Yes I can carry water on my head!

Yes I can carry water on my head!
So lately it has been super crazy with training and I havent had time to get to the computer station at all so here.
is some catching up! I am now in the home stretch of training (2wks left) and I can communicate with my family on a
level where they atleast have a picture of what I want and I understand them to the point to where I can figure it out.
It is really scary to think that I will be out on my own so soon! Right now I am doing shadowing where I am at a PCV
(peace corps volunteer) house and we are seeing what she is up to and all that jazz. We took the bus early saturday so
we had to leave our houses at 3:15am! We met the bus about 2 hours outside of Dar and then sat on that thing FOREVER!
It took about 9 or 10 hours but it was super cool to travel without peace corps holding our hands... Also, we drove
through a game park and I saw elephants for the first time in the wild! We also saw a lot of deer-looking things and
zebras and of course a lot of giraffes!.... When we got to Njombe we stayed the night with a lot of other PCVs as they
were on their way to COS (close of service) we were able to just chill and eat good food and have a few beers at a great
hotel that all PCVs use and there is a book and movie collection, also we get a discount!!... I am sooooo excited because
friday we got our site announcements and I am going to Milo which is in Ludewa, I am the only health volunteer there but
there are 3 education volunteers there and of course I got to meet them at the hotel! They seem super cool and Andy promised
me lasagna my first night at site! The ed volunteers are all COSing in December and 2 of the 3 are being replaced so I
will for sure have people atleast close to me which is a great worry adverted..... Here are the facts that I know about
my site, I live in Milo where there is a hospital 1k away a primary school 0.25k away and a high school 4k away, Andy works
at the secondary school and says its not a bad walk away... Also there is an orphanage (I may have a baby soon) and I
forgot to mention it is FREEZING!! yes I did not pack the right clothes lol who brings winter clothes to Africa?... I am
curently sitting in pants and a jacket trying to keep warm!... I am smack dab in the Livingstone mountains (rough road!!)
by lake nyasa which is a simple hike away which means my tent is going to get some great use our of it. My sitemates said
that it is cold pretty much all of the time because it is drafty! It is weird because in the US when it is cold you just go
inside but here your house is the same temp and so I need a jacket!.........Some vil news, my sister is healthy SHOUT OUT
to the Nagorski family for the packages Thank you soooooo much it was awesome to get some American goodies! .. My favorite
little boy was eating something weird the other day and I asked him what it was and he said “head” and I thought that I
didnt translate it right so I asked him again and he said “chicken head” Yep he had a skull in his hand and he was eating
the brain!!! NASTY buuuut apparently it is a treat to the kids ew....I helped my mama go get water all this week and yea
it is super hard, I only carried a small bucket on my head and she had a huge one and another in her hand these women are
soooo strong!! The villagers love to see me carrying water so I am the show when I do it! It is HARD and I plan on paying
kids stickers to do it :) ….CRISIS MY IPOD WONT WORK, no seriously crisis! After a day of kiswahili I need music and as
of now it is a black screen, I am working on it and there are some cool tech ppl that I have faith in!!!! here is a pic
of the view from the terrace of the PCVs house, it is pretty much what it will look like HOPEFULLY at my site! Love getting
mail so keep it coming! I am going to be getting a new PO Box number in about a month so I will keep you posted with that!
LOVE AND MISS EVERYONE!!

New Photos

The side of my house and Jaz running from me!


My super cute house

View from within my house looking out to the courtyard… the baby is my niece Jasmine

Mboni my nephew mudi in the middle.. neighbor Jamal on the right and a random on the left

My 13yr old helper Mboni

The crowd of kids that follow us everywhere and Justin my neighbor (he is from Michigan too)

The view by Tylers house

OUR FINISHED GARDEN!!! Beans corn kasava papaya spinach and lemon grass!!


Getting our permagarden started!! It was a lot of work but it was a good experience! We had to clear a lot of grass and other things but its good soil and water flows there really well… The point of digging so much is so that we have water control which is the main thing when doing a garden in an area where water is not readily available!


