Voodoo - what you don’t dare do - people

Have a little secret
I ain’t gonna tell
I’m goin’ to heaven and I ain’t goin’ to hell
Oh ladda me, didn’t I shake sugaree

Very strange experience the other day. I was standing in front of my house when an old woman walked by. I gave her the culturally appropriate “shikamoo,” (Swahili has a whole range of formal greetings, shikamoo being the most respectful greeting given to the elderly), and she responded with the appropriate “marahaba.” We chatted in Swahili for a few minutes and she let on that she was a relative of my next-door neighbors. After a bit she then went over to visit her family. A couple minutes later she and her family walked by my house to go wherever it was that they were going. I said hello to the family, and told the old woman that it’d been nice to meet her. She responded with some kooky hand gestures and face twitches, and one of the men in the group explained to me that she was a “bubu” and that I shouldn’t try speaking to her. Bubu means mute. He explained that she’d had a fever as a child and hasn’t been able to speak since. I tried to convince him that I’d just spoken with her, but he just kept repeating his story… probably convinced that I just didn’t understand his Swahili. The group then went on their way. Bizarre.

There are a few explanations I’ve come up with, although none are particularly good. Her affliction could be one that comes and goes, and after she spoke to me perhaps she lost the ability to speak again temporarily? Her whole family could have just decided to mess with the mzungu (means white person or foreigner) neighbor’s head? Or maybe, just maybe, the woman has been faking her muteness her whole life and occasionally talks to the random person who she knows can’t blow her cover? Honestly though, beats me. I suppose she could have just been a witchdoctor. As my father said after I told him the story, “Two words, Josh: Move. On.” He’s a wise man.

And yes, you read right. I did say witchdoctor. My island is notorious for its voodoo, and I am told people flock from all over the world to learn from the witchdoctor masters here. I’m living in the voodoo Mecca. Kinda cool, huh? After being outside at night a couple times I can definitely see why this place is thought to channel some serious black magic. The island has giant bats, a primeval jungle with sections that have never been cut down, a nightly low mist that rolls off the ocean over the empty roads and fields, foot long millipedes, bush babies (which are small, freakish looking monkeys with giant eyes who come out at night and make truly unnerving shrieks), spice smuggler and pirate hide outs, and packs of roaming dogs (people here are convinced that dogs are shapeshifters, so between that and the Muslim bias against dogs, the local dogs dare only to come out at night). The island also played a major role in the East Africa slave trade and old Indian Ocean spice trade. Some serious suffering took place in this island’s past. Now, I’m not saying I believe in voodoo. I’m just saying that if it does exist, my spice island here would be the place. I’m also sure as hell not going to declare outright that I don’t believe in it. Coming home with a witchdoctor’s curse for nonbelievers is not what I had in mind when I signed up for the Peace Corps.

Technically, practicing voodoo is illegal here. It was outlawed by a Zanzibar president years back. The story goes that his witchdoctor told him his career would eventually be ruined by a magic curse. Apparently, outlawing all witchery seemed like the logical solution. Talk about something out of a Greek tragedy! I’d go ahead and guess that more than a few local witchdoctors were angered by having their jobs forced underground by the feds, so as a result the president probably ended up with a fair share of gnarly curses. Self-fulfilling prophecy.

Despite voodoo being illegal though, (and the 98% Muslim statistic), I’m told it’s still widely believed in and practiced. Heck, I walk by a witchdoctor’s shop every day when I walk into town. Nice guy, we chat it up from time to time. Animal tarps, bones, stick sculptures, and a whole lot of crazy stuff in jars line the shop walls. And this is an established shop in one of the island’s more modern towns. I don’t even want to know what kind of crazy shit goes down out in the villages and jungle.

In other news, we’ve had a serious heat wave lately. Well over 100 degrees in the afternoon. Real humid too. Last night at 11:30 when I went to bed the thermometer clocked in at 89. My area of town’s also been without electricity and water for the past 3 days. It’s a pretty bad scene in Josh land right now. It’s so hot that I’m drenched in sweat after spending 10 seconds outside, and I have no water to shower with or electricity to power a fan. Things are looking up today though! I did manage to finally get clean this morning by taking a shower in some rain in my courtyard. I’ve also just been told that I should be getting power and water back tomorrow. Maybe I should go ask the witchdoctor?

