondary school teachers and they were more difficult to please. First of all, there were a few that voiced their disappointment in not receiving a posho or sitting allowance to attend the workshop. The posho system is one of the main obstacles to development in Tanzania. Most Tanzanians with any amount of education beyond secondary school or in any position of authority automatically expect to be paid(posho) to attend seminars and workshops, very different from the US where attendees are the ones to pay. Secondly, there was one primary school teacher that expressed her displeasure the night before the seminar when she discovered there would be no meat offered with lunch the next day. She actually called me on my cell phone to complain about a free meal. During the workshop itself, there was a small portion of the group of teachers that seemed really interested in and attentive to what was being presented. I have much more faith in the community members to educate others about HIV/AIDS than in the teachers. Overall, though, I felt that the training events can be counted as a success. Even if many of the people don't do any teaching, the materials are out there in the community for people to read themselves. Over two workshops, there were 72 attendees, and each one got four books on HIV/AIDS, life skills, nutrition, and nutrition for children living with HIV/AIDS. That makes 288 books that are, hopefully, in circulation in Kibakwe right now.

Soon we'll be going on vacation for a bit since our friend Joanna is coming for a visit in the next couple of weeks. We'll pick her up from the airport in Dar Es Salaam, then to Zanzibar for some beach time, back to the village for a while, up North to Arusha, Ngorongoro Crater and Tarangire Park, and finally back to Dar. The past weeks have been like anticipating summer break and our TOTs were like our final exams. It will be good and bad to get away from the village for a while. Good to see our friend that we haven't seen in over a year and travel to cool places and eat good food, and; bad to be away from our house, our neighbors, our garden, and our cat. Right now in Kibakwe most people are at their farms harvesting peanuts, corn, and sunflowers. Once the harvest is done, most Kibakweans won't have anything to do until October or November when they will prepare their farms for the next growing season. Starting in July will be the perfect time to start planning our next projects since everyone will be around with nothing to do. However, nothing to do also means lots of time to hang out and get drunk, so I'm trying to be optimistic. On the agenda right now for possible projects is an HIV/AIDS awareness mural, an HIV/AIDS video series to be held at the secondary school, an English club/class at the secondary school, a sewing club for secondary school orphans, gardens at the primary and secondary schools, and trying to rebuild a better, larger water intake.

I'm hoping that our little vacation with Joanna will recharge our batteries for the upcoming work. And here it is, the request for donations. If anyone wants to send us any really simple kids' books or English flash cards, that's what we're looking for right now. Also, if anyone has any books on drawing or Art History, my drawing club would love them. Thank you all for your continued generosity.

JUST WORDS. NO PICTURES.

2008-05-06T02:28:00.000-07:00

Sorry there aren't any pictures this time. I had some problems resizing the most recent photos from Kibakwe and beyond. I promise there will be many new pics next time. The latest news from Kibakwe is as follows: both Carla's and my grants were approved and the money was deposited into our accounts, so we've been able to start planning our Training Of Trainers(TOT). These will be one-day training sessions on how to teach about HIV/AIDS. My grant is to teach local AIDS groups and youth peer educators while Carla's is to teach Kibakwe area primary and secondary school teachers. We're organizing all of the logistics of these training events and they will be taught by our head doctor and the nurse midwife. Everyone is very excited about this and we're hoping it will all go well. In other news, I was recently elected Volunteer Action Committee (VAC) representative for the Dodoma region. This is the Peace Corps equivalent of a labor union or student council. We meet for three days in Dar es Salaam four times a year and discuss volunteer issues and present them to administration. We also write a quarterly newsletter detailing issues discussed and updates on our respective regions and their volunteers. I have started an art club at the secondary school and we meet once a week for two hours to draw. All of the students (about 10 or 12 usually) love to draw and some of them are really talented. I'm planning to involve them in the painting of a mural on the side of the village office within the next few months. I've been trying to teach them different techniques such as how to enlarge a photo or drawing without using a projector. Those artists out there will know what I'm talking about. Overall, the art club has been a very positive experience and the kids have loved having an outlet and an activity after school. Since we're coming up on the dry season (once the harvest is done) most people in Kibakwe will be at a loss for anything to do until the next planting season starting in late September, early October. For many of the students various after-school clubs provide a positive alternative to drinking, drugs, and prostitution, all of which are growing problems in Kibakwe. I'm expecting that after the TOTs we'll be busier than ever since we're inviting 50 people to each event. This means that our social and work circle will increase greatly. I expect many more visits from teachers and members of AIDS groups after May. All we're trying to do is get the people of Kibakwe motivated to start doing these events themselves and provide them with the necessary tools to continue after we leave. We always stress to people that you don't need lots of money to educate and that eventually we will be leaving Kibakwe to go home, but you can continue this same work by yourselves. Every day in Kibakwe our goal becomes more and more clear and the people who are capable of helping us achieve it become more evident.

A PLUG FOR MY FRIEND ANDY

2008-03-31T03:32:00.000-07:00

This is just a little plug for my friend Andy Kochanski and his newly opened watering hole. Read more at : http://www.mkeonline.com/mkeinfo/issues/03-27-2008.asp

Or you can ask him yourself at :
Kochanski's Concertina Beer Hall
1920 S. 37th
Milwaukee, WI 53215
414-837-6552
or 414-83-POLKA

IT'S ZUCCHINI TIME!

2008-03-31T02:24:00.001-07:00

That's right, it's zucchini time in our garden and Carla is holding our firstborn. We cooked up most of it on Easter morining, using it in breakfast burritos and later in chocolate zucchini cake. We had a house full of guests for the holiday - 5 guests total which is beyond the realistic capacity of our tiny house. We had a great time, but we'll never have that many people here again. We're finally starting to get some regular rain in Kibakwe which is great for our garden. The tomatoes are having some issues with whiteflies and I don't know if they're going to make it, but the Chinese cabbage, the lettuce, and the squashes are all doing really well. The cukes and the eggplants are looking promising and the jury's still out on the carrots and the onions. Since most Kibakweans are farmers, they're happy that we're getting rain now. The corn, peanuts, and sunflowers are all growing well.

