Justin's Tanzania Journal

Tunaendelea Vizuri. Kweli.

2009-02-26T00:39:00.000-08:00

Hey ya'll

So it's been about a month again. That's how it's gonna be a i guess. Things are going well. Last week i started in on my regular teaching schedule at the two local primary schools and the secondary schools. I'm teaching HIV/Aids education, while also focusing the development of life skills. My sessions thus far with the kids have gone really well. They were really receptive, engaged, and asked a lot of questions. So i've been happy.

I've needed to establish some sort of regularity in my days here and this is giving me the opportunity to do that. Also, working in the schools has given me an opportunity to establish a better relationship with the kids in my community. I guess i'm teaching between 300-500 kids right now. I'm hoping that these teaching periods will give me the opportunity to get the kids to open up about HIV/Aids, sex, and other normally uncomfortable topics. So far they have. The other day i had a kid ask me what can they do if they want to remain abstinent, but still "happy" (ya know). So naturally masturbation was introduced as an option. Then, i get the super awkward follow up question of "how do you masterbate?" I told him to ask his friends. I wasn't touching that one.

Working with the schools has also given me the opportunity to meet and establish relationships with all of the local teachers, most of whom are young and from all over Tanzania. This has been really beneficial. Teachers tend to have a more expanded view when it comes to many of these issues than do the local community members who usually have a very limited education. Many of these teachers of expressed interest in joining with me to carry out projects. So far we've discussed distributing free condoms to the village's bars, guest houses, and health dispensaries. While condoms are available to buy at a cheap cost at the village's shops, in such a small community many kids and teenagers are too shy to buy them there. If they can acquire them anomosously, they'll be more likely to use them. Having free condoms obviously could help with HIV/Aids but i've also been emphasizing the kids about their effectiveness in preventing pregnancy. Very young adolescent girls are constantly needing to drop out of school due to pregnancy.

So yeah, those things are going well. Other than that, i'm slowly trying to continue my work with my women's farming groups. The Agricultural officer, who is essential to the planning process, has been really busy with disputes between land owners and Maasai cattle herders. But he's expressed interest to help so hopefully will get a grant proposal written within the next couple of months.

The conference in Dodoma last month was really great. I saw a lot of my PC friends from training, so that was fun. I drank a lot of beer. I also got a lot of great trainign with my counterpart. It was especially beneficial for him b/c he got a better understanding of the Peace Corps mission and became motivated by the professional manner of the conference.

The hotel that we were staying at in Dodoma was right near Parliament and it had a pretty decent bar. Many of the big, fat MPs would come and drink at the bar at our hotel, so there were a number of conversations that volunteers struck up with them. Through one of these meetings, we were all invited to a session of parliament, as it was in session that week. So we went. I now know where all of Tanzania's domestic budget is going. This place was wiiicked nice. It had a giant plasma tv the size of a small truck and well, just everything was really nice. Crooks. Regardless, it was a cool experience and we were flattered.

This weekend i was supposed to be running in the Kili Marathon, but i hurt my knee a couple weeks ago and i am no longer able. It sucks terribly. I'd been training pretty hard for this thing. The injury seems to be the same tendon problem i had a year ago up in VT when i was sidelined for 2-3 months. I'm hoping it'll up quicker this time, i can't go without running for too long here. Anyway, i'm still heading up to Moshi for the race. There will a lot of volunteers there, many of whom aren't running. I hear there's a really cool bar with a treehouse and a solid reggae band, so that kind of sold me. Being one of the more isolated PCVs in these country, especially when it comes to lack of females, it's nice to get out and see some other volunteers.

Funny story (kind 0f)... there was a teacher from one of the local schools (not one i work with), riding her bike early around sunrise to work, when she got knocked off her bike by a hippo running across the road. She was ok, but naturally shaking up. Those things are HUGE and wicked fast. I haven't been attacked yet, but i'll keep you updated. This time of the year i've been told i need to be especially careful when choting my water out of the river b/c with the increase in rains, the river rises, giving hippos and crocodiles to come up stream from the nearby swamps to check out the scenery. So yeah... not really sure about all that, but i guess i'll announce my presence at the river from now on.