So, happy holidays everyone! If there’s any snow at all where you are, roll around in it. And while you're at it, hug a pine tree. Do it for me. Siku kuu njema!

We can’t stop here, this is bat country

Now I’ve been happy lately,
thinking about the good things to come
And I believe it could be,
something good has begun



No seriously, this IS bat country. My island, (whose name, again, I am unable to disclose due to Peace Corps policies), has these critters called flying foxes. They’re not actually foxes though, just incredibly enormous bats. My first evening here I saw some flying overhead and mistook them for hawks. I was corrected by my neighbor, who proceeded to then explain that if one ever gets near me I should hit it as hard as I can, because sometimes they get rabid and attack people. Fun. Good thing Peace Corps vaccinates against rabies. U.S. tax dollars hard at work!

It’s been a long, long week, but I’m finally settling into my home. I’m living in half of a fairly large cement duplex, (another teacher at my school lives in the other half with her husband and children). I have my own living room, porch, courtyard, kitchen, a couple of storerooms, and (of course) choo. My bedroom is fairly large, and I have 2 empty guestrooms, (any brave visitors are more than welcome!).






I’m told my home was formerly occupied by a Canadian VSO volunteer a few years back. It definitely hasn’t been lived in for a good couple of years now, as it was rocking the boarded-up basement smell when I first arrived. I’ve been airing it out though, and it’s getting a lot better. Moving in has been a slow and tedious process. Aside from a few chairs and a bed, the house was completely empty when I arrived. Needless to say, I’m getting (I think) pretty good at bartering for various things in town.

I’ve already made some very good contacts in town, and am starting to get situated at my school. There’s a huge need for computer knowledge here, as NGO’s have been pouring computers and technology into Africa during the last couple years, but have completely neglected the task of educating people in how to actually use the damn machines. I’ve got my work cut out for me, no doubt, but it will definitely be rewarding. Everyone here is really eager to learn about computers and the Internet, so student motivation is definitely not going to be an issue. It does turn out though that I’ll be doing a good amount of teaching in Swahili, as English seems to be less common here than on the mainland. It’s gonna be a steep learning curve for sure, but I have faith in my ability to conjure creative hand gestures in the meantime.

Cooking’s been the major challenge so far. When I come home I’m completely wiped out from running around all day in the heat , and the prospect of cooking dinner with a kerosene stove is more than a little daunting. Because of the lack of refrigeration food needs to be bought no more than a day before it is eaten, so cooking here takes a lot of planning. I’ll get the hang of it soon I’m sure, but right now I’m struggling a bit. Buying food is an experience in and of itself, as it requires going to the town market and bartering like a madman.

Speaking of town, I live in a pretty unique place. The town is an active port, so all sorts of goods are readily available. Staple foods from mainland Tanzania come by boat once a week and we get all manner of exotic foods and spices from all over the Indian Ocean. The island also grows a lot of spice, the major export being cloves. When evening breezes pick up, the whole island smells miraculous. Combine that with the almost supernatural sounding prayers echoing out of the (many) mosques, and the island possesses a very undeniable ambience.

The people here have been incredibly inviting as well. In recent years America has cultivated somewhat of a prejudice regarding Islam, so being a non-Muslim American arriving on an almost entirely Muslim island, I was a little bit nervous. Only a few days in, I’m already embarrassed about the preconceptions I had coming in. Everyone’s been very friendly and welcoming (dare I say, even more so than on the mainland), especially when they realize that I speak some Swahili. The culture here is so very rich, I really feel fortunate to be immersed in such a place.

After 10 weeks of being more or less on the road, it’s finally nice to be home. It’s not going to be an easy two years by any means, but something tells me it’s going to fly by. Until next time, salama.

