Maisha Mazuri (Good Life)

Hey all my fans!!!! I don't really have time to post a detailed blog right now, and I don't think I could accurately recount all that's happened in the last 3 weeks even if I tried. So I'll try to be concise yet hilarious using handy dandy bullet points:

Interesting Things That Have Happened to Me in TZ So Far

• Getting charged by a water buffalo
• Scorpion in the choo (pit toilet) my first day at my host family
• Bat living in the choo
• Seeing a crocodile in the river while sitting on a rock washing clothes
• Teaching my host family how to make spaghetti and them loving it(Cultural exchange woot!)
• My host family me telling me every day that I'm "numba moja kwa Kiswahili" aka the best at speaking Kiswahili in my village and they're proud of me
• Getting my hair braided by my aunt while sitting on the ground outside looking up at a million stars
• Watching crazy Swahili music videos called "Taarab" and listening to Bongo Flava
• eating ugali at EVERY meal....ughhhhhh
• naming a baby after my brother...that's right Tim
• eating everything with my hands out of communal plates (including the aformentioned spaghetti)
• being the daughter of Mama Bonge (aka Big Mama), a witch doctor
• getting to watch Mama Bonge heal people using herbs, smoke, chickens, chanting, and all this crazy stuff
• watching a "scanner" ceremony in which people were speaking in tongues and going into comas due to "evil spirits" being in them
• cooking everything over a fire and taking bucket baths every morning
• riding my bike in a skirt and khanga because only prostitutes wear pants
• hearing about people in my village being attacked by pythons and crocodiles at the aformentioned river
• teaching all the little kids at my house the hokey pokey, the shark song, peace like a river, if you're happy and you know it, and any other song I can remember from childhood. THE KIDS HERE MAKE MY LIFE!!!!!
• learning tons of kid songs in Swahili from them
• carrying my baby nephew on my back in a khanga like a Tanzanian woman and everyone loving it
• learning Swahili from our teacher Chacha Busada (aka Chacha the Wise) every day
• speaking all Kiswahili with my family and actually being understood most of the time (though understanding them is harder)
• it being absolutely BEAUTIFUL everywhere!!!!!!!!
• making up songs with my fellow trainees
• eating a whole plate of chocolate peanut butter soup on the day we did experimental cooking
• 34 Americans singing the National Anthem together in the middle of a field in TZ on the 4th of July
• totally impressing the Country Director when she came to visit by showing her my house and Mama Bonge telling her that I'm "like her own daughter and she can't imagine me leaving"
• haven't been really sick yet, but my GI tract is definitely on constant high alert
• basically just being a total DBA living with no power, water, anything, and loving it (most of the time)

Basically, I've survived a month in TZ! This week I have my placement interview and my Swahili midterm (not worried) then we are going to the beach for a mini vacation Friday-Sunday! It's awesome but hard living with a host family and having them constantly checking up on me so a break is definitely in order! After that we have 1 more week of language, 1 week of tech training, and then we find out our placements! CANNOT WAIT to know where I'll be for the next 2 years. After that we shadow current volunteers for a week then come back to Dar for Swearing-In on August 19th. So the time is ticking down!!! I promise I'll try to post pictures soon but I haven't busted out my camera with my host family yet so I don't have too many. Life is good, crazy, and I love it. Miss you all so much though and hope all is well back home! Write me!

Dar es Salaam

Dar es Salaam

The beach at Kigamboni, near Dar

The first part of this blog is directly from my journal entry of June 21:

"So let me tell you about the craziest day ever. After 2 days of travel and 5 days of learning we finally got a day off! That meant that instead of getting up at the usual 6 am, I got to sleep until 7:30! Of course I still heard the Call to Prayer at 4:30 and the roosters start crowing around 6:30, but it was great just to lie in bed!

