just a little update

well i'm back in town again because of possible strep throat or misc. virus. just a heads up, if anyone has the compulsion to send me or my village mail or anything else it is best, if at all possible to put in a padded envelope. it come about twice as fast.
KIMBERLY HELLER PCV
S.L.P. 469
MAKAMBAKO, IRINGA
TANZANIA

just in case someone doesn't have it :) also i got a new phone number the last one was stolen...cool. here's the new number :+255787404897. just a funny little story: i have my own number saved in my phone as "me" because i can never remember it. i met a tanzanian from and NGO who asked for my number, i found it in my phone and handed it over. he took it and put my number in his phone. he now calls me "me". obviously something was lost in translation.

everything else is good. walter chewed through my sandal and my speaker wires this week but i fixed the sandals with duck tape. and my 15 year old neighbor repaired my speakers with matches and duck tape. very McGyver.

also some of my old mail that was sent to my previous address is slowly being forwarded to me. so if i still haven't replied its because i haven't gotten it yet.

volunteerism?

so try explaining volunteerism to tanzanians. its a luxury i never realized i had. its a completely non-senscical idea. they ask why would i leave america to live with no water or electricty. its a hard concept to wrap your head around...... here are some more pics from life here. a few of my dog. who is getting bigger everyday and that i have dubbed "walter the wonder dog" for the way his ears flap in the wind when he gets a good running start. also included is me getting my hair braided at my house. i asked if she knew how to braid white people hair and she said "its not the different." which meant no she didn't so those braids lasted about 1.3 hours. oh well it was fun anyways. also pics of my favorite neghbors, the secondary school, me and the head of the health center, then my friend mary and the head of the health center, a sunset in my village, my house, kids at the primary school that i love to hang out with. village life is good. not a whole lot to report except that i've been working at the health center taking over the aids clinic....they call me the "computer" because i work so fast. which i don't really....its relative. there is a lot of room for improvement as far as efficinecy is concerned. but i really like it there. i feel like i'm doing something. i'm also working on a water saftey and sanitation training to give to my village since diarreah is the number one cause of death in my area due to unsafe water.

i've been having lots of fun playing with walter and making my compost pile and meeting new people. when i come in to the city i meet lots of white people from different NGO's who are great connections. and i can get pizza and use the internet so i come into town about 1 time a month to enjoy these luxuries and see motorized vehicles.

Ninaweza!!!

that is swahili for i can do it. this is something i remind myself daily. and so do many Tanzanians who are cheering me on.

5 things i never thought i'd ever hear myself say:

1. "there's got to be a donkey cart around here somewhere that can give us a ride."
2. "i was happy to visit....thank you for this gift of a live chicken, it's great."

3. "sure, i'll try a raw egg and honey mixed together...how bad could it be?"

4. "no don't worry its close, only about a two hour bike ride."

5. "that water's not clean...don't worry, just put some bleach in it."

as you can surmize living on my own here is turning out to be quite an adventure. there is no motor transport in or around my village. you have to bike at least 2 hours to get to electricty and cars/buses. but i'm getting used to it. i think. but when you see a donkey cart, you hail it and hitch a ride. there's no shame there. at least i don't have it. i also was recently gifted a chicken. not because i actually did anything just because i visited a family who recently had twins. there are a few issues here 1. peace corps does not allow us to keep chickens because of bird flu 2. ummm what do i know about having a chicken 3. i HATE chickens. they are dirty and smelly and dumb and make too much unneeded noised. so i gave to my neighbor to keep for now (read: forever) i was told it was so that i would always have eggs.... thats fantastic, so why don't you just give me some eggs. oh well. i also recently tried a raw egg with honey. i was told it was good for my health. i, as a health volunteer, tried to convince them that yes, the protien is great, but better when cooked because of salmanila. this didn't translate. so i tried so as not to be rude. i was later told by a neighbor that this woman who fed me the concoction was a witch. cool. good to know. i think i'll be limiting our time together from now on.

i have also decided to run the kilimanjaro marathon on march 1st. i know... i'm serious though. i think i can do this. i bust my ass just to get around might as well make "training." any and all are welcome to join me on this run. there will be a group of peace corps volunteers running. we will have shirts that say "peace corps-hard corps" i'm pretty much doing it for the t-shirt.

i've also started an "adventure club" here with the local youth and together with some grant money from uncle sam we'll all climb kili together in june. this will also become my after school health club...they just don't know it yet. besides that i've been spending my time twice a week at the local health center helping to dispense drugs to HIV patients. it makes me feel like i'm being useful and learning a lot about the people and the systems here. the rest of my time is divided between primary school and secondary school as well working on my compost pile and garden. (its going to be glorious...come and see it. i have banana and nectarine trees.)

and p.s. aunt ree i still use my ucla email address so you can send stuff through that or

More pictures succesfully uploaded.

first i apologize for the poor formatting and sideways pics but i have limited computer access so spending time to format and resave pics the correct direction is not a priority.
#1 anywho these and giraffes or twiga i saw on my safari in Mikumi national park
#2 this is the sunset in Mikumi national park after the safari
#3 this is one of my favorite friends Justin and me on my birthday in Morogoro town at dragonairs!
#4 birthday shots! (sorry mom) with me and luke and randy and ralph. we had a culutural exchange when a tanzanian saw us use salt and limes and wanted to learn how to do it.
#5 a group shot with our tanzanian friends that drove us around when we were in the capital for site announcements
#6 example of typical training session. as per usual it included a lot of hand written "flip charts" and group presentations. side note the one in the middle i drew....be impressed

