There's no Place Like Home

I wake up next to my new friend Katie, with whom I've been forced into a close relationship incredibly quickly. Lucky for me she's pretty awesome. We spent hte night at a Holiday Inn Guesti. Not The Holiday Inn....a small crumbly guest house in Masasi Town that happens to be called Holiday Inn. It's my birthday and today is Installation Day, when I will be taken to my village and dropped off at my new house. The anticipation and stress of this day was rediculous.But first let's backtrack.
The swearing in ceremony was really nice. The U.S. Ambassador gave a speech as well as the CVountry Director. We sang the Tanzanian National Anthem and did our dance. It was...good. Then, we had our last night in Dar before leaving early in the morning. The next morning...and entire day in fact, was incredibly emotionally and physically drainig. Saying goodbye to all of my new friends was so hard, and I knew that the next step would be the most challenging. But my group of 40 now became a group of 9. There were 9 of us traveling down to various areas of the Mtwara District. It would take us 2 days to finally arrive in Masasi. There is only one road from Dar to Mtwara, and part of it isn't even paved. I was stuffed into the trunk of one of the Peace Corps cars with Ben and Tyler. Space was limited as we had a rediculous amount of luggage to trasport as well. Everyone made sure to pack their bags full of the essentials: pillows, candy, books, and toilet paper. Once we reached the unpaved road, the ride got pretty rough. I'm sitting in the trunk of the car bouncing around and thinking that the theme song for Indiana Jones should be playing right now. Either that or, "Um....shouldn't there be a T-rex chasing us right now or something?" Literally rediculous off roading. And please keep in my mind we've been stuffed into the trunk of this car. At one point I'm pretty sure the car got some air. We must have. I ended up on top of Tyler, Ben lost his glasses, and we all had sore heads the next day. This part of road lasted for a good 3 hours. As we were all crying about how beat up we were going to be from this ride I said,"Maybe we should have worn our bicycle helmets for this car trip. Also, I didn't know that I was going to need an industrial strength sports bra just to get into Masasi. This is rediculous." But finally, we hit pavement again. This road should have been a good indication of the conditions we were soon to encounter in the "deep and dirty south." Since being here, I have learned that this is the least developed region of Tanzania with some of the lowest levels of education.
My group of 9 was slowly becoming smaller. We stopped in Lindi to drop off Jen before traveling inland to Masasi. We spent one night there, with a couple of current PCVs in the area. We went to a bar that was literally on the beach. It was just a few small tables on the sand next to the ocean. No lights, only the moonlight. It was pretty awsesome, and I don't feel bad for Jen at all. We're all quite jealous. She is a bit more isolated from other volunteers, but her village is on the freaking beach! So the next morning we said goodbye to her, as well as Tyler, Toni, and Ben, who would be taking a different route to get to their banking town, Newala.....And then there were three. Katie, Sativa, and I continued on for Masasi. After our group split up, my new reality was beginning to settle in, and I'm not gonna lie...I was fucking scared.
After driving through a forest of coconut and cashew trees, we arrived at Masasi. It was hot. It was dirty. It had a bit of that special African aroma to it. It was bustling with vendors and small shops. It was pretty similar to many of the smaller towns in Tanzania we have driven through. We are met by the group of PCVs that have been living down here for the past year. They are all extremely nice and excited to see us, and I am SO excited to see them. However, as they begin to speak Swahili and lead us around town, I feel instantly inadequate. I hope my Swahili gets that good some day! They take us around town to do some essential shopping for things we won't be able to get in the village: a bucket, a charcoal stove, bread, and a tub of peanut butter. That night, they took us out to a bar in Masasi and we got some food and the last cold beer I would drink for a while. I was talking with a village official from a neighboring village as I was drinking my beer. I told him where I would be living and he said that he hoped I liked hot beer as opposed to the ice cold one which I was enjoying. The PCVs also knew that my birthday was the next day, so they got some cookies to share. It was really nice of them. I had just met them earlier that day, yet I was celebrating my birthday with all of them that night.
