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!)