Wednesday, December 31, 2003
SUNDAY 28 December
It was different, celebrating Christmas with friends on Ukerewe Island at Emily's site. I came home to an email from Allegra, recounting the family and friends gathered around her table for Christmas dinner and commenting that this is the first time in many years that I have not been a part of the groups. But it was also good to be with new friends here, sharing tales from our experiences here. We still find it surprising how different all our lives are, in our various sites. Some quite isolated and primitive, others much more - what is the word, developed? advanced? DIFFERENT! And interestingly, each of us seems to feel that we have the best location of all.
Well, maybe not John. He is stationed on Pemba, a small island offshore near Zanzibar. Since the other PVC on the island decided to go back to the US, he has no other PVC on the island and it is very muslim. As he recounts it, there is no economic activity there, and the speed varies between stop and stationary. In part this reflects the temperature which just sounds brutal. Very hot and very humid. He sounds as though he intends to stick it out though and, knowing John, a part of this griping may just be for effect.
John and Emily are a great pair. They found each other during training in Arusha and Emily says she knew immediately that John was the guy for her. She came to Mwanza to meet him on his arrival. Unfortunately, he wasn't feeling well that hadn't been helped by the grueling trip by bus and ferry to Zanzibar, another to Dar and then the flight. But he has recovered, and anyway it was just great to see them together, enjoying being with each other. They are both very sharp people, and think along the similar lines, and play off of each other comfortably. Watching and observing them, I couldn't help thinking of Myrna and how wonderful it would be if we could be together too. Well, in time ...
After we arrived on Christmas eve we had a meal of wonderful fish cooked by Emily's Tanzanian friends. Kathleen organized the rest of the food preparation during our stay - lots of mango chutney and salsa, and we inaugurated the Wood Brick Oven that Emily designed and the Tanzanians built more or less to her plan. The bread was really good even if the bottom was black, and the brownies were fabulous. We christened the oven the SANTA FE, with a yellow sun drawn on one side. Steve went to evening mass and I went along to see what it was like. The church was full and the choir was singing as we arrived. I enjoyed their singing which did sound Christmassy although I did not recognize the tune, and then I left before the mass began. The church itself looked very festive with many strings of green and orange pennants over the heads of the congregants.
On Christmas we exchanged small surprise gifts, ate brownies, joked, read, played cards, walked around Emily's site, cooked, told stories and generally enjoyed being together. Low key day. Sang a little, 'though not much, and I played all the carols and Christmas music I could think of on the recorder. Even taught Emily and Sarah how to plan Joy to the World on the recorder well enough so I could try a little harmony when we played together - Emily had two recorders and I had brought one.
Friday we rented a Land Rover with driver for the day, and headed out for Rubia at the far end of the island. It took some two hours of bouncing over rocks and gullies, but brought us to a very nice sandy beach and a pine forest. Pines are a rarity in Tanzania, so this was a bit of an oddity. Sarah waded in the water, Steve swam and said the water was fine. The rest of us deferred, fearing the snails and their nasty little parasites. A lot of Rubia is a National Park, so we poked around some. Saw some beautiful white rocks off in the distance, so Steve and I left the group to explore them. It was quite a hike, but we were rewarded by a magnificent view of the island and the surrounding lake. When we got back the group was quite ready to leave, so we were back on-site in time for the sunset.
I had a good nap on the ferry back across the lake on Saturday, and back in Mwanza we met second-year PCV Maury and her parents at Kulianas, where we almost always end up for delicious fresh fruit and light food at prices that are very attractive to PCVs. Maury's parents have been visiting for the last week or so. They had been on a six-day Safari with her, and have been amazed by the different culture and climate here. I invited them to volunteer with the PC, but they deferred.
Now, Sunday, it feels good to be here, back home. I like my house and my community. Kathleen stayed the night, to catch the bus back to Bunda this morning so we talked late into the evening. The new screen door springs plus plugging the gap under the front door seemed to be quite effective in reducing the number of evening insect visitors. Kathleen taught me how to pull up the wicks in my kerosine stove. Slowly, it all comes together. This afternoon I will go down to Kandejar-by-the-Lake to begin looking into the details of the school program, and begin thinking about my teaching duties. Our first Staff Meeting is scheduled for January 5!
It was different, celebrating Christmas with friends on Ukerewe Island at Emily's site. I came home to an email from Allegra, recounting the family and friends gathered around her table for Christmas dinner and commenting that this is the first time in many years that I have not been a part of the groups. But it was also good to be with new friends here, sharing tales from our experiences here. We still find it surprising how different all our lives are, in our various sites. Some quite isolated and primitive, others much more - what is the word, developed? advanced? DIFFERENT! And interestingly, each of us seems to feel that we have the best location of all.
Well, maybe not John. He is stationed on Pemba, a small island offshore near Zanzibar. Since the other PVC on the island decided to go back to the US, he has no other PVC on the island and it is very muslim. As he recounts it, there is no economic activity there, and the speed varies between stop and stationary. In part this reflects the temperature which just sounds brutal. Very hot and very humid. He sounds as though he intends to stick it out though and, knowing John, a part of this griping may just be for effect.
John and Emily are a great pair. They found each other during training in Arusha and Emily says she knew immediately that John was the guy for her. She came to Mwanza to meet him on his arrival. Unfortunately, he wasn't feeling well that hadn't been helped by the grueling trip by bus and ferry to Zanzibar, another to Dar and then the flight. But he has recovered, and anyway it was just great to see them together, enjoying being with each other. They are both very sharp people, and think along the similar lines, and play off of each other comfortably. Watching and observing them, I couldn't help thinking of Myrna and how wonderful it would be if we could be together too. Well, in time ...
After we arrived on Christmas eve we had a meal of wonderful fish cooked by Emily's Tanzanian friends. Kathleen organized the rest of the food preparation during our stay - lots of mango chutney and salsa, and we inaugurated the Wood Brick Oven that Emily designed and the Tanzanians built more or less to her plan. The bread was really good even if the bottom was black, and the brownies were fabulous. We christened the oven the SANTA FE, with a yellow sun drawn on one side. Steve went to evening mass and I went along to see what it was like. The church was full and the choir was singing as we arrived. I enjoyed their singing which did sound Christmassy although I did not recognize the tune, and then I left before the mass began. The church itself looked very festive with many strings of green and orange pennants over the heads of the congregants.
On Christmas we exchanged small surprise gifts, ate brownies, joked, read, played cards, walked around Emily's site, cooked, told stories and generally enjoyed being together. Low key day. Sang a little, 'though not much, and I played all the carols and Christmas music I could think of on the recorder. Even taught Emily and Sarah how to plan Joy to the World on the recorder well enough so I could try a little harmony when we played together - Emily had two recorders and I had brought one.
Friday we rented a Land Rover with driver for the day, and headed out for Rubia at the far end of the island. It took some two hours of bouncing over rocks and gullies, but brought us to a very nice sandy beach and a pine forest. Pines are a rarity in Tanzania, so this was a bit of an oddity. Sarah waded in the water, Steve swam and said the water was fine. The rest of us deferred, fearing the snails and their nasty little parasites. A lot of Rubia is a National Park, so we poked around some. Saw some beautiful white rocks off in the distance, so Steve and I left the group to explore them. It was quite a hike, but we were rewarded by a magnificent view of the island and the surrounding lake. When we got back the group was quite ready to leave, so we were back on-site in time for the sunset.
I had a good nap on the ferry back across the lake on Saturday, and back in Mwanza we met second-year PCV Maury and her parents at Kulianas, where we almost always end up for delicious fresh fruit and light food at prices that are very attractive to PCVs. Maury's parents have been visiting for the last week or so. They had been on a six-day Safari with her, and have been amazed by the different culture and climate here. I invited them to volunteer with the PC, but they deferred.