Kwa herini Morogoro

My host family


Zanzibar islanders at the swearing in ceremony


It was tasty


Philly Staging roomies, happy to be done with training


Because she asked so nicely, this one's for Kit's mom


I don't really know what's going on here


Peace Corps puts a lot of effort into swearing in


These guys roam the earth whenever it rains. If they get scared they spray acid. This one is pretty small too. Karibu Tanzania!


Me and Cynthia


Nazia and Kavisa, making me look tall


I'm not really sure what Kris is wearing...


So long, Morogoro


P.S. I've safely arrived on my island. Settling in is proving to be a slow process, but I'll get there. The people here have been wonderful so far, and the staff at my school is great. My house needs a bit of work, but in a month's time I should be fine. I've been super busy this past week, but when I get a chance I'll post a real update.

Together, more or less in line

You’re sick of hangin’ around and you’d like to travel;
Get tired of travelin’ and you want to settle down.
I guess they can’t revoke your soul for trying,
Get out of the door and light out and look all around.

Sometimes the light’s all shinin’ on me;
Other times I can barely see.
Lately it occurs to me
what a long, strange trip it’s been.



What a week! Following the Kiswahili language exam a week ago all us trainees were bused off all over the country for shadow visits. Craig and I were lucky enough to stay with current PCV Eric up in Moshi. The above picture of Kilimanjaro is from his front yard. Pretty unbeatable. The mountain is utterly awe inspiring. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to climb it at some point.

It was really nice getting out of the heat of Morogoro for a few days, and Eric was an excellent host. Seeing an actual volunteer living and working out in the field was really reassuring as well. I think it’ll be a great two years.

Following shadow visits Craig and I bused it down to Dar es Salaam. It was a 9 hour trip on a very hot and stuffy bus. Not. Fun. At least we got to see a large portion of the countryside though. From the protection of the bus I was able to take some pictures of typical places I visit but normally never dare to bring my camera. Here’s a shot of a small town shopping center, (called dukani in Kiswahili). Most small towns in Tanzania have sections that look pretty similar to this. Morogoro has a number of them. They always carry lots of good, basic items. They also happen to be useful for keeping a pulse on some of the more colorful local slang.



As enjoyable as Moshi was, Dar was where the real excitement of the week took place. The suspense of site announcements has been growing since pretty much week one of training. It’s not surprising that we all were really anxious to know where we’d be spending the next 2 years of our lives. The big day did not disappoint.



The Peace Corps Tanzania staff put an enormous map of the country outside displaying the pictures and locations of all the current volunteers in Tanzania. One by one, the country director called the names of our training group. She announced each person’s site, and we then each went up and pinned our picture up near our location. I gotta say, it was pretty damn exciting.

As I wrote in my last entry, I’ll be going to a remote post in the Zanzibar Islands. I’m told my house is right near the beach, and is it just a short walk away from my school. I should get some really nice Indian Ocean trade winds, which will hopefully save me from the extraordinary heat and humidity, (which are significantly worse than Morogoro apparently).

The Zanzibar Islands were originally the portal to Africa in the Indian Ocean spice trade. The early form of the Kiswahili language was created by the Zanzibar traders in an effort to standardize the Bantu dialects of the mainland so that Arab and African traders could communicate. Needless to say, the culture and history of the place is incredibly rich. The Zanzibar Islands are almost entirely Muslim, so it seems that I’ll be more or less living the Muslim lifestyle for 2 years. Talk about a once in a lifetime opportunity.

I’ll be working at a college of education, teaching computers to the students and staff. Apparently the school just acquired a decent number of new computers along with network and satellite internet equipment. By teaching computers to the future teachers of Tanzania, I hope to make a pretty decent impact. I’ll also have the task of setting up a network and the internet. I’ll then have the next 2 years to train the teachers and staff to repair and maintain the system. It’ll be challenging, but really rewarding I hope.

There’s one other education volunteer assigned to my island, although we’re being placed on opposite tips. Here’s Mike and I trying, (keyword being trying), to look appropriately badass, (we are going to one of the most remote Peace Corps Tanzania locations after all).