Our once desolate and barren courtyard is now a virtual rainforest, a garden of Eden, a horn o' plenty, even. Hopefully, we'll have another couple of months of rain, though I doubt it. It seems like it comes in waves where it'll rain regularly for two or three weeks, then nothing for a month. Oh well, life in the desert.

Here is a new picture of our friend Mathayo. He was very displeased with the previous picture I had posted of him. I hope that this new picture will be to his liking. Once again, he is a very good guy and there's nothing P.O.S. about him.
Everything is going well in Kibakwe. We're waiting to hear back about some teaching grants that we submitted to HQ, and we're already starting to research some new project ideas for after the rains. All of this has kept and will keep us busy for some time. Mostly we're just trying to spend time with neighbors and friends and just enjoy being in the village. We're looking forward to completing more projects, achieving more successes, and keeping in touch with all of you - our friends and family. We love hearing from you about what's going on in your lives, how much snow you've had, how the new endeavors are working out, how your families are doing, and how things are changing while we're here. It's always a highpoint getting letters or emails or text messages from home. Keep in touch.

PICTURES AND CAPTIONS

2008-03-21T06:41:00.001-07:00

It's been a very busy month for us. We started by making posters dealing with how you can protect yourself against malaria. In the picture, I'm standing with our head doctor just outside his office which is where the first poster went up. I know, it's a humble beginning, but we had to start somewhere. It's surprising that many people in Kibakwe believe that malaria can be caused by being out in the rain or by drinking corn juice. That's why we made sure that we put the phrase, "malaria is a disease that is spread by mosquitoes," at the top of the poster.

We put up the malaria posters in several spots around Kibakwe, including area schools, health clinics, and village offices. The picture shows one we attached to a baobab tree at the Idunda primary school.

World Women's Day was March 8, and we planned a celebration and HIV testing day for Kibakwe town. With the help of the secondary school headmaster, we were able to get student volunteers to make posters advertising the event, drummers, dancers, and singers. All of this was organized and executed within the two weeks leading up to Women's Day. It was a bit stressful, but it also energized everyone and allowed no one to lose interest and jump ship.

This group of about 30 secondary student girls got together every day after classes and practiced their drumming, dancing, and singing in an empty classroom in preparation for the performance on World Women's Day.

We put up posters advertising World Women's Day and HIV Testing Event at area schools, businesses, health clinics, and even outside of people's houses.

On the morning of March 8, we had no idea what to expect as far as a turnout. Everyone wanted a parade down the main road to generate interest. We were expecting it would be us and the head doctor and maybe some curious kids. It was a pleasant surprise when mama's groups and students with drums showed up, and even a car.

The parade went down the main road, through the center of town, and to the nearby subvillage of Idunda primary school, which was to be one of the testing sites.

The students did some drumming and dancing there while the medical personnel got situated and Carla and I were the first to be tested. Some other Peace Corps friends had joined us that morning to join in the festivities and they were really helpful in getting a lot of the little kids to be tested.

Once we got back to town, we were amazed to see that the stage was prepared for performances and the doctor had hired an MC and sound equipment. It's not too often that Kibakwe does anything like this.

The students had a great time performing and they were awesome. It seemed that everyone in town had showed up to see what was going on. We were amazed at the turnout for this event that was just an idea three weeks before. In the end, 313 people were tested, 7 were HIV positive, 5 were female, 2 were under the age of 10.

THE FOLLOWING IS A COLLECTION OF PHOTOS OF SOME OF OUR PEEPS IN THE MPWAPWA DISTRICT

THIS MAN IS BABA BANANA. HE SELLS BANANAS.

THIS IS THE GUY ACROSS FROM BABA BANANA. HE DOES NOT SELL BANANAS.

THIS MAN IS BABA MFUPI(SHORT). HE SELLS RICE AND BEANS.

THIS IS MATHAYO. HE SELLS MANY THINGS. HE IS NOT A P.O.S. PERSON.

THIS IS CARLA WITH BABA BANANA.

THIS IS ME WITH BABA BANANA.

THIS IS PIPI. SHE IS OUR CAT.

THIS IS OUR WATER. SOMETIMES IT IS CLEAN. SOMETIMES IT IS NOT.

THESE ARE BEANS. WE EAT A LOT OF BEANS.

THESE ARE OUR NEIGHBORS. THEIR NAMES ARE NICE AND COCUBANZA.

THIS IS BEN. AS YOU CAN SEE, HE NOT THE MOM.

THIS IS BEN, CARLA, AND COCU. BEN STILL NOT THE MOM.

THIS IS PIPI. SHE IS TANZANIAN.

KEEP ON TRUCKIN'

2008-02-26T05:57:00.000-08:00

smoke on the mountain

Well, we have successfully completed one of our first projects in Kibakwe - a bio-intensive gardening and nutrition workshop that we held in the garden at our house. Seven people showed up and all of them took notes. Considering other volunteers have held workshops where no one showed up, we were content with the turnout. Also, some of the people who did come are the exact people we wanted to show. If we are able to teach a few influential people in the community how to do something, that's as good as a big showing of people at a workshop. In Kibakwe, everyone knows everyone else and they all talk, so new ideas are like a contagion...we hope. Another project we are currently working on is a series of Malaria posters that will be posted around Kibakwe: health clinic, hospital, primary and secondary schools, and one is already up at the village office. The next event we're looking forward to is World Women's Day on March 8. Carla had the idea to organize an HIV testing day for the people of Kibakwe. Great idea. When Zizo heard this he had the idea to get secondary students to sing and drum for the event to draw more people to get tested. Another great idea. When we met with the village leaders, they loved the idea and suggested maybe we could have a parade to celebrate World Women's Day, too. All really great ideas. Now we have to see if we can pull it off in less than two weeks. I've include some new pictures this time to show how the landscape in Kibakwe is changing with just a little bit of rain.

the path on the way to our house

watering the garden late in the afternoon

the first fruits of our labor - mchicha

zizo and gilbert teaching about nutrition

zizo and gilbert teaching about bio-intensive gardening

our neighbor chrispine

carla hangin' with cocu and pipi

MULTPILE MEANINGS = CONFUSION

2008-02-26T05:51:00.000-08:00

The single most confusing thing about learning and understandin

The single most confusing thing about learning and understanding Swahili is that many words have multiple meanings. Therefore the only way to know the correct meaning is through context. I’ve compiled a short list of common Swahili words and their multiple meanings.

