Post-IST; What's up.

Greetings all!

It’s been well over a month since my last post. IST is long over and now I’m in Mtwara town for Mtwara/Lindi’s superregional conference and malaria IST. I’m not entirely certain what that entails, but it’s an excuse to spend the better part of a week on the coast; I won’t complain.

On to what’s going on at site…

My first three months at site were spent learning about Mkululu, meeting its inhabitants and trying to brainstorm solutions to some of the problems they face. What I learned during that period culminated in a report that was presented at IST.

My primary health-related objective in Mkululu is to raise awareness about local health issues. HIV/AIDS is obviously the primary health concern in Tanzania in general, but my region also has one of the highest malaria rates in the country (and, to exacerbate the problem, a high rate of malaria misdiagnoses). The mortality rates of small children and women during delivery are also alarmingly high, so Peace Corps is making a major push on mother and child health (MCH) programs. And waterborne illnesses, which happen to be a significant cause of infant mortality, are also a huge cause for concern. Developing sustainable programs and projects (i.e., programs and projects that survive long after I’ve left Tanzania) to raise awareness about and provide solutions for these issues is going to be my main focus.

The Mkululu zahanati, where I'll do a lot of my health-related work.

Education has always been close to my heart, so I’ll be spending time working in that area as well. (I was originally nominated to teach English as an Education Volunteer.) The education system in Tanzania is generally considered a failure. In my village, the secondary school has had only a few students score Division Four (20-40%; not a typo) on their Form Four final exams; everyone else has scored Division Zero (0-20%; fail). Nationally, over half the students in the country scored Division Zero in the last round of exams. You need Division Three (40-60%) to qualify for the lowest-tier colleges, but even those who qualify to attend (again, no one in my village) typically can’t afford to go; financial aid is virtually nonexistent. I’ll cut short what might otherwise end up being an endless critique and simply say that this applies only to the lucky few who make it as far as secondary school – most schoolchildren in Tanzania drop out before finishing primary school. (And, I’ll note before moving on, most of those who drop out are girls. My primary school’s gender ratio is 1:1, but the secondary school has twice as many boys as girls. Gender equality is a huge concern.)

So I’ve got plenty to keep me busy. Suddenly the 21 months I have remaining here doesn’t seem like enough time to rid the world of all its problems (my original plan). But I’ve got plenty of time to help improve the quality of life in Mkululu.

The village is in the process of planning a market expansion project and has asked for my help. Currently, the market consists of a large open space with a hodgepodge of dukas and a pharmacy. The village wants to put in an office for the market committee, build a butcher shop and add a covered market to the open space. For my part, I’ve proposed building a public pit latrine in the market area. This obviously protects the sanitation of the market area, but public latrines are legally required to hold a market day, which would bring money into the village from around the ward.

But pit latrines are common projects for Volunteers – I’m hoping to do a few projects related to pit latrines. My real baby is a mural project proposal I’m hoping will catch on with the village leadership. I’ve proposed painting large health awareness murals – I’m aiming for at least four (HIV/AIDS, malaria, MCH and water sanitation) – in the market. I think it’s got a pretty good shot, but I imagine it’ll have to wait until after the market project is settled. I think murals are a great way to promote health awareness; even more so in the highest-traffic area of the village using a medium that should last at least a decade. Not counting my chickens though; I’ll keep you posted.

The Mkululu market, where I hope to do at least a pit latrine and mural project.

My other health-related goals right now involve awareness classes and training trainers. A couple

prominent villagers have expressed interest in learning to teach HIV/AIDS awareness, and as it happens I’ve met an HIV/AIDS educator based in Masasi who’s worked with Peace Corps before and has expressed interest in coming to the village. I’m also hoping to convince my cross-cultural advisor (CCA), who’s trained to teach malaria prevention, to train a couple interested villagers to help teach about malaria. Training trainers is a priority because it improves the likelihood that health education will continue after I’ve left the community.

On the education front, I’m teaching ESL to a small group of adults once a week. I want to develop an 8- or 10-week course for adults in the village and I’m using this group to develop the curriculum. I plan to develop ESL programs for primary and secondary schoolchildren, but I want to create separate curricula for those classes using a structure similar to the adult course. Math and science teachers are hard to come by (my secondary school has none), so I also want to do a subjects club (geared primarily towards math and science topics; essentially an unstructured tutoring session) at the secondary school and a puzzle club (mazes, match games, word problems to exercise critical thinking) at the primary school.

