#pctz

[acidademataasestrelas]

ando sem rumo. não consigo nem me expressar. não tem como jogar o que há dentro de mim para fora. é um vazio sem fim. um universo de nada. estou cansada de fazer parte dele.

[tzpeace]

The Grand Heist

Being exposed to theft is almost a guarantee in Peace Corps. It occurs in towns, guest houses, and even in volunteer's homes. Volunteers experience a spectrum of losses. From the guy who comes home to find the solar panel from his roof is gone to the kid who's laptop gets stolen from his room through a window. There's even a kid in my class who recently shared that he has a little girl who stalks his house and steals whatever she can whenever she can, and he is powerless to stop her. Even with her parents and school officials involved, she keeps taking things.

These incidences leave most volunteers feeling violated. It frays our trust with our communities and generally becomes a low point in our service. I have been fairly lucky in my service. Sure I have had small things disappear here and there, books “lost”, and a kid who loved taking my flash drives, but it was never anything expensive.

Everything I brought to country I didn't count on it returning (see Rules of Peace Corps). When my student roommate, Dayana, asked for a radio to listen to music, I just gave her my old iPhone 4 (it has no SIM slot so it doesn't work here). When I gave it to her, I knew it would be a potential target; that she may lose and or break it. When she came back from Winter break, I was excited to see that it was not cracked. She even had pictures of her family and music which she played as she went about her day. She used it more in the past 2 months than I had used it in the past 2 years.

And then the inevitable happened. My neighbor stopped by the morning after I got back from a week long trip to Dar. She told me that her daughter (who's friends with Dayana) went to retrieve some clothes from Dayana's room and decided to borrow the iPhone. She took it to the school farm to listen to music. At the farm she was showing it off to everyone and put it in her backpack when doing farm work to keep it safe. When checking her bag later, she discovered that the iPhone was gone.

People can believe what they want to believe, but I believe that story is a load of garbage. The bottom line is my neighbor's kid was a thief the minute she left my house with the phone. I felt so sad for Dayana and kept thinking about the personal things she had on the iPhone. It wasn't mine anymore so I didn't feel as though I had lost anything but it did leave a bad taste in my mouth.

This neighbor is drowning in familial responsibilities. Throughout my service I have been close with her, helping out when I could. They are the classic textbook case of keeping up with the Joneses, where they have some uncontrollable desire to show off the idea of wealth. They have a car but they eat dinner in the dark, with only the lights from their cell phones to illuminate their unusable tv and stereo set. They have all the nice things ,but are the unhappiest people. They're the house that all the neighbors can often hear kids being “disciplined” and loud yelling. I once asked the woman about the noise after a particularly loud incident and she made up a story about her infant having hot water poured on him, even though he showed no signs of that happening.

So I felt bad for her. She has all these responsibilities and is essentially on her own because her husband is the dumbass (a pastor aka a man of God) who makes these financial decisions for the family. So as her friend I gave her the things I could part with and even lent her some money ($50, the amount I was willing to lose). I think over a period of half a year, her family destroyed 4 different solar powered lights. And so I learned that you can't just give people nice things for free and expect them to take care of it. Economic incentive is the most powerful behavior change tool and if people don't work for something, they don't pay for it, they don't appreciate it. They lived without it before, so they can live without it again. When people buy things, it creates a sense of ownership like no other. It also doesn't help that people don't emphasize saving money. When they have it they spend it, when they don't they don't. So now I'm here, waiting to be reimbursed for a phone from someone who has numerous debts already. I came here to help the school and students, not my neighbor and her husband’s financial decisions. It's unfortunate when money ruins relationships, but in the end maybe it's for the best in this situation.

With less than 6 months left in my service, I find myself questioning my views on international development. Sure, one person can't change a village, specially an outsider. The change must come from within, and grow naturally. Change is impossible though when people don't have skills, knowledge, or capital. Behavior change is the key to so many problems here and yet it is the hardest thing to implement. Real sustainable change rarely seems to come from giving people things. In all honesty, I am just tired and looking forward to returning home and starting my life. I came, I saw, I lived, and I'm just about done.

[gingeroranj-blog]

Farewell to Boloti!

Speech by Ven at morning assembly on our last day at site, 30 September 2016.

 We have been at Boloti Secondary School for two years, and now, it is time to say “Good-bye.”

First, we started by teaching this year’s Form Three students for two months.

Then, we have taught this year’s Form Two student for one full year.

