Happy Halloween!


Hope all is well as the weather gets colder and the leaves change. Fall's always been favorite season of mine back home, so do me a favor and enjoy those tailgate beers. Here the weather is changing as well. It 's still hot, but the rains have begun. We're at the beginning of the short rainy season and already the trees on the hilllsides and valley are sprouting with beautiful colors of all sorts. It's really nice. Morogoro region is one of the more lush regions of Tanzania even in the dry season, so i'm pretty sure i'm going to find myself living in a rainforest or something of the like for the next few months. A plus of the rains coming is that I won't have to make as many trips to the river for water. Now I'll be set my buckets up alongside my house to catch the rain run-off. Oh the luxury.

On the downside, rain means mosquito breeding which then turns into Malaria. There will be many sick people in my village. Hopefully we can find a way to get more mosquito nets. As for me, I've got screened windows/doors, mosquito net, and i'm good about taking my malaria prophylaxis. So please don't freak out mom.


So the Mamas Groups and other income-generating activities i previously mentioned are still in the planning phases. I haven't had my grant-writing seminar, which will occur at In-Service Training (IST) in December, so I'm not yet familiar with the system of requesting funds for projects. Hopefully with the money generated from each woman's membership we'll be able to get the project of the ground before then, but i'm not sure.


In the meantime I'd like to begin working with the schools. Health education is taught on an extremely limited basis so i'd like to take some time to meet with the headmasters to look over their curiculum and see where i can assist a bit. I'm friendly with a few of the teachers from the local schools, one of whom is a biology teacher and was interested in doing some HIV education with me. I've also had thoughts about doing a running club, but two things... I've trying to train for this marathon and I'm pretty sure these kids don't want to run 13 miles. And two, after running 13 miles in the morning i'm not really sure i want to go jogging with a bunch of kids in the afternoon. I don't know, we'll see. I think it would be a really great way to establish a relationship with the kids outside of the teacher/student realm b/c here in Tanzania kids get smacked with a cane by their teachers when they misbehave. That's not the kind of teacher i want to be percieved as. My job will only be effective with them if they're able to feel comfortable and honest.

My kiswahili is getting better, but i still have got a long ways to go. I'm becoming more confident though and starting to hear people better. Kiswahili is a relatively easy language, but it takes a close ear when listening to one speaking in order to understand. The language uses a lot of object and subject infixes in verb construction in order to indicate where an action is going, so unless you pick up on those, things can become confusing. Also, us English speakers use more words. So in Kiswahili one word means many different things depending on the context. This becomes another point of confusion at times, but again, it's all improving.



So i started cooking recently... just dinner though. But i still eat breakfast and lunch. I get those at the market where the mama's cook for cheap, but i realized that i need to stop mooching off my neighbors for dinner. Cooking here is honestly a pain in the ass and it's time confusing, but hey, so are lots of things. So far all I've made is rice & beans with kachumbari, which is basically a random mix of veggies that are available and lime juice. It's actually pretty good, just gets pretty boring day after day. I've a got a "Peace Corps Cookbook" so maybe i'll start to get a little more adventurous on the kitchen (or, front stoop) front.



Additionally, I've just found out that i'm going to be having a guest for month in my village. My friend Wendy Matthews from St. Lawrence is currently doing the Kenya Semester Program through SLU. For her independent project she was interested in shadowing a Peace Corps Volunteer so she contacted me. Peace Corps said it's cool, so i'm stoked to have some company for a month. She'll be arriving next weekend so this week i've got to get my house together, something which with the help of non-helping Tanzanians i've been putting off for some time. My bat shit situation is all fixed though and my couch will be ready when i get back to my village. So once that's all up and together I'll put some photos of my home and village up for viewing here. I know you all want to see and i'd like you to see as well, so i promise SOON.



What else??? Not sure. I find myself slowly but steadily adjusting to Peace Corps life. The discomforts are felt, but i've started to look at them at see them as positive things. They are making me stronger. I was talking to my mother (Joanie) the other day and i told her that when i get back to the states, things that would normally bother me, just won't anymore. Not that i think i'll be a pushover, but i things like patience and the ability to correctly weigh a matters importance have become essential in my life here. As American adjusting to a life in Tanzania it would be so easy to bitch constantly about everything here, but the only place it takes you is on an early plane ride home. In fact, there have already been a few from my training class who have called it quits. Positive attitude has been the name of the game. It's a been a valuable lesson in the power of the human mind. Anyways...



Myself and some other volunteers are having a halloween party here in town tonight, so that should be fun. I don't have a costume yet, but one girl is going to be Sarah Palin and another is gonna be a Konyagi Packet (small plastic bag of Tanzanian booze). Should be fun. Thanks again for reading and i continue to appreciate all your letters and emails. Emails are tough to respond to individually, but letters will ALWAYS get one in return. Love and miss you all

Happy Halloween!