Well it’s been almost a month already since I last posted
something. I know I’ve been pretty MIA
this past month, so I apologize for the lack of updates and communication. The internet does not work at all at my site
anymore…not sure why that changed, so I have not been able to Facebook chat
weekly like I was. I also have spent
less time out of my village since there haven’t been any trainings lately. This has been nice though, since I have been
able to do a lot here in the village.
It’s weird how the seasons are changing here. The temperatures have dropped, especially at
night, and the winds are picking up. It
definitely has the feeling of fall in the air, which is somehow comforting to
me even though there aren’t really seasons back home in southern CA ha. I am even sleeping under a big blanket we
were giving during home-stay. This change
in weather also marks the ¼ mark of my 2 year service. I can’t believe we have
already been at site for 6 months and in Tanzania for 8! It is weird how time
works here…days seem to drag on at times, especially when there isn’t much
going on, yet the weeks and months are flying by! Now that I am looking at a big project and many
other side projects, the once daunting 2 years is now only a year and a half left.
I am feeling much more at home here, which certainly helps as well. I have found out that push pins work in my
stucco walls that no tape or glue sticks to and pounding in nails makes it just
disintegrate. Therefore, I have finally
hung up some photos in my room along with many letters, cards, decorations,
poems, and encouragements from all of you guys! It doesn’t look like a prison
cell anymore. J
Whereas looking at photos from friends and family back home used to make me
more homesick, they now bring a smile to my face and add to my happiness. Not to say that I don’t think of you all
daily and miss you tons, but the homesickness has worn off since I am now
feeling more at home here.
The people in my village continue to show their kindness and
support. I have grown very close with my
mama, who I hang out with just about every day.
We mostly just chill on her straw mat, chat about work or how things are
different in America, watch and hang out with the neighbor kids, and eat her oranges, tangerines, papaya, or
watermelon or treats I have baked or candy from packages. Last week, I taught my mama and her two
neighbors how to make pumpkin bread.
Her neighbors have given me a bunch of pumpkins over the past couple of months
and I often return the favor with pumpkin bread. They said they wanted to learn how to make it
since they love it so much, so I invited them over and taught them the recipe
and how to cook it in pots with coals on top and bottom to evenly cook it. Usually they cook with wood and the
ingredients add up moneywise, so not sure if they’ll ever try on their own, but
when they left they were very grateful and said they’d make it again the next
day (although that didn’t happen).
Either way, they enjoy learning about American foods and recipes,
especially cakes and breads. (Typically
Tanzanians just steam the pumpkin and eat it from the skin).
I have also become quite fond of senile bibi (grandma next
door). I think of it as practice for
when you’re old and crazy and I have to take care of you mom J just kidding! Although
senile bib drives me crazy a lot of the time because she always wants to watch,
listen, talk, etc. with me and seems to always find a way to scare the hell out
of me by popping her head through the fence or window all of a sudden, we’ve
formed a pretty good relationship. Her
newest thing is feeding me, which I don’t mind at all. I think she thought for a while that I don’t
eat ugali/ don’t like it so never offered.
But after asking and me accepting a few times, she was pretty shocked
and happy that I will eat her food.
Although ugali is not all that great, I have actually had days where I hodi around cooking times, which simply
involves walking near someone who has food out, and a Tanzanian will always karibu you to their food (hodi= may I come in; karibu= you’re welcome). This still is such a weird custom to me. No matter what, if you walk by a Tanzanian
eating, they will invite you to eat with them.
Most of the time the response is asante,
thank you, and works as a polite decline.
But, it’s completely normal to just sit down and eat with them, which
they especially love if the white girl joins in to eat ugali with her hands (I
am still largely here for entertainment I think). Even completely strangers at a bar/restaurant
will karibu you to their food. One day I will actually sit and join a
complete stranger and eat from their plate to see their reaction, but almost
positive it would be shock and delight.
Anyways, so senile bibi and I have started eating together here and
there and we always share food items over my fence (which is just straw held up
by sticks and my bibi has split the straw open in so many places to watch and
talk to me there might as well be no fence there now). Right now we spend a lot of time opening mbazi pods together and she always gives
me a bowl to cook for myself (mbazi=
type of bean). For her bean and papaya
and other food gifts, I return hard boiled eggs, candy, or pieces of cakes and
bread I make. By the way, I call her
senile bibi because she always asks me where I went or where I am going at
least 5 times a day and can never seem to remember. Also, she sometimes smokes something that
puts her in a really silly mood and one time I heard her laughing for about 20
mins straight ha! But overall, I have a
new love for my senile bibi. She truly
cares for me and will stand by my door until I arrive home safely if I return
home late to make sure I am ok.
