Christmas

December 27, 2013

Being on vacation has been a really nice break from school, an opportunity to get into my village a little more and a great chance to see some other volunteers. But also, this time of year is a time that is usually spent with family back home so I have definitely been missing that. That said, I had a great time with my new friends here over Christmas!

On Christmas Eve I had my first shower in the rain ever. I highly recommend it. Two other volunteers and I got in our shorts and got clean out in the rain as it poured off the tin roof!

I spent the holiday at a neighboring site with about 8 other volunteers. And thanks to some really great planning by our host we had many of the Christmas comforts we would have otherwise been missing: a Christmas tree, stockings, egg nog, Christmas music, puzzles, a gift exchange, games and a feast!

On Christmas we went into the village and watched a soccer game. While we were setting up some chairs to watch the game a big group of village kids came and stood in front of us to watch this big group of white people in strange clothes and a radio blaring "All I Want for Christmas is You." We played some hop scotch with them in the path along the field and eventually drew a new hop scotch....uh...course? pitch? court? whatever it is... behind our chairs so that we could keep watching the game. The good guys won and after a few pictures with the teams (sorry I don't have them yet) we returned to the house and made a fire and had s'mores!

After Christmas I headed back to site briefly and then it's off to Zanzibar for New Years!

December

December 27, 2013

This month I have been off from school. The students have gone home for the holidays and many of the teachers at my school have also gone home to various places in the country. I have taken advantage of the time off to see some other volunteers, practice my Swahili and break into my village a little.

There is a student at my school who greeted me when I came on site visit and has become a good friend of mine since then. He noticed that I set up solar at my house and when he mentioned his family was planning to set up solar at their house I offered to help. As most things here, it took a whole to actually get things going so by the time they asked me to come to town with them to buy the supplies I had thought about it and I added one condition: I didn't want to set it up for them, I wanted to teach this student to set it up himself.

So I went to town with the student's mother and offered a little help in purchasing the supplies. A couple days later I went over to their house and showed the student how series and parallel circuits work, how to hook up the solar panel, how to add acid to the battery, and how to connect the switches and lights. I set up some of the first light, but after one or two he was an expert. Then he installed three more in various rooms in the house.

Many students here fail out of school for various reasons. Some have obligations at home (farming, cooking, cleaning...) and do not have time to study; others have families who do not emphasize the importance of education; some simply do not have lights in their homes and cannot study after sunset around 6. I'm hoping that helping this family get solar lighting in their house will give the kids a better chance at succeeding in school. And even if he does not become an academic, at least he has a trade now. He could probably help other villagers set up solar as a business now.

But in the process of helping this family out with their set up, I did get something in return. They have a small restaurant (really an "mgahawa" or what we might call a little smokey hut with a coal stove and some rice and beans) in the village and they gave me a handful of free meals and about 10 eggs from their chickens to say thank you. Along with the free food, this created a great opportunity to get into the village, show my face, get to know some villagers, and get better at Swahili!

I was in town a week or so ago and my driver told me that I was better at Swahili than the previous volunteer at my site (which is impossible, she was here for two years...). I don't think I believe that, but it is encouraging to hear from the Tanzanians that my Swahili is improving. I'm also getting better at acting like I understand things when I only understand a word or two...which probably isn't super productive.

Let's see... Other December stuff. I started a new batch of bucket wine. Coffee wine this time. I made some mango pineapple wine as my first batch and it turned out alright, but another volunteer made a coffee wine that turned out really well (like  Kahlua) so I thought I'd give it a shot.

I'll post about New Years on Zanzibar soon!

Happy new year!

Slacking off...

Sorry guys. I'm slacking. I had an iPod scare for a while and lost a couple blog posts that were saved on it. In short, I had a great Thanksgiving with some fellow volunteers and even a fellow Olympia High School grad. We had turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, macaroni, uhh... lots of other food too. I've been on break this month, we finished with school the first week of December. I've been getting more into the village life as well as hanging with some other volunteers nearby. Also, I went on a little safari with a handful of other volunteers in Ruaha National Park. We saw 5 lions, a cheetah, countless zebras, a zillion giraffes, a few hundred elephants, warthogs (even a couple babies), antelope, dik-dik, hippos, crocs, loads of birds, monkeys, baboons, and other stuff too... I'll be spending Christmas with about 10 volunteers near my site and then it will be on to Zanzibar for new years!

I'll try and get some more details up here when I can. And maybe some more pictures too...

Merry Christmas everybody!