World AIDS Day

World AIDS Day is December 1st every year and Peace Corps offers grants for volunteers to have events, this year my sitemate (close peace corps person) Tim and I both wrote grants for 500,000tsh (max that you can get) and decided to have a joint event for the whole Ward. Since our community is a farming one we decided to have the party on a Sunday (the 4th) when no one goes to the farm. We put together a great team and got to planning. We decided to have a few main events, which included free HIV testing, a baba cookoff (with women judges) and soccer games. By having free testing by an outside source more people would be willing to test, a baba cookoff was to show that men can cook too and to have a gender equality portion to the event and the soccer games was to guarantee that they young people came out. We also put together secondary school students who would do a few HIV raps and a play about the effects of HIV on the community.
On the day of the event we had to finish building the covered stage area and get all of the supplies to the appointed places, which was harder than you would think. We had testing in the clinic, cooking in the primary school, the stage at the fields and we had to get the supplies from Tim’s house (which was down the hill). We had music blaring, condom demos, HIV videos and testing all day while the men were cooking. We had fun games which included a contest to see how fast you could go with a spoon in your mouth with an egg on it (super funny), we also had men running round with tied kangas on to see how far they could go without them falling. We had many speeches, singing groups, drummers, theatre, free HIV pamphlets, magazines and an awesome Q&A session. The people involved were super thrilled and eager to answer and get involved which was great. To round off the day we had 2 soccer games going with all of the teams from the ward, followed by a championship game. Of course my village won!!!!! We then had everyone meet back up at the stage to announce all of the winners for the day (cooks, soccer games and how many people that tested). The head food tester (all were women) gave a great speech on how her husband helps her at home and had a lot of jokes about how some of the cooks put too little or too much salt. All in all it was just a GREAT experience where a lot of information was given and questions/myths were addressed. 94 people tested that day, 7 positive (they were referred to the CTC clinic in Milo). The district nurses worked the whole time they were there and didn’t even have time to eat because the line was so long at all times. I am super happy with the turn out and all of the work was super worth it!!!!
TANZANIA BILA YA UKIMWI INAWEZAKANA!!!! (Tanzania without HIV it is possible)

Random convos and food stories

Scene: My counterpart Tekra just realized that my friend Tala, who came to visit, was leaving the next morning.
Tekra: OH NO I didn’t bring her a gift!
Me: Its fine she is American she doesn’t need a gift, she would be mad if you gave her a chicken
Tekra: Why!
Me: Because it will poop and pee all over on the bus
Tekra: I will put it in a bag
Me: She still won’t want it
Tekra: What if I cook it first
Me: Well, if you cook it and put it in a hot pot then maybe she will want it

Scene: In the CTC clinic with the workers (convo was in English well, special English)
Workers: We are testing so many people today
Me: Good, its good to know your status
Worker: Do you need to test
Me: If you want me to I will, but I know my status is negative
Worker: You use a condom? You haven’t had naked sexual with anyone?
Me: Naked sexual? No, I haven’t been having any naked sexual

Random food stories: I went with some friends to go get rice and beans for dinner when we were in Iringa but we realized that I needed to meet someone back at the hotel in 10minutes so I told them to just bring me back food. Well, when they came back they had rice and beans in a plastic bag haha. This is totally normal here, you eat with your hands so it is no biggie to just put your food in a plastic bag or newspaper. Erin was here visiting from Germany in June and when we were on the bus, a lady came on to sell fried chicken out of a bucket, I thought “wow I want some” and apparently Erin thought it was the weirdest thing ever ha. If food isn’t sold hot in a plasic bag or wrapped in newspaper how can you trust that it was just cooked?? Think about it
On the bus to somewhere far you are stuck in a small place for a LONG time and so you get hungry, but have no fear!!! Buses stop to get more and more people along the way, but what is awesome is that you can buy food out of the widow! The food is generic; roasted corn, juice, hard boiled eggs, chips, peanuts, cookies, (in Iringa) yogurt, fruit (depends on the season), red bulls and even sometimes you can get French fries. The bus to Dar stops once for 15 minutes at a rest stop and you can get the above mentioned but also meat, French fries with egg, samosas, a full buffet (rice, uglai, meat, veggies, potatoes). The thing with all of this food is that if it is tainted with anything, you still have another 4-5 hours left on the bus so you better not get diarrhea!!
The other day I saw kids outside throwing rocks at the ground and trying to catch things and I asked them what they were doing and they replied that they were catching grasshoppers. They had different techniques that included rocks, sticks, and bottles. It was super funny to watch but after a while I wondered what they were going to do with the catch. Turns out they stick them on a bike spoke and shish-kabob them on the fire! I thought that this was super cool and asked for some when they were done and let me tell you, it was tasty!!! I told my mother this story the other day and she was horrified and I just laughed because I didn’t, for one minute, think that it was gross.

