A Beach Bum Easter..

So we all made it back from our wonderful Easter excursion. The beach house was so amazing that we decided to stay an extra day. Every day, we would swim around 10 until the tide went all the way out and we were sitting in just 5 inches of water. Then we would shower (IN A REAL SHOWER!!) and hang out. Then we would swim again around 5 when the tide came back in. Saturday morning, we discovered that Msemo, the nice resort a little way down the beach, had a bomb breakfast. It had cereal with milk, sausage, Spanish omelets, crepes, and juice. It was pretty gosh darn amazing so we ended up doing this breakfast both Saturday and Sunday morning. On Saturday, we went for lunch at Msemo, down the beach. There we were, having a good classy lunch and having a good classy discussion when one of our fellow volunteers rolls up looking like a crazy, hobo man. He had gone to the fish market for lunch and had found a great deal on crab. He was so excited, instead of taking the road home like any clear-thinking human being would, he took the most direct route and waded across the cove carrying a big bag of live crabs in a burlap sack and rolled up soaking wet. He looked psycho, but having gigantic fresh crab was pretty exciting. So we finished up lunch and headed back to our house. That night, we went for a swim and the beach was packed with Tanzanians. The water was swarming with boys, ages 8 through 15. A vast majority of these boys, we figured out, after they came way too close, were stark naked. Now that's quite alright for the young boys, but there is just something not right about a 15-year-old flaunting what the good Lord gave him at the beach. Some of the nudity even snuck up on you, incognito. One of these older boys went swimming by about 6 inches from us and at first looked fine. He was wearing a short sleeve, sweatshirt material top which was a little weird, but whatever. Then we realized that he was sportin nothing on the bottom half and that was not okay. Regardless of the nudity, we did have an awesome Justin Beiber sing-along with this group of boys. "Baby, baby, baby, OOHH!! Like baby, baby, baby, OOHH!!" That night, we cooked up a feast of crab, spaghetti, fish, pineapple, and garlic bread. It was pretty legit. The next morning, we got up for the Msemo breakfast feast again. Then, Claire and I went into town to hit up the bank and get food for that night's fixins. Also while in town, the most amazing thing happened. We were sitting talking to a sidewalk fundi (a.k.a. a clothes tailor). We were talking about religion and it came up that we were Christian and he was Muslim. He said that how he saw it, we all worshiped one God and were asking for the same things so it really didn't matter. I love this philosophy and if all people thought along those lines, this world would have a lot less problems. While we were chatting, we met some older Indian gentlemen. The conversation then came around to the fact that we were returning to Newala on Monday morning. It just so happened that they were going to Newala in a private car and offered us a lifti! Heck yes! Hmm...a 9 1/2 hour sweaty, crowded bus ride, or your own seat and at least half of the time. That's a really hard choice. So after this exciting development in the conversation, we exchanged numbers and it was decided when they would come pick us up to head back to Newala the next morning. My month had been made! A weekend of real showers, beach, fresh seafood, and a safi ride back home? There's nothin' better. After Claire and I returned back to the house, we all went swimming. Then after showers, most people decided to head to the fish market for lunch, but I decided a nap sounded better than lunch. When everyone returned, we started on that night's supper, boiled shrimp, tuna steaks, pilau (rice with spices), and a sauté of pineapple, green pepper, and onions. And then to top it all off, we had hotdogs. Nothing goes better with seafood than hotdogs. The original intention was to build a bonfire on the beach and make seafood kabobs over the fire. All of our dreams of an awesome beach bonfire were crushed though when some really not cool police came and told us this wasn't allowed. They also tried to tell us that fish wasn't meat, but that is besides the point. Eventually though, we got everything cooked and it turned out amazingly. Maybe the best tuna I've ever had, but that's just a result of picking it out and buying it super fresh at the fish market earlier that day. So this morning, Claire, Kathryn, and I hauled our bags down to Msemo to wait and hope that this ride actually came through, and HALLELUJAH it did! We were on the road about 7 a.m. and made it back to Newala in 4 1/2 hours! It was legit! There was only one little hiccup in the ride when we got stopped by the cops. They got a ticket for not having a fire extinguisher in the car. That is apparently some law and just goes to show the state of most of the vehicles. There are so many at the point of exploding into flame that this is a law. That is very comforting. After we got back, we went to visit Mr. Jaffer, a little, old, Indian man that runs a duka. I had bought another modem from a missionary couple that was moving back to the states and they had left it with him. Then Claire headed home and I took a nap while Kathryn watched a movie. After a superb nap, we went for dinner and actually got my modem working when we got back to my house! I now have internet again!! BEST. DAY. EVER. I hope everyone else's Easter Holiday was as wonderful as ours. Peace Out!