And, this year, we have taught Form One for nine months.

Madam Sonia will finish the school year for us by teaching Form One Maths and English.  

She will do a great job!

Every day, every week, every month and every year, we have learned new ways to teach in the Tanzanian classroom.  

We have tried our best to do our jobs as teachers.

That is all we can do as human beings.

We encourage you to do the same, just try your best!

The students and teacher who we admire are the ones who try their best.

Yes, your skills in Maths or English may be high, or low, but you cannot improve unless you try your best.

I want to thank PermaGarden members from last year and this year for their participation.  The project is a success due to their efforts.

Last year, we harvested 430 bundles of vegetables.

And this year, we will harvest over 800 bundles by the end of the school year.  It is about double what we did last year.

I want to thank Mr. Kileo for his hard work on the PermaGarden Project.  His assistance and cooperation has made it possible.

Mr. Munuo has supported many of our activities atBoloti, including PermaGarden;  study tours to Kilimanjaro International Airport, the World Vegetable Center, Kilimanjaro National Park; First Aid Training and more. We thank him for his assistance and cooperation.

We have many good memories from our time here, from the villagers that we have met, to the students that we have worked with.

I want to leave you with the message to always, “Try Your Best!”

Thank you!

Kelly tries to inspire the students with with a farewell address.

As the eldest member of the staff, Mr. Kileo addressed the students  and thanked us for our service.

z���a;r

[gingeroranj-blog]

Fruits and Vegetables for Students

Ven’s story about her PermaGarden Project

 First Year 2015

The PermaGarden Project was started in my first year at Boloti Secondary Schol.  The project aimed to improve the nutrition for students by 1) planting vegetables, 2) growing fruit trees like papaya, bananas, mangoes and avocados; and 3) installing a water catchment system to make water readily available and more sustainable throughout the year.  Last year, my counterpart and I worked with 30 plus students to build 28 vegetable beds and to grow leafy greens like amaranth (mchicha), sukuma wiki (collard), and Chinese (like napa cabbage).  At the end of the school year 2015, we were able to harvest 460 bundles of greens, providing vegetables for 46 meals last year.  We purchased and planted 44 fruit tree seedlings of mangoes, avocadoes and oranges.  Unfortunately, only 13 fruit trees survived into this year.  We had planted in late May and there wasn’t much rain later in the year.  Also built into the project proposal was a study tour to learn more about agriculture.

 Last September, Mr Kileo and I took PermaGarden members to the World Vegetable Center east of Arusha. Students saw nurseries for vegetables, experimental plots of crops, seed collection and drying methods (above).

Gutters were installed on both sides of the building, enabling rainwater to be collected in 5000 liter tanks.  Underground pipes send the water directly into the field, where the garden is located. A third tank collects water from the dining hall building and makes it possible to grow more vegetables at a second site.  It was a multi-month endeavor, finally ready for collecting water in January this year.

 Second Year 2016

Vegetable Garden

School started up again in mid-January.  The rains started early this year in January and the school went out to plant corn. (We learned later that it was a false start, and we didn’t get consistent rain until April).  I used this opportunity to select six girls in Form One to work on planting vegetables. We took cuttings of matembele (sweet potato leaves) and planted it around this huge tree.  Matembele is an easy vine to grow that spreads on the ground and requires minimal water; it is nutritious and can be available throughout the year.   We also prepared vegetable beds and planted zucchini, mchicha (amaranth) and kale.  We grew butternut squash in piles around the field (I had wanted pumpkin, but only found butternut seeds).  I found a villager growing bell peppers, and asked to purchase seedlings from him.   The bell peppers took up two beds. Unfortunately, as soon as the kale seedlings came up, they would disappear in matter of days.  It was still the dry season, and I noticed a lot more insects like grasshoppers.  The zucchini was a bigger plant, so most of it survived the insects.  

 By mid-April, after about two months, we were able to harvest matembele leaves (pictured above).   Our cooks chop them up and cook them in the beans to be served with ugali, which is kind of like firm and bland mashed potatoes made from ground corn.

PermaGarden members rinse matembele, using the tap from the water tanks.

 Our first harvest of zucchini came in mid-April as well.  The pests attacked the zucchini squash, boring into the fruit.  Our yield was severely reduced due to these insect borers, but we did manage to get about four harvests.  The zucchini was chopped up and cooked with kande, a stew-like dish with hominy/corn and beans. Then, the next challenge was dealing with complaints from students who didn’t like zucchini.  So then, we had to cook the zucchini on the side, but that left many students without any vegetables.  

