I received a request to tell the tale of my arriving at site recently, so here is that story. I apologize if I have forgotten a few details you were interested in.
The day before heading to site is swearing in. For our event, we had a ceremony on the lawn at the US Ambassador’s residence in Dar es Salaam. It was a motivating ceremony as we were all gathered together to commit ourselves to service for 2 years and everyone is excited to see where they’re going. After the ceremony, which was on the day before Thanksgiving, we went to our Country Director’s house for a thanksgiving meal. At some point that evening, I think it dawned on us that we were not going to see the majority of our group members for a long time. We knew who are site mates are, so we know who we were going to be on the bus with. But the realization that it could be over a year before seeing friends you was kind of a difficult one. Not only because you’ve developed relationships but because you rely on them to help you deal with the challenges of living in another culture and it’s scary to see that support leg headed out the door.
The bus tickets were purchased so that we would sit next to our school’s representative, but given that we had met with these people just one time, it didn’t take us long to formulate a plan to sit together as volunteers. In retrospect, this seems kind of childish but at the time it seemed like a dramatic improvement on our situation. It’s funny how when you’re a kid you assume all those nerves and concerns go away as you grow. To some degree they do, but the reality is, put yourself in a challenging situation and you find they haven’t disappeared at all, they’re just lying dormant. Anyway, we ended up sitting as we were assigned and nothing went wrong...surprise!
When we started the day, we knew it was going to be a long drive…we just didn’t realize it was going to be THAT long. I still complain about the bus ride but the reality is that I can do it without much trouble now. I remember only a couple parts of the actual ride. I spent the entirety of my training in the northern half of the country, only leaving the Dar-Morogoro corridor twice; once on shadow to Kondoa and once on our trip to Mikumi National Park. Entering the southern highlands is rather impressive. You pass through the Mikumi area and then head up a big hill. From there on things get very hilly and you begin to careen along the side of ever increasing hills that become mountains with a massive river below you. Traveling at full speed and passing these massive buses is quite scary and it really doesn’t end, save one 15ish kilometer stretch of flat, until you’re just outside of Iringa. It was my first realization that there was something more to Tanzania than the semi-arid grassland in the middle of the country and the coastal plains of Dar. How little I knew!
I remember being disappointed I slept passed Iringa. I truly enjoy traveling through cities. I don’t know for sure why but I have always liked to see each place pass by instead of sitting on the same rural-looking highway passing around it. Knowing Iringa as I do now, you don’t go into the city so I hadn’t really missed much. Shortly after Iringa we hit a dog in the middle of the road. Considering the pack of dogs that had been there moments before, it was a surprisingly low mortality rate.
Nothing much of significance passed after that until coming into the Mbeya area. Given that I have a really good sense of direction and map memory, I didn’t fall into the trap of thinking I’d almost made it to Tukuyu but it was dusk and it served as a unfortunate reminder that I still had further to go. Just outside of the “suburb” (it’s really just all one massive conglomeration of urban poverty, just different names for different parts) of Uyole, the road climbs a mountain to get into our valley. I remember watching the headlights of the bus against the curves as we went down and around all these hills because by this time I couldn’t see anything else.
When we finally arrived in Tukuyu, I got off to a well-lit and relatively active bus stand and only did what I was told. Collect all my stuff, and put it into a cab. We were trained all of training that we have to be in charge of all our stuff or it will probably get stolen. In Ubungo, that may be true, but away from the biggest cities con artists and thieves are much harder to find. However, not knowing that at the time made me quite nervous. After we got everything into the cab, probably a 5-10 minute affair, we loaded ourselves and rode the perhaps 1-1.5 minute ride to my house. I think at the time it was probably the best approach given how much stuff I had, but that is the only time I have ever taken a cab for that trip.
My second master, who had accompanied me from Dar, brought me to the house and helped me get settled inside. It was a large space, considering at no point in my life had “my space” consisted of anything more than a bedroom. So naturally, I put my stuff in my bedroom and headed to the headmaster’s house for dinner. He was out of town for the night and I had only Mama and the kids to eat with. After dinner, I found my way home and went to sleep.
The next morning, I spent about 3 hours setting up some of my house, specifically my bedroom, finding what was in the room that had been locked and generally rearranging until I felt like it was a least slightly my house. About the time I was ready to relax, I got a call from Theo, who realized he had no food or things to do in his house. He found his way into town, an hour and a half long affair, and we started to figure out what was where. We found lunch at a restaurant that has since become one of our mainstays and began shopping for both food and home items in the market.