Ua – 1.a flower 2.a yard, patio 3.to kill

Mto – 1.a river 2.a pillow

Ziwa – 1.the breast 2.a lake, a pond

Paka – 1.cat 2. to spread on, to smear on

Kiboko – 1.a hippopotamus 2.a rawhide whip, any whip

Toa – 1.put out, offer, deliver 2.remove, subtract, empty 3.publish, produce, generate 4.excrete, exude, expel

Toka – 1.go out/leave 2.come from

Shuka – 1.get off, debark 2.descend, go down 3.decline 4.land an airplane 5.a bedsheet 6.a loincloth

Paa – 1.a roof 2.a gazelle 3.to rise, ascend

Chungu – 1.a clay cooking pot 2.heap, pile 3.bitter, sour 4.common black ants

Jua – 1.the sun 2.to know 3.know-how

Mchango – 1.a contribution 2.intestinal worm, a worm in general

Tembo – 1.elephant 2.palm wine 3.fibers

Meza – 1.table 2.to swallow something

Basi – 1.so, well 2.that’s enough 3.bus

Panga – 1.a bush knife/machete, a cutlass 2.to arrange/put in order 3.to rent a room/house

Panda – 1.a fork in the road 2.bugle made of an animal’s horn or a conch 3.to climb/mount/board 4.to mount for breeding 5.to plant, sow

Mpira – 1.rubber tree, rubber 2.a ball 3.tire 4.condom 5.elastic

Ngano – 1.wheat 2.a tale, fable, story

PICTURES AND A FEW WORDS

2008-01-27T01:11:00.000-08:00

I decided to post lots of pictures and only a few words this time since I've been busy digging in the garden in preparation for the rains (which finally started this past week). I've included photos of our friends in Kibakwe and Mpwapwa and a glimpse of what the landscape is looking like these days.

Here We Are, Home Again.

2008-01-19T05:09:00.000-08:00

We have finally returned home to Mpwapwa District. Tomorrow we will return to our quaint village of Kibakwe and hopefully we won't leave for quite a while. I just want to get back home, plant the garden, finish the fence, and start doing some work. We plan to send out letters of invitation to a permaculture workshop at our house and taught by Zizo and Gilbert. These letters will be sent to the village offices and the leaders of the surrounding communities and to the various church and mosque congregations in our area. I know that our "dudes," as we call them, will do a fantastic job of teaching, since we saw them in action this past week in Dodoma. We went to a PEPFAR(President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief) workshop in Dodoma where one day was spent teaching HIV/AIDS awareness to 12-16-year-olds at the local school. We decided to let the dudes do everything and we would just be there for support if they needed it. They did a fantastic job and were totally into it. Zizo is a natural born teacher and Gilbert is so attentive to what the students want to know. The only thing that we might try to emphasize more to them is the importance of planning, rehearsing, and time management. I'll start a small tree nursery and try to get others in Kibakwe to do the same. These will most likely be the major environmental projects I do while I'm here. I'd like to start an art club at the secondary school whose focus would be in health education sign making: malaria prevention, HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention, nutrition, and water safety. We're still trying to figure out the feasibility of starting a video night in our village where people would meet somewhere (maybe a church or the village hall) and watch educational videos about HIV/AIDS or STIs, reproductive health, etc. Well, it's a good thing we don't have anywhere to go for a while. If anyone has any opinions, suggestions, or other input regarding what we'll be doing in Kibakwe, please don't hesitate to contact us through our blogs.

Happy New Year From Zanzibar!

2008-01-01T07:06:00.000-08:00

Hello from Tanzania! Above is a photo of Paje, where Carla and I spent Christmas with a group of our fellow volunteers. Good friends, good food, and a great place to hang out. Though, we have been incredibly homesick for family and friends during the holidays. We traveled from Paje across the island to the main port of Stone Town to celebrate a pretty low key New Year's Eve. We are in Dar es Salaam now, heading to the village and back to work again. We plan to initiate a few projects once we get back to Kibakwe, including going full steam ahead with demonstrations of bio-intensive gardening and involving local secondary students in a photo exchange project with students in the US. Well, we have our work cut out for us over the next few months.

To everyone in the upper midwest, I hope that the picture I posted above doesn't upset you too much considering what your landscape looks like right now. I hope that everyone back home is doing great and that everyone had a wonderful holiday season. Happy New Year!

MERRY XMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR

2007-12-21T01:55:00.000-08:00

Hello from Dar es Salaam. We are passing through Dar on our way to Zanzibar for Xmas and New Year's. After finishing IST (In Service Training) in Dodoma we headed back to Kibakwe with a few of our friends for a little village visit before our Xmas vacation to Zanzibar. Once we got back to the village I started digging the garden in preparation for the rainy season and our dudes, Zizo and Gilbert were totally stoked to start teaching other people in Kibakwe the new farming techniques they learned at IST. Since we were back in Kibakwe for only a week, it was tough to get any type of a permaculture seminar organized before Xmas. We plan to facilitate some permaculture and bio-intensive gardening workshops when we get back to Kibakwe after New Year's. My idea is to have Zizo and Gilbert teach the workshops themselves so that they can feel some ownership for what they're doing for their community. They have a better idea of how and what to teach than non-Tanzanians would anyway. Also, they can continue this work after we leave after two years. All in all, IST was a big success. All of the counterparts of the other PCVs seemed to be really enthusiastic about what was being taught and everybody got along really well. I think that the Tanzanians got a better understanding of Peace Corps and what we're doing here and what's expected of them throughout the course of IST.

