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I am officially a PCV (peace corps volunteer)

8-26-10
I have been at my site now for 4 days and it seems like Ive been here a year!... My new house has 3 rooms, one for me to sleep, one for a spare bedroom slash indoor laundry and the last room is used for my kitchen ... I also have a living room that has a borrowed couch and a table with 2 chairs! My courtyard has four rooms, the last to the right is my bathroom, then a storage room then another storage room and then lastly a kitchen for cooking with wood..... I have yet to really feel like home here but as I clean up and make some personalization’s on my house it is getting there... It is weird to think that I am out on my own now and that I actually need to start working lol..The first 3 months are a transition period where I am going to be learning the language better and also making connections along with an assessment to what the village needs! For now I am just trying to get used to the fact that this is actually my life for the next two years! I guess that I am having my “wow I am really in Africa” moment these days! Maybe its because there are no other white faces around or the fact I have to go walk to get water or maybe even the fact that I cook with charcoal but whatever it may be it is in full swing! .... The other day I went for a walk (as I do every day to try and figure out my village) and I was in the forest preserve and I saw 4 really cool monkeys!! They were black with white around their faces and they had white in their tails! Turns out the forest has a lot of monkeys! Al so I am right above the great rift valley so last year a lion wondered up towards my neighboring village! Not to worry though because that was simply a fluke given the fact that I am so high up!... As of now I am about a 4 hour bus ride from town and the road that you take is the scariest thing I’ve ever been on! ... I concluded that if you do not think you are dying 87% of the time then somehow you are on the wrong road lol ... It is just straight up a mountain!.... I cant wait until I can start understanding the language better so I can actually do something worthwhile instead of chill on the sidelines all day but hey I am learning more and more everyday! .... I really miss y’all and hope all is well!!!!!!!
Amy

"You are a fat man"

Soooo this morning I was getting ready for school when my dada (sister) and mama were telling me somthing that I didnt understand (like always) but they were super exited so I was trying hard to put it all together, after saying it a few times my sisters says "you are a fat man". This was first of many cultural breakdowns that I have so far experienced because as you know,in the USA you do not EVER say someone is fat. Anyway I was trying to laugh it off when they said it again in kiswahili but this time I understood because I knew what to listen for and sure enough they were saying "you eat ugali and rice and now you are fat", I was still not sure as to if this was a good thing or not so I asked and they said it was VERY good. This reminded me of the curtural lesson that we had which was about the fact that if someone doesnt gain weight when they visit then you did not host them well. Well my host family did a great job hosting me because I have gained atleast 5 pounds! Turns out here in TZ girls gain weight and guys lose weight WHOO HOO I went to Africa to get fat. This is a super big turn off lol ... Anywho I am getting super excited and scared for the transition that is coming up in a few days, I am leaving my homestay family on the 17th and I will be sworn in at the embassey on the 18th then off to my sight on the 19th. I am also super scared because Peace Corps has held our hands with a death grip so far and on the 19th I am pushed out of the nest! I am taking public transport to my sight where I am hoping that I will get off at the right stop some 12 hours later and then from there figure out how to get the rest of the 4-6 hours up to my viliage! All in all it seems scary but in real life there is nothing to be super scared of given the fact God is lookin out for me. I am seriously going to a house that has nothing, maybe a bed, maybe a chair but I am not expecting too much. A few friends and I have decided that we have no problem poping up our tents and sleeping in there for awhile until we can afford and or figure out how to buy a bed lol. It is weird how things seem like a big deal when in the states but now I am trying to simplify everything. I am also thinking that I wont have a jiko or anything to cook with so thank God I got my two packages today (thanks mom and grandma!) so I can always eat some granola bars and candy! The hard thing about cooking here is the fact that you need charcoal and kerosine and matches and of course something to cook in and once you have all of that you need something to cook. I will in time have all of this but for the first week or so I might just stop by my neighbors house at the right time and share a meal or two... Life is starting to get real!! ... I feel like I got here yesterday but I guess I have been here long enough to get pushed out of the nest! ............. Today I got a package from my gma and since it had a lot of small ziplock containers of things I decided to share with my family here. It was so cute to watch them get so excited about the different things in the trail mix. They couldnt really understand that there was more than one kind of nut and of course the trail mix had 3 types, also it had dried fruit which blew their mind! They were talking about it and trying to figure everthing out and they were just so happy and it made me so happy! My mama said that I need to send TZ food as a gift and I should send it through the mail but I tried to explain I cant because it is too expensive so we decided that before I go to the states I will go shopping with her for TZ food to bring back for my American family to eat! I also tried to explain how there is no ugali in the USA which is a hard thing to explain in itself because they eat it EVERYDAY and how can the US not have it! When I say that we dont have ugali they then say that we must eat rice everyday! Think about it, in America we eat somthing different everyday if we want but here it is the same thing just rotated everyday. I have also realized that there is no decision making skills here in the fact that you can not give someone choices. If my mom asks what I want for dinner with my chipsi I say eggs or veggies which leads her to believe I want both because in life they are never really given choices, it is always pretty black and white. Another example is trying to show the kids how to play with playdoh, the kids cant conceptualize really the possibility that you can make something out of it to them it is just something that looks like ugali.... sorry this blog is all over the place but I am just throwing out everything I am thinking about right now..... I am uploading pictures from the party we just had for our CBT (class)...
More randomness:
things I wish I would have packed: (ed volunteers coming in sep keep this in mind)
• sweat pants and a sweat shirt (how did I not bring any!!!)
• clothes that I like to wear in the states .... I have gotten clothes made here but sometimes you just want to feel good and me wearing my lame sunday school outfits does not do the job
• an extra ipod or mp3 .... of course mine died along with my sanity
• pictures of simple american things like our supermarkets and a washing machine and a shower and a toilet lol.... I looked through a 1985ish sears catalog with the kids the other day and it was soooo awesome to show them machines that do work ie washer and dryer and of course a dishwasher
• ipod speakers
• cheese mixes that you can mix with noodles to make mac n cheese and of course any mixes that makes life easier when it comes to cooking
• Really anything that you think will make life easier, if you love flavored coffee bring it bc you cant find it here, if you love candy bring loads of it bc its not the same, if you love to read bring your fav books (books are easy to find but not always the ones you are looking for)....
• I am in a really cold area so a solar shower has been a God-send
• A knife is essential
• Office supplies ie highlighters markers stapler
• Ziplock baggies