team teaching and village hopping

Karibu kinikilele, my friend jason's village, the land of lush mountains, heavy rains, sugarcane, and avocados a plenty (just like corn is in manga). Here we are doing the traditional water choating up the mountain to jason's house atop-a requirement for all his visitors. We passed, but barely (from left to right-maya, jen, jason and me). Of course, as we struggled, the locals, even small children, whizzed by with full buckets balancing on their heads.



Here we are (me, maya (health vol) and jason (the host-an environmental vol) giving a life skills lesson at his secondary school. We were trying our favorite icebreaker/cheer on the crowd of over 200 form 2 and 3 students in the classroom. The goal is to shout "TUPO PAMOJA!" or "we are together" and then the kids ideally follow with enthusiasm, responding "AYEEE SAFI SANA" or "yes, we are...cool"...so, that doesn’t translate so well does it? Anyway, it works really well with the kids.



It pays to visit neighbors...literally. Every house we greeted on our hike around Kinikilele resulted in much fruit or matunda mengi. I say! How glorious it was to receive avocados like they were pennies. Incredible. It's amazing how drastically different the rainfall and climate is here even though the village itself is not terribly far from mine. I never ceased to be amazed by Tanzania's diversity.

Jason, by the way, was an amazing host. An incredible chef, he prepared homemade pizza with his own oregeno and we used the aforementioned avocados to make fresh guacamole and salsa with peppers, onions and cilantro right from his garden. I was so impressed with his gardening wizardry. He's planted vegetables according to their pairings (like basil and tomatoes thrive together) and trellised beautifully. He even had peanuts flourishing...go mwanamazingira go!



Following our work-related journey to Kinikilele, I invited friends to my site for the weekend. Here in the Manga village office, my guests signed the infamous guest logbook and gave a thumbs up to my fabulous leaders. Love them. I thought our village chairman was going to kiss my friend Megan-he was so excited as they both hail from Madibira, a village in Mbeya. (From left to right-Village Chairman Mpango, Village Executive Officer Kinikuli, Jen Harding (from Deep South), Jenny Venecek (of neighboring Mafinga), and Megan Burkhart (from Madibira, Mbeya-the one I ran the Kili marathon with in Feb)



My requirement for visitors to Manga-climbing the roof to catch the sunset over Manga's cornfields. It’s always entertaining to see my villagers stop dead in their tracks, shocked that we would do such a thing. To watch what? The climb is somewhat daunting but worth it as the view’s great. "Life is either a daring adventure...or nothing," wrote one of the climbers on my bati.

It meant so much to have PC visitors not only to me, but to my village neighbors. They were in awe-perhaps had never seen so many foreign guests. It was certainly the most I'd ever had at my house. We had a blast visiting with my friends around the village, checking out the secondary school (via bikes), cooking together, and just being pamoja. It was so recharging. Visiting other volunteers' sites is quality; it always provides learning, new ideas, fresh perspective, quality conversation and good times overall. I hope to do more of it in the future…

And as I’ve gotten back in the groove again here in Manga, I’ve been taken a few pictures to capture some scenes of daily life:

[Insert cow herder1 and cowherders; girlsnakuni]

I’ve recently performed my first condom demonstrations in the village:
1-For our SACAS micro-finance group, which consists of men and women and which meets monthly (my mama’s group are the women of this club). Due to embarrassment amongst my villagers, we divided the group by gender for the actual demonstration and explanation of correct use step by step. Despite getting a lot of chuckles amongst the crowd, I also received sincere appreciation from these men and women. It’s incredible that the majority of them had never received straightforward education on such an intimate issue.

2-At the secondary school. Despite my headmaster’s hesitancy, the village doctor and I decided it was time for such education, especially given the latest expulsion of 3 girls due to unexpected pregnancies. Although the government syllabus includes teaching kids about condoms, many schools in Christian areas (like here in the Mahongole ward) suppress such learning; they perceive it would only promote and/or augment sexual activity. However, no study has ever revealed such.

And anyway, shouldn’t we as Christians be in favor of our young people staying safe and healthy, rather than being at risk for various STDs, like HIV? Shouldn’t we stand for life over death? Every study I’ve read on sex education for youth demonstrates that the more options you give youth, the more empowered they are to make informed decisions, leading to healthier lives. Why hide prevention methods from them? My secondary school has seen the results of such with the number of pregnancies of late, which translates into girls’ losing their right to education. Is this what we want?

From what I've observed, stressing “Abstinence only” is narrow-minded and unrealistic, as problematic PEPFAR (Bush’s plan for AIDS Relief) programming results have revealed throughout East Africa and beyond. I recently heard on BBC that Uganda, the HIV/AIDS "Success Story" (dramatically reduced prevalency in 90s), have rates rising again due to the current stress on Abstincence only among youth. People may indeed decide to abstain, but let that be their own choice – instead of forcing it upon them.

And last but not least, the new well at CHASAWAYA (orphanage in Makambako) struck water last week! This has not only benefited the school, but the entire community out there in Kipagamo (on outskirts of Makambako); they charge 2 cents (20 shillings) per bucket of water in order to sustain the work of a guard on the property. One of my favorite students there, Rustica, exclaimed, “Hooray, now we don’t have to drink the water of frogs.” Everyone laughed, as the water they used to get from the river miles below was dirty and full of frogs. Nafuu ipo! We’re celebrating the new well officially next week. I’m bringing water balloons for the kids to fill with fresh well water (Thanks Mom for sending).

[Insert well]

Other unrelated village news-two secondary female students got into a brawl this week, resulting in a biting match. Seriously, si mchezo. They bit so hard, it required a trip to our dispensary and stitches! I saw the girl who unfortunately received the brunt of the violence-the majority of the meat, if you will, on her upper lip is gone. She also has a crater-like hole on her cheek. Apparently, they were fighting over money-1,000 shillings or something ($1).

Well, that just about fills you in on all the happenings on my end. I'll be sure to have interesting stories as my neighbor and best friend Atu's wedding is set for October 28. She's the village nurse and is marrying the village craftsmen. Cute, huh? Don't fret-they've already settled the bride price, cows to be exchanged, and all are in agreement. Just like America. Ha! The party will take place in Manga, so it's the talk of the town. I've been amazed with how the proposal, invitation process and ceremony is planned/announced, etc. Talk about cross-cultural learning. And guess who’s in charge of the wedding cakes? Yepp. Wish me luck! I’ll need it.

Take care,
Tait

*The contents of this website are entirely my personal thoughts and do not
reflect any position of the US government or of the US Peace Corps. Word*