Of course, we didn’t get everything in those first few days and the process of outfitting a home continued for several weeks. Now however, everything seems to have happened right away but it was a process that took time and planning. My house is very much mine now, even though wall decorations are scant, and those that exist are not mine. I’ve adjusted the arrangement of things several times but that’s part of who I am. It’s all a matter of perspective of course, but now the process of arriving seems like a small step in the process, but it absolutely was a massive shock to my self-comfort as I had never been so alone before. Actually, I doubt I’ll ever face such a substantial challenge alone again….Interesting. :)
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Monday, February 14, 2011
I suppose I should apologize for my extended blogging absence. While I recognize that I can obviously write when I want, I do know some people use my blog as a way to keep tabs on me, so I’ll try to improve my frequency here in the coming weeks.
I suppose I should first start with an update on the recent events here in Tanzania. For Christmas, I was blessed with a visit from my family for the holiday season. Yes, that’s right, Mom traveled across the world! How’s that for a Christmas gift!? Overcoming lifelong fears to visit means quite a bit!
Anyway, they arrived on December 23rd into Dar es Salaam, with the those coming from America arriving quite late. I was fortunate enough to have some Peace Corps friends who were able to reserve them rooms at a hotel as well as get bus tickets for the morning. Now, I have to admit, if you ask any volunteer here in Tanzania they would tell you they would be concerned with family trying to navigate Dar alone and I was quite concerned something would go wrong. However, fortunately, everything seemed to go according to plan and everyone found their way onto the correct bus in their seats when the bus pulled out of Ubungo, the main bus stand, which is probably the most hectic and stressful place I’ve encountered in country.
After experiencing the 14 hour bus ride that brings you from Dar es Salaam to Tukuyu the family disembarked only a short walk from my house. Once we reached the house, I served the dinner I had hastily cooked during a miscommunication, thinking they were an hour and a half closer than was actually true.
The next morning was Christmas day and we shared presents. Hannah and James brought their gifts from the first leg of their trip in India and everyone else brought gifts from home. It was really nice to have a true family Christmas, even if the only decoration in the room was the one Christmas stocking I found in the house when I moved in.
Over the next two days we did traveling around the Tukuyu area. This valley is quite blessed in terms of its natural wonders which to see. We went to Ngozi Crater Lake the day after Christmas and then Kaparogwe Waterfall the next. Since I’ve spent time describing these two places before, I’m going to move on for now (with pictures of course).
The following day was business and good-byes. Hannah and James left for the airport in the early afternoon to head back home. After setting up a few travel related issues for the next week with Dad, the rest of us went to the airport after dinner to see Mom and Erik off as well.
The next morning, Dad, Samuel, and I headed out on the dala dalas to get to the ferry boat that would take us to Mafia Island. I’m glad they got to experience both the Dar bus and the standard mini-van dala. Now they see what we travel on usually: no personal space and even less comfort :P But you get used to it and eventually a ride is a ride. The dala dropped us off within sight of our boat and after acquiring some drinking water we jumped aboard the ferry, which is really just a large fishing boat with some 40-50 people packing the deck. It was a relatively pleasant ride out the mouth of the Rufiji and across the ocean to the island. After the ferry stopped well off-shore we hopped into a smaller boat for the ride to the shore…or so we thought. We still got to walk a good 500 feet in the water although it never was deeper than thigh-high. Our guesthouse manager picked us up at the port and drove us across the island to the guesthouse, where we prepared for festivities, as this was December 31st. However, we did not succeed in lasting until midnight as our previous late night at the airport caught up with us.
The following morning, we were able to rearrange our flights back to Dar to allow us to leave in the morning. We actually made the switch within 2 hours of our scheduled departure and still made it with plenty of time to spare, although we were assisted by a half-hour delay. Arriving back in Dar spent the day at the YMCA, introducing Dad and Samuel to my fellow volunteers who were in Dar before our conference. That evening, Dad and Samuel went to the airport for their return flight to the states. I stayed in Dar for the next week for my Mid-Service Conference before returning to site.
