Shadow Week RECAP!

So, a lot has happened this week. I have a feeling I will forget some things, or leave out some funny details, but hopefully I will be able to get the gist across.

Before leaving for our site visits, Glenn took me to see Ezra’s village. It was quite the hike up there, even after taking a bus, but the view was INCREDIBLE. It was a bit cooler there than it had been at Glenn’s, in addition to being a bit more green and lush. As a group we went to a monastery to pick up some bottles of wine. We stupidly tried to take a “short-cut”, which basically meant that we tried to go straight up a very steep hill. I have a lot of cuts to prove that it was a very bad idea. The earth under our feet was very loose and everyone fell quite a bit…well, except for Sam who was able to talk on the phone while still making it up the hill without really trying. Ezra’s stray dog buddy also seemed to have no real problem trekking up, but the rest of us got some cuts in the process. The moon was very full and there were lot's of pretty flowers up there. The brothers were all eating dinner when we got there, and we ended up walking back in the dark. 

I also had a momentary lapse of impulse control and ate some frosting that was well past expired/okay to eat when we got back to Ezra's house. I threw up within 5 minutes, so the “may contain dairy” warning was either applicable, or my body just quickly responded to some serious food poisoning. Ezra also had a little scoop and ended up dry heaving later, so we both paid the choo piper in the end. He is also lactose intolerant, so who knows the specific vomiting-cause. Probably bacteria... 

On Wednesday we all went back to Lushoto to depart for our sites. Brittany is also a gluten-free girl and made us DELICIOUS cinnamon roles that I could actually eat—exciting! Amy and Sam had their headmasters meet them in town, and Hannah was also escorted to her site. My headmaster didn’t come out to meet me, but Glenn accompanied me. The first bus we were supposed to get on broke down before we even left. We were sitting there as they opened the leaky engine compartment up and told us there was “no problem” a.k.a "hamna shida". They had us get off the bus, still insisting the bus was fine, even though it was very clear that the bus had pretty much broken down for the day. Fortunately, another bus came by 4:00 pm, so I was able to make it to my site by around 6:00 pm. My mkuu (headmistress) was very nice and met me at the dala-stop, along with several other teachers. They prepared us tea, eggs, and bread, and I was given a bed in my neighbor Emmanuel’s house. He is a geology teacher at the school and also the “Academic Master”. (Funny side-note: he explained that many TZ students have a hard time believing that the Earth is really in space/that it orbits the sun since they can’t feel the movement/that tides are actually affected by the moon. I was tempted to tell him I understood how hard it is to teach such things, since I did that as a pre-school teacher, but I refrained since I thought it might be rude. It was pretty funny, though.) I also met Martius, who lives on the other side of my duplex. He is a new teacher as well (he’s been at the school for 3 months), so he is also becoming familiar with Mlola.  He’s a pretty funny guy—very animated and intelligent. His friend asked me if I was going to marry him via-phone, so I told him “no” politely. Tanzanians love to talk about marriage/try to marry you/try to marry your friends/ask you to be their second wife. As of yesterday I have an 'engagement' ring on my finger, which will hopefully be helpful for rejecting other marriage proposals in the future.

On Thursday I was introduced to the student body. They gave me a big round of applause/laughed a lot. I also got to take pictures of my house. It has three rooms: bedroom, dining/living room, and kitchen. I have a really nice table and four chairs, but I don’t think I will be keeping the bunk bed. I will probably end up buying a new mattress and having a frame made since the one they gave me looks pretty uncomfortable. I have no electricity or running water, but there is a tap on the school grounds, in addition to a river that’s 150 meters away. I have an outdoor choo/separate shower space and a fenced in courtyard. The fence is very traditional and yet to be finished, along with the ceiling in my “kitchen”. I get terrible reception, though enough to text and sometimes receive calls, and have very limited transportation options out of the village. There are 3 buses that go to Lushoto, but all of them leave between the hours of 4:30 and 6:00 in the morning. After that, the only way out is by “boda-boda” (motorcycle a.k.a “piki-piki” taxi, which is not approved by the PC), or walking/biking to the nearest dala-stop. I’m going to invest in a bike/petition for piki-permission. The road leading to my village is a windy, somewhat narrow, rough, dirt road. In the rainy season apparently it rains out—it’s going to be interesting.

I am the second PCV to be in Mlola, although the first had to ET, so she was only there for four* months. Her name was Michelle and I’ve heard a lot of good things about her. She was a health volunteer, and hopefully someone will be coming to take her spot this fall/winter. Crossing my fingers for a site buddy!

On Thursday, Martius took me to the market.  Monday and Thursday are market days, so that will be when I can buy food. In Mlola they primarily grow potatoes, cassava, corn, and bananas, but there is every sort of produce imaginable in the Tanga region. I am anxiously awaiting mango/avocado season...

