Post 41

On October 22, 2001, one of my dearest and bestest friends, Yvette, left for Tanzania to fulfill her life-long dream of serving in the United States Peace Corp.

Although I miss her smiling martini-swilling face terribly, words couldn’t' express how proud I am of her for holding out on many of her personal and professional goals to realize this dream.....

Due to slow processing of her medical records in D.C. (imagine that!), her departure had been delayed several times during 2001, but toward the end of the Summer we all knew that she'd be leaving sometime in the Fall. Needless to say, we were all very concerned about Yvette's safety due to the American Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania and the whole Somalia debacle. Just before September 11, she received her marching orders for September 22. In the wake of 9/11 we were all downright terrified about her leaving for an area of the world where Al Qaeda cells were known to be very active and where they had carried out attacks against Americans…and we were VERY vocal about it. Her departure was delayed for another month and throughout the wait she remained firm in her resolve to go and consistently reassured friends and family that she had complete confidence in the Peace Corps…if it wasn't safe…she wouldn't be deployed.

Those of us in the know believe that this little endeavor will either "make or break" her. She has very little tolerance for lack of procedures, disorder, tardiness, etc. So, as you'll see, Tanzinia has been a bit of a strain on the 'ole Type A personality.

These days, "The Latest From Tanzinia" is the usually topic of conversation for the first hour of happy hour for me and Yvette's other friends. We anxiously await her latest emails and have thoroughly enjoyed reading about her adventures in a part of the world and a culture most of us will never experience. I hope you enjoy them too.

***********************************************************************************

OCTOBER 16, 2001 PEACE CORPS RESCHEDULED DEPARTURE

Habari (HI)!

Here we go again - or at least here I hope to go again. The Peace Corps has rescheduled staging and departure to Tanzania for October 22 and 23. I've been hesitant to send out a formal announcement because every day it still seems like I won't get to go. It has been very difficult to be in limbo waiting to leave not sure if I'll get to go or not. One of the trainees in my class set up a community bulletin board that volunteers going to Tanzania have been using to communicate. Everyone is anxious to leave and more resolved than ever to go and make a difference in the world.

I know many of you are concerned for my safety, but I'm confident that the Peace Corps has volunteer safety under control. Corps operations have continued in all countries except Central Asia since the attacks on September 11. On October 1, the Peace Corps did discontinue the program in the Central Asian nations of Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Updates on volunteer safety and Peace Corps operation during this time can be found at http://www.peacecorps.gov/news/index.cfm.

My travel plans are as follows: October 22-23 in DC. Fly from DC to Amsterdam to Nairobi on October 23-24. Travel by bus to Arusha on October 25. I'll then spend 10 weeks in Arusha with 70 other Peace Corps trainees. During this time, I will live with a host family and attend training 5.5 days a week.

I will forward my permanent address once I get my assignment. (Note: it is not necessary to handwrite letters! If I had a typewriter or computer, I would be typing letters to ya'll…so please type away. Just make sure you print it out, put it in an envelope and mail it. I know that is actually the hard part. Feel free to send magazine articles, pictures, jokes, updates on favorite TV shows, etc. Short notes are just as good as long letters. Everyone loves mail - any mail.)

I guess that about covers everything for now.

Thank you all for your love, support and concern. Hopefully, I will be updating you from Tanzania in a couple of weeks!

Kwaheri (Goodbye)

P.S. For those new to this distribution, here is a little bit of background from a previous email…

As most of you know by now, I am finally going to fulfill my dream of serving in the Peace Corps. I will be leaving for Tanzania on September 22. I will be in Africa for 27 months and should return to the states in December 2003.

Tanzania is located in Eastern Africa directly south of Kenya and is the size of Texas and Oklahoma. There will be approximately 100 Peace Corps volunteers in the country working in the areas of education, health and the environment with an emphasis on youth empowerment. I'm very pleased that I'll have the opportunity to work with high school age youth.

We will spend the first 10 weeks in Arusha training in the areas of language, culture, safety and technical stuff. During training, I will be living with a local host family. This immersion into the culture will help my Swahili enormously (I hope!) Luckily for me, I will be teaching in English but will have to speak and understand Swahili in order to communicate with the people in my village. At the completion of training, I will get my permanent assignment and move to my village.

OCTOBER 22, 2001 OFF TO STAGING

Hey everyone!

I am about to jump in a taxi to go to my staging event in DC. I fly out tomorrow night for Tanzania. I probably won't have email access for about a week. Next time I write - it should be from Tanzania.

I AM SO EXCITED!!!

I will email you all again as soon as I can get online. Thanks again for all the well wishes. I promise to be safe.

OCTOBER 25, 2001 GREETINGS FROM ARUSHA

Hello Friends and Family,

I lucked out and a current PCV took me straight to an Internet Cafe. I am spending my first shillings to send you all a quick email.

I am in Arusha, Tanzania. We flew in to Kenya last night and took a bus here today. The country is absolutely amazing. The little villages are so surprising…I'll send more detail once we are allowed to walk around.

There are 56 Peace Corps Volunteers in my group. Everyone is quite nice. I would say the group is 50% just out of college, 35% mid twenties and about 15% are old farts like me over 30. The group is very diverse but the common Peace Corps bond is definitely there. After just 30 hours, I felt like I had friends already.

I am safe…everything appears to be Peaceful here...and I'm completely in awe that I'm finally here! I will write more once we learn our way around. My first Swahili lesson is tomorrow and I move in with my host family on Saturday.

Ya'll be safe in the United States. You're always in my thoughts.

OCTOBER 29, 2001 ARUSHA UPDATE

Habari za leo? (Literally - what's the news today?) Response is: Nzuri (good)

I've made it through my first week of the Peace Corps. It is hard to believe it's only been a week. Suffice it to say, I am doing very well; bathing regularly, haven't had diarrhea, and the food isn't as bad as we had anticipated.

I arrived in Arusha on Thursday. The population is about 120,000. You can walk across the main part of town in 30 minutes. Arusha has most of the luxuries we find in the states: bars, restaurants, internet cafes, post office, banks, etc. I don't know what my village will be like, but right now I can access most of the conveniences of home. Arusha sits in Northern Tanzania between Mt. Meru and Mt. Kilomanjaro. I saw Mt. Kilo on the drive here and it was absolutely spectacular. The mountain is approximately 18,000 ft high or maybe higher. I can't remember exactly. I hope I will get to climb it though while I am here -- as a PCV it would be possible to organize a trip to Mt. Kilo for my students. My primary mode of transportation will be to "hoof it," so I hope that will be a good start to the training needed to hike the mountain.

My Peace Corps training so far has involved 4 hours of Swahili instruction. We've learned greetings and introductions. It seems we will never learn enough fast enough. I'm assured though that at the end of 7 weeks we will be speaking at Intermediate level and will have all the basic survival skills. I haven't tried to purchase anything at the market yet; I think I will wait another week or two. We've also had training in safety and medical. Living here is a challenge compared to Austin, Texas. All water and milk must be boiled before drinking. Fruits and vegetables have to be peeled and soaked to remove bacteria and other critters. Today we learned that we must iron our clothes to kill larvae laid on the clothes after hanging to dry. Life here is A LOT of work. After today's lessons on health, if you didn't have a strong commitment to being here, you probably aren't going to make it. So far it's been an amazing, overwhelming experience but definitely not easy.

I moved in with my host family on Saturday. There is a mama (mother), baba (father) and 3 wtoto (children). Alyah is 12, Tariq is 9 and Nabil is 4 1/2. There is an 18 year old cousin Chulthum (Chumu) living there to help me. She has been an absolute god-send. My parents speak a little English. The children know English well and are helping me learn Swahili. My family lives in a nice house for Arusha. We have electricity and running water. The hotwater doesn't go to the bath area so we have to take bucket baths. It isn't so bad. The toilet is a squat toilet but it does flush. The Peace Corps Training Center has western toilets so I plan to use those as much as possible. My family has a TV, VCR and radio which did surprise me. We watched a lot of TV yesterday. There is only 1 channel. Unfortunately, they get a lot of old American Soap Operas like the Bold and the Beautiful and Passions. I also got to watch the Fresh Prince of BelAir. I can't believe that is the America they get to see. I guess it is my job to tell them about the real America.

The food here is actually very healthy. I eat rice, pasta (spaghetti), meat sauces, beans, bananas, vegetables, eggs. We drink a lot of chai (tea), coffee and hot cocoa. The milk has to be boiled also and is actually quite good.

I am about out of internet time. I pay 1000 shillings for 1 hour. That is about $1.10 US. Only problem is…we only get paid $1.60 US a day right now. Interesting how your view of money changes.

I am having the time of my life, but I expect the next 7 weeks to be crazy though. Training ends in mid December and things settle down after that.

I will send another update over the weekend. Take care of yourselves.

Kwa Heri (good bye)

NOVEMBER 3, 2001 WEEK 1 UPDATE

Hello everyone,

I just finished my first official week of training. I have to say I am very glad we have Sunday off. We train Monday through Saturday. It is very tiring both mentally and physically and I'm looking forward to the day off tomorrow.

This week I had 12 more hours of Swahili training. The houseboy and housegirl at my homestay family don't speak English and I desperately want to be able to talk to them. I know the key to this Peace Corps thing is patience so I am trying hard to be patient. I know I will be communicating in Swahili soon but right now I can only say certain phrases.

In the technical area of training, I visited a Tanzanian Secondary School and observed 4 classes. The school is small with only 350 students…approx. 40 per class. The desks are wooden with attached seats, each classroom has a chalkboard and the students have copy books and pens/pencils. They don't have textbooks, so in 2 of the classes I observed, the teacher lectured for the first period while writing notes on the board. The teachere then erased the board and wrote the official notes on the board. Basically the teacher is copying the textbook on the board for the students. I will have to be creative to find a way to convey the information, give notes and make the best use of time. In 2 weeks, I have to student teach a class on Matter. For those who don't know, I'm teaching Chemistry which I haven't used in about 13 years. I was a little anxious about what subject matter I would be student-teaching, but it seems I lucked out. Matter is the first 5 pages of a college text book. I think I can handle it.