When I get up, I take my usual "shower" with a bucket since my showerhead is broken. I am still in the lap of luxury though compared to where I'll be going. After getting all nice and safi (clean), I perfume myself with the pleasant aroma of 30% Deet bug spray. Ooh lala. I put on my usual below-the-knee skirt, shoulder-covering shirt, and sandals outfit and set out to breakfast in the canteen. Breakfast is fried bananas, hard-boiled eggs, bread, and chai as usual. After breakfast we girls get a quick lecture on choo (hole-in-the-ground toilet) techniques by Emilia (Current PCV who's helping us this week) and then we set off to explore Dar es Salaam for the first time. We all went with our Cultural Based Training groups (the 5 people we'll be sharing a homestay village and going to school with for the next 9 weeks) and a leader; ours was Emilia, who is awesome. We walk down the road for a ways, dodging bikes, piki pikis (motorcycles), cars driving on the walkway, and other people. Since it's Sunday today is supposedly a quiet day in Dar, but it's so crowded I'd hate to see it on a weekday. We've all hidden our money in bras and underwear which turns out to prove necessary when 1 guy grabs Harry's arm and another tries to reach into his pocket. Maureen literally smacks the guy in the chest, they back off, and we've survived our first Dar robbery attempt. Walking through Dar is sensory overload- people yelling at you, staring at you, cars almost hitting you, exhaust choking you and fish smells from the street vendors. All the while dust si coating your feet and legs and teh sweat is soaking through your clothes but you feel exhilarated because you're surrounded by life, color, danger, work, happiness. Finally, this is Africa. At least if you're me, that's your reaction.

We finally catch a dala dala (small bus, pronounced as in "dolla dolla bill y'all") and head downtown, crammed into aisles and onto laps; the heat would be unbearable except for the merciful ocean breeze coming through the windows when we drive. We get out and Emilia walks us around pointing out restaurants, guestis, stores, and currency exchange places, anything we might need to know. We stop to get ice cream and for 600 TSh, 60 cents, I get the last chocolate cone I'm sure I'll see for a long time. So delicious and such a perfect reprieve from the heat. After that we journey to a supermarket to linger in the AC, then we stop for a soda at "The Red Onion", a famous wazungu restaurant. They're playing nothing but the Backstreet Boys. Emilia and I discover we were both obsessed teeny-boppers and have a great time singing along and reminiscing while the other 3 make fun of us. She even knows the chair dance to "Everybody" which is amazing. ( I miss you Justine.)

For lunch we meet everyone else and go to Steers, a South African chain that's like a food court with many western options. I got a small Margherita pizza and ate the whole thing since it will surely be my last for awhile. Delicious. After that we are off to the beach! We have to walk to the ferry to go over to Kigamboni, this island where there are good beaches. The view of Dar from the ferry is great and so is the ocean air. When we get off, we walk thruogh a crowded village up a hill, attracting tons of attention as 30 wazungu would. We all have a "buddy" to keep track of which is incredibly kindergarten but necessary. Randy (another current PCV) finds 2 dala dalas and negotiotes with them to take us all to the beach, yay! Crazy African driving as usual, but it's nice to get out of the city. The beach we go to is some resort with a restaurant, hotel, and bar, and we're supposed to pay 8,000 TSh to get in but Randy knocks it down to 2,000 by telling them we'll be repeat customers if we like it. We dump our stuff and hit the water, most of us girls in 1 pieces which is good since tons of people there wear skirts and full shirts. The Indian Ocean feels amazing and it's so salty you barely have to try to float. So there are about 20 of us PCTs way out from the beach just hanging out treading and swimming around because it's so easy and relaxing. We were in heaven. Being in the water was exactly what we needed after a long hot walk. We chill at the beach for hours- swimming, frisbee, relaxing. It's great.

The trip home is slightly crazy since it's dark by the time we get to the ferry and you don't want to be in Dar after dark. Everybody's wearing their backpacks in front and of course none of us could bring cameras because it's too risky. Walking through the town we hear the 1st annoying pickup lines like "I love you, kiss me!" by random strangers who barely speak English. But Randy gets us 1 huge dala dala and we're safely back to Msimbazi Center by 8 to go eat dinner and pass out. It was an amazing day to get to know Dar and a much-needed adventure in Africa!"

Alright, so if you got through that novel and are still reading, I applaud you! I'm sure it will be rare that my blogs are that thought-out and descriptive, so enjoy it. As for now, we just finished our last day of class and training as a whole group at Msimbazi Center. Tomorrow we load our stuff and drive 5 hours north to Muheza, where we split up into 7 different CBT (Cultural Based Training) groups that each go to a separate village. I'm happy with my group and excited, because we're the only group that gets bikes right now! Our village is the closest to MATI (the center where we'll meet as a whole group every Friday for trainings) so we get to bike the 4k there every week while everyone else gets picked up in vans. Should be fun and good exercise! For my homestay family, I was only given the name of 1 woman, so it could be either a grandma or a widow, I'll find out! I just hope there are kids! We know there's no electricy in our village so we'll be getting used to that right away! For the next 6 weeks we'll be going to language classes from 8-5 every day 6 days a week and learning more by living with families who don't speak English. Then once a week we all meet at MATI as I said for other types of training. I think we're all equally nervous and excited. I know I am! It's definitely going to be a challenge. But I think (hope) I'm ready. So yeah, gotta go pack, that's about it for this marathon blog entry.

