It's GREAT to be a Michigan Wolverine!!!

September 5, 2011

Got back to the village today with 23 KG of fish flour and some other things. I was not prepared for my house smelling like dead fish, but I think it is going to smell like that for the next month. Oh joy. I am really scared of what type of animals this is going to attracted. I have flashes of lots of stray cats attacking my house. I really hope that does not happen.
Everything else is going really good, although I am still feeling super busy and not on top of everything. It also does not help that I have been out of my village a lot for things and will continue to be for a while. It doesn’t help to that I want to do anything and everything. We are all suppose to go to Randi’s next weekend for a gathering and hopefully meet the new education volunteer in the area. She has already been here a week and I have not met her yet. She seems really nice on the phone though.

I went and saw old Jesca’s daughters today. They are so awesome they make me feel so good. Also realized that Randi’s Swahili is amazing. I do not know how she got so good but me and Jesca were talking about it and it is awesome we decided. I really want to work on my Swahili but I have so much other stuff going on that I would rather be doing as Paul says it is all about priorities and really I am able to communicate with my villagers and live so I am doing well, I just miss a lot in conversations. But it doesn’t bother me that much only when I am around other volunteers and even then not all the time. Weird how that works. But then again I also do not see me using this language in the future to much either. It is no POLISH, let’s just say that. But it is pretty awesome that I am able to live here and speak Swahili with everyone and at least have small conversations in Gogo with the grandmas.

It is not even 8 pm and I think I am going to go to bed. I am so freakin tired all the time now. It is crazy but hopefully this means that I am going to wake up early and exercise before my morning dedicated to washing clothes. Almost every piece of clothing I own is dirty.
Almost forgot, talked to the fam damily to and they said the wedding was great. This just gets me super excited for Ashleigh’s. Also taught Claire and Randi how to Polka, although not sure they were to impressed. Claire said it seemed similar to Scottish dances. I really hope she can come and visit during Pulaski day weekend sometime, I think she would just love it. But really who wouldn’t.

September 6, 2011

I think my days of sleeping in are over between Jesca coming over at the crack of dawn to talk and me becoming way to busy that I think I need to start exercising in the morning. I have I told you how much I hate to exercise in the morning, I do not mind it in the US but here it is just painful. Although I kind of think that it is painful in general here because that can make your day that much longer and boring but in all actuality I have not had a boring day in a very, very long time. So long I almost miss them. But only almost.
So I woke up today and Jesca brother came and got money from me. He was my work horse today. He carried 270Kg of chicken feed in 2 trips on his bike to my house. Can you say amazing. Not if I can just get the fish flour out of my house.

Jesca and me also went into town today to see my neighbors father. We saw him at 1 pm went and hung out with Claire and then headed to a women’s group that we were teaching to make soap to. In 2 hours my neighbors dad had died, which is really sad but he lived a good, long life. I think he was 90 yrs +/- 10. You can never no because nobody knows when they were born. So that was sad but I did also get my first glimpse of a hospital. Let’s just say I am glad I am healthy.

September 7, 2011

I have a mouse in the house. I knew I had one last week, but I was just kind of hoping that it would leave which of course it did not. And as a result it has eaten through 2 pairs of headphones. I cannot believe it, luckily I have one more pair left that I am going to guard with my life. What is even more disturbingis how close he got to me while I was sleeping without me knowing. I just do not understand why God would ever make mice. Mice and snakes are the 2 things I hate most in this world.

I had another jam pack day although this one was full of work and laundry which still is not
done yet. That is what I get for not doing laundry for like 3 weeks. I also piled up on water so hopefully I will be good for a bit.

I did Randi;s P90X workput today and feel amazing as well. It makes me miss the gym but only a little. Ya just feel so good after a nice work out.

Also I am reading the 19th wife and it is really good. And I made soda bread today but it didn’t really turn out like I wanted it to but it was still edible so I cannot complain. I am making cookies with frosting tomorrow with Jesca so that should be interesting. Hopefully it goes well.

