training and coming home to the world...

...map, that is. yes, indeed manga now is the prowd owner of a world map mural at the primary school, thanks to my mom. this was her thoughtful parting gift to my village.


the wall pre-mural (on left stands the primary school headmaster, appropriately named Exammes; on right, our beloved artist extraordinaire, Chasaki. Chasaki stayed in our village 1 week to complete the map)


the finished product! JAMANI!


my neighbor, Atu, pointing to Atlanta. of course, that was one of the 2 cities painted into America, the second being DC.


a side view. you can see the soccer field in the distance and my house sits behind the eucalyptus trees.

i joyfully returned to this work of art after 2 weeks of trainings in kilosa (the training site for the new PCVs) and dar es salaam. the first week was for the volunteers chosen to be "pcv's of the week," or model volunteers for the new ones who just arrived last week. can you believe WE are the models?


(row 1 from left to right: crazy Allison, Jane, Amy; row 2:Dianna and Jen, my fellow blogger down south; row 3: Jessamy, Matt, and me; row 4: Patrick, Marisa and Jef-all making nice faces)

we had a great time being together again at our training site and first "home" in country. we were even able to visit out host families, who were all shocked at how we could actually converse now in swahili! the peace corps training staff genuinely sought our inputs and revisions to make the training even better than last year. each of us signed up for a certain week/theme to assist during the 2 months of training. i will be returning for week #5 in late july, which focuses on designing training of teachers, or trainings in general related to HIV/AIDS. i'll also be pumping up the crowd for week #6 of shadowing, arguably the most invaluable part of training. shadowing is a 4-5 day period where pairs of trainees go to shadow various volunteers in the field to see what they'll really be doing for the next 2 years! it was an especially memorable experience for me last year-perhaps some of you remember my blog entry from the northern mountains of tanga, looking out onto the kenyan plains, when i shadowed my friend stefanie. my fellow trainee thais and i learned tricks firsthand on how to integrate into a village and survival essentials-most importantly, how to bake from scratch on a village stove. pita never tasted so good! i'll never forget those shadowing nights in a real peace corps house, cooking and talking by candlelight, following stef around to all her places of work and being in awe at how "in" she was with her villagers. i just can't believe it's already been 1 year, and that it’s now our turn to be the experts! I feel faaaaar from expert, but when I stop and think, I really have come a long way, and have learned more than I could have ever imagined in these short 12 months. god bless the peace corps, the government's best-kept secret.


*PCVs with our trainer extraordinaire from Benin, Gisele*

the second week of trainings took place in dar for PSDN, the Peer Support and Diversity Network, which is a group run by PCVs themselves. i was honored to be elected as a member and enjoyed the sessions designed to equip us to more effectively support our fellow PCVs with issues ranging from depression to death of a family member. we also implement trainings for staff so that they better understand the diverse backgrounds we PCVs come from-religiously, sexually, ethnically, etc. i'll be serving as Training Coordinator and am excited to design the next training session in November for the new group of Education volunteers. it's time to put those training skills from SIT into practice (thanks Ryland White)! What? So What? Now What? you gotta love the Experiential Learning Cycle. seriously though, i'm looking forward to enhancing my training design and implementation skills. we have a great group of PSDN members and i look forward to co-facilitating with my friend, Jen, Diversity Coordinator. i think this will be an eye-opening experience for all of us, trainers and trainees...

After 2 action-packed weeks with full days and late nights, it felt so good to be home and get back to my grandmotherly routine of going to sleep at 8:30 pm. I'm on the road to recovery. But it's now "back to the grind" (as much as you can be in a village) as I'm now planning for an AIDS Awareness and Testing week in Manga beginning next Monday. My PCV neighbor and good friend Amanda are I co-wrote the grant and it was accepted last minute for PEPFAR funds (Bush's Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief)-Asante Bush! The funds will go to paying our special guests facilitating the seminar as well as the nurses coming to do HIV testing and counseling. I'm particularly excited to welcome Douglas Kisunga, who's living positively with AIDS. He's the most open, dynamic and inspiring speaker I've seen in Tanzania. I had the opportunity to watch him in action at 2 other workshops and have been on his trail ever since, hoping to have him dazzle my friends in Manga. The schedule for the week is as follows:

*Saturday-Kisunga arrives from Mbeya
*Sunday-Kisunga speaks at the Anglican Church (seats the most in Manga) and then the youth at my Lutheran church; later, he'll speak during the half-time at the Sunday Men's Soccer match
*Monday-Kisunga leads the village leaders and sub-village representatives in open discussion about AIDS transmission, prevention and the importance of being tested
*Tuesday-Kisunga talks with the older primary school students (5th-7th grade) in the morning, secondary students (health club members) in the afternoon; late afternoon the PSI, a local NGO, will be setting up equipment and a big screen to show a video on AIDS at our village office (you have no idea how excited everyone is to see a "movie" on a real screen-even me!)
*Wednesday&Thursday-Free Testing at our Dispensary! Thoes who choose to can also receive free counseling from experts (4 nurses from Njombe)
*Friday-Evaluation facilitated by Kisunga with all parties-village leaders, nurses, etc.

I am praying my village soaks in what Kisunga has to share with us these 5 days, and that they will go get tested! I know this will be an extremely scary thing for them and I'm curious as to what the turnout will be like at the clinic. Village leaders and prominent members of the community have been promising me they'll go; hopefully, others will follow their example.

It's nice to know this seminar is in the hands of Tanzanians. I'm only doing logistical, background work to host and feed the guests, but the real work is in their hands...Funnily enough, I am having to create a mini-hotel if you will, as Manga has no sleeping quarters for guests. We're using the nurse's abandoned house, cleaning it, moving in beds, blankets, lanterns and hiring 2 mamas to cook for them. There will be a "boy's room" and a "girl's room," you'll be glad to know. It's been amazing to see how much the community has contributed. I have volunteers coming to bring water, firewood, greens for cooking, bowls of beans, corn flour-whatever they can do, they are willing. I even had 1 mama in our village preparation meeting raise her hand and offer 1 egg, which was probably the most she could give. It's been extremely touching to see how together we are in this. Manga is amazing-talk about teamwork, real community. Having guests in this culture is probably one of the biggest deals in life, so we'll be rolling out the red carpet, errr..mat! Game on!

With Summer Love from the Winter COLD of the Southern Highlands, TZ (Brrrrrr),
Tait

*Yes, I'm currently sleeping in my sleeping bag with socks and a toboggan...and it's June? What?

*The kind Ambassador invited us all to the US Embassy in Dar to celebrate July 4th. My friend signed me up to sing the National Anthem. Ha ha-very funny. Ouch. I already feel sorry for the audience. There's a rumor that TZ president Kikwete will be in attendance. Will update next time...