I recently wrote a grant and after many revisions it has been passed on to Washington DC and put on the Peace Corps website. The grant is for a water tank for my village that will be able to serve the hospital as well as the village. A PCPP (Peace Corps Participatory Program) is a grant you write through the Peace Corps who then pass it on to the headquarters; if it is passed it then goes on the website for people to donate. The risk with this grant is that you may not get the money raised or you may not get the money raised in the timeframe of your service. It is my hope and prayer that we may get this money raised in a timely fashion so that we may start building! In case you are interested my proposal is here below:
“Milo is a promising hardworking village with an unfortunate water shortage. The water tank that is being used now is gravity fed with a large source but the tank is too small for the villagers to get water daily. This problem is further exemplified with the fact that Milo has a hospital that services all of the surrounding villages. The hospital is not exempt from the water shortage which puts many people in stress. This project will build a holding tank that is 60,000L which can service 3,000 people. The whole community is involved in this project by donating not only the work to build but also their village resources including rocks and aggregate that will be needed.
With the work of building this tank, new trades will be learned as in how to build and repair the tank. The district is sending their water engineer and also their masonry technician to make sure that the villagers understand what is happening and how to make repairs. After the tank is finished the village will be able to more easily receive water and also have the skill set to make repairs to that tank.”
In the grant itself there is a breakdown of number of people effected by the new tank, schedule of work, budget and many other interesting things about the project. If you are interested in seeing the whole grant email me your name, address and email so I can forward it to Washington and you will be sent the whole grant. Also if you are interested in donating go to the link below.


https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=621-224

Amadeus, also known as simba (lion) because of his “big
fierce mouth”, is one of my best friends here in Tanzania. He is always there
wanting attention sitting next to me with his head on my lap or laying on top
of my feet. He loves to play fetch and run after chickens and ducks BUT there
is one problem. Amadeus runs after people too lol, children and people are
super scared of him and they run away so of course he runs after them. He also
runs after cars, motorcycles and bikes if they pass his way. And God forbid
someone walks by my house! I watched the dog whisperer and found that I need to
get his energy down by walking him more so I take him for long walks everyday
where he makes a horrible sound because all he does is choke himself the whole
time trying to run! What to do next? Well I got him neutered, this was not an
easy decision because come on, we are in the VILLAGE. To get ready I took him
to a neighboring village through the woods so he would be happy and bought him
some big fish. This made him happy but when it came time to tie him to the tree
he wasn’t exactly the happiest dog in the world. It took 5 guys to get him into
position and then I left because I couldn’t watch (how will I ever have kids?).
It didn’t take too long and he is healing nicely in the house and I have kept a
fire going so he is warm and I have been feeding him like a king! I hope this
procedure will calm him because having him run away all the time terrorizing
the village is going to get himself killed!!
Random story time:
·
I was reading a sesame street book to the
preschoolers (trying to translate) and when I talked about Oscar eating trash
one boy started yelling “He eats soap”? so of course I stopped and said yes he
eats soap so he then said “He eats soap and doesn’t get sick”? … This boy spent
the rest of the day whispering to the others that Oscar eats soap and doesn’t
get sick lol
·
I have been helping my friend sell things in her
shop because one day I hope to be able to sell all by myself! It is great, you
sit there and talk with people, get free food and have to do basic math for
change and what not. Yesterday I was behind the counter and someone came in and
was so surprised that I can do the math for change, I told the guy that I have
a university degree and I can do math but he said the translations must be very
hard to do in math. Well so far I am able so I hope he is wrong.
·
My favorite family here is the Kilwale family.
The dad was an amazing man with great English so we talked all the time. He had
cancer and when he got super sick I went to see him every day because he loved
to speak English. Over the next 6 or 7 months I grew super close to the family
and I feel like I am part of it now. Mzee Kilwale has 15 children and out of
the 15 I know 12 extremely well and of course I know 24 of his grandchildren
that scream my name when I walk towards the house. I am also good friends with
his brother and sister and know pretty well another 2 siblings. Sadly Mzee
passed away in July but I still make a point to go visit Mama Kiwale and all of
the children and grandchildren. They are so kind and I love walking up to the
house feeling like a celebrity because I have kids everywhere chanting my name
rushing up to me for a hug. The relationships that I am making here are amazing
and are helping me to grow as a person in ways I didn’t know was even possible!