September 8, 2011

I killed my first mouse today. And it scared me to death. I know that I do live in Africa so you think that I deal with a lot but I see fewer animals and insects here in my house than at home. I am not sure what this is saying about my house but it is the truth. Or I have just become accustomed to living with the lizards and cockroaches which I will take any day over mice.

I went to old Jesca today and we made sugar cookie sandwiches with chocolate frosting that were delicious and then we walked to the next village over and carried bundles of tree poles back for her chicken fence. It was hard work, I made her stop and rest 3 times before we made it back to her house. I then came home to haul a ton of chicken feed from young Jesca house to mine, again this was a lot of work but it needed to be done. After that I had the great idea to try and make chocolate toffee cookies with the toffee candies, think worthers originals but this did not go as planned. They do not taste bad, but they do not taste awesome either.

Besides that not to much is new, still living in fear that there is a whole herd of mice but besides that not much else. Me, Claire, and Jake are going to Randi’s site tomorrow so that should be really fun and Randi is going to teach us a new work out. Should be a great weekend before I head off to Dar and cross your fingers I get a lot of work done there because I have a lot to do.

September 16, 2011

I know I have not written in a while and it is of course because I have been so busy. I went to Randi’s village last weekend. It was a great time. All the volunteers from our region where there it was great. We pretty much just sat around and made really good food. We made pizza and vegetable burritos. It was awesome. We also walked to this really big tree which I of course tried to climb but couldn’t actually get up on to. But Randi was able to climb it. IT was crazy because you have to rock climb it the entire way up. I have now made it my goal to be able to climb it rock climber style by the time I leave. This means I need to get some arm muscles. Not sure how this is going to happen yet. But it was a great time and I got to meet Athena who is the new volunteer in our area.

Then I went to Dar for some meetings. Which is awesome because I am in Dar and I love being here. I have been hanging out with Trudy and Kenzi and attempting to get work done. We have been eating really good food. I had coffee ice cream yesterday and a steak burrito. It was AMAZING. I was planning on going to the beach but I have decided not to. I am going to try and get a bunch of work done in the next 2 days. I know this is lame but I feel like I am still in warp speed. I would really like to stay on top of things in the next few months before I go home and try and accomplish a lot. Hopefully this works. I am excited though because we are going to go to the Holiday Inn and sit at the top and have drinks. Most people will not go with me because they think it to expensive but come on people we are on vacation. So the plan is today to go and sit up there and do a bunch of work. I know LAME but it needs to get done.

I also am hoping to skype with people this week and catch up on everything. I feel like I have been out of the loop lately. I am also going to talk to my professors which I am really looking forward to because again I am freaking out a little about my research. I just am not sure if I am on the right track or really anything about it.

So after this I head back to Dodoma for some more meetings and then finally back to site. I feel like all I do these days is travel. I really just want a week to do nothing and relax not sure when this is going to happen hopefully soon. But that is not going to be the case because I cannot say no to anyone or anything hence I am always so busy but busy is always better than not so I guess I cannot really complain. I think we are also going to see the movie Contagin which I hear is suppose to be really good. I think that will be really fun.

September 21, 2011

I just went to a seminar in Dodoma with about 30 other volunteers that live somewhat around here. It is crazy because I had no idea there were this many volunteers around me. Although most of them really are not but it is at least cool to meet some new people. Claire came up with us to and I think she was just as excited to meet some new people. She leaves in about 2 weeks so it is going to interesting when she is gone. Not really sure if it will be better or worse.

It was a lot of fun though because we all hung out, ate great food, and even played euker. This especially made me miss the cottage and just playing card games. So I was thinking that I might see if Paul wants to get together once a week and play cards. Stealing this idea from my Professor but I think it could be really fun. I are amazing pizza and chicken and got to listen to everyone talk about there projects. Again most people hate this but I love hearing what other people are doing. I do understand why they do not like it but I think it is great. They are all doing so much, they give me great ideas.

I also got picked as a PCV of the week for the incoming environment volunteers. Which is really cool. This means that I will be with them for a week when they first get here, answering questions, telling them about my experiences, and teaching. I am a little scared because it is hard to meet a whole group of new people but also a little comforted in the fact that they are probably all scared as it is all completely different.