Baadaye! (Later!)

I MADE IT!

So here I am, sitting in a humid Internet cafe at the Msimbazi Center hostel in Dar es Salaam, TZ! I have arrived! And life is good. Except for the fact that I've begun the poor Peace Corps life so I feel like I have to budget every second I spend on the Internet so as not to spend my entire 3,000 TSh/day allowance (about $3 a day is what we get from now til we swear in and become actual PCVs). Life has been crazy and busy so far! I love everyone in my group and we're all getting to know each other quite well since we spend 24/7 together. Unfortunately we already lost 1 person who apparently got cold feet in NY and disappeared right as we were boarding the plane w/o telling anyone. So thanks to him our flight ended up being delayed a good 1.5 hours. So 36 become 35. Hopefully the rest of us all stay! Flights were long, and unfortunately I hurt my ankles before leaving but never got time to ice/rest them, so they were swelling to high heaven on the plane and once we landed and I had to carry all my masses of stuff. They're FINALLY getting better now, though I'm still living on Advil. So until Tuesday we all have our own rooms in this hostel and we're spending long days together studying PC policies and missions, TZ culture, the schedule for our training, starting Swahili, how to not die here, and many other things. We visited PC Headquarters yesterday and had a little language test convo w/ one of our teachers. I was nervous but she said I did great with it and had a lot of good vocab. Then once we started learning survival language in groups I felt so confident because I realized that I really am leaps and bounds ahead of everyone just from taking those 2 semesters in college. Lots of people didn't even do any Rosetta Stone so they're starting from scratch. So I feel a lot better about that.
Sorry this is really rambling. I should've organized my thoughts before coming here. But I didn't. Alas. There are 2 other girls here from Columbus! They're both environment volunteers but they're both awesome. Mary and I decided when we're home we're going to go to the bars in Columbus and sit there speaking Swahili to be totally awesome and impress everyone. Hahaha. I love all the other volunteers so much because it's the 1st time in my life I've been surrounded by people who so completely GET me. We all have the same doubts and fears and everything, but we're all still so passionate and determined to do this anyway. So awesome to be around 34 other people with the same outrageous goals and life philosophy!!! Also, we've gotten to talk to several current volunteers who are here to help with this 1st week of training and picking their brains helps us realize more of what it's going to be like here. And hearing them speak Swahili fluently after only 1 year is awesome.
Today was interesting. First we talked about our technical training schedule, then we had a session on malaria and how to prevent it. Blablabla, take your medicine and use your mosquito net and you'll be fine basically. But of course since every day PC makes you do something you never thought you'd do, we had to learn how to do malaria self-tests. So we're all sitting in this sweaty classroom stabbing ourselves in the finger trying to draw blood and put it on slides and mix it all up w/ this chemical indicator thing. Never thought I'd have to do THAT! It was quite hilarious when you think about it but not at all a natural thing to have to stick yourself like 25 times to get enough blood. Pleased to say none of us have malaria. Then of course after that we had to get shots. Some people got 4 all at once, I only had to get 2...the 1st rabies one and renewal of meningitis. Woot. Done with that til more next week.
More language later today then dinner and hanging out time. It's definitely tiring...waking up every day at 4:30am when the Call to Prayer goes off. But it's good not to have much time to miss people yet. Everyone's nervous because Tuesday is quickly approaching and that's when we go 5 hours north to Muheza to go to our homestays. I'm really nervous actually. But I'm sure it will be good and a great way to learn Swahili really fast. This is the 1st time they're doing homestays in that area so no one knows what the Internet situation will be like. I might not have it at all for the next 9 weeks. I'm going to get a phone ASAP though and when I do I'll text everyone with my number. I'm not going to be able to afford to call internationally but if you call me it won't cost me anything. Apparently there are cheap calling cards available for you to use to get a better rate. Google it.
Anyway, life is good, sorry for the rambling, but my time's about up on the Internet. Love you all and thanks for the support. Send letters!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Staging

