June 24-28 Update

June 24, 2008 Visiting Local Government Officials

Today we took some time from our Swahili lessons to go visit the village government. We had already visited there briefly last week just to introduce ourselves. But today we went to learn about the structure of the government and how we would interact with the government in planning projects. It was kind of a practice for when we get to our sites so we know how to work the system to get the help that we need.
We learned that the population of Magomeni is 9860, which is more than I thought, but then again I’m terrible with guessing populations. I have no idea how many people live in High Springs even. There are 4 primary schools and 1 secondary school here. I think this is because primary school (standards 1-7) is the only level that is mandatory. There are 1888 students in primary school and 207 children under 7.
Most residents are peasants who keep chickens or goats or have small businesses which sell necessities like laundry soap or flip-flops, which I had pretty much already figured out for myself. It seems to me like almost everyone has one of these little shops built into the front of their homes. If they don’t, then they usually sit in front of their house selling something that they have cooked, like my family does with the donut-like food called vitumbua. Only about 50 people, out of the 5570 that are employable work in an office setting.
Corn, rice, cassava, sweet potatoes, sunflowers, and sesame are what are mostly grown in this area. And if I have not already made it clear, they usually eat rice, beans, and spinach or cabbage (as I have generally eaten 2 times a day since I have been here).
The average income of a villager in Magomeni is about 750 Tanzanian Shillings per day or roughly 273,750 Tsh per year. This is about $0.75 a day or $273.75 a year, which I thought was pretty staggering. But I guess that gets them what they need. I asked my teacher how much she pays for electricity and she says that she buys a card with a certain amount of energy allowed on the card, and when that card is gone then there is no more electricity. She said it usually costs about $10 a month in Dar, which is a big city here and would be more expensive than it would be here in Magomeni.
Talking with the village leaders today really got me thinking about what I could do to improve the situation around here already. I was reminded what I am here to do in the first place. It’s hard to access what they feel like they are missing and what would work if implemented; then again, I’ve only been living in this village for a week. I guess that is the point of having us live in one place for 2 years. So we can make a comprehensive assessment of what the village feels like it needs and how to best create a program to meet that need that will be sustainable after we leave. I haven’t really asked, but it seems like people are ok with what they have here. I’m trying to think of things that I had growing up that they don’t have that they may want, but in doing that I realize that we are more similar than I might have thought. A lot of what I did growing up I could do here. Playing in the streets with my friends, writing stories, using my imagination. But I hope that I eventually get the opportunity at my site to start some type of an after school program that has organized activities that will encourage more development within each person. Maybe a writing class, or a girl’s club or a sports league.
I think that there are kids willing to participate in these sorts of things if only someone would organize it for them. For instance, yesterday after school we didn’t feel like going home yet so Luke (a fellow trainee) got out a soccer ball and we walked to the soccer field that is by one of the primary schools here, within 5 minutes, there were about 25 kids gathered around to play. Three of my fellow trainees played soccer with a bunch of little boys while I sat on the sidelines and practiced talking in Swahili to about 25 other people that had gathered around me. I feel like I did pretty well. I was able to tell them what I was doing here, when I got here, how long I would be here, where I came from, etc. They even asked me about George Bush, Osama bin Laden, and Iraq. Then through charades I was able to determine that one of them was talking about the execution of Sadaam Hussein. So yeah, good times there.
I know it’s too early in the game to be making all these kinds of plans, but it at least got the wheels turning. We talked a lot about how there are similar problems in America with people who get educated leaving the smaller towns to move to big cities and leaving the small towns underdeveloped. I’ve only been in Tanzanian for two weeks and already I’m seeing a new perspective on things. JFK kept coming to mind with, “Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.” But then again, it was JFK who started the Peace Corps in the first place, so I guess he had it figured out. We can all do something to improve the lives of others, no matter where, or for who, or how small. I know that sounds cheesy, but I think it’s a nice attitude to try to keep in mind.