Now, Sunday, it feels good to be here, back home. I like my house and my community. Kathleen stayed the night, to catch the bus back to Bunda this morning so we talked late into the evening. The new screen door springs plus plugging the gap under the front door seemed to be quite effective in reducing the number of evening insect visitors. Kathleen taught me how to pull up the wicks in my kerosine stove. Slowly, it all comes together. This afternoon I will go down to Kandejar-by-the-Lake to begin looking into the details of the school program, and begin thinking about my teaching duties. Our first Staff Meeting is scheduled for January 5!
Tuesday, December 23, 2003
MONDAY December 22
Ryan and I walked out to the Fisheries Research Institute today to talk with Margaret about her research on the life cycle of the schistosomiasis parasites. It was an interesting session although we didn't know enough to ask very many intelligent questions about her work. Ryan and I kept trying to pass off the discussion leadership to each other. Anyway, Margaret started working there as a technician some 10-12 years ago and is proud to have gotten her BSc and MSc degrees from the U. Dar es Salaam, and since then to have become a research scientist there. In any event, we got profuse invitations to return with our classes for a field trip after the next term is underway. I think they are really hungry for some recognition and attention, out there.
We also learned that St. Augustine University, right across the street from Nsumba Secondaria and only some 100 yards from my house, has internet access at half the cost of the Mwanza sites. What a great discovery! We tried it out immediately, and although we might have to fight with the students for access, it worked! Hooray!
Naturalists must go insane in Tanzania. As we were walking along we were looking at the birds around us. Of course, there were the hawks and herons and egrets and stuff. Ho hum. But also those little diving birds with big beaks and swept back heads that could only have been designed by a cartoonist, and the stately, lethargic cranes that stand around like bored doormen. Then there was this other bird with a red beak, white head, blue back and bright green breast. I mean, where do you go from there? Every morning some birds visit my courtyard with a flutter that sounds like hummingbirds except these guys are bigger, with crested heads. In a way, it seems like I should have a bird book to try to identify these things, but there are so many that I think I would just be overwhelmed.
Then there are the insects. Emily says she is overrun with cockroaches and their stomping around keeps her awake at night. I haven't seen anything I would call a cockroach, but I think I have a sample of every other kind of beetle, ant, moth, fly, firefly, glowworm and bug on the face of the earth. Red ones, yellow ones, green ones and lots and lots of black ones. There are some big ones that sound like a B-29 when they fly but they don't navigate well and crash into walls and things and drop with a bang. The glowworms are fantastic - the first time I saw one I thought it was a green LED from some handheld device that got lost in the grass, but it was just this small worm-thing. Then tonight there were thousands of little gnat-like critters attacking the fluorescent tube in my living room. Never saw them before, at least not in my house. But I haven't had to deal with termite hills or those safari ants like Mithril wrote about in her email, so I guess I am pretty fortunate.
SATURDAY December 20
On Thursday Mista Zakia, the Tanzanian teacher who is fast becoming my best friend here, accused me of becoming Tanzanian myself. We had made an appointment to go for a bicycle ride at 1:00 or so. But I had forgotten about it, and took off on my Big New Shiny Heavy Chinese Multispeed Phoenix Bicycle with Dynamo Powered Headlamp at about 10:00 without him - a very Tanzanian thing to have done.
Anyway, my ride took me out past the other St. Augustine Univ. campus with its dingy little canteen and outdoor pool table, down a road that turned into a path leading to a crossroad that led to the road that borders Lake Victoria. I took that to the left, past some thatched-roof huts just like those in the Village Museum back in Dar es Salaam, with people working their fields of corn and with the lake on the other side with egrets, herons, pelicans and those little diving birds. Further along, the road turned into a path and I came to a big flat-rock area covered with millions of tiny fish like anchovies, drying in the sun with people sweeping them along with brooms to turn them over and keep them stirred. Occasionally a big hawk would come swooping in and grab one of the anchovies in its talons without stopping and eat it in the air as it soared up and away. Still further a boy herding goats kept pace with me as the path led up through boulders to a point at the top where I could not push my bike along any more. From there I had a beautiful view of the lake along an isolated cove with fields of corn, some palm trees and banana plants.
Returning, I kept to the road and passed the lakeside bars I like so much and the Galalaya Cafe where Robert Paul serves chicken and rice and is willing to try to help me learn Kiswahili, to find a read leading to a Fisheries Research Center. This, it turns out, is located out by the boats you can see from the lakeside bars. The boats are actually research vessels, and according to Russel, are used quite often although they look pretty stationary to me. Russel is doing research on why the number of fish species in the lake is decreasing so dramatically. His work indicates that at least part of the reason is the pollution-related increasing turbidity of the water so that sexually interested fish cannot find willing partners of the same subspecies. I also met Margaret, who is doing research on the life cycle of the shistosomiasis parasites that infest all the fresh water lakes of Tanzania and Africa. I definitely will have to bring my classes here on a field trip at some point.
Back home at midafternoon my lunch was waiting for me in an insulated hot pot - I had not told my cook I would be away. Then a cold shower and a nap, from which Zakia woke me with his accusation. Still, he invited me to ride along out to his property, about 20 minutes by bike. He has a house in a little village there. It is nearing completion, but he has been in the process of building it since 1996 as time and money permit. It is not as large as the house I am living in here, but has a better design and will be very comfortable and homey when completed. At present he and the school fundi are working on plastering the walls so he goes out twice daily to wet down the new plaster and keep it from cracking as it sets.
After dressing the plaster we rode on through other areas and towns, past several other schools and religious institutions. The Catholic Church seems to own a great deal of Tanzania. Zakia's house is actually located on "the Bishop's land," which seems to be a safer place to appropriate property than are the adjacent government tracts.
Along the way my bike chain broke. We found the broken link, but it was a loong walk back pushing the bike or standing on one pedal and pushing off the ground with the free foot. I smell trouble ahead with my Big New Shiny Heavy Chinese Multispeed Phoenix Bicycle with Dynamo Powered Headlamp. Zakia was riding a dirty and rusty but smaller and lighter one-speed bike with a coaster brake that he bought used for about six bucks some five years ago. He doesn't have to bother to lock it. I think that right now I would trade him, even up.
*** *** ***
Yesterday I went to Mwanza for the bank and some general shopping. As usual, I happened upon some other PCVs - Peace Corps Volunteers - and we talked over some sodas and beer. Met up with Kim who was in from Sumbe and had asked to stay the night at my place since she is too far out to make the trip and return in one day. Then Kara text messaged to ask if she and two friends could also stay overnight. It seems there was a Farmer's Convention or something like that in town last night and all the cheaper hotels were full. So I had a whole gang sleeping on my floors here last night. It felt good that the cleanliness of the floors in my kitchen and bathroom covinced Kim and Kara that now they want to paint their floors too.
My Tanzanian neighbors are always very curious about my guest rosters. They just cannot comprehend that anyone could live alone without being terribly lonely and depressed. And they absolutely cannot comprehend that people of the opposite sex could ever spend a platonic night together in the same house. After Ryan hosted two other PCVs overnight, his neighbors first asked if they were his sisters, then whether they were prostitutes.
*** *** ***
This is the Saturday before Christmas. The stores and malls in the US must be a madhouse today. Here, the neighbor's rooster is crowing as usual and small boys are poking long sticks at the mango trees to knock down ripe fruit, also as usual. In a couple of weeks I guess I will have to start dealing with lesson plans and teaching duties, but for now I feel very mellow and I think I might be suffering today from Spring Fever.
Ryan and I walked out to the Fisheries Research Institute today to talk with Margaret about her research on the life cycle of the schistosomiasis parasites. It was an interesting session although we didn't know enough to ask very many intelligent questions about her work. Ryan and I kept trying to pass off the discussion leadership to each other. Anyway, Margaret started working there as a technician some 10-12 years ago and is proud to have gotten her BSc and MSc degrees from the U. Dar es Salaam, and since then to have become a research scientist there. In any event, we got profuse invitations to return with our classes for a field trip after the next term is underway. I think they are really hungry for some recognition and attention, out there.
