Andrew Shook to Africa

The end of the line...

2012-02-29T09:21:00.007-08:00

I have officially finished my Peace Corps service and I am now back in America. I know the last 4 months had no blogging at all and I want to use this as an opportunity to kind of wrap up my thoughts on the experience. While I could try to go into details, I really don’t have the willpower or the memory for it. I’m sorry if it’s a disappointment but after returning and telling the story 50 times over to people individually, I’m just not as excited to do it again.

September was originally supposed to be an extended break for me with an opportunity to relax and wrap up things during break before I left. However, break was moved to October, and I found a way to fill every weekend during the month with my health education weekends.

The health weekends project was one that developed out of big-idea brainstorming. My site mate for a year and a half and I wanted to have a more locally focused version of our region wide girls’ empowerment conference. Serendipitously, we ran into Priscilla, a Scottish woman living in Tanzania working on the health focused education at a small teachers’ college near our sites. We consolidated our efforts and from there the process, I think, has been well documented earlier in this blog. What has not been documented is what actually happened!

In short, we had six classes, each focusing on different health issues relevant to everyday Tanzanians. First was mental health, taught by a group of Tanzanian doctors. Stress and other factors that we readily accept as harmful here in the states aren’t even considered to be a potential problem in Tanzania. Another class dealt with healthy eating and diets. Doctors had the participants calculate their BMI and reiterated that the need for a balanced diet is real and not just an exercise in their biology books. Third, the students learned about diabetes. Priscilla had originally started the event to teach about diabetes due to the fact that one of her students was misdiagnosed with malaria instead of diabetes and subsequently killed by the saline solution that they pumped into his body. Awareness related to non HIV and AIDS issues is low and this class was an important first step.

The other three classes were mostly dealing with sexual issues because of the fact that there is a massive amount misinformation about the issues. Much like in the states, taboos with the issues prevent the facts from always reaching the ears of those who need to know. One class was entirely devoted to the common myths that the students are likely to hear. It also addressed how to talk to younger people about their development because often times kids did not even expect changes when they start happening to their bodies. My session was to teach the students how to make simple pads for women. Often times the women cannot deal with their period in a way that allows them to continue daily activities while staying clean. It was quite an adventure as we did not separate the boys and they got just as into it. I hope that enthusiasm followed them home from the classroom and they shared the skills with their families. Finally, the sixth class was more like what we would consider a sex education class. Students discussed issues and then finished up the class with condom demonstrations.

The events occurred on three separate weekends at three separate schools. In the end I would say we directly taught at least 1500 Tanzanian students. More amazing still, two of the three schools were teachers’ colleges where all the students will be placed in primary and secondary schools as a career. The potential for this knowledge to go on and be disseminated to future students is dumbfounding. I can confidently say that this is probably one of the most influential things I will do in my lifetime if you trace the beneficiaries. Enjoy some photos:

Before I started August, I had planned out my work from that point till the end of my teaching time and I had worked it out so that I could finish the material by the first weekend of September when the students would be ready to leave school for break. It required somewhat of an acceleration in material covered but it was doable when laid out on paper. Naturally, the speed at which we moved through the material was slightly under that of the plan, but it was still unnecessarily fast once the headmaster moved the break a full 3 weeks later. We finished the syllabus up to the end of the unit a full 2 weeks ahead of time.

We then had our terminal examinations during the week of September 26^th. Unfortunately, the other physics teacher had already left the school and I was in charge of an additional 2 classes of physics exams. Even worse, it included material I had never taught before. Making a test for students when you don’t know what you should be asking is extremely difficult and I found myself resorting to pulling questions out of a textbook I knew they didn’t have. I think, aside from just how massive a job grading can be, the understanding required to teach well is what I most under-appreciated about my teachers, from Kindergarten to college. On several occasions I have heard the last step to understand something is to teach it to someone else, but how do you make a fair test for something you don’t understand? I’m not sure I could have, but the alternative was no test, which was not an option. Granted, part of the issue is the cultural barrier. We think about things differently, making it harder for me to ask questions that they could do well with if I hadn't addressed the subject matter with them. That’s just the way it is, but I still felt that the students deserved better.

Grading always takes a lifetime, and when the load was increased by over 50%, what seemed like a doable amount of time became an eternity. I spent the following week grading from 8 am to 5 pm on most days. Meanwhile, in what little time I had outside of grading I was packing up getting ready for my trip over the final two weeks before COSing.

