My Post-July Update: Trails, trials and trials...

Oh hi.

Yes, I still exist.

As always, it's been awhile since my last update and a lot has gone on, so let's get right to it.

My laptop was stolen last week in Masasi. I left my laptop bag in what should have been a securely-locked guestie and returned three hours later to find that the lock to the door was missing. The only compartment on my backpack that was open was the compartment that held the laptop; my iPod and camera were also in the bag but the thief apparently had no interest (or was in too much of a hurry to notice).

I'm convinced the thief was a young man who worked at the guestie. We spoke frequently when I'd first arrived in Masasi, but of late he'd become more distant. He was one of three people at the guestie the morning the laptop was stolen and could not be contacted after police began investigating. The thief knew which room to break in to and his target was clearly the laptop.

The north of Tanzania is gorgeous.

So that's a bummer. It'll be awhile before I can replace the laptop, but I've got a bunch going on the meantime to keep me busy. But before I jump into that, I'll recap July:

I went up to Tanga for the Fourth of July. The President (that is, Obama) was also visiting Tanzania at the time as part of a tour to promote American investment in Africa (25 or so PCVs were chosen in a lottery to attend a meet and greet with him; I wasn't one of the lucky ones). Traveling through Dar during that period was pretty crazy, and getting up to Tanga ended up being quite the adventure.

The next big thing: bedsheet suits. You're welcome.

The Fourth of July was an awesome experience; we took a couple boats out to a sand bar a few kilometers off the coast and had lunch in a little cove. There was quite a bit of singing; multiple renditions of 'The Star-Spangled Banner', 'God Bless the U.S.A.', 'America the Beautiful' and all that good stuff. As you can imagine, most of our outfits were also America-oriented, and yours truly wore a New Kids On the Block suit that was voted the best male outfit. Huzzah! So that was good.

The courtroom as Arusha's ICT.

Following the Fourth, I meandered my way over to Arusha with some other Volunteers to visit the UN's International Criminal Tribunal (ICT) for the Rwanda Genocide. We were hoping to witness an actual hearing, but apparently the bulk of the trials were concluded in December last year and now there are only a few appeals hearings remaining. We were able to visit the courtroom though, and got to spend time in the ICT's library, which is supposed to be one of the best human rights libraries in the world. Arusha is a heck of a way off from Mtwara, but it was definitely worth the visit.

The library at the ICT.

After Arusha, I headed back to Dar and then Masasi. The next couple weeks were spent going full steam ahead on the huge market project I've been talking about forever now. And by 'full steam ahead', I mean wasting a month trying to set the project up for district approval.

In order to legalize a public market day (one of the goals of the project), a market needs approval from the District Medical Office (DMO). When I and members of my village leadership met with those at the DMO, it was suggested we go to the District Engineer (DE) to get a blueprint and budget put together (despite already having our own).

I'll give the DE the benefit of the doubt; he's a very busy man (his phone rings off the hook) and, like everyone at the district level, has been forthright and friendly. Nonetheless, I've spent almost as much time in (relatively expensive) Masasi as in my village on unsubstantial meetings that typically result in trying to set up a later meeting (I thought this was why we had phones?). (Also, my laptop was stolen while I was in town for one of those unsubstantial meetings, so that has me less thrilled.) (For your reading pleasure, here is an additional parenthetical statement.)

But, finally, I picked up a draft of the blueprints today to take up to the village tomorrow for discussion. And despite the delays (and the fact that I think we have some tweaking to do), it does feel good to have a solid visual down on paper. The market project is moving a LOT slower than I'd hoped, but we are making progress and hopefully things will pick up in the not-too-distant future.

A group of children learning to read and write at my house.

In other work-related news, I've continued teaching out of school youth in my house. I had 34 children (including some primary school students) stuffed in the little classroom in my house on Sunday. The original goal when I started teaching a couple months ago was to teach them English, but then I realized that English would be impractical for out of school youth. Now I am instead teaching them to read, write and do arithmetic. Unfortunately, out of school youth don't have much hope for a future at this point in Tanzania, but teaching them to read, write and do basic math might enable them to make meaningful contributions at the village level (and perhaps, hope beyond hope, give them an appreciation for education that will encourage them to send their own children to school someday).

Step one: Teach them to read.

As well, I am starting two Life Skills programs; one at the primary school focusing on decision-making and goals, and another at the secondary school focusing on decision-making, goals and HIV/AIDS. The plan is to do two four-lesson series at each school (eight lessons for each school), one lesson per week during August and October (I have to travel to Dar in early September and Iringa in the middle of the month, so I've scheduled that as a month off from Life Skills).

And, of course, I have other ideas floating around my head (ward-wide malaria and HIV/AIDS committees, water catchment system at the secondary school, food program at the primary school, HIV/AIDS testing days in mine and neighboring wards), but those will take time to implement. At least I've got plenty to keep me busy.

So that's that on the work front.

Peace Corps asked me to do a bit of writing recently, which is great because I (obviously) love to write. I wrote an article a few days ago about how rioting has affected Volunteer life (after the original article was stolen with my laptop). I invariably spent half the article moaning about the laptop situation, but I think the article came to a solid resolution that will hopefully serve some constructive purpose. I was grateful with the opportunity, in any case, and am glad with the result.

My laptop was stolen, so I wrote it on toilet paper.

I was also asked to send in a report on my malaria campaign in May. I decided to emphasize the value of inter-organization collaboration, which I've found to be invaluable in improving the effectiveness of my work. It looks like that was right up Peace Corps' alley, as they then mentioned my work (including pictures) in a press release on their website a few days ago. No one on the Peace Corps side told me, and my mother apparently read it on an RSS feed without any particular expectation; bricks were shat.

So that's cool. I'm sure if I sat here I'd think of more to write, but food sounds pretty delicious right now and we're trying to meet up with our district supervisor (whom we are lucky to have) for dinner. Always a good talk with him.

Hopefully the next post will take less than a couple months, but until then, tutaonana siku nyingine!