our short news

Ok, limited time today. Here's the Kibakwe scoop: bedroom is painted (three paint choices: white, cream, light blue. We chose light blue. Our ceiling is white. We like to think of our bedroom as a big blue box from Tiffany with a white bow on top.Ha ha.) Got our cabinets-- our clothes and dishes now have a proper home. Fence continues for our garden--garden will be big and hopefully awesome. WE'VE HAD RAIN! Light rain, but enough to soak our towels that were drying on the clothesline in our courtyard. Our roof doesn't leak. Our water storage tank will be started on Friday--we found an excellent fundi ("carpenter"), a gentle,wise old man who has an excellent reputation in our community. We have some ideas for projects. Baked a cake for a well-respected mama in the community; got big points for that one. More requests for cake-baking lessons from lots of other women; thinking about holding cake-baking seminars where we talk about health and "women's issues" (there are lots!) while the cake bakes. Our houseboys are doing a great job; we invited them to come with us to our first Peace Corps conference in Dodoma in December. We are each supposed to bring a "counterpart," someone that we plan to work on projects with, to this conference, and Tony and I both would like to work with the at-risk youth demographic that is HUGE in Kibakwe--these guys are part of that demographic, and are really interested in learning how to be peer educators. Good match. Tony and I still fight, but we laugh more. We have a lot to look forward to for the remainder of this year--feels good.

American food items most thought about today: veggie burger with cheese, soft bun, lettuce, tomato, fried onions, pickles, mayo, ketchup. Crispy french fries. Spicy bloody mary. Warm fudgy brownie (no nuts, please) with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce. This menu will remain a fantasy.

so what exactly do we do all day?

It's hard to believe that we've been living independently in Kibakwe for two months now. We have worked really, really hard to make our house as comfortable and inviting and lovely as possible, and this is primarily what we've been doing for the last two months. And we're not done yet. I think that I am much more productive when my living situation is calm and pleasing; this is why we're spending so much time on our house. The bathroom is almost completely tiled; many are broken, unfortunately, but the hardware store ran out of tile, so we had to use the broken ones anyway. We're considering it a mosaic design. Tony and our houseboys dug out the perimeter of our garden, and our boys have started gathering wood to use for our fence. Last week I taught 7 neighbor kids how to bake banana bread; this was a huge hit. Some of them knocked on our door two days ago and asked to be taught how to make chocolate cake--we're doing that next week. When I walked into town a few days ago to buy tomatoes and onions, my favorite veggie vendor said she heard that I bake cakes and that she would like to learn, too. Word is traveling fast. Whoever would have thought that my cake-baking obsession would link me with my new Tanzanian friends? So that's the scoop--we're setting up our house, hanging out with good kids, cooking and baking. Next week we're painting our bedroom, and hopefully our water storage tank (for collecting rain water off our roof--the rains will start next month, and we want to collect them for our garden) will be started. Still no place for our clothes--we continue to wait for the carpenter to finish our kabati ("cabinet for clothes.") We won't actually plant our garden until the rains start--there's just not enough water right now to get it started. In case I haven't mentioned it, scarcity of water is one of the biggest problems in the region where we live. Sometimes our water pump shoots water out (maji mengi="much water"), sometimes it trickles water (maji machache="few water"), and sometimes no water at all (hamna="none.") Last month our entire town of Kibakwe didn't get a drop of water in ANY of the pumps for 4 entire days. Major problem. Tony and I have several large plastic buckets that we try to keep completely full of water; this is what we used for cooking, drinking, bathing and cleaning for those 4 scary days. By the time the water returned, we were down to our last bucket. We can't figure out where exactly the water starts or who is in charge of it or why its dispersion is such a problem. No one seems to understand, actually.

One tidbit we learned this morning from our Peace Corps friends who are just finishing their two years of service here: packages are more likely to arrive here (without thievery or us paying customs fees) if they are sent in padded, bubble envelopes and weigh under 4 pounds. Obviously, this isn't always possible, but it's worth mentioning, just in case you're thinking of sending any treasures to us...

