Nipo

Not too much has been going on lately. A couple other volunteers came to my village to celebrate Eid-ul-fitr which is the last day of Ramadan.We ate A LOT and everyone was so clean and dressed up. I have never seen the kids in my village so clean! It was pretty awesome. We also taught my counterpart and his friend how to do the electric slide.Tanzanians love to line dance! That was def not something I was expecting.  We went to a cub one night and they did this line dance for a good hour and I was all over it, it was really fun. School has been on break the last month so I haven't been teaching and since a lot of the students travel during break my kickball club has been on hold and we also arent starting Zinduka until school starts back up.So I have been helping out at the clinic a lot and just spending one on one time with people who want to talk about anything health related. I also received Harry Potter books 4-6 in he mail so those have been helping me through all my free time. I love the dreams I have while reading those books, who wants to wake up from flying around on a broomstick?
I have also been sick this past week and while being sick anywhere sucks being sick here really makes me miss little convinces like speaking English, using a fan, cvs pharmacy, a real flushing toilet inside the house...chicken noodle soup. If I want chicken noodle soup first I would need to find and kill the chicken, make the noodles etc....you catch my drift. Anyways school starts back up next week and I'm going to start teaching about HIV/AIDs,STDs etc. It will go hand in hand with starting Zinduka(explained in a previous blog) as well! I am happy for school to start back up, I like being busy!
Love,
Maria

Ramadan Rant

Well Ramadan started and I always had a basic idea of the concept but living in a village that is about 90% Muslim brings a whole new light to things.I never thought of all the details before like- do pregnant and/or breastfeeding women fast? What about people living with HIV/AIDs? What about little kids?! Well here is what is going on in my village that has made me really think about region and religious practice. I have just about reached my breaking during the past few weeks- pregnant women are trying to fast, A LOT of pregnant women are. They come in to the clinic for a check up and it's the first quesion I ask-"ume funga?" and so many say yes, even though during Ramadan pregnant and breastfeeding mothers are not required to fast. I try and try and try some more to explain to them that while being pregnant you need extra food and fasting for a month can detrimental to the baby. I get the nurses to help me explain that during pregnancy you need extra calories and to be drinking plenty of water. Also keep in mind about 90% of the people in my village are already severely malnourished.After we get done talking to them abut the possible harm most of them just laugh, and oh my let me tell you it is so so frustrating.The stigma about HIV is so high in my community that it's a struggle to meet with the PLWA group, I have been slowly working my way in but are they fasting during Ramadan & not taking their meds? The meds are strong and need to be taken with plenty of food and water so that is another huge issue.Children are also not required to fast but I can not get a correct answer on the age when they start fasting, some say 3 some say 5 etc. Walking around my village during the day seeing children laying on the side of the road clutching their stomachs in hunger is heartbreaking.I literally locked myself in my house for about 3 days locked the doors, closed the curtains and did a lot of thinking. about religion, religious practices, religious wars etc. I also took a lot of time thinking about different ways to talking and deliver messages to the breastfeeding/pregnant mothers besides just lecturing them. I felt a lot better after those 3 days and made some changes with thoughts and communication.

Ok, thanks for listening to my rant. When the sun goes down and everyone eats the party starts and it is pretty cool to watch the kids sing and dance while playing the drums and I have partaken in Iftar which is the meal eating at susnet. It was delicious and really heavy, consisting of chick peas, potatoes and pasta all mixed in a gravy.I am also wating for the end of Ramadan to celebrate Id-al--Fitr/ People having been comparing it to a Christmas feast.
-Ill keep you updated!

Is anybody out there?!