When I had finally finished grading my exams it was just a day before I needed to leave Tukuyu. The school had a small lunch for me with all the teachers at the school including my replacement volunteer. The standard gifts of cloth were given and we ate the spiced rice that is mandatory food for special events. A lack of communication between the headmaster and I caused the event to be hastily put together in about 48 hours. This was one example of when the culture of not planning things till the last minute came in handy and as always, the event seemed to come together at the last minute.

I left Tukuyu on Thursday October 13^th and headed to Mbeya. Friday was Nyerere Day, which is the national holiday to celebrate the first president of Tanzania. He is considered their greatest of leaders and most people give him credit for making Tanzania what it is today. In my opinion, he was an intelligent man that had great ideas, often ahead of his time, but, as seemingly the standard in Tanzania, the implementation of those ideas did not succeed in matching his vision.

Anyway, after two days in Mbeya eating good food and saying good-byes to friends, I was on a bus to Morogoro. I stayed with my host family for a night and left the larger portion of my luggage there while I spent the next week up in the north of the country.

Ironically, I had been in the country for 2 years and had not been north of the central portions. So on the 14^th, I got my first site, in person, of Kilimanjaro. Granted, it was in the clouds so it just looked like a wall going up into the clouds but you could still appreciate its enormity by seeing just how much of the horizon was earth rising to the heavens. At this point, I met up with 3 friends, Theo, Theresa, and Dan who were going on this adventure with me.

Over the next 3 days we hiked Mount Meru. It is also a dormant volcano like Kilimanjaro. However, it was active just a little over a century ago while Kilimanjaro has been silent for millennia. It stands just over 4500 meters tall which is still almost 1500 meters shorter than Kili, but at ¾ the height and 1/10 the cost of Kili, it seemed a good deal. I’ve never had trouble with altitude before, but as we summited it was definitely harder to breath and felt a little bit like the onset of an asthma attack except it never progressed. The views from the mountain were absolutely amazing! They have you start your hike the last day at 2 am so you can reach the top of the mountain by sunrise, which at first seems kind of silly, but because of the way clouds form during the day, it is the only time you really get a good view. From sunrise, till the late afternoon, we walked all the way back down the mountain, which is impressive because you travel through all the different ecosystems in one day. Needless to say, we slept like rocks that night.

Following that we traveled west towards Ngorongoro Crater. We didn’t actually enter the park but rather organized a tour that took us north around the outside of the park up to Lake Natron. This took us through the Maasai grazing lands which had several herds of cattle and goats intermixed with wild groups of giraffes, zebras, and gazelles. At Lake Natron, we saw hundreds of flamingoes. It is the site where millions of the birds go to breed and although it was not breeding season, the numbers were still impressive. The following day, we hiked another mountain, Ol Doinyo Lengai, which is Kimaasai for Mountain of God. It is an active volcano and was an extremely difficult climb. Due to the make-up of the lava produced, the rock on the surface is extremely crumbly and soft. This meant the distance covered by one step was reduced to almost nothing once you slid backwards through the crumbling rock. It took us longer to hike the mountain than it did to hike Mount Rungwe down in Mbeya, despite it being a couple hundred meters shorter and significantly less horizontal distance to travel.

After returning to Moshi town for the night, we bused our separate ways, which for me meant a last trip back to my host family in Morogoro. The following morning, my host mother (whose English was far better than she ever let me know in training) drove me to the bus terminal to catch my last long-distance bus to Dar es Salaam.

The week of my COS (close-of-service) process was actually surprisingly dull. I stayed at the hotel volunteers always use in downtown Dar (the Econolodge) for long periods of time with a couple other volunteers who were COSing that week. The process required us to run around the office and take care of a list of business to close. The most frustrating was the bank, which couldn’t close my account due to a technical error. They couldn’t empty my account either which was quite frustrating and meant I had to wait in line at the bank on 3 separate occasions. Otherwise, the process was simple and enjoyable as I essentially ate and sat around with friends before heading out on Saturday.

After flying home, life has been a bit hectic as I have traveled to Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, California, Colorado, North Carolina and Georgia if you count being at the airport. The big events were Hannah’s wedding, a conference in San Francisco, visiting Katie’s family in Chicago, Christmas and New Years, skiing at Vail, a trip to visit Katie’s grandparents in North Carolina, and of course getting engaged. Yes, I’m newly engaged if you didn’t hear! Still working on the date so patience is appreciated! Otherwise, I’m applying to graduate school and hope to attend in the fall and just got a job at Target for the short term.