We also learned that St. Augustine University, right across the street from Nsumba Secondaria and only some 100 yards from my house, has internet access at half the cost of the Mwanza sites. What a great discovery! We tried it out immediately, and although we might have to fight with the students for access, it worked! Hooray!
Naturalists must go insane in Tanzania. As we were walking along we were looking at the birds around us. Of course, there were the hawks and herons and egrets and stuff. Ho hum. But also those little diving birds with big beaks and swept back heads that could only have been designed by a cartoonist, and the stately, lethargic cranes that stand around like bored doormen. Then there was this other bird with a red beak, white head, blue back and bright green breast. I mean, where do you go from there? Every morning some birds visit my courtyard with a flutter that sounds like hummingbirds except these guys are bigger, with crested heads. In a way, it seems like I should have a bird book to try to identify these things, but there are so many that I think I would just be overwhelmed.
Then there are the insects. Emily says she is overrun with cockroaches and their stomping around keeps her awake at night. I haven't seen anything I would call a cockroach, but I think I have a sample of every other kind of beetle, ant, moth, fly, firefly, glowworm and bug on the face of the earth. Red ones, yellow ones, green ones and lots and lots of black ones. There are some big ones that sound like a B-29 when they fly but they don't navigate well and crash into walls and things and drop with a bang. The glowworms are fantastic - the first time I saw one I thought it was a green LED from some handheld device that got lost in the grass, but it was just this small worm-thing. Then tonight there were thousands of little gnat-like critters attacking the fluorescent tube in my living room. Never saw them before, at least not in my house. But I haven't had to deal with termite hills or those safari ants like Mithril wrote about in her email, so I guess I am pretty fortunate.
SATURDAY December 20
On Thursday Mista Zakia, the Tanzanian teacher who is fast becoming my best friend here, accused me of becoming Tanzanian myself. We had made an appointment to go for a bicycle ride at 1:00 or so. But I had forgotten about it, and took off on my Big New Shiny Heavy Chinese Multispeed Phoenix Bicycle with Dynamo Powered Headlamp at about 10:00 without him - a very Tanzanian thing to have done.
Anyway, my ride took me out past the other St. Augustine Univ. campus with its dingy little canteen and outdoor pool table, down a road that turned into a path leading to a crossroad that led to the road that borders Lake Victoria. I took that to the left, past some thatched-roof huts just like those in the Village Museum back in Dar es Salaam, with people working their fields of corn and with the lake on the other side with egrets, herons, pelicans and those little diving birds. Further along, the road turned into a path and I came to a big flat-rock area covered with millions of tiny fish like anchovies, drying in the sun with people sweeping them along with brooms to turn them over and keep them stirred. Occasionally a big hawk would come swooping in and grab one of the anchovies in its talons without stopping and eat it in the air as it soared up and away. Still further a boy herding goats kept pace with me as the path led up through boulders to a point at the top where I could not push my bike along any more. From there I had a beautiful view of the lake along an isolated cove with fields of corn, some palm trees and banana plants.
Returning, I kept to the road and passed the lakeside bars I like so much and the Galalaya Cafe where Robert Paul serves chicken and rice and is willing to try to help me learn Kiswahili, to find a read leading to a Fisheries Research Center. This, it turns out, is located out by the boats you can see from the lakeside bars. The boats are actually research vessels, and according to Russel, are used quite often although they look pretty stationary to me. Russel is doing research on why the number of fish species in the lake is decreasing so dramatically. His work indicates that at least part of the reason is the pollution-related increasing turbidity of the water so that sexually interested fish cannot find willing partners of the same subspecies. I also met Margaret, who is doing research on the life cycle of the shistosomiasis parasites that infest all the fresh water lakes of Tanzania and Africa. I definitely will have to bring my classes here on a field trip at some point.
Back home at midafternoon my lunch was waiting for me in an insulated hot pot - I had not told my cook I would be away. Then a cold shower and a nap, from which Zakia woke me with his accusation. Still, he invited me to ride along out to his property, about 20 minutes by bike. He has a house in a little village there. It is nearing completion, but he has been in the process of building it since 1996 as time and money permit. It is not as large as the house I am living in here, but has a better design and will be very comfortable and homey when completed. At present he and the school fundi are working on plastering the walls so he goes out twice daily to wet down the new plaster and keep it from cracking as it sets.
After dressing the plaster we rode on through other areas and towns, past several other schools and religious institutions. The Catholic Church seems to own a great deal of Tanzania. Zakia's house is actually located on "the Bishop's land," which seems to be a safer place to appropriate property than are the adjacent government tracts.
Along the way my bike chain broke. We found the broken link, but it was a loong walk back pushing the bike or standing on one pedal and pushing off the ground with the free foot. I smell trouble ahead with my Big New Shiny Heavy Chinese Multispeed Phoenix Bicycle with Dynamo Powered Headlamp. Zakia was riding a dirty and rusty but smaller and lighter one-speed bike with a coaster brake that he bought used for about six bucks some five years ago. He doesn't have to bother to lock it. I think that right now I would trade him, even up.
*** *** ***
Yesterday I went to Mwanza for the bank and some general shopping. As usual, I happened upon some other PCVs - Peace Corps Volunteers - and we talked over some sodas and beer. Met up with Kim who was in from Sumbe and had asked to stay the night at my place since she is too far out to make the trip and return in one day. Then Kara text messaged to ask if she and two friends could also stay overnight. It seems there was a Farmer's Convention or something like that in town last night and all the cheaper hotels were full. So I had a whole gang sleeping on my floors here last night. It felt good that the cleanliness of the floors in my kitchen and bathroom covinced Kim and Kara that now they want to paint their floors too.
My Tanzanian neighbors are always very curious about my guest rosters. They just cannot comprehend that anyone could live alone without being terribly lonely and depressed. And they absolutely cannot comprehend that people of the opposite sex could ever spend a platonic night together in the same house. After Ryan hosted two other PCVs overnight, his neighbors first asked if they were his sisters, then whether they were prostitutes.
*** *** ***
This is the Saturday before Christmas. The stores and malls in the US must be a madhouse today. Here, the neighbor's rooster is crowing as usual and small boys are poking long sticks at the mango trees to knock down ripe fruit, also as usual. In a couple of weeks I guess I will have to start dealing with lesson plans and teaching duties, but for now I feel very mellow and I think I might be suffering today from Spring Fever.
Wednesday, December 17, 2003
WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 17
Summer camp, I said? Well, it rains in summer camp, too. I woke up this morning just as the rain started, and now it is coming down in torrents. It makes a good sound on metal roof- a good background for relaxing and
enjoying the morning. I see that I am getting a fair amount of water coming through my windows, but I can't close them without going outside and I don't want to do that right now.
There must be some kind of surge protector on the electricity system of this house. Every time the lightning flashes, and it flashes a lot, the lights go out and I have to go over to the power box and flip a switch to bring them back on. That is a nuisance, but probably a good thing.
Yesterday I dropped in on Ryan and his Bukoba friends, Tim, Ellie and their little towhead son John, age three. There are very few little white kids here, so he gets lots of attention, much the way Roy and Alice get attention in China. Matter of fact, they were saying that there were some Chinese engineers in their area to build a road, and sometimes when they are in the country the local kids see them and yell China, China instead of the usual Muzungu, Muzungu.
