March 16, Palm Sunday, Ndanda - I just returned from a trip to Masasi, about 30 km away. I rode in a dalla-dalla, a minivan, with some 25 other people, threegoats, two chickens, five leaky jerrycans of gasoline, three sacks of maize flour and a six foot stack of buckets. We stopped every 500 meters so the tout could try to flag down new passengers, and the driver leaned on the horn for the entire hour-long ride. as there were no seatbelts i broke one of peace corps traveling policies, but at lease i wasn't hanging the side of the vehicle like several other passengers. the ride cost about 90 cents.

I'm a chemistry teacher stationed at ndanda secondary school in Tanzania's deep south. Ndanda is a mission town complete with two secondary and several technical schools, a water-bottling company, a towering white church and a modern hospital (the only functional hospital in hundreds of miles.) My school, once one of the best in the country, was nationalized in the 1970s and since has gone through a long, steady decline. The laboratories are rotting and nobody knows who has the key to the library. There are not enough school supplies and the textbooks are fourty years old. teachers often skip all their classes and then charge students extra for tuition after hours; last term there were 13 teachers for 720 students. The (ex) second master stole about 2000 dollars, so for the last three weeks of the term students ate porridge for breakfast, lunch and dinner. problems here are far beyond the ability of any one person, no matter how dedicated, to fix.

When I first arrived in Africa I was repelled by what seemed to be crushing poverty and ugliness. There were no Mcdonalds or SUVs. Women here cook with charcoal and burn garbage in pits, electricity is a rare luxury and clean water does not exist. It took about a month to adopt to life here, studying Swahili by candlelight and drinking warm coca cola at the nearest hotel. NGOs here drive around in jeeps and gape at the locals, but if you ever get the chance to come here, walk around the market and drink chai with the villagers and ride dalla-dallas - its a lifestyle you'll never forget. Safari Njema! (travel well!)