our goats ran away...

So here's the post you've been waiting to read: all the juicy details of our lives in Tanzania. We live in a small village, part of a town called Kilosa (6 long, bumpy hours from Dar es Salaam). We live in a brick house with an indoor squat toilet ("choo"); we have electricity (most of the time); we have a private water well in our courtyard, and two times a day the water is routed inside, so WE HAVE A (cold) SHOWER AND RUNNING WATER! We live with a widowed mother of 5 grown children--she has the most amazing name, but I can't post it--who appears to be in her late 40s, her 18 year old son, and her ADORABLE 4 year old granddaughter. Our life here is very peaceful, and we are living in luxury, compared to most other people in our village. We even have a proper dining room, and our mama has a car and owns two businesses--we're spoiled. Our mama loves us, and she is incredibly kind and patient with us--she is taking her role (teaching us Tanzanian culture) VERY seriously, and she has infinite patience with us as we stumble and make constant mistakes in Kiswahili. We love her very much, and feel very lucky to have been placed in such a welcoming home for our 10 weeks of training. We have 3 goats--they ran away on Thursday, but my "kaka" (brother) found them. We have 4 cows. We have lots of chickens. We eat with our hands (beans, rice, cooked bananas, a polenta-like dish called "ugali," spinach, peas, tons of fresh fruit every day--we're spoiled, remember??, chapati), and we really like the food. It takes us 5 minutes to walk from our house into the center of Kilosa, which is where I'm writing this from. We have a tv, a computer, a printer, and a photocopier in our house, but we don't use them. We spend 8 hours every day in school (with 4 other Peace Corps trainees), 6 days a week, learning to speak Kiswahili. This is fatiguing, but we're getting better every day. I can now speak Kiswahili like a two year old Tanzanian child. When we're not in school, we are studying or practicing speaking with our family and people in our village. We washed two weeks worth of laundry today BY HAND, and it took almost 3 hours. Life is so incredibly hard here--people work so hard, and Tony and I feel like our lives have been very privileged. We love being here; we have moments of tremendous frustration, usually because we can't yet say what we want to. Here's our address for the next 9 weeks:
Carla Stanke
Peace Corps
PO Box 9123
Dar es Salaam
Tanzania
If you would like to send any goodies for our super-cute 4 year old "dada" (sister), feel free--I'm thinking crayons, coloring books, school supplies, etc. Our basic needs are met--we don't really need anything. We miss lovely soap and chocolate, however--just so you know. Once we get better at Kiswahili, we will start learning how to do our jobs. Not many people speak English, so we are completely immersed in Tanzanian life--it's working. We're not leaving!

hamjambo! ("hello to all!")

Hello from Kilosa!!! Tony and I moved in with our host family last Sunday, and we are very happy here. We have a mama (but I can't name her--Peace Corps rules) who really seems to like us, and is being VERY patient and kind with us as we learn to speak Kiswahili. Basically we spend EVERY DAY in groups of five doing "Community Based Training," which is learning how to speak and get along in Tanzanian communities. My Kiswahili is already better than yesterday, but it's a very slow process. Every day we walk around and meet people from our tiny village, and today I met two Masai women--they were wearing their full, traditional Masai attire, and I exchanged pleasantries with them and shook their hands--culturally shocking experience for me, for sure!! Ok, we just discovered this internet cafe, and it's almost time for it to close, so I'll write more in the next few days. Kwa herini! ("Goodbye to all!")

we're here!!

I'm writing this from the Peace Corps Headquarters in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania! We arrived last evening at 10pm, after a smooth journey from Philly via Amsterdam. We all went as a group (we were met by Peace Corps people) to our hotel (kind of like a training compound) and crashed--major jet lag. Our room is very simple, kind of like a tiny dorm room with a double bed (and a mosquito net), and we share a bathroom with another couple. We really like our group--wide range of backgrounds and personalities. I'M IN AFRICA--can you believe it?? So we're here in Dar for a couple of days, going through lots of orientation stuff, then we go to Kilosa for 10 weeks of intensive training. Tony and I found out that we will be living together for training--we were initially told that we might not, so we're really happy and relieved. The next ten weeks of our lives will be focusing on learning Swahili, learning about Tanzanian culture, learning our jobs, and learning how to stay safe and healthy while living here. We move in with our host family on Saturday or Sunday, and I'm very eager to meet them. My anxieties are starting to melt--we've met lots of volunteers who are living here now, and they are thriving. Check out the picture of our group on Tony's blog (we took the photo right before we boarded the plane in NYC): www.antnystoney.blogspot.com. We're leaving the headquarters any minute, so I need to end for the day, but I did learn something else today that will make it easier for me to stay in touch: it's FREE for me to receive incoming calls on my cell phone (once I get one!), and it will be pretty cheap for you if you call with Skype. Worth investigating. Time to take my malaria medicine!!

hello from philly!