I want to wish everyone back home a Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year. We'll be thinking of you and missing you.

TODAY IN DODOMA

2007-12-08T05:23:00.000-08:00

Well, this is the first chance I've had in a while to sit down at a computer to post a blog entry. Carla and I have been in Dodoma for the past several days for our In-Service Training or IST. We're reunited with our friends from Pre-Service Training (PST) for a couple of weeks before we have to return to our respective villages. During IST we're learning about orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs), grant writing, permaculture, project design, management, and implementation, and how to mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS on our communities. For the first few days of IST it was just us and our fellow PCVs, then our counterparts and supervisors from our villages joined us. Each PCV chooses a counterpart to bring to seminars like IST; this way people who have more of a vested interest in the community are trained along with us. Realistically, as PCVs, we're only here for two years, then it's up to the community to continue the projects that have been started. Carla and I decided to bring Zizo and Gilbert and it seems like they're really enjoying it and they're getting a chance to meet other counterparts who share similar experiences. Tomorrow is Tanzania's Independence Day and we have no classes scheduled, but we may go to the stadium to see President Kikwete give an address. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday will be all about permaculture gardening and grant writing, and then we go back to Kibakwe with a group of our friends on Thursday or Friday. So, for about a week Kibakwe will be overrun with Wazungu (white people). I hope everyone back home in the U.S. is doing well and I want you all to know that Carla and I love and miss you.

TODAY IN KIBAKWE

2007-12-08T05:10:00.000-08:00

I’d like to devote this blog post to my friend Ryan Knudson and his ESL class at Racine Horlick High School in Racine, Wisconsin.
Today in the village of Kibakwe in the Mpwapwa District in the Dodoma Region in the country of Tanzania on the African continent, everything is just fine. The temperature ranges between high 60s at night to high 80s and 90s during the heat of the day. There’s a fair amount of wind every day and the climate is very dry in this region, but the rainy season start here next month. Beginning in January, it will rain every day for about three or four months and everything will be lush and green until May or June. We’ve had a few days of rain over the past month and even that has made a little bit of a difference in how the landscape looks. Peanuts, corn, sorghum, sunflower, and finger millet are the major crops of this area. Papaya trees can be seen just about everywhere in Kibakwe. Most of the people who live in Kibakwe make their livings as farmers, either on their own land or working for someone else as a laborer getting paid in a share of the crop. Most people in Kibakwe live in poverty in modest houses made from mud bricks. During the dry season, from July until December, people who normally work on the farms are unemployed. The biggest obstacle facing the people of Kibakwe is draught. We rely on the mountain village of Wotta for our water supply: if Wotta gets rain, then we get water in Kibakwe. As Peace Corps Volunteers, my wife Carla and I, are in the very early stages of trying to acquire grant money to repair the intake that supplies Kibakwe with water. If the intake is repaired, Kibakwe will be able to get more water more regularly than it does now. We are also in the planning stages of other future projects such as a sign campaign that promotes awareness about malaria and what you can do to protect yourself against the disease, a program that would provide primary school students with a nutritious breakfast, and video nights where the community is invited to watch educational videos about HIV/AIDS prevention. We would like to do some projects with students back in the U.S. that would promote a cultural exchange between our two nations: this is one of the fundamental goals of the Peace Corps. It is the aim of Peace Corps that through cultural understanding and awareness of issues that development will continue in places like Kibakwe, Tanzania. If you would like to learn more about the U.S. Peace Corps please visit http://www.peacecorps.gov/ .

No Post Today

2007-10-31T02:38:00.000-07:00

I JUST DON'T FEEL LIKE WRITING ON MY BLOG TODAY.
The photo above is of me at a Halloween/Going Away party for our friends who are moving to a different region. My impromptu costume was a Catholic 40 days before Easter. That is all. End of transmission.

A Great Big Asante Sana to all of our Rafiki

2007-10-18T03:04:00.000-07:00

ASANTE SANA IS KISWAHILI FOR THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

I'd like to send a word of gratitude to all of you who have supported Carla and I over the past four months that we have been in Tanzania with your phone calls, texts, letters, and packages. Especially the packages!
I cannot stress to you the amount of joy that getting a package from the U.S. brings us. Even the smell of the American air trapped in the box makes us homesick. When you are so far away from your friends and family, the smallest things can brighten up your day. So, please keep sending us letters, texts and packages, and keep us in your thoughts.

...and now for the shameless plea:
if you would like to contact us or send us packages or donate toys or educational materials, our mailing address is:

Tony Stonehouse
SLP 36
Kibakwe-Mpwapwa
Tanzania

Here are some tips to keep in mind when shipping packages:

Try to keep it to 4 lbs. or less
Padded envelopes seem to have fewer problems than boxes
Don't claim the actual value on the parcel (it's more likely to be stolen)
Write NCV (No Commercial Value) on the parcel
Write "Vifaa Vya Elimu" (Educational Supplies) on the parcel
Definitely ship using a tracking number (we've already utilized this system to find a missing parcel)
Salty snacks are only available in the big cities in Tanzania

...and if you would like to call or text, we'd love to hear from you:
Carla: 011 255 782 033 350
Tony: 011 255 784 965 453

What's Goin' On

2007-10-18T01:34:00.000-07:00

Over the past 2-3 weeks, we have been trying to make our house a bit more comfortable by painting, hanging things on the wall and mostly trying to create some semblance of the home we left in America. Slowly but surely we are making headway. I've posted several pictures that reflect a bit more of what life is like in Kibakwe. There's a photo of me walking on our main road or barabara kubwa with the bus that we take to Mpwapwa in the background (lime green with a kangaroo on the back). The other pictures are of the path from the main road to our house, women carrying water home from our bomba (water pump), a shot of the soko or market where we buy our vegetables, and a couple of the development of our house.