My sunburn developed into a subplot of the second week and actually even the weeks beyond. That’s what happens when you jump into the water immediately and then swim around for over 2 hours. I could tell when I was in the water that I was burning, as it already hurt halfway through the second snorkeling session. However being in the water was soothing and made it tolerable, which combined with strong direct sunlight made for a horrific burn. The first two days when we were on Mafia Island and traveling to Zanzibar my back hurt but it was not more than a bad sunburn. By the first full day on Zanzibar I had developed blisters in clusters all over my back with some being as large as my pinky finger. Over the next three to four days the blisters went through a cycle of seeping empty and refilling. Finally, my back started to peel a full 7 days after the initial burn. It was thick moist sheets of skin that pulled off with ease, although that did not improve the color or pain of my back. In about 24 hours the majority of my back lost a rather thick layer of skin and that night I felt what I remember seeing in Erik just before he went to immediate care during his horrible sunburn a few summers ago.
Remembering watching that and what happened was actually quite comforting because without it I wouldn’t have been so sure it would pass. It’s not unbearable pain. By itself it’s tolerable, but it’s mixed with this intense itching that goes straight to your head and drives you crazy. I felt fortunate I was in my room alone because I must have looked crazy. I paced back and forth and made noise to try to deal with the sensation but it would not go away, even with pain reliever. After about 30 minutes, I decided to take a shower. The water immediately helped but after a few minutes it began to actually increase the intensity, so I shut off the water, which also initially helped but slowly increased the pain. So I ended up alternating between showering and standing in the shower with the water off for another 30 minutes. Finally when I went back to my room, I was able to tolerate it as long as I didn’t move my back. This allowed me just enough relief to fall asleep for the night.
Over the next couple days, the skin, which I think was way too freshly exposed to air, began to harden and become more tolerable. By this time, our meetings in Dar had begun. I began to peel a second time but also, certain parts of my skin began to develop massive welts that were painful all their own. Eventually they all started to show these solid, scab-like covers at the top and continued to grow. I finally decided to go visit the medical officer the last day of our meeting and he diagnosed them as some sort of infectious reaction to the sunburn. He cleaned out the worst of them and gave me antibiotics (it seems I can’t even escape amoxicillin, even in Africa) to speed the recovery. After returning to site I continued to take the medicine and clean the wounds every day. Over time each of the welts began to either burst or just ooze puss. The two biggest welts were last and most disgusting of all. When they finally broke open, the infectious material was not some liquid that would ooze out. It was a rubbery ball that was attached to the inside of the welt. As I cleaned the wounds they would expel more of the material and I eventually pulled it out but severing what appeared to be a root into my back.
During the next month, these rather large divots in my back slowly began to fill in and heal and today I have scabs over the two worst spots but nothing more. It’s hard for me to tell if I scarred because of my vantage point but I think it has actually healed quite effectively. Still, having a burn affect my life for over a month has been an interesting experience. Needless to say, I’m going to do a better job with sunscreen next time :P
I suppose I should first start with an update on the recent events here in Tanzania. For Christmas, I was blessed with a visit from my family for the holiday season. Yes, that’s right, Mom traveled across the world! How’s that for a Christmas gift!? Overcoming lifelong fears to visit means quite a bit!
Anyway, they arrived on December 23rd into Dar es Salaam, with the those coming from America arriving quite late. I was fortunate enough to have some Peace Corps friends who were able to reserve them rooms at a hotel as well as get bus tickets for the morning. Now, I have to admit, if you ask any volunteer here in Tanzania they would tell you they would be concerned with family trying to navigate Dar alone and I was quite concerned something would go wrong. However, fortunately, everything seemed to go according to plan and everyone found their way onto the correct bus in their seats when the bus pulled out of Ubungo, the main bus stand, which is probably the most hectic and stressful place I’ve encountered in country.
After experiencing the 14 hour bus ride that brings you from Dar es Salaam to Tukuyu the family disembarked only a short walk from my house. Once we reached the house, I served the dinner I had hastily cooked during a miscommunication, thinking they were an hour and a half closer than was actually true.
The next morning was Christmas day and we shared presents. Hannah and James brought their gifts from the first leg of their trip in India and everyone else brought gifts from home. It was really nice to have a true family Christmas, even if the only decoration in the room was the one Christmas stocking I found in the house when I moved in.
It’s amazing how quickly you fall back into family time together. While some people that unfortunately means the standard family bickering but for us, it is a well developed sense of family and togetherness, honed on month long road trips together in The Old Green Van (I’m starting to understand why you wanted a family picture with it Dad :P). It was a lovely morning, complete with a wildly out-of-place rendition of I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas.
