Finally

I have to apologize for the extended gap in time of updating my happenstances, so get ready for a lengthy entry.  First, I shall list the VERY important things that have FINALLY happened this past week or so, and then I will discuss them in detail.  If I have intrigued you enough by the synopses to read on, you may do so as you wish.

1) I have officially finished my internship teaching and am one step farther in my transformation from a padawan to a jedi.
2) I have taken my Final Written Kiswahili Examination (but not my Final Language Proficiency Interview, or LPI).
3) After suffering through limbo since I applied to the Peace Corps, I ACTUALLY now know exactly where I will be placed for the next two years!
4) For one week, I was able to shadow the current PCV, whom I will be replacing, at my physical site where I will be living and teaching.
4) My fellow PC trainees and I are FINALLY on the Airtel plan, which allows us unlimited minutes to talk to any other person in Tanzania on the Peace Corps Airtel plan, for a small charge of 3,000/= per month.

The past few days have a bit of a whirlwind to say the least, and I think I have started to feel the “rollercoaster effect” that every volunteer has referenced.

My initial state of being after my three week internship practicum was shock that it was already over and a little withdrawal from the students that I had become accustomed to seeing practically every day.  I was ready to get to my own site and have my own students rather than feeling like an alien substitute teacher, but I did miss some of my students, especially those that expressed a lot of interest and drive.  I tried not to play favorites, but I was going to miss two of the boys in my class very much (Hamfrey and Ephrahim).  Although they did not always have the correct answer, they both had amazing tenacity and asked a lot of questions and wanted more problems for me to go over.  I got to know a few students’ names throughout the three weeks because I had one of the class monitors or prefects [yes, I do think of Harry Potter a lot…] to give me the list of students’ names so I could call on them to participate in an exercise or problem I had on the board, as well as try to learn some names.  I had 53 students in my class, so I was not able to learn everyone’s name, but I got about a third of them down by my last day of teaching.  The experience was exhilarating because even though I was there for a short time, I felt like I played a part in their development of education and knowledge of anything non-Tanzanian.  I felt like practically every student wanted me there and wanted to learn, which is such a great feeling!
The last week, I gave them a short assessment on Monday, went over the test on Tuesday, and on Thursday I did a quick review of the material (by the way, I was teaching SI Units of Length, Mass, and Capacity) and held a Q & A session during the second half of class where they could ask me any questions – about me, America, anything.  At first, they asked about where I was from and then the questions started to veer towards music and they started asking if I knew different artists from America, all of which were African American.  None of their questions was a surprise to me, including one from Ephrahim:  “Do you have a boyfriend?”  I knew it was coming because it is extremely typical in Tanzanian culture, but I wasn’t sure who would be asking it.  I couldn’t suppress a smile, but did tell them the truth that I did not have one at the moment.  I left the class and said my good-bye as the whole class “awed” in unison.  It was all bittersweet when we (my CBT and me) gave the school gifts from PC and each said a line in Kiswahili to say thanks and all that jazz.  :)

The next day (Friday the 27th) was full of anticipation and anxiety, not for the Final Written Exam that was in the morning, but because immediately after the test was…OUR SITE ANNOUNCEMENTS!  I took the final and although that wasn’t the end of our language assessment, I was thrilled to get it done so I could focus on trying to not freak out about site announcements.  Site announcements could probably be the most important day of your Peace Corps service because it is the first time you obtain a concrete fact of your life for the next 2+ years, so of course, PC makes a big deal out of it.  They even brought musicians who had a drum circle!
After the Peace Corps stalled as much as possible until the last possible moment, the APCDs and Brian, the Director of Programming and Training, revealed a map of Tanzania and a plethora of sticky notes.  PC never ceases to amaze me how much they love to keep us on our toes…haha.



The way we were to commence the site announcements was that after the sticky is removed to expose an individual’s mugshot, Hilda (the head APCD) would read out a tidbit on that person’s site and then that person would choose another sticky note in that same region (or any other region if everyone in that region was called), and the process would continue from there.  They called Doug up first since he has "a lot of wisdom” and he miraculously chose his own!