Before I close out this blog for good, I wanted to give a final thought on Peace Corps service as a whole. It’s difficult to really see what the differences are between now and before my service. Everything just kind of blends together and it’s hard to say how I’ve changed as a person. There are little markers but the bigger, more general changes like comfort in front of a crowd or the ability to not worry about others’ opinions are attributes that get applied retroactively, making it hard to put them on a timeline. Regardless, it is unreasonable to suggest that someone could complete Peace Corps service and not change at all. It changes you at your core. You are, at the end, an American with a splash of your service country. Goal 3 of the Peace Corps mission is to bring some of that country back to the US with you, but without even trying you bring it back in you.

I would encourage anyone interested in doing Peace Corps service to contact a recruiter and talk through if it is for them. They have some somewhat tacky catchphrases (“The toughest job you’ll ever love.” “Life is calling. How far will you go?”) but they do embody the experience. The way I like to put it is that it was the right thing for me at the right time. I’m not sure why, but all that growth you’re supposed to undergo in college seemed most obvious in me during Peace Corps service. However, I’m also fast realizing that there are plenty of people that don’t grow up…ever. The loose leash that volunteers are given by the necessity of distance really requires volunteers to develop the skills to manage work, play, and life effectively. Some might look at the lack of accountability and cry wastefulness but in reality the sheer number of people that benefit from the system far outdoes what almost any other government organization can do. The man who taught us permagardening techniques had an interesting fact, up until a few years ago the Peace Corps’ budget was about equal to that of (I think) The Marine Corps Band. 8,000 volunteers in over 100 countries were doing life-changing work for the same price as the president’s own band. In the past few years the numbers have changed a bit but not by a significant amount. How’s that for financial efficiency?

All in all, Peace Corps really is a wonderful experience. It is a challenge unlike any you will have at home and the bond you make with the people around you is priceless. All my frustrations and disappointments made the experience that much better. In short, it will rank as one of the best two years of my life when things are all said and done.

Goals 2 and 3

2011-09-01T02:04:00.000-07:00

Two-thirds of the goal of the Peace Corps is cultural exchange. Volunteers become ambassadors both directions serving as an example of Americans while at their sites and then a source of knowledge of the culture of their service country when they get back. It’s a cool responsibility and one that’s relatively easy to fulfill as it doesn’t take much effort beyond being yourself. Still, often times these aspects of PC service are considered the most successful and effective examples of Peace Corps’ impact on host countries.

Recently I’ve been doing a lot of just talking with my students since my opportunities to do so are becoming increasingly limited. It seems they have a set list of questions to ask whenever they get an opportunity to ask whatever they want, which is frustrating at times because I feel like I have already answered everything. But then again, I would imagine the same questions would come up in America. It doesn't help that since I'm a novelty everyone wants to ask questions, which makes it understandable that the same things come up. I’m not sure what media outlet started the Free Masons craze here but every Tanzanian student is convinced they’re one of the biggest concerns right now. I do my best to explain that they are regular people meeting in a club-like environment but I still get the same question so the answer is not getting passed around like the conspiracy theory that started this. I also get tired of the why don’t you like our Tanzanian women question. I still am not sure of the motivation behind that question, if it is to say I should be dating a Tanzanian because I’m here or if it’s more joking since I have said I have a girlfriend in America. I’ve even had that question asked of me by PC staff so it is clearly very much on the mind of most Tanzanian people.

Regardless of some minor nuisances, I still find the back and forth of asking questions to be a very enjoyable time. The questions asked are very telling about the community and their feelings and it’s a good opportunity to quell rumors about America or Americans that might not otherwise be addressed. The more times I’ve had these conversations the more pointed the questions have become, which is the benefit of having an American around and comfortably accessible. Just this last time one student asked if America was trying to recolonize Africa. To a PC volunteer that seems ridiculous but I can see how the right cynical perspective could pull that out of America's involvement in so much of the global stage.

It’s also an opportunity to realize some of the impacts you’ve had on your students. One student asked about something I had said the first day on classes which I don’t even remember saying. Granted, it didn’t help that the student couldn’t quite remember the words either, but I got the gist of it and it was an idea that I want the students to remember, so it's exciting to know my words are not falling on deaf ears.