I have also decided that I HATE talking about money. I know you should never really talk about it with people but here that is really not an issue because there are no secrets as to how much everyone is getting paid because we all get paid the same and as a result people are very blunt as also really cheap. I cannot really explain it. Most people are broke (I for some reason am not) broke to the point they have maybe $10 in their account at the end of each month. Which sucks but if they want to have money they should learn to save and spend there money differently. Come on people. Really I just do not understand how they have no problem buying 2 beers and going to a movie but cannot spring for a cab home. It drives me insane. Everyone is different I understand but I am really really sick of people talking/ bitching about money.

I came back to the village today and young Jesca has started building her banda. I am so excited. It is awesome. I am also really excited because I want to start making fuel efficient stoves and some other things soon. I have a lot I want to accomplish in the next year but time is just flying by at the moment.

I also talked to my professors about my research. They are really great and help me so much. I am not at the point of the actual research yet. Still stuck in pre-test mode but it is moving along.

September 22, 2011

Today one my bosses came out to my village and saw some of my chicken project. It was really cool and awesome to have someone from PC actually see what I am doing and not just hearing about it. We also went to Paul’s village and also to another village where they might put a new volunteer this year. Which I think would be really sweet. Because the more the merrier.
We also talked about a water project. Which I am really excited about. If everything goes as planned I should be able to write a grant and have an NGO come to my village for 2 weeks and teach the village construction worker how to make a water tank.

Besides that not much else is new. I have about a million things I need to be doing and no time. I am really hoping to get some more stuff done tomorrow, hopefully I can keep up on everything. I just never feel like I am getting ahead, Things just keep pilling up.
I made Dahl today with flat bread. It was really good. I was thinking how we eat so much processed stuff in the US which is crazy because you can make so much good things from scratch that take the same amount of time. I hope when I come home I try to make more stuff from scratch but who knows if that will work or not as I do love boxed pizza.

Also killed a really scary looking millipede today that was trying to enter my house and saw my first ever scorpion. Luckily it was dead but that just makes me wonder where the other ones are lurking. Also learned about a tiger ant. They sound really sweet. They burrow in the ground and form these pits and then when insects fall into them they come out and pounce on them. And also saw some kind of Mahogany tree today that the seeds looked like beautiful pieces of chocolate.

I think the no water period has also begun. All the women stood around the water today waiting for it and it never came. Oh the joys of living in the desert on a plateau in a rain shadow. Not really sure what the government was thinking when they relocated people here. But it still is amazingly beautiful so we got that going for us.
Starting vaccinations tomorrow as well.

September 23, 2011

I spent the entire night in fear for my life as usual. Although this time it was the sound of something trying to get out of a big plastic bag. I convinced myself throughout the night that whatever was in there was going to eat me. But then I decided that it could not get out so that I would just deal with it in the morning. So in the morning I got all geared up because I could still hear it, knocked over the bag and prepared to kill whatever was trying to kill me…..a cockroach with a missing leg. I swear though you would never believe such a small thing could make so much noise.

I also found out that my neighbor ripped me off. This makes me incredibly angry and sad all at the same time because I trust him. He came and sold me and ax and apparently tripled the price from what Jesca said. I think I might actually say something to him just so he knows and maybe make him feel at least a little bad. I just need to muster up the courage. But I have at least started to think about what I might say to him.

Also finding out that I can bath with less than 2 liters of water if I do not wash my hair. I am not sure if I would call this impressive or exactly how low my standards have dropped. But

I feel clean at least and it cuts back on water.

I made Baylor’s bread today with spinach, onion, and tomatoes. Not sure what my thoughts on it are yet. I was kind of hoping it was going to taste like a tomato herb bagel but that was wrong.

September 24,2011

I have decided that I am a watch person. My watch band broke last week and my neighbor is making me in a new one but in the mean time I am finding I have no idea what time it is or date it is and it is killing me. Who knew I would ever be so attached to a watch.

