safari ni hatua

Well, it's been just about a week at my site, and it's still hard to believe I made it here. Training is already becoming a distant memory in my mind - it seems like ages ago that I stepped off the plane into the Dar airport, and I'm sure it will soon seem like ages since I arrived here at my school.

Training was hard work, but generally a lot of fun. The bulk of our training revolved around Swahili instruction, though there was also quite a bit of medical, safety, cultural, and educational training as well. Days were almost always very full, and to be honest I'm glad to have a good chunk of time off to relax before classes start (the spring semester begins on January 9th), because I rarely had free time to myself during training. Classes would usually go from 8am until 3-5pm, after which I would go home, hang out with my host family, eat dinner, and go to bed. Saturdays we had class as well, so our only real free day was on Sunday, but that was normally spent washing clothes, cleaning my room, or learning how to cook Tanzanian food.

Our normal training schedule came to an end in week 8, when we left Morogoro to go on what PC calls "shadow visits", which entails trainees going in pairs to visit a current PCV at their site. It was by far the best part of training, even though we didn't do much besides sit around talking and relaxing. After having such a busy schedule, it really was wonderful to let my brain relax. Plus, eating stuff like pancakes, mac&cheese, French toast, and tacos was a treat after eating basically nothing but Tanzanian food for 8 weeks (not that I don't like Tanzanian food, but I always say the thing I miss the most is the sheer variety of food you can eat in the US). It was also fun to see the southern part of the country - I shadowed in the Iringa region - because seeing as my site is very far in the northern part of the country, I probably won't get down there much.

After shadow we went to Dar, where on the first night we had dinner at the PC Country Director's house, which was a lot of fun, and really very nice of her. The next day was the day we had all been anxiously waiting for since, well, forever - site announcements. The time they do them varies from country to country, as I've heard in some places trainees find out in the second or third week (and also get to visit their site before actually going there for good), whereas I've also heard in some countries trainees don't find out where they are going until after swearing-in.  I personally think that's ridiculous, and I'm glad we at least got a little advance notice.

There were all sorts of rumors and expectations flying around in the weeks leading up to site announcements - about how many people would be going to each region, who would be going where, etc - which I think is one of the big downsides to waiting so long to announce sites. But we finally found out, and I think almost everyone was happy in some way about where they were going. There were a few that initially were obviously disappointed, yet I think we all came to be fairly comfortable with our locations after a few days. I know I was certainly ecstatic, as I was going to go to the Kilimanjaro region (I can't be more specific than that, due to a PC policy of PCVs not disclosing their exact locations on websites), and when I found out I'd have electricity and running water.

We spent a couple more days in Dar, during which we had some administrative sessions, and got to go to the US Embassy to see a video and slideshow that was put together by PC staff for the 45th anniversary of Peace Corps. Then on Thanksgiving, we all went to the ambassador's house to eat, which was awesome in every way imaginable (well, except for the awful Dar heat and humidity, but luckily his house has air conditioning). We had turkey, and mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce, and even pumpkin pie! I think we all nearly puked on the bus ride back to Morogoro because we were all so stuffed (or because some people decided to take advantage of all the free alcohol).

After a final weekend, in Morogoro, it was finally time for all of us to become PCVs. Swearing-in was on November 29th, and turned out to be a really nice ceremony. There were lots of speeches, of course, by the Country Director, by the regional commissioner (basically like a governor) of Morogoro, by the Minister of Education for Tanzania, and by the deputy ambassador, who administered the oath of office. Yep, all PCVs take the same public servant oath (the one about defending the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic) that every government employee and military service member takes. Our families and training staff were there, which really made it a nice occasion.

The following day we left Morogoro for good - some people left for their sites directly, while others (including me) got to spend 3 nights in Dar before being installed. Ate lots of tasty food, hung out in the air conditioning at the PC office (where we got to use the internet for free, watched movies, and even - gasp - ordered delivery pizza), and just relaxed some more before getting installed. I actually like Dar as a city, despite the awful weather. It's not much to look at, but the cultural mix is really interesting - it's a big melting pot of Tanzanian, Middle Eastern, and Indian culture - in places it doesn't even feel like you're in a sub-Saharan country.