Finally, I often use these back-and-forths as an opportunity to explain why certain things frustrate me. For example, I recently moved into my room that I’ll be staying in for the next 6 weeks or so, but the whole ordeal was an exercise in patience with Tanzanian culture. The day started off with me needing to reference a paper that should have been very easy to obtain. But instead I spent my time searching through boxes filled with papers laying in all directions once the librarian looked at the boxes and shrugged it off as difficult work. While it makes sense to an American that that just means you need to give more effort to the problem, the Tanzanians would see no issue with her giving up and saying it wasn’t meant to be. The fatalism in this country is infuriating and it is helpful to be able to explain that to my students even if they might not agree. Later in the day, I was ready to move but the work to build the door was ongoing, despite having started a full 48 hours before. So I paced, impatient with the situation while my Tanzanian counterparts did not understand my frustration. This might actually be an example of failed cultural exchange because I don’t think people understood my frustration with the issue and blamed me rather than the situation for the problem. Hopefully, if, over time, enough people show issue with the complete lack of timeliness in this country, Tanzanians will realize they need to change. I try to do my part in that process by showing them now that foreigners may not see that lack of concern for time as professional and I think simply exposing them to that fact gives them a leg up since they will be more ready for that expectation in the future.

Apologies for the choppiness of the post. It’s been kind of an idea dump more than a well thought out piece. However, I find it quite interesting to consider the seemingly peripheral effects of things like the Peace Corps that will shape the perception of Americans the world over.

Next in line...

2011-08-07T22:30:00.001-07:00

Now that the health class three months ahead of me has gone through the COS process and made their way out of the country, it’s starting to hit me that I’m next in line and I could even classify my departure as soon. Meanwhile, there are daily reminders that I’m still in Tanzania. For example, the last three days I’ve been mostly in my bed or the bathroom due to a digestive issue with my stomach making sounds I didn’t know it could. Regardless, preparing for the end is kind of a rushed process for our class, not by choice but by necessity. As I think I’ve said before, the powers of PC TZ have been searching to shift the program for a while but it was apparently granted just recently. This means the new education volunteers will swear in in about 17 days and if we wanted our sites replaced we had a two month minimum overlap with our replacements.

We can debate the merits and faults of this plan on from both the sides on this and believe me as volunteers we have…too many times! Basically it boils down to do you want someone to help you find your way in a new village or discover it for yourself and do you want someone around while you’re packing up to leave? In the end, it’s irrelevant because the whole duration of Peace Corps they have pounded into you the need to be flexible. From the start, you can’t even choose your country of service and if I got one choice in my entire service I’m pretty sure that would be the one I’d want. The funny thing is I wouldn’t be here and I would have made a mistake with that one choice. The beautiful thing about this process is that when control is taken from you you’re left with making the best of what you have. Well, what I have is magnificent and I couldn’t imagine myself elsewhere. Why do most people love their hometowns? Because they had to live with them for 5, 10, 20 years before they could go anywhere else. Anyway, to bring me back to the point, the overlap is what it is and you’ll see the positives and not realize the negatives are things you could have been without.

However, what it does do to my immediate future is severely limit the time I have left to do things. I will be traveling to COS conference next week and will miss a significant chunk of those days. It wouldn’t be as much of an issue except that I have a female replacement. This means, per PC policy, that I need alternative housing and since I want my replacement to actually stay for her two years, I think it’s best I’m the one living in said housing. It’s not all bad. This gives me an extra filter in which I get to cut stuff out of the trip home. I can be silly with my sentimentality and packing two months early is a good way to cut that out.

Otherwise, it seems my final two months will be devoted to arguably my biggest project of service. The health weekends, which we’ve raised an astonishing amount for (Thank You!), will happen in September and October. With the money raised, we can fund three full weekends, each impacting 500-700 students! As we currently have them planned, they are 3-day events covering a broad range of topics including nutrition and well-being, diabetes, mental health, and sexual health, including HIV and AIDS. I should qualify that and say that I’m certainly not taking point on this project but I hope to make a significant contribution beyond collection of the funds. My Kiswahili is not good enough to run the sessions but I’m going to make every effort to facilitate them as best I can. Documentation to come!

Alas, staring down the tunnel it has gone from just light to a definite world on the other side but I still have a ways to go. Hopefully there are fewer weekends like this one left in my future and I can enjoy the days to come. I’m going to do my best to document the weeks ahead as it should be a volatile time with constantly changing plans. The outline is exciting but we’ll see what happens!

While I was out...

2011-07-17T03:59:00.000-07:00

It's been a ridiculously long break since my last post again and so I feel obligated to start out by saying I'm sorry...again. But to be fair the last 2 months has been surprisingly busy. For lack of a more interesting way to present the information, I'll just run through the events.

The second half of May was pretty much exclusively teaching time. It always works out that the first two to three months of class are the most consistent, productive class time that one has in the school year so it was good to dive in and get a chunk out of the way before things really took off. It was a little concerning how quickly I felt like I was exhausted of teaching however. I look at my teaching load and responsibilities here in country and it just baffles me how teachers in the states do what they do for as many hours a day as they do it. Yeah, teaching two classes the same thing is easier to prepare but it's just as tiring! Not to mention the extra work outside of class where you have to grade etc. Anyway, as with everything else, I'm much more grateful for our education system in the states having seen an alternative.