That brings us to the following morning. We had a meeting with our respective village officials, and the District Executive Director of Masasi. At this point, our Peace Corps facilitator introduced us and handed us over to our village leaders. I met my two VEOs (Village Executive Officers), Dickson and Ndauka. They are both extremely nice and excited to see me. After talking with them for a bit, I felt much more at ease about everything, and I got excited to see Nanjota. I said goodbye and good luck to Sativa and Katie. We loaded up the truck and headed south for Nanjota. And then there was one. The village is about 30 kilometers outside of Masasi. When we arrived, the village elders were ready and waiting to greet me. I shake hands with them all and take a seat. Everyone introduced themselves, and I understood about half of what everyone was saying to me. I stood up to introduce myself, and told them I was excited to be here in Nanjota. Then, we had dinner at the dinner at the WEO's (Ward Executive Officer) house. I waited there for a while, the whole time still wondering where exactly I would be living for the next two years. It was dark before they took me over to my house. I'm pretty sure they were building the door to my room,and that's why I was waiting. They dropped me off and said goodnight. I shut the door. It was dark, I was absolutley alone in every sense of the word. I was in the middle of nowhere in the deep south of Tanzania. My Swahili was inadequate. It was my birthday, and all I had was a tub of peanut butter, and a bottle of wine that I had bought myself in Masasi. My new reality finally settled in, and I started to question how I was actually going to be able to handle this. At this point, I just wished I could click my heels and chant "there's no place like home!" but alas, I needed to redefine my idea of where home was. I turned on my ipod, and reminded myself that everything was going to be fine. I can do this. It was definitely a birthday that I will never forget.
The next morning, I mustered up the courage to emerge from my big empty house. The house has three rooms and a huge courtyard in the back. The walls are cement and there's a tin roof...oh ya, and there are plenty of rats and lizards to keep me company (apparently people down here eat the rats, because well..there's not much else....don't worry, I'm not gonna eat a rat).
That morning, I could hear my neighbor's sweeping outside and the villagers saying good morning to each other. I have no furniture to speak of, but I lay down a kanga and have as seat outside my new house. Eventually people comne to greet me and welcome me. Everyone is really nice. Eventually a crowd of kids come over and I bring out my cards to play a bit. My new neighbor, Mama Ester has lent me her mat to sit on, and tells me that if I need anything then to let her know. That first day was definitely really hard and intimidating, but the villagers were happy to see me, and I felt very welcomed. I had dinner with Dickson and Mwanaheri (WEO) that night. I also met Sylvia, Mwanaheri's younger sister, who can speak a bit of English, and has been kind enough to teach me some new words. Those first couple of days I just met with villagers, introduced myself, and tried really hard to understand everything they were saying to me. One of my neighbors took me to the well with her so that I could know where to get water. All of the women were really excited to see me there getting water for myself. And when I put the bucket on my head, wrapped my new friend's baby on my back with her kanga, and started he long walk home, they couldn't stop laughing at me. I've gotten used to it though. I would have laughed at me too.
On Tuesday, I went back into town with Dickson and Kilian, the Chairman of Nanjota. I had made a shopping list that they were going to help me with, and I could not have survived that dy without them. I probably would have ended up paying twice as much for everything. After 45 minutes of standing on one foot in a cramped daladala on top of a lady holding a chicken, we arrived at Masasi. I got some vegetables, and kitchen supplies, some bowls and spoons, and a small rolling pin and cutting board so I can make chapati. After our long day of shopping, we missed the last daladala returning to Nanjota that day. We were forced to board a "bajaji", which is basically a small tin can with three wheels that is used strictly to get from one end of town to the other. But today, this small bajaji would take the three of us all the way back to Nanjota. It's probably comparable to a golf cart, and it can't go faster than about 35 miles per hour. So we put-putted all the way home stuffed in this tiny bajaji for about 45 minutes. It only stalled about 5 times, and at one point it got stuck in the dirt and we all had to get out and push it for a ways. But we made it in one piece.