9-25-11
As of right now at the preschool we have 2 teachers who are working the preschool everyday but one is about to go to school starting in January. The teacher that is going to start school is one of my closest friends and I am the one saving up to send her to school (by the way her name is Jen). Jen has been helping me with things around my house for many months now, like laundry and such and she also stays at my house when I am gone to watch/feed Amadeus. She is really trusted by a lot of villagers and so I am really lucky that I became friends with her. She went to high school all the way to senior year before becoming pregnant and getting kicked out. She has always told me that she wanted to go back to school and I told her that I would help. As of now I am paying her to clean at my house and also to teach and I thought that she would be able to use that money to send herself to school but turns out she is paying her sisters school fees as well as trying to put a real roof over her family’s head. I went to see her house for the first time not too long ago and I was shocked. They have no glass in their windows, no steel roof, no true cooking area, and that was just from the outside. As you may know it gets VERY cold here especially at night and since her windows are open (there is some old corn husks put in for insulation) it probably gets very cold. So her spending the money to try and make the family house better is a-ok with me.
School fees are actually really cheap but it will take some payments for me to be able to cover everything. She is going to check out some schools this coming month and we will see what the bill comes up to. Since she was kicked out of the nearby school she will have to board plus normal fees and uniform and such. I am thinking that it shouldn’t be more than 60,000tsh which is like 40ish dollars. I hope all goes to plan because as you should know, education is a gateway that leads to only positive things.
I have been here now, in my vil for over a year and it is starting to seem as though I am leaving tomorrow and I need to get moving! So I have made a list of things that I still want to do in the vil and assigned a month for those activites. In October I am pushing SODIS which is an amazing way to disinfect water without boiling, you simply use the sun (www.SODIS.ch). There is a HUGE problem with people here and not boiling their water and being super sick. Even things like typhoid can be found at our hospital. As for November I plan on doing better chicken keeping practices along with better book keeping. My fellow peace corps volunteer is coming to run a seminar along with my village “vet”. I hope it goes well!! Also in October and November I plan on finishing up my 2 grants, one for the water tank and the other for a World AIDS Day party/ testing day. In December, Tim (sitemate/ closest neighbor) and I are planning a big party for World AIDS Day which will be held in his village and we are going to invite the whole ward (surrounding villages). The day will have entertainment (music, drummers, dancers), a film on HIV, a baba cook-off (showing the men can cook too!), and most importantly FREE HIV TESTING!!! The testing will be done by an outside organization, so no one should be worried that their status will be the talk of the town, which seems to be a universal concern. The party will also have speakers on HIV and condom stations and other information available! I hope this goes as well as I think it will go!! That brings us to January where I plan on doing either jamming (we have a lot of seasonal fruit) or more information on SODIS. If anyone has any other ideas let me know because I am pretty blank after those months lol
Well that is about it I will end this with some random stories.
1) A 3rd grader from the nearby school came up to me the other day telling me all about how mad he is because his little brother (in my preschool) knows English better than he does. He claims that Octovian (preschooler) is purposely not helping him with his homework lol. But after talking to him for a while I found out that the real problem is that he doesn’t have an English book for class, I asked how much the book was and the answer was 3,000tsh (less than 2 dollars). I told him I would talk to the head teacher to see if we can get him a book so he didn’t have to ask his little brother anymore. Octovian is very bright and I hope he is able to do well in school because he comes from a VERY poor family, well that’s not entirely true. His family has a lot of cows and a small shop where they sell produce BUT for some reason they children don’t reap any of the benefits (priorities?).
2) The other day I was sitting at the secondary school Catholic club graduation. To my right was a very smelly man and on my left was a great smelling man and the mixture was interesting. I was sitting there and thinking about how funny the party was when I realized that the DJ was talking about me and I was expected to get up and say something. Well needless to say I wow’ed them with my “My name is Amy, I’m from Milo, I am a Peace Corps Volunteer dealing with many activities”, yep SUPER high expectations lol. But the reason why I thought this party was so funny was because the DJ would play music, at a deafening volume, after each little speech and all the students would get up at do a few dance moves, the leader would pick a certain step and all the students did the same thing and then they would sit down. For hours and hours this goes on while me and the others at the high table watch, funny? I think so!
3) The last 2 times that I went to Tim’s village I have cut through the woods because its faster and each time I have ran into men asking for my number. Both times I started with saying no that I don’t know them and that I was late but in the end both times I ended up giving them my number. Days after the encounter I have gotten texts asking for marriage! Needless to say those numbers have been put on my ignore list!!
4) I went to a neighboring village that doesn’t get to see a lot of foreigners and man oh man was I the talk of the town. But the thing was, no one would actually come up to me, they all just stared a safe distance away. After most of the day was over I was sitting having a soda with the head of the village when a little old lady came in to greet me and to tell me “I am not scared of you” which I responded “that’s good”, she then said “everyone is scared and just waiting outside, but im not scared and I came in”. She then got up without another word and left lol, yep that’s my life!!