 I started harvesting zucchini while it was still fairly young to get some yield before the insects got to them.  

Our transplanted bell peppers did not fair well.  Some pest was stunting them, and most plants did not  produce many leaves or fruits.  Butternut squash was also getting infested with some insect borers. I kept my fingers crossed that some squash will make it through the challenges and I avoided checking on them too much.  Incessant worrying wasn’t going to prevent insects from attacking my plants.  I learned that young squash leaves may be eaten, just like pumpkin leaves, so we harvested some squash greens a couple of times for school meals.  In case we don’t get any butternut, I felt better that we were able to eat the leaves at least.  We planted a large area in green beans too, but most seeds did not germinate.  I had purchased them from a villager because I couldn’t find them anywhere; the seeds must have been too old or something.   I feel very much like a farmer this year, dealing with insects and plant disease, not enough rain or too much rain, and sourcing seeds.  

In March, the insect infestation had subsided and we were able to start some beds of sukuma wiki (collard), followed by Chinese (leafy cabbage) in April.  We also have cilantro and scallions in the garden.  After about two months, we were able to supply the school with at least one type of vegetable per day.

I initially started with a group of six girls in January.  Now, I have four groups of boys and girls working with me (someone must have complained about my girls not attending assembly daily, so I had to make more groups. This actually worked out great, more members!)  Three groups worked two mornings a week and one group of Muslim students help out on Sunday morning since they don’t go to church.  Unfortunately, working 30 minutes in the morning during assembly time isn’t enough.  We only have time to harvest vegetables and water the beds, and not really enough time to maintain or do any new plantings.    As a result, I am now trying to get them to help out after school on Wednesdays or on a weekend day.  Kelly and I will be moving to a new house near the school after Term One, so this will make it easier for me to work with students after school or on a weekend afternoon.

 Fruit Trees

My counterpart Mr Kileo and I had plans to plant 100 banana and 100 papaya seedlings this year(technically, bananas are a plant and not a tree because they don’t have a woody stem).   We worked with students to dig many holes in preparation for the fruit trees.  The holes need to be about 40 cm wide and 60 cm deep because the soil is infertile.   Before this endeavor, I thought planting trees was easy, just dig a hole, pop in the seedling, cover the hole around the seedling, and then water the tree.  The reality is that the soil is hard and rocky; I’ve learned that using a pick-ax to break up the soil helps.  Mr Kileo would get students out digging holes after school.  I would try to do the same on Saturday mornings with Form One students.   In March, we purchased and planted 100 papaya trees and an additional 20 avocado and 15 mango trees.   We have been told that the papaya trees are a fast growing variety that will produce fruits before the year is out.  The avocado and mango trees are a longer term investment that will hopefully bear fruit in about five years or so.  Last year, I lovingly tended to my avocado and mango trees, watering, weeding and mulching them with students, and still, many perished. This year, I took a more pragmatic approach and did not grow too attached to them, recognizing that we will have some loss.  And indeed we did! We lost some papaya trees to some grasshoppers that would just bite off the top of the seedling.    

So during this time, I was busy attending to and supervising the school garden and fruit trees. Meanwhile, Mr. Kileo was responsible for helping me with the PermaGarden Project, as well as supervising the much larger school farm.  The rain season had a false start this year, coming strong for about two weeks in January, then tapering off in February and March.  Our school planted corn in January, but most of the corn did not germinate.  In March, we postponed two days of mid-term exams to go out and sowed corn seeds again prior to the two week break.  We were gambling that the rains would come during our mid-term break.  It did not, and we returned to school in April only to see stunted corn plants or sparse fields.  The rains finally arrived in April, so students went to shamba (farm) again. We had failed to plant corn twice, due to the unusual rain patterns this year.  The third time, the school decided to plant beans instead, because it has a shorter growing season.  Every time the students go out to shamba, we lose 2-3 days of school.  In May, students went to shamba to weed and to apply fertilizer.  I mention this as context for our challenge in establishing and maintaining a fruit orchard.  Let’s not forget that the main reason for students being at school is to get an education.  

Kelly wonders when Mr Kileo will turn and walk the other way when he sees me approaching him.  Honestly, he is a gem, one of the few teachers at Boloti with high integrity. He juggles teaching Geography, supervising school farming and PermaGarden.  