The photo was taken at the U.S. Ambassador’s house during the big Thanksgiving bash. The Ambassador was more than generous in allowing all of the Peace Corps staff, volunteers, and trainees in Tanzania to crash his front yard for a feast of epic proportions. After subsisting on mostly rice and beans for the last 2 months, I almost got tears in my eyes when I sat down to spend some quality time with my turkey platter. It was so very good. You don’t even know.



Richard, Kit, Cynthia, and I were appropriately pleased after gorging ourselves. Richard’s site will be exactly where Craig and I visited for our shadow visit earlier in the week. The man’s got a straight shot of the mountain from his doorstep. This is his 3rd tour with the Peace Corps, so I guess he’s earned it. Kit and Cynthia will be in the north near Kilimanjaro as well. The three of them are not a terribly far journey from my site, but my being on an island will make travel a little difficult. They were all great friends during training, and I’ll miss them a lot. I do plan on visiting the mainland whenever possible, however, so I should see them from time to time. Meanwhile, Craig is going down to the Southern Highlands, so he’ll be a serious trek away.

As for now, we’re all back in Morogoro for the last week of training. Next Friday, everyone heads off to the toughest jobs we’ll ever love, (old Peace Corps slogan… sorry, I couldn’t help myself). I’ve got to say, I am thrilled about where I’m going. It will truly be the adventure of a lifetime.

It's my island

We got our site announcements on Tuesday. I'll be spending the next two years at a college on the Zanzibar islands. Peace Corps policy does not allow anyone to announce their exact location over website or blog, so I'm not able to disclose the exact island or school here. If you'd like to know exactly where I'm going just shoot me an email.

Needless to say I am more than excited. Two years on a tropical island that was once a center of the Indian Ocean spice trade. It's 95% Muslim, and because the site is away from any tourist areas everyone is apparently very friendly. Talk about the cultural experience of a lifetime. Because the island is mostly Muslim, many religious Muslim rules are considered law. For instance, during Ramadan it is illegal to drink or eat anything in public. It's going to be an amazing 2 years.

I'm in the Peace Corps headquarters right now, and I'm about to head over to the ambassador's house for some tasty foods so I have to keep this really short.

Happy thanksgiving everyone!

Highest highs, lowest lows

If there was a better way to go then it would find me. I can’t help it, the road just rolls out behind me. Be kind to me… or treat me mean. I’ll make the most of it, I’m an extraordinary machine.

Last Friday was the last day of language training. With only two more weeks left until we’re sworn in and shipped off to our sites, training’s finally starting to wind down. Peace Corps has been a hell of a ride so far, certainly one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. Training went by at a breakneck pace, which although exhausting, in retrospect I think was very intelligently designed. Being here in these first few months can be utterly overwhelming, and by keeping us super busy the Peace Corps does a good job at getting us out of our own heads.

Seven weeks ago we arrived in an entirely foreign land with a culture we knew very little about, and were dropped into host families who spoke minimal (if any) English. I knew essentially no Kiswahili, (I knew how to say hello and thank you… my grand summer aspirations of learning a decent portion of the language didn’t exactly pan out). To call the last seven weeks a culture shock would be a vast understatement. The towns and landscape looks like nothing I’d seen outside of National Geographic, and while the people are extremely friendly it’s truly impossible to avoid attention absolutely everywhere I go. I’m constantly stopped on the street and bombarded with questions about where I’m from, and what the hell I’m doing in Tanzania. 95% of the time, this is really great. I enjoy meeting the people here, and for most of them I’m the first American they’ve ever met. It’s a very cool experience. Sometimes though, when I’m really tired and just want to get home and lie down, having to stop every 5 minutes and answer the same set of questions to every new person I pass on the road can be exhausting.

The majority of my time here has been really rewarding though. My Swahili is coming surprisingly rapidly (while disastrously awkward at first, total immersion works wonders), I’ve gotten used to the heat (as much as a Maine boy can anyway), and my body seems to finally have acclimated to the food. There are days when everything seems to come together, and I wouldn’t trade that feeling of “wow, I can’t believe I’m actually pulling this off!” for anything.