KILI

Just getting back from the Kili climb and also the safari with a bunch of friends including Erin who came from America (well actually Germany but you get it). Any way, when I found out that I was going to serve in PC Tanzania Erin and I started to plan on her visiting and climbing kili but to tell you the truth I didn’t actually think that it would happen. The climb took 4.5 days up and 1.5 down and it wasn’t the easiest thing ever. The day hikes were fun and the sun was mostly sunny (one day had A LOT of wind) but the nights were always super cold. Also once we got to day 4, breathing wasn’t the easiest thing in the world to do. We would simply wake up and sit up and already be out of breath. The day of the summit, you wake up at 11pm and drink chai and get ready and then we left at 12am. The hike is SUPER slow and you are super thankful because at that slow pace you are super out of breath. My stomach started hurting really bad and felt nauseas but not to the point where I had to stop. We got to the summit just as the sun was coming up and it was AWESOME and BEAUTIFUL. To the left were glaciers, to the right there was a volcano crater and straight ahead there was the sign for the highest point in Africa!! After taking our pictures we started the trip down (shorter route) and it turns out that it was all sand. Going down the sand was supposed to be “fun” but I am not good at going down hill and I was scared of falling so I was super slow. By the time we made it back to the tent we had time for a 2 hour nap before waking up and eating then heading down another 3-4 hours. Sleeping wasn’t easy in the tents so when we were finished we all collapsed onto our hotel beds and didn’t move. We then went on our safari which was super relaxing because you legit just sit in a car all day! We really enjoyed people watching because whole families were all dressed up wearing full out matching safari gear with cool cameras and we all looked like dirty villagers lol. The trip came to an end and Erin and I went to my vil to hang out. The vil loved erin and wanted her to stay forever and she even had to fend off some marriage proposals. The children were all a little freaked seeing 2 white people which was weird because they were super standoffish but hey when you are scared you are scared. The last leg of the trip was coming back to Dar to see her off to the airport and that is where I am right now, in the hotel!!!
I am super pumped hoping that when I get back my water project will be moving forward and I have a great training planned for the end of the month in Iringa so that should be super cool. The following month of Aug I have MSC (mid-service conference) then off to IRELAND!!! Cant believe that Courtney is getting married! CRAZY!