Hey guys,
This is gonna be quick 'cause it's late and I have an early morning tomorrow. Right now I'm at a Holiday Inn in Philly for the beginning of our orientation. Which means that last night and this morning I said goodbye to everyone, and needless to say, I was an emotional wreck. I cried a lot, and I still get really sad, especially when I think about missing my favorite 2 people (Justine and Zach.) But I figured that as soon as I started Staging I'd be okay, and so far so good. We basically sat in the hotel for 6 hours getting lectured about rules and policies, but after that we finally got to hang out with each other and go to dinner and stuff. There are 36 people in my group, mixed between Health Education and Environment volunteers. Definitely a majority female, and a majority of us recently out of college. Only 2 married couples and only 4 people over 40 I believe. I've been so nervous and edgy all day, but as soon as we actually went out and talked to each other, I've felt so much better. I went out to a burger/beer joint w/ about 8 others and it's so clear that these are the kind of people that I'm going to get along w/ so well. After dinner we walked around a little bit, past the Liberty Bell and Ben Franklin's grave and stuff. Woot. As if we came to see American History, not. After that we sat at the hotel bar for a while and the bartender serving us asked if we were Peace Corps. When we said yes he immediately told us he was going to buy us all a shot because he respected PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers) so much. So he brought over these HUGE shots of tequilla, they were seriously almost 1/2 a wine glass full. As soon as that happened and we were all just getting along so well I was like "Ok, I am definitely doing the right thing." So yeah, now I need to go to bed because we have to get up at 5:30 am tomorrow to start our long day of travel. Love you all though, and know that so far the 1st stage of my journey has been awesome!

Thank God for vaccuum bags...

So this is what my packing list boiled down to...I'm still amazed I was able to fit everything in just 2 bags and 2 carry-ons. Below are pictures of my attempts and eventual success:

Clothing:
2 pairs jeans
Pajamas
2 sweaters/sweatshirts
Stocking cap?
Railroad hat
2 pairs sunglasses-aviators and regular
Windbreaker
3-5 skirts/dresses
2-3 dressy shirts (shoulders covered)
1 nice dress
Socks
Underwear
Slip
Workout capris
5-6 t-shirts
1 pair nice/comfortable
1 pair dress
Hiking boots
Water sandals
Sneakers
2 swimsuits
Sports bras
Tank tops/undershirts
Bandanas
Jewelry
Belts
Watch
Sleep mask
Purse

Toiletries:
Hand sanitizer
Shampoo
Soap
Deodorant
Lotion
Razor and blades
Nail clippers
Hairbrush
Tootbrush
Pads
Baby Wipes
Earplugs
Sunscreen
Floss
Birth control
Hydrocortisone cream
Hairties/barettes
2 pairs glasses
Contacts and solution
Makeup
Burts Bees
Hand mirror
Face soap
Toner
Eye makeup remover
Max Deet
Towel?

Entertainment:
iPod w/ USB and charger
small speakers
2 cameras
Cards
Laptop w/ charger and dongle
External HD and flash drive
Books
Tons of batteries
Battery charger
Journal and pens
Colored pencils/crayons/coloring books
DVDs

Gear:
Plug adaptor
Sheets and pillowcase
Leatherman
Headlamp
Duct Tape
Sewing kit?
Nalgene
Money belt
Alarm clock
Ziplock bags
1 empty duffel
Forms and passport pictures
Umbrella
Lonely Planet guide
Bike helmet

Food:
Seeds
Protein bars

Gifts:
Poppers for kids
Lion puzzle for kids
ONE bracelets for kids
Sidewalk chalk for kids
Photos of friends/home/family

Personal Goals for the Next 3 Years

1. Successfully complete Peace Corps. Duh!

2. Travel back to Nkubu, Kenya and visit the Huruma Center orphanage where I volunteered in 2007 and fell in love with Africa and the kids there

3. Travel to Victoria Falls on the border of Zimbabwe and Zambia and go bungee jumping there!4. Make a documentary about my experience in Tanzania

5. Travel on my way home to the US, either through Europe or Asia

6. Master Swahili

Random hodge-podge of ideas that were in my head...these are of course missing all the deeper, more meaningful goals of Peace Corps, such as having a positive influence on my village, making a difference, etc. Rest assured, those are definitely foremost in my mind, but thinking about all the awesome side things I'll hopefully be able to do also gets me really excited!