My Neck of the Woods...

"What's up butt-heads!!" No offense and all, but this is literally how one of the volunteers around me has greeted his class. Taking full advantage of the fact that none of our students down South speak English, I guess. Anyway, I made it back from training. The roads were pretty bad, but we made it to Newala unscathed. We made it back and I went back to school on Wednesday. Not a whole lot going on because they were about to start testing. Friday, I proctored, or as they say here "invigilated," a test on Friday. Let me tell you, trying to keep students from cheating for 3 hours is not a good time.
That weekend, a PCV was traveling through Mtwara and passed Newala, so I gave him the "grand tour." That weekend, I woke up not feeling great. Then Monday, half-way through the day, it really hit me. I went home and here is a list of the symptoms: puss on my tonsils, swollen lymph nodes (one so big you could see the lump and it hurt to turn my head), nauseous, and light headed/head pounding. I called the PC Medical Officer and eventually got my meds. They made be feel considerably better. Friday though, I woke up to a scary shock. Duck seemed to have lost motor control in her back legs and really couldn't walk. It was not a fun thing to watch and as a result, I think I cried about 6 times that day. I talked to a vet, and he said that it looked like she had some sort of brain virus. Awesome. So I was pretty much expecting to wake up the next day and her be dead. Weirdly enough, the next morning she was perfectly fine. It was like nothing was ever wrong with her and she has shown no sign of any brain virus since that Friday.
This last week, we plunged full force back in to lessons. We really only have like 4 weeks of class left so I starting to worry about getting through the syllabus. I also handed back all of my tests, about 300, which were pretty much just as dreadful as I was expecting. Yeah for language barriers! I really do believe that language is 70% of the problem. My busy week was interrupted though as I witnessed my first demonic possession. After assembly, a girl collapsed and started flailing around screaming bloody murder. About 10 girls jumped on her and held her down and a bajaj was called to take her to the hospital. It was extremely weird to say the least.
On Friday morning, we didn't have school so I hopped the bus to Mtwara town to meet up with some other volunteers. I got on the bus as 6:30 a.m. and 80 miles and 91/2 hours later I reached my destination. Most of that time was actually spent moving even. Because the roads were so bad, I think we maybe averaged 10 miles an hour, max. When I got to our beach house though, it was worth it. We are staying at a beach house run my Catholic priests and our front door is literally 40 yards from the Indian Ocean. So after I got here, we swam a bit, and then walked down the beach and ate at a really nice resort. Another really exciting thing about our house is, it has HOT SHOWERS!! It hasn't worked thus far, but I can still hope that before we leave, I'll get my first hot shower in 7 months!
That's really all that has happened that I can think of. Peace out peeps!!

