Saturday, November 24, 2007

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!

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Pictures!!! Finally

So here are some of the pics I've taken so far. I apologize for how terrible they are but we really try hard to not look like tourists, so taking your camera out can only be done occasionally, and these are just some pics I snuck in. Also, it takes about 5 min to upload a small pic, and i don't have that kind of time! I do hope, however, that it gives you some taste of Tanzania. Enjoy!

Dar Es Salaam and Arrival:

Our (very nice I realize now) hotel in Dar Es Salaam. It had toilets and everything.....


PCT Laura with a huge plant at the safi PC compound in Dar.


MOROGORO:


Its hard to see, but its the biggest spider I have ever seen just chilling out at our training area. Water bottle for comparison. It was about the size of a hand....and of course they are all over (I discovered after this). I shower with about five of them lookin on....


The Uluguru Mountains of Morogoro which we are NOT allowed to climb! People always get mugged apparently when they climb them, but they taunt all of us every day. Was the sky always this big?

Training session with some of our lovely Language-Culture Facilitators (LCFs).

This is Kihonda Secondary, the school I have been student teaching in. It has about 7 of those buildings, with no electricity and open-air classrooms. The dust from the field next door leaves a quarter-inch coat that the girls have to clean off each morning from EVERYTHING: the floors, the desks, everything. The boys just look on. Its a pretty nice school though, one of the best in Morogoro.
The Neigborhood kids I'm trying to teach guitar. On the right is my sis with our little brother on her lap. We are in my fam's living room.

MIKUMI National Park:
The lions that were "on honeymoon" as the guide put it. They were no less than 10 feet away and it was so tempting to just step out of the vehicle...but, oh wait...they would eat you. The male also growled as us a couple times which was amazing to hear.

Most of the PCT's I've been training with. I'm on the right with my chicas a little shadowed. Notice the nice rainbow in the background!

The Elephant that kept the drivers foot on the gas ready to book it.

MOROGORO again....:
Eliza, my sister. She comes from a shamba (farm) in Singida and I think is sending all of the money she makes by working in the house to support her family of 6 back home. She's 16, great sense of humor, excellent cook, and loves to sing Bongo Flava. She gets up at 5:30am to start cleaning and pretty much runs the house, while babysitting our 18 month brother. I help when I can, but I'm in utter awe of her resilience (sp?) in life. Her fav thing to do lately is laugh at my attempts to cook and things, but I'd pretty much do anything to keep that smile on her face.


My mama on the left and Mama Mdogo (mama's younger sister...but really cousin. Families are big here...) and me in clothes I got made. Not my best pic, but we were in a huge rush to get to a kitchen party (women's party before a wedding where they tell the bride-to-be about family planning, AIDS, what to expect on the wedding night, and what to do when your husband cheats). We are always late, and I rarely ever know where we are going until about 5 minutes before we leave but its always fun!


The Saba Saba market, or at least a small part of it, that I go to on Sundays. Think the worlds biggest thrift store, with the fun of bargaining thrown in. Its great!