The Seven Wonders of Madibira

I think when most people hear Casper, WY they think of a little podunk town in the middle of nowhere.  I always like to educate people by explaining to them that no, in fact, Casper is the second largest town in the whole state and even has a mall (one of two in the state) and two WalMarts!  Yeah, I know.  It’s a pretty happening place.  Sometimes the above explanation doesn’t quite convince people (I don’t understand why either, people are silly) and so I always tell of the 7 wonders of Casper*.  This works like a charm.  After hearing of the clock that no one sees, the egg beater, etc…people are easily convinced of Casper’s coolness.

It is now my aim to show you the awesomeness of Madibira with its seven wonders.

#1  The waterfall that nobody sees-

This is the waterfall in the mountains that no one sees (if you couldn’t guess by the title).  Mostly people don’t see it because I get lost every time I try to take people here.  I know, follow the river, how hard can it be?  Apparently for me, hard.

#2 Sketchy Bridge-

There are actually a few of these around.  I am picking this one because I think it is the sketchiest but still passable bridge.  I often manage to find the sketchy bridge and not the waterfall, so I’ve climb over it many a time.  It is a little frightening, but has always done its job in my presence

#3  Texas Chipsi-

Chipsi mayai is one of my favorite dishes in Tanzania.  It is just like an egg omelet with french fries INSIDE it.  Why haven’t we thought of this yet in America??  Anyways Gifti, the chef at Texas Chipsi, makes (objectively) one of the best chipsi mayais in the country.  Not only does he mix french fries into the egg, but he also goes the extra mile mixing chili sauce, skewered meat, onions, carrots, and green peppers into it.  It is delicious, to say the least.  Karibuni all to try.

#4 The rice scheme-

In short, this crazy irrigation project which leases out land to villagers who want to grow rice.  My village is pretty famous for its rice.  The scheme is HUGE and where you can find everyone around this time of year.

#5 Lookout point-

Known in the village as the Vodacom cell phone tower, this tower on a small hill serves me two purposes:

1. It keeps me found.  As long as I can see the tower I know where I am
2. It offers wonderful views of the area (Mahango, Mkunywa, the rice scheme) especially at sunset

Also if you go at night, the lights of Mahango form the shape of Africa if you squint really really hard…but not really.

#6 The church-

This is this beautiful church in my village.  It was built in maybe 1897 (I just made that up slightly, but sometime in the 1800’s), which is crazy!  I mean, think about the infrastructure in America in the 1800’s, now imagine what Africa would have been like…”how did they build this?”: the question I ask every time I pass it.  They let me climb all the way to the top of the bell tower a few months ago, which offered some pretty fantastic views.  It is also in the primary school’s history books.  We be famous.

#7  The amount of things available

This has always been a wonder to me, but I live pretty far out there on a dirt road.  The closest electricity line is maybe 3 hours by car (if you’re going fast) and the large amount of produce, televisions (not having electricity doesn’t stop anyone), and other goods that I can just pick up is amazing.  If I got an ATM and a person to stock peanut butter I’d probably never leave.

*If you are interested in learning more about the 7 Wonders of Casper, check out page 19:

Click to access AdventureGuide11.pdf

Updates

Hello!  Sorry I’ve been so bad about updating this lately.  I am going to be better in the next few weeks though, promise.

Sarah—I am well, I am on short break (spring break?) now.  I just finished grading all 5 gazillion tests.  Grading is not fun, for the record.

Puppy—Is soooo fat.  I am thinking of naming him Orson Wells

The grant—I only need $930 more!!!  THANK YOU if you donated or got the word out.  I can’t believe it is almost raised.  If you have any other thoughts on donors/could tell just a few more people and send them here:

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=621-230

that would be AMAZING.  So close.  Thanks friends.

Visitors—My friends Cece and Alex are on their way to visit me!  They are hanging out in Kenya for the month and are coming here at the end of this month.  They made this cool video which I’d recommend watching :

Coming soon: The Seven Wonders of Madibira

Nawapenda wageni part deux

Recently, I was lucky enough to have a few guests in Madibira.  They came to use my meat grinder.  The meat grinder was left in the house by the previous volunteer and due to my lack of skills in the kitchen, hadn’t been used since my arrival.  Since meat grinders are a little expensive, not too many volunteers have them, and my neighboring volunteers thought it to be somewhat of a travesty that mine had been so neglected.