The news is absolutely fascinating now that Hussein is captive. How and where to bring him in front of a court or tribunal, and by whose authority? How to get Europeans to give Iraq debt relief right after we said they won't participate in the lucrative reconstruction effort? How will perceptions of Bush be changed, and what how will the Democratic wannabes respond? Can Iraq be made safe enough for the UN and NGOs to return, and will the UN be given any real authority there? Will Bush allow the Red Cross or UN to observe the interrogation of Hussein to assure that he is not subjected to torture, and that Geneva Convention rules are really being followed? This is the sort of stuff I enjoy trying to parse out between the various opinions and news reports, but my resources are pretty limited here. BBC shortwave is good, but it is about all I have and they give a lot more attention to Tony Blair and the UN than they do to the USA.
I am just amazed that we took Hussein alive. In any trial procedure, all the assistance and support that the western nations gave Hussein in designing, building and using those poison gas weapons we now want to hold him to account for will be publically documented, in detail. How will Bush try to prevent that now?
Well, enough politics. That isn't my intent in this journal, and some in my family will probably take offense even at my list of questions.
TUESDAY DECEMBER 16
It is a cool morning, just a little cloudy. The sun is coming up, still lighting the world in that cross-light glow of morning. Quiet - that is, very few sounds of people working, talking, or using machines. But there are lots of bird sounds. Singing, chirping, occasionally a sudden flutter of wings from small birds, almost hummingbirds. Now and then a rooster crows. As I walk out on my porch there is still dew on the grass. A few people casually walk by over on the road across the soccer field. It feels like summer camp.
Soon there will be the bustle and activity of the day. My cook will be here before long, wondering what to do if I am making breakfast for myself. Ryan by now must be on his way to the ferry to meet his friends visiting from Bukoba. They will drop by here later in the day, and I look forward to hearing about their location across the lake. I've been thinking that it would be fun to take my bike there, crossing the lake by ferry to explore the territory over there. Are there more rocks? Is the ground as red as it is here? Do the women wear wraps as colorful as they are here in Nsumba? Like the proverbial bear, I want to cross over to the other side of the mountain just to see what I can see. Or, lake.
Today I want to clean up the cabinet doors I took from Ryan's place a few days ago. They look like crap now, but with a little sandpaper and some varnish plus some bricks I think they will make reasonable shelves for my clothes. Later I may have a wardrobe designed for my bedroom. Steve, another PCV in the Mwanza area, will be teaching at a Technical School and it has fully-equipped shop facilities for the students. Steve has all kinds of plans to make things, and has taken several books out of the library on how to build boats. This seems to be almost an obsession with him.
Later in the day I intend to put my new bike through its paces, and explore where the road goes after it goes on beyond Nsumba. Then there is a hill with lots of rocks that I can see from my house, and the view of the lake from there must be spectacular. I must check that out, too. And sometime during the day I need to find an hour or so to study Kiswahili. In the evening after it gets dark it is a great time to toodle around on my recorder. I am still re-learning notes, but one of these days should get around to do actual scales and exercises.
So much to do. And for once there is time to actually do these things, at a relaxed pace. If this is the feeling of Africa, I can live with it!
Summer camp, I said? Well, it rains in summer camp, too. I woke up this morning just as the rain started, and now it is coming down in torrents. It makes a good sound on metal roof- a good background for relaxing and
enjoying the morning. I see that I am getting a fair amount of water coming through my windows, but I can't close them without going outside and I don't want to do that right now.
There must be some kind of surge protector on the electricity system of this house. Every time the lightning flashes, and it flashes a lot, the lights go out and I have to go over to the power box and flip a switch to bring them back on. That is a nuisance, but probably a good thing.
Yesterday I dropped in on Ryan and his Bukoba friends, Tim, Ellie and their little towhead son John, age three. There are very few little white kids here, so he gets lots of attention, much the way Roy and Alice get attention in China. Matter of fact, they were saying that there were some Chinese engineers in their area to build a road, and sometimes when they are in the country the local kids see them and yell China, China instead of the usual Muzungu, Muzungu.
The news is absolutely fascinating now that Hussein is captive. How and where to bring him in front of a court or tribunal, and by whose authority? How to get Europeans to give Iraq debt relief right after we said they won't participate in the lucrative reconstruction effort? How will perceptions of Bush be changed, and what how will the Democratic wannabes respond? Can Iraq be made safe enough for the UN and NGOs to return, and will the UN be given any real authority there? Will Bush allow the Red Cross or UN to observe the interrogation of Hussein to assure that he is not subjected to torture, and that Geneva Convention rules are really being followed? This is the sort of stuff I enjoy trying to parse out between the various opinions and news reports, but my resources are pretty limited here. BBC shortwave is good, but it is about all I have and they give a lot more attention to Tony Blair and the UN than they do to the USA.
I am just amazed that we took Hussein alive. In any trial procedure, all the assistance and support that the western nations gave Hussein in designing, building and using those poison gas weapons we now want to hold him to account for will be publically documented, in detail. How will Bush try to prevent that now?
Well, enough politics. That isn't my intent in this journal, and some in my family will probably take offense even at my list of questions.
TUESDAY DECEMBER 16
It is a cool morning, just a little cloudy. The sun is coming up, still lighting the world in that cross-light glow of morning. Quiet - that is, very few sounds of people working, talking, or using machines. But there are lots of bird sounds. Singing, chirping, occasionally a sudden flutter of wings from small birds, almost hummingbirds. Now and then a rooster crows. As I walk out on my porch there is still dew on the grass. A few people casually walk by over on the road across the soccer field. It feels like summer camp.
Soon there will be the bustle and activity of the day. My cook will be here before long, wondering what to do if I am making breakfast for myself. Ryan by now must be on his way to the ferry to meet his friends visiting from Bukoba. They will drop by here later in the day, and I look forward to hearing about their location across the lake. I've been thinking that it would be fun to take my bike there, crossing the lake by ferry to explore the territory over there. Are there more rocks? Is the ground as red as it is here? Do the women wear wraps as colorful as they are here in Nsumba? Like the proverbial bear, I want to cross over to the other side of the mountain just to see what I can see. Or, lake.
Today I want to clean up the cabinet doors I took from Ryan's place a few days ago. They look like crap now, but with a little sandpaper and some varnish plus some bricks I think they will make reasonable shelves for my clothes. Later I may have a wardrobe designed for my bedroom. Steve, another PCV in the Mwanza area, will be teaching at a Technical School and it has fully-equipped shop facilities for the students. Steve has all kinds of plans to make things, and has taken several books out of the library on how to build boats. This seems to be almost an obsession with him.
Later in the day I intend to put my new bike through its paces, and explore where the road goes after it goes on beyond Nsumba. Then there is a hill with lots of rocks that I can see from my house, and the view of the lake from there must be spectacular. I must check that out, too. And sometime during the day I need to find an hour or so to study Kiswahili. In the evening after it gets dark it is a great time to toodle around on my recorder. I am still re-learning notes, but one of these days should get around to do actual scales and exercises.
So much to do. And for once there is time to actually do these things, at a relaxed pace. If this is the feeling of Africa, I can live with it!
Monday, December 15, 2003
MONDAY December 15
Allegra has been asking for more details about my life here and about some of the things I write in this journal, and she put a lot of questions together in her last email. I thought they might be of general interest, too. So Allegra, here are the answers to your last email:
Who are the friends you mention...local people? Teachers from the school?
There are some 12 or so PVC's in the Mwanza region, and since we are all still making almost daily buying trips to the markets in Mwanza, it is almost sure that we will run into each other downtown to share stories and tips over a soda or snack. Then, Ryan and I talk and share a lot together as his site is only a mile down the road. And here at Nsumba my language instructor, Erasto, is an awfully nice guy and we end up spending a lot of time together, talking and being together after my lessons are over. A number of other Nsumba teachers and friends drop in regularly to see how things are going, to talk and to see if my Kiswahili is improving at all. It doesn't feel like it is, but I keep trying. I get regular invitations to go on bike rides, drink beer, look at the sunset etc with them. I should be making friends with my neighbors, but apart from a couple of quick comments in the yard, haven't put much energy into that yet. To Tanzanians, the idea of living alone is anathama so they do not understand how I can possibly live here without being terribly lonely. Lonely? I haven't had TIME to get lonely. I do miss Myrna a lot, but we stay in close contact as best we can by email and occasional phone call. But being apart is clearly much more difficult for her, without anything like the challenge and excitement of starting an assignment in Africa.