As of August 17th, we have Chinese napa cabbage, collard, Swiss chard, amaranth, sweet potato leaves, cilantro and scallions in the ground. The efforts of PermaGarden members have succeeded in providing 450 students at Boloti with vegetables in 102 meals so far this year, compared with 46 meals last year.  Our students get at least one meal with vegetables per day since April.  We sell the vegetables to the school and have earned Tsh230,000 (about 115USD) this year towards purchases of PermaGarden-related items.  There are about 200 banana, papaya, mango and avocado trees, which will hopefully provide students with fruits starting next year.  Kelly and I will be departing from our site on the first of October.  

[tzpeace]

The 1 Year Mark

So many things have happened since I last wrote. With the 4th of July PCTZ gathering, Marissa visiting, and Stephanie being here for 6 weeks; it has been a while since I’ve just been at my site, being a Tanzanian.  After my trip to America and traveling with my family (America in Tanzania) I was so excited to get back to Madibira.  I missed real Tanzanian food, my neighbors, and my dogs. Only thing was when I got back, I had a Mzungu with me.

The term Mzungu has always been a weird word for me. Kids in the village shout it because they don’t know how else to get your attention, and they’re so happy to see you. Or young (generally male) Tanzanians will use it and you can hear the hate resonating in their voice. I personally classify a Mzungu as anyone who is white and cannot speak Swahili, which is how I justify not being a Mzungu.

Stephanie visiting was amazing and she was able to see so much of Tanzania that most tourists would never see. It was awesome but also exhausting having a mzungu in this country. By the end of her stay, I was just tired; tired of speaking 2 different languages, tired of being a host, and tired of sharing my bed. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t have changed a thing. Being in Peace Corps I’ve learned a lot about myself. I value alone time, especially here.  I need time to decompress everything that I deal with on a daily basis and even though my speaking ability has gotten far better, I’ve still only studied Swahili for a year. I would say I’m at the same conversational level as a 12-year old.

This Swahili handicap has really affected my ability to teach some of my students. I don’t know enough Swahili to teach Physics and they don’t know enough English to understand me. It is a huge failure with the Tanzanian school system. This problem is pretty common here, even though the language of secondary education and up is English (while primary school’s language of medium is Swahili). This mix of languages in the Education system has left many students and even teachers with the inability to converse or understand English. With all of their testing done in English, there are schools (including mine) where very few students pass form 4 (senior year equivalent) because no one knows English. I have no idea what the solution is to this problem. All their textbooks are in English, most science words don’t have a translation, and English is the unofficial language of the world (for now until it’s Chinese).  

I’m getting closer and closer to that 1 year mark. The 1 year mark is infamous in Peace Corps because its a time where most people get into a funk. People deal with this funk in different ways.  For some volunteers, they see that they have one more year left of Tanzania, say “fuck this”, and ET (Early Terminate). Even I lost a pretty good friend to America who wanted to get out of Law School before she was 30. Sometimes in Peace Corps you have to be a little selfish. Change is such a slow/difficult process, it rarely happens in 2 years. The problems here aren’t an easy fix, or else they’d be fixed already!

Being a 4th generation volunteer can be easier/harder. The school has realistic expectations for you, especially in the beginning. They know that you have some adjusting to do. Sometimes though, the school can have high expectations from a previous volunteer’s final project. The hardest thing about being a 4th generation volunteer for me is seeing the absence of past peace corps projects. The library the first volunteer built, which over the years lost its books because the librarian didn’t do her job, and was raided in the riots. The water project which fell through because the consultant didn’t estimate the right pipe size for the water pump. And to top it all off, at a current student population of 1000 (which is already two times too many) there is an expected class size of 452 students entering next year. The resources here are lacking in every aspect, from classrooms, chairs, desks, and dormitories. My job isn’t to come here and be a construction worker. I came here to help with the shortage of math and physics teachers.

But those are just the realities that being in Peace Corps exposes you to. Sometimes it can give you a really negative outlook on the developing world. Other times there is hope. In my classroom I see the students who are driven and working against all odds to try and get out of this place in order to give themselves, and their country a better future. I am so happy to teach here, to expose students to a more constructive way of learning instead of rouge memorization. It’s become so important for me to show them that you don’t need corporal punishment to control a classroom or to “make a student learn”. The best days are when I leave the classroom feeling like I actually taught something.