Anyway, the start of the nane-nane (8/8—for August 8^th) festival was taking place that same day. Nane-nane is a celebration of agriculture/farmers here in TZ. The council members (or some sort of higher ups) of the village were giving speeches via microphone on a stage, and Martius had me go sit up on the stage with them. I then had to introduce myself briefly in KiSwahili (quite embarrassing) after Martius introduced me as something that kind of sounded like “Judy”. Everyone has a super hard time with my name. I use “Jadey” since it’s a little easier for them to say (they add an “ee” sound to the end of everything), but it still is too hard for most people. When I said I was from Maine, a choir of people said it back in curiosity/confusion. I definitely perplexed some small children. After all the speeches were done, I was invited for a second lunch with the councilmen/guest of honor. I didn't know that I would be eating lunch again, or that I would be giving a speech for that matter, but was told it would be rude not to eat. I basically scarfed down a pile of tomatoes. Lushoto/Mlola has some awesome fresh produce. I love it.

My neighbors have two kids, Susan (I think?) and Papa. Only Papa was home as Susan attends primary school in Lushoto. Papa is three and apparently I am the first white person he has ever seen. He calls me “Madame Mzungu”, but his dad spent at least a solid hour teaching him my name after I explained I’m not a huge fan of the term “Mzungu”. I am hoping to get a village name like many of the other PCVs, but I guess that will come with time. Regardless, Papa is adorable. He thanked me for eating lunch with him the first time he met me, and he is quite the little charmer. I can tell we are going to be buddies. They informed me his name means "father" in many languages...I told them that, yes, I was aware. 

On Friday I got up at 3:30 in the morning and boarded the bus by 4:15 am to go back to Lushoto. The ride was scary and treacherous, but I lived. The bus got very packed because people take their produce with them to go to the Kwekame (spelling?) market that’s about an hour away. I hungout at the Tumaini hostel while I waited for the other PCVs to show up. I’m pretty sure it was the only thing open, but I’m not really sure. It was chilly and I just wanted to get inside quickly, so I didn't talk much or look around for many places.

The bus ride to Tanga was hot and long, but much less scary than the ride to Mlola. (I didn’t almost go off the road/bottom out the bus like I had previously on my way from Lushoto.) Once we got to Tanga we found our sweet, sweet, CHEAP guesti. (Motel of sorts) It reminded me of Italy because of the high-vaulted ceilings. The beds were pretty uncomfortable and the bathroom was kinda scary, but I was pretty impressed by the place since it only cost me 5,000 shillings for two nights. The only real issue I had was being devoured by mosquitos, although I was definitely not one of the people who got the worst of it. We used mosquito netting, but the nets had holes/didn’t fit around the bed properly. We met up with Jasmine, Jeff, and the Thomsons and their PCV hosts, Megan and Chelsea. We got some chipsi for lunch and went to the beach. It was warm, beautiful, amazing water. That night we had drinks and food out in the warm air (not sweltering hot because it’s winter, so pretty much the perfect temperature). I got more chipsi and ate some amazing fruit. My new favorite thing is guava.

Also, Hannah and I are way over excited most of the time. Our PCV group is awesome. We sang "Scotty doesn't know" over the phone to at least 3 people since we are now on the AIRTEL PLAN and can call one another for free! 

Saturday we hit up the market and the beach again. I did some bartering and got two jerseys. One is an Arsenal Jersey (I have been wanting one for years thanks to an amazing Barcelona spring-break trip in 2010) and the other is an authentic TZ Jersey. I also found a green “mermaid” dress as I call it. It has a strange collar, is made entirely of sequins, and has shoulder pads. When I tried it on over my modest-TZ style dress everyone in the market pretty much stopped to look at me. I got lots of “umependeza” (or “you look good”) comments from strangers, and some approving “wow she has a butt” looks. Hannah also did some good bartering, and got an Arsenal jersey/some skirts. She also bought a dress for her friend that I have kidnapped for the time being. I figured used is used, so it’s fine if I use it a little bit more before she gives it away. In any case, Sam was the best at the bargain game. He did the classic “this is all the money I have trick” twice to the same pair of vendors and got things for super cheap. I was impressed and plan to try that trick in the future. Probably one vendor at a time, though, since he honestly got lucky they weren’t paying very good attention.

At the beach we saw a whole bunch of school kids who had come on a field trip from Arusha. They spoke really awesome English. I also made a big mistake and wore underwear that showed a little too much butt cheek. (My bathing suit is in my Dar-bag, along with everything I ever want in life). I had a man apparently blatantly stare at me, and then a young boy came over and started asking me if I would talk to this other man. I pretended to be confused, so he then came back with a piece of paper that said something like “Could I please speak with you? My name is Diogratius.” I attempted to point at my ring and explain I was taken. I don’t know if they understood me, but I just gave back the paper without writing a response and called it a day. Reminded me of those middle school "Do you like me? Check YES! or NO!" notes. Later on we watched the Olympics and got delicious Indian food. It was a good evening, and I definitely can’t wait to go back to Tanga! 

Also, my goal is to ride on the top of a produce truck. It looks fun. Slash super dangerous. But fun.