Today me my mama my cuz, tyler his 2 bros and their friend, maren and a random all went to Tyler’s family farm then we walked to my mamas fam which is all amazing and HUGE… imagine walking through a forest of palm trees and seeing corn everywhere lol and that is what a farm here looks like! I didn’t have my memory card in my camera so I only took a few pix and I cant even upload them wiithout a plug that I didn’t bring of course! But we then walked to where my baba (dad) was making charcoal because I guess he is an expert charcoal maker, anyway we sat under a tree and ate sugar cane and papya and mangos!!... then on the walk home we stopped at my mamas other farm which is all oranges… Tyler lives in the middle of his orange farm … Pretty much my family has to have money I decided bc we have a lot of land with a lot of oranges and other foods!! But it is so hot here lol… I sweat through my pants but don’t worry I had a kanga on to cover my swamp ass! But the kanga thing is already old bc it is too dang hot! .. But tomorrow Justin and I are running to Maren and Tylers house and then back with them to my house and then Justin and I will be done and they will run back … I might die given the fact I haven’t run in like a million years but I am thinking it will be good but we are leaving here at 5:45 so I have time to shower and get ready b4 school … For school tomorrow we were saposta cook our own lunch and have a little bit of a free day but cooking got cancelled so we decided to go into town (Tanga) because we haven’t been there yet! I hear there is a pizzeria woo hoo CHEESE!! But I am planning on sending this then! I really do miss y’all and this is the hardest thing Ive ever done but I am hoping that with time and more language it will get easier! Its hard to try and figure everything out all of the time in a language and culture you really don’t know too much about!! Say some prayers for me
LOVE YOU GUYS!!!
Amy

6/29/10 - 7/02/10

6/29/10
It is hard to explain the pure beauty that I live in right now! I am currently in the Tanga region where I will be until I finish training which will be in August!.. I live in Lusanga C village with a wonderful family. My house is awesome with a great porch and 3 rooms and a living/sitting area then in the back there is a courtyard with 2 smaller houses/rooms where my sister and her 2 kids live in one and the other has 4 other boys that are somehow related but I haven’t quite figured it out yet. In the main house there is my room and then my mama and baba’s room then another room that I am not quite sure what it is used for. I usually get up around 5 which is when the huge rooster goes crazy outside of my window! But I dont actually get out of bed until around 6:30 which is when I take my shower then I get dressed for the day and brush my teeth, by that time I make some chai (tea) and my baba and I eat breakfast which is usually an egg and some type of bread and maybe some fruit. I then just sit and chill until about 7:30 which is when I get my things ready and go off to school. On the way to school I see everything from mountains to palm trees to chickens to lizzards!! I mean this place is awesome!!! On the way to school I stop to talk to ATLEAST 10 people, greetings in Tz are huge! If it is an older person you must address them which either takes 20seconds or can take enough time for you to ask them about their morning, their sleep, their house, and just about anything else you can think of lol but after about 2 minutes my language knowledge stops and I can no longer talk to them and they tell me to have a good school day and I go off. At school we (4 of us) learn language from 8-10 then we take a break for chai and a snack which is usually fruit and some type of finger food but at 10:30 we go back at it with language until lunch at 12:30 -1:30 and once again we learn until at least 2:30. When we are "done" we go out and try to use what we learned at the little market down the street and stop and have a pop and just talk for a little before going home. When I get home I put on a khanga and either help with dinner or watch my mama make dinner, all awhile doing flashcards and just trying to talk to her with my super broken kiswahili. I usually eat dinner around 7 or 7:30 which means its super dark so we all eat by lantern in the courtyard. I then rest for about 10 minutes with ATLEAST 6 kids around me before taking a shower then going into my room to do lastminute homework and journaling and I fall asleep around 9. I never thought it would be so easy to fall asleep at 9 everynight but man if I could I would go to bed at 8! It is just weird without electricty because you realize how much you need light lol, I am so go go go to try to get everything done b4 the sun goes down that when the sun is down I am super ready for bed! ........On saturday it is considered Mati day where all the Peace Corps trainees PCTs come together and train in health and environment which leaves sunday to try to get all the laundry done and also it is my day to learn new ways to cook different things bc I will need to do everything by myself soon enough!
Some random things: Then Kiswahili clock is not the same as then English time, they start their day at 6 bc of sun rise so at 6am it is really 1 so you need to add 6 to the time if anyone wants to know what time it is, confusing and weird.... also roosters are a lot of peoples clocks lol, they go off every hour starting at 4 am so you always know what time it is if you hear the first alarm, also if a rooster is off it is considered a city rooster lol.....
Everyone here is so nice and I cant wait until I can have real conversations with them so I am going to keep training and soon enough all will be okay!
I love and miss you all!!
Ps..... a prayer request is for my little niece Jazmine that lives with me, she has malaria and is sick so make sure you put her name up in some good prayers!