The next day, I walked around the village with Dickson and Mwanaheri to explore. There are 6 subvillages in Nanjota, and I got to see a few of them. We walked a ways down the road and saw a bridge being built. I will visit a farm tomorrow, and on Sunday I will be going to church. But I'm starting to feel more at home everyday, even though my house is still empty. I talked with a local carpenter who is working on making me some furniture as we speak. I've been visiting neighbors, cooking with them, playing with the kids, and trying to learn as much about Nanjota as I can. Learning more Swahili will definitely be key. At this point its still frustrating only getting half of the information out of a conversation. I've been getting to know my village officials really well, and on Monday I have a meeting to speak with the village elders.
....There is really so much more I could say, but I have no time. This is literally the hardest thing I've ever been faced with. Walking into this village and not knowing the language, trying to get to know people, learning about the environment and their way of life, these are all huge challenges that are kind of freaking me out at the moment. But it's getting more and more familiar everyday. Having villagers that are happy to see me everyday and patient with my limited Swahili helps immensely. It's still weird to think that this is my new home for the next two years! I'll keep you updated as much as I can. Until next time!

Kwaheri Kilulu! I'll miss you!

I made the long bus trip back to Kilulu from my haunting shadow experience. The ride was about 13 hours long, but I did get to see elephants, giraffe, zebras, and gazelles right outside my window on the way back home. We stayed at the Mzimbasi Center in Dar es Salaam for a couple nights before continuing to Muheza. We got to go to the Peace Corps Headquarters to set up our bank accounts since I will soon be an official Peace Corps Volunteer! I will be getting 230,000 Tanzanian shillings each month, which is about 230 dollars a month. This is still more than the average villager will make in Mtwara. I will also be getting 390,000 shillings as a moving in allowance. I am the first volunteer in the village of Nanjota, so my house will not be furnished and I will be starting from scratch. All I know so far is that there are two bedrooms, a choo all to myself, the door has a lock, and yes, there will be a roof of some kind...possibly thatch. Other than that, I know that there is a water source "within reasonable distance." I have yet to find out what that means, but apparently its pretty easy to find children who are willing to fetch water in exchange for pipi (pipi means candy in Kiswahili..haha. Also, my house is 0.3 kilometers from the secondary school in Nanjota. It's about 25 kilomters from Masasi, which is the banking twon where I will need to go to get money, mail, and whatever else I may need. All I've heard so far about my region is that it does get pretty hot, and some of the foods that I will find down there are tons of mangoes and cashews. I can't wait to see it and find out more! I've never in my life lived all alone, and I guess I'm choosing to try it out in the middle of the "deep and dirty" south of Tanzania. It will take about two days to get there because the roads are so bad and during the rainy season you can't even get into my region due to flooding. It sounds pretty secluded.
Anyways...back to our stop in Dar. We had an opportunity to do a bit of shopping. It was fun to come back to Dar and try to brave the streets on our own. It was definitely less intimidating, but I'm still getting the hang of those crazy crowded daladalas. I also got a chance to work on my haggling skills. There are no price tags or anything so vendors usually get to charge as much as they want. And as a muzungu, I usually get charged at least twice as much as a Tanzanian would be. Thus I have gotten the hang of negotiatng and trying to talk down the prices. Usually starting with a bit of conversation and trying to dazzle them with my Swahili skills helps a bit. They will often give me some rediculous muzungu price and I'll respond with a "Unaniua Bwana! Mimi ni voluntia!"....Roughly translated to "You're killing me Smalls! I'm just a volunteer!" I got no money! Usually they will laugh at me, but hey it gets the job done. I was able to buy a few going away presents for my host family.
