site visit

Africa
November 11th 2008

Published: November 11th 2008

so my apcd (assoc. peace corps director of health) just came to visit me at site today. to check up on me. make sure everything was ok. met with my village exec officer and principal of the secondary school. that was fun.

then came to town and met up with pendo. the other health volunteer who got here last year. and had a meeting with the mkurugenzi. i dont know what that means. basically head honcho. and pendo had a piece of paper listing all the projects she had done within the last year, the projects she's currently doing, and the ones she wants to do before she leaves next year. and then i was caught off guard and told to explain what i wanted to start doing. i mean ehh. kiswahili...one day i will be your master..

so halloween was fun. met jacob and justin in town. then we went up to katesh. ten minutes out of town our bus broke down. or something happened to the tire. and we sat for two hours. that was my first experience with transportation breaking down. not my last im sure. got to katesh and hung out. they made pasta salad and macaroni salad which was fun. and korie finished up her beer pong table so that was fun. then we came back sunday. and on monday i went to itigi to visit jacobs site. its really incredible how different everyone's site is. itigi is a big village. almost town. it has like 18,000 people compared to my 1800. that was fun. then came back to my village tuesday. woke up at 400 am and was escorted with two of jacobs fellow teachers. one was going on safari himself the other was carrying a stick just in case a hyena was to get too close. not joking. we heard them crying in the distance. god. long weekend. nice break though.

then i came home to six newly hatched baby chicks. that was exciting. and the next day two more hatched. so my chicken count is up to 10 altogether now. and i really could start a business. selling eggs. i dont even need to write a grant. haha. and im supposed to be getting my kitten tomorrow. and also the town butcher's dog just had puppies and im getting one of those too. my house is going to be ridiculous. oh well. now the villagers wont be able to complain that i live alone.

then (this is a GREAT story) a few days ago i was standing next to my tree texting other volunteers when one of the secondary school teachers started talking with me. and he was asking if jacob or justin were my fiance (because they both visited me and because they dont have a word for boyfriend, its either lover or fiance). and i said no they werent. and he said that he was going to be my fiance. and i laughed appreciatively at his joke. and then explained that i came to tz to work. and im not really interested in relationships right now. then he told me that his uncle was the head doctor at our little hospitali and that he was going to get some condoms. and then he asked when he should come over and i just laughed. confusedly.

then the rain started. this is the start of the rainy season mind you. fantastic really. i mean i dont love rain but the lightning and thunder over the scenery was really cool. and ive made excessive lion king references already but it was really like after scar was defeated and the rain came out and put out the fires. and there really were fires because people burn their trash. and people are also preparing their farms, burning them. anyways im at home. just chilling. the rain is really coming down. and i get a knock and its this teacher (matias) and this secondary school student luti that has come over a few times and weve hung out. id consider her a friend. and i invited them in and they sat down. and i guess matias is her uncle or brother or something. and he kept telling her how i was going to marry him and that she should start calling me shangazi or wifi which is some relative (theres too many to keep track). and i kept laughing to keep the mood light. but then saying no. im not interested. we are just friends.

then luti was going to go home. and i was like ohhhhh god noooo. this is NOT happening right now. and indeed it was. i let her borrow my h&m raincoat (which caused quite a stir the next day. the villagers loved it) and she was on her way. after she left i was left trying to entertain matias. he asked me what i ate. i told him. then he told me that he wanted to have sexual intercourse with me. those exact words actually. i then immediately stood up. opened the door and said you need to leave now. and then he just looked at me. and said no. and i was adamant and said yes you need to leave. and he tried to play it off as a joke. and said that we could just sit and be friends. yes please let me sit with you awkwardly for a half hour. no. and finally he got up and left. as he was leaving he told me i was a child. ha ha.

then i went outside in my courtyard and peed in the rain because i was too scared to go in my choo. because scorpions come out in the rainy season. good reasoning i know. then i came inside. started to process what happened. and just broke down. and cried my first real cry at site. and i just remember our first volunteers of the week telling us that a lot of girls get raped here by TEACHERS, fathers, uncles, other important men. and it just made me sad. and ive really never been in a situation like that before. and really if matias didnt want to leave he didnt have to. and that scared me. and it just made me wonder the situation of other people. i dont know. then of course my besti yusufu shows up. five minutes later. sees me crying and is confused. thinks that im scared of the rain and thunder. and im not all about explaining this to him because A. it would have to be all in kiswahili and i dont have the language for all of it and B. whats he going to do.