Being the awesome guests that they are, they brought all the ingredients in from Mafinga.  We arrived at a problem, however.  They bought the meat on  Friday and by Saturday evening when we wanted to cook it, it was pretty stank-y.  A bunch of my students were over watching us, looking at us like we were crazy for even thinking about eating that meat.  We had been planning this for so long and had already ground it, so we decided it couldn’t hurt to at least try and cook them to see how they tasted…and they tasted wonderful!!  My stomach wasn’t too happy the next day, but it was well worth it.  Tasted just like ‘merica.

Jere and his new piki pic

Guests hiding from the flash

You can’t come to my site without a little boggle action

DJ (unofficial) for the weekend

Cookin’ with Dan and Kenz

yikes

Compote, not to be confused with compost

Geneva

Dan the man

The puppy

Waiting for the french toast

No one believed I could flip things in the air

I don’t know who thought it would be a good idea to cook the french toast batter…it wasn’t

meat grindin’

The old bridge

The new bridge

Waterfall

Alien fruit

How we do

He’s my fave

Kenzie and her delicious homemade hamburger buns

Guac and meat

Look at that fire. Thank you girl scouts. And kerosene.

Just like home

We even got Heinz. And ate the whole bottle.

Orson

Please help.

Hi all.

I need your help.  I just finished my grant to get solar and the laboratory finished at my school.  The grant is for about $3,500.  This seemed like a great idea, but now I realize raising three thousand dollars from Africa may be a bit hard.

In order to finish the grant, the school has to contribute 25% of the money.  My school wants this SO bad, and ever since I finished the grant they have been working very hard at doing their part.  The lab looks AMAZING right now (follow the link to pictures).  Now that they have done their part, I really need to get on the
following through of my part.

The facts:

1.  This is a really good cause.  All the money will go to improving the school, and the school really wants it and has proven itself by pulling their weight

2.  The solar will help about 700 students (ages 13-18), 500 of which live at the school.  Based on the school timetable, students stay at the school to study until 10pm, but currently the electricity (we have a small solar cell) isn’t sufficient to last this long at night in all the rooms (and many of the rooms don’t have lights), so all the students end up in one room under one light bulb…not particularly conducive to learning.  This money will give us enough to have 2 bulbs in every classroom, the staff room, etc…plus it should be enough to run a computer (which my school is saving up for).  Currently all our tests are written by typewriter.  Hardcore old school.  I tried to type my test one day on the typewriter and totally failed, they are sort of tricky!  I digress, the solar will also be enough for both the boys’ and girls’ hostels.  This means the kids who live at the school won’t have to be breathing in the kerosene fumes every night too!  And putting electricity in may also save a life from the fire it prevents one day (ok, now I am reaching a bit–but seriously, kerosene lamps and candles are just a fire waiting to happen).

3.  Every year the form IV’s (basically like seniors in HS) have to take a national examination (like the SATs, but by subject).  Their scores from this determine whether or not they get into A-level (sort of like community college/advanced high school, the step before university) or become a farmer.  The science subjects (chem, bio, and physics) require the students to do a practical.  Until this year, most of my students had only seen a microscope drawn on the board by the teacher (I’d like to see you draw a microscope on a chalkboard–not an easy task–especially knowing that that is the only reference your kids are going to have of a microscope–possibly forever).  They opted out of the actual practical for an optional written one.  This year is going to be the first year my kids will actually do the real practical.  The first year they see an actual microscope, perform a titration, really see chemistry (and biology and physics for that matter–I just happen to teach chem)! (Well, assuming I get this grant money)

If you know of anyone who may be interested in donating, please tell them.  Since this is so much money, any partnership you could get going with a church or school would be great.  If every person from one high school donated a dollar this money could be raised in a week, so if you have any connections, I would be much obliged.

To donate, just send people (or yourself) to this link:

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=621-230

Thanks for any help you can provide (literally, if it is just you donating $1, or telling someone about it every little bit helps)! 

for pictures:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100408355259773.2567013.19228068&type=1&l=e524fd8b71

There is placenta goo on my pillow

This has been one of the craziest nights of my life.  It all started this morning, when a staff meeting was called for 11am.  Fast-forward 5.5 hours and I am leaving said staff meeting in not a particularly good mood.  I was in a huge hurry because I had a bunch of errands to run in town.  My dog, Bridger, is really smart.  She doesn’t like to be stuck outside in my courtyard when I leave, and she has an uncanny ability of knowing when I am about to leave.  Lately, whenever I want to go anywhere, I call her out to the courtyard and she runs in the opposite direction and hides under my couch.  Because I was in such a big hurry today, I didn’t want to play games so I just decided to let her stay inside for the few hours I’d be gone.  I don’t do this very often, but whenever I do I make sure all the doors in my house are shut so she can’t go into the bedrooms or the kitchen.  I did the same today.

