March 20, 2009

Msangeni – Arrived a few hours ago for Martha’s murder mystery birthday party.
Stayed at Dylan’s apartment with him and Max on Saturday night, then took a fast ferry back the next morning. I met a Canadian couple, friends of Dylan, at a bar in Z-bar and got to hear about their trip to Mafia island – they got to snorkel with whale sharks. I spent the next couple days in Dar es Salaam and got to meet lots of wide-eyed college kids studying development or doing little projects in the surrounding area. I also rode back on the ferry with a British girl who spent three months volunteering in a school in Moshi – she had to pay – and then went on a vacation. Peace Corps volunteers can be snotty about tourists and other aid workers who don’t go through the same training and hardships that we do, and I’m no exception. This is not a fair opinion though; volunteering is a luxury and most people aren’t able to take twenty seven months to do the sort of things that we do. Volunteering is more about developing oneself rather than serving others, and this is especially true of PCVs. That said, almost all short-term projects I hear of are quite inane.
I took the GREs on Monday at the University of Dar es Salaam. The University campus is quite nice, reminiscent of campuses everywhere with modern architecture, attractive students and plenty of cars. I arrived two hours early but the starting time was entirely flexible; I took the test in a tiny room with two computers, and I was the only student present at the time. Scores came up immediately after the exam, 800 on the math section and scored 710 on the verbal.
Tuesday I stopped by the Peace Corps office with the intention of talking with James, one of my bosses who taught A-level before he was hired with us. James was sick and my visit was basically wasted; I had to rush to the bus station and was ripped off buying a ticket to Lushoto. I lost my temper buying the tickets and flipped out at the bus office – the guy who sold me the ticket took off, but if I had found him I very well might have struck him. My bus didn’t leave until 2:30, I arrived in Lushoto (actually Nyasa, small stop outside of town) at 8:30 and had to walk 5 km in the dark to Randee and John’s site.
Randee and John are professional teachers very close to retirement age. They are planning on working when they go back home, but only for a year or two and Peace Corps timing doesn’t really seem to make sense for them. Their experience comes in handy – Randee’s students have improved dramatically since she showed up, and she has a ton of pointers for the rest of us kids. They were placed in a beautiful house near a functioning private school.
I visited Lushoto because of its reputation as one of the nicest places in the country. The weather is cool but never cold, the area gets plenty of rain, and almost anything can grow on the hill slopes or broad valleys. The ground animals have been crowded out by all the people, but a lot of birds still live in the area and I saw more bats than at any other outdoor site. Lushoto is incredibly beautiful, like a huge garden.