and by the weary i do mean me and other volunteers but mostly i mean the people who live here forever, not just for two years, and this is their life.
i've had a few requests for a blog post that actually gives some updates about my life so you (mostly trina) asked for it so here it is:
- peace corps tanzania just had one of it volunteers pass away. his name was joseph chow and he died in a rock climbing accident. he wasn't someone i was personally close to but i know he was a good guy, a solid volunteer, and a member of our peace corps family. he was just a few months away from completing his service and going home. so it hurts for those who were especially close to him but also for everyone here.
- village life has been about the same for me. i just keep pluggin away at the work i try to do here "pole pole ndio mwendo" (slow and surely is the pace) or at least thats what i hear. walter is good. he recently has acquired the ability to jump my courtyard wall that is about 9 feet high... pretty impressive and terribly annoying since that means he can leave my house and terrorize the village at will. when i was gone for a week for my mid service conference he ate 4 guinnea pigs from one of my neighbors... needless to say that were not that happy. he also has injured himself through the endevour..broke/cracked a rib maybe? he had something loose and floatin around in there and a swollen tummy but he's getting better and he's still the love of my life and i'm trying to work out the details of getting him back to the states with me.
the primary school just celebrated its 7th grade graduation (it only goes up to 7th, then you start secondary school) its weird to think that i was here for it last year too... time sure has flown. at the primary we're still working on getting text books. so far we've purchased 169 textbooks in the subjects of english, swahili, math, and science. we've still got more to go but we feel good about the progress we've made.
this week we were also supposed to have our guy from the Living Water International group come out and do the technical water survey for our well-in-progress but he has actually suffered from a terrible accident with his equipment where he severed off one finger completely and half of another! yikes. he seems to be ok but will need some recovery time so it sounds like well progress will be on hold yet again.... TIA.
- i have some other projects in the works: i wrote a grant for a series of 5 "health days" in various villages. we've completed two of these days and so far tested over 700 people for HIV and provided education about HIV prevention as well as living a healthy life with HIV. so far we've had about a 20% HIV positive rate which reinforces the fact that this testing and education is seriously needed. so its a success so far in terms of getting people tested and one that i'm proud of. i'm also planning a home based care training for people in my village in mid november that will train them in how to give palliative care to people in the village living with HIV. i'm waiting for funding for this project but have a lot of community support so i feel confident that it will be successful. and the other project in the works in a 5 day girls empowerment camp. me and 4 other volunteers are planning it. each of us taking 5 girls from our village to the camp where they will have the opportunity to take a break from work, play, have fun, learn about themselves and their bodies, learn some new skills, and hear from some other empowered women of tanzania. we're all very excited about the potential of this camp. keep your fingers crossed for us.
other than that i've been trying to keep myself busy and out of trouble :) life can be tough here sometimes... all the alone time gives a person far too much time to think espeically when it often seems that the history and culture of this country seems to working against my and the efforts of peace corps. i often worry that my work here is just feeding the cycle of dependancy that was set into motion in this country centuries ago first by colonialism, then by poorly implemented missionarly and foreign aide work. for years people here have been made to think that white is better and equals money and that they in themselves are not capable of effecting change in their lives and futures. these attitudes are changing and it is my mission here as well as peace corps idea of development that our role here is to teach, provide skills, tools, and opportunities but some people don't want that, they want money and a quick fix (don't we all) and thats tough for all development workers here and in many developing nations. but i guess thats just the world and human nature.
mac and cheese packages are always appreciated as well as any childrens books anyone has to donate to the school library. feel free...but not obligated to do so. as always i appreciate all your support and love from home. i couldn't do it without you. much love!
Babe Is On His Way
14 years ago