I get home a little after dark and I am surprised that Bridge isn’t at the door to greet me.  I look outside and she isn’t there either.  Oops, I realize that she probably went and hid under my bed to avoid being put outside, and I had inadvertently locked her in my room.  I go to open my room door and hear these weird squeaks.  I run to grab a light and find a rat thing on my bed.  On closer examination I realize it is not a rat, but rather a puppy!  There is placenta goo everywhere.  After a minor freak-out, I stopped thinking about how I just changed my sheets yesterday, and I started thinking about:

1. How lucky I am that I wasn’t there to witness the ordeal
2. How wonderful it is that there is only one
3. That I have a guest room and bed to sleep in tonight

I feel like the fact that there is only one isn’t normal, so maybe there are more to come?  This could be a long night… I’ll keep you posted.

Oh childbirth.

Mama Puppy

Zinduka Kilo!

Finally back at site, back to work after a lot of time traveling!  Where?  You may ask. Well, I wasn’t so much traveling as going to meetings and trainings.  After another meeting in Dar, I spent a week in Iringa doing Zinduka, grassroot soccer training.  Now, I have been to MANY Peace Corps trainings and this was far and beyond the best.  What is grassroot soccer?  Another wonderful question!  It is a method that uses soccer, the ideas of teamwork, and coach-as-a-mentor-type figure to teach kids about HIV/AIDS.  We had some awesome coaches, I brought some wonderful counterparts, and it was just a fun week.  My counterparts and I have already started implementing the program into the village.  The kids are so into it.  I am so excited.  This, getting into teaching again, cleaning the library, putting finishing touches on a solar grant, Saturday laboratory practices, and girl’s conference planning makes Sarah a busy girl, but in the best sort of way.   The last few weeks I have just been so happy.  Life is wonderful, well, minus the fact that I think my dog is pregnant.  I can’t even look her in the eyes.  We’ll save when I have to figure out what to do with a dog giving birth and a bunch of little pups for another blog entry.  Until then, pictures from my week:

Birdie on the perch

Find the ball, find the ball (find the ball)

Gender stadium

Limbo

don’t hit the cones

our awesome coaches

Zinduka cafe

GO!

Manga and Jerome, 2 of the best counterparts a girl could ask for

Show me the money

I love her

BAMFs

hustlin’

wwwwwwoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

My awesome counterparts!

An ode to Sumry

 

Oh Sumry how you are the bus for me

Really you’re the only one I see

For a small fee I don’t have to kaa on my knees

This brings me oh so much glee

 

Seat dancing to tunes, wearing my belt

This bus line really makes my heart melt

 

With water and juice, even some caki

Oh Sumry how you never forsake me

 

Because your drivers do not go hastily,

you always manage to get me there safely

 

Watching George of the Jungle on your big screen

the 8 hour bus ride doesn’t seem so mean

 

The air conditioning makes Dar so much better

today I even had to put on my sweater!

 

To conclude this ode

I just want everyone to know

If you’re going Dar–>Iringa with a large load

It’s a good code

To always travel using this mode.

♥

Leo ni siku yangu

I was just looking at my site stats for the year 2011.  These are some of the search terms which led people to my blog and I think they sum up my year pretty well:

dancing termite

tanzania men holding hands

wowowo swahili

list of things i love about life

red holes in my face

coal of africa

“lorry”

best burrito ever

dancing party older

tanzania guy naked

my heart will go on recorder finger holes

termite eating paper

porch sunset

carry big bucket

rapping talent shows

africa cornrows

had the hair in the big mac

“kill a chicken”

inside of a catholic church

white girl cornrows hair

africa cheesy pose pictures

africa buckets

how do you carry a bucket of water on your head

dance party birthday cakes

hair fail

baking cake using jiko

teacher is taking a break

hair big

why being short is good

loses panties

making a termite birthday cake

rocking chair plans

Tabula rasa

I remember walking into Mrs. Dahl’s first grade class with my hightop Velcro shoes, and looking around to find everyone else in class wearing Nike tie shoes.  Oops, it appeared I had missed the memo somewhere.  I had practiced all summer but I still couldn’t seem to figure out the art of shoe tying.  I felt like such a dofus in my big Velcro shoes, but what could I do?  I remember on the playground that day I was determined to learn how to tie a bow.  My closest friends were all around me trying to teach me.  It ended up being my friend’s little brother (who was in kindergarten) who got through, with a song involving two bunny ears.  I suddenly had it!  I could tie my own shoes!  I got my own tie-shoes by the end of the month and fit right in with everyone else.