How do you feel about your teaching assignment? Sounds rather heavy...large classes, etc. Will you have lab eqipment?
Well, the classes certainly will be large - 40 to 45 students each! But all five classes that I will be teaching are at the same level so I will have only one set of lesson plans to prepare. I am less sure of how to handle the laboratory sessions, and although I am free to teach however I choose, they apparently thought half my class time would be spent in the laboratory. That sounds much too lopsided to me. There does seem to be laboratory equipment, although it is very basic, and students will have to work in groups - there is certainly not enough equipment for each student to have their own. One methodological issue is that Tanzanian teachers invariably use frequent corporeal punishment as a motivational technique. I have no intention of slapping, caning, spanking or hitting my students but since that is their expectation I suppose that I may have to be pretty inventive from time to time.
Do you miss tv and radios? Do you have enough clothes? Do you have sheets and towels? What kind of furniture? Desk? Sofa?
I certainly don't miss TV a bit!!!! But I am very glad I have my shortwave radio, and I have become rather dependent on the BBC. The Voice of America is good for music from time to time and for comparative news, but their international commentary is so slanted that it can't be taken seriously. Their editorials are clearly announced as representing the official viewpoint of the U.S. Government, and the same bias shows up in their presentation of the news. That is OK for what it is I suppose, but it is hardly balanced news. Along the line the PC is supposed to start sending us Newsweek magazines so that should satisfy my appetite for some background on the news headlines I hear. Without TV, I have been enjoying getting to know my recorders again, and will make sure I can play a couple of carols before we all get together for Christmas on Ukerewe Island. I have more clothes than I need for now, but have to admit that I have substantially relaxed my definition of how many days the same clothes may be worn before throwing them into the laundry bag. Sure I have sheets - sometimes I sleep under them, sometimes on top of them. Yeah, I could use another towel or two, but just haven't gotten around to that yet when I am at the market. In my living room I have four chairs around a table that doubles as a work table and dinner table, and also three chairs with cushions around a coffee table, and as of yesterday, a large bookcase. I bought a used bedspread at the market that I am using as a rug in the living room. No sofa, but that is no problem really. I am using one of my excess bedrooms as a closet for plates, glasses, trays, etc. My kitchen has a one burner kerosine stove, a charcoal stove, cutting table, stainless steel sink and a couple of good shelves. My bathroom is pretty basic, but includes a shower - cold water - and a western-style toilet. My bedroom includes a firm bed with mosquito net and pegs on the walls for clothes. I am staining some wide boards that I will use with some bricks to make shelves for folded shirts, sox and stuff.
Just on the other side of the soccer field in front of my house there are several stalls where I can get bbq'd meat on a skewer, beer or soda, bread, matches, and most other staples that I am likely to run out of between trips to the market. And it is fun to talk to the people there. We all laugh at my attempts to use Kiswahili. I have fresh mangos every day from the two trees by my house, and I can even look at Lake Victoria through the window in my bathroom while I am standing there peeing. All in all my home is really very comfortable bordering on cushy, and I could hardly want anything nicer. I feel extremely fortunate, and slightly guilty at not having to live a more spartan life while serving in the Peace Corps.
** ** **
SUNDAY December 14
I HAVE ELECTRICITY!!!! My friend the Asst. Headmaster came over yesterday morning and asked whether I liked having electricity. I gave him a puzzled look, and he showed me that all I needed to do was turn a switch. Oh, the marvels wrought by Thomas Edison!
Of course, when I got home last night, the light switches did not work and it was back to the trusty old kerosine lamps again. Looking at the electrical box this morning, I think the power is on some sort of timer, so that to use electricity you have to flip a switch at the main box first. Everything seems to work just a little differently here.
The other big news is that I now am the proud owner of a 28" Phoenix bicycle with a pump and a bell and a little generator to power the headlight and taillight. And it is quite a bicycle - huge, with an extraordinarily long wheelbase. It takes dirt road lumps and bumps with amazing ease. It reminds me of the old 1950 DeSoto I once used to own - big, sloppy and heavy, but it rode like a tank and when it got going it felt like nothing would stop it. The Phoenix is made in China, and is exactly the standard heavy, indestructable black bike that China has churned out by the millions for years and years, and now exports since the Chinese are buying cars and motorbikes instead of bicycles. The brake system is a complex system of levers and cams and push rods instead of the cable systems we are used to. No quick disconnects on this baby, either. Everything is held together and adjusted with nuts and bolts. I begin to understand why the roadside bicycle fundi is such a common cottage industry here. I thought I would buy a tire repair kit, but looking at what you have to do to replace a tire, no thanks. If you get a flat, just walk the bike to the next fundi and let him do the work and make all the necessary re-adjustments.
I did upgrade the thing. Bought the gears, crank, new chain and all the other stuff needed to turn it into a multi-speed bike. This almost increased the cost of the bike by half, but it paid off when I rode up the hill on the way home passing all the other poor folk walking their bikes up that big hill. The bike isn't adjusted properly for me yet, but when it is it really will be a gem!
The Peace Corps insists that we all use bicycle helmets. Getting caught not wearing one is actually grounds for termination. Nobody but nobody else in Tanzania wears one so this will really make me stand out from the crowd. As if my white mzungu skin weren't enough already. But considering how Tanzanians drive, I do think the helmet is a pretty good idea and I intend to use it whenever I ride to town.
** ** **
Oh yes, the mail system. Ryan and I live close together, so we got a P.O. box at the main Mwanza post office together. No problem, although it took several days and multiple forms including a couple of additional passport photos to accomplish. But then it turned out that Becky will also be living in Mwanza and we invited her to share our PO Box. So she gave her family and friends the PO Box 281 address, which they are indeed using. So last week we went to the PO to get another key for her to use and to add her name to the account so the PO can inform her when her expected en-route oversized packages from home arrive. Whoops. No can do! The box was "sealed" when Ryan and I signed up, and that can't be changed. No amount of our wheedling got them to budge. And nope, can't get a third key - they never give out more than two. BUT, if you LOSE a key, they will make a new one for you. I immediately announced that I had lost my key and needed a new one please. No problem, come back in a few days although it will cost you. OK, lets go for it. But yesterday when I tried my not-really-lost-after-all key in the box, it wouldn't work. It turns out that when they make a new key they also change the lock on the box! Who would have expected them to be that efficient? This is TANZANIA!
Now we are kind of stuck. I've sent Becky an oversized envelope addressed to our PO Box 281 to see if the PO will inform us of its arrival anyway. If this works, we will then try to get an unauthorized key made for Becky. Otherwise, I guess we will have to give a mia culpa and conform to the system with a separate box and address for Becky. How humiliating!
** ** **
Tanzania is a big country, and all of us here are bound to have very different experiences. Mithril's site is toward the south. I just have to share part of an email I received from her, after I emphasize that I have not had the slightest problem whatsoever with insects. But Mithril wrote:
My house is completely awesome - - such a cozy little place at the
end of the lane on top of a hill in a mountain valley. :)
The day before yesterday we had a hoard of black safari ants march through
the house. I'm hoping they are of the sort which pass through in their
travels and are gone as quickly as they arrive, because it was a rather
unpleasant experience! They bite! They were swarming about my dirty dishes
in the morning . . . after cleaning up that mess and getting them out of the
house, we were hoping they'd be gone, but just about dark even more came
pouring in. So quickly! We couldn't walk about without them crawling all
over us, and getting up under our clothes where they would freak out and
start biting. I barely slept, worrying they'd be crawling into bed with me!