Things really started to pick up the first full week of June. I headed to Morogoro the first to attend what we call the Training of the Trainers, or TOT for short. PC loves their acronyms and you find that everything and everyone has some two to three letter combination used as a reference to speed up conversations. Anyway, TOT was a gathering of every person, volunteer, staff, or contracted help, to plan sessions for the incoming class of trainees (PCTs in case you were wondering). Each volunteer (PCV :P) had applied to facilitate various sessions during the training and so we spent most of the week refining our plans and trying to coordinate between sessions occurring other weeks.

I've always felt like I've done a good job of surrounding myself with people that are one step above me on the intellectual scale. If you look at my resume, I feel like it reads quite impressively but when I look at myself in the context of those around me, I often feel overshadowed. Things like TOT, highlight it the most for me. All these other amazing volunteers have really brilliant ideas for passing on important information and I'm left looking at relatively simplistic ideas presented in a boring way. Nevertheless, we finished the week with a solid product prepared for the new group when they arrived just more than a week after that.

The Saturday after closing TOT, I boarded a bus to head all the way back to Mbeya because the following Monday, I took 3 girls to our annual girls empowerment conference in Mbeya town. Each year, for the last 3 years, the volunteers in the Mbeya region have come together to plan and execute a girls empowerment conference that teaches young women in our communities life skills. We do some of the standard HIV and AIDS presentations, but we go beyond that also, encouraging girls to achieve the most out of their lives. We have successful women come in and give talks about their achievements and the decisions that got them there. We have sessions teaching about family planning and why waiting isn't just about sexual health. There's a session on self-defense where we teach the girls how to quickly get away from someone who may be about to assault them. All-in-all, it's a really fun time while still being a significant educational experience that teaches information that often does not filter down to students in Tanzania.

Every year there is a talent show and for the past 3 years the volunteers have made a production to put on stage alongside the girls' talents. This year we chose Waka Waka, the Shakira song that was created as the theme song to the World Cup in South Africa. I think the video is on youtube if you want to find it but it was one of my favorite moments as a volunteer. We choreographed only the first two verses of the song intentionally, partially because of time constraints and partially because we planned to include the girls, but after we did our portion of the dance we brought up the girls to dance with us on stage. It's clear to me now that that event was not just South Africa's but rather all of sub-Saharan Africa and since Waka Waka represents that event, it's also everyone's song. There was passion in that free-dance beyond what I could have expected and it was a really awesome moment of community. But that's what the arts and athletics can do, bring together two sides of the world and have them cheer in unity.

Following the girls conference was the one week of normalcy in the last 6 or so. I had to pull together my strength to actually teach for a full week. I thought it would be easy since I knew I was going to leave again soon but instead it turned out to be much harder. I just could not focus and it seemed to be a waste of time to put in the effort to make each lesson valuable. I did make it through the week (life is so hard, right?) which was followed by the A-level short break, a one week vacation.

I had already made plans to spend this week on a trip to visit Anna and Adrienne, health volunteers in my region, and so Saturday morning I packed up and rolled out to Mbeya to get the bus that would take me to their villages. Now, if I could have driven straight from my site to theirs it couldn't have been more that 50km, but because the roads are poor and the bus takes people to Mbeya, I had to travel the long way around by first traveling north out of my own valley to Mbeya and then south along the ridge to my west above my valley to get to their sites, probably a good 150-200km.

The week consisted mostly of getting to see the daily life of a health volunteer. There's somewhat of a disconnect sometimes between the lives of health and education volunteers at their respective sites. Education is very structured and we have things laid out for us where as health volunteers really have to develop their work on their own. Additionally, the houses of health volunteers are usually more spartan than those of education volunteers. Both have their benefits but the lifestyles are noticeably different. The differences in Mbeya are highlighted even more by the fact that the health volunteer sites are very village with no water, no electricity, and so forth, where as education volunteers live quite well compared to the majority of Tanzanians. We spent time playing lots of cards, exercising, and cooking in between seeing the various projects they worked on. We made lots of yummy food including two chocolate cakes...in two days.

We returned as a group and hiked Ngozi crater the following day. I think that was my 5th time doing the hike, but since it's such a nice hike, it just happens. Finally, after meeting up with additional friends, some PC, some not, we rented a car to travel to Matema Beach to celebrate the 4th of July. Again, I think this was my 5th time going to Matema Beach, but I could go 5 more times and not be satisfied, as it's the perfect mix of village and tourist all in one.