As you can see, without a fence around our courtyard, all types of livestock find their way into our lives. These goats were just a bit thirsty after a long day of grazing in the African sun. The other animals that frequent our neighborhood are chickens, roosters, guinea fowl, and cows.

The Moose Analogy

2007-10-18T00:51:00.000-07:00

Even though we have been at site in Kibakwe for almost two months now, we still don't know everyone in the village nor do they know us. This brings about an interesting situation. Since there is a koki (water tap) right outside of our courtyard, many people - mostly women and children - come here to fetch water. Most everyone is very cordial and familiar with the wazungu(white people) living in the house by the koki, but occasionally there are children who are taken completely by surprise by our mere existence. When they see us, they stare and their jaws drop struck dumb by our presence. We greet them first in Kiswahili,"Habari za leo?" then in the predominant tribal language Kigogo,"Mbukwenyi?" At this point, we realize there's no amount of language that will be able to force comprehension on their part of our presence in their village. I tried to understand this behavior by putting myself in their place and I developed this analogy: Imagine you're walking down the street near your house, you look up, and there's a moose ten feet away on the sidewalk. It's safe to assume that this situation would render most of us not only motionless but speechless as well. Now, imagine the moose greets you in English,"Good day. How are you?" I think it might take us a while to get over the initial shock of a talking moose. In conclusion, Carla and I (and most white development workers in rural Tanzania), are talking moose.

Today in Tanzania

2007-09-27T23:26:00.001-07:00

Today in Tanzania, Carla and I are preparing to go back to Kibakwe after a bit of online time and some fruit and vegetable shopping at the soko(market). Angus has been kind enough to let us use the computers at the teacher's college for a short time this morning. I'd like to take this opportunity to refer all of you to Carla's blog www.carlaintanzania.blogspot.com if you don't already have it. I know, it's long overdue and I apologize for not linking it earlier. Carla is just so much better at documenting our daily activities than I am. For example, check out the past few days for the story of the five a.m. dance party in Kibakwe that we passed on our walk to the bus stand. I try to cover posting the pictures and Carla is very good at detailing the nuts and bolts of living here. Speaking of pictures, I have some new ones to post today. They show what we've been working on for the past couple of weeks at our house in Kibakwe. The young men in the pictures are our helpers Zawadi aka Zizo (the taller of the two) and Gilbert aka Man G. Within the first couple of weeks they started showing up asking us if we needed any help with cleaning or washing clothes or anything and so we decided to try it out for a while. So far, they've been great, helping out with whatever we need and just hanging out with us practicing their English and letting us practice our Kiswahili. You'll notice in one of the pictures that there's some freshly poorly laid tile in our bafu(shower). This is an example of how we're trying to make our house a home here in Tanzania. I've never laid tile before and my resources were limited - no tile adhesive, only cement, no bubble level, no grout, and no previous experience laying tile. This being said, I'm trying to make the bathroom a little more familiar. Word of advice: if you have any cuts on your hands do not mix cement without wearing gloves. I did this and the lime content of the cement aggravated my wounds so badly that I thought I had serious chemical burns. Everything is fine now and my sores are healing. I hope these pictures give everyone a little glimpse of how it is to be living large in the village. What we have is not a typical Tanzanian domicile.

Bust Out the Turd Polish

2007-09-27T04:21:00.000-07:00

20 September 2007

“If we can fix up this house, there isn’t any house back in the U.S. that we can’t fix up.” These were the words Carla used to express how much work is needed to create a comfortable living environment here in Kibakwe. Of course, the standards in the village in Tanzania are not as high as in other countries as you will see from subsequent pictures of our "nyumbani."

A Word on Tanzanian Mob Justice

2007-09-27T04:16:00.000-07:00

Early on in training, we had heard that wezi (thieves) were not tolerated by the Tanzanian public and that we should think twice about yelling, “Mwizi” (Thief (singular)) if someone steals something of ours. When a thief is run down my an angry mob he will be beaten, stoned, hacked with mapanga (machetes), burned, and sometimes, if the authorities do not arrive in time or a wave of sensibility comes over the crowd, killed by any of the aforementioned methods. We recently saw the aftermath of this type of village justice right in our front courtyard. Carla and I were doing work around the house and Gilbert and Zawadi were sweeping the yard when a group of men, one covered in blood with severe gashes about his head, walked through our courtyard on their way to the clinic which is about 300 meters behind our house. I caught a glimpse of this through the spaces in our courtyard wall and Carla was called by Gilbert and Zawadi to come outside to see the mwizi being escorted to the hospital. Needless to say, Carla was abhorred by what she saw. To the boys, this was nothing out of the ordinary. "How else do you deal with someone who feels that it is acceptable to steal a harvest of three sacks of peanuts from a man who has worked hard to farm them?" In the villages, this attitude is common and nobody has a better solution.

A Word on theTanzanian Culture of Sympathy

2007-09-27T04:13:00.000-07:00

20 September 2007

“Pole.” This phrase is uttered, literally, millions of times every day in Tanzania. It means, “Sorry.” However, the gravity that this phrase carries is dependent upon the context, but the word stays the same, sometimes followed by “sana” (very). Here are some examples:

Your goat ran away? Pole.

Your luggage was stolen? Pole.

You dropped something and it made a loud noise? Pole.

You have a touch of malaria? Pole.

Your infant child died? Pole sana.

I was told by a current PCV that the essential meaning of the phrase is, “It sucks to be you.” This is not to say that every time this phrase is said, it’s completely insincere, but nine times out of ten it’s just to fill the silence.

