Daladala

Here in Tanzania is a common mode of transportation called a “daladala”.  Imagine a small bus that more closely resembles a van, which is literally packed to the brim with adults, elderly folk, babies, students, and the occasional mzungu [white person/foreigner], which right now is typically a fellow PCT.  :P  Tanzanians usually say, “you can always fit one more in a daladala,” and it is too true.

A daladala is the prime environment for many pick-pockets, since you are squished up against someone else and there is little room for personal space, if any.  By the way, there is no sense of personal space here, as it is in many places in Europe; however, the people here are usually very friendly once you greet them in Kiswahili.  :)  About 65% of the time, I will receive a smile or a surprised-excited look on someone’s face when I say “Habari za leo?” [How are you today?], “Shikamoo” (which is a way of greeting elders with respect), or “Mambo” (to kids).  For the other 35% of the time…I have interesting experiences.

The first time I had to ride a daladala was in Dar during our walk-around the city so we could get a glimpse of Tanzanian culture.  It was a Sunday, so the daladala was spacious in TZ standards, as in every seat was filled but no one was standing. Luckily, our wonderful PC staff warned us and said it was not a true daladala experience, so I was prepared for what ensued, or so I thought.

For those of you that know me, I tend to have unique experiences which usually result in thrilling tales.  After being in the country for less than three weeks, all of the following has happened to me inside or in proximity to a daladala: 1) I witnessed a pick-pocketing of my friend (I will not name him so he does not bathe in further shame :P), 2) I have been called a twin to the only other female Asian PCT (Kristine) and both of us were thought to know kung-fu, 3) I was touched on the face through a window by a man outside of the daladala who called me Mchina (Chinese person) right as the daladala was leaving that stop, 4) a man indirectly proposed to me because he wanted to go to America, 5) the most adorable baby with the longest eyelashes I have ever seen played with me and my face (I was okay with this face-touching) and he danced between his mama and me on the seat, 6) said baby was breastfed by his mama in the seat I was sharing with her, and 6) I fell off the daladala when I was stepping off at my stop and EVERYONE saw me (mamas on the daladala, pikipiki drivers, and my fellow PCTs that were lucky enough to witness it) and then some followed up by saying “pole sana” [very sorry] while I attempted to avert my eyes from everywhere but the ground.

In case you were wondering, 1, 2, 4, and 6 are very common according to PC so that was not particularly surprising, even though I did happen to experience them first before the rest of our training class, go figure.  On the other hand, my resources (TZ locals and PCVs) tell me that 3 is very weird.  They had never heard of that ever in their time here so…yay me!  -.-  I did clean my face thoroughly both times I was touched – unintentionally and intentionally – and my left foot was only strained so I have healed quickly, though my pride hasn’t quite yet.  Haha jk.

Seriously, I’m healthy and feeling great.  I do miss my American home, but every day I am starting to feel more and more at home here.  Still cannot believe that it has already been about two weeks here!  I will try to post some pictures tonight if my internet connection permits it!!  Anyway, until next time, usiku mwema! [Good night!]

Nyingi

Mambo?!  [What’s up?!]  I have been taking an unintentionally long hiatus from writing due to the lack of internet access and time to type everything that has gone on in the past week and a half.  I FINALLY GOT MY INTERNET MODEM TO WORK, SO YAY!!  BUT, this doesn’t mean that I will have internet all the time everywhere.

Anyway…if you are not ready to read this lengthy post, you are now warned.  [By the way, “nyingi” means “a lot” in Swahili.]

So I believe I left off my story while I was in the United States…

Staging in Philly was awesome!  Philly was of course a little rainy but the weather was SO NICE and COOL compared to the heat and humidity in Texas.  When I first arrived to the hotel in downtown Philly and lugged my bags to my room, I had just put my things away when my roommate arrived – the very FIRST fellow PCT (Peace Corps Trainee) I met.  Her name is Kristine, or Steen for short, and she was immediately trailed by Zach (the second PCT I met).  It was nice to meet them almost right away because I didn’t even have a chance to feel lonely or homesick.  J  To be honest, although I miss my family and friends very much, every day here has been so jam-packed that I haven’t had much time to feel homesick just yet.  I am sure that will happen at some unbeknownst point during my two years and it may even turn into a blog post.  :P

But for now, that introduction was just the first (two) of many more – 44 more PCTs, to be exact!  [In case your math skills are a little rusty, that amounts to a total of 47 PCTs, including myself.]  That night I went to dinner with 11 other PCTs at a brick oven pizza place  and then drinks at the downstairs pub with another eight or so PCTs whom I have become pretty close with.  That night, I discovered that there are two other PCTs from TEXAS, the Lone Star State!!  :D  One of them is even from Dallas (Nicole) and we even have a mutual friend, but need I remind you, we did not know each other previously.  I was starting to feel more and more comfortable with everyone as the night went on and we were even excited to meet the rest of the trainees that would arrive the next day!  All of us were already planning the next night’s dinner/drink plans, since we were all planning on staying up before we left for JFK airport at 2am anyway.