I am reading a book called House Rules at the moment and it is really good. I have done hardly anything else except read the book and am hoping to finish it tomorrow.

I made banana fritters today and they were excellent although they would have been even better had I washed the pan before I used it. They had the slightest taste on rosemary and onions. Not a good combination.

I talked to Andrew today and am super excited to see his house and actually just be in Chicago I guess and of course see everyone. It is weird I have spots where I feel like PC is going to fast and that I have so much to accomplish in such a little time and then I have moments like today when I am just ready to get out. I have found though that I think about staying longer when people ie other volunteers are around me but then I go to the village and am good for a few days and then ready for some more volunteer time. What am I going to do without Claire. I think Paul is going to start getting sick of me as he is my next closest neighbor.
It is just me or are the insects and lizards getting bigger? I am not sure what they are eating but they look huge this week.

September 27, 2011

I met Randi and Claire in town for one last hurrah with just the three of us but of course it turned into 2 nights. Randi found out she had a graduation on Saturday but that is also the day of Claire’s party so we walked to my village and back yesterday so that she could get my bike and I had a meeting to go to. So yesterday I walked 12 miles and I actually did not feel to bad. And it all worked out great because then I was able to bring some furniture back today from Claire’s so finally after 1 year I have a chair to sit on instead of my bed. It is awesome. I also brought back a ton of rice and beans because tomorrow I am having a seminar for AIDS with one of the groups here. I am really nervous about it because it is pretty much all planned last minute which I do not like but it seems something that TZ are use to although I am not sure why they are. This probably has something also to do with the fact that they say if God wish I will see you tomorrow after you have just made plans to meet them tomorrow. It will drive you crazy but anyways pray the seminar is good.

I talked to Han today and we talked about my research again. I am not exactly where I want to be at the moment but I am not in a bad place either. I just am getting worried which is kind of stupid because I do have 10 months to go but I like to stay on top of things and at the moment am not. Which is weird because the reason I am not is because I have been doing actual PC work. It is so weird how I am where I am not and how 1 year ago all I could think about was leaving this place. I am not saying that I will be not be ready to go when it is time but I actually feel like I am doing something at the moment. I have so much more I want to do and am not sure if I will have the time to do it,. I keep meaning to make a calendar but of course that has not happened yet of things that I want to do before I leave. I think with Claire leaving it is going to be really hard but it is also going to be good for me. I think I will be more focused on my village and of course stay in it a lot more which will lead to me hopefully getting more done but of course only time will tell how this really works.
I also feel like I have been traveling a lot. Probably because I have between PC work and my own stuff along with just wanted to hang out with people and then being in my village. I have a full plate.

September 28, 2011

I woke up at the crack of dawn today to vaccinate chickens. Which was really not that bad but I did not know that I was doing that this morning. I had so much to do it just added to things. Today I started a seminar about HIV/AiDS with an NGO. So I spent all morning running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get everything ready and making sure that things were done. On top of this the facilitator was an hour late which nobody else cared about, but me I was freaking out that they had forgot although I did talk to them the day before in TZ ya just do not know.

So after a full day of seminar I came home to rest and have had a stream of people coming in ending with a little quarrel between the Jessica’s. Old thinks that young is going out of her way to make sure she does everything which I do not think is the case at all. She just happens to live really close to me and people keep electing her to be the one to help me. Not really sure what kind of terms they are on now but it ended with young J telling me she doesn’t care for old J. Something’s never change.

Big news. One of Randi’s students got picked to go to the US for 2 weeks which is really awesome because she worked really hard on the applications with the students.
I still have not accomplished as much as I wanted to today but tomorrow is another day so hopefully I actually accomplish something.

September 29, 2011

The Seminar went beautifully today and finished great. I was really proud. The people all seemed to really like it and were engaged with the discussions and asked lots of questions so that is good. I think I am going to plan on doing something with then every month. Next month I am thinking a condom demonstration and movie day. I just need to figure how to get the movie to project.

