Giving Thanks!

Since grandma Blanche passed away a few weeks ago I can’t seem to keep the a certain image of my 3 grandparents who are up in heaven out of my head. There’s Grandpa Whit charming the pants of St. Peter as he leans up against the gates of heaven relating some hysterical (and perhaps slightly indulged) story of his youth. Grandpa Bill is working diligently with the angels figuring out the most efficient protocol for wing repair. And Grandma Blanche would have the big G-O-D cornered giving him her opinions on how things are going down here on earth. In her long and fascinating life Grandma was a lot of things but afraid to speak her mind she was not. I’m eternally grateful for that. She no doubt passed that gift on to her kids and in turn on down to my sisters, cousins, and me.

Speaking of grateful, I think it’s the right time of year to share what it is that I’m most thankful for: (it’s the holidays so I feel that I’m excused for any excessive sentimentality)
This is called the “Grateful ABCs” I do this when I’m feeling grumpy or sad:
A- African women: they are far and away the strongest and most resilient individuals i’ve ever encountered
B- books: I’d be dangerously bored without them. Over 70 read in the last 18 months
C- Clouds: big white puffy ones and rainbows too. I’ve never seen so many in my life. They’re the upside of the depressing rainy season
D- Duct tape: “if you can’t duct it, f--- it”
E- Education that teaches you how to think critically and problem solve. It’s a privilege denied too many.
F- Family and friends: many of whom I don’t get to see often but all of which I’m blessed to be associated with.
G- Gardens: home grown tomatoes and potatoes are the best
H- High fives or “nipe tano” (in Swahili) so happy this is universal
I- Imagination: this goes along with education. I’m so happy that I was taught to have one. I have seen first hand how bleak life can be when imagination is snuffed out of children and absent in adults
J- Jeans: they never get dirty (or look dirty)
K- Kerosene lamps
L- Little kids: self explanatory I think
M- Macaroni and Cheese: even with fake butter and powdered mild it still tastes good!
N- Needle and Thread: for the inevitable holes
O- onions and salt: my only consistent source of seasoning
P- Pancakes and syrup: I can make both on my charcoal stove
Q- Quilts made by hand by African women trying to support their families
R- Rainbows (see clouds)
S- Solar charger: it has allowed me a cell phone and an ipod in a village with no electricity
T- Teeth: you finally see how valuable they are when you’re the only one around with a full set.
U- Unconditional Love: good to have when the conditions are seriously tough
V- Vegetables: again, something that you don’t know how great they are until they are seriously scarce
W- Walter: the best dog in the world!
X- Xanex, hahaha! Just kidding…kind of
Y- Yaks: it’s the only thin I could think of that starts with a Y
Z- Zungumza: Swahili for talking or conversing, as art I’ve started to truly learn in the absence of electronics

Fukuza?

So i'm still truckin along here working on a few projects. I've got my homebased care worker training coming up in the next few weeks to train village members to be the first line of care for people living with HIV. I'm also helping my mama's basket group learn a new craft, Batik. And good news on the well construction: we should be getting an official survey very soon!

I've run into a few bumps in the road recently, my village executive officer, my direct village supervisor, was "fukuza"ed out of town. It took me a while to figure out what that word means... turns out it means "banished" or "chased out".... oh. apparently he stole some roofing, i don't know. it didn't go well. so there was that and also a village member stole about $200 from my house... so its been a little rough.

Anyhow, here are some pics. overall things are good. and i'm good!

babysitting on testing day





my friend dada peter's new baby rabi





walter and me in all my braided glory

a nutrition poster i made for the secondary school

getting tested on testing day

my village: this is why i need to raise money to drill a well... its a tad dry

no rest for the weary

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!

Picture update

Lake Momella in arusha national park. this was one of the stops on the trip with the fam. we woke up before dawn to make sure we could see the flamingos.

Flamingos

Sunrise over Mt Meru (with our safari vehicle out in front)

Sunset out on a peninsula in dar es salaam

My friend Alee's wedding to Tesso here in Tanzania. Cristina another volunteer designed her dress, Meesh (the one not in a wedding dress) translated the ceremony, and Alee's dad is a pastor who came from the states to perform the ceremony.

Tesso, Alee, and Me

Walter is a a really good reader.

This is the beach where i get to stay while i'm in Dar for my mid serivce conference... not so bad

These are the Maasai that guard our beach for us all day and night.

One Year: Check

pretty sunflower farm

picture it took me forever to put up. my dad sent me the paper from home and i had the kids a pic with it. they were stoked.

my 6th grade class that i teach health and english too

clinic day (really its when the mama's bring their babies to get weighed) in the village

HIV testing day in the village!