Of course, with the good there’s also some bad. I’ve been sick some, this past week especially. I spent a good part of the week feeling exactly like terrible. The general consensus among the medical staff here thinks it was a minor case of malaria. Luckily the meds I’m on seem to have done the trick. Spending five days sweating bullets while trapped in my bed was not particularly pleasant. Being really sick for the first time so far away from home gets to anyone’s head I imagine. I went through a whole reevaluation of why I’m here, and my fever afflicted brain really put up a good fight. It certainly didn’t seem to accept most answers I tried to provide. Definitely had a few despairing moments back there. Luckily, as the fever broke clarity returned.

It’s hard sometimes during the thick of training to remember exactly why I’m here, as it seems kind of silly at face value to be teaching computer science in a country plagued by larger environmental, endemic health, and economic problems. I definitely do feel like I have a good purpose though. There is a strong need here for information technology. Tanzanians are amazingly excited about the potential of computers, and in a world of rapid globalization computer technology really does have the potential to help East Africa make some very significant steps forward. I have no false aspirations of saving the world or anything grandeur like that, but I do feel like the engineering and teaching I do on site will make some worthwhile impacts. Time will tell I suppose.

Speaking of site, only one week remains until I find out exactly where I’ll be spending the next two years! All the trainees are getting pretty eager at this point… it feels like we’ve been waiting forever. There are four ICT (information and communication technology) trainees in our group, and we are pretty confident that we’ve deduced the 4 sites where we’ll be going. We just don’t know who’s going where yet. It does sound like some pretty prime real estate though: two of the sites are on the island of Zanzibar, apparently home to some of the most beautiful beaches in the world; one site is near Mbeya, a town way up in the cloud based rainforests of the southern highlands; and the last site is at a university in Moshi, literally on the base slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro. No one ever said being a geek didn’t have its benefits.

I’ll actually be heading up to Moshi this Thursday, as Wednesday marks the last day of training in Morogoro. Thursday through Sunday each trainee will be living with a current volunteer for a shadow session. Following that we’ll be going straight to Dar es Salaam for site announcements and Thanksgiving at the U.S. Ambassador’s house. Should be a rockin’ good time.

While I’m in the nostalgic mode, here are some random photos from throughout training, (I actually got these from Kit and Greg’s cameras, so I have to give credit where credit is due). This first one is from our last night in the U.S. A bunch of us went out on the town in Philly. A good time was had by all. It is strange thinking about staging though… it feels like a lifetime ago.



Here’s one of Richard, Kris, Jon, and I during training on a particularly hot and unpleasant afternoon, (we all look fabulous, no?):



This is Paulo, my small group’s fearless language trainer. He was an amazing teacher. Our group was really lucky to have him. Funny, funny guy too.



And here are a couple sneaky shots Kit caught of me on the bus in Mikumi. The ‘rents have been pestering me for pictures that actually prove I’m reasonably healthy, so here you go!




And finally, last week a group of us visited a local brick making operation. The place was pretty neat. Brick pyramids as far as the eye could see… literally for acres. The site has been in operation for more than 30 years. Super Mario, anyone?



This will most likely be my last real entry for a good couple of weeks. I’ll try to post a quick announcement of where my site is as soon as I find out, but I don’t expect to have significant Internet access until after Thanksgiving. So, happy early Turkey-day everyone! You all have my very best. Siku kuu njema! (Have a great holiday!)

Safari!

This past weekend our training group went on a safari at Mikumi National Park, about 3 hours south of Morogoro. It was absolutely spectacular. We were lucky enough to see most of the major animals. We saw elephants, zebras, wildebeests, water buffalo, monkeys, antelope, and giraffes. I tried to take a good number of pictures, but I found I enjoyed myself most when I had the camera turned off. Kinda seems silly to look at animals through an LCD screen when they’re right in front of you, and it’s not like I’m exactly going to compete with National Geographic. That said, I did manage to get a number of decent shots. Most of these pictures speak for themselves, so I’ll keep the rambling to a minimum.



