Pictures pt 2: Zanzibar and things

My second attempt at loading pics. Sorry that some of them are sideways, its hard to be computer savvy here, and the thought of reloading anything up is painful! A lot has happened since last I posted, I will try to incorporate it in the descriptions below....



Sosi:This is my 1 and a half year old little brother. So cute! he always comes into my room (thus the aveno) to hang out. He is also learning to use the cho (potty) but diapers are sparse here, so he also has peed on my floor a couple times. Its funny how easily you get over that..... Anyway, I am going to miss is smile (see above) a ton.

The roads:
The "vuli" short rainy season started the other week, and it didn't dawn on me until a few days in that during the rainy season it literally rains for weeks on end! no stopping. And seeing as outside of Dar Es Salaam there are about 3 paved roads in Tz, the dirt roads all go to mush which makes travel very frustrating. On the way back from training one day, we hydroplaned in the mud I kid you not for a quarter mile, almost hitting a goat, a tree, and an mzee (old person) on a bicycle before coming to a definitive stop. My much-more-helpful fellow trainees then pushed it out of the mud while I took pics (see above). Now imagine this happening every hour on a nine hour bus ride and you can see why travel throughout the country during the rainy seasons is almost impossible, i.e. getting medicine and food to people. We need roads!

Shadow Visit: Zanzibar

So I went on vacation...I mean shadow visit last week to visit an extremely nice education volunteer on Zanzibar. It was great, the first night we got there we biked to a beach and swum in the Indian ocean while watching the sun set. The water has such a high salt content that you just float, no work needed. Very luxurious (sp?) . We also hung around Stone Town (above) which was quite touristy but has this wonderful arabic feel to it. Certainly a lot older feel than mainland Tanzania. Everyone looks like they have a grandfather from the middle east too, and the differences are subtle but interesting. Everyone is also Islamic, but no one seemed to mind my infidel self. The PC volunteer here is by far the most in-the-bush volunteer (we hung out with some VSO and other volunteers as well) and I think its pretty awesome that she is living out in the Shamba (farm) with villagers. It made me incredibly excited for site.


Speaking of which, I found out where I will be for the next two years! In the Kilimanjaro region outside of Moshi near a town called Mwanga. Its a boarding school, and I will be teaching A-level math (last year hs/first year college) and O-level (hs) physics. Its also in the mountains, and my closest PC neighbor is a 3 hour hike away! Can't wait to show you all pictures of that!

Henna and chocolate:
After shadow all of the PCT's met up in Dar for thanksgiving and to get some more briefings on policy. It was a lot of fun hanging out in the city after training sessions, especially after I got wonderful packages from family with letters and chocolate (see above). Thank you! The markings on my arm are not a tatoo but Henna, which I got on Zanzibar. The whole village came out for it, and about 40 people were just watching for the hour and a half it took to get done. Usually people only get it when they are getting married, but I thought it would look cool....

The End of Training:
This is me and some of my Besties here from my training class. We were out at the local mzungu (foreigner) hang-out last night, celebrating our last few days before we are all scattered throughout the country to teach and hopefully serve this country well!