Kuuliza si ujinga

Training is rapidly coming in an end. What does this mean? Well, mostly that things are hectic. It doesn't help that my host family is currently cooking 1,220 samosas three times a week for the local teachers college, so things are as hectic and stressful at home as they are elsewhere. When I came home two nights ago Mama Gill and Mama Bi were sitting in the hallway folding samosas. Last night the whole family was hectically preparing food for a wedding. And this morning, Rehema and Mama Mkubwa were peeling more onions that I've ever seen in one place outside of a grocery store.

(The family cooks for a living, and anyone who has the time and ability helps)

On my own end, I'm trying to:
-write and memorize a Kiswahili speech for swearing in. Well, I don't think I have to memorize it, but I hope to know it well enough that I can look the audience in the eye instead of staring at the paper
-finish up buying gifts for my host family (today's errand)
-buy random supplies for my site. I have no electricity, so my greatest concern is a solar charger for my cell phone. A friend gave me one that doesn't seem to work, and I bought a wind-up charger in town today. So it looks like I'll be sitting there winding-up my cell phone for three hours or so every time I want to us it. Actually, I'm kind of kidding, but I have the feeling you have to wind it for a while to get a decent amount of charge. If it turns out that I have cell phone service at my site, and that I use my cell phone a lot, I may try to get a solar charger in the nearest town
-practice playing the harmonica for a song we're performing at swearing-in. I have to accompany a guitar, and I've never done this before so I'm never sure when to start playing. I may pull out of this one if I don't have enough time to practice before swearing-in
-start packing. We leave Morogoro on Thursday. What with the books, first aid kit, and random supplies the Peace Corps has given me, my possessions have nearly doubled since I reached Tanzania. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to cart 13 chemistry books, 4 biology books, a book on permaculture, a book on teaching, 4 Kiswahili books, and all the books I originally brought here to my site. The Peace Corps will be taking us there (which simplifies things), but it will still be a challenge to fit everything in my bags without making the bags too heavy to carry.

And of course . . .
-spend some time with my friends from training before we all separate. You get close to people when you spend two months with them in a time of stress, especially when you study a new language together, laugh about your most recent embarassing story together, and complain about the problems of adjusting together. I have a lot of friends who will be on the opposite side of the country. We'll be sending text messages and letters, but we won't see each other until the next peace corps training session several months from now. When I have a break from all the other things I should be doing (or when I simply decide those things aren't as important), I want to enjoy my time with them while I can.

My site:
I will be teaching at a secondary school in Arusha region, near Ngorongoro crater. I won't have many details until I get there. What I do know is:
-my village has running water but no electricity
-the villagers are from the Iraqw tribe and speak Kiiraqw as well as Kiswahili
-I'll most likely be teaching biology and chemistry
-my village is very rural, but is not far from a tourist town. So I'll have internet access, but will probably be posting in this blog every 2 weeks at most

We're rapidly approaching the end of training. Yesterday, we had a swahili test involving simulations in which we had to pretend to be at the police station, market, school, and bus station (they even gave us a little money to buy fruit at the simulation market, and brought in actual sellers for the market, actual police for the police simulation, and so on). Today we had our written Swahili test, and tomorrow I have my oral test. Then, on Thursday, we leave for our shadow visits. We'll be visiting other Peace Corps volunteers in groups of 2 or 3.

I'll be traveling to rural Iringa with Ross, to visit an environmental volunteer. We'll be an hour away from the nearest city, Njombe, in a village of 1500 people with no electricity. From what I've been told, Iringa is mountainous and chilly. I'm excited. We'll be heading there via a 5 hour bus ride. We'll be taking a commercial bus which will also have Tanzanian passengers, but which will include maybe 8 Peace Corps trainees as several of us are going to Njombe area.

The shadow visits are about 4 days long, then we'll be going to Dar es Salaam for some Peace Corps lectures and a thanksgiving dinner at the country director's house. Also in Dar, we'll be finding out where we'll be teaching for the next two years. By this time next week, I'll know the name of my school, where it's located, what subject I'll be teaching, and what peace corps volunteers will be in my area. I'm trying not to think about it too much right now--it's a lot of information to wait for, and at the moment I'm just excited to leave Morogoro for a few days and see more of the country.