Food Baby

So these past couple of weeks have been great! It all started a couple of Thursdays ago. We had to be in Morogoro for IST (in-service training), but we decided to take it slow and easy. So Thursday, I took a 3 hour bus ride to Kathryn's site. That's when we kicked off our food-fest. My lovely Grandma sent me a package containing Velveeta and Rotel. So logically, we decided to make ourselves a mexican feast. We made queso, tortillas, beans, and kachumbari (mixture of tomatoes and onions). Overall, we ate 1/2 a pound of cheese. By the end, we felt incredibly disgusting, yet satisfied. Friday, we caught an early bus to Lindi. We only had to get out and walk twice when the bus got stuck so overall, a pretty great bus ride. In Lindi, we met up with Ghee and Will. We just hung out all day. For dinner, we all had a real hankering for fish. We went to about 4 different places and no one had fish. One of the last ones, or didn't even have fish on the menu, told us we could go buy a fish, bring it back, and they'd cook it up for us. DEAL! So we went to the fish market, bought one that looked good, and took it back to the restaurant. There, the dude whipped up a crazy good fish masala sort of dish. The next day, we bused up to Dar. We got lost trying to find out hotel, but eventually made it. After that little adventure, we went on the quest for the fabled delicious Indian food. We found it! Its called the Patel Brothers. Its basically a huge compound with a bouncy house, play set, and probably 100 tables set outside. It said "Members Only," but you can apparently pay 1,500 shilingi to get in. BEST INDIAN FOOD EVER! We got so full I thought I was going to explode. On Sunday morning, we walked around and did some shopping. All of our dreams were crushed though when we found out that Subway was closed on Sundays. YES, there is a Subway in Africa and I will be gettin' me a big ol' sub! We got into Morogoro around 2 and could not have been there sooner. By the time we arrived, Kathryn, Ghee, and I were all yelling at each other and every Tanzanian was staring at us. All's well now though. Basically the past 2 weeks have been training from 8 to 5:30. Really boring, but its like we have been in mini-America with all the crazy delicious food! So really its been 2 weeks straight of having a food baby, but who cares? I also got to see my host family. I went to visit my Mama in her duka, or shop, a few times and even ventured up to Kihonda to eat supper with them. When Glory answered the door, she started jumping up and down screaming. Sara, the house girl, had the same reception. It always feels good to be loved.

Livin' the dream...

SOCIAL (or whatever you wanna call it) UPDATE:
So what all has happened since my last post. It seems like so much, yet nothing at all. After I posted, we hurried back to good ol' Newala. A few volunteers came and stayed at my house. It was 3 girls and just one guy so we made popcorn and made him watched "Pride and Prejudice." And he loved every minute of it! So you might be asking "popcorn?" Well I amazingly found in my local market. So its not just an American movie must-have, its a world-wide phenomenon my friends! But it proved a little difficult to make. Kathryn and I were attempting this for the first time. By the end of this small task, there was popcorn all over the kitchen and Duck, the cat, was cowering under my cabinet after an unfortunate incident of Kathryn dropping a hot pot on her head. I have also been working really hard on my back courtyard. I "mowed" my grass using a machete type thing. Now that was a stress release if I've ever had one! I also de-bee'd my courtyard. There were tons of bee nests so I just used the heavy duty Africa bug spray and got rid of them...bwa ha ha!! Even broke up an old, rotting bench and fallen down tree. So now I love to lay in my hammock in my back yard and read. Pretty much the best thing