We also did a tour of my school, walking around to see where I operate on a daily basis. It was nice to show the family what I do here. While I know all my work can be idolized and sound great, it is cool to be able to show that my daily life is not all that different from any other high school teacher’s. The system is different and but the reality is, I work in a school much like any other teacher. The difference is, I’m (trying!) to do more than teach. I showed the family my library project, in its eternal state of being worked on and hopefully now they can visualize where my garden project happens, if it gets approved.
Over the next two days we did traveling around the Tukuyu area. This valley is quite blessed in terms of its natural wonders which to see. We went to Ngozi Crater Lake the day after Christmas and then Kaparogwe Waterfall the next. Since I’ve spent time describing these two places before, I’m going to move on for now (with pictures of course).
The last day was an unexpected one. We had initially intended to go to Mikumi National Park but through some planning errors we tried to get a bus ticket too late and were forced to wait a day, cutting out the Mikumi trip. That day we spent in town again, with the family choosing their cloth to be made into Tanzanian clothes. After choosing their cloth of choice, we all went to the tailor to be measured. While we continued on our trip, the clothing was sewn and I have since picked them up. They’ll be taking about half my bag on the way home, but I’m excited to see if they like them.
The following day was that bus ride again. It’s always too long. It’s always tiring. And when going to Dar, the end is always sweat-inducing. We finally got to Dar in the evening of the 30th. I had a surprisingly good experience negotiating the cab, as we were too many for a real one, so we got a pickup truck to take us in. Once settled at the YMCA we walked around looking for a recommended restaurant, Snoopy’s. They have fantastic pizza and ice cream and so when you next find yourself in Dar…
The following day was business and good-byes. Hannah and James left for the airport in the early afternoon to head back home. After setting up a few travel related issues for the next week with Dad, the rest of us went to the airport after dinner to see Mom and Erik off as well.
The next morning, Dad, Samuel, and I headed out on the dala dalas to get to the ferry boat that would take us to Mafia Island. I’m glad they got to experience both the Dar bus and the standard mini-van dala. Now they see what we travel on usually: no personal space and even less comfort :P But you get used to it and eventually a ride is a ride. The dala dropped us off within sight of our boat and after acquiring some drinking water we jumped aboard the ferry, which is really just a large fishing boat with some 40-50 people packing the deck. It was a relatively pleasant ride out the mouth of the Rufiji and across the ocean to the island. After the ferry stopped well off-shore we hopped into a smaller boat for the ride to the shore…or so we thought. We still got to walk a good 500 feet in the water although it never was deeper than thigh-high. Our guesthouse manager picked us up at the port and drove us across the island to the guesthouse, where we prepared for festivities, as this was December 31st. However, we did not succeed in lasting until midnight as our previous late night at the airport caught up with us.
The next day we spent the afternoon snorkeling in the southeastern bay of the island. There are many coral outcroppings and all the fish imaginable to go with them. If I could have only shown one picture from this whole trip it probably would have been the scene from when I was paddling amongst a school of some of the most colorful fish I have a ever seen. Unfortunately, I have no underwater camera equipment and I’ll have to keep the memory in my mind but it was one of those experiences you can never forget. I had a little bit of a mishap however. I put on sunscreen as we were walking to the shore and the boat. However, I waited till we were on the boat to apply my sunscreen under what my shirt had been covering….then I took it off and jumped in the water. Baaaaaad idea.
The next day we went swimming with the whale sharks on the other side of the island. Again, the pictures do not give the full picture but you can kind of see what it was like. After jumping into the water as one would swim by and losing it almost immediately for an hour, we returned to shore and the guesthouse.
The next day we traveled across the island one last time to the tiny airstrip in the main town. There, our 6-seat aircraft awaited to take us to Dar. It is by far the smallest aircraft I’ve ever flown in but it was an enjoyable experience and I never felt concerned, which was a little surprising. We switched terminals at the airport, from charter flights to commercial flights, to catch our Precision Air flight to Zanzibar. Clocking in at less than 20 minutes we stepped off to find our cabbie waiting for us. Now, we picked these destinations off of recommendations and so it was logical to do the same for our lodging. We reserved a room at an inn on the island with the same method but were surprised when the cab turned away from the old Stonetown and headed off into the countryside. We drove for over an hour before we came to a beachside resort on the complete opposite side of the island. Oops. It was actually a lovely place and if I were traveling to stay somewhere isolated for a few days, it would have been perfect. But for us who were looking for a base of operations for Zanzibar’s offerings, it was not ideal.