I am not sure how this has happened but I am so busy there is hardly anytime anymore. Today I was up at 6 and now it is 7 and my day is gone, I have not accomplished anything or done any exercise although I am not to sad about missing exercise obviously but I really want a routine and it just does not exist for me. Oh well.

I made really good oatmeal for dinner. I have decided vanilla is a key ingredient.
I also have been tweaking my research and finding that it is really hard to get people to answer questions differently. I need to start getting a variety of answers and things so I have been trying to ask more in-depth on going questions but the answers are still not to different. I am not sure if it is just that straight forward or if I am just that bad at asking questions.

After the seminar finished and I had finished cleaning up I spent the next hour waiting for water. Now I understand that I should not get preferentially treatment just because I am white but I also think that I should because me waiting for water just taking up a lot of my time. I understand that I do need to live like a villager but at the same time I cannot live with my life revolved around when I am going to get water if they want me to do things. I am so happy this will not be part of my life forever, I also am not sure if that makes me a bad person if I do not want to wait. I know that they are probably thinking why should she get water before everyone but at the same time they are probably also thinking that she should. Also fyi I carried 20 liters of water on my head and did not feel like I was going to die. This is a huge improvement from last week.

Tomorrow should be interesting because the Jessicas have to come together. Hopefully the argument has passed but maybe not. Not really sure what to do about this one.
One last thought, I have decided that I do not feel as good when I am blogging at the moment because the whole time I am just trying to finish so that I can watch the West Wing. That is so bad. But it is so so good.

September 30, 2011

As usual it was another big day. Today at the crack of dawn the women from Subira Group came over and we washed mtama ( I cannot think of what this is in English, sorry). This has what the big discussion between the 2 Jessicas has been about and it still continued today. In the end we washed the mtama I can see both sides. Young Jessica says that the dirt is not good for the chickens and in the book it says we need to do it a certain way but old Jessica thinks that they can just eat it as it is. I think I agree with old Jessica but I am not going to even get in the middle. I just say that I do not care either way. It was really nice though most of the women came and we got a bunch of work done. Then we talked about getting the chickens and what was left to do. Oct 13, 100 3 week old chicks will come to live in Lupeta. I am so excited.

I also worked on my research more today and asked more questions. Still not sure where I am at with all of this but at least I am trying and ya figure that the more that you try the more likely ya are to get somewhere with it all.

The bus that goes by my house everyday to Dar got in an accident and 3 people from my village died. I have never taken this bus but was planning on taking it within the next month. I think I am going to rethink this and maybe just take the Mpwapwa bus but I do not know. I think it was just an innocent accident but it still scares me a bit.

I swear the house work never ends here. As soon as I finish one things there is another thing to do. I never feel like I can just relax between house work and PC work. That is one thing that stinks about living and working in the same place. There is nowhere to escape to unless ya leave the village. That is one thing I will appreciate when I return home, boundaries I guess ya would say.

I cannot wait to have a kraki sandwich with better made chips and pickles. I think this is going to be one of my first meals when I come home. It sounds so good. This and a lot of cheese and hot sticks.

October 2, 2011

Let me just say how AWESOME it is that Michigan is winning. So wish that I could be at a game. But at least I will be able to watch a game or 2 when I am home and eat some amazing food and drink a good cold beer for once.

We had Claire’s going away party last night. It was more than I could have ever expected. Her friends from the college told her it was an engagement party for one of her friends so that was the cover story for the beginning of the night. The decorated a restaurant and everything. I felt like I was at a wedding but it was beautiful and a really good way I think for Claire to leave. I do have one thing to say maybe 2. First TZ dance kind of weird, I just do not get how the music and rhythm go together. Also weird because they dance to a lot of gospel type music. Secondly I think Ashleigh’s wedding is going to be messy with BBQ. I am not making any promises on keeping my closes clean.

Also when I came in this morning, I waited for the bus for 1 hour only to find it was full. So after chilling and planning on taking the bus I find out it is full and that I have to walk in. Not very happy about this. My first reaction was dangit I just took a shower last night and washed my hair. Only someone that had a water problem would be concerned about the amount of water that has been used.