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.