#7 my courtyard at my new house! it doesn't look like much and it isn't really much but i love it. and yes i hand wash all my own clothes and line dry them.
#8 this is my "CBT" community based training group which means we all lived in the same village during training. from left to right that is Katalina, Emilia, Me, Kaitlyn, and Justin. we all are wearing our tanzanian outfits made speical for us for graduation. we look pretty "freshi" as the tanzanians say here. and yes those are giant butterflies all over my dress.
#9 this is my host baba wearing the gift that i gave him which is a specialty magic johnson lakers jersey which i stole from peter (sorry peter but it found a good home)
#10 this is me and another of my favorite friends. yes, we're wearing matching outfits because we both raided target before we came to africa....again pardon the sideways pic.















also, i got a dog!!! his name is walter and he is adorable. next time i'll put up some pictures of him. he's perfect except when he pees in my room. also, about sponsoring girls in secondary school. the story on that is that i have to wait and see who passes the test and is eligible for secondary school. so if you want to sponsor someone send me your address and you'll recieve a letter from a girl within the next few months. i talked to the principal. she anticipates that only 5 out of 60 girls will pass so there may only be a few to sponsor. i was thinking of only sponsoring girls because i'm trying to get the point across that female education is valuable but if anyone really wants to sponsor a boy let me know. education is education right. thats it for now. over and out.

i tried to put up more pics but i failed. next time...

also here is the link for those that would want to link up a school with one of the ones that i work with. http://www.peacecorps.gov/wws/index.cfm this is if you'd like the school you work for/with to be an officiol "peace corps world wise school." if you don't care about the official stuff or you just want to do pen pals with kids here. let me know. also... many of the girls here can't go to secondary school because their families can't pay the fees. one of the things i'm working on is educating girls and empowering them because they are among the disenfranchised (big word i know) here and this has a lot to do with the high stats of HIV/AIDS if anyone is interested in sponsoring a girl here let me know. they would write to you, practice their english, and keep you updated on their school progress. its a good way to keep girls from dropping out also if they have a little american guardian angel checking up on them.

pictures

uploading pics takes forever on these computers so i chose just a few choice ones to show you what my life's been like.

this is my host family. mamma, me, little evonna that is standing infront of me, philomena, baba, and erika. i'm wearing the gift they bought me. the second pic is of my back yard at my new house. this is where my garden will be. the fence was built in a day by my 15 year old neighbor and his 5 year old cousin. its there to keep out the chickens. ok thats it for now. this takes too long.

MY FIRST HOUSE!

I live at my new site now. its incredible. i do not live in a mudhut although most of my neighbors do. they all have chickens that roam freely into my courtyarad. i still hate roosters. so i'm living in a three room house. a sitting room and two bedrooms. right now i have a neighbor who is sleeping in the other room while i'm still getting settled. i've been here a week now. my nearest peace corps neighbor is a two hour walk away or about a 40min bike ride. i don't have a bike yet but i'm working on that today. we walked four hours to the main road then caught a minibus to town. good times. i'm getting a workout here. big time. really big time. i like don't want. i don't have choice though and its fine for now. in this village i'll be working with the primary and secondary school as well as the regional health center. the village council has already approached me and requested that i build a dispensary (which is like a glorified pharmacy) in the village. no prob. i plan on attempting that as well as working on getting the regional health center solar panels as they don't have any electricty. the doctor that runs it said to me "his excellency, mr. clinton promised us solar panels. we got ready but they're not here. they must have gotten lost. do you know where they are?" i had to say that i didn't that i'd do my best to find them. i'll also be working at the two schools doing health ed and some english tutoring. Aunt Ree, you posted about maybe doing a sister school setup and you read my mind. they would be ecstatic about that idea. this goes for all my teacher family and friends also: we can do it informally or formally through peace corps. to do it formally you go to the peace corps website and register the school info with mine and they'll send you a special little packet with goodies in it.....honestly i'm not really sure what they send you but i'm sure its very official.

what else?my best day so far in my new village was going to church.....i know it took me going to africa to get me to go back to church. the music and dancing is fantastic and bless the catholics because even though my swahilii is sketchy i know whats going on. i told them that i didn't understand all the words but i understood it in my heart.....they loved that.

also i'm workinhg getting a cat and a dog. a dog because i want one and a cat to kill the mouse that i saw in my kitchen. minor panic happened but i explained myself to the tanzanians by saying that americans are crazy. they also think our relationships with pets are crazy. they asked me, if i got a dog what would it do for me.........be my friend? live in my house?. that got a good laugh. no really, what was it going to do.......nothing. i had to tell them that pets are like children and that was followed by another hearty laugh.

i'm gonna try to post pictures of my new house tomorrow we'll see how that goes. thanks for your posts and for the mail i've been getting. i love you guys and miss you everyday. oh i have a new mailing address. don't send it to the old one anymore. peace corps will get mad at me. send it to my personal mailbox :

KIMBERLY HELLER PCV
SLP 469
MAKAMBAKO, IRINGA
TANZANIA

if you love me enough to send me a package write some god references on the package to make sure no one messes with it. ok thats it for now.