Turned out allright though, as they were all gone yesterday morning. We came
into Njombe (back to civilisation!!) yesterday, so I'm not sure what the
current situation is, but I really have no idea how to tackle the problem if
they stick around.
Allegra has been asking for more details about my life here and about some of the things I write in this journal, and she put a lot of questions together in her last email. I thought they might be of general interest, too. So Allegra, here are the answers to your last email:
Who are the friends you mention...local people? Teachers from the school?
There are some 12 or so PVC's in the Mwanza region, and since we are all still making almost daily buying trips to the markets in Mwanza, it is almost sure that we will run into each other downtown to share stories and tips over a soda or snack. Then, Ryan and I talk and share a lot together as his site is only a mile down the road. And here at Nsumba my language instructor, Erasto, is an awfully nice guy and we end up spending a lot of time together, talking and being together after my lessons are over. A number of other Nsumba teachers and friends drop in regularly to see how things are going, to talk and to see if my Kiswahili is improving at all. It doesn't feel like it is, but I keep trying. I get regular invitations to go on bike rides, drink beer, look at the sunset etc with them. I should be making friends with my neighbors, but apart from a couple of quick comments in the yard, haven't put much energy into that yet. To Tanzanians, the idea of living alone is anathama so they do not understand how I can possibly live here without being terribly lonely. Lonely? I haven't had TIME to get lonely. I do miss Myrna a lot, but we stay in close contact as best we can by email and occasional phone call. But being apart is clearly much more difficult for her, without anything like the challenge and excitement of starting an assignment in Africa.
How do you feel about your teaching assignment? Sounds rather heavy...large classes, etc. Will you have lab eqipment?
Well, the classes certainly will be large - 40 to 45 students each! But all five classes that I will be teaching are at the same level so I will have only one set of lesson plans to prepare. I am less sure of how to handle the laboratory sessions, and although I am free to teach however I choose, they apparently thought half my class time would be spent in the laboratory. That sounds much too lopsided to me. There does seem to be laboratory equipment, although it is very basic, and students will have to work in groups - there is certainly not enough equipment for each student to have their own. One methodological issue is that Tanzanian teachers invariably use frequent corporeal punishment as a motivational technique. I have no intention of slapping, caning, spanking or hitting my students but since that is their expectation I suppose that I may have to be pretty inventive from time to time.
Do you miss tv and radios? Do you have enough clothes? Do you have sheets and towels? What kind of furniture? Desk? Sofa?
I certainly don't miss TV a bit!!!! But I am very glad I have my shortwave radio, and I have become rather dependent on the BBC. The Voice of America is good for music from time to time and for comparative news, but their international commentary is so slanted that it can't be taken seriously. Their editorials are clearly announced as representing the official viewpoint of the U.S. Government, and the same bias shows up in their presentation of the news. That is OK for what it is I suppose, but it is hardly balanced news. Along the line the PC is supposed to start sending us Newsweek magazines so that should satisfy my appetite for some background on the news headlines I hear. Without TV, I have been enjoying getting to know my recorders again, and will make sure I can play a couple of carols before we all get together for Christmas on Ukerewe Island. I have more clothes than I need for now, but have to admit that I have substantially relaxed my definition of how many days the same clothes may be worn before throwing them into the laundry bag. Sure I have sheets - sometimes I sleep under them, sometimes on top of them. Yeah, I could use another towel or two, but just haven't gotten around to that yet when I am at the market. In my living room I have four chairs around a table that doubles as a work table and dinner table, and also three chairs with cushions around a coffee table, and as of yesterday, a large bookcase. I bought a used bedspread at the market that I am using as a rug in the living room. No sofa, but that is no problem really. I am using one of my excess bedrooms as a closet for plates, glasses, trays, etc. My kitchen has a one burner kerosine stove, a charcoal stove, cutting table, stainless steel sink and a couple of good shelves. My bathroom is pretty basic, but includes a shower - cold water - and a western-style toilet. My bedroom includes a firm bed with mosquito net and pegs on the walls for clothes. I am staining some wide boards that I will use with some bricks to make shelves for folded shirts, sox and stuff.
Just on the other side of the soccer field in front of my house there are several stalls where I can get bbq'd meat on a skewer, beer or soda, bread, matches, and most other staples that I am likely to run out of between trips to the market. And it is fun to talk to the people there. We all laugh at my attempts to use Kiswahili. I have fresh mangos every day from the two trees by my house, and I can even look at Lake Victoria through the window in my bathroom while I am standing there peeing. All in all my home is really very comfortable bordering on cushy, and I could hardly want anything nicer. I feel extremely fortunate, and slightly guilty at not having to live a more spartan life while serving in the Peace Corps.
** ** **
SUNDAY December 14
I HAVE ELECTRICITY!!!! My friend the Asst. Headmaster came over yesterday morning and asked whether I liked having electricity. I gave him a puzzled look, and he showed me that all I needed to do was turn a switch. Oh, the marvels wrought by Thomas Edison!
Of course, when I got home last night, the light switches did not work and it was back to the trusty old kerosine lamps again. Looking at the electrical box this morning, I think the power is on some sort of timer, so that to use electricity you have to flip a switch at the main box first. Everything seems to work just a little differently here.
The other big news is that I now am the proud owner of a 28" Phoenix bicycle with a pump and a bell and a little generator to power the headlight and taillight. And it is quite a bicycle - huge, with an extraordinarily long wheelbase. It takes dirt road lumps and bumps with amazing ease. It reminds me of the old 1950 DeSoto I once used to own - big, sloppy and heavy, but it rode like a tank and when it got going it felt like nothing would stop it. The Phoenix is made in China, and is exactly the standard heavy, indestructable black bike that China has churned out by the millions for years and years, and now exports since the Chinese are buying cars and motorbikes instead of bicycles. The brake system is a complex system of levers and cams and push rods instead of the cable systems we are used to. No quick disconnects on this baby, either. Everything is held together and adjusted with nuts and bolts. I begin to understand why the roadside bicycle fundi is such a common cottage industry here. I thought I would buy a tire repair kit, but looking at what you have to do to replace a tire, no thanks. If you get a flat, just walk the bike to the next fundi and let him do the work and make all the necessary re-adjustments.
I did upgrade the thing. Bought the gears, crank, new chain and all the other stuff needed to turn it into a multi-speed bike. This almost increased the cost of the bike by half, but it paid off when I rode up the hill on the way home passing all the other poor folk walking their bikes up that big hill. The bike isn't adjusted properly for me yet, but when it is it really will be a gem!
The Peace Corps insists that we all use bicycle helmets. Getting caught not wearing one is actually grounds for termination. Nobody but nobody else in Tanzania wears one so this will really make me stand out from the crowd. As if my white mzungu skin weren't enough already. But considering how Tanzanians drive, I do think the helmet is a pretty good idea and I intend to use it whenever I ride to town.
** ** **
Oh yes, the mail system. Ryan and I live close together, so we got a P.O. box at the main Mwanza post office together. No problem, although it took several days and multiple forms including a couple of additional passport photos to accomplish. But then it turned out that Becky will also be living in Mwanza and we invited her to share our PO Box. So she gave her family and friends the PO Box 281 address, which they are indeed using. So last week we went to the PO to get another key for her to use and to add her name to the account so the PO can inform her when her expected en-route oversized packages from home arrive. Whoops. No can do! The box was "sealed" when Ryan and I signed up, and that can't be changed. No amount of our wheedling got them to budge. And nope, can't get a third key - they never give out more than two. BUT, if you LOSE a key, they will make a new one for you. I immediately announced that I had lost my key and needed a new one please. No problem, come back in a few days although it will cost you. OK, lets go for it. But yesterday when I tried my not-really-lost-after-all key in the box, it wouldn't work. It turns out that when they make a new key they also change the lock on the box! Who would have expected them to be that efficient? This is TANZANIA!