A Word on Tanzanian Food

2007-09-27T03:47:00.000-07:00

20 September 2007 Continued

Common to the Tanzanian diet are cooked rice(wali) or rice cooked in coconut milk(ubwabwa), ugali(a stiff corn flour porridge similar to polenta or modeling clay), kidney beans(maharage), tomatoes(nyanya), onions(vitunguu), cabbage(kabichi), peas(njegere), okra(bamia), potatoes(viazi), sweet potatoes(viazi vitamu), local spinach(mchicha), fish(samaki), beef(nyama ya ng’ombe), chicken(nyama ya kuku), goat(nyama ya mbuzi), and on occasion pork(nyama ya nguruwe or kiti moto). Some of the traditional foods include chapati(similar to tortilla, flatbread, or Indian naan), sambusa(triangular pastry filled with meat or potatoes similar to samosas), mandazi(donut-holes), bagia(savory deep-fried snack similar to hushpuppies), and vitumbua(oil-soaked sponge-like rice fritter). Bagia is our favorite, closely followed by sambusa and mandazi. Fortunately or unfortunately, bagia are not available in Kibakwe. However, our friend Mathayo in Mpwapwa has offered to periodically send us bagia via the Kimambo Company bus that travels between Mpwapwa and Kibakwe every day. Also available in our village is a dish called “chipsi mayai” which is essentially french fries and eggs. It's potato wedges fried and then eggs are added and fried till done and you put salt and hot sauce on it and it's delicious! If I'm feeling especially good about the meat in the village that day, I'll order “nyama choma,” too which is literally “meat roasted.” Imagine beef or goat shishkabobs without the skewers or things other than meat. I cannot continue on this trajectory for obvious health reasons, but on occasion it is quite satisfying. I never thought I'd be in a place where I would look forward to fried potatoes and eggs and charred meat.

During homestay, there was always rice, beans, spinach, cabbage, and ugali on the table. On occasion there was beef, fish, okra, sambusa, and chapati. And we always ate with our hands. Dinner would be served when Mama would say, “Karibuni chakula” (You(plural) are welcome to food), and at the end of dinner we would say, “Nimeshiba. Asante kwa chakula, Mama” (I am full. Thank you for the food, Mama). I feel very fortunate that we got such good food during homestay. Many of our friends would complain each week about how they only got rice and beans or rice and mchicha.

Now that we are in the village, we're cooking for ourselves and even though we're using the locally available ingredients, we're not always cooking Tanzanian food. I like to think of it as a type of “fusion” cooking – Tanzanian, American, and California Cuisine – TanzAmCaliCu is what I like to call it. Carla has continued to be a very inventive and resourceful chef and baker even with limited means and resources. Pasta and popcorn, I have discovered here in Tanzania, are my two most crucial comfort foods. Both of these foods are reminders of childhood – pasta because it's what we ate at my house at least once a week if not three times a week, and popcorn because of my memories of my Mom making three to five batches of popcorn at a time in the stir popper, dumping it all into a disposable aluminum roasting tray, salting it, and storing it inside the oven so it would “keep” longer. On those really bad days where I hate being here, and I don't want to speak the language or leave the house, I know that a batch of pasta or popcorn will make everything better.

Bringing Everyone Up To Date

2007-09-27T03:32:00.000-07:00

20 September 2007

I decided to use this blog entry to summarize what our first ten weeks of training were like. First of all, we arrived at night in Dar es Salaam and went straight to the hostel. Basically the first week in country was spent traveling from compound to compound. First, the hostel, then Peace Corps HQ Dar, then MATI Ilonga (the Kilosa training compound), and finally homestay which was still somewhat insular. Being dropped off by the Peace Corps car at Mama Chacha’s house in Kilosa was one of the strangest and most awkward feelings I’ve ever experienced, but looking back on that house in Kilosa, I miss the comfort of familiarity. With us speaking almost no Kiswahili and Mama Chacha refusing to speak any English, we communicated through contextual pantomime and our small photo albums from home. We were told by other PCVs(Peace Corps Volunteers) that this is a great icebreaker, not to mention that the pictures do all of the talking. The biggest adjustment we made to the Tanzanian way of life when we were at homestay was in the form of dinnertime. In the U.S. we usually ate dinner around 5 or 6 p.m. Here, most people don’t eat until at least 8 or 9, and there were many times we wouldn’t eat until 9:30 or 10:00 or saa tatu na nusu au saa nne (3:30 or 4:00 Kiswahili time). Don’t ask me why, but the Tanzanians thought that Western time was too confusing, so they changed it by six hours. Oh, did I mention that all of the clocks and watches in the country still show Western time, which means that Tanzanians are constantly doing the math in their heads.

For ten weeks our routine was to start language classes at 8:00 a.m. - Carla’s classroom was right in the courtyard of our homestay house and mine was a 5-10 minute bike ride away in Manzese-B. This was our life Monday through Friday. Saturdays were spent at MATI in nearby Ilonga where we were presented with loads of technical and bureaucratic information by Peace Corps personnel. Sundays were our day of rest, which most of spent doing laundry…outside…by hand…in buckets. Saturdays were great only for the fact that we were able to reconnect with our fellow trainees whom we would not have seen otherwise. Our group of 25 was divided into five CBTs(Community Based Training modules): Manzese-A(Carla’s), Manzese-B(mine), Mbumi, Magomeni, and Msalambani. Each CBT has one LCF(Language and Culture Facilitator) who lives in the same village as his/her students, and after five weeks, they rotate to different CBTs. The breakdown of CBTs, LCFs, and PCTs(Peace Corps Trainees) was as follows:

Manzese-A: Jumapili/Petronilla(LCFs) Carla, Jerusha, Caitlyn(Pendo), Linda, Rashad

Manzese-B: Paul/Peter/Vicki/Petronilla/Immanuel (LCFs) Tony, Steve, Keenan, Lacey, Bibi Jan

Mbumi: Petronilla/Jumapili(LCFs) Mike, Nancy, Saraben, Kate, Carolyn

Magomeni: Peter/Vivian aka Big Boy(LCFs) DeeDee, Wyatt, Stephanie, Jimmy, Mick

Msalambani: Vivian aka Big Boy/Paul(LCFs) Jess, Charlie, Amy, Ben, Mannis

None of the CBTs were more than a one hour bike ride away from another. Over ten weeks we all became very close, but especially so within our respective CBTs.

