Epic Battles and Birthday Parties.

Hello All! As usual, things are great on my side of the world. I honestly think I love my village a little more with every passing week.
This last week at school, I was Teacher On Duty. This is my least favorite job at school, but at least its on rotation. In this role, you have to make morning announcements, record all school attendance, and give sick students permission to leave. Its really not that bad, its just incredibly dull. Also, I don't know how its even possible, but I'm not very good at this duty. Let me begin by saying that Tanzanians are especially careful record takers. If there is a record to take, all lines are perfectly spaced and straight. Also, the DO NOT have mess-ups and if they do, will start over instead of crossing out these mistakes. I am just not up to their standards. Most of my lines are all over the place and you would be hard pressed to find a page that I did not have a mistake that I just scratched out. Whenever I hand over the book, I am waiting for someone to ask what 3-year-old I let record attendance. They have all been very gracious so far though.
This last weekend, a bunch of volunteers came to town to celebrate Toni's birthday. Friday, we hung out at the bar/restaurant for about 6 hours and just caught up on everyones' lives. Saturday morning, everyone converged on casa de Katie for pancakes. I also took one over to my neightbors for them to try. They liked it so much, I agreed to have a pancake making lesson on Sunday afternoon (P.S. I can not even tell you how tempted I was to teach them the word flapjack instead of pancake). After everyone had their fill, we went to tour the old German fort that police use for extra office space. They originally said no picture taking, but then the police man showing us around said we were able to take pictures if we could reach an "agreement" with money or phone voucher. No thank you, sir. We really don't want pictures that bad. After that, we went to the market for some shopping. Kristi, another volunteer, is about to go back to the states and wants a new Tanzalicious outfit to wear while giving talks in Elementary schools. So we were on a mission for some rockin' fabric. While shopping, we witnessed the epic "Battle of the Crazies 2011." So if you refer to my previous catalogue of colorful people in my ville, "Wewe," plays a key role in the tale. There is another man who walks around rather quickly, yelling at no one in particular, and occasionally making barking noises. Well, apparently he encroached on "Wewe's" turf. So, in response, "Wewe" chased "crazy, barking man" with a huge bucket of dirty water, finally catching him and soaking him. "Crazy, barking man" then picked up a brick and chases "Wewe" a short way with his weapon overhead, but was unable to catch him. Fortunately, no one was injured in this skuffle and everyone went their crazy, little ways. After the show, we went for a refreshing glass of juice at Juice'man's and then grabbed lunch. Then it was time for my all-time favorite activity, napping. After my nap, I cut Kathryn's hair and then we did dinner and beers with the group.
Sunday, we went for chai and then partook in our normal Sunday shopping. After everyone left, I took another nap, made a tuna sandwich, cleaned, and just piddled around, being very productive. I went into town to give some stuff to Claire as she passed through on the way to her ville. She had been in Mtwara picking up her visiting boyfriend. Let me tell you though, nothing puts a smile on my face like hearing "Madame Katie, What's up?" from a student on the way to town. It was one particular Form III girl who loves that term and uses it every chance she gets since I taught it to my class. When I got back to my house, I brought my neighbors over to my house to learn how to make pancakes. Joyce, my neighbor and pancaking pupil, wants to perfect this American dish so she can make it for her husband. So that's pretty much my updates in a nut shell. Until next time! Peace out!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!!