After shopping I met up with a few other volunteers and we decided to split the price of a tazi to get back to the hostel. There were 8 of us and we were negotiating with this guy about trying to get us all into one car.....When I say taxi I don't mean nice yellow sedan. I mean broken downdirty looking car that this guy probably bought cheap and fixed and is now driving around as a taxi. We finally convince him that we can all fit in the taxi and no matter how cramped or rediculously squished we are, let's face it, it would still be a safer ride than a daladala. So we piled in, two of us up front and six of us piled on top of each other in the back seat. Of course, it was around 6:00, almost dark, and during the rush hour traffic of Dar. Our driver decided to try and take the back streets, where the roads may be a bit less congested, but the potholes were enormous. After hearing the car bottom out through a number of potholes, the driver realized his car couldn't take it anymore. He stopped and told us to get out because we were killing his car. So we piled out of our clown car, but we still had some bags in the trunk. OUr driver refused to open the trunk until we paid the full price we had decided on, even though we hadn't made it to our destination. My friend Alli stayed in the car while we negotiated as he seemed to be getting ready to just drive away with our stuff. We paid and he finally popped the trunk and dumped us on a street which looked like one that was not often frequented by tourists. It was getting darker, and we decided we needed to just split up to get back to our safe haven, the Mzimbase Center. We finally made it back!
The next morning we boarded yet another bus for a 5 hour bus ride back to Muheza. I think I'm getting really good at falling asleep in small cramped spaces. Not that I had too much trouble falling asleep anywhere before Africa, but anyways, We got to Muheza and had some down time before we needed to get back home so we decided to get some food. We tried a new place and my friend, Paul, ordered some chicken. When we were ready to leave, we got the bill and saw that we had been charged 10,000 shillings for this chicken, which probably should have cost half that much. When Paul asked the owner about the bill, he simply stated that this was the "muzungu price" and that he would need to pay it. Lesson learned: make sure you decide on a fair price before eating the chicken...and don't go back to that place ever again. After paying, we stopped by another bar where some other volunteers had been waiting for a ride. It was called The White House. The only reason for this name as far as Icould tell was the fact that the cracked cement walls looked like they had been painted white a number of years ago. We walk upstairs, grab, a beer, and take a seat. As I sat down I thought about how "normal" my surroundings had become at this point. When I say I went into a bar you probably have a very different picture of what was going on. When I say "bar", I really do mean a cement building with no infrastructure which is falling apart. There are no women apart from us, only men drinking and playing pool. There are only a couple of tables and a few plastic chairs. If the bartender has a bia baridi for you, or a cold beer, you should feel very special. And as you sit down, you shouldn't be bothered by the two guys behind you who are cleaning cows feet and tails while a bunch of mosquitoes and flies hover around them. One guy was shaving off the fur of the cow leg with a small razor blade, while the other was hacking at the leg bone with a massive butcher knife. This was a totally normal situation, and I didn't think twice about what was happening. I looked around and thought about writing about going to a bar, but realized that my idea of what constitutes a bar has changed drastically, and that further explanation was necessary.
Getting back to Kilulu that night was great. My family had missed me, and I had definitely missed them. It was weird to drive back up the hill into the village and feel like I was coming home to a place that was brand new to me not so long ago. But I was happy to be back home. The next night was the big village going away party for the 5 of us. Getting dressed was quite an ordeal as my Mama wanted to make sure that I looked good. Apparently my fashion sense does not translate. I needed to be wearing one solid color all over. Everything needed to match precisely, and my hair needed to be pulled back. I went over to Rebecca's house before the party to get ready, and we both thought that we were looking pretty good, until we walked out of her room, and her Dada gave us a signature Dada look and had us turn around to change. Finally, we made it to the party, which was held in one of the small classrooms at the primary school. The village officials were all there, along with Big Boy, our families, the school teachers, and other villagers that we had come to know so well. They had brought over the one generator in Kilulu and had a small boombox, a light bulb, as well as a TV that was on the whole night. It was such a treat to have a bit of electricity that night that it seemed like they just decided to turn some things on just because they could! The village officials said some words and we each stood up and showed our appreciation. Then our families gave us our gifts, and then it was time to eat and dance! What was on the menu? We had coconut rice, another kind of spiced rice, potatoes, tambe(which is like a sweet speaghetti noodle), beans, chapati, and spinach. I'm a little surprised my stomach didn't explode that night. We got our food and sat down at the small wooden desks and ate while the boom box blasted rap music and there was some kind of wildlife show on the TV, in which a snake was hunting a mongoose. I was definitely having an "I'm in Africa" moment right then and there. After dinner, my Mama got out on the dance floor and started shaking it! All of the Mamas got into it, and it was nice for them to be able to have some fun for a bit. They all work so hard. It was a great night, and it definitely made me realize that my time in Kilulu was ending, which was sad. It went by way too fast.