On the Medical front this week, I got several more vaccinations. Good news for those who want to visit, only Yellow Fever is required! We are getting 14 immunizations to keep us safe. We also learned about Malaria yesterday. Definitely a scary prospect. I must keep my bug spray handy and use my mosquito net.

Things with my host family are very good. When I get home from school, mama and the kids look at my notebook to see what I have learned, then quiz me on my numbers or verbs or whatever else. It is so funny to get school help from a 10 year old. The kids have incredible patience with me though -- so it is great fun for all of us. I'm so thankful I have them as a resource. I want to make them proud by learning their language. Tonight Chumu is taking me to a disco where they're having a Halloween party. We've been discussing costumes for weeks. She was going to be Batgirl, then a cowboy, and then yesterday she decided to be a witch -- like the witches she sees on Passions. There are no Halloween stores here so I'm not sure how she will pull a costume together. I, on the other hand, am going as an American. I'm going to actually wear makeup and dry my hair with a blowdryer (my family has one). A note to those concerned about me not shaving -- since I mentioned that to several of you and you were shocked <gasp> -- I did shave yesterday so I'm not a hippie-chick yet.

That concludes my update for this week. Thank you for all the emails! I'm looking forward to your letters and packages! My internet connection is slow today so I don't know that I will get to send many personal responses. I hope everyone is doing well. I'm missing everyone this week.

NOVEMBER 10, 2001 WEEK 2 UPDATE

Hello everyone,

I've completed my second week of training and I am doing great. Training seemed less draining this week although the subject matter is sometimes very depressing (health and safety issues.) Our training next week focuses on teaching. On Wednesday, I will student-teach my first class and on Thursday we get our site assignments. That is the day we are all looking forward to! I have some idea of where I might be going, but will hold off making the announcement until it is official.

Speaking of where I'm going - I need to tell you that I am no longer going to be teaching Chemistry. On Monday I was asked to be part of our Health Education program. I will now be teaching Math part-time and running health clubs and programs with the other half of my time. I am VERY excited about this change. This new assignment will give me the best of both worlds - the structure of teaching and the free time to work on programs that are important to me like HIV/AIDS education and girl empowerment.

So many "interesting" things happened this week, I jotted down a list of things to tell you:

Last Sunday was the day we were supposed to learn to handwash our clothes. Because I had been out late the night before and because it rained, I didn't wash my clothes. However, I did learn how to wash my underwear. Mama had me in the bathroom with a bucket showing me how to soak my panties and then scrub them. She told me to pay special attention to certain areas which are very important. I also learned that I was expected to wash my underwear each morning while taking my bucket bath. It seems keeping dirty underwear around is culturally unacceptable. I've switched over to this new practice and everything is going well. At 32, it's very strange feel like my undergarments are subject to inspection by Mama and the housegirl!

I have a question for you - when was the last time someone just came by and visited you unannounced? I'll bet you can't remember. In Tanzania, it is normal to visit your neighbors and friends all day. People will show up at your door and yell "hodi, hodi" to be let in. The appropriate response is "Karibu" (welcome).

It's a very nice custom that we have lost in America. I might feel different when I get to my site and people are at my door all day long to visit, but right now I think it is a really cool thing.

Cooking in Tanzania is also another interesting experience. Cooking here is takes a very long time. Dinner preparations can take 6 hours. While dinner is being made women will sit around on little stools to help and talk. On Monday, we went to visit my host father's sister home. About 8 women sat out back behind the house talking while a few women made chipati - kind of like Indian flatbread or flour tortillas depending on who makes them. Tanzania is very community/group/family oriented. The customs are such that people come first and foremost in life.

I think I mentioned trying to talk to my housegirl in Swahili in my last update. Her name is Mamoona and she only speaks Swahili. I know I'm making progress with my language skills because we are now able to talk. It takes a really long time to communicate simple things I've done during the day or things I need but we are able to communicate successfully about 50% of the time. I'm really looking forward to the day I understand everything but I'm enjoying the challenge of trying to communicate with her in her native tongue. She is so thrilled to be able to talk to me now that I look forward to our attempts at conversation.

In my first email, I mentioned watching old American soap operas. I thought you would be interested to know that apparently every Tanzanian family with a TVwatches Passions at 8:30 pm each night. Each PCV whose host family has a TV reports this same occurance at their homes. This is completely amazing to all of us because the show is so awful. In addition, it's an hour show in the US and only a 30 minutes here. That means if it takes something a month to happen on a show in America, it takes 2 months for something to happen here. Perhaps that explains the addiction? We watch every night waiting desperately for something to happen!

Last subject for today, the bathroom which here is called a Choo (pronouced with a long O). Choos vary from pit latrines to western style flush toilets. I felt the need to report that it isn't so bad to squat over a hole. For all of you woman, it is much easier than squatting over a dirty public toilet in the US. However, the public bathroom options here are quite scary. I went to one the other night and it was a squat toilet -- no toilet paper though. Just a faucet and a cup. As I'm sure you all know, this explains why some cultures don't eat with or pass things to people with the left hand. This is your toilet hand -- toilet paper is readily available in stores, so I'm not quite sure why no one uses it.

Did I mention that they eat with their hands here? It will take some time for me to get used to seeing grown men eat rice and beans with their hands. It is very messy and I haven't gotten the hang of it yet. I seem to have too many fingers to get rice in my mouth. Practice makes perfect!

Well, those are my ramblings for the week. I hope you have enjoyed. I am starting to get snail mail that ya'll have sent. It takes about 10 days to get here. If you want to send me mail, you can send it to my training center address until November 25. I'll send you my permanent address as soon as I have my assignment. Please send mail. It makes me very happy!

I've got to run. I'm just about out of internet time and I need to walk to dinner. Tonight we are going to an Ethiopian restaurant and then another disco.

Take care of yourselves. I miss you all very much.

NOVEMBER 17, 2001 WEEK 3 UPDATE

Hello Everyone,

I've just completed week 3. Only 4 more weeks until I am sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer! Our swearing in ceremony will be Saturday, December 15, at the US Embassy in Dar es Salaam (yes, the same embassy that was bombed in 1998, but not the same building.) It is a very big deal. I'm going to have an African dress made here for the ceremony. I'm SO in love with African dress! More to follow on that…

This week I was quite busy! Monday and Tuesday I did 2 microteachings at the Peace Corps Training Center. On Wednesday, I taught a Form 1 Chemistry class at Arusha Day Secondary School. Because the 9/11 terrorist attacks delayed our arrival by a month and our training will be cut short (7 weeks vs. 10 weeks) this is the only student-teaching I will have. Much to my surprise, the class on Wednesday went really well and that certainly boosted my confidence that I will be a successful instructor. It is a challenge teaching in English to students who have English as their second or third language. It takes a very long time to explain concepts in English and write everything on the chalkboard. I think it will be very rewarding though and am looking forward to getting my own classes and getting to know my students.

So - where am I going? Drumroll please!

I am going to Minaki Secondary School which is 2 km from Kisarawe. You will be hard pressed to find Kisarawe on a map. It is about 30 km from Dar es Salaam right smack in the middle of the Pugu Forest. It is supposed to be very hot and humid, but I've been told the forest takes the edge off. I might be from Texas…but I don't find that very comforting. The school has had 2 PCV's there each year since 1993 so I definately have a legacy to build upon. I will have a site mate -- a second year PCV is transferring to my school. I haven't met him yet so I'll fill you in on him once I get to Kisarawe. Our village is closest to Peace Corps headquarters in Dar, meaning all Peace Corps and Embassy people who want to see what Peace Corps Tanzania is up to will be visiting my site. Advantages and disadvantages I guess!

I didn't expect to be so close to Dar. It will make travel easier for me and easier for those of you will be visiting to get to my site. I want to focus my attention on my village, but it is comforting to know that I'll be able to go to Dar anytime I want for email and other luxuries. I hear the pool and the cheeseburgers at the American Club are very good, so I am sure Dar will tempt me. The only details I know about my house is that I have electricity and water. No news on the toilet yet -- that is the biggest question in my mind -- I'm not looking forward to a pit latrine. I ough. I don't know what my toilet situation is yet and that is the biggest question in my mind. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for the best. How can I complain though? I am in Africa! I'm supposed to be roughing it, right? I leave tomorrow to visit my site so I'll send all the details next week.

While I'm thinking about it - if you are planning a visit, June and December are the months I have off. You can fly into Dar or Arusha or even Nairobi. I think the only shot required is Yellow Fever--if fear over immunizations is holding you back, that is no excuse. I've already had 11 shots of the 14 shots required to live here. Only 3 more to go! I feel like a human pincushion. Just for the record, Rabies shots HURT - we had our last rabies shot yesterday (3 in the series.) There are a lot of feral dogs here and low flying bats so I'm glad I'm protected.