Each week during training, a current PCV would come to Kilosa to be our PCV of the Week and they would hang out with us, come to our CBTs, organize tech sessions, and give us some idea of what to expect when we got to site. Mostly they were around to encourage us through training and to give PC administration an idea of where we would best be placed.

By the end of the ten weeks of training, we were all ready to be done with the rigorous schedule and to be set free in a sense and we were all anxious to know where we'd be living for the next two years. Of course, we'd miss our homestay families and farewells are always difficult, but being American, we were missing our privacy, too.

I will probably write more on the subject of training, homestay, and the swearing-in ceremony as time goes by and I remember details worth mentioning. This will need to suffice for now.

Tunazoea mazingira - We are controlling our environment

2007-09-14T23:19:00.000-07:00

Over the past week, we have seen President Kikwete speak in Mpwapwa, cemented our tiny dirt courtyard, and visited with our nearest PC neighbor Ben, who comes to Kibakwe regularly to buy supplies. As you can see in the photos, a presidential visit in Tanzania is much different than one in the U.S. This took place on the soccer field outside of the primary school in Mpwapwa and he spoke for about two hours, mostly about the importance of building schools.

When we returned to Kibakwe, the work began on our patio. First, dirt was dug and carried bucket by bucket from the field across from our house to grade the base for the cement. Then, cement, sand, and rocks were mixed in a pile outside our courtyard and carried in bucket by bucket ( this is how most work is done in Tanzania) and finished. The entire process took about three days - a landspeed record for a Tanzanian fundi (caraftsmen). There was only one day of lag time between grading and cementing.

As you can see, Carla and I decided to put our mark on our home in Kibakwe.

Our closest PC neighbor Ben, who lives in Kingiti 11km away, regularly rides his bike to Kibakwe to buy supplies and to visit with the other Wazungu (white people). The picture above shows how Ben is able to haul sundries back to his village using the available resources. Keep in mind that the road between our villages is not tarmac, but dirt. So imagine taking this load on an American style mountain bike trail and you get the idea.
We just bought a ton of supplies in Mpwapwa yesterday, so the next few weeks will be filled with tiling the bafu (shower/bathroom), painting, planning and building the vegetable garden, and furnishing our house. We spent the night at our friend Angus's house - he's a VSO volunteer from England who teaches computer technology at the teacher's college in Mpwapwa. If you'd like to know more about Angus, visit: www.angusinafrica.co.uk . Our friend Matayo, who has a stall in the market here, has been such a great help to us, and to all of the volunteers in the region. Yesterday he went with us from duka (shop) to duka to buy tiles and paint and furniture and cushions and helped us tremendously. Our friends Lisa and Russ (PC education volunteers who live in Mpwapwa) are in Dar es Salaam and Morogoro for a couple of weeks working with the new education volunteers and they're presence here is missed. To learn more visit: http://lisaintanzaniapcv.blogspot.com

Well, that's all I have for right now. I'll try to post again before we leave for Kibakwe tomorrow. Also, I will try to post many pictures on my Shutterfly site. Tutaonana baadaye (We will see each other later).

Our New Home

2007-09-04T00:17:00.000-07:00

I'm taking the opportunity of uninterrupted internet service to publish two posts in the same day! I wanted to show all of you back home what a typical Tanzanian house looks like. Keep in mind that this is on the higher end of the economic spectrum in the villages. We have a long way to go before we can really call this home, but we're doing what we can with what is available.

Since My Last Post...

2007-09-03T23:33:00.001-07:00

Since my last post back in July, we have finished "shadowed" with current Peace Corps volunteers, Russ and Lisa in Mpwapwa in the Dodoma region, finished training, received our site announcement, bid farewell to our homestay family, celebrated one last time with our training group, and moved into a new house in a new region. We are currently setting up our house in the town of Kibakwe, in the Mpwapwa district, in the Dodoma region. The climate is similar to high desert in the US - Colorado or New Mexico - very dry, dusty, and windy. Over the next several posts, I will attempt to convey what it has been like living here for the past two months. We'll have access to the internet about once or twice a month in Mpwapwa town which is about a two hour bus ride or a four hour bike ride from Kibakwe. This first month is going to be very tough because we need to get our house up to a level where we'll be comfortable living in it for two years. The main challenges that face our village are lack of water, low crop yield, lack of knowledge of small animal husbandry, a higher HIV rate than the surrounding area, and alcoholism due to lack of work. For the first three months we are not allowed by Peace Corps to start any projects or write any grants. We are expected to get to know the people of our village and learn the language better. These first few months will be the most challenging since we need to assess our needs and the needs of the village and see what we are able to do here. I've posted a few photos depicting the past couple months to give you an idea of where we've been living. We hope that everyone is doing well back home and we miss all of you! And would it kill you to send us a text every once in a while?

The Past Week in Tanzania

2007-07-20T05:47:00.000-07:00

Last weekend's Safari at Mikumi National Park was very cool! My best quote: "Isn't it great that a bus full of adults gets so excited when they see zoo animals in nature? " I didn't realize until after I said it that I referred to giraffes, zebras, and elephants as "zoo animals, " but up to this point that was my only frame of reference. I'll post the pics next time. It was a much needed break from studying Kiswahili and everyone enjoyed the time away from studies.