What else? I was involved in an attempted mugging about a month ago. Relax mom. These 3 guys came up behind me and another volunteer on our way back from a bar in Morogoro. One guy put me in a headlock, but i resisted and threw him off him. Meanwhile my friend Lucas knocked one of them wicked hard in the head. So they ran off real quick, only being able to grab my hat that fell off in the scuffle. It was amateur hour. I feel like we delt with the situation as well as we could have. These things happen. We were fine. I miss that hat.

So i hope that you're all doing well. Send me a letter, email, message, whatever. Let me know how things are. Hope the economy is hitting everyone too bad. Glad i'm here while i am. You all go fix that up so all's well upon my return. Thanks\

Much love
Justin or Sully or whatever

Long Time No Talk

2009-01-22T23:52:00.001-08:00

wow. i hadn't realized it's been so long since i last posted a blog. If any of you still actually look at this thing, i'm alive. I guess a lot has probably happened since then b/c it's been 3 months. Things are continuing pretty well and i'll soon settle into a regular teaching position at the local primary and secondary schools. There i'll be teaching health-based courses centering HIV/Aids and Life Skills development. It should be good and it will give me a little more regularity and routine in my life.

I'm currently in Morogoro town for the next couple of days just taking care of a couple things and meeting up with a couple of friends of mine. We'll be travelling to Dodoma where we'll be having our In-Service Training (IST) for a couple of weeks. Not sure exactly what the focus will be, but i think it's to give us ideas for projects and teaching techniques back in the village. We're eaching bringing a counterpart from our sites. I'll be bringing Hatibu who's a teacher at the local primary school who has been helping me out quite a bit. As my work partner i think the conference will be good for him as he gets a better feel for what the Peace Corps is all about. The training should be helpful, but i'm also looking forward to seeing a bunch of my friends from my training class that i haven't seen since my site placement in August.

Things back in the village are going pretty well, but i ran into a bit of a problem with my previous counterpart. He's an older guy named Jimmy in his late 50s and had helped me tremendously with forming a number of the groups and projects i initially started. He's well, arrogant as hell and it's been getting to me for some time now, even though i consider him a friend. We had an argument and he acted like a baby and now he won't work with me. So that has made continuing with these groups really difficult and now i'm under a lot of pressure from these groups to get things going for them. It'll be a difficult task to organize all of them without Jimmy, but i'll try my best. I'm glad to start working within the schools, kids are easier than grown folk here. They don't expect handouts, they're just happy to hang out with me and learn new things. I'm gonna try to stick to kids.

So Christmas and New Year's was a blast here. I spent Christmas in Morogoro town with a buddy that lives here and a few other volunteers that hadn't met until then. They were all really cool and we had a great time. Lucas, who's house we celebrated at, got a turkey from a neighbor who raises them. The other guys and him slaughtered, defeathered and cooked that thing. It was awesome, less bloody than i expected. Best turkey i've ever had. For real.

New years a whole bunch of us traveled to Kipepeo Beach which is just across the bay from Dar es Salaam and surprisingly really nice. It was only a 10 min ferry ride and you couldn't even tell that you were near the city, which is nice b/c Dar is by no means the nicest place. The place we stayed at had a resort kind of feel, but they also had camping on the beach which you only needed to pay $5 a night for. Not bad. So i slept on the beach in my sleeping bag every night. It was awesome. Actually it was so good i stayed about 3 days longer than i had planned. I mean $5, come on.

Alright well i gotta run. I'm gonna try to be better about this thing from now on. Swear.
Happy new year! Hope ya'll ain't freezing yo' butts off!

Peace
Justin

2008-12-24T00:56:00.001-08:00

A few photos... The one's of everyone dancing/partying are in my village. It was an "Ngoma," a sort of coming of age ceremony for teenage girls. I'm sitting there with a couple of guys, taking it in. The next three green one's i took on the way to a nearby village up in the mountains. Next, I'm talking foreign policy with my man B-Rock. After that is a shot of the river where i got to get all my water needs, ya know. It's quite beautiful. The last one is from Thanksgiving. That's Jess and Kim (PCVs) and Wendy, my friend who visited. We were playing "SlapBags," a lovely game involving bagged wine.

2008-11-26T01:34:00.000-08:00

What's up ya'll? I'm just chuckin' up some photos because everyone's been bugging me to. Up top is me a few miles outside my village, along my running route. Not a bad view. The kids below that are my neighbors. They come over to chill and i guess, dance. The one of the Maasai man sitting is from one of my regular hangout spots downtown in my village. The one's of the house are well, my house. Ya know i always wanted a white picket fence, but hey, sheet metal is cool too i guess. The little guy sitting with me on the chair is Patrick, my homestay brother from training. Then the other guy in the photo with Chuck Norris (people think i am "Chuck" here in Tanzania) is Jutu my other bro' from training. Then here to the left is myself up in big ol' tree at Mikumi Nat'l Park during training.