What else should I tell you about this week? I had my first dress made at a local tailor here in Arusha. It turned out very nice. It is tie-dye (does that surprise anyone?) I paid 15,000 shillings, which is about $17 USD. You can't beat the price for a custom made dress. I am finding out that wazungo (white people) get ripped off here. I tried to buy a bag at the market…the price started at 18,000 shillings. I could only talk them down to 12,000. So, I ended up sending mama to buy the bag. Without any bargaining, they bought it for 7000. Also, this week for language training, we had to go to the market and buy some items. I was supposed to buy a tikitimaji (watermelon). We saw a vendor on the street and asked the price in Swahili (Tikitimaji bei gani?). He told us elfo mbili (2000 shillings). The going price for a watermelon is about 600 shillings. We just laughed and walked away. It definitely helps to know the prices ahead of time so you can bargain better. I hope that once the people in my village know me, I'll be able to buy things without so much hassle. American Tourists have so much money compared to Tanzanians you can understand why they want to make extra money. It is just frustrating for us because we aren't tourists. Here's another example. I am staying at a guest house in Dar tomorrow night. I am paying 8000 shillings (about $9). Tourist hotels in Arusha are from $45 to $120 a night. Now I'm sure the tourist hotels are nicer but the price discrepancy is huge.

Oh! I almost forgot, last Sunday my family took me to Lake Manara National park. The price for Americans was $25. The price for a Tanzanian was 1500 shillings ($2). I paid more than my whole family to get in. It was a nice trip though. I saw lots of monkeys, elephants, giraffes and even some zebras off in the distance. I have pictures and will try to send some and get them scanned and put on our PCV website.

Interesting point about the trip, we went in a Toyota SUV that my baba borrowed. We had 10 people in the SUV! I was in the front with Nabil (the 4 year old) on my lap. There were 2 women and 2 teenage girls in the backseat. The other 3 kids were sitting on cushions in the back. It is amazing to go from living in a country where seatbelts are required to sitting in the front seat holding a child. I was cringing the entire trip. Riding in the daladalas (local buses) is even worse. Daladalas are vans with 4 rows of seats. They put about 20 - 30 people in them. People are standing, sitting on laps, hanging out the doors. It is CRAZY. It's not like taking a 'Dillo down Congress…you must lots of faith that you are going to get places safely.

I guess I should say goodbye for this week. Thank you everyone for the email and sending letters. I enjoy hearing from you. It is nice to get a glimpse of what ya'll are all up to in America.

NOVEMBER 23, 2001

BACK FROM ARUSHA SITE VISIT

Happy Belated Thanksgiving to everyone! I just returned to Arusha from my site visit. I will be sending out my weekly email probably on Sunday. Just wanted everyone to know I was back safe and sound. I spent Thanksgiving at the American Club in Dar. It is a private club that lets Peace Corps Volunteers in for free. Thirteen of us were there last night enjoying cheeseburgers, fries, real ketchup (they have runny tomato stuff here) and AIR CONDITIONING!! We saw a little of the Macy's parade and the football game on the Armed Forces Network. They have a VCR and a lot of old movies. We watched the Wedding Singer and laughed a lot. My village is only about 1.5 hour dalla dalla (bus) ride in to Dar so I think I will be spending a lot of time at the American Club in the future. Did I mention they have a pool? It is the only place I can wear a swimsuit and shorts. Dar has a large Muslim population, so no exposing the knees. I miss shorts.

I spent about 4 days at my school and have seen my house. I will give you all the details in my weekly update, however, you’ll all be pleased to know I have a flush toilet (at least it flushes when we have water) and I have electricity; so I'll be living in high style for the rest of my stay in Africa.

Anyway, just wanted to say a quick hello. I will send my new address in my weekly update later this weekend. I hope you all are enjoying the long weekend! Someone please go to the Hula Hut and drink a margarita for me!

NOVEMBER 24, 2001

WEEK 4

It is Saturday afternoon here in Arusha. I just finished eating a late "Thanksgiving" dinner with my Peace Corps friends. We were all traveling this week, so today was the first day we were all back in Arusha.   Peace Corps organized lunch for us at the Jambo Café. We had chicken (no turkeys here), mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, rolls and even Apple Pie with Ice Cream. It wasn't quite America but it was damn close. I hope you all ate well on Thanksgiving. Please write me and let me know how wonderful your holiday was! Don't forget to tell me about how full and miserable you felt and then how nice the turkey induced nap was afterward. I remember it all so well.

I have just finished my fourth week of training. Last Saturday, before I left for my site visit, I took my mid-training Swahili exam.   The oral part went fairly well. The trainers told me that I need to speak Swahili more. I am very slow but I do know what I am supposed to say. On the written exam, I scored a 78. The average for my group was a 77 so I am right on the average. You need a 60 to pass so I just might make it through this Swahili thing after all. I'm going to try to study more intensely over the next 2 weeks. Since my last week of training will be in Dar es Salaam, I have to take my final Swahili exam on December 8.

This past week was spent traveling around Tanzania. On Sunday, I met another volunteer at 7:30 to take the
dala dala to the bus stand. We arrived at around 8 am. We boarded the bus to Dar with 2 other volunteers
and our training coordinator. The bus pulled away from the curb on time which was 8:30 am. We drove a
block, the bus stopped and then we noticed oil was covering the road. What transpired next was quite a scene. Tanzanian "mechanics" showed up to evaluate the situation. The engine is located beside the driver so they take off the cover and begin looking at the engine. After a little looking, the mechanics take a chai (tea) break. Then they begin to repair the bus with twine. I don't know what they were tying on the engine – I figured the less the engineer in me knew the better. At 10 am, the engine starts and off we go -- for 2 whole blocks. We had lost the oil again. By 10:30, the bus company has decided we should go back to the station and wait. They load us on a dala dala (minivan) and drive us back to their office. There were about 24 people on the dala dala. Once at the office, we try to get on the next bus coming from Nairobi. It is full and they offer us the aisle. We decline (it is a 9 hour bus ride).   At this point, they tell us another bus is coming in 30 minutes. We run to McMoody's to grab lunch and rush back. We (Sara, Nicole, Nick and me) ended up sitting on the floor in the bus office eating food and playing hearts. 2 hours later we started to get a little impatient. The training coordinator is talking to the country directors to see if Peace Corps will drive us to Dar -- a decision that is going to take at least an hour. We head back to McMoody's to grab a soda. Five minutes after arriving, the PC driver shows up and tells us a bus has arrived. We rush back, jump on the bus and off we go. We finally departed for Dar 6 hours late. The amazing thing is all the Tanzanians were very patient. No one got upset. They just sat at the office and waited and waited. When the bus finally left, all the original passengers were onboard!! Even more amazing to me was that as we made the drive to Dar, we picked up more passengers who were waiting by the road. They had been waiting for over 6 hours! How long were they going to wait?

We arrived in Dar at about 11 pm and checked into our hotel. On Monday morning, the current volunteers at my site met me at the hotel and took me to my school. From Dar the trip takes about 1.5 hours. I am 40 km west of Dar in the Pugu Forest. Thankfully, the road is paved most of the way, but once we hit the dirt road it is uphill the rest of the way. The school sits half-way up the hill. The actual Village of Kisarawe is 2 km farther up the hill.   The school is both a day and boarding school. About 150 girls and boys are day students. The other 650 boys live at the school. There are 40 teachers at the school who live in houses on the school grounds. The teachers run small stores called Dukas on the school campus to make money. I can buy flour, sugar, oil, soda, water, laundry detergent, etc. at the dukas on the campus. I believe I will get the house that the current volunteers live in. It is very small. There is a kitchen with 2 electric burners, a small "dorm" type fridge and a sink. The living area has a dining table, coffee table, couch and 2 chairs. The bedroom has a bed, a nice dresser and a closet. The bathroom is inside with a flush toilet, sink and a shower. The water pressure is quite low though so the shower doesn’t work most of the time. There’s no hot water heater so baths/showers will be cold. Overall, the school is nice and the headmaster is very supportive of Peace Corps. I am in the 5th set of PC volunteers that the school’s had. The students I will teach were taught by another volunteer for the past 2 years so they should be used to an American. The English usage and understanding at the school seems to be fairly low. All secondary education in Tanzania is supposed to be taught in English. The National Exams that the students must pass after Form 2, Form 4 and Form 6 are in English, so I'm quite surprised and a little concerned by the amount of Swahili spoken during instruction. If the students don't learn English they cannot pass the exams. I think I will try to start an English club of some sort. If anyone has any ideas on fun ways to learn English or any English games, I would be very interested. I want to make the club fun.   Other than the lack of English, I think the school runs very well. The students seem to be well behaved and fairly interested in learning. I'm looking forward to working with them.

I went into the Village of Kisarawe. It is very small. There’s a post office, a small hospital, government district offices, a couple of duka (stores) and a soko (market). There is one restaurant place that serves good rice and beans. I didn't spend much time in Kisarawe, so I’ll fill you in more as I explore.

I returned to Dar es Salaam on Thursday and the volunteers from my site gave me the dime tour. They showed me a nice internet café and grocery store. We had Ice Cream and Coca Cola Light. It turns out the coke light bottled in South Africa is close to Diet Coke in America. As you all know, that made me VERY happy. I'm not sure how I feel about the city of Dar yet. It is a large city with lots of buses and traffic and dirt. It will take a little bit of time to learn my way around. It seems I can buy anything I need there, so I consider myself quite fortunate to live so close. I guess I better close this note and send it before I run out of internet time.

Thank you everyone for all the emails and letters. I enjoy hearing about life in the USA. Please keep writing. I really enjoy mail. Until next week - take care of yourselves.

NOVEMBER 30, 2001

WEEK 5

Tomorrow will be the end of week 5. It is hard to believe that I only have 2 weeks of training left. I'm sending my email update today because tomorrow we are going on Safari. All of the Peace Corp Trainees are going to Ngorogoro Crater for 2 days. We are all really looking forward to the trip. We will be driving to the crater tomorrow and camping on Saturday night. I will take lots of pictures and try to have them scanned so all of you can see them. Bring On The Animals!!! I can't wait.