Finally, it was time to say goodbye to Dar, and hello to much cooler weather. We left Dar on Sunday, but I didn't get installed until Tuesday (I was the last PCV out of the 5 going to the Kili region to be installed, because of its location). So far, I'm really, really happy to be here. The area around my school is beautiful, the weather is amazing (I haven't seen it go over 75 degrees yet, and at night it goes into the low 60s), my house is gigantic, there's a big market within a 5 minute walk of my school, and the teachers and staff at the school have been very kind and welcoming. Oh yeah, and there's a good possibility that I'm going to have internet access at my school next year! We have a computer lab and the internet equipment is already here, because it had been active a couple years ago. But there were issues with paying for the connection (sounds like the previous headmaster was misusing funds), so it got turned off. However, my headmaster is saying he wants to turn it back on again, so all they need is money, which he thinks the school will have due to the A-level kids coming in March. Yeah, I got insanely lucky, I know. Oh, and there's a line coming from the satellite the school has into my house, so if I buy a TV I can even watch international news. It's hard to believe I'm really in the Peace Corps most of the time - I had prepared myself to live in a single-room mud hut, not in a house that's bigger than my 2-bedroom apartment in Alexandria was!

Of course, there isn't always electricity, and in the dry season there will probably be periodic water outages as well. The problem is that about 60% of Tanzania's electricity comes from hydroelectric power. Which is good in that the skies aren't full of smoke from coal power plants, but bad in that when there are periods of little rainfall, there just ain't much juice to go around. The country is slowly starting to invest in natural gas (which is about the only other natural source of power it has, as to my knowledge there is no oil and little to no coal in Tanzania), but until then, power outages are a pretty common thing. Still, I'm not complaining, as something is better than nothing. The only time it's going to get annoying is when the power goes out in the middle of a computer class, but not much I can do about it.

Not exactly sure what I'm going to be teaching yet, but I'm fairly certain I'll be teaching physics and computers at the very least, and quite possibly also chemistry or math. I'm also going to get the chance to teach A-level, which I'm totally stoked about. Since I'm sure none of you know what A-level means, I'll give a brief rundown of the Tanzanian education system:

Primary school is 7 years (they call it Standard 1-7), and is free. After finishing Standard 7, students take a national exam, which determines whether or not they can continue on to secondary school. That's right - if you fail the exam, you don't go to secondary school, and about 75% of Standard 7 students happen to do just that. It's a huge social problem here, because as a result of this examination system (which I personally think is a terrible one), you wind up with a large population of children around 12-13 years old who are not in school and who don't have much of a future for meaningful employment. If you happen to be one of the lucky 25% that do well enough on the exam to go on to secondary school, you begin what is called O-level (ordinary level). This lasts for 4 years, and is termed Forms 1-4. At the end of Forms 2 and 4, there are additional national exams. The Form 2 exam doesn't mean much as far as I can tell, but the Form 4 exam is another gateway to further education. Only those who pass (an even lower number than the percent that pass the Standard 7 exam) can move on to Forms 5 and 6, which are termed A-level (advanced level). I think somewhere between 1-2% of all Tanzanian students actually make it to A-level - it's an insanely small number. After A-level the students take yet another national exam, which then determines whether they can go to a university or not.

It's a brutal system, to say the least. But anyway, I will be teaching O-level to start, and then in March, I will start teaching Form 5, as my school is beginning an A-level program this year. I'm not only excited to teach A-level because the students tend to be very motivated and because the material is more intellectually challenging (basically equivalent to intro college courses in the US, at least as far as science goes), but because I will also be able to be here from the very start and help to get the program off the ground.

Now you might be thinking, why exactly does this school need a volunteer? Well, the problem in Tanzania is that there is a huge shortage of secondary school teachers. The Tanzanian government has already made universal primary education a reality (for the most part), and is now focusing on getting more students into secondary school. The problem is that, while hundreds of new schools have been built and are being built, there simply aren't enough teachers to fill them. I'm not sure if this is really a hard-and-fast rule or not, but technically you at least have to finish Form 4 to be a primary school teacher, and finish Form 6 to be a secondary school teacher. Considering the number of Form 6 graduates is incredibly small, one can see where a problem might arise. Thus, when a volunteer goes to a school, he or she is making the difference between those students having a teacher, or none at all. That's right - there are schools where there is no teacher for a particular subject, which means the students taking that class are on permanent "self-study" mode.  They get no instruction during the year, and have no one to help them prepare for the national exams. That's the unfortunate reality of the Tanzanian education system, and one that won't be resolved until the country can increase the production of citizens who are able to teach secondary school.

So that's about all the news for now - you'll be seeing many more updates in the future, because having a computer lab at school means I can sit here and type out all of my blog posts (and e-mails!) here, and then post/send them when I actually get to the internet cafe. It's a nice situation to have, mainly because I spend far too much time at internet cafes just trying to keep up with all the goings-on at home and in the world in general. Until next time, I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and that you have a happy and safe holiday season!