7-2-10
Today I saw the largest spider of my life!! I is in the bathroom (choo) and it is seriously HUGE… but I learned a good lesson which is don’t look around when you are showering! Not only did I see the tarantula but I saw a cockroach/beetle/bat see im not sure which one it was because it was big enough to be a bat but I think it had wings but it looked shiny, either way I kept my eye on it because I was not about to die by bat attack!! … But anywho today Maren Justin Tyler and I all went one by one to eachothers houses to talk to our parents and ask where we could find a TV for the Brazil Netherlands soccer game and our talks went pretty well .. I mean by no means are we fluent in Kiswahili but we can semi hold our own if the people that we are talking to talks slow and about simple things… In the end Tyler’s kaka (brother) told us that we can go to their babu’s (grandpa) house and so we watched it there which was amazing!! Mind you Maren and I were the only girls with a room of about 30 men and boys but hey we got to watch so who cares! After the game Justin walked me home because we live so close and I am pretty sure my family loves him more than me lol but on the way I once again saw something bigger than I have ever seen before but this time it was a snail yes a seriously 4 pound snail!!! It was sooooo cool!! I took it and moved it to the side because I don’t want a bike or kid to hit it and I think it liked its new atmosphere… But my mama was happy that I was home and we talked about me getting more Tanzanian and we are going to buy some material soon which will be cool… I then ate dinner which was bananas that were cooked by boiling them in water and coconut water which may sound good but don’t be mistaken! I ate as much as I could and drank plenty of water then told her I was full which led her to ask what was wrong and if I liked it ….. I lied to her I mean I didn’t want her to feel bad but I said I liked it and so she said why did you eat so little, I seriously couldn’t eat anymore so I said I at oranges at Maren’s, which is true, but she then said how many so I had to make up a larger number and said 3 I then said I ate cookies and chai there too, also true, and she asked how many so I once again made up a large number …. All in all I think she was sad/mad that I ate already and she made all the bananas and I didn’t eat them but seriously I couldn’t eat them and my kakas got a treat!! O yea when I was waiting for my dinner to be done I are what looked like meatballs but I have no idea what they were, I don’t even know if meat was in them… I asked my mama what they were and she told me but that was no help…. Tomorrow is Mati day for my CBT so we are going to Mati to learn how to permagarden which is making a garden that helps the soil that also has large yields which will be hard work but it will feel good to be out of the skirt for a day! Also I need to start running but I need a partner so I am convincing Justin bc he is the closest so he is the one who will be screwed but who cares we are up at 5 anyway bc of the roosters! But my outfit to run includes a looses tee shirt pants and a khanga over my butt/hips area which will be annoying slash hot but that is why I am going at 5ish ….. But this is already too long but I love y’all and I hope to get to the internet atleast once every 2 or 3 weeks but who knows!!