This week has been just SUPER! It started with cooking lessons on Sunday. I learned how to cook Beans and Mchicha (spinach). I then taught my family how to cook pizza. We were going to put chicken on the pizza and I got a little nervous when I went out in the backyard and saw a live chicken. I told them that there was no way I could kill the chicken. They laughed and told me that in Moslem culture, it is bad luck for women to kill for food. That was a huge relief. I still wasn't too excited about having to meet my dinner before eating it. I left Sunday afternoon to buy the pizza ingredients and was glad to find the chicken still alive when I got home. The chicken did get slaughtered on Monday though….I wasn't around for any part of it…and we had chicken for dinner Monday night. I will tell you that I couldn't eat the chicken. I've eaten other chicken this week but I just didn't want to eat chicken that I had seen alive. I know – it’s crazy. I may end up a vegetarian before this is all over. The meat here is not good anyway. They don't trim off the fat and there are lots of bones. I could really use a good American Butcher and some prepackaged meat!! The meat is so bad that I told the teachers at my new school that I was a vegetarian. Now when I go over their houses, I won't have to eat any meat.

Just incase any of you were concerned, I finally washed all of my underwear by hand. Every pair I own is clean except for the pair I am wearing. The reason I bring this up again is because I ended up with huge cuts and abrasions on 3 of my knuckles. Hand washing bites! I promised myself that I will pay my house girl very well to wash my clothes. Also, if you ever live in a country where you cannot dry your clothes in a dryer, you need to keep in mind that nothing shrinks back. I have cotton dresses that are now 6 inches longer than when I arrived.

This week I started my health training. It’s been very interesting. Yesterday we visited a Tanzanian Hospital. First let me say, I am glad I will be getting my medical care in a large city. The hospitals are super small. They are several small buildings spread out over a campus. The only equipment I saw was an X-ray machine and an ultrasound. The hospital had wards for woman and children, for men, and for TB patients. There are about 16 beds in one room in each of the wards (except TB). If the hospitals run out of beds, patients are put on the floor on mattresses. It was a little sad.   When we first started our tour, we saw 4 nurses carrying a stretcher with a body across the hospital grounds to the morgue. We were warned that death would usually result in a lot of wailing. Luckily for us, that was not the case on this day. Today we had a session on dealing with loss. One of my concerns when I left for Tanzania was dealing with all the death. I am less concerned about that now…I will just have to see. When someone dies in Tanzania, the family and friends gather around the person who has lost their spouse, child, etc, and they stay with the person for 3 days. This week my host mother's Uncle died. She has been at the house with the wife since Wednesday. I've heard it is really quite an amazing experience. I'm sure you will hear more about this during my next 2 years in Tanzania. The customs here are quit different.

The second stop on our field trip yesterday was an elementary school. I have to say that this has to be the high point of my Peace Corps experience so far. We pull into the school in 2 Landrovers. There are 11 white people in the cars. All the kids are outside playing and they start running at the cars, pointing and yelling. They were so excited to see wazungu!! Now I know how the giraffe feel. We went to the classrooms and talked to the students.  They only speak Swahili so I just listened. The kids were so in awe of us. They sat so still with HUGE smiles on their faces. They would all answer our questions together as loud as possible. Marialena asked the class if they had a class song. The whole class (about 120 kids - it was 2 years combined) stood up and sang at the top of their lungs. It was beautiful. We went outside and the little Standard 1 and 2 kids (ages 7-10) were playing drums, singing and dancing. When you do African dances, you really shake your matako (butt). These little kids were so cute singing and shaking and playing their drums.   Next the teachers escorted us into a room were they had set up lunch. They had decorated the room with flowers and had eggs, chicken, peanuts and soda (all very expensive items in Tanzania) for us along with fruit, cooked bananas and cassava. After we ate, they brought out a cake (cake is reserved for very special occasions in Tanzania.) It was such a humbling experience. The school did not pay for this lunch. The teachers made the lunch and gave of themselves for us. It was a truly amazing experience and I’ll never forget. I left the school knowing that I want to learn Swahili well enough that I can go back and teach primary school children health education.

Well that was my week for the most part. I'm more committed to Peace Corps now more than ever. I'm completely content in my decision to be here and am so looking forward to the next 2 years.

I hope this update finds you all happy and doing well. I enjoy hearing from all of you. Please feel free to
send email if you want. It looks like I will have access at least biweekly or monthly. Keep the real letters coming though to. I really, really, really enjoy mail. Until next week...ya’ll be safe!

DECEMBER 11, 2001

A QUICK HELLO

It’s been almost two weeks since my last email and this is just a quick hello to let you all know I'm okay. I’ve been in Dar since Sunday. I will spend the week finishing my Health training here and on Saturday we will be sworn in as volunteers at the Embassy. Hopefully get on line early next week to tell you all about the last couple of weeks.

I hope you are all well and enjoying the holidays. I heard Christmas songs yesterday and it seemed so strange. It is about 85 degrees with high humidity in Dar. Wait! It’s probably the same in Austin!

Please send me some email and let me know what you are up to if you get a chance. I would love to hear and I
should have time to read email next week.

I love and miss you all.

DECEMBER 19, 2001

WEEK 6

Dearest Friends and Family,

If you have been going through Africa update withdrawal, don't worry - here they come! I will start with week 6:

As you remember, I was going on Safari at the Ngorongoro Crater. All of the trainees left on Saturday around 12:30 pm in 6 Land Rovers. About an hour into the ride, we opened a bottle of Tanzanian white wine and passed in around our Land Rover. It was a wonderful way to start the weekend (even if the wine wasn't very tasty – what I’d give for a Speakeasy martini right now!) We arrived at our campsite at around 3 pm. To say the place was utterly-absolutely-breathtakingly-bring-a-tear-to-your-eye-beautiful would be a massive understatement. Our tents were on the side of the rift valley overlooking Lake Manyara (this is the same park that my family took me to about a month ago.) We spent the evening drinking beer, playing cards and playing a question game. People wrote down questions and then we took turns picking a question from a hat and answering. It felt a little like a casting special for the Real World/Road Rules.

We awoke the next morning at 5 am, had breakfast, watched the sunrise over the Lake and then left for the Crater. It was about a 2 hour ride on a dirt road. Needless to say we were all wide awake and quite dirty when we arrived at the crater. I can't even explain the crater to you and do it justice. You enter the crater and drive straight down probably 3000 ft into the crater (I'm just guessing). From the top, it doesn't look like there is anything in the crater. All we could was a body of water. The sides of the crater are similar to the Grand Canyon with less color. The Grand Canyon is the closest comparison I can come up with but the crater is just so different. As we entered the Crater, we removed the top panels of the Land Rover, so the 6 of us were standing on the seats with our heads out of the top of the vehicle. We were on SAFARI! It was exactly as one would imagine. In the crater, we saw elephants, zebra, Thompson's Gazelle, warthogs, wildebeests, water buffalo, hippos and flamingos. We did see Rhinoceros and a cheetah through the binoculars. The zebras were beautiful. They stand head to tail side by side so they can see both direction and I guess also confuse predators. The stripes and patterns created by the large group of zebras was beautiful. The hippos were interesting. They were hard to see because they were buried in the mud. As we watched, two of them stood up and walked across the mud to another spot and then reburied themselves. We had lunch at this nice lagoon were there were hippos in the water. The hippos looked like rocks and had birds just perched on their backs. At the lagoon, there were some vicious birds -- you had to watch your lunch carefully. I was sitting on a rock beside a friend who was eating and a bird flew in and stole his sandwich right out of his hand. I proceeded to scream and drop my camera. It still works but it has a new scratch to remind me of the Safari. We left the Crater about 1:30 pm just as a rain storm was coming in. You could see the curtain of rain off in the distance. Overall, the trip was amazing. I've never been so dirty though. The cost for 1.5 days was $95 US. I'm hoping some of you will come visit so I will have an excuse to Safari again.

Training week 6 consisted primarily of my final Swahili tests. You have heard me talk about this so much so I thought you should hear the results. On the written test, I scored a 88.5. I was 18th out of the 49 volunteers, so not too bad if I say so myself. I had the oral test on Friday. I had to speak Swahili with the tester for 30 inutes. It wasn't pretty. I definitely wasn't using good Swahili all the time but I managed to be understood and to have a little fun talking with the tester. There are 7 levels: 3 novice, 3 intermediate, 2 advanced and 1 superior. We needed Intermediate low to pass. I tested intermediate mid. I was extremely surprised and very happy. I don't know how the whole group did. Of the 9 health volunteers: 1 tested Intermediate high, 6 Intermediate Mid, and 2 Novice high. I guess we all learned more Swahili than we realized. I can't say I'm comfortable using it yet but I'm getting there. I'm really motivated to become proficient.

Lastly, for week 6, we hosted a dinner to thank our homestay families. It was really nice. The families put on a skit for us making fun of Americans washing clothes by hand and Americans eating tacos (as I wrote before Tako -- pronounced "taco" -- means "butt cheek" in Swahili.) It was cute. The trainees sang a couple of songs for the families. Then we all danced and sang traditional African songs while a group played the ngomas (drums). It was a great evening overall. I went home and spent my last night hanging out with my family. I really lucked out and had the greatest family. For my departing gift, they had a dress made for me. It is another tie-dyed dress with lots of color. The material is puckered like seersucker. I really like the dress. I wore it last week and a friend said I looked like a clean Deadhead. I thought that was a good description and, as ya’ll know, it fits me quite well.

WEEK 7

Ten days ago I left Arusha and traveled to Dar for my last week of Health training with the other 9 Education/Health volunteers. We traveled by bus without any major problems and arrived in Dar around 6:00 pm. We checked into the City Ambassador Hotel for our week in Dar. It was so nice to finally have the freedom to come and go as we pleased. In Arusha, we had to be home to our families before dark Freedom is so nice.