Things are going really well, i miss you all. Have a happy thanksgiving!!!

2008-10-31T02:25:00.000-07:00

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!

First Project

2008-10-17T06:14:00.001-07:00

Hey

So it's been a good week. I got my first project going and i'm really excited. Two weeks ago I was doing my "Village Situation Analysis," which is just a fancy word for a survey and i met with a whole bunch of folks in my village going house to house. Conducting the VSA made me realize that most villagers hadn't really understood what my mission was there and in that way, it ended up being an effective tool in explaining my role.

Once they realized that i was affiliated with the local government, who they view basically as a bunch of criminals, which they kind of are, people become quite honest in answering my questions. Corruption exists at all levels of government here, even in the tiniest of villages in the middle of nowhere. Everyone's trying to get a piece. The VSA gave me a great sense of what people view as problematic in their village, especially in the way of health concerns. Malaria and Waterborne diseases were emphasized as the biggest health problems, but i have a suspicion that HIV/Aids is a much larger problem than they perceive b/c nobody gets tested and then people don't actually end up dying from Aids, they die from tuberculosis, malaria, or another terrible illness. People often don't make the Aids connection. We should have a better idea of how many people really are infected next month when representatives from US AID is coming to do door-to-door testing. People in my village think this will be more effective in getting people's cooperation for testing as there will be more privacy involved. Hopefully it goes well, i'll you know.

As far as my project goes... It's not directly health related. I'm starting a "Mama's Group." It's a group of about 50 women who are going to undertake some good old-fashioned cash cropping. We're going to be growing Matikiti Maji (watermelon) and simsim, which is a grain that is converted into a cooking oil. Both have a really high market value and grow quite well in my region. In fact, Morogoro region and especially my side of the Uluguru Mountain range has some of the most fertile land in Tanzania, people here just aren't using it to their advantage. Most people in my village, these women included, have individual plots of land usually about a half acre in size or less where they grow Mahindi (corn) and/or Mpunga (rice). They use this mostly just to feed their families and use the small surplus to buy a few other foods and basic household supplies. We plan on starting with a 3 acre plot for the watermelon and 7 acre plot for the simsim. Hopefully this will be expanded with time. There's plenty of land and it's all free! Can you imagine that Mom, free land!?!?

Apparently some of these women have been interested in starting this sort of project in the past, but they lack the organization, leadership and money management skills. So here I am. While business management is not included in any of my previous undertakings, I think I'll be able to handle this. If all goes well I intend to teach a bit about saving and investment (concepts that don't really exist in the village), by taking money earned from this project to start another project - raising chickens. A lot of people raise chickens in my village, but most die due to disease, notably, Newcastle Disease. A vaccine exists for Newcastle but it is very expensive, so no one buys it and they're chickens die. If we make money from farming, I'll be able to buy them the vaccine and learn how to administer it from the agriculture college in Morogoro town.

These women are unbelievably excited and motivated. They've already established a 10 person committee, along with a treasurer, secretary, and chairwoman. Every member is putting in $2 (a lot here) as a stake in the project to get things going. Additionally, they're in the process of drawing a detailed list of ground rules and procedures for the women involved. We'll probably be going over it this coming week.

After hearing about how I was helping these women establish this project, I was contacted by a number of other groups, including some wazee (old men) and a group of Maasai women. The Wazee want to raise chickens and i don't know what the Maasai have in mind yet, i'm meeting with them next friday. It's up to them what they want to do, but I may introduce the idea of the women making traditional Maasai jewelry and crafts to sell to the tourists who pass through town on their way to Selous Game Reserve. Most of these safari vehicles don't stop in town, aside from a quick snap of the camera at the locals, but i think it's possible that we could attract them with site of cheap, colorful Maasai goods being sold by true Maasai women. While i know many of you are familiar with this tribe, the Maasai are in many ways a novelty of East Africa as they are one of the few tribes left who have retained most of their customs and traditional dress, while embracing many aspects of modernity such as cellphones and motorcycles. In fact, the Maasai tend to be the wealthiest people in the area because, as pastoralists, some individuals own from 1,000 to 10,000 heads of cattle. A cow sells for around $500 a pop. You do the math. It's a lot of money. Yet this money naturally stays in the hands of the men, so by getting the women involved in some sort of income-generation could be beneficial to them in many ways.