Staging Info At Last!

I finally got the information about my Pre-Departure Staging today! So my travel plans are solid and I leave Columbus in exactly 1 month!

Sunday, June 14
9:45am Fly from Columbus to Philadephia -- 2 hours
1:30pm Register and check into a Holiday Inn in Philly, meet the rest of my training class!
3-7pm Training and info sessions

Monday, June 15
6:30am Check out and go to a clinic to get shots
9:30am Bus ride to JFK airport in New York City (so I will be back on Long Island again) -- 4 hours
5:40pm Fly from JFK to Amsterdam -- 7.5 hours

Tuesday, June 16
10:20am Fly from Amsterdam to Kilimanjaro then Kilimanjaro to Dar Es Salaam -- 10.5 hours
9:40pm Final arrival in Tanzania!!!!!!

So with all the time changes and layovers and long flights, I will be traveling for 2 full days. I'm going to watch so many movies on the planes because I can never sleep on planes and it will probably be my last chance to see any good ones for awhile! I'm excited about the stop in Amsterdam; even though the layover isn't long enough to even leave the airport at least I'll be able to say I've been to a new country (sort of)!

So yeah...ONE MONTH!

"Don't you see your dreams lie right in the palm of your hands?"

Today I feel so ready.

It's a gorgeous spring day in Ohio; the sun is out, the wind is blowing just enough to be fun, the ice cream truck is tinkering around the neighborhood, and the flowers are out in full force in my front yard.

It's one of those days where I'm so happy to be alive, inspired to get outside and do something positive for the world. And I'm so grateful for the opportunity I have to go and live my dream in Africa.

I'm ready for bucket baths and squat toilets and dusty red paths. I'm ready to speak Swahili and plant a garden and read a book a day during monsoon season. I'm ready to learn as many ways possible to make rice and beans (but I'm eating tons of all the delicious American food I love right now to prepare for this). I'm ready to meet amazing people with the same goals as me and amazing people who live so differently from me that my world will be rocked. I'm ready to do my best to change the world for the better and fully prepared that the world is going to radically change me.

53 days. I'm pumped. Bring it on.

Pre-Service Training Address

This will be my mailing address during my Pre-Service Training in Tanzania. I will be here from June 16-August 26, then my address will change when I move to my permanent site.
Carrie Hoffman, PCT
Peace Corps Training Site
PO Box 9123
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Supposedly packages take 3-6 months surface mail, 3-8 weeks airmail. So if you want to send me something at training, you probably should do it as soon as I get there! Also, letters will be much faster, so send lots of those!!!!!

Less than 2 months to go and I still have so much work to do to get ready! Where did the time go????

3 months to go...

Two big shocks I found out about today:

1. Peace Corps is evacuating from Madagascar due to political upheaval. Madagascar is one of the countries I could have been invited to and actually REALLY was hoping for. Of course now I'm really glad I wasn't invited there because it looks like I wouldn't be going. It's just crazy that this happened in December of 2007 with Kenya, a place I've been, and now it's happening again with Madagascar. Both places where the Peace Corps has been forever and were considered very stable. Makes me even more glad that Tanzania is considered one of the most peaceful countries in all of Africa.

2. A volunteer in Benin, West Africa, Kate Puzey, was murdered. I'd be lying if I said that didn't scare me a little bit, but I'm going with the logic in my brain that knows that it's a horrible but RARE event, and that I am actually statistically safer as a PCV in Africa than as, say, a normal person living in Manhattan or something. It's just so incredibly sad. She will be missed.

As for me, I am continuing to work on my Swahili using Rosetta Stone, and also starting to think about the daunting process of packing. Two years of my life need to fit in 2 bags weighing less than 80 pounds and measuring less than 107 inches all around. Eeesh. So far I've made a trip to Dick's for a few things I know I'll need, and have decided to steal my brother's hiking backpack as my main luggage piece, since I already used it in Kenya and can lift it most of the time.

I'll close with a lovely picture of me being a huge dork after excitedly buying a new rain jacket, headlamp, and Leatherman multi-tool. Never dreamed that this would be me after all those family camping trips I spent endlessly complaining.