The first night we ate at a fast food restaurant called Best Bite. It has sandwiches, chips, Indian food and Ice Cream. In Tanzania, ice cream is always nice. At Best Bite, we bought bottled water and I though I would share the label with you. The water is bottled for Best Bite by Best Drinks LTD in Dar. Here is the description on the bottle: "Best Drink is the best pure Drinking Water free from all contaminations. It is most refreshing pure and natural drink, delightful on its own and best for your digestive system." I hope that this is a little funny to you all. We all laugh every time we read it. After 7 weeks in Africa, a lot of things are funny.

On Monday, a small group of us went to the American Club to go swimming. In Tanzania, women have to cover their knees and don't wear sleeveless shirts. It was so freeing to put on a swimsuit and jump in the
pool. The water was like bath water but it was still refreshing and enjoyable. Dar is extremely hot and
very humid. I find it very interesting that in Swahili there is no word for humidity. The Swahili word for hot is joto so all we can say is joto sana (very hot). I think the weather is similar to Houston or New Orleans in mid-July. It is definitely worse than Austin. It is about 85 degrees right now. I believe it gets hotter in January and February. I'm looking forward to March when the rains come. I'm hoping it gets cooler.

On Thursday, the group had some free time so we went into Dar. You will never guess what I purchased!!
Okay - some of you will. I bought a mobile phone! Just to make myself feel better, I will tell you that about 8 of our 49 trainees bought phones. I don't have great reception at my school but I can use the phone in Dar and will probably have good reception at my school before my 2 years of service is up. The good thing about mobile phones here is that incoming calls are free. It will cost me only $5 a month to keep the phone active. It seemed worth the investment.

I have a question - you know how everyone gets 15 minutes of fame? If I'm on Tanzanian news, does that
count against my 15 minutes? If so, I think I've lost about 5 minutes. On Friday, we had a Head Masters Conference to discuss the school health project with our headmasters. The news media attended and I made
the evening news. I didn't see the coverage but volunteers that night were all coming up to me and saying - you were on the news. I hope my homestay family saw it. I was wearing the dress they had made for me.

I had my third African Dress made for Swearing In. I am so amazed at how cheap it is to have clothing made
here and how nice it is. I bought the material for about $9 and the dress was made for $8. I'm also amazed at how well it fits. When they are measuring you and sketching a drawing of the dress, it seems impossible that it will turn out. Also, the shops are tiny. This shop was about 12'X12' and had about 3 sewing machines. I was skeptical that they would finish the dress in time. No worries though. A friend picked it up on Friday and brought it to me. It fits perfect. I already know I'm going to miss having my clothes custom made when I return to the states.

Well, Saturday was the big day. I officially became a volunteer. Swearing In was held at the DSM's house
(#2 guy at the Embassy). His property is BEAUTIFUL. There were trees with huge pink flowers (they looked like magnolias) and we could see the Indian Ocean over the wall surrounding the compound. Swearing in began with us singing the Tanzanian National Anthem, then the Star Spangled Banner, and then there were lots of speeches. The new Ambassador to Tanzania had just arrived late the evening before but he was there to swear us in. National Geographic is doing a special on Ambassadors so they were there taping. After swearing in, we went to the American Club for a post party. Overall, it was a wonderful day. It is so nice to be officially a Peace Corps Volunteer. It has only taken me 10 years but it was so worth the wait. After last week, I really know that PCVs can make a difference and I'm excited to do that.

Well, I think you've probably had enough to read for today so I will hold off on getting you completely caught up. A few things to look forward to hearing about: the beach we went to on Sunday, arriving at my site on Monday and hearing Dr. Jane Goodall speak last night. I will tell you about all those things in a week or two. I will have to travel to DAR to use the internet so my updates will be a little less frequent. So, don't worry -- I'm doing fine.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year. I'm going to visit some of my volunteer friends in Dodoma for Christmas which should be fun. I plan to be home or in Dar for New Year's so I will drop you all a note then.

AT MY SITE IN KISARAWE

January 3, 2002

At school, I have access to three computers…none of them work too well. I'm typing this in WordPad because someone is on the “good” computer and the keyboard and mouse for the other computers are really bad. Sometimes I still have to remind myself that I'm living in a developing country. The computer I'm using now is new. The problem is it doesn't have a CD drive and it does not have Office loaded on it. It makes the computer a little worthless. It has Windows and games. Not much else.

On to the more interesting stuff! Let me first tell you about the trip to the Island, Jane Goodall and Christmas and then I'll tell you about my house.

The day after we were sworn in, about 20 new Peace Corps Volunteers went to Bagamoyo Island off the coast of Dar. You pay 5500 TSH (about $6) to take a boat out to the island. Take a boat. No problem right?! HA! You have to wade out in the water and mud to get in a wooden boat with a motor. The mud was very, very thick and you sink into it very quickly. It was like a vacuum holding your feet down. I was so glad to be wearing Tevas as opposed to malapas (flip flops). There were points when I didn't think I would get my sandals out of the mud. Did I mention that I was carrying a bag with book, towel, etc., and another bag with a loaf of bread and a gallon jug of water? I was very happy to make it to the boat without dropping anything or getting anything wet. Once we load the boat up with about 15 people, it took us out to a bigger boat about 200 yards out. Once you get everyone into this larger boat (it took about 3 trips in the little boat), you motor to Bagamoyo Island which takes about 30 minutes. The ride was beautiful and the ocean very calm. Once we got within sight of the island, we had to get in another little wooden boat to travel to the shore. Wooden boats are just another little reminder that this is Africa. Once we got to Bagamoyo, we were astounded by how beautiful it is. The sand is white and very fine. The Indian Ocean was clear and very warm. The island has little bandas with bamboo mats where you could get some shade. Probably the greatest thing about Bagamoyo is that it is safe and fairly deserted. The only thing to do on the Island was relax, swim in the Ocean or collect shells along the water.

There was one man on the island who sells plates of fish and chips (French fries) for 3000 TSH ($3.50). The fish was caught that day (DELICIOUS) and we had several different kinds of fish on each plate. The trip was very relaxing…I felt like I was on an island vacation. The only thing missing was some cold rum drinks and Tye Diggs. The island was the perfect way to end our weeks of training. It’s comforting to know Bagamoyo is so close to my site. I've put it on my list of escape places in case I'm having a bad week. Just another one of the advantages to being so close to Dar.

On Monday, I traveled to my house which I will tell you about later. Being so close to Dar though, I made plans to come back to Dar on Tuesday to hear Dr. Jane Goodall speak about her work in Tanzania. I admit not knowing much about her work, but I'm sure some of you will. She was in Dar to brief the new Ambassador on her work and had agreed to hold the briefing at the American Club. She spoke about how she started working with Chimps in 1960 in Tanzania and how the Jane Goodall Institute was established to support her work. JGI is now funding programs in the villages surrounding her chimps’ habitats to help improve the lives of the villagers. Her chimps are at risk because of the deforestation in the area and the other abuses of the environment. She spent a good deal of time driving home the point that the basic needs of the people here need to be met before they are willing and able to work on the environment. Such a true statement. She’s also started a group for school aged children called Roots and Shoots. This program is in schools in over 80 countries. The program promotes healthy humans, care of animals and care of the environment. Okay - those weren't the exact words but that's basically what I remember. She is a fascinating woman. I'm anxious to read her books now and will possibly look at working with her Roots and Shoots program. If anyone is a big fan, I will probably have the opportunity to hear her speak again and I’ll be happy to get a book signed for you. Just let me know.

For Christmas, I traveled to Dodoma to spend the holiday with some Peace Corps friends. I was luck enough to travel with Eve to Dodoma on Sunday. Then I took a bus by myself to Mvumi to see my friend Becky's site. We had made plans the week before and she was supposed to know I was coming on Sunday. The plan was for her to meet me at the bus stop when I got to Mvumi. I had no idea if she would remember. It was a little scary. Eve and I got to Dodoma and found a couple of buses to Mvumi (it turns out it was the same bus it just loaded at 2 places). I bought my ticket at the bus station and waited for the bus. It was about 15 minutes late and when it pulled into the station it was packed. About five passengers, including me, got on the bus and off we went. I had a seat number but the aisle was full of people. It was absolute chaos. I had my small backpack and I was trying to get down the aisle to my seat. There was an old man in front of me with a cane and a bag of rice. He was having trouble also. The conductor ended up taking my bag and I took the old man's bag. Then we attempted to squeeze down the aisle. At times my toes were barely touching the ground and I was holding myself up by my arms. I was wedged in so tight at times I bet there were 5 different people touching me on all sides. I don't know how I made it down the aisle. It took a good 10 minutes to go 6 aisles to my seat. Needless to say I was very happy to get to a seat and to get my bag back from the conductor. As the bus entered Mvumi, I started to get nervous about whether Becky would be there. Mvumi appears to be a tiny village with just mud huts, but the bus stopped about 10 times to let people off before we actually get to the village center. The village proper was quite modern by Africa standards, with a large hospital and a very nice Missionary School. When the bus stopped at the school, I looked out the window and still don't see Becky. I decided to ride to the last stop with my fingers crossed that she’d be there. As people are unloading, I see this mzungu (white person) walking across the field. As I jumped off the bus, I’d have never been so relieved to see someone in my whole life. I had made it! I was visiting my first volunteer on my own! It was nice to see another volunteer's site and just hang out and chat. The next day we traveled back to Dodoma and met up with the other volunteers.

Thirteen volunteers spent Christmas at Matt's house. Five were new volunteers from my class. We ate American Food (chili dogs, cheeseburgers, potato salad, pancakes, brownies) along with fish, goat, pig and fruit salad. Matt borrowed a TV and VCR so we spent most of the 2 days watching movies (Star Wars, MI2, Footloose, and several others that I can't remember). There was of course the traditional Christmas Football game or is that a Thanksgiving tradition? Anyway we played on the soccer field. As the game was going on, we gathered quite a crowd of Tanzanian spectators. Overall, Christmas was a lot of fun. Training was so long and intense, that the transition in to being a volunteer has been wonderful.

