Little by little...: Wazungu na Watanzania or Americans and Tanzanians

February was a tumultuous month for me. I ate some things I shouldn't have- like maggots- and spent a lot of time feeling sick and miserable, holing up in my house, only going between my bed and my choo. I felt really guilty about not being out in my village, not being productive, and I got really homesick, missing the comforts of warm showers and hot and sour soup from the nearest Chinese restaurant and western toilets where you can sit comfortably as opposed to having your feet fall asleep because you have been sitting in a squat for so long having terrible diarrhea. BTW, I do not advise eating maggots- they cause terrible abdominal pain and other ailments.

But, after spending a week confined to my bed, with only my guilt and frustration for company, my intestines got over their unhappiness, and I made leaps and bounds in progress in my village! Or at least that is how I feel. I made a male kijana (youth) friend, which is kind of a big deal because there is a lot of gender separation in my village- I think in most of Tanzania, as well- and having this one person be my friend means I have an in to talking to the rest of the male vijana (multiple youths), and I am really excited about one day being able to talk to them about condoms and safe sex, STIs, HIV/AIDS, motivating and supporting them in trying to find work.... I started tutoring one primary school boy English- which is actually really difficult, I have no idea how to teach someone a language- but now I think the rest of the primary school children are nicer to me; they greet me, they show respect by saying “shikamoo,” and they don't tease me anymore. Yes, I do get picked on by little children. They can be really intimidating in large groups, especially when you can't understand what they are saying to you! I visited the secondary school- where the students, especially the upper forms, are pretty close if not the same age as I am- which I thought would be really intimidating, but all of the students were really nice, and really enthusiastic about me continuing the health club the last volunteer started there. I am really excited about overseeing a health club. This is my thing. Peer health education among youth in an academic setting. I want it to be very much student organized and run. I want them to decide what they want to talk about in the club, what activities they want to do, if and how they want to rely information to their classmates not in the club, and I want them to decide how people become part of the club, how they want the club government organized... A couple of students have asked me if we are going to have boys and girls conferences like the previous group of volunteers in the district had, too, which were apparently very popular. I have started my sexual health education in the village, too, except that my audience is composed of all the grandmas in my village >_> (shifty eyes). I went with my fundi friend (she makes clothes; the term for anyone who has any kind of skill is fundi) to visit her bibi (grandmother), and her bibi starts asking me if I use condoms and how many I use! Sooo, I started telling her about how to use condoms, the importance of using only one condom at a time and using lubricant or else friction will cause tears in the latex (did you know that in some African cultures women will use herbs to actually dry themselves out because they think if there is no natural lubricant, or any lubricant at all, it makes sex better? Problem. This leads to tears in the vagina and increases HIV transmission). I didn't know how to say most of this in Kiswahili, so there were a lot of hand gestures and hoping she understood what I meant. I got my hair braided by another bibi in my vill, which is a big socializing time for women, so I am sitting there with the bibi braiding my hair, my kijana fundi friend, and another woman, and the whole time she asks me questions like “Do white people or Africans know more about sex?” Who has sex more often?” “Do white people shave their pubic hair?” “Why can't American women show each other their breasts?” In Tanzania, breasts are not sexy or illicit at all- women whip them out to breast feed their children in the middle of the day, in the middle of a crowd, completely uncovered- but women do not show their knees or shoulders. So we talked about why that is and how its different between American and Tanzanian cultures. It was a really great experience of cultural exchange, and I think its really funny to talk about sex with old ladies when I would never talk about any of these things with old ladies in the States.

Another leap and bound I made was I figured out how to light my charcoal stove by myself! I have been at site for how many months and just figured it out? But now I feel like I can actually survive in this country because now I can feed myself and hopefully not make myself sick! It is a pain in the ass to light, but I can do it, and I have baked bread, made lentil curry, potato stuffed naan, lots of soups, cornflour pancakes, and bean burgers!

Now for American time. Pictures speak louder than words, but here are the highlights:

Made wine in a bucket with the site mates in preparation for a birthday sharehe (party).
Had first American visitors to my vill for Valentine's Day.
Site mate, Maria, turned 30, so we celebrated her birthday in town with the standi guys and Maria got to use a microphone at Club NBC- it was a debacle.
I got a new site mate, who is only a two hour walk from my vill! This is a big improvement over the closest person being a three hour (at least) drive and two buses away from me.

Here are some pictures