Now we are kind of stuck. I've sent Becky an oversized envelope addressed to our PO Box 281 to see if the PO will inform us of its arrival anyway. If this works, we will then try to get an unauthorized key made for Becky. Otherwise, I guess we will have to give a mia culpa and conform to the system with a separate box and address for Becky. How humiliating!
** ** **
Tanzania is a big country, and all of us here are bound to have very different experiences. Mithril's site is toward the south. I just have to share part of an email I received from her, after I emphasize that I have not had the slightest problem whatsoever with insects. But Mithril wrote:
My house is completely awesome - - such a cozy little place at the
end of the lane on top of a hill in a mountain valley. :)
The day before yesterday we had a hoard of black safari ants march through
the house. I'm hoping they are of the sort which pass through in their
travels and are gone as quickly as they arrive, because it was a rather
unpleasant experience! They bite! They were swarming about my dirty dishes
in the morning . . . after cleaning up that mess and getting them out of the
house, we were hoping they'd be gone, but just about dark even more came
pouring in. So quickly! We couldn't walk about without them crawling all
over us, and getting up under our clothes where they would freak out and
start biting. I barely slept, worrying they'd be crawling into bed with me!
Turned out allright though, as they were all gone yesterday morning. We came
into Njombe (back to civilisation!!) yesterday, so I'm not sure what the
current situation is, but I really have no idea how to tackle the problem if
they stick around.
Friday, December 12, 2003
FRIDAY 12 DECEMBER
There is progress. This morning a group of guys came walking over the futbal pitch with a large bookcase for my sitting room. It is very nicely made although the wood is still too raw to accept a finish, which makes me wonder how much the wood will shrink and warp as it dries. However, the floor is not exactly level, and the bookcase leans out from the wall. They assured me that the Fundi will come by with some shims to correct this.
Then they left, taking the table with the big hole in it with them. I wonder if they will have to use raw wood to refinish this table, too.
My cook got the fresh vegetables I requested, but balked at the idea of making a salad for my lunch. He insisted on adding eggs to make it into an omelet. Tanzanians feel that unless you have cooked food, you haven't eaten no matter how much you have consumed. Our compromise was that I will have the omelet today, but will show him how an American makes a salad next week.
I did succeed in showing him how I want raw vegetables cleaned. Scrub anything that will not be peeled, like tomatoes and green peppers, with soap. Any anything leafy, like chinese cabbage, must be soaked in water with a little bleach added to it for at least 10 minutes. He really felt that this was really strange, but agreed to humor me. I kept emphasizing how Americans have weak stomachs and have to treat their food this way.
Yesterday I got an invitation to a going-away dinner for Clara. Clara is a dynamite Tanzanian woman, a friend of Joe who is another PVC - Peace Corps Volunteer - out in Buswelu. The dinner was to be at 3, so I arrived at a fashionable 3:30, only to find not much happening. I as invited to watch TV for a few hours and talk to another Muzungu or two. People started arriving about 6:00 and finally by 8:00 there were about 50 relatives there plus a DJ with big loudspeakers, an MC for the festivities. The meal included french fries, rice, pilau, chicken, and goat, plus soda and beer. Eaten with only the right hand, of course. Later there was dancing, including lots of little tiny kids, which was still going on when I took a taxi home, about midnight. I've heard enough about Tanzanian events always starting hours late so shouldn't have been caught by surprise I guess, but...
Thursday, December 11, 2003
WEDNESDAY December 10
I have hardly been lonely in my new Mwanza home. Early this morning my cook came by to see what I wanted him to prepare for lunch and dinner. Meat, ugali and chicha for lunch, leftover meat, chicha and wali for dinner. I am going to have to turn him off a bit - I don't want so much food, and don't want to be so tied down to specific times for meals.
Then my Kiswahili instructor was here for a couple of hours. We began to experiment with dictation - he reads, I attempt to write what he said and understand it. Meanwhile a delegation dropped in with an inspector from the electric utility, who seems to think maybe they can hook up my power in a couple of days or so. Hmmmm. Then another delegation came by to take measurements - again - for a bookcase, shelves for the kitchen, a front door screen, and a replacement top for the table that has a big hole in it.
Yesterday I painted the cruddy cement floors in my kitchen, bathroom, and hallway. They finally look clean, a 100% improvement. This gave me a lot of mileage with all these delegations today, too. Tanzanian men do not do housework, and so were especially surprised by my contribution to fixing and cleaning the place. They even noticed the cheap flip-flops I put by the front door and took off their shoes when they came in.
With some leftover paint I also painted some of the exposed cementwork in my courtyard. But it rained last night, and I see that some of the new paint has peeled off. It has been raining off and on all morning. Maybe the wet season has finally arrived. People hope so. There has been little rain for the past two summers, and they fear another dry year could create a real food problem.
I have hardly been lonely in my new Mwanza home. Early this morning my cook came by to see what I wanted him to prepare for lunch and dinner. Meat, ugali and chicha for lunch, leftover meat, chicha and wali for dinner. I am going to have to turn him off a bit - I don't want so much food, and don't want to be so tied down to specific times for meals.
Then my Kiswahili instructor was here for a couple of hours. We began to experiment with dictation - he reads, I attempt to write what he said and understand it. Meanwhile a delegation dropped in with an inspector from the electric utility, who seems to think maybe they can hook up my power in a couple of days or so. Hmmmm. Then another delegation came by to take measurements - again - for a bookcase, shelves for the kitchen, a front door screen, and a replacement top for the table that has a big hole in it.
Yesterday I painted the cruddy cement floors in my kitchen, bathroom, and hallway. They finally look clean, a 100% improvement. This gave me a lot of mileage with all these delegations today, too. Tanzanian men do not do housework, and so were especially surprised by my contribution to fixing and cleaning the place. They even noticed the cheap flip-flops I put by the front door and took off their shoes when they came in.
With some leftover paint I also painted some of the exposed cementwork in my courtyard. But it rained last night, and I see that some of the new paint has peeled off. It has been raining off and on all morning. Maybe the wet season has finally arrived. People hope so. There has been little rain for the past two summers, and they fear another dry year could create a real food problem.
Monday, December 08, 2003
SUNDAY 7 December
What a great weekend! It was Steve's birthday, so with that as sort of a magnet, many of the PC volunteers in the region congregated in Mwanza. We has a great meal Friday evening at an Indian restaurant, then a group headed out my direction - two bunked with me at Nsumba, and others with Ryan next door at Ngonza. Then Saturday evening all eight came to my home and we hung out together and made dinner. Kathleen comandeered the kitchen, and we had mixed local fresh fruit - mango, papaya, watermelon, avacado, banana, more stuff I am forgetting - and pasta primavera. It felt wonderful to be able to host the crew. I am feeling like I really do have a place where I can feel comfortable. All the other PCVs were envious of how nice my home is, freshly painted, neat and clean, enough furniture for the occasion - almost. All it took was floor space, really. But a real bathroom, a separate kitchen, running water. Now when I get electricity....
We are starting to put together Christmas plans, at Emily's site on Ukerewe Island, thinking menu, gift exchange, music and caroling... Tanzanians say that Christmas is an important event, but it sure doesn't show. No stores capitalizing on it with suggestions of toys or gifts. I talked with my new friends about our Christmas and about Santa Claus. They never heard of Santa Claus, were intrigued by the red suit and fur trimming, and thought the idea of delivering gifts through a chimney was hilarious. Of course, we don't even have chimneys here. And we are in the middle of the most marvelous summer weather right now!