So yeah, I've got some things going on and I'm excited. I'm meeting with a group of out of school youth on Monday with the hope, i believe, of having me help them in some sort of income generation activity. I won't be able to begin to apply for any grants for a couple months until we have a training conference in december, so at this point it's all about starting small and just getting some structure formed. Who knows where it will all go...

Other than that, things are good. I'm running a lot and am planning on hopefully running the Kilimanjaro Marathon in March. I've been putting what seems to be like 12ish miles a day, 6 days a week, but i got a ways to go until in my marathon shape. I think i can get there though. Ok my computer time is running out. I love you all and thanks so much for everyone who has written/sent me packages. I truly appreciate this stuff.

Just a note, i realized that the way i wrote my address sort of looks like a Texas one. Hey Texas is big, maybe they have a Morogoro too...

So let's address our mail like this from now on instead:

Justin Sullivan
P.O. Box 751
Morogoro
Tanzania

Much love
Justin

I'm Back

2008-09-26T06:08:00.000-07:00

Hey Ya'll

Sorry it's been so long since posting. I only get to town once or twice per month and even then you never know when the power may go out or what have you. Things are good. I've been in my village for about a month now and it has been about what I had imagined. I've got a small house on the grounds of the Mvuha primary school. No electricity, no running water, pretty standard. I'm awoken every day by the bangin' of a metal 'drum' to signify the start of school. This coupled with the roosters is usually enough to get my ass out of bed. So early. But really without electricity or much to do at night, i find my self in bed at a senior citizen like hour most nights.

My days thus far have been up and down. The people have been incredibly welcoming and that has helped, yet there are undoubtedly a lot of lonely times. I am able to communicate in Kiswahili in the sense that i able to say what i want, what i need, what i am doing, etc. But in things like humor and other forms of discussion are bit beyond my capacity right now. I've been working hard at it though, usually studying for 3 or 4 hours everyday when i wake up. Without any projects currently I've had a lot free time, yet still remain quite busy, but without getting much done. Little tasks like choting water, washing clothes, cleaning the house, boiling drinking water, etc. seem to take up most of the day. But other than that i study, read books like it's job, hang out in town with the few friends i have and visiting the local villages via baiskeli (bike - you could have figured that out), and listen to the BBC more attentively than you ever thought was possible - so yeah, i think i've morphed into a 75 year-old retired southern man.

I have not really started to cook for myself yet, as i've taken advantage mostly of the delicious cooking at the home of the village chairman. His wife ('Mama' to me) is an awesome cook, making the best of Tanzanian food (it can be bad). Most nights i head over that way, hang out with the family. There's a neighbor, a kid named Rashid who's probably 16. Awesome kid, he comes by every night because he's working really hard to learn english. He's clearly already a good student and i can see he's motivated, so it makes me more than happy to help him. He brings words he doesn't understand and i explain them, then he helps me with kiswahili. We're both learning. People are really excited to have me, but i think the novelty aspect is beginning to ware off a bit, THANK GOD! I mean attention is ok, but feeling like a zoo animal is a whole other thing.

My house is coming along, slowly. The last of my furniture should be completed this week, though i still need to repair the holes in my ceiling. I thought i had rats up there that were crapping all over my floor, making my house smell like a hamster's cage, but apparently they're bats b/c i now see them dangling down into my living room during the day. I think there's a lot of them up there - like, a lot. That's fine they can stay up there. Mi casa, su casa. But they're not invited inside or to shit on my floor. Haha.

The Peace Corps experience just kind of puts you into these uncomfortable situations and you sit there and you realize that this has become your life now. You have to just brush aside the discomforts, pull out every last form of patience and flexibility that exists within your body and mind and suck it up and go with the flow. It's much easier to write than to do, but it's a realization that has gotten me through many-a frustrating day.