ever. My dear Duck is proving to have a real awesome killer instinct. Her new favorite things are to eat cockroaches and catch and eat lizards. Recently, she even went after her first rat! I was putting a new bucket of water in my shower and suddenly a rat flies over my shoulder and lands in front of me. I turn to run, screaming (as usual), but Duck kicks it into savior mode and goes for the rat. Unfortunately it escaped out the drainage hole before she could get it. She then just sat there, crouched by the hole just beggin' that vermin to come back. Could not have been more thankful for her. One of these past weekends, I had to ban all volunteers from my house. I have people at my house almost every weekend, which I love for the most part, but I also like my personal time. So I declared it a "ME" weekend. It was glorious. I just read, watched movies, and visited people around my ville all weekend. Also, one of these weekends, a volunteer came to town to get her cat fixed. I got to hold the light and watch as the operation went down on the kitchen table. It was LEGIT. This last weekend, I went to Claire, another volunteer's village. One of her students has become my bestie and she roasted cashews and drew a picture for me! While there, my village played her village in soccer. I have to say that after years of playing, I have never seen a full game played with only about 2 of the players wearing shoes. My ville schooled hers, 7-2. GO NEWALA!
SCHOOL UPDATE:
Also since last time, NECTA results came out. If you aren't familiar with the Tanzanian school system, the NECTAs are the national exams that students take every two years. Well our results weren't so hot. We had over 100 students get 0's. Not exactly what we were shooting for. And apparently Mtwara region has the lowest average in all of Tanzania. So I guess there's nowhere to go but up? My school also got 2 new teachers!! AND...wait for it...they are both female and actually showed up! That's actually a pretty big deal. They moved into the duplex attached to mine so now whenever I scream when I encounter a new "house guest," they are entertained. Also, important info to know when teaching in Tanzania: when it is raining really hard, the metal roofs make it impossible for the students to hear so don't even try. Also, being Teacher on Duty, or TOD, is really not a fun job. It rotates around all the teachers and I had my turn. Not cool. You have to take care of all the school attendance, get there early and supervise students cleaning the school, write permissions for kids wanting to go home, blah, blah, blah. I now have a new respect for school secretaries. Other than that, teaching is going really well. I've had some discipline problems with my Sophomore Biology kids, but love my Junior Chemistry students to death! They seem to understand balancing equations, which makes me the happiest teacher in Africa! I also found out that if there is a skink running amuck in your classroom, the students will chase it with sticks until it runs out the door. That makes getting class started a wee bit chaotic. This last week, I started practice with my girls soccer team. We shall see how that goes, but I'm pretty excited.
IN FURTHER NEWS...
We also have our IST, or In-Service Training coming up. In years past, they have had the North and South at two separate trainings. This year they are combining us so I get to see all my dear friends up yonder. Super pumped. Our training is at the end of March so not that much longer and I get to see my peeps! Also, I had ringworm. Thanks a lot Duck! But no worries, we are both treated and all better. And one last thing, my cousin, Denise, is preggers!! WAHOO!!
P.S. My malaria medicine induces really strange, vivid dreams. The other night I dreamt that my older sister dressed up as Ron Burgundy for Halloween. If you don't know who that is, watch "Anchorman." It's great. The End.

