A New Year

After being in Tanzania for over 7 months, the “irregularities” of life have just become the norms of my everyday. This sometimes makes writing about my experiences a little difficult. The acculturation process is an interesting one. It kind of just happens. You begin to notice the tiny things that go on everyday instead of just seeing what’s on the surface. I like looking at it like macro photography. You can take a picture of something and see what it is, but when you take the time to get that really close shot, you begin to notice the beauty of the sometimes mundane or “uninteresting”. There is more to things than what you see at first glance. My relationships with my students and community members continue grow deeper, and with each passing day, I feel more of a sense of belonging—that this is my becoming my home.

Since my last post, I have quite a lot of updating to do. I will not go into the details of everything, but I will give you all a little glimpse.

Me in front of my house

Lets start with a health update:

This past Thanksgiving, I celebrated by heading to Dar es Salaam for a little trip to the medical office. I have not written too much about my health issues in my blog, but it was kind of big part of my initial welcome to Tanzania. For some reason, the mountain water in Maryland did not prepare me for the hills of Tanzania.  I went to the doctors in Dar because I was having gastrointestinal issues for quite some time. I felt like I was wasting away. I kind of was, to be honest. The nutrient deficiencies in my diet, along with my digestive issues, caused me to shed a quick 26 pounds.  The doctors in Dar examined me and discovered that a new friend had taken up residency in my gut. This friend was Giardia. Once I was treated, the symptoms dissipated, and I think I was able to put about 10lbs back on during my vacation. All the goodies people have sent me have definitely helped as well. Water borne illness is a huge problem here. I always like to share my experience with Tanzanian water to my students as a supplement to our lessons on the importance of water treatment. I have been much more careful with the sanitation of all my water and with the places I choose to eat.  My body is finally becoming adjusted to things and I hope I am in the clear! I am feeling healthy, happy, and confident with things. All is easier after going through that.

(Water spout picture)

Heading to Zanzibar with Haeli.

The school year ended right around the time I took my medical trip to Dar. After about a month of hanging out around my site, I turned back around and headed to the coast for the holidays. It was so nice to see friends after our first three-months at site. The bonds you make with people in your host-country are pretty incredible.  I was lucky to have my partner in crime, Haeli, along with me as we explored some of the beauty that Tanzania had to offer. After exploring Dar and its wide array of food (including Subway), we headed to one of Tanzania’s biggest attractions, Zanzibar..

I think I have been curious about Zanzibar ever since I heard the name in a Tenacious D song…. “I’m not going to cook it, but I’ll order it from Zanzibar.” Well, I finally got to go to Zanzibar and the first thing I did when I arrived was check out the night food market. It was a complete 180° from the food that I get on a regular basis. The variety of meat, seafood, spices, and local produce set Zanzibar apart from mainland TZ. Exploring the narrow alleyways gave us a different glimpse of the Tanzania we have come to know. It is interesting being among so many foreigners. I have talked to other PCVs, and most of us agree that we sometimes get annoyed being grouped as just another Wazungu (foreigner).  We feel like we are a part of our new home country.  In touristy areas, speaking some Swahili is always sure to put a smile on street vendors and local’s faces.

Zanzibar was home to one of the largest slave markets in East Africa. Seeing this darker side of history was interesting and painful at the same time. Our exposure to slavery in United States is different than from seeing it at its roots, on the other side of the globe.

Along with being a hub of the slave trade, Zanzibar is also famous for the spices that are traded in its local markets. You can get just about anything there. Persian traders used Zanzibar as hub of trade between East Africa, the Middle East, and India. This gives it a unique blend of diversity compared to mainland TZ. I picked up a few of my favorite spices and some new ones that I will hopefully incorporate into my repertoire of recipes in Njombe.

Speaking of the kitchen…

I want to share a few of my favorite meals that I have whipped up while being here:

pink sauce pasta

french toast

Classic Grilled Cheese

Peanut noodles...TZ take on Pad Thai.

Along with cooking, I have been busy brewing a couple different batches of wine. My first batch of mango wine turned out quite good. Taking a few hours to cut up some seasonal fruit and get creative with the recipes has been fun. I always thought I would be a beer brewer. Wine is just a little easier here. The below pictures are from a batch of coffee brew that whipped up. The taste was surprisingly sweet…maybe a little too sweet. Not my best work, but I have confidence that the peach and passion fruit batch will turn out good! It will be done sometime next month.

Bottling. Dont worry, not all this is for me. The other teachers have been enjoying the bounty.

Before the rains began, I planted ten Avocado trees. It’s the start of what I hope to make into a little orchard around my house. I plan to take this idea to my school. One thing that really bothers me is how nutrient deficient the student’s diet is. Everything is still in the brainstorming phases, but I think that this would be a feasible issue to tackle, that could have a lasting impact at my school. 

Planted Trees

My front yard!

The rain has brought life to things here. I look back on pictures of when I first arrived and it is hard to imagine how dry and brown things use to be. The dead earth has come to life with beautiful flowers, green grass, thriving crops, and new creepy crawlers. The rainwater is also a plus for taking a bath and washing clothes. Most of the water here is fairly hard. This makes getting a good lather out of the soap quite difficult. The rain is most welcome, but makes for an arduous journey into town. The dirt roads are slowly deteriorating as the worst of rainy season has begun. 

 Starting off teaching a new year has been fun. I feel like I am becoming more involved in the activities at school along with just being another teacher at the school. I am of course different. I think the students don’t know what is going to happen next in my class. It’s like a show each time I show up. I started my first class of the year by demonstrating the combustible properties of hydrogen gas. I have fond memories from my high school chemistry class. Learning with demonstrations and fun experiments is why I decided to study chemistry. Many thanks to Mr. Price for making it my most memorable class of high school!

I have been busy making teaching aids for my classes. I received a number of awesome resources in the mail from family and friends over Christmas. These things have made teaching and coming up with lessons much easier. Here are a few of my students with some of the teaching aids that were sent my way.

                       

I am going to end here…

some of my PC Family here in Njombe!

                            

I made a video this week of what I have been up to since I arrived. This is a sneak preview/extended version of the video I want to submit for the #PCweek2014 video challenge. I will post more information about this on my facebook.  Thanks for all the love and support. It goes a long way!