The next day we wandered over to the permagarden to take a look at the progress. The kids had built a great fence to keep the chickens out, and that garden is growing! I can't believe how fast things are growing but everything looks great! Clement, the man who taught us the permagrdening, even came to Kilulu to take a look at the garden and said that the Kilulu garden has been the most successful and should be used as a model for future CBT groups. I can't wait to come back to visit Kilulu and see even more progress. The school has really been taking great care of it.
Before leaving Kilulu, I paid a visit to the local fundi, which is basically like a seamstress. I had bought some fabric in Muheza and needed a dress made for the swearing in ceremony. He measured me and took the fabric. I tried my best to explain what I wanted the dress to look like, and said that I would come back in a couple of days to pick it up. I have since learned that as my language skills get better, so will my dresses. The dress is great, but not quite what I had pictured in my head. I told the fundi that I would like the dress to tie in the back and he went ahead and sewed a full on bow to the backside of the dress. Hamnashida (Oh well, no worries). As long as I have a dress to wear. We have to put on a performance at the swearing in ceremony, and in my absence, for some reason my group volunteered me to be one of the dancers....We will be singing and dancing to an African song....I will be wearing my fabulous new dress...there will be about 200 people in the audience....I can't wait. It should be interesting, and I'll let you know how it goes.
Before that though we had to say goodbye to Kilulu! My last couple of nights I spent with my family and with the village kids. I gave my Kaka Dula a pack of cards and was able to teach them a couple of American games. Once I told them I knew some card games from America, they were so excited and eager to learn. I taught them Go Fish, or "Nenda Samaki" as well as Crazy Eights, or "Nane Chisi." They love Go Fish and now every night, I can even hear the neighbors playing and yelling "Nenda Samaki!" from the next house over. It's good to know that even after I'm gone they'll be screaming "Nenda Samaki!" My last walk home through the village was hard. I had to say goodbye to the kids and all the villagers that had been so friendly and greeted us every day as we walked home. On my last Sunday I went to the farm with my Baba and helped him shuck corn all morning. A couple of days ago, Rhamadan started, so my family has been fasting all day. This meant that instead of feeding me dinner once at night, I now got two dinners at night. I'm in Africa and I feel like I never stop eating! So many times I have to tell them to please stop feeding me. One night, they gave me this hunk of pure cow fat the size of my fist, which they referred to as meat. I knew that if I tried to bite into it, I wouldn't be able to break it with my teeth. It was so tough, and literally...just fat. I couldn't do it. Mama said Eddie wanted some, and I told her to please just let her have the fat.
My last night in Kilulu, I went over to Sarah's house to play some Nenda Samaki with her and her kaka and dada. There were a bunch of other village kids hanging out in her courtyard as well. Sarah decided that tonight was the night she needed to break out the 8 glow sticks she had brought with her to Tanzania. We turned on the glow sticks and the kids went wild. It was pitck black outside and they were swinging them around. Sometimes they would smack themselves or each other in the face, but it didn't matter! They had never seen anything like it. On top of that, Sarah brought out her ipod and small portable speaker. We started playing "Push It" by Salt n Peppa, while the kids danced and swung their glow sticks. So there we were, in the bush of Tanzania, dancing with the village kids, rocking out to Salt n Peppa with some glow sticks. I will definitely miss Kilulu.