To give you an idea of what my life is like here, here's a sample of some of the things that happened yesterday. Note that this is not necessarily a typical day (in fact I don't think I have a typical day). But it should give you an idea of a day in the life of a Peace Corps Tanzania trainee.

We're done with our internship teaching, so I slept in until 6:40 am. That's right, slept in. I awoke to the third day in a row of no water coming out of the tap. This wasn't a problem yesterday, as yesterday I still had a full bucket of water stored in my bathroom. Today I'm down to about a quarter bucket, my family's water tank is empty, and we need to fetch water from the well a few minutes' walk away. I've been told the well water is safe to drink but tastes salty (I'll probably find out when I go home a few hours from now). As my family says, water is shida kubwa, a big problem. We really need some rain.

I've had a cold for the past few days, so I was delighted to walk into the dining room and see that my breakfast was two pieces of keki (cake) and a cup of chai. Not greasy eggs, not greasy chapati, not the Tanzanian version of French toast, not even my beloved uji. Cake cooked in an improvised charcoal oven. It takes very small things to make me happy here.

I arrived at Kiswahili class at 8 am. At 10 am, as chai break began, I raced to the local duka (store) to try to buy some tissues. I had no luck asking for 'paper for blowing your nose' in Kiswahili, so I bought a roll of toilet paper. And then felt foolish carrying it back along a shortcut that passed through several people's yards. Usually the storeowner wraps it in newspaper; today I think he was out. Not a big problem, though—the more time I spend in Tanzania, the less easily I'm embarassed.

Bryan played his guitar during chai, and again after lunch. We tried to accompany each other, Bryan on the guitar and me on the harmonica. Unfortunately our repertoire is currently limited to 'Hey Mr. Tambourine Man', 'Free Falling', and 'Blowin' in the Wind'. Plus I have no experience accompanying someone, so I'm never quite sure when to play the first note. But it was fun, and there were some moments when the music sounded really good.

Kiswahili class ended early, actually two hours before lunch, and we had self-study time. Which translates to some self-study and some goofing off and laughing at each other. Maybe we're all under a lot of stress, or maybe we just spend too much time together. Whatever the reason, the five of us in my Swahili class laugh at each other very easily.

After lunch Bryan, Laura, and Ross went to town, Beverly stayed to study, and I sat on the steps of the house where we learn Swahili and picked out songs on my harmonica. I went home around 4 and took my afternoon bucket bath. Then I sat in the living room to write a letter. There were some guests in the house, who I don't think I've met before, but they were deep in conversation when I entered and I never did introduce myself. Some days I feel like going through the five minute Swahili conversation that begins 'How do you know Swahili?', passes through the standard questions of 'Where are you from?' and 'What are you doing here in Tanzania?', and ends in awkward silence. Yesterday was not one of those days.

Kind of puttered around until 6:30, then went to do one of my favorite activities: sitting in the kitchen while my mamas cooked. It always makes for good conversation, either as I listen to them talk to each other or as I try to participate in the conversation. I ended up telling Tumaini that we were learning the Tanzanian national anthem for graduation, and then had to sing it. And since I had only sung it a few times, I forgot many lines. After that I sang her the American anthem, paused before the line 'o'er the ramparts . . .', thought for minute, and skipped to the next line. Tumaini laughed at me (I would have laughed at myself too). We then practiced singing the Tanzanian anthem together. Two of my other mamas joined in. As it turned out, one of them had forgotten much of the Tanzania anthem. So basically we all laughed at each other, and I didn't feel so bad about forgetting a line of the American anthem.

At dinner I made my language mistake of the day, accidentally telling my family that poor Mexicans eat meat while rich ones eat rice and beans. It took me a minute to figure out why they were so confused. Fortunately my family loves to laugh, and I don't mind giving them something to laugh at. After dinner I spent a little while watching TV, but, given the option between a Tanzanian political talk show and journal writing followed by sleep, decided for journal writing and sleep. I lay down on my bed under my mosquito net for about an hour, writing in my journal. Then I turned out the light at around 10:30, exhausted as usual, and promptly fell asleep.