Hellllllllllllllllooo!!! I have not posted in so long!!Where to start? Well first off the internet cafe I am in is playing country music....thats new. I am used to Celine Dion and Justin Bieber.....but country...really Tanzania?? I went to the most amazing training at the end of June. The training was called Zinduka and it was a week long. Ten volunteers went and we took 2 coaches. It's a 5-10 week program (depending how many days a week you do it) you do with about 25-30 youth of your village. It teaches all about HIV/AIDS, safe sex etc through a serious of games like soccer. It is such a fantastic program, I can't wait to get started in my village,not to mention my coaches are spectacular!! The coaches run most of the practices and I'll be there to do energizers and support them....that way when my time here is done they will be comfortable enough to keep doing the program without me.Gotta love sustainability. Here is a pic of my coaches (they are both teachers) and I.

Oh Tanzanians and their picture taking. They rocked the training though, such great coaches. They guy on the right is also my counterpart. A counterpart is someone in your village you helps you get y your projects started, deal with the logistics of dealing with the village gov't and to really help you get your point across...it's hard with language and cultural barriers. My counterpart is just about the best thing that has happened to me since I have been here. Not only is he great at helping get projects started and helping me prepare lessons for school, he is my best friend in my village. He is so westernized, he speaks prefect English and is pretty up to date with the slang as well.We teach each other about our cultures, help each other with language- alot of our convos Ill be speaking Swahili while he answers in English. He is also a great cook, so when we arent doing work we are probably at his place watching really bad Tanzo soap operas or music videos chowing down on ugali na mboa. Have I ever mentioned I eat with my hands here? yeah, no silverware needed.
Anyways, after the Zinduka training me and about 10 other volunteers headed to southers Tanz and spent the 4th of July relaxing on Lake Malawi. It was so beautiful. Here is a pic.....ok its not letting me uplaod but you can check out my facebook for pics galore. We also went on a death hike to see this glorious
ft waterfall. We spent about 3 hours scowering (is that a word?) boulders.....if you didn't find your footing you could very well fall to your death. Pics of that on facebook too, since this computer is being dumb.

Oh, have I mentioned how much I love teaching Life Skills? Sure, I have my days when the kids wont listen and have trouble taking subjects seriously, but I really love working with the youth. It took me coming to Tanzania to figure out what I want to do with my life but here it is..work youth! It is so rewarding and I have the perfect personality for it.
It seems like letters are starting to dwindle now that I have been here for 9 months (9 MONTHS??!???) Please write me!! I miss you all.Sorry about the typing in this blog this keyboard is messedup.
Love,
Maria

Getting Started!

So I started teaching Life Skills at the secondary school. I can already tell that I am going to love teaching. These kids are stoked to learn about sex, condoms, stds and HIV/AIDS. I decided to start out teaching about peer pressure then work my way into everything else. Some of the kids are so bad! I set the ground rules my first day and they know they will be punished if they break them (NO talking when I am talking). Since I'm not really into beating the students with a stick I am going the route of making them hold  penny to the chalkboard with their nose.It works, they seem to respect me for the most part. I also have kids from other forms (grades) snaking into my class to listen. I don't know if it' because they want to learn or they just want to see the American chick teach in Swahili.

I also started a sports club for the youth. I also made sure to get the street kids, orphans and students all involved as well as boys and girls.  I decided since they mostly just play soccer that it would be fun to introduce them to kickball. I thought it would be easy but let me tell you that this was one of the hardest things I have done here.A bunch of kids showed up to play but introducing  foreign concept to them was really something...."we use our hands AND our feet?". After literally 5 minutes kids started leaving saying it was too hard but eventually the ones that stuck around got it and loved at. After the kids who left saw them playing and loving it some of them came back.I have my second meeting/game today so we will see how it goes.

The previous volunteer started a group of OVC (orphans and vulnerable children) caretakers. They make school uniforms and such and sell them. I have started going to those meetings too, getting them back up and running.

My Swahili is ummm gradually getting better. I don't think I'll ever bee 100% fluent though, we shall see. My relationship with my village is better then ever. I seem to have a good rapport with people of all ages. It took a while to differentiate myself from the volunteer that was here before me. She was the first PCV in the village so when I arrived most of the villagers assumed we wold do things exactly the same. It's fun to teach them about American culture.
Thats all for now!