But I am excited to start the next part of this journey. Things are definitely going to change and I will soon be faced with all new challenges. I finally started to feel like Kilulu was my home here and now I need to go start over again somewhere new. Except this time I have to do it all on my own. We just got back to the Mzimbasi Center today. Tomorrow is the swearing in ceremony where I will be making my dancing debut and I'm really sorry that all of you will be missing it. And Thursday I will begin my long journey down south. It will be a long trip and I think we'll have to spend a night in Masasi before getting to my village. Its very possible that my first night all alone in my village will be my 24th birthday :( I'll have to make some new friends pretty quick. Luckily, I'll get to celebrate with my fellow PCVs in Dar before we all have to split up and go our separate ways. I will be sad to leave them all :( From my CBT group, Sarah will be going to Lushoto and Rebecca will be living in the cold mountains of Mbeya, so the three of us will be pretty spread out. But I'm looking forward to meeting my new villagers, and the other volunteers who have already been placed in my region. I can't believe the time has come to move to my site already! I'll let you all know how it goes when I get there! I don't know what the computer situation will be like until I get there but I will update as soon as I have a chance. Also, I will know my new address once I get to town and am able to set up a PO Box down there, so please keep sending me mail! I need it! Hope all is well back in America. I miss you all!

The Twilight Zone

It's 3:00 in the morning and my alarm goes off. I have just enough time to put on my head lamp and run to the choo before I hear the Peace Corps car pull up outside of my house. My Mama wakes up and Baba greets Jumapili as he walks through the door. Meanwhile, I'm in my room scrambling in the darkness trying to get my bag packed. He wasn't supposed to be there until 3:30! But I guess I was the first stop. I finally emerge from my bedroom and say goodbye to Mama and Baba, and then I was of! This week was shadow week and I was on my way to Njombe in the Southern Highlands. After 16 hours on a cramped bus ride, JP, Tyler, and myself arrived and met our PCV, Marilyn.....None of us could have prepared for the days to follow. Welcome to the Twilight Zone. She wasn't exactly what we were expecting. She was very excited to have us for the next few days, and she talked A LOT, and was a bit scatter-brained. Marilyn is an Education Volunteer and she teaches Math and Life Skills at the secondary school in her village. She is 61 years old, she doesn't speak Swahili, and it is my personal belief that she has gone a bit mad. I wish that I could express my experience through these words, but there is no way that you can fully understand the extent of crazy that I have endured for the past few days. But she was very welcoming and happy to have us. We took a taxi back to Marilyn's village. Njombe is completely different from the Tanzania that I have seen thus far. It's up in the mountains and it was freezing. It was probably about 40 to 50 degrees and really windy. On the way to the house, the road was lined with miles of dead corn fields surrounded by forests of tall pine trees. I couldn't believe I was still in Africa. The next day, we went to church with Marilyn in the morning, and then we got to help her teach a life skills session. Ironically the session was about effective communication, and I've never had a harder time understanding anybody in my life to be honest. But it was fun to get to work with the kids. Even the people here are very different from what I'm used to in Kilulu. The kids were very shy and it was almost difficult to get them to talk to us at times. Meanwhile, in Kilulu there are always kids talking and singing in my face. It was so bizarre! Later that day, we got a chance to test out our cooking skills. Marilyn's house is so different from what I'm used to or what I was expecting. It was huge and the walls were attached to the ceiling so that there weren't any critters coming in at night. She had a courtyard behind the house, and her water came right out of a faucet right there! No need to go fetch water every day from the well! She even gets electricity from 7 to 10 every night! She's living the high life.
So, for dinner,we decided we would make pizza, pasta, and a salad. Marilyn had bought a huge block of delicious mozzarella the day before! We cooked on a kerosene stove, a charcoal stove, and over a wood fire. We baked the pizza and the cake in a couple of pots that we basically turned into a dutch oven. We had to work hard for this meal, but we knew it would be worth it in the end. Everything takes so long to cook and there is so much more work that goes into cooking out here. But we were successful! And the chocolate cake was so delicious that we decided it was necessary bake it again the next night. Blair would have been proud of my extreme baking skills. Who needs an oven anyways? The food was great, but on top of that we discovered that Marilyn had a bucket of wine in her kitchen. "I'm sorry what did you say?....You have a bucket of wine in your kitchen that you made yourself three weeks ago?....Where is it and why aren't we drinking it?" She made the wine with pineapple, passion fruit, mango and banana, and it was delicious. That wine was literally our saving grace this week. I don't think the three of us would have survived our shadow without it.