Now let me tell you about my site! On Monday, December 17, I had the luxury of having Peace Corps drive me to my site with all of my stuff. Still another of the advantages of being close to Dar! I went to the Peace Corps office about 10 am and at 11:25 am, I was pulling up to my house in a Landrover with all of my stuff. I was definitely the first volunteer to reach my site. Other people had to travel two to three days to their sites and wait almost a week for their stuff. I spent the first day cleaning up my bedroom, unpacking my stuff and meeting my sitemate, Lee.

Lee is about 45. He is a second year volunteer who transferred to Kisarwe because his first school had issues with discipline and safety. Lee has a PhD. in Geophysics and will be teaching A-level Physics (A-level is equivalent to Senior year of High School/first year of college.) I was a little concerned about how Lee and I would get along because he was described as being very dry and extremely cynical. Well, I need not have worried. Lee has been really cool. We don't spend a lot of down time with each other, but we do go to the village together to shop and even went to Dar last week to go to Peace Corps and do some shopping. The walk to the village takes 30 minutes and the daladala ride to Dar is 1.5 hours so the company is really nice. Also, it is just nice to have a fellow American around to speak English and vent a little about the difficulties of being in Tanzania. My transition to my site would have been more difficult if Lee wasn’t here.

My house is half of a duplex -- a Japanese Volunteer lives in the other half. I have a covered porch which was
BLANKETED with spiders. BIG spiders. The BIGGEST spiders I’ve ever seen. I've been working hard for the last week at killing them and knocking them down. I think I might finally be winning. Also on the porch is a clay oven which other volunteers built. Since I've begun to win the war against the spiders, I’ve been trying my luck at cooking pizza, bread and banana bread in the oven. I've done fairly well considering the oven uses charcoal and has no temperature gauge. The middle of the pizza was a little crunchy and the middle of the banana bread took a long time to cook, but overall I’d say it was a success!

Now on to the inside of the house. The living room is a nice size. I have a couch, chair, coffee table and two bookcases. There’s also a large wooden dining table and 2 chairs in front of the windows. This is where I
plan to work. My bedroom is also a nice size. I have full-size bed, an armoire, desk, 2 chairs and a closet. The bed and armoire are both made of beautifully carved wood. I’ve heard that the girlfriend of one of the previous volunteers was visiting so he went out and bought really nice furniture. I'm sure his girlfriend liked it and I REALLY do. My kitchen is very small. It has a dorm size refrigerator which makes me very happy. I have 2 electric burners and a sink. I also have a charcoal jiko (a little charcoal cooker) to use when the electricity goes out - which it does every day thus far. And lasty…drumroll, please…my house has an indoor bathroom with running water, a western flush toilet and a shower! There is no hot water but the shower is still nice on most days.

However, before I mislead you, let me take a moment to touch on electricity and running water. These are the
two things I wasn't sure I would have in Tanzania. I will say that I am very fortunate to have both. And just so you don't think I’m not a developing country, let me tell you about the electricity and water. First, the electricity goes out every day. I don't know why this is happening. It seems to go off mid day and come back just as it gets dark. I wasn't expecting the electricity to go out daily and cooking on charcoal is really difficult. One of my next purchases will be a kerosene jiko (cooker) for the when the power is out. But, alas, village is out of kerosene. Luckily for me, Lee let me fill up my lantern with kerosene the first day the power went out so at least I'm a little prepared. I now have matches, candles and a lantern. As for the water…it is running but boy is it dirty. Usually it comes out of the faucet looking clean, but for the last day it has been coming out brown. It’s so bad that if I fill up a bucket I can't see through the water. Yuck! I had to wait until the water cleared up some before I could shower yesterday. In order to drink the water, I have to filter it and then boil it. Even
after doing all that it still has a taste. So if you want to know what to send me. Crystal Light , Sugarfree Kool Aid or anything I can mix with this water to make it taste better! It is so hot and humid here that it’s hard to stay hydrated. Much less when the water tastes so bad.

Back to the weather for a minute – believe me when I tell you it is HOT and HUMID. The temperature every day varies from 80 degrees at night to about 85-90 degrees during the day, but the humidity is extremely high. The minute you walk outside to do anything you break a sweat. The 30 minute walk to the village is up 2 hills. By the time we get there, I’m completely drenched. I use a bandana to mop my face when walking or riding the daladals. This is probably the hottest I've ever been. Now those of you in Texas are saying to yourselves "80 degrees is nothing." Well, that is true in Texas where you can escape from the heat in air-conditioned offices, cars and houses. My air-conditioning consists of a fan (and boy I'm glad I have that fan!) The other thing that seems to be lacking here is ice cold margaritas. Put that on my list of things I miss the most.

There is so much to tell you about life here. Every day something strikes me as interesting and different. I’m so very excited to finally be in Kisarwe.

Did I mention that I have monkeys at my house? There is a mango tree in my front yard and the monkeys run through the branches of the tree eating mangos and then drop them on my roof. They are a little loud at times but it is really neat to walk outside your front door and watch monkeys play in your mango tree.

Last main point for today…it is extraordinarily quiet here. Okay, not all the time. There is a kid that lives in the house beside mine who cries all the time but when he isn't crying it is so very quiet. My homestay family had a TV so I never realized what it was like to live without a TV until I got to my house. Every day I wake up and eat breakfast, clean, read, go to the village, read some more, cook, clean, nap, read, listen to CDs. The
days are so long and the quiet has started to get to me. It is hard to keep myself busy. I've read several books and listened to all of my CDs a couple of times (hint! Hint! SEND MUSIC!) It is amazing how long the days
are when there isn't a television to watch or somewhere to be. I've started working on my lesson plans and I need to be studying Swahili. Once school starts, I’ll be very busy. Right now the days seem endless, but I'm trying to relax and enjoy them. I'm sure it will be a long time before I have this much free time again.

I expect to be sending updates every 2 weeks now. I will have access to email in Dar so please feel free to send me email. Internet access is very cheap (500 TSH/hour). It costs 800 TSH to mail a letter to America. That doesn't mean I won't be writing! I just find it interesting how much things cost here. I'll write more about that in another update soon.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year.

MONEY, HOUSEGIRL AND RAIN (FINALLY!)

January 18, 2002

It’s hard to believe that I have been in Tanzania for 4 months. It seems like only yesterday that I was sitting at home in Austin, watching the news, and wondering if I would get to go at all. Well here I am - practically a Tanzanian! Okay, not.

I moved into my house a month ago. In the beginning, each day brought new experiences and new challenges.
In the last week or so, I've realized that life has become quite routine. I have adjusted to boiling my drinking water, doing laundry by hand, cooking dinner (which takes about 2 hours) and taking cold showers. I often think of the things that I took for granted in America. I didn't realize that being able to take a cold shower was a luxury in Tanzania until last week when I was in Dar visiting with other volunteers. We were talking about our houses and I mentioned my shower. They were all like "You have a shower!!" I'm learning that even in Tanzania it is important to stop and appreciate the little things.

This week I thought I would talk briefly about money. I am sure some of you are wondering if I have enough? I have mentioned the prices of certain things and the low cost of living in past emails. Tanzania is one of the poorest countries in the world. For now, I will just tell you that the Peace Corps Living Allowance is extremely generous. Each month I receive about $170 to live on…that’s about 150,000 shillings. By comparison, the teachers in Tanzania make about 45,000-80,000 shillings a month (after taxes). The school provides teachers a house for a fee of 10% of their salary. Water and electricity will cost about 10,000-15,000 shillings a month. Food is very cheap but the variety of foods is very limited. Most people live on beans, rice and ugali (corn flour and water - it is like very thick Cream of Wheat with no flavor or texture). Once I get a better understanding of prices, I will send you a list of monthly expenses and costs. I am finding prices to be one of the most interesting things about living in Tanzania – initially anyway. It is amazing how far $100 will go in a country like Tanzania. In America, I wouldn’t bat an eyelash at spending $40 on sushi for dinner. Here families of four live on less than $40 a month.

Since I was talking about money, I thought I should talk about my housegirl. I have hired a local Tanzanian girl to work for me. Her name is Martha. She is 25 and doesn't speak English. She comes to my house three days a week for a total of about 12 hours. Her main task is to keep the house clean. This doesn't sound hard but it is VERY dusty. Every day she moves the furniture, sweeps and then deckies the floor by hand. Deckying is by far the hardest chore. My floors are concrete and they have to be washed by putting water on the floor and then soaking it up with an old T-shirt. The T-shirt is then wrung out by hand and the process repeated. Cleaning also involves sweeping the sticks, mangos and other trash off of the dirt area around my house. Martha also cleans the dust off the windowpanes-there’s about 100 of them. Twice a week she washes my clothes by hand and then irons them. She also cooks beans for me. When school starts, she will go to the village once a week to shop. It has been so helpful to have her. I feel very lucky because she is a good worker. She comes to work with a smile and does what she is supposed to do without me having to ask. My house is so much cleaner now and my life is much easier. The cost of having a housegirl here is very cheap. I actually cringe at how little they are paid. She receives 10,000 shillings per month ($11) which is 250 shillings or $.30 per hour. It is good money for Tanzania and I pay my Martha very well for the area. She is only paid 10,000 shillings a month ($11). Just FYI…there are approximately 900 shillings in a dollar.

The last topic today is my favorite topic – the weather. The short rainy season is December and January, but the rains hadn’t come yet and it was very hot and very dusty. I am happy to announce that last Friday the rains arrived. It has rained almost every day! The temperature has dropped from 85 degrees to between 75 and 80 degrees. I'm now able to sleep without my fan on. The days are still very humid and the walk to the village is still sort of miserable. Life in general is a little more enjoyable though without the stifling heat. I’m enjoying the rain right now, but keep asking myself , "Will I still be enjoying the rain when it has been raining for months?" The long rainy season is March to May. I'm sure I will be writing about it. Someone remind me how pleasant the rain can be when I start to complain.