Exercise has been a pretty big stress reliever for me. There's awesome huge mountains all around me. Everyday (or, most days) i go for hour & a half runs up into the mountains, sweating my ass off and taking in the scenery. The views from up there are absolutely gorgeous. I've never challenged myself to such real deal hills before in my short 'running life,' but it's fun. When i start out of town, the kids on the way home from school will usually run along with me, many shoeless, in their little blue uniforms for a 100 meters or so until they get tired, pant "nimechoka" (i'm tired) and leave me to it. I can't blame them for quitting so early, many of these kids only get one meal a day. Drunk guys like to tag along sometimes too. Usually they make it not quite as far as the kids, but one day i was astonished. This guy, stinking like pombe (the local homebrew), wearing jeans and flip-flops started running with me. I was waiting for him quit, even picking up my speed to shed him off. I thought he'd definitely stop before we started making the long painful climb up the mountain road, but he didn't. This guy, though a bit behind, followed me the whole way, shedding his flip-flops half way through, continuing on bare feet. It shames me a bit to say it but i think i was more tired when we reached the top than he was. A drunk dude outran me, almost. This is Tanzania, these things happen. I'm going to continue to keep up the running routine so that no drunk guys stand a chance in the future.

Within the next month i'm going to begin my needs assessment workshops with the community. Once this gets going i'll have a better idea of how they are prioritizing their needs and ways in which possible projects may manifest. Organizing the village to undertake these needs assessment will likely take the whole month since, well, everything takes a long time to happen. Ok, my internet time is wrapping up. I hope all is well, i hope you haven't lost all your money and jobs, and tell Tom Brady to heal fast.

Much love
Justin

p.s. post your address if you want a letter

write me:
Justin Sullivan
P.O. Box 751
Morogoro, TZ

Site Announcement

2008-08-12T04:35:00.000-07:00

What's up ya'll

So i'm right now i'm in Dar es Salaam and i just recieved my site announcement. I'm going to be living in a village outside Morogoro, which is about three hours drive west of Dar. Morogoro is an awesome medium-sized city. It's lush and green and flanked by a beautiful and pretty large mountain range. I'm really excited to do a bunch of hiking. The town is really great and there are a lot of fun places to go.

I don't know all that much about my site yet except for that i'll be living at a primary school and i'll be the villages first Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV). Apparently being the first PCV at a site is favorable in a lot of ways b/c people won't have expectations of you based on previous volunteers. Though since i'll be the first volunteer there, i'll have to buy furniture and set up my house and such, but hamna shida (no problem).

The closest volunteer to me will be Dorothy. She's in her 60s and really great. She'll be about 10km away, but there are a few others in town who i'll get together with every couple of weeks when i need to go into Morogoro. Apparently there are a bunch of german and canadian girls who Brian, a gay PCV wants to hook me up with. Safi sana.

It's great to finally be done with training and moving to site soon. Originally i thought that i would be living IN town, but i'm happy to be living in a village. I think that it'll be a lot easier to make solid relationships in my community in a village setting. I'll let ya'll know what my site is like and post pics when i get to my site, but i do know that i won't have electricity, which also probably means no running water. That's fine, lights just attract bugs.

Right now, being in Dar is a little crazy. We're a little more used to village life and Dar is really similar to Nairobi in that it's big, dirty, smells kind of like burning garbage, and people really like stealing anything. But we've really been enjoying it (already been here too long?). One distinct difference though that i've noticed is that you don't see as many glue sniffing kids as in Kenya, but there are still plenty of orphans.

We actually had a chance to visit an orphanage in Morogoro where Brian, a PCV is beginning his work. It was a really great place funded by outside sources. They take care of orphans that have either have parents who have died from HIV/Aids or are too sick to care for them. Also, they have begun taking in children with physical and mental handicaps. People in Tanzania with disabilities have a really tough time b/c people dismiss them all as 'chizi' (crazy) and the healthcare system in not equipped to care ffor them. Places like the one we visited are essential, yet so few. Just another one of the possibilities for volunteering my time.

I don't know what kind of projects i'll be doing and apparently most PCVs don't really get much done in the first year. It takes a lot of time and energy to immerse ourselves in the community, which i'm really looking forward to.

Thanks again for all the letters and packages, i PROMISE i'm gonna write you all back as soon as i have more time when i get to site!

Kwaheri!

p.s. what's going on with the election? i get really limited access to news sources here b/c i don't have television and usually can't find english newspapers. yeah, plus sports news and big news in general would be appreciated. thanks.