The group was fantastic and it could be split into smaller groups if that was more appropriate for the activity. There's little more to say than that it was as close to the quintessential beach party as you could get. We played baseball in the lake with my whiffle ball and bat (thanks mom!), relaxed in the sun and read a book every morning, and even roasted a pig on July 4th. So it was actually only half the pig but it was still legit. We dug a pit and lit a fire of coals below and then placed the pig on logs that were laid across the pit. Despite the set-up catching fire a couple times, we enjoyed a nice pile of delicious pig that night.

Finally, upon returning from Matema, I continued on to Morogoro to do the actual training of the new class. 39 volunteers make up the group of incoming trainees, however the big difference between this and years past, aside from the scheduling, is that almost half of the group is English teachers. Recently, Peace Corps did an impact study here in Tanzania and found that our single greatest contribution is English language education. I’m not sure if that’s what motivated the switch to English teachers with the new classes, however, it has become a focus one way or another. This resulted in the size of my math group being significantly smaller which is both nice for the short term and disappointing for longer term goals.

I facilitated three sessions to varying degrees of success. The first day we had a math session dealing with the culture of defeatism that most Tanzanians have when it comes to math. Since the day was running slowly, it was kind of tacked carelessly on and ended up getting significantly shortened, which made anything beyond general conversations a challenge. The second day, our morning session was on logical thinking and problem solving and it went much better. We analyzed our own analysis of a Sudoku puzzle in order to identify methods of problem solving and then took a list of methods and applied them to a form 1 (first year of secondary school) math problem. It was a really good session with lots of discussion on how to teach at the introductory level. Finally, the afternoon session was kind of wiped away unfortunately. The original topic of group work was addressed through various other sessions in the previous weeks so we considered trying a physics lab for those who were interested. However, due to some miscommunication we ended up learning how to read 4-figure math tables which are necessary for the first half of secondary school so not all was lost. After sessions, we all went to dinner together and had an enjoyable evening of drinks and pizza.

The next day I had intended to go to the bus stand and get on a bus for home, however, July 7th (Sabasaba or sevenseven for those translating) is a national holiday much like our labor day. Therefore, people travel everywhere and even with an entire fleet of buses heading southwest, I was not able to find a seat. I was able to buy a ticket for the following day, which I did, then returned to the training site. The afternoon was the time period where the trainees learn about the sports and games that are played in the schools and so it was an opportunity to get exercise, something I am always in need of here.

The next day was a rather uneventful day of traveling, which I have learned to consider a good thing. Eventful usually means bad and so the fact that I woke up at a normal hour and was in Tukuyu before sunset made it a very good travel day.

Now I’m teaching from now until COS conference and then with long break approaching who knows what I’ll do the last month. Hopefully blog a bit more perhaps? :P

2011-05-15T06:24:00.000-07:00

The big news since my last post would be my selection to be a volunteer facilitator in the training of the new education class. It’s always nice to come full circle and be part of passing the torch on to the next group. I got to do it in college being a TA for the introductory meteorology course and now I get to do it again for a few days with the new volunteers. I think the training is a both necessary and important introduction to being a volunteer. It slows the culture shock down somewhat since it’s a shared experience with other Americans, allowing you the opportunity to learn about the cultural differences comfortably together. In addition to easing into the culture it offers time to prepare for your daily activities once you get to site. It’s already enough of a challenge to teach here when the your approach is fundamentally different than those you’re working with, so doing so without going through a bit of training would be nearly impossible. Anyway, I was chosen to assist the staff in the training and I’m thoroughly looking forward to it!

The garden project is continuing slowly. We dug our first few beds and planted them early on. However, a somewhat expected lack of organization has left this part untended and it is looking a little tired. However, after a week, the students chose to expand with their own efforts and raised a little money for seeds to create a second plot that is, for now, still bare. We’ll see how the space does as the next week or so continues and plants should start to grow in. Finally, the headmaster has committed the school to funding the purchase of seeds for growing cabbage. In the next few days, we’re hoping to set up a space to start our seeds and have them germinate and grow for a few weeks. After they are stronger, we’ll transplant them into the larger garden alongside the lettuce, carrots, and local spinach that we have already started.