So life around the ville this weekend was pretty awesome! My students are getting pretty ansty in school since we are almost done, and this is making me ansty, so I was especially grateful for the weekend. Thursday night, I met up with some of the local doctors, the bishop to send off the British medical students. Their time down here is done and now they are going up north to travel. Friday, Kathryn came into town a day earlier than usual. This is because another volunteer, Tyler, was coming with his secondary school for a day of competition against my school. This day of competition was cut extremely short when their bus was about 4 hours late. By the time they arrived, there was only time for the boys to play soccer and the girls to play netball. Netball looked a lot like basketball, except you are not allowed to dribble or run once you have the ball. Our girls got creamed. At least it was entertaining, because many of the students and village children that were watching did marching/dances and chants around the field. My favorite was started by a bunch of my girls. It went a little like this, "Sambusas (stomp, stomp) Sambusas (stomp) Sambusas (stomp stomp)" and so on. We were losing, but they still loved their yummy fried food gosh darnit! While we were clobbered in netball, our boys managed to dominate and bring home a win for Newala Secondary in soccer. They rocked it. And after the netball game ended, the girls kindly brought their entertainment over to the soccer field and were chanting and marching the rest of the game.
Saturday morning, Claire came into town early and we commenced our plans to celebrate Cinco de Mayo in Africa. We started the beans and then made rounds around the market for the rest of the food. We even picked up a little something extra when we all bought matching tie-dye moo-moos. Its not as bad as it sounds though, we are having them altered into not matching styles, because that would be totally uncool. Around this time, Ghee rolled into town and our fiesta participants were all gathered. We made beans, queso, fish tacos with tuna bought from a momma off the street, salsa, and chimichangas (which are actually a lot easier to make than I thought they would be). We all gathered around the table with a bottle of my homemade wine and had a legit Mexican feast. The one disappointment was our intended dessert of brownies. I just got a new solar cooker that was supposed to be amazing. Well, apparently I do not know how to use it because after 3'ish hours it remained a gooey mush. So then, we stuck it on the kerosene jiko (which is not the best for baking) and it all burnt.
The feasting did not stop there though. The next morning, was had a good ol' American breakfast. We made syrup, pancakes, coffee, and had juice. Then after breakfast, we had our normal trip to the market. I have been really wanted to show off my posse of little old men though so I actually took pictures. Lucky I had my camera though because my friend Dudu had his brand new baby (2 months old) at his store! One of my favorite old men though that sells degaa wasn't there, but never fear! Picture to come soon! We then went to talk to Mr. Jaffer. His store sells only in bulk so normally he has nothing that interests me. But then I saw he carried toilet paper in bulk!! Holler!! I bought a 40 pack of toilet paper for 12,000 shillings. That means I paid 30 shillingi per roll instead of 300!! I was pleased as punch!! After that, everyone left and I went home to clean my house, nap, and talk to my mom for Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers of the world, but especially my Momma!! You are the best mother I could ever ask for and put up with way more than you should ever have too!! I love you so much! So everyone give their moms an extra big hug. And if you see my Momma, give her a hug for me! Peace out!

I kinda like my life...

Well howdy doody everyone! I cannot believe that May is already here. It is amazing looking back on the time I have already spent here and looking forward at my remaining time left. It really seems like it will all be over before I know it. So after our long Easter Break, it was back to the grindstone of trying to inspire my students to care about science and learning English. Some days, it really feels hopeless, but then just when you are about to lose all hope, a student will do something amazing. I have always had respect for teachers, but after this 2-year stunt, my respect is out of this world. To all those teachers out there, you are amazing (and a little bit crazy).
So during last week, Claire and I set up a soccer game between our school's girls' teams. It started out all right. My girls were there on time. They even had a ball. But then stuff got crazy. I ran around for about an hour and a half trying to track down the game ball, my whistle, and jerseys. Finally, all was sorted out and we got the game going. Claire even bribed some of my male students to ref the games so we could yell from the sidelines. I was ready for pandemonium. My girls had never played a real game and really hadn't even been practicing for that long, but I was oh so pleasantly surprised. A couple minutes in, my girls find the back of the net! They weren't the Premier League by any means, but they kept the ball at their feet, connected some passes, and for the most part played their positions. There were even some honest to goodness crosses. So at half, we were winning 1-0. Then in the second half, they scored again and we ended up winning the game 2-0. After the game, I got everything put up and then went to the market to see Claire and her girls off. I meandered my way back home, stopping to get degaa, dried sardine like fish, for my cat and a to-go bottle of juice from the one and only juice man. He even had made a debut flavor, stakafelli (actually have no idea how it is spelt). I do not know what this might be called in English, but I've been told it might be related to breadfruit. All I know is that when you mix it with Passion fruit juice, it results in an explosion of deliciousness in your mouth. So after these stops, I slowly made my way home. As I was about to walk up my front steps, I saw a very strange sight, a whole car full of wazungu (whities). They waved, so I waved back, and then crazy enough, they stopped and got out. It turns out that they were five medical students from England accompanied by the Anglican Bishop. There had been in Masasi for 4 1/2 weeks working in the hospital and were now going to be in Newala for around 10 days doing more clinical work. The Bishop invited me to meet them for lunch, and despite the temptation to just stay home and take a nap, I agreed and joined. Then they jetted off to visit a nearby hospital, but then I met up with them when they returned for some beers. They even wrangled me into attending church. Now its not that I am some horrible person, I just don't particularly enjoy church here. I have yet to go to a service that is under 3 hours long, I really don't understand most of what is being said, and they always, and I mean always, make the whitie, i.e. me, get up and give a speech. And this service was no exception. While the med students got to politely wave while being introduced by the Bishop, I was forced to go to the front and had a microphone thrust into my face for a speech. But overall it was all right. I do love the music here. This service had about 4 small choirs who each got their turn to stand and sing, always with an accompanying dance. I love it. And to make things even more entertaining, "Wewe," remember him from my catalogue of Newala crazies, tracked me down and followed me into church that oh so fine Sunday morning. He then proceeded to join in every song with his own rendition of the dance. It was great.
P.S. The Bishop called me to make sure I knew Osama Bin Laden was dead (glad he's got my back and I have now apparently have friends in high places)
P.P.S. If my neighbors don's slaughter their new chicken soon, I'm gonna go over there and do it for them

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.