The next day we went back into town and met up with friends of mine who were also vacationing on the island. We saw an Anglican (I think) church built on the site of an Arab-run slave trade market and went to a museum about the history of the island. In the evening, we ate at a fresh fish market which was quite the tourist draw; although that did not negatively impact the quality of our Zanzibar pizzas.
Our last day on the island was spent doing a spice tour, which consisted of seeing each plant as it would grow in the wild, and a full lunch made with the same spices. The tour took the better part of the day but we returned to Stonetown in time to eat at Freddy Mercury’s, a beachside restaurant celebrating (I guess that’s what you would call hanging up lots of pictures and using the name) the Zanzibar native.
The following morning, we were able to rearrange our flights back to Dar to allow us to leave in the morning. We actually made the switch within 2 hours of our scheduled departure and still made it with plenty of time to spare, although we were assisted by a half-hour delay. Arriving back in Dar spent the day at the YMCA, introducing Dad and Samuel to my fellow volunteers who were in Dar before our conference. That evening, Dad and Samuel went to the airport for their return flight to the states. I stayed in Dar for the next week for my Mid-Service Conference before returning to site.
My sunburn developed into a subplot of the second week and actually even the weeks beyond. That’s what happens when you jump into the water immediately and then swim around for over 2 hours. I could tell when I was in the water that I was burning, as it already hurt halfway through the second snorkeling session. However being in the water was soothing and made it tolerable, which combined with strong direct sunlight made for a horrific burn. The first two days when we were on Mafia Island and traveling to Zanzibar my back hurt but it was not more than a bad sunburn. By the first full day on Zanzibar I had developed blisters in clusters all over my back with some being as large as my pinky finger. Over the next three to four days the blisters went through a cycle of seeping empty and refilling. Finally, my back started to peel a full 7 days after the initial burn. It was thick moist sheets of skin that pulled off with ease, although that did not improve the color or pain of my back. In about 24 hours the majority of my back lost a rather thick layer of skin and that night I felt what I remember seeing in Erik just before he went to immediate care during his horrible sunburn a few summers ago.
Remembering watching that and what happened was actually quite comforting because without it I wouldn’t have been so sure it would pass. It’s not unbearable pain. By itself it’s tolerable, but it’s mixed with this intense itching that goes straight to your head and drives you crazy. I felt fortunate I was in my room alone because I must have looked crazy. I paced back and forth and made noise to try to deal with the sensation but it would not go away, even with pain reliever. After about 30 minutes, I decided to take a shower. The water immediately helped but after a few minutes it began to actually increase the intensity, so I shut off the water, which also initially helped but slowly increased the pain. So I ended up alternating between showering and standing in the shower with the water off for another 30 minutes. Finally when I went back to my room, I was able to tolerate it as long as I didn’t move my back. This allowed me just enough relief to fall asleep for the night.
Over the next couple days, the skin, which I think was way too freshly exposed to air, began to harden and become more tolerable. By this time, our meetings in Dar had begun. I began to peel a second time but also, certain parts of my skin began to develop massive welts that were painful all their own. Eventually they all started to show these solid, scab-like covers at the top and continued to grow. I finally decided to go visit the medical officer the last day of our meeting and he diagnosed them as some sort of infectious reaction to the sunburn. He cleaned out the worst of them and gave me antibiotics (it seems I can’t even escape amoxicillin, even in Africa) to speed the recovery. After returning to site I continued to take the medicine and clean the wounds every day. Over time each of the welts began to either burst or just ooze puss. The two biggest welts were last and most disgusting of all. When they finally broke open, the infectious material was not some liquid that would ooze out. It was a rubbery ball that was attached to the inside of the welt. As I cleaned the wounds they would expel more of the material and I eventually pulled it out but severing what appeared to be a root into my back.
During the next month, these rather large divots in my back slowly began to fill in and heal and today I have scabs over the two worst spots but nothing more. It’s hard for me to tell if I scarred because of my vantage point but I think it has actually healed quite effectively. Still, having a burn affect my life for over a month has been an interesting experience. Needless to say, I’m going to do a better job with sunscreen next time :P
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