On a different note, in the coming weeks Tanzania’s power supply is be severely impaired when one of the power plants goes offline for repairs. From what I have gathered, for about 8 days starting mid-week this week the power will be out from 8am until 11pm at night. I think power is one of the biggest things I take for granted in the United States. To some degree, I think the expectation for the power to be on at all times is justified in that we’ve built a system that can capably support the demand and we as consumers pay for each bit of electricity we receive. I suppose there are places where we don’t bear the full cost of the service but in general we get what we pay for. Here, simply getting on the grid can be a significant challenge and once you are, the reward is often too much demand for the supply available. It’s an interesting difference in perspective and a good example of how we adjust to what’s available. When you first arrive in country, power outages often endlessly annoy where as by the end, you have a system and power outages can be some of your most productive hours. Let’s hope that holds true this next week.

In non-Tanzanian news, I’ve been tracking the release of a study done by the Brookings Institution in D.C. It’s been ranking bus systems across the United States on their ability to serve transit dependents and especially if they can get them to their jobs. Somewhat shockingly, Wichita ranks in the upper half of the nation’s largest 100 metro areas by these metrics but I feel like anyone in the city would generally agree that our system is severely lacking. The Wichita Eagle is running a story this morning about the city hiring an advisor to identify citizens’ feelings on the issue and as gas soars towards $4 a gallon, I think an improved public transportation system is going to have significant support. I thought the end of the article had an interesting twist in that it brought forward the idea of a referendum for dedicated funding of the system and capital expansion. If that route should be taken, I think it’s important for the city to identify an endgame. Not just ask do you want to raise taxes for a better bus system, but do you want to raise taxes for THIS better bus system. Those of you who know me well know my passion for transportation and have seen its products, including my own ideas for an overhaul of the city’s transportation system. And while I have opinions on what improvements should be implemented, I would definitely support such an effort. I’m interested to hear what other Wichitans think and I’ll definitely be keeping tabs on the story.

Getting up to cruising altitude...

2011-05-04T11:31:00.000-07:00

It’s always a challenge to get myself to sit down for 30 minutes and hash out a blog post. I don’t really know why, since there’s not a whole lot of news to write and a few words are valid posts, but I can never seem to consistently do it. It makes me impressed to think about all the blogs I read on a regular basis where someone sits down to write meaningful work every few days, often with little to no monetary benefit but just to talk through ideas.

Anyway, here in Tanzania, things are starting to accelerate. I’ve begun work with a group of students to build and maintain a garden on the school grounds. We started small, digging about 4 beds and planting seeds for various leafy greens (although we’ll see if we had any success with the chickens picking at it for a week). We ran into a problem with miscommunication between myself and the headmaster in terms of what the goals of the group are, as he was disappointed with the size we started with. I wanted the students to show an ability to care for the food but it seems expansion is the priority at this point. When peace corps trains us in gardening methods, they obviously want us to pass those on to the Tanzanian people to spread awareness. However, it’s a battle for every volunteer to try and get the locals to listen to them when teaching because they will never see us as people who know how to farm. We don’t help the image by using the tools efficiently but still it’s frustrating when you have something you want to teach but no one who respects you on the subject enough to listen. I have a couple students beginning to show interest in the concepts so I think maybe I’ll teach a lesson or two on the side and make that a smaller part of the project as a whole. So from here on, I’m hoping to create a system that can be maintained through the constant turn-over that occurs from the school having students run the program. I think seeing something that functions through several leaders would be a big success, especially in this environment.

In other news, the fundraising is officially a go for the health weekends with the local teachers colleges. We had a gap in preparation due to my site mate returning to the states and the other volunteer we are working with needing to take some time off for a few weeks. However, we’re back in the planning stages and while I’m taking a more passive role with these conferences, it’s still exciting to see necessary education done on such a scale.

As for the girls’ empowerment conference, we’re approaching that time where we’re still far enough away to see it as the distant future but close enough to realize work should be started asap. I’m working with at least two other volunteers on putting together a nutrition education program for the girls. We’re finding we have little time to include it in the regular class schedule, so we’re doing our best to design some sort of entertainment teaching on the subject. Other than that, preparations like selecting girls and getting permission slips signed are time consuming necessities that always seem way harder to do that they should be.

I got asked in class today how I felt about the death of Osama Bin Laden. Given that it has been 10 years since 9/11 the response to it emotionally is lacking a bit. I certainly don’t feel like a New Yorker would feel but it’s not like it is lost on me what a horrific day that was. I’ve stood on those grounds before and after the attacks and one of my most unexpected virulent reactions was driving over a bridge in the city, on our way home after visiting Hannah at Wood’s Hole, and realizing that the towers really were gone. However, it was easy to give a sort of politically correct answer and shift the subject. I asked the student how he felt about it, given that before 9/11 Al Qaeda attacked Tanzanians in the American Embassy in Dar es Salaam. Yes it was an attack on the US and even on US soil technically, but the reality is, the attack killed Tanzanians. It was actually a good reminder of just how universal his hatred was for people unlike him. I think the student would have loved to ask more questions but we ran out of class time but it was still an interesting exchange, despite the fact that I’m certain the student was looking for some sort of jubilant response from me.