So how are we REALLY doing? It's hard to say. Without question, this has been the most challenging and frustrating experience of my life. Our lives here are still taking shape, and we still haven't figured out our place in Kibakwe or how we can help. We are still learning our way around our town, trying to remember people's names, trying to observe the rhythms of life here, trying to master this language. Some days we can't bear to leave our house; sometimes it just feels overwhelming to walk into town and have stunted conversations with people when all we really want to do is buy our eggs and rush back home. Some days we have a bunch of kids in our courtyard, looking at our maps and reading our English/Kiswahili dictionary, and everything feels good. Some days we get under each other's skin and fight; other days we just laugh and laugh and laugh at ourselves. We're here for a reason, and we remind ourselves of that every day. One thing is certain: we are more committed to each other than ever, and we daydream about the day we'll settle down (where? Excellent question!) and have a big old house filled with dogs and maybe kids and a big garden and a kitchen full of friends & family and warm chocolate chip cookies and vases of flowers and soft cotton sheets on our big bed and maybe, just maybe, a fire crackling in the fireplace. Indoor plumbing would be nice, too.

my name is...nyemo

I have a new name, simply because the name Carla is almost impossible for Tanzanians to pronounce. They say 'r' and 'l' almost the same way, and cannot pronounce the two letters side by side, so if they try to say my name, it sounds like "Cala." Our houseboys, Zawadi and Gilbert, chose a new name for me: Nyemo. Nyemo means "happiness" in Kigogo--it's not a Kiswahili word. I simply introduce myself as Nyemo to new people, and they find it very funny that the mzungu ("white person") has a name like Nyemo.

So I'm going to show off a little and write a paragraph in Kiswahili so you have proof that I can almost speak this language. Don't worry--I'll translate. Remember--I'm not using a dictionary or a textbook. Prepare to be impressed.

Jina langu ni Carla au Nyemo. Nyemo ni rahisi kusema; Carla ni ngumu kusema. Mume wangu anaitwa Tony. Mimi ni mwalimu wa afya, na mume wangu ni mwalimu wa mazingira. Tulifika Tanzania tarehe kumi na mbili, mwezi wa sita, mwaka elfu mbili na saba. Sasa tunaishi Kibakwe, karibu na hospitali. Tutakaa Kibakwe kwa miaka miwili. Tunaweza kusema na kuelewa Kiswahili kidogo, lakini tunajaribu kila siku. Tafadhali, sema pole pole. Asante sana.

Now, the translation:
My name is Carla or Nyemo. Nyemo is easy to say; Carla is difficult to say. My husband is called Tony. I am a health teacher, and my husband is an environment teacher. We arrived in Tanzania June 12, 2007. Now we live in Kibakwe, near the hospital. We will stay in Kibakwe for two years. We are able to speak and understand Kiswahili a little, but we try every day. Please, speak slowly. Thank you very much.

Are you impressed??
More juicy details about our lives later--it's lunchtime.

greetings from dodoma

This probably won't be a fascinating update--just the facts, because time is limited right this minute. We are in Dodoma with a group of other Peace Corps Volunteers for a fun-filled weekend away from our respective villages. Dodoma is the capitol of Tanzania; our town, Kibakwe, is in the region of Dodoma, so the weather is really similar: fierce, mean, unrelenting sun. Much better in the shade. We spent the day wandering the streets, buying mostly food that we can't regularly get in Mpwapwa (avocadoes, mangoes, cucumbers, oranges, pineapple, canned mushrooms, apples, Pringles--don't judge us--, Snickers, CHEESE!) We have decided that the measure of a city's value in Tanzania is the availability of cheese--you can get cheese in Dodoma. And ice cream, by the way. Peace Corps Volunteers primarily talk about the foods we long for, our frustrations with village life and our bowel movements--again, don't judge us. BMs are very different in Africa. Don't ask.

So what have we accomplished last week? Lots. Our walls completely meet our ceiling now--Tony filled the gaps with scrap lumber. No more rat crap!! We painted our living room, and hung some art on our naked walls. What art? World map, straw mat, map of parks in Tanzania, painting of Tony and I that we received from our host mama during training. We're hoping to expand our art collection while we're here. When we get back we'll finish tiling our bathroom and paint our bedroom. Keep your fingers crossed that we get our kabati (cabinet for clothes) soon--would love to unpack our suitcases.

We head back to Mpwapwa tomorrow. Back to the land of dry, dusty plains, mountains all around, and a sea of giant, lonely baobob trees.