Zebras were everywhere. Bold as can be too, they’d often walk right up to the bus.





One of the watering holes we stopped at was filled with hippos. Hippos are not small. They are also inherently hilarious. I couldn’t stop chuckling for most of the time I was watching them. They just kind of float around all day, and occasionally make a prehistoric sounding snort. They look really docile, and maybe even a little cute. It became abundantly clear to us just how dangerous the critters are though when the lone 15-foot crocodile in the pond bolted away in fear from one of the grunting hippos. Unfortunately, the hippos and crocodile didn’t come above the water for very long, so it was hard to get a decent picture of them. All my attempts came out looking like floating logs. So, instead you get this sweet picture of me fearlessly standing in front of the death pond! You’ll just have to take my word though that it’s filled with hippos and a croc.



This next one is my favorite photo.



This is an Acacia tree. The branches are covered in super sharp 4 inch spikes. Africa: even the trees are made to kick your ass.



Being the knuckleheads that we are, we of course resorted to sneak attack spiking one another with fallen Acacia quills. Hey, we can’t be mature ALL the time. Poor Allen here just incurred Conor’s wrath. Conor’s face of pure sinister joy is priceless.



A few random photos now:


Peace Corps Trainee Neil looking especially prepared to take on whatever the safari throws his way.


Chacos and Peace Corps service go hand in hand.


This is Kit, a very good friend of mine from training. It really is hard to take a bad photo in Africa.

We closed out the day by all relaxing in the shade of an enormous baobab tree. Standing beside an ancient African tree while watching dusk settle over the grasslands, it’s hard not to be touched. I was flooded with a great sense of peace. This last month has been incredibly challenging. It was really nice having all the built up stress and fatigue just kind of wash away into the sunset.

Behold, the power of science!

Apologies in advance for how disjointed this post is. My time at the computer today is very limited, so I'm going to mostly focus on getting my photos to upload, (which is a serious task).

The big excitement last weekend was my (I like to think) courageous attempt at baking a cake. We don't have an oven, but by putting a smaller pot inside a larger one, and by putting coals on top of and beneath the large pot, I was able to make a convection oven. The name sounds a lot more complicated than the contraption actually ended up being. The family was definitely amused while I was putting the thing together though. I managed to buy some Pillsbury cake mix at the local import store, (cost me a pretty penny), so mixing the cake was really easy. I was not entirely confident that the baking process was going to work at all though, so man oh man was I relieved when the yard started to fill with the smell of chocolate cake. It took forever to cook. The shack was hot as hot can be. The cake itself ended up being a little burned around the edges. But damn, it was so good. I wanted to cry it was so good.





So, definitely something to check off on the list of things I never expected to do in my lifetime: baking a chocolate cake in a pot on a charcoal stove in the middle of East Africa.

While I was waiting for the cake to bake I took some pictures of the yard and family. Here's a shot of my host mama washing dishes:



Last Saturday we had our weekly group training session, and afterwards we got a chance to go to a local pub and hang out for awhile. We get very few chances to unwind, so the chance to just sit around over a couple beers was pretty great.



We managed to get a group shot of most of us last Saturday. We've only lost one trainee so far, (and he left within 12 hours of arriving in Dar es Salaam), so we're at an even 40 now. Not bad at all.



Our Saturday training sessions have a habit of dragging a bit near the end. Here's a shot of me and Cynth messing around in the back of the room. I think we were trying to be thugs or something. Honestly, who knows? Let's see YOU try to be attentive after 9 hours of lectures on cross cultural exchange.



This coming weekend's looking like it's going to be awesome though. To celebrate the half-way point in training Peace Corps is giving us the weekend off. Tomorrow we're all going on a safari in Mikumi National Park, which is I'm told about 3 hours away. I am ridiculously excited. I've been in Africa for over a month and have yet to see any elephants, zebras, or lions. Tomorrow, that's going to change. Hopefully I'll have some good photos to upload next week. Wikiendi njema kila mtu! (Have a great weekend everyone!)