Church + Election

I made it to the Catholic mass this morning at the Carmelite Community in town. Although I was told it starts at 07:00, I think it starts at quarter to 7 because it was already going when I got there at 5 of. Since it was in Kiswahili, I didn’t understand much but the format was the same so it was a bit comforting. On the way home, I walked to the market to try to get a pumpkin. Unfortunately my plan to make a Jack-o-lantern for Halloween today was thwarted because the vendor wasn’t there to sell me the pumpkin, which was there. Dang.

Much of my day was spent writing quotes and nice personal comments to the other people in my training group. The first few months at site are very lonely for most PCVs so the PC office will send an envelope to each one of us with personal notes from others in the group. We could choose to do notes for just those in our POD or the whole group. Most of us chose the latter despite the increased difficulty. When I brought the notes to Doug to put them in the envelopes, he was making pizza. He lucked out because his host family has an actual oven so he doesn’t have to try the makeshift Dutch oven way of baking.

Tonight I did some PC homework, which had me talk with my brother Raphael and sisters to answer questions on kitchen parties, weddings, and funerals. It was the most I’ve talked with my family because I had to do the homework in English. Raphael even asked me why Pluto isn’t a planet anymore. While talking with my sisters, I mostly talked with Magdalena, whose English is the best, and I learned a lot about my family. For instance, the father is dead, the 2 boys I live with are brothers, and the house girl is Muslim.

Magde and Belinda showed me their black inked pinky finger pads from voting in the national election. Mama ended up with a whole black pinky (*that lasted a few days*) showing she voted. They are registered in the village so they were able to vote locally. My teacher took a trip back to Dar in order to vote. We won’t know the results for about 4 days but we have been seeing and hearing about the presidential election our whole time here and are looking forward to it being over. Officially the system has multiple parties but CCM (the party of the president) has a lot of power in the government and therefore most of the money. There are posters everywhere with Kikwete’s face (the president) but few from other parties. Everyone pretty much knows that Kikwete will win again even if they don’t like him. Luckily this country is very stable compared to other African countries so even though we are on Standfast because of the election, we don’t really expect any major problems.

Shadow Announcement!

I’m going to near Njombe, Iringa province for Shadow in a week! It’s much cooler there because it’s in the southern highlands so I’m really excited. Megan (M), Ezra, Mike & Mindy (the married couple) are in my group and we are visiting Marilyn, who is an older volunteer.

My portion control is getting better when I eat, which is encouraging. Although I’m still eating more than I’m burning off, I’m getting better and should be good when I’m cooking for myself. This means I have a shot at losing the weight I’ve gained in the past month before my sister gets married. Of course, we had little pieces of chocolate at lunch today and I was one of those who greedily licked the melted chocolate off the wrapper. So I’m still enjoying good (but not healthy) food.

After incident with the undrinkable water Thursday, I decided to buy a big container of bottled water for the coming week. Of course I forgot my money at home this morning but Ezra spotted me the cash. Since we have to pay in cash for everything, everyone has been covering one another so everyone is taken care of. It’s really helpful not only when you don’t have enough cash on you, but also when riding a daladala and you don’t have exact change; sometimes you don’t get your 50Tsh if the conductor guy doesn’t have one of the coins (we tend to hoard them for use on the daladalas). I also picked up some peanut butter for lunch this week and the kanga I’ve been eyeing for my mom because it says something to the effect of, “I’m sending my daughter down the aisle.” Even though no one back home will know what it means, it will still make a cute skirt. I bought a small package of cookies yesterday and my family was very happy when I brought them out after dinner.

EAP

It’s Friday so we headed to CCT again and I stopped at the bank for money and it seems they have put some of our Shadow money in already even though it’s not supposed to be there. This is confusing but at least I have money now :-).

With Shadow coming up, we covered the Emergency Action Plan (EAP). This tells us what to do at the different levels of preparedness. Basically, it’s like the color alert levels in the US. Right now we are on Standfast because of the election Sunday. Although nothing big is expected to happen, all of the PCVs/PCTs have to stay where they are and not travel. The PCVs for next week had to come early because of it. So if we do need to be evacuated at any point (not likely in Tz), I now know the procedures. The staff also told us today that our site announcements were pushed back a day. This means we have to wait another whole day to find out where we will be living and teaching for the next 2 years. At least it allows some main PC staff like our Country Director and the other 3 Americans on staff to come.

Last week, Arlene (PCMO) said she would bring us the cookbooks this week so I asked her about it during a break in her sessions. She said she forgot them in Dar but to ask her again when we started into the next session. I did as she asked and it turns out she didn’t forget them! She definitely had me fooled – good one Arlene. I’m psyched to try cooking something for my family and all the foods I’ll cook at site. Mmmm….

After CCT, Megan (M) and I walked around Morogoro looking for kitenges so we can have dresses made. Megan found a great teal-colored one but I didn’t have any luck with a red or maroon one that doesn’t have a big print on it. Guess I’ll have to go back to look some more.

I needed water this morning but the boiled water my family gave me smelled very strongly…like a fuel pipe leaked into the water pipe. Sure, boiling kills microbes but it doesn’t’ get rid of other potential contaminants. Since I had to be at the school by 07:15 to shadow the Teacher on Duty (TOD), the stores weren’t open for me to buy water but thankfully I was able to get out later to get some (thanks Anna!). The Teacher on Duty is a classroom teacher who is responsible for overseeing the students doing their cleaning jobs (like chores of sweeping, mopping, etc.) and the morning assembly for the week. I think there might be some responsibility with attendance too but I guess I’ll understand better at site.