FRIDAY 5 December
People keep dropping in at my house, to talk, to see what I am doing, to fix the shower, to teach me Swahili. Nice, but certainly different. But things are shaping up. I have pictures of family and Myrna on the wall now, and a painting I bought in Dar. It feels a lot more like home.
Last night some of my new friends took me down to the shore of Lake Victoria. This was down a footpath through a little village, about a ten minute walk. The lake is really beautiful! There are white herons, some big pelican-type birds, little birds that suspend themselves in the air and then drop like a rock to snare some unsuspecting fish that is too close to the surface. And of course, the lake itself, and the islands 'way offshore.
There are a couple of bars there with tables and comfortable chairs in big grassy areas, and it is local, not a tourist or other Muzungu in sight. One of these spots is surrounded by those huge Mwanza rocks that stand up like tractor trailer trucks standing on end. My friends have given these rocks names - Kandehar, Tora Bora, and other names of Afghanistan mountains. Seems when that war was raging, all the news talked of how Ben Laden was hiding in those rocks and caves. So they named their own rocks and were taking bets on which one Ben Laden was hiding behind.
TUESDAY 2 December
It is my third day in my new home in Nsumba, Mwanza region, Tanzania, East Africa. Last night was better than my first night, when the portable light I was given to make up for the lack of electricity stopped working after only one hour. Without candles or other light source except my flashlight, I went to bed at 9:30, hungry. Yesterday I bought a couple of kerosine lamps, so could stay up later. But they really give a pretty weak light, not fun to read or study by. Today was quite busy though.
I was reviewing Kiswahili this morning when the Asst. Headmaster came by to introduce my combination guide to the area and language instructor. Erasto seems like a nice guy and I do think we can work together. We decided to go to the market downtown to pick up kitchen supplies, and the headmaster said he would drive us there in half an hour. Meanwhile the fundi arrived and we discussed my need for shelves in the kitchen, a drain that actually works for the shower, and a screen door for the front of the house. A neighbor dropped in. The head of the chemistry dept. came by to say that I will be teaching Form III, 5 different classes, each for two double periods a week, half of which will be laboratory sessions. So I will be teaching for 20 hours a week, with 40-45 pupils in each class. The fundi and his assistant left. I had a discussion about what to pay a guy to cook, clean and do laundry for me. By now Erasto had discovered that the Headmaster left without us.
Erasto and I took a daladala downtown and bought a charcoal cooking stove, thermos, hot pots, etc etc etc. This took lots of negotiation in many different little shops. Then I went to look at bicycles. The standard heavy one-speed bikes are very durable, but definitely not suited to the hills between downtown and my home in Nsumba. The multi-speed bikes are poorly made but the price is right, so this definitely seems to be the way to go. I really wanted to replace their low pressure knobby tires with thinner tires for the road, but every bicycle store in town claimed that this is impossible. Sometimes Africa is just frustrating. Tomorrow I will go downtown and buy the multi-speed bike with its damn knobby tires, hoping that the bicycle fundi back at PC Headquarters in Dar es Salaam can help me get decent tires for it.
My cook was to deliver dinner at 8:00. He got here at 9:00 which is about right for Tanzania time. The rice was pretty good, but the chicken had the life fried out of it. Gotta think about how to approach that issue.
This is the period when I am supposed to be finding my way around and. I guess I have started.
What a great weekend! It was Steve's birthday, so with that as sort of a magnet, many of the PC volunteers in the region congregated in Mwanza. We has a great meal Friday evening at an Indian restaurant, then a group headed out my direction - two bunked with me at Nsumba, and others with Ryan next door at Ngonza. Then Saturday evening all eight came to my home and we hung out together and made dinner. Kathleen comandeered the kitchen, and we had mixed local fresh fruit - mango, papaya, watermelon, avacado, banana, more stuff I am forgetting - and pasta primavera. It felt wonderful to be able to host the crew. I am feeling like I really do have a place where I can feel comfortable. All the other PCVs were envious of how nice my home is, freshly painted, neat and clean, enough furniture for the occasion - almost. All it took was floor space, really. But a real bathroom, a separate kitchen, running water. Now when I get electricity....
We are starting to put together Christmas plans, at Emily's site on Ukerewe Island, thinking menu, gift exchange, music and caroling... Tanzanians say that Christmas is an important event, but it sure doesn't show. No stores capitalizing on it with suggestions of toys or gifts. I talked with my new friends about our Christmas and about Santa Claus. They never heard of Santa Claus, were intrigued by the red suit and fur trimming, and thought the idea of delivering gifts through a chimney was hilarious. Of course, we don't even have chimneys here. And we are in the middle of the most marvelous summer weather right now!
FRIDAY 5 December
People keep dropping in at my house, to talk, to see what I am doing, to fix the shower, to teach me Swahili. Nice, but certainly different. But things are shaping up. I have pictures of family and Myrna on the wall now, and a painting I bought in Dar. It feels a lot more like home.
Last night some of my new friends took me down to the shore of Lake Victoria. This was down a footpath through a little village, about a ten minute walk. The lake is really beautiful! There are white herons, some big pelican-type birds, little birds that suspend themselves in the air and then drop like a rock to snare some unsuspecting fish that is too close to the surface. And of course, the lake itself, and the islands 'way offshore.
There are a couple of bars there with tables and comfortable chairs in big grassy areas, and it is local, not a tourist or other Muzungu in sight. One of these spots is surrounded by those huge Mwanza rocks that stand up like tractor trailer trucks standing on end. My friends have given these rocks names - Kandehar, Tora Bora, and other names of Afghanistan mountains. Seems when that war was raging, all the news talked of how Ben Laden was hiding in those rocks and caves. So they named their own rocks and were taking bets on which one Ben Laden was hiding behind.
TUESDAY 2 December
It is my third day in my new home in Nsumba, Mwanza region, Tanzania, East Africa. Last night was better than my first night, when the portable light I was given to make up for the lack of electricity stopped working after only one hour. Without candles or other light source except my flashlight, I went to bed at 9:30, hungry. Yesterday I bought a couple of kerosine lamps, so could stay up later. But they really give a pretty weak light, not fun to read or study by. Today was quite busy though.
I was reviewing Kiswahili this morning when the Asst. Headmaster came by to introduce my combination guide to the area and language instructor. Erasto seems like a nice guy and I do think we can work together. We decided to go to the market downtown to pick up kitchen supplies, and the headmaster said he would drive us there in half an hour. Meanwhile the fundi arrived and we discussed my need for shelves in the kitchen, a drain that actually works for the shower, and a screen door for the front of the house. A neighbor dropped in. The head of the chemistry dept. came by to say that I will be teaching Form III, 5 different classes, each for two double periods a week, half of which will be laboratory sessions. So I will be teaching for 20 hours a week, with 40-45 pupils in each class. The fundi and his assistant left. I had a discussion about what to pay a guy to cook, clean and do laundry for me. By now Erasto had discovered that the Headmaster left without us.
Erasto and I took a daladala downtown and bought a charcoal cooking stove, thermos, hot pots, etc etc etc. This took lots of negotiation in many different little shops. Then I went to look at bicycles. The standard heavy one-speed bikes are very durable, but definitely not suited to the hills between downtown and my home in Nsumba. The multi-speed bikes are poorly made but the price is right, so this definitely seems to be the way to go. I really wanted to replace their low pressure knobby tires with thinner tires for the road, but every bicycle store in town claimed that this is impossible. Sometimes Africa is just frustrating. Tomorrow I will go downtown and buy the multi-speed bike with its damn knobby tires, hoping that the bicycle fundi back at PC Headquarters in Dar es Salaam can help me get decent tires for it.
My cook was to deliver dinner at 8:00. He got here at 9:00 which is about right for Tanzania time. The rice was pretty good, but the chicken had the life fried out of it. Gotta think about how to approach that issue.
This is the period when I am supposed to be finding my way around and