Catching up...

So my internet decided to poop out for almost three weeks now, so that's why I haven't updated.  So since last time, I've done a bit of traveling.  I went and checked out Kathryn's site.  I showed up with a water bottle of my mango wine and we made eggplant spaghetti, and hung out.  That night, after our showers, we had a couple run-ins with her rat infestation and watched a bit of a movie.  The next morning, we got up bright and early and headed to Mtwara for some volunteer birthdays.  4 1/2 hours later, we made it.  It really is pretty remarkable how insignificant a 4-hour bus ride seems these days.  That night, we all went to a resort on the Indian Ocean.  Kathryn and I split the chili prawns and the chicken sandwich.  I thought I might have died and gone to heaven, but that's not saying much since my diet consists mostly of beans.  We hung out for most of the next day, playing Bananagrams and listening to music.  We went into town and walked around and then went back to the beach despite the rainy weather.  For dinner that night, I had a fish that was the size of my face and that tasted a lot better than I imagine my face would taste.  Then we had bajaji races back home.  For those of you that don't know, bajaji are those funny, three-wheeled vehicles that my brain always associated with India.  They are quite possibly my favorite mode of transportation here in Tanzania.  The bajaji drivers thought we were crazy, but really got into the competition, even taking "short-cuts" through areas that were definitely not meant for vehicles and flying over speed bumps.  After getting home, a few of us decided to go for a nightcap at a near-by bar.  While there, we had an extremely entertaining conversation with some schmammered locals.  The lady told me I looked like I had come from the "shamba," or farm, and proceeded to button my dress the rest of the way.  She then showered me, awkwardly, with "you're beautiful's" and "I love you's" for the rest of the night.  Not gonna lie, it was creepy.  The next morning, Kathryn, Tony, and I caught a bus out of town.  Well after an hour stop to fix the bus we were out of town.  Kathryn and I hopped off about halfway to stop for a visit at Leslie's site.  We stopped for lunch and then proceeded to get caught in the hardest rainstorm ever.  There were literally Tanzanian children swimming down the street.  After visiting for a while, Kathryn and I got a liftie, the Tanzanian form of hitchhiking essentially.  Guess I can cross that one off the bucket list now.  It was pretty uneventful.  It was a couple truckers who smelt funny and I called Grease Monkey 1, 2, and 3.  We made it home in one piece, Mom, don't flip.  That next week I went and picked up my kitten!! I had been told that she was "special," but had no idea what exactly that entailed.  It turns out she is a bit physically handicapped.  Basically, she has a club-foot.  This deformity looks a bit like a flipper and makes her waddle so she has been named Duck.  It really doesn't seem to hinder her much; she can still chase lizards and kill cockroaches just fine.  We have become fast friends, which if you know me at all, you know my feelings on cats, and this is a shocking revelation.  I started teaching the Monday before last, or I should say school opened.  The first week, the small percentage of students that showed up spent the week cleaning the school.  On Friday, we had a group trip to the school shamba, or farm.  I showed up to school, not really knowing what to expect.  Well it turns out on these days, the students wear street clothes instead of their uniforms; and instead of backpacks everyone brings their own machete.  It was definitely a weird experience talking to a group of your students while they are all armed with 3-foot blades.    So we all made the 2-K hike to the school farm and the other teachers lined all the students up and let 'em at it.  I really wished I had my video camera.  Just imagine 300 students, ages 13 to 18, all swinging their machetes at the same time.  At one point a teacher even sent a boy up a tree to chop off some branches that were lying too low.  Cause why wouldn't you send a child up a tree with a machete in his hand?  This last Monday, January 24th, marked our 4-month anniversary of being in Tanzania.  Weird.  It doesn't seem like that long, but at the same time feels like forever since getting here.  This last weekend, a bunch of volunteers came to my 'ville and stayed Saturday night.  We just hung out, reading and playing our favorite game of Bananagrams.  A volunteer told us just about one of the funniest stories ever.  He said that his villagers love turning his kindle on and off of stand-by.  This is because, when you turn a kindle on stand-by, a picture of famous writers, for example Alexander Dumas or Jules Verne, pops up.  His villagers love these pictures because they truly believe that these are pictures of his close, personal friends.  Well one time, this volunteer's VEO (village executive officer) was playing this fun game and when the picture of Virginia Woolf popped up he exclaimed, "AH! I love you!" So essentially, this village's leader has fallen madly in love with this volunteer's close, personal friend Virginia Woolf.   I've even recently become well acquainted with a couple new Newala crazies.  One I shall call crazy, hat man.  This man followed me around town wearing a 3-gallon jug as a hat and was trying desperately to get me to buy another similar hat.  It just really didn't match my outfit to say the least.  Another one I call crazy, homeless man.  So for a long time, crazy, homeless man lived on the basketball court next to my house at night and during the day spent his time doing moves that would lead you to believe he is an aspiring break dancer.  I even had to stop opening my windows when he yelled "NIPE CHAI," "Give me tea," at me through the window.  Well for a long time, it appeared that crazy, homeless man had moved his plastic-bag bed to greener pastures.   What I didn't realize was that these greener pastures were situated on the porch of the other duplex connected to mine.  I realized this when I got a knock on my door at 6:45 in the morning, and not having a peep-hole answered it.  I pretty much told him to leave and shut the door in his face and he stood outside yelling "MCHUMBA!"  This is Kiswahili for fiancé.  So apparently crazy, homeless man believes that we are betrothed.  Congrats to me (enter sarcasm here).  So that is my life pretty much up till now.  Never a dull moment here in the bush.  Maybe internet will start working so I can post without 4 hours round trip to the nearest internet cafe.  Peace out!

A holiday season like none before...

So the inevitable happened.  About a week ago, the full wrath of Africa struck and I actually pooped my pants.  Awesome.  I had been having stomach problems for about a week and I though i was on the mend.  I went into to town to run some errands when I got a peculiar feeling in my stomach and knew immediately I needed to high-tail it home. Well on the way home, I was stopped by a man wanting to strike up a untimely casual conversation.  I made that conversation as short as possible and then half sprinted, half hopped home.  I successfully made it all the way to my front door and was fumbling with the key when my stomach made the executive decision that it could no longer wait.  These stomach issues continued for about another half a week when finally we reached the day before I was supposed to travel to Christmas in Ndanda.  Katherine came and spent the night before we traveled the next morning so I stopped my issues dead in their tracks by loading up on Immodium. 