Gradually, each person was called and there were less sticky notes on the board, I am certain that everyone was silently verifying their predictions of who would go where; however, on every person’s mind that hadn’t been called yet, they were thinking of only one thing while they applauded for those who knew their fate – “WHERE AM I GOING?!”

As expected, many of us were very happy and some were not so thrilled of their sites, but all in all, we FINALLY knew after a long, long wait!



I was the last person to get called in the Mbeya region, which was a little nerve-racking because Mbeya was my first choice and I had a strong feeling I was going to be placed there, but I was not 100% positive.  Once it was confirmed, I was ecstatic and the phone texting exploded like the Big Bang.  I easily went through about 70 text messages in less than 4 hours.



Here is the lowdown on my CBT and our whereabouts:
- Jasmine = Tanga
- Ben (and Kim) = Tanga
- Kristine = Ruvuma (Mbinga)
- Belle = Mbeya
- Jen = Kilimanjaro
- Ben = Iringa

The last person to get announced was Nick Allen Taylor in Mtwara and then the rest of the day at CCT was spent with travel and shadow week logistics.  Depending on the bus you were taking and where your site was, about half of us would leave on Saturday and the rest of us on Sunday.  I left on Sunday with Steph, who will be my future site mate.  She and I would be shadowing Eric Sandhurst, whom we had met before when he came to help out during technical lab practical sessions.  The two closest current volunteers to me, other than Eric, are Folake and Hannah, whom I have had quite a few pictures with and have gotten quite close to.  I WAS SO HAPPY!!  :D

Now that I was finally out of limbo, I was overjoyed and my energy was boosted even though I had not had much sleep from the night before.  Anxiety immediately changed to relief and excitement, and luckily I had the next day to take my time to take care of a few things in town and pack before boarding a bus to the Mbeya region on Sunday morning.  The Mbeya folk, minus Tracy and Siobhan who stopped in Mbeya Town, which is their banking town (my banking town is Tukuyu), arrived in Tukuyu and we were hosted by Hannah at her adorable home.  It was a full house (with Hannah, Marielle, Fo, and us PCTs, Mandy, Rachel, Steph, Willie, and me), and we had TACOS (HOMEMADE TORTILLAS), GUACAMOLE, CHEESE, AND HOMEMADE OREOS!!!!!  You cannot even fathom how much I missed Mexican food, and it was SO delectable!  I was unimaginably spoiled during shadow week, and that was just the start.
The next morning before Eric came to get Steph and me, Hannah and Mar made us HOMEMADE CINNAMON ROLLS.  Seriously…UNBELIEVABLY SCRUMPTUOUS!  Move over, Cinnabon!  After I scarfed down two whole ones, Steph, Eric, and I trekked to his house/my site, Mwatisi Secondary School in Mwakaleli village via a Land Cruiser and then walking up a pine tree ridden path.  YES, I have pine trees and pine cones…it feels more like Colorado than Africa, but I LOVE IT!  And there are virtually no mosquitoes, which was my number one concern during my site interview with Hilda.

Although the pine trees surrounding my house (which is now currently Eric’s) juxtaposes my generalizations of Africa, the scent and coolness in the air emanates the perpetual feeling that it’s Christmas (my favorite holiday), which is fantastic.  The house is huge!  I have three bedrooms (one of which is used as a walk-in closet and one is a guest room), a kitchen area, a sitting room, an indoor choo (squat toilet) and shower, and a large room that he uses for laundry and hanging up clothes to dry.  The pictures of “our” house are in my Picasa photostream at the top of this page.  I have electricity via a solar panel and battery that allow me to charge my various electronics.  My school is literally 30 seconds down the hill and I could even roll down it and I could be there in about 15 seconds, depending on how much I weighed at the time.  ;)
The school is building a new house about 50 meters away from Eric’s, and I may be living there instead of Eric’s during our 3-month overlap period, assuming it gets finished by the time I arrive at site.  In spite of the appeal of living in a large, furnished house with electricity, I would prefer to live in the new house because it would be my own space and it is a little more quaint.  No matter where I will be living, I just can’t wait to make it my home!  Also, if I lived at the new house, I have a slight veranda that looks over the school and Rungwe Mountain, and I appear to be living next to what looks similar to an unfinished castle.