Looking forward into the next year I’m generally excited. Even with all the realities in front of me, I can honestly say that most days I’m happy here. When I wake up in a funk, I just put on a rocking Tanzanian outfit and my mood improves instantly. People here are always happy to see me embracing their culture and I’m happy to be apart of it. I’m proud to live a Tanzanian life. Sure its hard but its also temporary for me. When I leave, I’ll be leaving all this behind and be returning to the land of potable endless drinking water and drive-thrus. It’s a bitter sweet reality. I’m already halfway through my service and it all went by so fast. I can only imagine how fast the next year will go.

[gingeroranj-blog]

CODE Org, Ottawa, Ontario. 1,676 likes · 33 talking about this. CODE is Canada's leading int'l development agency uniquely focused on advancing literacy...

CODE Org produces the Children's Book Project of Tanzania series. My students love these books. Here are some of them showing off what they are reading.

[gingeroranj-blog]

Life in the Village

An update from Ven:

We recently moved to a new house near our school, but this is a snapshot of what it was like for almost two years in the village of Nkwansira.            

I see Mama Oscar everyday for my half liter of fresh milk.  She keeps two cows and constantly cuts grass or banana leaves for them. Mama Oscar and I also swap foods. She’ll share avocadoes and bananas from her own farm with me while I bring her banana pancakes, naan, chilli or bell peppers.  To earn extra income, she also operates a “bar” from her house.  Neighbors might stop by for a beer.  Mama Oscar’s brother is Ulomi, who owns a small duka (shop) up the very steep hill near our house.  Ulomi supplies me with local eggs from free-range chickens J, as opposed to white-yolk factory eggs available in town.

For leafy greens and bell peppers, I visit Babu (Grandfather) and Bibi (Grandmother) nearby. They grow vegetables using manure compost. ( I am not sure why they wanted to be pictured holding newspapers).

Mama Binti has a mechanical sewing machine – no electricity needed!  She just moves her feet up and down gently.  Mama Binti is my source for simple alterations.  Shirt too big?  Let’s take the sides in a little bit.  Skirt too long? Let’s shorten it and hem it in.

I have also enjoyed some peaches from her backyard.  Before you think of the apple-sized peaches you can get at Target or Rainbow, her peaches are much smaller, crunchy and tart.  But hey, at least it’s fruit from the village.  

This sweet and cheerful boy gives us a 3-step greeting whenever we walk past his house.  It’s a fist-bump, high-5 and fist-bump greeting. And, yes, I have asked for his name twice, but have not been able to nail it yet.

���;�v�

[gingeroranj-blog]

Iffy Food #2

An update from Kelly

Ven is a very good cook.  She is also curious.  Sometimes the combination becomes Ven’s Iffy Foods.

Ven’s comments from the kitchen:

“The bread has mold, Just take that chunk out and toast it, or you could try eating it.  Maybe it will make you stronger.”

“The milk went bad between the first cups of coffee and now.  It was borderline to begin with, but then it coagulated.  I think I can make yogurt or cheese with it.”

“Sometimes when the milk goes bad, I use it to make pancakes.  We haven’t got sick, but I haven’t told you either.”

Dinner: Twice grilled breakfast rice with eggplant, tomato, bell pepper, garlic, onion and cumin curry.

Dinner appetizer: Southern Fried Lady Fingers [okra].

Snack: Banana and mung bean pudding.  Kelly’s comment: “Is this iffy?” Ven’s reply: “The only iffy part might be the weevils.”

Lunch: Pasta salad with macaroni, arugula, tomato, mango, Cucumber, carrot, onion and egg.

Lunch: Salad with bean sprouts, carrots, tomatoes, cukes, onions, garlic, peanuts with vinaigrette along with egg and herb cheese bread.

Snack: Chapati mozzarella quesadillas

Lunch: Cheesy rice risotto with tomato, arugula, onion, garlic, peas and cashew gin.

Dinner: Salad with cucumber, onion, carrot, beans and vinaigrette along with chapati mozzarella quesadillas

Dinner: Salad with cucumber, onion, carrot, beans and vinaigrette along with chapati mozzarella quesadillas

Breakfast: Fried brown rice with egg, bean sprouts, carrots, onions, ginger and bell peppers.

Lunch: Grilled mozzarella cheese bread vs. chapati mozzarella quesadillas

Salad: Cukes, beans, carrots, onions and v vinaigrette.

Dinner: Aged pea, carrot and onion soup with garlic toast.