A Place to Call Home

Site Announcement.  Those two words create a spark of excitement that spreads like a wildfire among Peace Corps trainees.  Every trainee waits for this day-the day they find out where they will be spending the next two years of their lives living and working alongside Tanzanians.  The Peace Corps makes site announcement very dramatic.  The staff bring out a map with each trainee's picture covered by a post-it note and linked to a region by a string.  Each person is revealed one at a time.  People bounded up to the board, excited to hear more details about their site.  My name (and thus Jason's too) was called as a picture was revealed linked to the region of Mbeya!  Mbeya is a region located in the southwestern corner of Tanzania.  We were told that Mbeya is a lush, mountainous region full of tea plantations and banana trees.  Sign us up!  After learning about our region we were informed that we would be living near the city of Mbeya and teaching at the Mbeya University of Science and Technology (MUST)!  Jason was assigned to teach ICT subjects (Information and Communication Technology) and I was assigned to teach Biology.

Three days later we found ourselves on a bus headed from Korogwe to Mbeya via Iringa.  A word about transportation in Tanzania.  The roads, while mostly paved, are rough.  The bus does not stop very often, which means you should not drink water while traveling. If you do, you might have to "chimba dawa" (literally meaning "to take medicine") which entails stopping the bus to squat on the side of the road.  When the bus does make official stops, you are bombarded by vendors selling soda, fruits, and other snacks.  If you did not buy any from the vendors who push their wares through your window don't worry, your neighbors on the bus will notice and share food with you.  There is no air conditioning operating on the bus, which made for a warm ride.  Buses do not often arrive on time.  We found ourselves waiting at the bus stand for two hours wondering if the bus was still coming.  All these things make traveling in Tanzania an adventure.  If you approach bus travel in Tanzania with the mindset that life is about the journey, and not the destination, you will be just fine.  That, and bring your iPod.  You are going to need it.

Once in Mbeya we spent some time with current volunteers.  They spoiled us.  They made us homemade pizza for dinner the night we arrived and homemade cinnamon rolls the next morning.  Then it was off to our site!  After a short dala dala (mini-bus) ride, we hailed a taxi to travel the last stretch of dirt road and arrived at the doors to the university.  We then waited quite some time to see the acting deputy head of the school.  In fact, much of our time at site visit was spent waiting-karibu (welcome to) Tanzania!  We toured the university during our stay, Jason met some of his fellow teachers in the ICT department, and we learned what we will be teaching!  Jason will teach Electrical Fundamentals and Introduction to Software Engineering and I will teach Applied Biology I and II (basically Microbiology and Molecular Biology/Genetics) in the Laboratory Sciences department.  We are very excited to begin working with our fellow teachers at MUST.

After spending three days at our site we returned to Korogwe for some final training and our final exams (which we both passed :) ).  On September 12th we officially swore in as Peace Corps Volunteers.  Swearing-in was quite the event as it was held at the US ambassador's residence in Dar es Salaam.  Speeches were given, all of us new volunteers sang a song, and there was food-very fancy food.  The Tanzanian media was present, so we were on the news!  We spent most of the 13th (14 hours!) on a bus from Dar es Salaam to Mbeya.  Praise the Lord that we were on the nicest bus we have ever traveled in while in Tanzania, it was only four seats wide instead of the usual five.  We have been living in our apartment for a few days now.  The place needs cleaning, but once we tidy up it will be very nice!  We have electricity (it seems to go out every night-it's funny as we live right next to the girl's dormitory and they all scream when the lights go out), running water three times per day (morning, noon, and evening), two balconies, a big living room/dining room, kitchen with attached pantry, two bedrooms, a shower room, and a western style toilet (oh yeah!).  Pictures will be forth coming once we settle in.  Right now we are busy cleaning and trying to figure out where we can buy all the things we need (like flour...unga wa ngano uko wapi?)  After next week Jason and I will begin to prepare our lessons for the start of school on the 28th of October.  Sorry for the long absence from our blog...we have been busy!

Kwa heri!
Heather and Jason

PS-If you would like our address, leave us a comment or send us a note via email.  Or Facebook me :)  Or, if you know my mom, ask my mom.

The main tent under which speeches were given-go America!

Jason and Me all dressed up for the occasion-I had the dress made in Korogwe!

Our Community Based Training (CBT) group-we will miss everyone!