Pictures? Yeah, Pictures are good.

It has been bought to my attention that my blog is lacking pictures, what have I been thinking?! Here are some pics of my Tanzanian journey over the last 6 months.

This is my host family! They took care of me my first 9 weeks in country when I was Swahili-less ha, they thought me how to sweep (yea, it's different here) , how to do weird things with a bucket such as bathe and wash clothes and how to cook with the interesting little thing called a jiko

This is a jiko

This is me with my CBT....the people I spent 8 hours a day with 6 days a week in a 100+  degree room learning Swahili and all about Tanzanian culture. We became really close really quickly, they are my family.

Love these girls! Training was quite the experience, oh yea it was.

My host Mama and I sporting our gowns

Baobab tress are cool

My favorite tree! This picture barely does it justice. This was the week during training we got to shadow a current PCV.

MY host brother (far left) and his cousins. I love these kids, they taught me how to count in Swahili and all of the animal names. They even took me to meet the neighbors monkey.

 Another pic of my CBT, on Thanksgiving along with our teacher

My sitemates!! We are perfect for each other. My family keeps growing

My home for the next 2 years

The end, for now.

Five months in!!

Well, I have almost been in country for half a year! It absolutely blows my mind.I think the hardest aspect thus far has been adjusting to the Muslim culture/religion. The dress, polygamy,gender roles,how to present yourself in public and the 4am,4:30am and 6:00am call to prayer over a loudspeaker. The easiest adjustment thus far has been the "living in a fishbowl" aspect. All eyes on me all day, everyday. I always think of Finding Nemo when the girl is pounding on the fishbowl yelling "Fishy, wake up!!!" Only the Tanzanians are yelling Mzungu! Come here! Talk to me! I love meeting people, chatting, exchanging cultural lessons, playing with kids etc....but believe me it is all day everyday no matter what physical or mental state you are in, I just tend to deal with it really well.

Some days are really slow and I can catch up on some Dexter or reading, while other days it starts off at the clinic then off the the secondary school followed by the primary followed by a PLWA meeting followed by a village meeting, then I am exhausted and sound asleep by 9pm.

I have been baking a lot lately. I started off with cookies-PB, choc chip & sugar, then I moved on to bread- banana bread, mango bread, yummy garlicy buttery bread then I made cinnamon rolls. They were not the easiest to make but man were they delicious!! Next i want to make mango bars and maybe peanut butter pie.

I have also been on the looking for the most off the wall fabric to have dresses made out of. I found a chicken and egg fabric and a fish in a basket fabric and I want to buy them both and wear the dresses everywhere. Some people look for pretty fabric, but I prefer funny. I just copied a whole bunch of movies from an expat so I am off to watch Pineapple Express!
- I'll keep you posted!

Turning 30 in Tanzania and stuff.

Well yesterday was my 30th and it was a great day,I got to celebrate with about 8 of my fellow PCVs. We made mango ginger bucket wine that was delicious. We started off with a dance party at our guesti then hit the club.The DJ made the mistake of letting me have control of 2 microphones, for some reason today my voice is about gone.We danced for hours and hours, it was such a great birthday.I have tons of pics I need to post. On Wednesday we went to visit the missionaries they have lived in Tanzania for 15 years. Every time I go to their safi house I feel like I am in America. They made me a birthday dinner consisting of Mexican chicken,cornbread, beans, spinach salad with BACON and a cake with 4 layers.I stuffed myself to death.
Tomorrow morning I am heading back to my village. The village life is still going well. I am finishing up an assessment of what my village needs to present at a 2 week conference we have next month. I am pretty excited of the conference. I will get to see everyone again and I'll get teaching materials so I can start teaching life skills when I get back. That's all I have for now! I am an old lady