Shadows & Morogoro

2008-08-03T07:15:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone

I'm now in Morogoro, which is a medium-sized city about three hours drive west of Dar. I'm leaving tomorrow, heading south to Iringa. There i'll be "shadowing" a PCV that has been in-country for over a year now. This is basically the last phase of training. He's a teacher at a secondary school in a village outside of Iringa. I'll be going with a couple of other girls from group and we'll just be living his life for a week, probably helping out a bit at school, and hanging out at the village bar.

Our language training is finished which is nice. I still have a lot of kiswahili still to learn but feel like i'm in a good place and more vocab and such will come with time. Hamna shida (it's all good). Next weekend we'll be hearing our site announcements which we're all really excited for and we'll be having our swearing-in ceremony a few days after. I'm not sure what that all really entails, but apparently is treated as a pretty big deal.

My homestay mother recently took me to a tailor in our village to be fitted for a "shirt." She asked me a few days later in kiswahili if I wanted a coat or a shirt. I told her i wasn't sure, so she brought out my younger brother to model to two types. The shirt was a pretty normal looking African-style shirt that i said i liked. The coat on the other hand was awful looking. It was basically a short-sleeve, stiff, sportcoat that fits like a box and has cargo pockets on the chest. The pattern... yeah, words can't really describe. My mama said that she really liked the coat so she said she's going to get that for me. It's gonna be ridiculous.

On a heavier note Kim's (one of the 4 ppl. in my language class) homestay brother unexpectedly passed away. We went to the funeral and it was quite sad. I didn't really know him, but i had gotten to know her family and bit and they were really great and accomodating people, so it was really hard to see them so upset. Obviously it's never easy to see people mourn the loss of one of their children. The funeral was a cultural learning experience though. For the entirety of the funeral (at their home) men and women stayed seperate. Women sang songs to comfort each other and to cover up their cries. Crying is generally held in their culture. The men just sat and chatted. The burial was really involved as men from the village helped throw the soil on the coffin and the women of the family basically collapsed on the ground crying. Her family is very well respected in the community so a lot of people came out to the funeral.

From one depressing topic to another, my homestay mother has been feeling quite ill lately and she told me that it was malaria. She has very little energy, headaches, cough, sore throat, basically just really bad flu symptoms. All that and still must continue to take care of the kids and home as my father works at his farm. She gets medicine to treat the symptoms, but it a disease she has to live and reoccuringly has to fight. She's a tough woman. Her father died of Aids a few years ago and her mother, who i recently met, is the late stages herself. It's terrible.

Anyway, sorry to be a debby downer. Things have been really great and enjoyable here. I've stayed really healthy (hardly any diarrhea!) and am looking forward to settling in my village in a few weeks time. That's when the Peace Corps experience will truly begin as able to get involved with my community and see what i can do to help.

Thanks for all the packages and letters, i've enjoyed them. If anyone would like to send some orange powdered gatorade, i'll love for ever. Oh and Emily, i wear a size 7 1/2 fitted hat, so if you want to send me some sort of hot 59fifty C's hat or whatever, that'd be sweet. Thanks. It's getting dark so i gotta, but i bought a phone so i call you all with my number realllly soon.

Much love

checkin' in

2008-07-18T03:21:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow we're all getting away from our villages and home stay families for the weekend and going on a safari/partying at Mikumi national park. Us volunteers haven't had a chance to spend a night together since the beginning of training so it should be a lot of fun. I haven't taken any photos since i've been here, but i'm planning on busting out the camera soon. Sorry.

Last week we met with an NGO of People Living with HIV/Aids (PLWHAS). Their mission is to educate the public about HIV prevention while also living as positive examples for the HIV infected community here in Tanzania. In addition, they provide assistance to each other through collective farming and other similar activities. Many of these people were visibly sick, very sick. It was really sad and eye-opening. I can't recall ever meeting someone that suffered from the disease. This obviously won't be the last time. PLWHAS will be a group that we will likely have the opportunity to work with once we get to site.

I had my interview yesterday by the people in charge of placement. I won't know where i'll be until mid-august, but they were hinting that they wanted to place me in a more of a urban/town setting b/c of my experience in Kenya and Political Science background. I won't be in any of the larger cities like Dar, but i'll likely be in some sort of city center as a opposed to the bush. Sounds good to me, but i'm up for anything.

We were in class the other day and something flew into kailtlyn's (another volunteer) hair as she was sitting next to me. She stood up and was laughing uncomfortably. I just sat there b/c i didn't know what was going on, but it ended up being a bat. She was freakin' out. Things get weird occasionally.