That’s all for today. Since life is getting more routine, there seems to be less to tell you about. School starts on Monday so I will have lots to write about the school system and the students next time. If there is something you are interested in hearing about, please let me know.

Until next time, I hope you are all safe and happy. Even though it cost a Tanzanian Fortune, someone go
eat Sushi for me. Make sure you write and tell me all about it.

SCHOOL STARTS, A NEW FRIEND AND THINGS I MISS

January 24, 2002

School started or tried to start. Most of the students haven't arrived yet. They either don't have their school fees or know they have to clean the school the first week so they don't come. This year I will be teaching 2 different streams (classes) of Form III Math--about 10-11 grade in America. Students in Tanzania attend
Secondary school from Form I-VI. O-Level (Ordinary) is Forms I-IV. A-Level (Advanced) is Forms V-VI. The students take a National Exam at the end of Form II, IV and VI. They must pass the National Exam to enter the next Form. Passing rate is currently 26%.

I have definitely had my eyes opened this week on the Tanzanian school system -- it is an absolute disaster. I am currently reading a study done by an NGO called "Tanzania Education System: Crisis and Opportunity". Crisis is a good word to describe the school system.

I’ll start this week by telling you about my students. Last year there were approximately 120 students that took the Form II Exam. The school's overall average on the exam was a 41% which is a C (41-60%). I am teaching Math which had the lowest overall score for the school. It was a low D (21-40%). Of 120 students, 2 students scored a B (61-80%), 5 students scored a C, and about 20 scored a D. The remainder of the students (90) scored below 20%. About half of those scored in the single digits. Now I am faced with teaching 60 of these students math for the next two years. WOW! I'm struggling with how to even begin. They were taught by another Peace Corps Volunteer for the last 2 years so I know he presented the material (I've read his notes). They were taught how to do at least 80% of the problems on the exam. Some of them didn't even attempt the exam.

What are the problems? There are many obvious problems. First, the students are taught in English so they are learning English at the same time they are learning Math and Science. When I talk to them, I am amazed at how little English they know after 2 years in Secondary School. Second, students do not attend class. Students pay to go to school and there are no consequences for not attending class or for failing class. The school is allowing students to proceed to the next year with average scores of 16% on their exams. In addition, if students don't pay their school fees they are often sent home to collect the money. This causes them to miss class. Teachers may also pull students from class to do other work around the school. All schools in Tanzania are self-reliant. That means the students work the shamba (farm), clean the grounds, clean the dormitories, deliver messages for the teachers, etc. This is definitely a school system in CRISIS. My challenge is how to make any difference in the 2 years I am here. I am even more happy that I was moved into the School Health Project. The opportunity to teach Health and work with the students on Life Skills will be more fulfilling and I think I’ll have more opportunity to improve their lives working in the Health area.

On a more positive note, I have met a new friend. Last week I was on the daladala returning from Dar. I
had my bandana on my lap because it was hot and I had been wiping my face. Then I put my bag on my lap.
When I got off of the daladala, I forgot about my bandana and dropped it as I stood up and grabbed my bag. I hated losing my precious bandana, so I was very surprised when a teenage girl "hodi-ed" at my door. In Tanzania, you walk up to someone's house and say "hodi, hodi". They respond "karibu" which means welcome. I went to the door and this girl was returning my bandana. She found it on the daladala and knew it was mine. I guess this is one of those times when it pays to be the only white female for miles and miles -- I am easy to find! She gave me the bandana and we talked for about 20 minutes in broken Swahili/broken English. She lives with the school's Secretary and is a Form II Student in the evening program. Her name is Prisca (Pree-ska). In Swahili, I invited her to come visit me again and she insisted that I must come to her house. She asked me what foods I like and then asked if I liked Ugali (this is the cream-of-wheat-type-stuff I explained in my last email.) I've had it twice and don't really like it. It didn't matter though. She was so excited to cook me Ugali and vegetables. On Sunday, I went to her house. First, she showed me all of her pictures. This is very common in Tanzania. Tanzanians always ask to see my pictures. We cooked mchichi (spinach) and she taught me to cook Ugali. We ate mchicha, ugali and beans and talked in broken English and broken Swahili. It was great! I stayed for 4 hours. When I left, Prisca and her Aunt walked me part of the way to my house. This is also a Tanzanian custom. You always walk your guest a little distance when they leave your house. Before I could leave on Sunday, Prisca wanted to know when I would visit again. I invited her to my house on Wednesday. We looked at my pictures and I made her pizza and gave her another pizza to take to her family so they could try it. I walked her home and then her Aunt walked me part of the way back to my house.   Of course we had to make plans before parting. This Sunday we are going to Church together and then we will probably have lunch. I'm hoping I can cook so I don't have to eat Ugali but then again eating Ugali
isn't so bad when it makes a young girl so happy.

Visiting Prisca's house and seeing other teachers’ houses really opens my eyes to how nice I have it here in Tanzania. People keep their house very clean here--they are always cleaning their homes. There are a lot of bugs though and unless you can afford to buy bug sprays, you will have ants, spiders, roaches, etc. I have all the bugs even though I spray.   The furniture in my house is comparable to other Tanzanian houses. The big difference at my house is that I have curtains (just made from local fabric), shelves (made with wood and hung with rope), laminated counter tops (the other volunteer bought the laminate), nicely painted walls and pictures (old maps and calendars). My house just seems brighter.   I also have more plates, pots, pans, buckets, tupperware containers. I cook with electricity and use an electric tea pot to boil water. I also have running water. Most of the teachers' houses are plumbed for water but some of them haven't paid their bills and service has been shut off.

It is hard here not to look rich when compared to Tanzanians. Yesterday I walked to the village by myself. I didn't really feel like going and I definitely didn't want to walk up the hill. I decided to take my CD-player so I could at least listen to music. The walk takes 30 minutes and there are no houses or people for about 20 minutes of the walk. I was wearing my headphones and thinking the whole time that I shouldn't be doing it. I had the CD-player under my shirt and didn't see a lot of people. I probably saw enough people though that I shouldn't have done it.   Tanzanians don't have individual radios or tape players. It is a luxury item. I do hate that I can't take my CD-player on my walk but I don't think I will do it again. I felt too out of place.

I was also talking to Lee about sunglasses. He said he didn't wear his sunglasses because he was concerned
with how it would look. I do wear sunglasses but they are cheap ones. Somethings I just won't give up. When was the last time you thought of sunglasses, CD-players or running water as luxury items?

I have a list of topics to tell you about but I think I will save the rest of other updates. I think I will try to end my updates though with a short list of the items I miss from America. This week there are three:

1) Microwave - As I've said, it takes two hours to cook dinner. It takes about an hour to reheat food and then wash all the pans and bowls. I really miss just popping that plate of food in the microwave for 2 minutes. There are microwaves available here for about $90. I'm just not willing to give in. I'm supposed to be living in a developing country. A mobile phone is bad enough. A microwave (or a TV) is just too much.

2) Nonstick Pans - I seem to be burning everything and oh boy does it stick! What I wouldn't give for a good set of nonstick cookware!

3) Fitted sheets - Every morning when I wake up I have to remake my entire bed. This involves putting up the
mosquito net for the day, retucking the bottom sheet, and straightening the top sheet. This problem was bad enough that I actually had my parents send a fitted sheet. Tonight will be my fist night with the fitted sheet.
I hope it works. The mattress here is thin but I think it will hold!

So tonight when you zap your dinner in the microwave, clean your nonstick pan with your sponge or climb into
your bed with your nice soft fitted sheets, stop to appreciate the little things.

I am enjoying life in Tanzania. Now that school has started, it doesn’t seem as routine as a few weeks ago. I’ll be in Dar every 10-14 days to email. If you don't hear from me, don't worry. I am fine…probably just busy.

BAD, BAD WEEK – I’M STILL HERE THOUGH!

February 2, 2002

Warning - I was having a very bad week. Things are turning around though so don't worry about me. I just
wanted to share a little bit of my "hell" week with you.
________________________

I wish I could be sending you an update that said my week has improved but it definitely hasn't. This week my commitment to being here was severely tested. There was no “one thing” -- it was just a week of one little thing after another. I'm still here though and I'm planning to stay. I'm hope that this was a bottom because I need to go up from here! In training they mentioned hitting a low point sometime during the first 1-3 months at your site. Well, week six certainly hit me hard. I’m suffering from cultural overload. Since I always think I feel better when I get to complain (and looking back it is kind of funny now) here is an overview of my week:

Oh where to begin! I tried to go to Dar on Friday, January 25. I went out to the daladala stand at 5:35 AM. I usually get the daladala at 6:45 am but last week I ended up waiting until almost 8 am before one arrived. I had been told that the first daladala is 5 am and the second is 5:45 am. After that, they run at random times.