PS my phone number is 078-879-7629 just incase you feel like texting or calling sometime!!
Amy

Made it!!!

We we made it here to good ole TZ and it is amazing... the flight was tiring but all 41 of us got to Dar with all of our luggage ... The past few days have been a lot of language and safety but besides that we have just gotten to know eachother... We are moving in with host families in the Tanga area where we are broken into smaller groups where we will be learnin the language for the next 3 months ... This is going to be a big quest given the fact that the skills we are learning are going to be what we need to be able to live by ourselves... O yea our families dont speak English lol ... we are going to be busy bees for the next few moths with language and culture from 8-5 daily but it will be so awesome!! ... We have been very warmly welcomed into Tz and the people here are so nice!! I am super excited to meet my host family and when the time comes be able to actually talk to them longer than hi my name is amy im from america, I work for PC,...

I am sorry if this is all random but I didnt have time to make a blog b4 coming to the internet but I just wanted to make sure I got something up!!

Love and miss everyone!!

Amy

Staging

Flight today was at 7:05 from Detroit to good ole PA, pretty fast flight but I was dying bc I got NO sleep whats so ever!! Got to the gate and realized that there are 4 people from the Detroit area that is also going to Tz with me (theres like 7 of us from MI definitly the best represented state)!!... We got to the hotel and started the 5 hour meetings where we discussed our feelings and just got to know one another. It was a LONG LONG day but in the end it was super cool to meet everyone (about 40 of us) and realize people have the same questions that you do and that packing was def a problem with everyone!!! It is so amazing to be with people who share the same zeal for service as I do and I believe that it will be an amazing 27months.... Tomorrow we are leaving the hotel at 5:30am and heading to a federal building in NYC for people to get their yellow fever shots then off to the airport where we are flying to Zurich then to Tz.... but I am dead tired so I am getting to bed! BIG DAY TOMORROW!!... Keep us in your prayers!!
Amy

Prayer requests

So tomorrow is my last day in the states and I know it is going to be filled with A LOT of stressful packing and last minute paperwork .. lame .... but I have a few prayer requests for everyone out there please!!

1)A safe journey out there
2)That my group and I keep the zeal that brought us to say yes to this adventure
3)That our family and friends stay strong while we are not there
4)That the people that we meet in Tz are open to us
5)That we stay healthy
6)That we are the best volunteers that we can be
7)That I can stay on top of my Catholic/Christian ways while I am there!

I know those are just a few things that are racing through my mind right now but I just wanted to put atleast a few down!... I am super stressed and need to go pack ... thanks in advance!!

Mail.....

You might be sitting there thinking how can I send Amy awesome hand written letters and packages, since I pretty much read your mind I have stolen some mail info from another PCV.

-“There are a few things you can do to help hasten and secure the passage and delivery of your mail. Have anyone sending you a care package scribble religious symbols and biblical quotes all over the outside of the box. This sounds silly, but it works. Though many of the countries in which the Peace Corps serves are largely animist in religion, superstitution runs high and even corrupt postal workers are wary of intercepting religious parcels. Along every step of the way, your mail will be subject to the whims of postal officals, customs officers, and delivery personnel who often take the liberty of rummaging through care packages in search of goodies from the U.S. If you mail is embellished with religious symbols, the odds of keeping it intact are improved. You may even want to ask the sender to write “Sister” or “Brother” before your name, the heighten the effect. Another trick is to have your mail addressed to you in red ink. I’ve been told red ink is somewhat sacrosant in many third world societies and is reserved for only the most official of letters and correspondances. Though I’m unsure about this explanation’s validity, I can vouch for the trick’s effectiveness, having seen serveral packages addressed in red ink delivered safely and expeditiously.”

Also:
-Make sure you're using Airmail
-Number your letters so I know if one has been lost
-I've heard that padded envelopes have a better chance of making it than boxes
-It can help to include "educational materials'" or "feminine hygeine products" on the package in writing that looks official


....Hope to get mail from EVERYONE!!