Field trip to the Peace Corps Office

We left early this morning so we could beat the traffic. However, I'm beginning to think that there is no such thing as "beating the traffic" in Dar es Salaam.

We arrived about an hour later to the beautiful compound that is the Peace Corps Tanzania Office. The day proceeded with more lectures, vaccinations, and a tour of the grounds and offices.

The most outstanding thing that struck me today was how approachable all of the staff are - from the drivers and medical officers all the way up to the country director. 

The PCV leaders (volunteers who have extended for a third year and now work at the TZ office) and other volunteers who are here this week to help with training continue to be a great resource for all of us trainees whose questions are spontaneously coming to the surface.

I got a phone with a SIM that is in a network with other trainers, volunteers, and PC staff. It doesn't actually work yet because the carrier has to activate it or something, but the reality of communication is setting in. Today I had pretty much exactly five minutes of wifi - enough for sixteen emails and a few iMessages to come pouring in.

It will definitely be a challenge to balance the being-present I have experienced without the distraction of cell phones with the reality of the necessity and importance of communication via said devices. (But more on that later, once I have phones that actually do their job. :) )

Deep Seats

Today was a full day of classes, starting with more "welcome"-type presentations and a safety and security briefing, with medical sessions and language classes in the afternoon.

We spent some of the time in the common training room, and my Swahili class was held outside on a patio shaded by a thatched roof, with a slight breeze picking up the poster paper that our instructor was writing greetings in Swahili on. A cat with a tail that had an abrupt end lounged under our feet, then went to pounce on a tiny lizard.

We sat in those school chairs with the tiny swivel desk surface attached. The chairs are deep and wooden. You have to scoot back further than normal to sit on them, your writing surface a mere afterthought as you practice Swahili words, prompted by your instructor.

These chairs want us to stay awhile.

I am going to stay awhile.

Day zero of week zero

We have arrived. It is humid in Dar es Salaam and feels wonderful. All our luggage made it, too, and we all cleared immigration with no problems.

For the first week, we are staying in a compound that is run by a Catholic mission. I have a roommate and a mosquito net over my head as I write this. The fan is whirring overhead in the complete darkness. The only light is the glow from my phone.

We were given our first malarial prophylaxis today (doxycycline 100mg), and tomorrow we meet individually with the medical officer to choose which prophylactic medication would be best for us for the duration of our service. I will probably opt for Malarone.

There was a whirlwind of introductions as we arrived, and then we had dinner and were shown our rooms. Showers are only cold (rather, lukewarm) but the fact is that you don't actually need hot showers when it doesn't get below 70 even at night.

Tomorrow is a very busy day. I am quite literally tucked in (thank you mosquito net), and ready to turn in.

"Never Hide"

"I've got a wall around me you can't even see / It took a little time to get to me"

-Paul Simon

Who forgets to bring sunglasses to Africa with them? Like, seriously?

This girl. Haha.

I have a sinking feeling that I left my Ray-bans sitting despondently somewhere in the house. My mom even insisted that I take them out of the car and into the house. "If you leave them in the car," she said a day or two ago, "you're going to forget them." She put them into my hand. I think I was on the phone, my mind a million miles away.

It is now Tuesday the tenth of February. Sunday went by in a flash of a short flight to Philadelphia, followed by a whirlwind of Peace Corps initiation, greetings, and paperwork. Went out for a sandwich and a cold beer with a large group of my fellow trainees, then slept maybe forty minutes before awaking for departure to JFK.

I regret to say I slept through most of my last exposure to my home state of New Jersey, as seen from the NJ turnpike as we sped along in the night towards NYC.

Long and thankfully uneventful flight to Johannesburg, where we are waiting for our connecting flight to Dar es Salaam.

Due to sleep deprivation I did not trust myself to continue this blog post until now, since I was able to get some sleep on the way here.

Ray-ban's slogan, "never hide", has been on mind since I was thinking about my missing sunglasses. The company promoted this concept, presumably meaning (based on my recollections of sepia-toned ads featuring beachy-haired Caucasians) that anyone, from celebrity to hung-over party animal to aloof hipster, can benefit from the air of indifference and detachment that wearing Ray-bans provides.

Maybe I internalized my sunglasses. Whether emotional detachment is an "innate" trait of mine or whether I've adopted it as a coping mechanism for various parts of my life is probably irrelevant. The point is that what I went a long time considering being my greatest strength is probably my greatest weakness. 

So maybe now, without my sunglasses, I will learn what it really means to never hide. Emotional attachment might not be easier than detachment, but maybe it will feel richer.

One of the last things our staging director said to us is that she hopes we fall in love with Tanzania, because when you are in love with something, you can let go of the little things. And there will be little things.

Tanzania, I'm coming for you - without my sunglasses and with my heart open a crack.

kx

T Minus 6 Days to Tanzania

I suppose this is what one might call the home stretch.

The week is underway, I made some last-minute purchases (thank you Amazon Prime), I paid my library fines (as a librarian's daughter, that's a serious priority :).

I had a chai latte at my favorite neighborhood cafe, I called my mother. I remembered what a returned Peace Corps volunteer told me last week at a happy hour for Pittsburgh area PCVs/ RPCVs. She said that looking back on her preparation for her Peace Corps service, she thinks she didn't allow herself enough time to actually realize that she was leaving for two years.

Sometimes you just have to sit somewhere and let it wash over you.

Then wash it down with the cinnamon dregs of a chai well made, and walk away.

There's a hot and sunny world ahead. I can't wait.

kx

On making it worth it

"So this is the new year, and I don't feel any different...."
-Death Cab for Cutie

My last year's resolution (inspired by my mother) was "making it worth it". And looking back on the year, I think I did. I joined Peace Corps, got a job, and visited friends and family who are important to me. It seemed to be one of the most uneventful years of my life, but when I think about all the good things that happened that year, I realize that I am very blessed if that was one of the LEAST eventful years of my life, because that must mean that I have a lot of adventures, past, present, and future.

As soon as it became January, I realized that now is the time to face all the preparation I must do to get ready for Tanzania.

As it turns out, making it worth it is just as good a resolution this year as it was last year. The old adage "the more you put into something, the more you get out of it" or something along those lines comes to mind. Peace Corps will humble me, will make me grow, will give me growing pains in the process. It will be tough. I will cry (probably). There will be blood. But I am going to learn, and I am going to teach. I am going to enable and I am going to be enabled.

I will give and I will be given to.

Take the hospitality of the new year, then turn around and make it worth it.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

kx

Peace Corps Tanzania!

After having applied to Peace Corps eight months ago, an Ebola outbreak, a reassignment, and many, many mental and emotional journeys to places unknown that could be home to me, I have accepted an invitation to serve in Tanzania as a crop extensionist with the agriculture/ environment program there, starting in February 2015.

I am honored and blessed to have been given this opportunity, and mostly am excited to say that I get to go BACK to Tanzania. (I never thought I would get to say that. At least, not at this point in my life!) In 2011 I went on a service trip to Tanzania for a few weeks. Everyone in the group I traveled with could have told you that I didn't want to leave Tanzania when the trip was over.

Departure is in four months. So much to do before then. I'll share what I can (or what I remember to).

kx