Before the students were released for chai, Tim, Ezra, and I went to get some fried potatoes and sambusas (also potato). Then for lunch we went to a bar/pub and had rice, beans, spinach, and soup (like the broth from minestrone). Tim and I also had a few small pieces of meat. I felt really stuffed today with all the food I ate but I really like trying out new things.

Mama asked about my sheets when I was done washing my clothes yesterday and I kind of agreed to wash them today. When I finished, it looked like it was going to rain and I wouldn’t have sheets to sleep on. I lucked out but realized I should probably only wash one sheet at a time here.

Last week, George had his wallet stolen while on the daladala. Although he had the bag on his lap, the person was able to somehow get in his bag. While having a lesson outside this afternoon, 2 men approached our teacher. She said she needed to talk with them and asked us to leave. Turns out that one man is a police officer and the other found George’s ID cards on the side of the street. They called the PC office who directed them to Anna because she was the closest person. No money was recovered but it’s nice to know that someone would turn in something lost.
Tonight the family watched “The Gods Must Be Crazy”, which is on the same disc as “George of the Jungle” from last night. Although the audio and subtitles were not in English and the sub-sub-titles barely readable, it didn’t matter – the movie is hilarious.

Engagement + Hands-on Science = Amazing Day

Kait’s Engaged!! Just after midnight, I somehow woke out of a deep sleep to answer my phone. I was so out of it, I thought it was the next morning and it was a fellow PCT calling about our Pod Day (more on that later). I was surprised to hear my sister on the phone but thrilled to talk with her. She’s finally engaged! I’m sooo excited!! And this means I will be going home at some point for her wedding and will not have to go a full 27 months without seeing my family. I only talked with Kait for less than 7 minutes but couldn’t sleep for 2 hours afterward (so worth it though).

Before leaving for Pod Day, we received the results of our mid-training oral proficiencies. I scored Intermediate-Mid, which is what I am supposed to score at by the end of training. Not bad. I got an 83.5 on the written exam that we got back yesterday. I’m hoping to do better on the final by actually studying for the exam.

For Pod Day, our Kihonda group was driven to Kayenzi and we now understand more fully why they keep getting flat tires on their bikes. We were joined by some Kayenzi teachers and PCV Aron led a session on making science classes hands-on. It was fricken awesome. We created O2 (oxygen). We made H2 (hydrogen)…and then blew up the balloon. We made liters of acids and bases and neutralized them. We calculated the gravitational constant (g) from a pendulum. And all of it was done using materials fairly readily available in Tanzania. There are a few things that are best obtained in Dar but many are quite common. We are now recognizing the many uses of objects around us like empty water bottles, used batteries, and the unwaxed floss PC provided in our med kits. It was a great session with good food in between. We bought potato sambusas midmorning from some women who cook them right on the school grounds and sell them to students during chai (tea) time. They were delicious; as was the lunch that the woman brought (she makes lunch for the Kayenzi CBT every day).

I’m really glad we had a session focusing on science labs. It’s difficult enough in the States where supplies are more readily available and easily replaced if broken. I feel much more confident about teaching Chemistry and am excited to get started planning my lesions and collecting materials for experiments.

At dinner, I prayed in Kiswahili for the first time. Mama had told me a simple prayer and I finally memorized it. She was proud. My family watched “George of the Jungle” tonight and I laughed along with them. The movie is on a disc with several other movies and is actually labeled as “The Jungle Book” – someone (probably in China) was confused.

The rain last night meant no dust this morning, which was a welcome relief. I was observed for the first time while teaching today and it went well. Rose really didn’t have too much to say for improvements; hopefully I’ll have a good lesson next week when I am observed by the PCV. During our Internship teaching, we have to be Teacher on Duty at some point. Today I found out who one of the teachers is on duty for the week and will join her on Thursday to shadow her. She was with other teachers when I was talking with her and among the questions I was asked were, “Are you engaged? Why not?” I responded that I’m a teacher and too busy…plus my friends are in America. Then I think I was asked if they are black (or white) and I just told them that friends are friends. I mean really, does it matter?

Mid-afternoon we walked to Educare, the private secondary school in Kihonda. Kids who don’t do well enough on their exams to go to a public school, will go to a private school if their parents can afford it. Generally, the students at public schools are better students than those at private schools (not always the case but overall). Of course the school fees at private schools are higher and the facilities can be a little better. The room the Educare CBT meets in is the teacher’s lounge, which has couches, coffee tables, and a fan! It is much more comfortable than our classroom (or the teacher’s lounge for that matter) at Kihonda. It didn’t take us long to figure out how we are going to present on American focus in interactions. We recognize that the focus changes depending on the situation so we chose 5 areas to demonstrate: corporate, big purchase, small purchase, friends, and family. Sometimes, like for large purchases or when asking someone for something important, there is usually some “small talk” first, which shows a focus on relationship. However, many of our interactions in America are task-oriented; the focus is on the business at hand, then the relationship.

Will and I were able to get my photos downloaded to his computer this evening and I saved some to my jump-drive to post online. Unfortunately, we had to install the Kodak software from the disc in order to get the pictures transferred from camera to computer. Not sure what I’m going to do when at site if no other PCV w/ a computer is “close”.

My CBT group decided to stop having a local lady make our lunch and bring it to us she was making good food but it cost us each 2,000Tsh, which is half of our daily allowance. So in order to save money, eat different foods, and interact more with locals, we are on our own this week for lunch. I had good ol’ peanut butter and jelly with a couple of bananas and it was sooo good! I’ve missed peanut butter. Actually, I ended up eating 4 bananas today but they taste better and are a little smaller than the ones sold in the States. At dinner, I was served some pumpkin. It seemed more like what we would call squash in the US but it’s close. I wonder if they made if because they think it’s an American food? It is, but is there brown sugar here to put on it?