Blogs from Lushoto, East, Tanzania, Africa

Der Tag war ziemlich nach meinem Geschmack, nur das Ende ließ zu wünschen übrig... Zuersst folgte ich den Spuren meiner Vorfahren und suchte die deutschen Häuser. Das ehemalige Bezirksamt wird auch heute noch als Verwaltuungssitz genutzt - eigentlich ist es nicht schwer, die deutschen Bauten ausfindig zu machen. Ich fuhr danach einfach irgendwo hin, zuerst Teerstraße, dann Schotter, irgendwann kam ein Schild: 2 km to the tourist attraction Waterfall. Also bin ich pflichteifrig dort hin. Dort sitzt den ganzen Tag ein junger, gebildeter Biologe und kassiert den Eintritt zum Wasserfall. Wie immer: Tansanier nur Centbeträge, Ausländer 10 US Dollar. Nachdem er mir erzählt hatte, dass es eigentlich nur ein kleiner Wasserfall ist, der über eine Schwelle fälllt, ging ich nicht hin und begann eine Disussion über die horrenden Preise, die Ausländer für "Sehenswürdigkeiten" zahlen müssen, die ... read more

Nakon duge vožnje po zastrašujućim serpentinama krajolik je potpuno prestao izgledati afrički već je puno više podsjećao na Alpe. Lushoto je maleni gradić u dolini okružen planinama. Klima je puno svježija nego u ostatku Tanzanije, a raslinje sačinjava uglavnom tipično alpska crnogorica. Čak je i turistička infrastruktura odlučila igrati na tu kartu pa većina hotela i guesthouseova je izgrađena u alpskom stilu. Iako mi se ponudilo nekoliko vodiča i ponudilo me odvesti na najviše brdo gdje se nalazi vidikovac pod izgovorom da sve vrvi banditima, mjesta u kojoj sam odsjeo, stari Grk koji ovdje živi već 30 godina me uvjerio da mogu potpuno sigurno i prošetati sam. Nije bilo teško pronaći stazu prema vrhu, a hodanje je bilo vrlo ugodno kroz hlad visokih jela i borova. Posebno simpatična su bila mala sela kroz koje staza prolazi ... read more

Dear Readers, In 1 month we will be classified as RPVCs. "R" means returned (or in our case, maybe retired). There are times during our residency here that time passed clowly...and there are times when it seemed as if it was a blur. Two years is a long time, but we will have been away from home June 6, 2008 until Sept. 19, 2010. Naturally we have been doing the culturally appropriate "kwa heri" as that means good-bye when you probably won't see them again. It's difficult because these faces, once unknown to us, have names, families, lives, and hopes for the future...just like we arrived with. Now we are friends and have shared these past 2 years together...discovering much about each other and much about ourselves. And, now it's "kwa heri" and not the usual ... read more

Hello from Malindi, Yesterday was a very positive, uplifting day as far as work in our primary role as Health Volunteers. We took 10 Mtumbi Secondary Students in Form 4, who have been studying HIV/AIDS, to a local primary school. We had set it up ahead of time with the Head Teacher and knew we had permission to talk about condoms to Standard 6 and 7 students. Standard 6 had over 100 and Standard 7 was about 70. Could we do it? YES, of course, with the help of our Peer Teachers who were in our Life Skills Club. The Peer Group had done their research and used the many reference books from PEPFAR and Peace Corps. They rehearsed, assigned topics and grouped themselves into 2 groups for the 2 hour session. No, they did not ... read more

Dear Friends, Happy New Year from far away in miles, but close in our hearts. Our 2 weeks of traveling is over and we are so happy to be back at our home site. Time is running quickly and there is so much more to be done before we depart in August 2010. This blog is really about how you can get involved from home. Dave has submitted a Participatory Grant through Peace Corps and it just went on line this week. We thought you might be interested in this local project in our village of Maringo. The Malindi Ward's Dispensary needs power to help the villagers in a 7 village area. For more information go to www.peacecorps/contribute and when prompted enter Banks. You can read his description of the project on line and if you ... read more