We're in Philadelphia right now, attending what the Peace Corps calls "staging." Staging is where we meet all the other Americans who are going to Tanzania with us, learn about Peace Corps policy and procedure, and prepare for our first days in Tanzania. One thing that is required of me in my blog, for previous posts and future posts: the contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the US government or the Peace Corps. There--fulfilled that requirement. So I think we're going with a really good group of people: there are 25 of us all together (10 of us are members of married couples, 5 people are older than Tony and I, and the rest are 20-somethings.) Interesting group--we're all either Health Education Volunteers or Environmental Volunteers, and it seems like, for the most part, we'll all basically get along. Tony and I had another major re-packing session tonight (6 times now? 7 times?), and we'll re-pack again in Dar es Salaam, the city in Tanzania that we're flying into (reason for the future re-pack: we don't need ALL of our stuff for our 10 weeks of training). We arrive in Dar on Tuesday evening, spend two nights in a hotel there, then on Thursday we go to a city called Kilosa where we'll spend two nights in a different hotel before moving in with our host family for 10 weeks of training. I'm excited, I'm nervous, I'm pre-menstrual, I'm exhausted. We got dinner delivered to our hotel room the last two nights (Indian last night, Thai tonight), and ate in our room, watching bad tv. It feels like the hardest goodbyes are behind me, because everyone I care about is someplace other than here--I'm ready to go. Stay tuned!!

so long...

It's 6:15 am on June 9, and we're leaving my parent's house in 15 minutes. We barely slept last night. This all feels like a very big deal to me right now. I think I'm most afraid of missing my family and friends--I know I can adjust to anything else if I have enough time. So this is my last post from Wisconsin--keep watching, because I'm sure they will get more interesting!

new insights

Earlier in the evening, on the way to sell my car, I had a major realization that was quite sobering: the past year and a half has been an endless lesson in surrendering. We surrendered when our dog died--no control over that heartbreaking situation. We surrendered when we sold our house--our stuff is in storage and for the first time in our adult lives, we do not have a place to call our own. We surrendered when we quit our jobs--no more source of income, making everything feel extra scary. We surrendered when we sold our vehicles--no way to get ourselves around without asking someone else for help. We surrendered when we went to Asia for our holiday in March--had no idea what to expect. And now this: surrendering to Tanzania, with every single variable completely unknown. Where will we live? How will we bathe? Will we be together (for the first ten weeks of training)? What will we eat? Will people be nice to us? Will I get a massage in the next two years? I might be ready for the scales to tip in the other direction, but maybe that's precisely the lesson that I'm supposed to be learning: that I can't really control anything, anyway, so I might as well just go along for the ride. Quite a task for a control-freak Taurus like myself. After this realization, Tony and I said goodbye to his family at his sister Jeanie's house, and it was really nice to sit around and talk and laugh. I think I might finally be packed, too--six must have been the magic number. If it's not in my suitcase by now, just send it to me, ok??

Is this right?

So I'm sitting here, trying to figure out how to create my blog--INSTEAD of packing for my huge move to Tanzania, which is happening in 3 days. Actually, we fly to Philly in 3 days; then it's off to Tanzania on 11 June, to start our service with the Peace Corps. So far I've packed and unpacked 5 times, and I think another round of the same activity is coming. I'm excited and nervous and nauseous, consumed with, I'm sure, ridiculously silly thoughts: will I have enough tampons? Are my clothes ok? Will anyone like me? Will I like anyone? Can I buy good lotion in Tanzania? So for right this moment, I'm wasting time, figuring out how to post things on my blog. I'm sure getting a pedicure and a massage today didn't help me get ready any faster, either...