On Christmas Eve, most of the volunteers in the "deep south" met in Ndanda at a volunteer’s house.  We rolled into town, had lunch, went swimming, ate dinner, and decorated our tiny Christmas tree that a volunteer's mom had shipped her.  Then next morning, Kathryn and I got up early and made biscuits and gravy for everyone.  It wasn't my mom's coffee cake, but it was pretty good all the same. After that, we had a Dirty Santa Christmas exchange.  We each brought the most ridiculous present we could find.  I ended up locating a belt that said Bruce Lee on it and was even adorned with a holographic picture of him on the belt buckle.  For dinner, we made fajitas and tortillas.  It was pretty delicious.   I got maybe the best Christmas present ever and got to skype with some of my family and then talk to the rest on the phone.  While I was skyping, I was even joined my 2 Tanzanian kiddos wanting to observe the "magic" of video chatting with a bunch of American whities.  We finished off Christmas day with a lively game of spotlight (because the power went out) charades.  The next morning, we got up and caught a bus to travel to Lindi region.  We had plans to visit some Arab ruins on the coast.  The others had an energetic bartering session with the boat people; I proved very helpful during the whole process and slept against a tree.  The ruins were cool, but my favorite part of the trip was possibly this incredibly nice hotel we found.  No way could be afford it, but that didn't stop us from drinking some beers on their white sand beach and swimming in the Indian Ocean.  After our trip, Ghee, Kathryn, and I headed on home.  They both joined me in Newala.  We just hung out for a couple days and then Leslie, one the other volunteers from our training class joined us on New Years Eve.  It was really nice it being just our training class celebrating together.  We made chili and broke open the mango wine that I made in a bucket a couple weeks ago.  We really welcomed the New Years in with style, bucket wine and dance party to Sheryl Crow.  Well if I didn't get to talk to you, HAPPY NEW YEAR! I have a feeling this is going to be one heck of a year!

A Volunteer of Many Names and the Demon Cat

It really is amazing what you become accustomed to being called when living in Tanzania.   If you have ever heard that song by The Ting Tings, "That's not my name," that song summarizes my feelings about living in Tanzania.   The Tanzanian people are very fond of calling people everything, but their actual name.  So far, this seems to not indicate whether that person knows your name, or they just don't like using it.  The following is a short list of names I have been called. 

1. Dada- this is Kiswahili for "sister."

2. Sister

3. Mama

4. Auntie

5. Mzungu- basically "wonderbread," "whitie," or "cracker" in Kiswahili

6. Teacher

7. Madame- how Tanzanian students address female teachers

8. Numerous names of other white, female Peace Corps Volunteers because all white people look alike. 

In further news, I really thought my body was rejecting Africa for a while.  It all started with a rash behind my left knee.  That rash looked like harmless heat rash until it spread all up and down my leg, onto my right leg, onto my stomach, and up my back.  A few days later, I started running a temperature and had extreme nausea.  Then just the other day, I woke up with one eye almost completely swollen shut.  I seem to finally be bouncing back though.  My rash is slowly clearing up, my stomach issues and temperature lasted only 24 hours, and a popped some allergy pills and my swollen eye slowly went back to normal.  Also, I am no longer afraid to stay up after dark because I now have a cat to protect me from the critters of the night.  Unfortunately after 3 days, it is very clear to me that our personalities do not exactly mesh.  The second night I had the cat, I discovered that he seemed to be suffering from some sort of separation anxiety when I shut him out of my room to sleep.  He proceeded to spend the night meowing at my door and chewing up various objects that were left out.  Luck for me, I had only left out some Ziploc bags and empty water bottles.  This cat also appears to be the most vocal cat in the universe.  It has the loudest, alien-sounding meow in the world.  Sometimes, I swear words actually come out of that idiotic mouth.  This morning, that lovely little feline decided my bed was a good place to take a dump.  Needless to say, I am currently looking for a new home for this cat, which is currently the bane of my existence, and am searching the market for a replacement kitten.  That has pretty much been my life for the past almost week, just hating this demon-cat.  Next week we are all getting together for Christmas so hopefully I will have some better updates.