SORRY

So I havent written a blog in a really long time, which is half because I am lazy but mostly because I have fallen into thinking that what I am doing is just mundane. I remember reading pc blogs when I was in America about how their life was so boring even though it seemed pretty awesome to me. So I am sorry and I will try to tell you all about my life just incase you think any of it is interesting.

1) Funerals in my vil:
So my vil has had a lot of deaths which is not cool but it is an interesting cultural exchange. Here when someone dies they ring the bells at 6am 3 times then pause then 3 times pause 3 times over and over for about 2 minutes. This tells the village that there will be a funeral today and you shouldnt go to the farm. Life is pretty normal until 12 when the bells ring again which means go to the church. Before 12 people go and dig the grave site and women are at the house of the deceased cooking and helping the family. When the bells start to ring at 12 everything closes down and everyone goes to the church where there is a short blessing. After the blessing everyone goes out to the gravesite which is right next to the church and there is a lot of singing. When we get out to the gravesite the men put the casket into the ground and the priest says prayers before friends are called forward to throw dirt in. When everyone is settled back the men fill in the dirt. The priest then talks for awhile and people put flowers onto the gravesite. When this is finished the women come forward and pour water over the dirt and cry and people slowly go to the families house. At the house there is a meal for the whole village. People, for the next 3 days, bring money and food and also help cook.

2) Parties in the Vil:
So we have been having a lot of parties lately and they all seem to be about the same. First everyone files in to music and we sit. Once we sit the schedule is told to us then it gets underway. For nurses days we all lined up and sang songs and walked around the village for a good 20/30 minutes to then return and sit down to stare at each other and listen to music for 10minutes. After some music we lit candles while singing the song that is translated to “light the candle, light the candle, light the candle friend”. We then walked to the hospital and walked into the 3 wards with patients, all awhile singing the candle song. This was followed by more music and staring but also drinking a soda. There then was speeches and gift giving followed by more music. We finally ate food and listened to music and the party was over! Fun times!

3)Preschool updates: the kids know all of the animals and things in my English books and they don’t really get the songs that I try to teach them so we are mostly concentrating on Kiswahili and the alphabet that they use. I have one teacher with me now and I hope to have another starting in July. Preschool is pretty cool but it def takes a lot out of me most days because trying to get the kids to listen is impossible some days. Today we marched around outside singing “Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, good night” then we played tag and just ran around. My old head teacher is getting married in July to the Bishop of the Anglican church so that is exciting for her but stinks for me because I’m busy trying to find replacements! The kids are loving it but I am having a seriously hard time getting them to pay the tutition which is an uphill battle but hopefully will work itself out.

3) Things that happen here that totally would have been crazy in America:
Was playing netball in the field with all of the women when two cows came charging through to try and graze in the field.
Had my health club cancelled all month because the students were required to work in the teachers farms instead of go to class
I ate cow stomach, long story but in the end it isn’t too bad.
I was sitting at a friends house with other volunteers just laying around getting ready for bed and 2 bats came in and none of us moved, we just said “well theres bats in the house”. If I was in the states I probably would have been scared and running trying to get it out but I feel like there is much scarier things now.
Got proposed to at least 10 times last month (no yeses yet!)
I payed 5USD for my hotel room
I poo in a hole
I was at a restaurant over looking the ocean drinking a beer when then I bought a soccer ball and then got my toenails painted, big toe is the American flag and the baby toes are all the Tanzanian flag! all that greatness and I didn’t even have to leave my chair.