June 26, 2008 Sometimes All You Need Is A Little Time Lying in the Grass

It’s been an interesting couple of days, but then again, I’m pretty sure that’s going to be a regular occurrence here for a while. Yesterday we pretty much did the same thing that we did the day before except for instead of visiting the local village government officials we went to see the Kilosa District government officials, and I got a taste of some potential frustrations that I am going to face once I actually have to start working on projects here. First of all, we were about 45 minutes late being picked up from our CBT in Magomeni to get to Kilosa Town, but this is a pretty regular thing, and we definitely were not the last group to arrive. So once we all got there, we stood around outside waiting for about 30 minutes, then they informed us that the people we were supposed to be meeting with were still in another meeting, but they had sent a message in to them to let them know that we were here and they would be out in a few minutes. They moved us inside to sit and wait for another 30 minutes or so and one of the trainers came in at some point with a classic line, “Eventually things may about to get started soon.” I feel like that is pretty much going to be the way that time works around here. Current volunteers that have been coming to visit us at our training sites have told us to expect meetings to start as much as 6 hours late. It actually even says in our cultural adjustment book that time is the tool and servant of the people; there is always more time. Relationships come first here. If you have a meeting to go to but a guest stops by when you’re on your way out, the meeting can wait.
So anyway, the meeting got started pretty late. And when it finally did get started, we weren’t really getting straight answers to a lot of our questions. When asked if the students received any direct sex education in schools or any type of info about the prevention of HIV, the answer was at first yes, then a muddled up version of kind of, then one of our language teachers who also works as a teacher here pretty much said it doesn’t happen. They train the teachers to teach the kids about health issues, but it’s not really a mandatory curriculum that is enforced. Sex is a really taboo and private subject here so it is a little difficult to teach them how to prevent STIs when you can’t talk about sex openly.
Later that day me and the other trainees in my CBT were walking around Magomeni and we stopped to talk to some Masii that were playing pool in the middle of town. I may be spelling that wrong, but the Masii are the most well known tribe in Tanzanian. They are cattle herders that live in the bush and dress in traditional garb. However, at least in Magomeni, they also come into town to hang out and play pool and talk to us Wazungu. Its pretty interesting. One Masii man was trying to sell another Masii man to my friend Catherine for four cows so she could take him with her back to America. Unfortunately she didn’t bring her cows with her that day so we couldn’t seal the deal.
Today was MATI day, which is the day that all of the CBTs get together at the MATI training center in Ilonga. I think I’m really going to continue looking forward to these days. Its nice to see everyone else and hear what’s been going on in the other villages and just to get out of Magomeni for a little while. We heard that two more people have decided to go home, so that means we’ve lost three in our first two weeks. We got another vaccine today, which makes that I think the fifth one I’ve had in the last 3 weeks, but it’s all good. Today we talked about mental health and the prevention of STI’s and HIV for ourselves, not to teach others. We even brushed up on how to put a condom on correctly, which had that whole awkward 5th grade sex education feel to it, but it made for a fun day.
I laughed a lot today and I was in a really good mood until the ride home from Ilonga. The roads here are so bad, which is not so good for those who get car sick. So I was feeling really nautious when we got back, and when I’m sick, I get in a bad mood. Which was made worse by the fact that as soon as we got out of the car a guy on a bike stopped to talk to us and tell us all that he wanted to marry us so he could go to America and whatnot, which can get kind of old pretty fast when you’re already not in a good mood.
I was kind of upset that my good mood was ruined so fast. This is the most bipolar experience you could possibly imagine. So feeling pretty annoyed/depressed, I decided to go lay in the grass with two of the other girls in my group, which turned out to be all I needed. We spread out a cloth and lied down, and pretty much immediately a crowd started forming. First it was just one man, who I think was asking us in Swahili why we weren’t at home cleaning. Then he started asking us what a bunch of different Swahili words are in English. Then he just kind of stood there staring at us. And a couple more guys came up and stood there staring at us. Not saying anything at all, just standing over us staring. So when the three of us evaluated the situation, we discovered how hilarious it was and we just cracked up laughing and talked in English about how awkward it was to us and how it was not awkward at all to them to just stand over us staring. Then eventually a crowd of kids came up and we had an all out audience sitting there watching us lay in the grass. Apparently that was entertaining enough for them. And it was entertaining enough for us, because we just kept thinking about how weird it was and laughing hysterically. Laughing is good for the soul. So I soon forgot about how down I was feeling just a few minutes before and was able to find the humor in the situation. I know that’s going to be essential for me to survive here. You just have to be able to laugh.


June 28, 2008 Rats, and Bats and Spiders, Oh My!

So as you can tell by the title, the creatures have started to show themselves for the wazungu. One of my fellow trainees was telling me that there was a bat dive bombing her mosquito net the other night, which sounds pretty horrible. I had a spider on my wall the other night, and might I say, one personality development that has already occurred for me is that I have turned into an insect killer. I used to just let them do their thing as long as they weren’t bothering me, but I have no qualms about squishing a bug these days. But at least I’ve only had a few bugs in my room so far.
However today we did have a rat in our classroom. It was a very interesting experience, as most things have been here in Tanzania. None of us saw this rat when we came in this morning, but about two hours into our lesson, Catherine (a fellow trainee in my CBT) looked under the table and very calmly said, “Um, has that been there this whole time?” And I, who was sitting right next to her, looked down and saw a considerable sized rat chilling by our feet, so we all got up relatively calmly and soon realized it was dead. We’re all convinced that it had eaten some rat poisoning earlier in the day and crawled under the table and died without us noticing, which is really weird. But it made for an exciting morning anyway.
Other than that things are moving along quite nicely. I’m feeling pretty good about my Swahili and I can’t wait to learn more and more everyday. I’m still feeling that daily short little pang of “what in the world am I doing here?” but I’m at least starting to get into a routine and I’m becoming pretty good friends with the other 4 trainees in my CBT, which is really helpful. Yesterday Catherine came over to my house and we just sat and talked about life, and love, and all kinds of existential and important things like that. And it was nice to be able to see that we’re all in this together.