Needless to say, after that night, I knew I was going to LOVE this group, and after the following day of presentations, ice breakers, skits, and other group activities, we all became a huge family – my family.  :]  We all bonded relatively quickly during the next 24 hours, which included delirious conversations due to staying up all night, a night bus ride to New York, a 6-hour camp out at JFK airport waiting to check in for a flight at 11:15am, and two birthday celebrations on the long plane ride to Johannesburg, South Africa then another one to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania!

We finally arrived in Dar at around 6:30pm, took about an hour and a half to get out of the plane, through customs, baggage claim, and in two buses that took us to Msimbazi Center (our training center for about five days).  After we got our lifeline drug – anti-malarial pills – we took our first bucket showers and slept.  The next few days of being confined to the inside of the Msimbazi Center gate were spent doing introductions and overviews of safety and security, health, cross cultural, and language.  Oh, and more drugs (aka vaccinations).  I wish I could say all the vaccinations were done in Dar, but I cannot.  We were shot up four more times once we arrived in Morogoro, the region of our other training center.  We did get to go outside of the gate twice, once for a Dar walk-around where we walked around the city and once for a tour at the Peace Corps office.

The morning of June 13^th we left Dar and took a 3.5 hour bus ride to Morogoro to stay with our host families!!  We got to CCT (Christian Council of Tanzania), our training grounds for the next nine weeks, had lunch, and dispersed to our host family villages!  Each village has 4-6 PCTs staying there and each village has at least one secondary school, which is where our internship will be.  I am staying in Kihonda with 11 other PCTs but only five of them will be teaching at Kihonda Secondary School with me.  The other six will be teaching at Educare, another school in Kihonda.  From now until the end of training, we alternate weeks we spend going to CCT and CBT (Community-Based Training) here in Kihonda.  I am writing this during my lunch during training, so I will go into more detail on my host family and training in the next post, which should be sooner than it was between my last post and this one.

Lala Salama!  [Sleep well!]

One

Habari everyone!

This will be a very short post, but I just wanted to let you all know that I am alive and well, and finally in Tanzania!!!  I am currently in Dar es Salaam for Day One of training!

I am sure you all have a ton of questions right now, but I will talk about how Staging in Philadelphia was and how Training is going in another post.  For now, I just figured I should mention something very quickly about my blog.  Each and every blog post title will contain only one word.  I am going to try to sum the post up in one word for the rest of my two plus years here, but will allow myself one extra word each year (aka only one time that I can title a blog post with two words).

Anyway, that's all the time I have for now, so I will be in touch with more updates soon!

Love you all!!!  :D

Tetris

Although it may be somewhat misleading, this post is not explicitly about the famous game of Tetris, but instead refers to packing.

A burning question that many of you may have is, "how do you pack for two years in Africa?"  To be quite honest, I have no idea.  There are guidelines that the Peace Corps gives us and you can ask other current volunteers for suggestions, though it is very rare to leave and not have forgotten something.  After a compilation of three different sources (Peace Corps, blogs, and the Tanzanian PC Facebook page suggestions), I came up with a very lengthy list.  The screen shot of my list can be microscopically read below, plus or minus a few things.

Now the challenge was not just figuring out what to pack, but also HOW to pack it.  First, I split everything up into two main piles (one for the necessities and one for the wants).  Then, I resorted to a skill that I have developed over the many years of my traveling abroad, something I call Tetris Packing.  For those of you that are not familiar of the game Tetris, it involves a screen where different shapes each composed of four blocks fall from the top of the screen and the goal is to manipulate (flip, rotate, move sideways) the shape for it to fill the whole row without any spaces.  This methodology can also be directed to packing since you are essentially trying to pack non-uniform shapes in the most space efficient way possible.

So of course, Tetris packing was the only solution to my problem of trying to fit everything I was planning on taking with me in three bags.

Here is pretty much everything I was packing...

These were the bags I was bringing.

After a few hours spread over the course of 2 days, I was able to Tetris pack everything nicely to fit in these bags, and under the 50 pound limit for both checked bags!

I am not going to lie, I think I packed more food/snacks than anything else.  That goes to show you where my priorities lie.  ;)

Since I am about to zonk out after a day of traveling to Philly and socializing, I will post about the awesome shenanigans of Staging later!  Sweet dreams!