but i ended up telling him best i could. and he got mad. and told me that he was going to see matias in the morning and talk to him. and he said that if he apologized then would i accept it. and i said yeah (and by accept i mean i would avoid all future contact). and then he told me that i shouldnt be opening the door for anyone at night if i dont know them. but the thing is i did know luti. but i mean. lesson learned. not opening the door. and then it was hard to explain to him why i was crying because in his eyes nothing really happened. but yeah. good story.

i guess in conclusion the next morning matias stopped by the door and apologized. and asked if we could be friends. and i said yes. and then yusufu stopped by later and told me that he had been joking. and i was like ha ha. that was not a joke. but good try. end story.

also the other day i was going to go take a shower when i entered my bafu and there was a giant bug in there. as big as my fist. black and blue. and i panicked. i didnt know what to do. then i went back inside and grabbed one of my big wooden spoons. went back outside and smacked the wall around the bug but it didnt scurry. and i just didnt know what to do. i couldnt step on it because what if it crawled on me? and i couldnt go walking around because i was wrapped in a towel. well i saw two students walking by and i ushered them over and they came in and killed the bug. and i gave them candy. and they thought i was weird. and really when things like that happend i dont know if im going to make it. its ridiculous. especially since the day after i went on a walk with mama asha to the neighboring village to visit her mama and i saw about a billion of those giant beetles. and i really dont know what i would do if i saw a snake or a scorpion. or a hyena for that matter. god. i try not to think about it.

then i visited the teachers of the secondary school. there are about 9 of them i think. 4 of them are temporary. they are form six leavers. meaning they finished secondary school but didnt go on to A-level. and i guess they are teaching and working on a degree at the same time. i dont know. but they all leave in march. but theyre nice. and they are from all over tz. manyara, dodoma, dar. so they speak kiswahili. unlike the rest of the village that converses in kinyaturu. especially when they dont want me to know whats going on. which is getting really annoying. and make me want to learn it even more. im trying but the goings rough. sometimes it sounds arabic. sometimes chinese. the other day i asked one of the students to write down how to say 'what is your name?' because people always ask me and i forget what theyre saying. and he told me that he couldnt write it down. that you cant write down some kinyaturu. fantastic.

but yesterday i got my hair braided by one of the mama's in the village. shes really amazing. its fantastic. i wish i had my camera. and she did it super fast. and it kinda zig zags. theres this popular one though called the 'kilimanjaro' where the hair is braided and comes into a ponytail in the back. i might do that one next time. but i was talking with her while she was braiding my hair and i got the feeling that she didnt like mama asha-the mama i hang out with all the time. and she told me she had a bad character. and i was like oh. kinda caught off guard. and then this mama was braiding my mama's hair later (mama taabu) and it was a bunch of women from my family and they were all talking purposely in kinyaturu so i wouldnt understand about mama asha. and that sucks if they dont like her. and if she does have a bad character id like to know. i mean maybe i shouldnt be hanging out with her. idk.

i mean i eat at her house once every few days. and when i go to town i usually bring her back some tomatos and bananas or something. and she takes me around. and what have you. i dont know. god. and i eat at my mamas house too. sometimes i wonder if they think i cant cook by myself. like i go visit and then say im going home to cook and they tell me to sit down and eat. and i just feel bad. but idk.

and one of my brothers just showed up in the last few days. hes about my age. he was up in arusha. he drives cars like all of my brothers. and i was asking what he was doing in arusha and they said work. then i asked yusufu and apparently he got one of the secondary school girls pregnant last year and then took off. goooood.

and really everyone and their mama is talking about finding me a fiance in mgori. i really should have just told them that jacob or justin was my fiance and they'd be off me. oh well. and i visited a few other villages today with nassoro and pendo. and it just made me really love mine. a lot. i mean i guess its because ive gotten used to it. but its pretty small and just nice. i love it.

and i guess thats all for now to update. jacob and justin are both COSing in the coming week. and the new ed volunteers will be sworn in on the 26 i believe. then off to sites later. i think im going to be going up to katesh for thanksgiving with the missionary family. then were going to climb hanang the following day. should be fun.

and shout out to obama i guess......

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