Part of an English lesson I'm putting together. No, I can't write in straight lines...

I’m also trying to teach in less formal settings. Just today (the day I’m writing this; not the day I’m posting), a group of Standard 6 (primary school) girls came to my door and asked if I would teach them English. My initial thought was “I don’t want to do this right now;” I’d just returned from the zahanati (dispensary), was tired and had a pile of dirty dishes waiting in my jiko. But obviously saying no to moments like these would be an awful waste of their enthusiasm; it’s not every day that schoolchildren walk up and ask you to teach them English (actually, it is every day; just not the same ones). So I spent about a half hour teaching them how and when to say various greetings and goodbyes.

I’ve also made a habit of giving a piece of candy to any child who comes up and greets me in English. I’ve capped the limit per child to once a week though, as I had hordes of children shouting three times a day outside my house when I first started. Should’ve seen that coming…

That’s what I’ve got going on at the moment. I have some ideas for later down the line, but I can only work on one grant-funded project at a time and I’m busy enough trying to get the teaching situation organized in a way that isn’t going to be overwhelming.

So I’m keeping myself busy. My day generally consists of going to the zahanati or doing housework early; doing teaching- or project-related work for a couple hours in the afternoon; then going out in the early evening and chatting with villagers outside my house, at the fundi’s or around the market. (I’ll also admit to taking the occasional nap around mid-day if the day gets slow.) I’m inside by dusk and usually watch a movie, play an emulator or read a bit before bed. No day is ever the same, but that’s the gist of it.

More tidbits:

I feel like I’ve done an exceptionally poor job of thanking my parents for their unbelievable support.

Thanks Mom, Dad, Nat and Tom! And you too, Grandma and Krysta!

I’ve lost 25 pounds since arriving here.
Twice now have I left my house to meet with my village council and ended up at a funeral.
I have a pretty solid beard going on right now.
I cannot cook beans to save my life.
‘Hate’ is a strong word. I reserve it only for two things: hatred and rats.
Mtwara is still hot. Supposedly it cools down around June and July. We’ll see…
A two-foot monitor (lizard) was sitting in my backyard to welcome me home from IST.
‘The Dark Crystal’ still creeps me out.
I’m low on skittles. And beef steak. And coffee-flavored stuff.
P.O. Box 218, Masasi, Mtwara, Tanzania. (Read: My birthday is May 9^th. *hint* *hint*)

That’ll do it for this one. Hope all’s well with you and yours.

Until next time, tutakutana siku nyingine!

Tanzanian Living; Mowing the Lawn

When I made the decision to join Peace Corps and move to Tanzania, I found myself confronted with uncertainty on a level I'd never faced before. Moving to a land almost as far away and unfamiliar as possible from everything I'd known, my mind was loaded with more questions than could be answered before I left. I know many of you shared those questions, which is why I want to do some posts on the differences between Tanzanian living and American living. This post will deal with what I think we can all agree is the first and most important question that comes to mind when thinking about living in an underdeveloped country: How am I going to cut the grass?

The answer: a little tool called a "fyekeo". (I know it's called a fyekeo because the waiter at the hotel I'm at for this week's super-regional/malaria IST just reminded me.)

My fyekeo after cutting (poorly) half this patch of grass.

A fyekeo is a flat metal rod with a sharp, hooked end. You can mow the lawn by simply swinging at clumps of tall grass for a few hours..

It's easier if you pretend it's a videogame.

I've found that mowing the lawn with a fyekeo is the best upper-body workout I've had in-country thus far. Pretty handy considering, as I mentioned in my last post, that I've lost 25 pounds, most of which was muscle mass.

My freshly-cut lawn compared to my neighbors' in the fore- and backgrounds.

But on a more serious note.

World Malaria Day was a few days ago. I joke a bit in this post, but tall grass does actually present a serious problem in Malaria-endemic parts of the world. It may surprise you (it did me) to learn that malaria kills more people every year than HIV/AIDS. And as it happens, tall grass is the primary breeding ground for mosquitoes, which carry and spread the disease. As you can see in the picture above, not everyone is keen to "keep the environment clean" (a Tanzanian euphemism for mowing the lawn), so this is one area in my community where I'm going to have to get to work!

Hope this has been interesting. I'll be sure to post more about Tanzanian living in future posts.