As you’re all aware, I can't stand to wait…so I decided to take the 5:45 am into Dar. That would put me in Dar around 7 am. I could have breakfast and be at the Internet place at 8 am when it opened. Well, no such luck. I get out to the stand while it’s still dark so I stand near the road and wait. Around 6 am, it starts to get a little lighter so I moved to the benches at the bus stop. At about 10 after, trucks loaded down with charcoal begin passing by on their way to Dar. Then the men riding their bikes to Dar with charcoal begin to pass. I see 7 different people running (I find this particularly interesting - not many Tanzanians exercise). I also see the 2 dogs I saw the week before. What I don't see are any buses. At about 7:10 am, the first bus passes going to Kisarawe. I expect it to turn around in Kisarawe and head back to Dar. This should take about 15-20 minutes. At about 7:30 am, I have the chance to get a ride in the back of a truck. I don't think this is safe and the daladala should be coming at any time so I pass on the lift. Two more daladalas go by heading to Kisarawe but none are
returning. Tanzanians are now walking by from Kisarwe so I know something is up. They don't ever walk – they will wait an hour or more to take the daladala to the village when it is only a 30-minute walk. Anyway the
people walking by tell me in Swahili that there are no buses (“Hamna gari. Hakuna gari.”) I can't understand all the Swahili – all I know is that buses are in Kisarawe, they just aren't coming back. Two guys arrive at the daladala stand and start talking to me in Swahili…so I’m content to talk and wait for the time being.

At 9 am, I decided to give up. By the time I got to Dar, I would only have a few hours before needing to get back. Plus, I didn't know if the buses would be running.

The problem was that the buses have been starting in Dar at this stop called Chama. It turns out they are supposed to load at Ubungo which is 15 minutes farther out. They don't like going to Ubungo so they just load at Chama. The police cracked down last week and now the daladalas are hiding out in an area near Chama. So if I went to Dar, I would have to go to Chama and then ask where the daladala was hiding. I could also go to a stop after Chama but when the buses get there they are always full of passengers who got on in Chama. I would have to squeeze on and stand for 40 minutes. That’s hard to do empty-handed, muchless with a bag full of groceries. It just seemed too crazy so I decided not to go. I ended up walking up the hill to Kisarawe later that morning and the daladalas were hiding there. It seems they were boycotting the route because of the police. I don't know when they will work out this situation. It’s so crazy! I can't believe I waited almost 4 hours and went nowhere.

Later that afternoon the teacher on duty came by my house to tell me they are going to remove the bees from my ”attic” at 6 pm. I had bees living between my roof and the ceiling board. This was no problem. I was expecting them. What was a problem is they decided to remove the beehive by going through the ceiling board. The day before, they’d told me the hive would be removed through the EXISTING hole in my roof. I was a little concerned because I would have a hole in my ceiling and my roof until they could fix it on Monday. The teacher really couldn't understand my worry. See, Tanzanians don't plan ahead and therefore don’t anticipate problems. So I WAITED at my house until the workers showed up around 7:30. Four men came with a couple of buckets and a bag containing some cans of pesticide. They moved my dining room table over to the corner, borrowed my hammer and went to work. They also needed a bush knife which they had to borrow from my neighbor (I haven't had a need to buy a bush knife yet!) I wait outside with the teacher on duty. The bee expert turns off my light and proceeds to make a hole in the ceiling board. He sprays the pesticide and the bees start escaping through the hole in the roof. Now there are hundreds of bees swarming at my neighbor's light. After about 10 minutes, they slowly start to die.

Inside my house, the men spray another can of pesticide. Once they are convinced the bees are dead, they start ripping apart the ceiling board to remove the hive. I'm standing outside cringing as I hear pieces of my ceiling hitting the floor. At about 8:30, they turn on the light and I go in to inspect the damage. The hole in my ceiling is about 3 x 2 feet. There are pieces of wood, ceiling board and honey all over the table and floor. It is just a mess. I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to stay in the house for the next 2.5 days with a 3' X 2' hole in my ceiling. The teacher seems to think it won't be a problem. I then point out that there is a hole in the roof. This surprises him a little but again it shouldn't be a problem he says. I'm NOT a happy camper. I make him stay to help me cover the hole with a cardboard box, duct tape and nails. I clean up the mess, deki my floor (with a bucket of water and a T-shirt). About 10 pm, I go in my room and climb under my mosquito net and hope the bees won't return.

Saturday is okay. I turn on the light about 7 pm and 2 bees come in. I decide to turn off the light and hide in my bedroom again. Sunday morning I get up. No problem. About 1 pm I decided to take a nap. At 3
pm, one of the teachers is on my porch yelling "Yvette, Yvette." I can hear the bees before I open my bedroom door. There are hundreds of them up against the screen trying to get out. They are flying in a hole in the cardboard box we tried to cover the hole in my ceiling with. I grabbed my keys and left. I needed to go tell the teacher on duty I was going to Dar for the night and I wanted to make sure they addressed the problem. I walked to his house with the other teacher who had woken me right on my heels. He was trying to help me but just making me more frustrated. We went to the teacher on duty's house; he wasn't home. Co, we went to the second master's house. The second master isn’t home either. The teacher who was following me is explaining the situation to the second master’s wife in Swahili. It is like 3:30 pm by this point. I didn't have time
to be polite and social with every person we met. I said, "Excuse me, I've got to go. Thank you " and walked away. My overly friendly teacher buddy followed me to the next house. I needed to tell someone I would be missing class the next day. At this point, I basically lost it. Those of you who have known me a long time (and especially if you have traveled with me), you know exactly how I was. I was irate. I was tired of trying to communicate in Swahili. I was tired of this teacher trying to help me. I am an Independent American Woman! I didn't need him following me around speaking Swahili for me. I finally head back to my house and of course the teacher escorts me. It is the Tanzanian way. At this point, I am not Tanzanian at all - I am 100% American! I slowly walk back into my house through the bees, I pack a bag, I give my keys to Lee and I get a daladala to Dar (luckily the daladala pulled up as I got to the stand.) I made it to Dar by 5:30 pm. I checked into the hotel and found 4 second year volunteers there. I ended up going to the American Club with them and hanging out. I had a beer, a nice chicken sandwich and some french fries with real Heinz Catsup.
Things didn't seem too bad.

I returned to Kisarwe Monday afternoon and they were still working. The school fundi (handyman) put up the new ceiling board. Then he was then tired so he went home. Again, I had to clean up all of the work scraps, etc. It certainly isn't like hiring someone in America. He was supposed to return on Tuesday to fill in the
cracks and paint. He finally showed up today -- Saturday. Tuesday I killed about 50 bees, Wednesday another 30 and today about 20. Maybe we are finished? Some how I doubt it. They are still able to get into the space between the roof and the ceiling board via the hole in the roof, so I think it is just a matter of time before I have another hive.

I hope I haven't bored you too much with my daladala story and my bee story. I should probably tell you a little about my classes because those didn't go well either. I missed classes on Monday so I made them up on Tuesday. I found a time when the students weren't being taught and had class. I gave each of my classes one homework problem. On Wednesday, I went to my first class and not one of the students had done the homework. Only one of them had even written the problem down. I was a little upset. I gave them five minutes to work on it and left the room. When I came back, I helped them do the problem. It was obvious they didn't understand anything I had tried to present so we went over it again. By the end of class, a couple of students actually came to the board and worked problems. (This should have been a good thing. The week has been so bad; I didn't even stop to appreciate it). I went to my second class which is after chai (teatime). I had no students so I started to write the homework answer on the board. Still no students. I wrote the homework
problems I had assigned the other class on the board. About 10 minutes into class, the students started to
arrive. I continued writing. I finished putting the problems up about 15 minutes into class. I turned around, told the students that they were late, it was unacceptable, their homework was on the board and that I was leaving. I would be back to teach them on Monday and they should be on time. I went home but unfortunately it didn't make me feel better.

The school system is just so messed up. The majority of the students don't care about learning. They don't
appear to try and there are no consequences. I really am at a loss as to how to proceed. I'm walking into a
situation where I can only expect maybe 2 of my students to score 70%, 5 to score about 50%, 15 to score about 25% and the rest to score below 20%. It doesn't seem possible to be a successful teacher in this environment. Okay - I know I can be successful with a few students. I also know I need to readjust my definition of success based on the situation and the culture. It is just such a culture shock to work in a school system so opposite of the school system I attended and know in America. Now I understand why teaching does not motivate most Peace Corps Volunteers in Tanzania.

They are motivated by secondary projects - Health, Environment, and Girls Empowerment. It will be okay. I just need to figure out how to be a "good" teacher in this environment.

Thanks for letting me vent. I feel a little better. I also feel like the problems I've had this week are good examples of the cultural differences between Tanzania and America and the cultural differences are what I'm really trying to share with you.

I'm doing fine though. I've written quite a few letters this week. I've journaled and napped. Yesterday I walked to village listening to the Dixie Chicks and singing along as loud as I could. Lee and I had a beer last night and commiserated. He had a rough day too. Things will be fine. My big worry right now is that in all the commotion of the week I didn't wash any underwear until this afternoon. I hope one pair is dry by morning! It is always something in Tanzania. But then again, there is always something in America.

I hope you are all doing well. This week I can honestly say I missed each and every one of you. I will write again next week - hopefully with a cheerful, happy email. I kind of like those emails better.

Until then - take care of yourselves.

SMILING AGAIN!

February 2, 2002

Hey Friends and Family!

After my update I thought I should reinforce that everything is fine. The bees are gone, the daladala is running and I will be teaching again on Monday.

This is my 3rd hour of Internet today so I'm happy as can be. I've also managed to buy a shower curtain,
masking tape, airmail envelopes and a piece of cloth to use as a curtain. It has been a great day.

If only there was a Walmart - I could have shopped in 30 minutes instead of 3 hours. I'm off to the safi (means nice in swahili) grocery store. I think I'll buy some chocolate and some cheese. I definitely deserve it after this week.

I miss you all. Thank you so much for all the support and encouragement you give me. Some weeks I definitely need it more than others. I'll send you an update next Friday. I'm sure things will be much
better.

Until then - enjoy your washing machine and dryer. In the chaos or last week, I didn't wash any underwear. On Thursday at 4 pm, I realized I didn't have any for Friday. I quickly washed them all, wrung them out between a towel and hung them to dry. Luckily, a couple of pairs were actually dry by Friday morning. I know - more underwear discussion - Sorry!

Have a great week! I plan to.