June 8, 2012

June 8, Insomnia

Mambo?  (What’s up?)

I’m writing this post knowing that I probably won’t be able to put it online until Monday (It’s 5:00 a.m. Saturday). One of the side effects of the malaria medication and jet lag is insomnia, so I’ve been up most of the night. I’m sitting on my bed under my mosquito net. It’s too muggy for a blanket, so I’m glad they gave us a light sheet and cover to sleep with. There are hardly any mosquitos in my room, although I have gotten bitten on my feet while standing outside. They gave us roll-on bug dope with deet in it, but I’ve still gotten at least 3 bites while hanging around the compound at night. The number of tiny ants in my room is astonishing. I’m pretty sure they were carrying out water droplets because they formed a line going back and forth from my window to my sink. There have also been lots of tiny lizards chilling out on the walls. They don’t like flash photography.

We are a big group of volunteers. All 47 of us are teachers, although only 14 of us will be teaching English. The rest of my new -found friends will be teaching science and math. It’s exciting to be part of this group. Despite the jetlag and array of vaccinations we’re getting, everyone seems to be in very high spirits. The staff is also very nice…maybe even too nice! At chai (tea break in the morning), lunch, and dinner I keep being served extra side dishes due to my allergies. It’s pretty unnecessary since there is plenty of food that I can eat (rice, chicken, vegetables, and fruit), but I have gotten various kinds of fish and potatoes on my own special plate. It’s very cute and I appreciate how the generous, caring spirit of the kitchen staff. I’m curious to see how much dairy, peanuts, and wheat are used in cooking around the country. I was warned that I might be getting quite “skinny” due to my diet restrictions, but so far there is definitely no shortage of food that I can chow down on.

Today we had a security specialist from the U.S. embassy come to talk to us about maintaining our safety in Tanzania. It’s interesting because petty theft is common here, but shouting “mwizi” or “thief” has pretty intense repercussions. Apparently thieves will often be chased down and beaten and/or killed in the street if you call them out for their crime. Fortunately, the staff has given us lots of tips on how to minimize what we lose. Basically, the most important thing is to never have too much on you, and to never store everything in one spot. Well, that and have personal property insurance.

We also talked about some cultural differences today and started our language lessons. Men can be very forward here, and we should apparently expect some future marriage proposals. Friendships between a man and a woman are not really understood here. This holds true even if fellow volunteers visit us. Once you close your front door, people assume things are going down in your bedroom, so we were encouraged to leave doors open whenever interacting with someone of the opposite sex. I also found out that I will be learning to iron without the use of electricity (looking nice is very important here), and that you must always use your right hand for things like taking food, shaking hands etc. There are a number of squat toilets here (basically a hole in the ground), but not always toilet paper. Traditionally people would wipe with their left hand, making it culturally frowned upon to do things like eat with the same hand. We have normal toilets in our rooms, but I’m not sure what the bathroom situation will be in Morogoro or at our sites.

Speaking of sites, I will be finding out my placement on July 27^th. We are going to be the first group ever to visit our sites before we move to them—exciting! I was also relieved to find out that the headmasters of our schools will be accompanying us to our sites when we have to move all of our stuff. The Peace Corps gives us stuff, so it’s going to be quite the feat to move everything.

The roosters and crowing and I can hear a Muslim prayer outside. (Tanzania has a mix of Muslims, Christians, and Animists.) Soon it will be time for breakfast and another day of training.

Kwa heri!  (Goodbye!)