Tait's Tanzania Journal: sticks

I want to first express my continued sorrow over Brice. I have thought about him so much--seeing him in the village youth, in the sky, in the trees...I believe his spirit lives on...

Yes, sticks is the title of this entry for several reasons:
1)I live in "the sticks" (or in "bumble" as my friend Stefanie coined it); this is the right corner of my house with a view of the beautiful eucalyptus trees serving as a boundary around the primary school

2)I unfortunately witnessed my first school beating committed by the headmaster's wife, with...a stick. We were made aware of this cultural phenomenon during training but there's nothing like seeing corporal punishment with your own eyes. I was pretty shocked as I didn't see it coming. I sat there stunned as 5 students lined up sticking out their palms to be whacked 3 times each with this 'beating stick.' After Mama Josephine had finished, I asked her what the students had done to deserve such punishment. She explained that they hadn't done their work. I then informed her that we're not used to this in the US. She was just as shocked that we do not use beating. She justified the practice by saying if the teachers didn't beat the students, they would do nothing. I wonder though if she's ever tried positive reinforcement? It's quite a foreign and progressive idea - not implemented by many Tanzanian educational establishments, especially not in the village, but I hope to at least model positive teaching, and to continue to discuss with the teachers...you never know...

3)I have been using lots of...sticks creatively in my home - mostly bamboo - to hang my clothes on (still waiting on a wardrobe from village handyman),to display pictures,dry towels, and yes,even for my toilet paper. My brilliance was confirmed recently when my neighbor came over, saw the TP, and exclaimed, "Jamani, kibuni!" - "My goodness, what creativity"...what can I say, a girl in the sticks has got to do with what she has...

Okay, enough of this sticks theme. I move on...I'd like to comment on the photos I've included in this one:
-Visit to Ihanja to my friend Ali's site (she's the one above in the picture with sunset and other of us procuring a small village boy to help us slaughter a chicken - can't do it), where I observed Ali and Scott give lesson about UKIMWI (AIDS) to over 100 mamas at village clinic
-Taking pictures on my scenic bike rides-of local kids on homemade scooters, thatch houses, and families in front of their homes
-Visiting other volunteers at site, like Becky and Amanda for her graduation ceremony (girls dancing)
-Farming with Rahema, a local girl who just graduated from Standard 7. We had so much fun and I learned so much about what is typically grown here in Manga. The big 3 are: Mahindi (Corn), Figiri (a Spinach varietal), and Maharage (Beans). And there you have it-that's what we eat, resultingly.I loved being with her 99 year old grandmother, just sitting by their always-going fire in their blackened hut, knawing on sugarcane, and having Rahema translate her grandma's Kibena into Kiswahili for me so we can communicate. We farmed for about 2 hours, and Tait had major blisters all over all fingers. Who's the white girl? Me. They also laughed at me for farming in my sandals-they do it barefoot....but I don't want any more worms!

Many of you have been inquiring about my daily routine, schedule, so in response I'll share my current rough sketch:

-Monday- House day (cleaning, preparing flip charts)
-Tuesday- Teaching the orphans at NGO in town; postal stop+grocery shopping [40K bike ride - muscles not quite used yet]
-Wednesday-Reviewing flip charts, maybe making some for the dispensary too
-Thursday- Teaching alongside Science teacher at the Primary School to equivalent of 5th and 6th graders (over 100 packed into classroom)
-Friday- Teaching alongside Bio teacher at the Secondary School to equivalent of 13-15 year olds (hope to start Health Club/Peer education eventually - maybe adding Wednesday afternoon) [30K bikeride]
-Saturday- Resting, writing, reading..
-Sunday- Church with my 2 neighbors at village Lutheran church; visiting with neighbors. This is the day that the Lord has made.BAS

Peace Corps is great - an opportunity to essentially create-your-own-volunteer schedule. These initial 3 months are meant to assess community needs and then slowly, slowly, create a schedule, hoping to meet those needs. So I'm just now beginning real work. So far, I've taught once at the NGO and twice at the Primary school. The lesson yesterday there was my first on HIV/AIDS and disease introduction. It felt so good to finally give it a try...and I'll be using the same lesson, flipcharts (thank you Hil and Mrs. Olson for the super markers!) and games next week at the Secondary school. Once my Swahili is up to par, I'll be excited to start a Health Club, and other activities requiring grant-writing...as they say, "Haraka haraka hyena baraka" (those who rush, have no blessing).

Also, I'd like to fill you all in on "Peace Corps culture." It's quite amazing, I must say. I feel proud and honored to be amongst this crew in Njombe (group shot above at our hang out in town, The Chani). Just thought I'd give you some examples of the typical activities we participate in when we meet (often after 2/3 weeks in village, mind you):
-Gorging ourselves on booty from packages; we have a very strict sharing policy, so all of you who have sent dried fruit/candy have been much enjoyed by all. My friends thank you (Alston, I love you for those M&Ms; Robin-your packages should be a model for the quintessential PC package; Mom and Jonathan-those dried Granny Smith apples are to die for)
-Cooking American food together (the PC cookbook here is great - has recipes for chocolate cake without using eggs - made for simple cooking stoves like we have - good stuff)
-Exchanging current pains/ills or for example - and this happened recently - pulling out larva sacs from our feet. This talk often turns into a tit-for-tat, or "one-upping" where you end up trying to convince the other that your pain must be worse than theirs: "my sac was bigger than yours...no, mine had a red worm in it," for example. And yes, this was taken from a real conversation I had with Becky (pictured with our friend Ryan)
-Discussing upcoming get-togethers, like Thanksgiving. We're so excited about this one. We're going to get a turkey! And I've decided to make my Mom's sweet potatoes in orange halves with pecans - got to have some Southern flavor.

Lastly, many have asked about my objectives as a Peace Corps volunteer (PCV), so I'm including the three simple goals comprising the Peace Corps' mission:

1)Helping the people of Tanzania in meeting their needs for trained health volunteers (i.e. I hope to enhance TZ peoples' knowledge of HIV/AIDS prevention).

2)Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of Tanzanian peoples served.

3)Helping promote a better understanding of Tanzanian peoples on the part of all Americans...HENCE, the reason for this blog. I hope my stories will change my friends and family's perspective on life in the developing world, specifically Africa, and even more so, Tanzania. There's much more here than meets the eye -- so much more than just animals and safaris. The real magic is in the people. I guess it never really matters where you are, but who you're with...and I'm glad to be with the people of Manga. I can't imagine being anywhere else right now.