Following the initial shock of how much I loved my site, I was able to meet my headmistress (mkuu), second master, and a few of the teachers.  I have yet to introduce myself to my students or the rest of the teachers but that was mostly due to the odd situation of the teacher’s strike that was going on about salary and the graduation rehearsals.  I was able to see the adequately stocked science lab and library, and I helped create a marking scheme for a chemistry exam.  I found out that there is currently no physics teacher so there is a high likelihood that I will be teaching physics in addition to math.  Yay!  :P 

The remainder of my shadow visit consisted of being surrounded by gorgeous scenery everywhere I walked, visiting Kandete village and town, spending a day at Steph’s site and school, which was about an hour scenic route with greetings, setting up my mailbox and meeting with the district council chair in Tukuyu, and topping it off by hiking up the Ngozi Crater with Eric, Steph, Rachel, Tracy, and Kat (pun intended).  The crater hike was BREATHTAKING, but it was incredibly difficult doing the hike in Croc flats - my other shoes are in Dar in the PC office…  There were three main phases: a gravel/sand road, a mossy tree tunnel path, and then a vertical path up to the peak of the crater.  I felt so out of shape, but much of my energy was spent walking carefully to try to make sure my shoes did not fall off.  Huffing and puffing up the mountain was definitely worth it once we arrived at the lookout at the top of the crater. Although I was sweating profusely and was exhausted, the view was amazing and not like anything I’d ever seen before.



In the center of the crater was Ngozi Crater Lake and Eric said it would be possible to camp at the bottom of the crater, but there may be crocodiles in the lake, which makes me a tad hesitant but interested nonetheless.  We soaked in the view and had a little pumzika [“rest” in Kiswahili] with snacks and water.  Then, we started to hike back down the mountain when the unthinkable happened!  Kat fell and sprained her ankle.  :O  Once she was able to get back on her feet, Eric ran down the mountain to try to find a car to get her back to the path entrance once us gals descended Phase 3 of the hike.  I was able to find Kat a walking stick that happened to be the perfect size, weight, and strength, and part of the way down, I wrapped her ankle with her extra shirt and some of Tracy’s bandage tape.  Rachel helped lead her down the mountain and all of us moseyed our way down, which was quite pleasant since we were able to go slow enough to take in all the natural habitat around us.  It took a while, but we finally made it down to Phase 2 and Eric found Kat a ride back to the entrance while we walked.  The whole hike from start to finish was just past five hours, including the slight shida [“problem”] we ran into.

Immediately after we left the crater, I got both the best news ever (that we are finally on the PC Airtel Plan) and the worst news ever (about the passing of my dog in America).  :(  She was 15 so she led a very long and enjoyable life, but it was still extremely painful to hear…  That was definitely the first time I felt absolutely drained of any emotion or energy, so I was happy to get a change of scenery the next day.  That night we spent the night at Hannah’s again and then we headed off to Iringa in the morning.  I was SO happy to see Kaka Ben (Ben Savonen)!  I didn’t realize how much I missed being around him until then.  :)  In Iringa, we met up with other PCTs and PCVs from the regions of Mbeya, Iringa, Njombe, and one that is located at the midpoint of Njombe and Songea.  The next couple of days were spent frolicking around Iringa, where I saw an uncomfortable amount of Europeans since I have been in country, and I was able to catch my first short glimpse of the Olympics!  After two very active days of dancing and hanging out, which was exactly what I needed, we got on a bus to come back to Morogoro on Sunday.

And that pretty much sums up my past week and a half!  The next couple of weeks will be pretty hectic with taking my LPI and then going to Dar for our Swearing-In Ceremony next week, so don’t be surprised if I don’t get a chance to post another update.  In the mean time, I have updated my wishlist and am in the process of uploading more pictures!

Until next time, maisha mazuri na kwaherini!