this is a long one

Remember me? It’s been a long time, so much to write about!
Our Community Theater workshop in Morogoro (back in July) was really fun: lots of singing, dancing, game playing, and performing skits. The idea of “play as education” is extremely popular in Tanzania; our counterparts, Madinda and Renfrida, absolutely loved it, and are really excited to use some of our newly acquired ideas and games in Kibakwe.
I started an English Club at our secondary school (high school) a few weeks ago, and it’s going really well. We meet after school two days a week to practice speaking simple English. Students in Tanzania are taught English in high school but comprehension is not high; teachers usually just write sentences on the blackboard and students copy and memorize—that’s it. Ironically, the English teachers here in Kibakwe don’t even really speak English. Anyway, we’re having lots of fun, and I’m trying to be creative with my teaching methods. My focus is not to teach sentence structure or grammar—that’s too technical. I’m focusing on building self-confidence when speaking English, correct pronunciation, and comprehension. People tend to be quite shy when learning to speak a new language—certainly true for me as I was initially learning to speak Swahili. I think it’s important to not be afraid to make mistakes. Email any ideas or suggestions for my club—I’m open to anything!
Tony is continuing to meet with his Art Club at the secondary school two days a week as well. His group of students really love to draw, so they hang out together and draw and chat. He’s trying to encourage creativity, a concept that’s not really taught or valued among children.
We started another club at the secondary school called Tumaini Club; tumaini means “hope” in Swahili, and it’s a club for orphans/children living in difficult environments. There are 59 kids in this group, all of whom are miraculously attending high school (incidentally, about 340 kids regularly attend high school in Kibakwe), and there are countless other orphans in Kibakwe who do not attend school. At one of our first meetings, we asked them to talk about their lives and help us learn about their living conditions. They were shy, but some students really wanted to tell their stories. We also asked them to write about their situations; we brought the papers home, Tony translated them, and it was absolutely heartbreaking. Almost any orphan you see in Tanzania is most likely the result of one or both parents dying from AIDS. You have probably heard of the expression OVC, which means Orphans and Vulnerable Children. In Tanzania, a child (under the age of 18) is considered an orphan if one parent dies, and children are considered vulnerable if they live in difficult situations (being cared for by grandparents or other relatives because parents died, sick parents, alcoholic caretakers, abuse, etc.) Our plan with the Tumaini Club is to offer the opportunity to learn various trades, like gardening and sewing, to enable the students to earn a little money. I’m sure I’ve written about this before, but as a high school student here in Kibakwe, there is absolutely no chance of having an after-school job to earn extra money like kids in America do—the options are simply not there. They have already started a garden (actually, all of the secondary students planted a vegetable garden) and have started selling mchicha (Tanzanian spinach that grows in 3 weeks) to the vendors in our market! Later on this week we are meeting with Tumaini Club to teach them our Peace Corps permaculture methods of gardening (digging extra deep so roots can grow down and not require as much water, plus using lots of manure) to help them grow more vegetables, thereby generating MORE income, plus learning about the value of eating a diet rich in vitamins and minerals—from their veggies! Last week they started to learn how to sew—my counterpart, Renfrida, is a tailor, and she, in conjunction with one of our teacher friends, Nickson, also a tailor, are teaching them to make patterns and sew clothes, plus other things like dolls and pillows. Our challenge, as Peace Corps volunteers, is to take the resources that are available and funnel them into viable projects that will continue in our absence. In this gardening example, the resources that are available are land for a garden, small amounts of water mostly every day, and students willing to work hard. Tony has written a small grant to try to buy some supplies to support these OVCs in their income-generating efforts: buckets, hoes, a hose for watering, vegetable seeds, a non-electric sewing machine, and basic sewing supplies like thread and needles and scissors. Once these projects get fully underway, we will evaluate their success and possibly work to get additional sewing machines and other supplies for these kids. Another income-generating idea I have is making peanut butter, which I think I’ve written about before. Peanuts are one of the main crops grown here in Kibakwe, and people use peanut flour in cooking lots of different foods. Everyone I’ve shared my peanut butter with (I buy it in Mpwapwa, and it’s made in Arusha, a region far away from us) loves it; if the Tumaini kids are into it, we’ll try to get them a grinder so they can grind and sell their own peanut butter. I have to say that I’m really excited about the possibilities of this club; the kids are enthusiastic, and energy is high.
Yet another project I’m planning is showing hiv-related videos at the secondary school. I have written a small grant to rent the TV/VCR, and am currently waiting to get the money. This project is aimed at providing an after school activity that’s fun, interesting and useful for the secondary students. Madinda will be my counterpart for this project; we’ll show videos every week for 10 weeks, then have a group discussion following each one. All students will be invited, and I’m expecting a high turnout.
Why, you might ask, are we doing so many projects at our secondary school? The answer is simple: we have a great Head Master (principal) who supports every project idea that we come up with—he’s worked with other Peace Corps volunteers in other parts of Tanzania before, he speaks English really well, and he genuinely cares about his students. He was transferred to Kibakwe last March, right before our Women’s Day event, and that’s about the time Tony and I started to feel like things were falling into place. That’s also the time that we met Madinda, our fantastic counterpart, and Nickson, the secondary teacher who also really cares about the students and wants to make things better. The last 5 months have been about discovering the “gems” here in Kibakwe who have a genuine interest in their community, and we found them.
Yes, a few more project ideas are floating around: starting a support group for People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA)—an idea from the head doctor here in Kibakwe; spending some time with the little kids at the primary school (grade school), who also has an excellent Head Master; and finally, planning a HUGE World Aids Day (December 1) hiv testing event. Whew!

Tony and I hosted a shadower here in early August—a new Peace Corps Trainee who arrived in Tanzania in June of this year. So hard to believe that was us one year ago! Shadow week is so the new trainees can live with current volunteers to see what Peace Corps life is really like, and we had a great time. We then had the opportunity to be Volunteers of the Week for the final week of new trainee training. We went to Dar for site announcements, where all the trainees learned where they were going to be placed, then we went with them back to Kilosa, the town where training takes place, to help participate in the permaculture (gardening, Peace Corps style) presentation. Being Volunteer of the Week means that you hang out with the trainees during part of their training, answer questions, and share your experiences as Peace Corps volunteers. Again, we had a great time, and it was really fun to see our homestay mama, Mama Chacha, in Kilosa!
Pipi hajambo. (Literally translated, this means “Pipi has no issues.”) Which is to say that our kitten is doing very well, and we love her.
We are well into the dry season here in Kibakwe. Everything that was once green is now brown: mountains, trees, grass, gardens. We are getting water out of the faucet in our yard most nights, not every day, all day, like it was for the last few months. We have one small bed of veggies growing; we are working on replacing the fence of thorns to keep the dreaded chickens out of our yard, and are sprucing up our garden (cleaning and re-forming the beds) for the coming rainy season.
Everyone said our second year of Peace Corps would be better than the first, and it’s turning out to be completely true. Our Swahili language skills are solid, we have great friends in our community, and projects are underway. We are really happy to be here in Tanzania, and can now recognize how difficult the first year was for us. Having said that, no matter how great of an experience this is, we miss home and everything about it: people, places, foods, and comforts. Usitusahau! (“Please don’t forget us!”)