Tales of the Nightbird of Manzese A

2007-07-09T08:18:00.000-07:00

Nightbird is a bird that I've only seen once. Rarely does he fly during daylight. Rather, he prefers nighttime activities. As I mentioned before, I've only glimpsed him once, but I've heard him nearly every night since arriving in Manzese A. His call is a cross between the quack of a large duck and what a Pteradactyl might have sounded like. I imagine that he hunts small prey at night under the cover of darkness. When I did see him, he seemed to be the size of a turkey vulture and he did a full flying roll, as if he knew I was watching.
I'll keep everyone abreast of Nightbird's adventures as I deem fit. After 9-10 hours a day, 6 days a week, of learning Kiswahili, this is my creative outlet. As it is nearing nightfall here, I must return to my home for dinner. Not to mention that it is against PC policy to ride my bicycle after dark. Carla and I are both doing well, however Kiswahili is the most difficult language I have attempted to learn. While pronunciation is very straightforward, conjugation and structure are next to impossible to master as a non-native speaker. Also, there is no gender, but there are 6-8 noun classes instead. Needless to say, we have been quite frustrated. I will try to post again this week, but I have written and spoken language tests this week. Also, Saturday we leave for a one-night safari in Mikumi National Park. Until next post, baadaye!

This week in Tanzania

2007-07-02T07:23:00.000-07:00

Did I already write about the South American soap opera dubbed into English on Tanzanian TV? If I didn't, it's one of the coolest things I've seen here. There's a main character who wears super cool Guayabera-style shirts and an eyepatch! Other things from this week: 1. I bought a bell for my baiskeli. 2. We work on Kiswahili homework everynight for hours. 3. I started doing research on a tree project I want to introduce here, and 4. I learned a cool way of composting for gardening. I know, this is all super boring, but this is my life in Africa. So that's all suckas!

Greetings From Kilosa

2007-06-21T07:35:00.000-07:00

The language is coming "pole pole" (slowly, slowly), but the Tanzanian people are very patient and warmhearted. Even being in the internet cafe here, I am able to practice my Kiswahili with someone who is patient and understands that I am learning the language. Yesterday we ran into one of the current volunteers in town and we invited her over to meet our host family. We had a great time visiting and since she speaks the language much better than we do, we got more insight into how we're perceived buy our host family - we are loved. Doing laundry is probably the biggest obstacle to overcome right now. Most Tanzanians, especially in professions, take much pride in their attire - everything's ironed and clean. Anyway, I'm running out of time on the computer. I'll post again this weekend. Kwa Herini.

Hamjambo Kwa Tanzania (Hello to All From Tanzania)

2007-06-19T09:48:00.000-07:00

This is the first opportunity I've had to use a computer since arriving in Kilosa . Carla and I moved in with our homestay family on Sunday and everything's going great. Our Mama is super nice and patient and no one speaks more than a couple of words of English. Everyday we go to our separate Kiswahili classes and learn all day. If anyone would like more information on what's been going on with us see Carla's blog: www.carlaintanzania.blogspot.com . The language training is SUPER intense, but really good. My friend Steve and I were labeled "Wazushi" (rabble rousers) by our instructor today(jokingly) . I'll write again soon. The Internet Cafe is closing as I write.

Map of Tanzania

2007-06-13T06:28:00.000-07:00

Here's a map of Tanzania, so everyone knows where we are in the country. We're currently in Dar es Salaam, and we'll be travelling to Kilosa in a few days to begin our Pre-Service Training and homestay. I don't know when I'll be online again, but I'll try to post again ASAP. Oh, I forgot to sign off with a snappy comment last time; so I guess I'll owe you three the next time I post because I can't come up with one right now.

Arrival in Tanzania

2007-06-13T03:22:00.000-07:00

Due to time and jet lag, this posting will be in monsterspeak/telegram form:
Left Philly. Flew from JFK. Forgot fleece at hotel in Philly. Damn. Got to Amsterdam. Got to Tanzania Tuesday night. Very tired. Woke up in Tanzania. Still very tired. Went to orientation at Peace Corps office in Dar es Salaam. Everyone very nice. Still very tired. Got yellow fever shot. Got petty cash. Got ID picture taken. Now, online. Everything's very good, but still tired. Will post again soon when not so tired. Enjoy the picture.

DISCLAIMER

2007-06-10T20:06:00.000-07:00

The following applies to all previous and all future postings on "The Rocky Woodbridge Journal:"

THE CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE MINE PERSONALL AND DO NOT REFLECT ANY POSITION OF THE U.S. GOVERNMENT OR THE PEACE CORPS.

The City of Brotherly Love

2007-06-10T17:15:00.000-07:00

I'm in Philly for Peace Corps staging and I leave tomorrow for Tanzania via Amsterdam. Everything's falling into place. I can't wait to get to TZ. It hasn't hit me yet that I'm leaving friends, family, and home for two years, but I'm sure it will in a few weeks. I wish there were more time to explore Philly; it seems to be a pretty cool city, at least what I've seen of it. The itinerary is as follows: 10:45 Leave for JFK, 1:30 or 2:00 Get to JFK, 5:45 Fly to Amsterdam, Tuesday A.M. A few hours at the airport in Amsterdam, then off to Dar Es Salaam via Kilimanjaro (refueling). That's it for now. I'll try to post again soon. Sorry it's not the best material, but I'm confident that it'll get better once I'm in TZ. One last thing : I'm using the computer in the basement of the Hampton Inn in Philly and their stock music in the lobby (which I can hear through the open stairwell) is Elvis Costello's "Veronica." Go figure. I'm signing off.

I normally don't do anything like this...

2007-06-07T22:40:00.000-07:00

Well, I normally don't. That is, I don't normally write for other people or at least not since I was in school. In a couple days I'll be leaving my home in the midwest for Peace Corps service in Tanzania, and I felt that this would be a great way to keep up with a lot of people easily. I'll admit right now that I probably won't be a daily blogger; partly because I may not have easy access to a computer in Africa and partly because I procrastinate. However, what I'll lack in quantity, hopefully I'll make up for in quality. I'll try to make the posts at least halfway interesting and mildly amusing if at all possible. Also, I'll probably try out several greetings and farewells over the next few weeks. Having said that, I'll sign off with, "TTFN."