Speaking of all these food gifts…I am not sure if I have
explained the difference in cultures about body appearances. I get called fat all the time here! People
will go on and on about how fat I am, ask what I have been eating, stick out
their elbows to represent a wider figure, and one guy even said I am as fat as
a cow and made mooing noises. Although
these seem highly offensive, and not going to lie piss me off, especially the
cow remark, it is a compliment to be called fat here. Being fat means you are eating well, which is
often difficult for the limiting varieties of food items here. But calling someone fat is a polite
compliment just like telling someone they lost weight back home. Often it’s not necessarily true or
noticeable, but you say it to make someone feel better. Tanzanians especially tell people they are
fat after they get back from a trip somewhere, so I hear it a lot for that
reason, even when I am gone only a day and they insist I got much fatter in one
short day. I have a joke with my friends
now about my fat status, since they started saying I am really fat and for a while I was joking with the other volunteers
that soon I’d reach really really
fat. My village members, particularly my
baba (father), tell me my village certainly loves me since I am fat- meaning I
look healthy and happy here. The best is
when a heavier set, ok fat, Tanzanian tells me I am fat or “How’s it going
being fat?” when clearly they are double my size (side note…most Tanzanians are
skin and bones here but there are the occasional heavier ones, mostly
women). Despite knowing this is a simple
compliment and almost humorous how they insist even overnight you got fat, it’s
still a very difficult concept to accept happily here…especially when they moo
at you. But, they are right, I am healthy and happy here so if that equals fat
to them, then I guess I am fat.
Anyways, I have added to my workload here. My last post was just before the big village
meeting where we selected out project committee. I really enjoy working with those 12 people,
who are much more reliable and easier to work with than the two main village
leaders here. They decided quickly and
unanimously that we should start with a water project since that is the biggest
issue here, and before you can help with other issues of health, farming,
environment, we need to have water.
Although this is a big undertaking, I knew that would be the response
and completely agree myself. I discussed
the options I last wrote about, the chairman of the committee and I went to the
district water engineer’s office to further discuss the options, and then the
committee settled on drilling a well.
The engineer estimated the cost being around 15 million shillings, which
Peace Corps has a grant that, if accepted, will provide up to 8 million
shillings. Therefore, the village has a
lot of work ahead of them to come up with the funds within the community, local
government, and NGOs. We have met a few
times now as the committee to discuss plans, and recently had another larger
village meeting to announce our decisions.
Every person within the committee agreed to contribute 10,000 shillings
and they would be going house to house to collect 5,000 shillings per person
within the village. We will see how that
goes… Besides getting all the money, the other main concern is that my village
consists of two sub-villages, which are separated by about 2 kilometers. Therefore, if the well is drilled in one
sub-village, the other sub-village is shorted even though they contributed
money. Therefore, everyone really wants
to drill two wells, one in each sub-village, but that means doubling the price. However, they have agreed to start with one
and we’ll see what money we can get donated, and at least they can learn the
process and continue to drill another one without my help in the future. So at least we got a big project going and
lots of people are dedicated and excited.
The nearest volunteer to me just completed a well project, so it will be
a huge help to use her village as an example, especially for the grant writing
process which is long and intense.
English teaching and tutoring is still continuing just about
every day, which is not all that productive since reading and writing abilities
are extremely low within my class.
However, we have lots of fun and the kids love learning with me
anyways. I recently met a women involved
in a PLWHA (people living with HIV and AIDS) group, and she is very
enthusiastic about having me come to meetings to give education and help them
with income generating projects with the money the group has been saving
up. They don’t meet often, but she spoke
with the group leaders and they are looking to set a meeting to introduce me
and we’ll see where we go from there. I
also spoke with the secondary school teachers again about starting a Life
Skills class, which they seemed pretty enthusiastic about and it looks like
I’ll be doing that once a week, but we haven’t set a schedule quite yet. I am really excited about this, although the
7-8 kilometers to bike there is a bit annoying and tiring. Recently I gave a lesson at the clinic as
well on how to make a mosquito repellant cream from neem leaves (a local tree
here) and soap. I taught this to my mama
and her neighbors and again with my CCA, the man in my ward who does Malaria
education. I was supposed to do the
lesson with my CCA at the clinic, but he had to go to town so I taught it
myself, with a little help of a clinic volunteer and my friend who happened to
be visiting my site. It was fun to teach
something to a group of over 100 women all in Swahili and, even though it was a
long lesson (which involved cooking down the leaves then adding soap until it
thickens), they seemed very interested throughout the lesson. Since malaria is a huge problem with everyone
in my area, I think they were grateful to learn a way to help prevent it
without much cost to them. Although
I’ve been doing lots of lesson planning and teaching, I definitely have a lot
of down time here to relax, read, write letters, cook, etc. I have also been doing much better about
working out here so running about 3 times a week, playing soccer here and there
with the other women, doing yoga about every other day, and attempting some
pilates here and there. It’s nice to
have that back in my schedule.
Well, hope this catches everyone up a bit. Sorry for the weird stream of consciousness
post, but I am sure I’ll add more stuff soon too. Also, I apologize for anyone that has been
sending me texts. For some reason my
phone is not receiving texts from America so if I do not respond it is because
I didn’t get it- sorry! I know sending long texts over one page gets messed up
a lot so sending separate ones is better, but who knows why they don’t all come
in. Hopefully, you’re all at least
getting mine, especially to all the birthdays this month! Keep sending me
letters- I appreciate all the love and support and it’s so nice that just about
every time I head to town I have a letter or package waiting for me at the post
office J I
love and miss you all tons!! Take care! xoxoxo