Baadaye

'bout halfway through training

2008-07-06T02:18:00.000-07:00

hey ya'll

Things are still well. I'm halfway through training and still enjoying myself, but anxiously awaiting the freedom that will come when i'm placed at my site which will become my home for two years. Days right now are pretty long and exhausting with kiswahili and HIV/AIDS classes keeping us busy throughout. It's well worth it though and while i know i won't be fluent per say by the time training ends, we'll all be comfortable enough to communicate at a basic level and become fluent as our service goes on.

My homestay continues to go well, my father recently came home from the shamba (farm) and stayed with us for a week. He's relatively young (37) and is a great guy. He's really into hip hop and reggae music so we do a little bonding and head boppin' together every night. Patrick, my three year old little brother is awesome and we have a lot of fun together.

I should be getting a cellphone soon (maybe this week), so when i do i'll post my number. In the meantime feel to write. Supposedly mail has been arriving with a bit more speed that originally thought, sometimes in just a week's time. Here's my address once again... Hope everyone is well and shoot me an email to let me know how you're doing... jhsull@gmail.com. Since my internet time is so infrequent i don't usually have time to reply to all your emails, but please still write because i definitely still read them all.

Justin Sullivan
Peace Corps
P.O. Box 9123
Dar es Salaam
Tanzania

2008-06-27T05:46:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone

I'm two weeks into my pre-service training (PST) home stay and things are great. My speaks absolutely no english, but they're awesome. My mama is 35 and has three kids, boys Alfred and patrick who are 16 and 3 and esther who is 8. Patrick is my boy, we're tight. My father hasn't been around, apparently he's been farming somewhere, but i'm not sure because of the language barrier. He'll be back Sunday though. My family's house is about what i expected, no running water or electricity, but we have fun together. They've had four previous PC volunteers as well (all guys) so nothing is really a surprise to them. My days have been pretty long and exhausting, getting up at 6:30 and taking kiswahili lessons all day until 5, but it's been worth it because my kiswahili even after 0nly two weeks is coming along and my group is really great.

I've had a few tastes of the local homebrew (fermented maize) and it was really good but super strong, so i took slow my first time. The local brews are really good, notably Safari and Kilimanjaro. We've been kept pretty busy though so there hasn't been much time for kicking back with beers, but once training is over time apparently will be a bit more time on our side.

I'm really getting excited to begin real Peace Corps work. This experience and the work that gets done really is in our hands and the possibilities for projects are endless. Peace Corps has strongly advised us that in our first three months at site that we take the time just to get to know the community and establish relationships before we think about taking on a project. I think it makes a lot of sense and i like their mentality.

Anyways, it's about time i got out of this po' dunk internet cafe... the people continue to be super nice and accomadating here and my group is great. I'm really happy to be here.

Here's my mailing address, i'd really enjoy anything any of ya'll would send:
(it'll change once i move to site at the end of august)

Justin Sullivan
P.O. Box 9123
Dar Es Salaam
Tanzania

Much love

I Have Arrived

2008-06-12T23:44:00.000-07:00

Jambo Sana

So I've now been in Dar Es Salaam for three days and everything is wonderful thus far. The Peace Corps has been keeping my group of 40 and I pretty busy and isolated as we adjust to the program and the country. The Peace Corps staff is wonderful, so helpful and nice. I have been quite impressed by how well everything has been run so far. My group is really great. Everyone is really interesting, excited, and really nice. People are from all over the US, most are around my age but there are a few volunteers over the age of 60.

Tomorrow we are beginning the journery to Morogoro where we will begin our homestay and officially begin our pre-service training where we will be getting intensive Kiswahili and cross-cultural learning. I'm really excited and so happy to be here. It's going to be a wonderful two years. Anyway, i have to get off because there is a whole gaggle of other volunteers waiting to get on this computer.

stay in touch and i'll post another soon as a get a chance
Kwaheri ya'll

Leaving in a Week!!!

2008-05-29T21:02:00.000-07:00

Hey ya'll

Just leaving a message to test out this blog i have now (feeling real savvy). Anyway, this will undoubtedly be the best way to keep in touch and up to date with me during my two years in Tanzania. BUT you should still send me emails and even regular, old-fashioned mail (may take a month?) I'll give ya'll an address when I have one.

Much love