The next day we got up early to introduce ourselves at the morning assembly at the school. It was freezing!! I can't believe how cold and windy it is up here. We met the headmaster of the school and introduced ourselves to all of the students. This school was much bigger and nicer than the one in Kilulu. The students live in dorms at the school. We walked into one of the dorm rooms to take a look. It was just a huge room filled with about 20 bunk beds jammed together. The students all sleep two to a bed, which looked about the size of a twin bed, and then they keep a trunk of their belongings under the bed. Everyday they line up outside the kitchen with their plastic bowls and cups to get their food. After the assembly that day, they couldn't start class right away because they had to go out to the school farm to collect corn. The school schedule didn't seem very structured and walking around, there were even a number of classroom full of students but there was no teacher. The classrooms were just huge rooms filled with small wooden desks all pushed together and a large chalkboard up front. There are probably about 50 students in a classroom at a time. We got a chance to visit the staff room and talk with the other teachers a bit. There are 700 students at the school and 10 teachers. They teach classes for English, Math, History, Geography, Swahili, and Civics.
After school, we returned home for a bit before heading to the village soccer field. There was a game that day between the students and the teachers and Tyler and JP had been invited to play with the teachers. Girls don't get to play soccer. Instead I got to watch them with Marilyn who continued to ramble on and talk my ear off. But I got some good pictures of the guys trying to keep up with the Tanzanians. The game ended up being a tie at 2-2. Later we returned home and got things ready for dinner. We decided that we had had a long trying day with Bibi (Marilyn) that day and we needed to keep working on the bucket of wine. I made some pasta sauce using tomatoes, garlic, onion, some seasoning, and a can of V8, and we ate the leftover pasta. It turned out pretty good actually. And of course we baked the chocolate cake again. We were all drinking bucket wine all night. Even Marilyn started to get a little tipsy. We got tot talking and laughing, and eventually somehow the boys decided that they needed haircuts and I would be the one to do it. "Of course, I can cut your hair for you. I've only been drinking bucket wine for the past 4 hours and its only pitch black outside. Sounds like a great idea!" So we proceeded to the courtyard. I put on my head lamp and began to cut JP's hair in the darkness of the night as he sipped on his glass of bucket wine. I gave him a good trim and then it was Tyler's turn. Surprisingly nobody was injured during this exercise, and the hair cuts weren't too shabby. I may have a future as a drunken hair stylist. After we decided that we weren't going to make it to the bottom of the bucket that night (and after Tyler fell asleep mid conversation in his chair) we figured it was time for bed. We said goodnight to Marilyn, and the three of us piled into the other bed and I read The Hobbit to the guys as they drifted off into a deep bucket wine sleep. I was soon to follow. It was such a fun night. The next morning, we all woke up and Tyler asked "What happened last night!? Wait, you cut our hair and then read The Hobbit to us?! We're staying with a crazy lady in the middle of this weird village in Tanzania where its freezing?! What's going on?"
So my shadow experience started out a bit painful, but proved to be a great time. Solution to problem: cook up a good batch of bucket wine, and have some good friends handy.

Before leaving for shadow last week, we had our site announcements!! It was very exciting and the whole day I couldn't wait to find out where I would be living! I got assigned to the Mtwara region in south eastern Tanzania. I will be living and working in the village of Nanjota, which is in the Masasi District. I don't know much about it yet, but I will be able to ask Ellegard more questions when I get back to Muheza from my shadow. I am really excited! I will be working in a new site. There hasn't been a volunteer living there before. My house is about half a kilometer from the secondary school. I can't wait to find out more. This past week we have just continued with technical training sessions at MATI. I have learned more about tree identification, and the different uses for certain trees. I learned how to make natural pesticides, and fertilizer with one tree. We learned about one tree called Mwarobaini, which means 40 because it has about 40 different uses. Parts of it can be used as medicine, to filter water, its entirely edible and incredibly nutritious. It's an awesome tree!
My host family is doing really well. I can't believe how quickly time has gone by and soon I will have to leave them. This Sunday we have a village party to see everyone before we leave for site, which will be fun. I think that's all the news I have for right now. Hope everyone is doing well at home1 Wish me luck so that I survive the 16 hour bus ride back to Muheza!