My apologies to all my faithful blog followers (all four of you) its been awhile since I’ve updated on life and times here in TZ. I also haven’t been able to check my mail in over a month so if someone’s waiting on a snail mail response…sorry. I’ll get to it I promise. One of the reasons I fell so behind is that I had a visitors!!! The whole family!! Mom, Dad, Jess, Jeff, and Amy. It was a bit surreal to have them all hear traveling the bumpy roads and sleeping under mosquito nets with me; a bit like worlds colliding (in a good way J). We had a great time. Mom and Dad and Jess came for two weeks and Amy and Jeff joined us a week into the fun. We visited northern Tanzania to see the animals in the national parks and to visit the Momela lodge which you can see yourself anytime you please by just popping in a copy of John Wayne’s “Hatari” filmed at the lodge in the early 1960’s. Needless to say this was one of its selling points for all of us (but lets be honest, mostly for Dad… he was pretty excited to walk in the steps of the “Duke”) We went on walking and driving tours, were not ten yards from giraffes, zebras, and warthogs, saw a lake painted pink with flamingos in the early morning, and got to see all kinds of species of baboons and chimps escorting their babies around on their backs. After Amy and Jeff joined us we headed out my village for a few days and after a ride that renewed all of our relationships with God, we arrived safely (only by His grace) to warm welcome. We visited church, the schools, and the health center and they were able to see a little bit of what I do everyday and the wonderful people I work and live with. The way they welcomed my family as their own reminded me how lucky I am to live with such a warm and kind people. The trip was concluded with a few days at the beautiful beaches of Dar es Salaam where we snorkeled and explored and had the kinks worked out of our backs. The whole trip was awesome and reminded me how much I love and miss my family (not that I forgot) and how lucky I am to have all the support they give me.
Also since I last updated I celebrated my one year anniversary in Tanzania. It has undoubtedly (just like everything else) flown by. It has been hard, and will continue to be so, I suspect. I often question the value of my time spent here but ultimately I feel that I have been productive in the last year and think I still have a lot left that I can do and offer during my year of service that remains. The well project is still in motion, and I’ve just recently had a grant approved and received funding to sponsor a series of 5 HIV awareness days in my and surrounding villages. We’ll have food, dancing, a soccer game, HIV testing, educational speakers… the works. I’ve really excited. They should start next month. I’ll keep you updated on how they turn out. My newest (or oldest, since I’ve really been working on this since the first day I was placed in my village) is selecting village members and training them as home based care workers to provide basic and vital care to people living with AIDS and all sick persons in the village. This is especially important where I live since there are no local health facility and because there is no transport outside of bikes and walking it is virtually impossible for very sick people, the ones that need it the most, to receive health care. Training home based care workers would give these people a chance. I’m working closely with the district government to find the ways and means to have 5 -7 people trained from my village by the end of my term of service next summer. Its proved a difficult endeavor so far since Tanzanian government and agencies are not typically known for their efficiency and speedy nature so I could use your good thoughts and prayers.
Also I wanted to give a little shout out to Crestview Preparatory School in La Canada, CA. Udumuka Primary school got your letters and couldn’t be more excited. You’ll get responses just as soon as school starts up again in the fall.
Thanks to everyone for the incredible support I continue to get. I love you guys!

Changes

We gotta make a change... It's time for us as a people to start makin' some changes.

Let's change the way we eat,

let's change the way we live

and let's change the way we treat each other.

You see the old way wasn't working, so it's on us to do what we gotta do... to survive.

-tupac shakur

...as if this song hasn't already been quoted into cliche-hood it still one of the only things that kept me sane in the last few months. reminding myself to be flexible and that change is small, but it still counts. i'm not really sure where to start.

i'll start with this. computers in africa. i'm going to loose my mind (if i havn't already) if one more flash drive, memory card, ipod gets a virus from these computers that cost me two dollars an hour to use and at least a half hour to download one picture. i've actually screamed in the internet cafe. it wasn't pretty.... its true, in the scheme of life and all the pain and joy i see everyday this is minor. but i just want my pictures and music and grants to stop being lost. the grants i can rewrite. music i can get again later. but if i loose my pictures because a crappy computer gives my camera a virus.... thats it. those are gone. and it stinks.

then there is the fact that four of my closest volunteer friends are no longer members of peace corps. one moved to another city and the other three are now back in america. this stinks too. the relationships you form with your fellow peace corps volunteers is invaluable and truly what gets you through those hard days. i've just been so disappointed with the way this organization has treated its volunteers. but its government bueracracy... anyone suprised?

moving on, (and thats where the inspiration of tupac comes in, i can move on) a lot of good things have been happening too. next monday we are having our first village wide hiv testing day. we have posters up and lots of announcements have been happening. on top of that, because of the poor turn out on the last testing day, i've decided to bribe people with some of the awesome donations like pens, pencils, balls, and tooth brushes, etc. that i've recieved from family and friends. because of all this i expect a big turn out. i'll let you know how it goes. also i've recieved some VERY generous donations for building the village well from the Viola family, mrs. sarkarati, and my grandma luce. they are so appreciated and in october we should start construction. on top of that i'm working on gettting villagers trained in home based care for hiv/aids patients. so we are moving along and i'm learning a lot about what success is and how goals and ideals can change.

so cheers to change! much love and thank you all for your support.

i've got an amazing idea

money trouble? did those taxes kill you this year and you're looking for a way to ease the pain for 2009? well i'm here to answer your prayer!!!! help give the gift of water to Lwang'a village! I have partnered with an NGO called Living Water Internation based in Texas. They have agreed to pay for half of the well digging and building process: $10,000!! now its just up to me to raise the other half. every little bit counts and is surely appreciated. the number one disease and cause of death in my area is water borne diseases due to no clean source of water. you can donate directly to Living Water International and its all tax deductable... so what i'm saying is everyone wins but especially those kids who are literally dieing from diarreah (i know we've probably all felt that this was happening to us at one point... so imagine if it were to really happen....) here's how it works

send your checks or money orders to:
Living Water International
PO Box 35496
Houston, Texas 77235-5496.

the memo section please clearly note :
"Hannah's Hope" for Lwang'a village.

and please also notify me that you have donated either by email: kheller@ucla.edu or snail mail:
kim heller pcv
slp 469
makambako, iringa
tanzania
so we can make sure the money goes to Lwang'a village.
and thats it. within a few weeks you will recieve a reciept in the mail for tax purposes. easy as pie or "ugali" (as they say here)

questions, comments or fundraising ideas are always welcome. thanks for all your support. much love.