Growing up, people tell you to embrace your uniqueness.  Which is something we all do as we age (I think) but humans, when it comes down to it, no matter age, really just want to belong.  Integration is one of the key aspects of my job as a PCV, and it reminds me so much of that time in the first grade.  Walking into someplace new and thinking, I just want to be like everyone else!

After a year in Tanzania, I can say, without a doubt, that I will never truly fit in here.  No matter how much Kiswahili I know, how many friends I have, or how much of the culture I understand.  Even if I married a Tanzanian and spent the rest of my life here, I would never fully belong.

The cultural differences are just too drastic.  The longer I stay here the more I realize how much culture affects us.  Culture impacts what we like, how we think, our decisions, our actions, even our emotions.  It is huge.  I am not a huge psych person, but this experience is pushing me very far towards nurture on the nature vs. nurture debate.

The realization that I would never fully belong here has been one of the hardest things I’ve had to deal with.  I just want to fit in!  After realizing that it would really never happen, I went through my five stages of grief:

1. Denial:  I am totally Tanzanian—I speak the talk, walk the walk.  Today I even made ugali for myself for dinner and ate it all—without any sides!  Bongo flava 4 life!
2. Anger: Why didn’t my mom ever teach me the proper way to wash clothes by hand, carry water on my head, and make ugali!?!  Why is there no stupid electricity in Tanzania!?  Why does every Tanzanian greet me in a super high voice?  Is that really necessary?  I know I cannot speak Swahili, but you make it seem like I talk like Fran Drescher.  Literally, if one more person calls me mzungu I’m going to burst into tears…then I may kick them where it counts.
3. Bargaining: If I could speak perfect Swahili I will eat ugali everyday for the rest of my time in TZ, and listen to bongo flava at least once a day for the rest of my life.  Please.
4. Depression: This sucks.  I wanna go home.

And, finally, the stage I have recently arrived at:

5.  Acceptance: It’s ok if I never fully fit in here.  When it comes down to it, I am American and I am proud to be.  It will be ok if I stop playing bongo flava all the time in hopes it’ll grow on me.  It’s not bad to ask for that spoon so I don’t have to eat with my hands.  It’s cool to be different, to always sort of be an outsider looking in.  Sometimes I feel like I am watching a TV show.  This life seems so surreal.  I will learn as much as I can in these two years, teach as much as I can, I am going to soak in as much Tanzanian culture as I possibly can—bask in its awesomeness.  Then I am going to be mighty happy to return home.  Walk in the park with my dog on a leash, blasting Girl Talk on my Ipod, without receiving a second look from a single person.  Without being required to stop and chat—I will be home, I will be just like everyone else, and it will feel glorious.

A little preview of the remix

Made it to Dar!!  Dar is HOT!  Had a physical today, a dentist appointment tomorrow, and then I’m pretty much done with my mid-service conference (with possibly a movie, bowling, and wonderful food in-between…life is hard).

The entire way to the train, my friend Dani and I sang R. Kelly’s song, “Ignition” in anticipation.  We changed the lyrics a little and kept singing/dancing “Can I get a choo choo?”  All the Tanzanians on the coaster kept looking at us funny.  Who wouldn’t look at 2 white girls singing and dancing on a bus?  When we finally made it to the town, the other friend we were with was like, “I am pretty sure choo choo (or chuchu) means something in Swahili.”  We went to look it up.  Yes, in fact, chuchu means nipple.  Ha, whoops.  The train, minus the fact that it was 11 hours late and arrived to pick us up at 2:00 am, rather than 3:00 pm, was pretty sweet.  It took (after waiting for it for a lot of hours) almost a full 24 hours to get to Dar, but we made it.  They even gave out cough drops as candy in each of the cars.

Let’s get a beep beep for that.