back in sin city

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well. lets see. we went to watch parliament in session. that was cool. well except for the fact that we were tired. and they made us be there at 730 when we didnt get to go inside until 830 and the session didnt start until 9. the parliament building is probably one of the coolest looking things in the country. and going inside was cool. and unlike in america where nobody watches congress on tv tanzanians love watching it. and they make jokes. people laugh. i dont know. i had my fill after a half hour though.

then we went to teach at an elementary school. or primary. and me lindsey and korie were together with our counterparts. and its cool because lindseys counterpart is hiv positive. and he was just really cool. and kories counterpart is a teacher at the secondary school and also in charge of sports for the town of katesh. and my village exec officer was my counterpart. we had about 30 kids and we did a few energizers. the hokey pokey. then we handed out slips of paper. and we asked them questions then they wrote down answers. and then crumpled up the pieces of paper and threw them around like snowballs. then we read answers. then we had them ask questions.

my veo took it upon himself to answer one of the questions. it was something along the lines of how do you avoid having sex. and the first thing he said was 'can you avoid eating? no...' and me korie and lindsey all looked at each other mortified. as he continued to compare food to sex and how it was a necessity to kids 14 and under. not to mention somehow mama asha-one of his lovers-tagged along for the trip and was sitting ten feet away from us gabbing on her cell-y. god. so we had to cover that sticky patch up.

and i was mad. korie was heated. and had a talk with elsie. the lady in charge of pepfar for peace corps tz. and then i talked with her. and she told me i needed to calm down and she would talk to my counterpart. and she ended up having another counterpart talk with my veo. because she said he was her elder and it wouldve been inappropriate for her to do it. and probably because she was a female too. and i guess he apologized and he felt bad. and he wanted to apologize to the whole group but elsie said it wasnt necessary. and he didnt know he offended people.

i guess i really just have to make sure that if i ever teach with him, that he knows his audience. or i just dont think i will be in the classroom with him. god. and we only had a half day of class after that and i didnt get to talk with him. he just bailed. so when i make it back to the village i guess i'll see him. i already talked with him about that comment and he laughed. and about mama asha. god.

nassoro (the guy in charge of health volunteers aka me) stopped by my village and dropped off a bag of cement so i can patch up my house to prevent water from leaking in. and apparently he left it at my neighbors house. and he sent me a text and told me that my neighbors wife would be a good counterpart. im glad he was in my village for probably a total of five minutes and he found me a better counterpart. haha.

im definitely bringing a mama as my counterpart for next time though. thats already been decided.

and we finally made it to indian food. that was delicious. i actually got it twice. chicken biriyani one day and chicken in coconut sauce with naan another day. with donuts. random but tasty.

and i hitch hiked for the first time in my life yesterday. that was fun. there were six of us heading back to singida/katesh. we divided into two groups. and were going to do amazing race style back to singida town. losers have to buy winners dinner. i went with korie, randy, and pendo. we got one lifti outside of town. then another to the road leading to singida. then we waited for a little while. and these guys offered to give us a ride to manyoni (half way point) for 5000 each. about 5 bucks. but then we flagged down a zain (cell phone company) truck and he was going all the way to singida and for free. so that was fun. rode in the bed of the pickup. we had way too much luggage. i think my back pack was at least 50 pounds. randy had to put it on my back for me because i couldnt just stand up with it on. peace corps gave us libraries to take back with us. useful but difficult to travel with.

and we passed by our competition. they had gotten a lifti in a 18 wheeler. a lorry maybe. they left a couple hours before us. but we passed them. and then decided to go on a pee break and wait for them. so they hopped in with us. that was fun.

And now i am back home. hopefully nothing else gets stolen from me. ive just run into three of the nurses from my village. i guess theyre in town because one of the nurses just had a baby but it died. thats really sad. ive seen her belly progression for the last few months.

im excited to be getting back to the village i guess. start some projects. i will begin my permaculture garden. with my veo. and i will continue teaching math maybe? and i will start my health clubs. and i will start training for my half marathon. haha. thats in a few weeks. a group of us have decided to do it together. and walking will be a big part of that. but it should be fun. with beautiful scenery.

and pendo said she finished writing up a grant for womens day. we are going to bring in about ten girls from our villages to town to stephanies school. and have a womens day celebration (march 9). and we are going to try to find guest speakers. like my sewing mama who has her own business. and the mama who owns the chai place we always go to. and some district officials. and the head of police. and then we will make pilau. and have sports. and do stuff like that. so im pretty excited. and if its successful maybe we'll continue it every couple months. so thats my first big project coming up.

and i will probably start writing my first grant to try to get solar for the hospital in the village. then maybe the secondary school. its exciting. im excited.

my head is hurting though. when you hang out with volunteers for two weeks you feel like you are in a different world. and even if you are using swanglish with one another you still forget where you are. and now im back in singida and i need to use swahili. and even the tribal. and im whining. i dont mean to be. but sometimes its frustrating.

well im just remembering. one of the last activities we did was a cross cultural thing with our counterparts. the volunteers were one group and the counterparts the other. and basically the world came to an end and there was 11 people left but only room for 5 to live in this hide out and you had to basically kill 6 people. and we compared and we only shared one person in common. and the male counterparts far outnumbered the female counterparts and somebody asked if the girls agreed with what had been decided. because 4 men were chosen to stay alive. and they said they all agreed. but you could tell it wasnt the truth. and just how men treat women here is really frustrating. and i dont even think this last paragraph makes sense. ok im done.

i am also excited to return home and see gus. see how much he has grown. and see my chickens. and see my farm. see how tall the corn is. and what have you. oh. and i didnt buy any presents for anybody. except im going to try to find something for my neighbor miriam who has been watching gus and the chickens. and i got a loaf of brown bread for my mama. because that was unheard of. but other than that thats it. and im sure im going to have to deal with that when i return. bah. ok. thats all. hope all is going well in the US of A..

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