Pre-Service Training Wrap-up

PST in 1 word: indescribable. I don’t even know where to start since so much has happened in the last 2 months and I’ve barely been able to write. Basically, I lived in a tiny village with a Tanzanian family who spoke only Kiswahili for the last 8 weeks. I woke up at 4 am every morning when the rooster living in our house started crowing. I walked down red dirt roads lined with palm trees, farms, and mud huts to go anywhere and gazed at mountains on every horizon. I shared a “bathroom” with 20 people, bats, cockroaches, and scorpions. I washed clothes in the river and saw more boobs than ever before as women bathed. I saw more chickens get killed then necessary and then proceeded to eat them for dinner. I cooked, talked, played, and got my hair done sitting under the stars. I carried stuff on my head. I constantly made a fool of myself singing and dancing with kids. I made numerous cultural faux pas and went on many frustrated venting walks with me fellow trainees. I ate more rice and beans than anyone ever should. I learned to love the sound of rain pouring on a tin roof. I became the secretary for a witch doctor. I learned to greet grandmas in Kibondi. I played with babies. I learned to tell age by number of teeth. I got eaten alive by mosquitoes, got sick and then got better, and got fat from eating all carbs all the time. I learned Swahili and I joined 2 new families-my Tanzanian host family and my Peace Corps bonded-for-life family. Basically, its been a blur of the biggest challenges and greatest moments of my life so far. And it’s only about to get crazier.
A couple of hilghlights in greater detail from the last 9 weeks: Pangani Beach and Shadow Week. We all went to a beach resort a couple hours away for a fun weekend after week 5. Of course to get there as economically as possible we crammed all of us into a mini bus and were sitting 5 to a row with some standing. And someone definitely peed in a water bottle rather than asking for a stop. We had the whole resort to ourselves, stayed in these HUGE luxury “tents” with furniture, electricity, and modern bathrooms. Yes! We ate the most delicious food ever and spent the whole time in the pool or the Indian Ocean. There were tons of sand dollars and at night these crazy little microorganisms that glow in the water. Had amazing midnight girl bonding talks in the ocean under the stars. One day we walked down the beach 4km into town, but no one told us it required some serious rock maneuvering, and of course my flipflop broke so I was scaling limestone boulders through crashing waves with 1 bare foot. But it ended well so it made a good story. On the way home we went to Amboni, this cool cave system. I fanyone wants a beach vacation, I’ll meet you at Pangani!
Shadow week- The 12 of us going to shadow volunteers in Iringa got picked up at 3:30am and driven to another town to catch the bus at 8 am. Watched the sun rise since sleep was impossible on a bumpy road. Got to the public bus and drove a long 12 hours to get to the Southern Highlands. Passed through Mikumi National Park so we saw giraffes, gazelles, baboons, and elephants. Bill (my shadow buddy) and I finally got off around 5 pm and met Cory, our Volunteer. He was completely crazy in a hilarious and awesome way. After waiting an hour or so we threw all our stuff and jumped on top of an already full back of a pickup truck to ride to his village. Held on for dear life for the 20 min. drive while we watched the sun set, and of course stopped to add 2 more people. The 2 days at Cory’s were basically Top Chef Tanzania- he had bought so much food for us! We made homemade mac n cheese, carrot cake, grilled cheese, and apple crisp, all TZ charcoal jiko style! Cooking took forever but was so worth it for the cheese and dessert! His village was also gorgeous to explore, his house was a great setup and just all around a great time to relax and speak English. The 3rd night everyone in Iringa and all our hosts met in Njombe to stay in a guesti before the 6 am bus departure. We went to this awesome waterfall and climbed all around the rocks on it. Me, Cory, and Bill were all just lying on rocks having total Zen moments. Transcendental. Then we got ice cream! And hung out w/ everyone at the guesti talking about how jealous we all were of the Volunteers living in Iringa region. It’s kinda the sorority/fraternity of the PC. I’m glad I at least got to visit.
Now PST is over and we’re in Dar! Our village threw us an awesome goodbye party with a drum/dance circle, and then had an all-night disco later on. I tried my best to shake it like a black girl! It was soooo fun. Pictures will be on facebook someday, I promise. Tomorrow is swearing in at the house of the US Ambassador. Marshall and I for some reason got picked to write/give a speech in English and Swahili. So that won’t be at all nerve-wracking. And we’re all performing a crazy musical we made up about PST. It’ll be great. Then Thursday I’m off to the boondocks!!!!
Congratulations to Justine and Bryan on getting engaged! My bestie is gonna get married!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m so happy for you guys!!!!!
Peace out from AFRIKA!!!!!