The last beginning of the school year...

2011-04-20T00:04:00.000-07:00

The school year has officially begun and after a week and a half of relatively frustrating progress I forsee at least another week of slow going before we truly get into the swing of things. Part of the problem is the schedule, which has been unfortunate at best. After returning to country, I had two weeks of nothing before the students returned to school. However, once they arrived, I had to leave for Dar es Salaam for a VAC (Volunteer Advisory Council) meeting for the remainder of the week. Now this week, the school has been struggling with rooms and the class schedule to get students where they need to be and following a consistent schedule. If that wasn’t enough, this year has Easter fall at the end of this week so we are not having class Friday for Good Friday and then Monday for Easter Monday (I always wondered what that day was on the calendar, now I still don’t know but it’s more relevant). The kicker is that the national holiday Union Day, which is always April 26th, falls on Tuesday, giving us a full 5 day weekend. Union Day is a celebration of the anniversary of the unification (surprise!) of TANganyika and ZANzibar. I assume ia was to make it sound more like a real country than Tanzan :P.

Going back for a second, the VAC meeting was a good experience. It’s the second one I have been a part of and it is an opportunity for the volunteers to send representatives to Dar to discuss issues with the PC administration. Often times it turns into a frustrating dialogue between volunteer representatives, who understand that an issue can’t be fixed easily or sometimes at all but have to pass on the complaint from another, and staff who want to put the issue to rest by giving a solid explanation. But usually, tucked in the discussion somewhere is legitimately important material that has to get passed along and does, although perhaps less effectively than we would like. The experience for me is a reminder that we are still a governmental organization and bureaucracy reigns. Many of the answers are carefully phased and things that could potentially allow us to be more flexible in our service aren’t feasible due to the amount of red tape implementation would have to cut through. Still, I think it’s a good opportunity to get volunteers an eye into the administration and bring the two onto the same page.

Back at school, my garden project has been given the official go ahead and we are looking to meet in the coming days to begin the project. I really haven’t ever seen the process of preparation for something like this through its entirety before. In the past, I have entered once the labor comes into the picture to set up and actually work a project. Now, I have to figure out where exactly we are building this garden, how fast it should grow, and who will be involved with each step. It’s a learning experience and having the critical decisions end with me is a situation I don’t think I’ve been in before. I want to include a few Tanzanians beyond my students in the project to expose them to the gardening methods. Yet, it’s not like I can just pass them through to the person who taught me. A volunteer’s responsibility is to distribute skills to the host country national, but up until now that didn’t really process as meaning I will sometimes be the end of the line for information. As we become independent, even in college, it seems as though we still have that net to fall into, be it professors in class or our parents for our home troubles. Obviously, it’s not like I’m out in the cold if I don’t succeed and failure results in some exposed dirt or a corner overgrown with weeds. It’s just dawning on me that the success and failure of this project begins and ends with me and what I have to offer today, which, on a small scale, is terrifyingly exciting.

Other than the garden project, I’m trying to ramp up to normal class operation. I decided to ease myself in with less intense activities that should hopefully stimulate the mind. It’s interesting to see the intellectual differences between our two cultures. I’m trying to make the students think about how to extract as much information as possible out of a word problem and then also exercise their ability to reason so I gave them logic puzzles out of a magazine that was left at my house. When I tried to offer it to the first class, the response was predictably one of confusion and disinterest. Tanzanians have this perception that there is a set list of things to do to study and be prepared for their exams and deviation from that method is a waste of time. I probably have complained about it before. But something that isn’t clearly part of the subject we are studying is definitely not something they see as a good use of brain power. Meanwhile, many people in the states seek out these kinds of problems, which is why my book exists in the first place. What is it about us that causes us to seek to stretch our abilities like that? I’m starting to understand the pessimism from people who operate here long term as the product of the lack of that desire, on the Tanzanians’ part, to improve oneself without reward. When we encounter Tanzanians who break that mold it’s exciting enough to be news for the next time we see other volunteers, the same way as if we saw an awesome sports play. But I suppose that’s our purpose as volunteers, to offer the new way of thinking and if anyone latches on we can support them in continuing with their development. In case anyone does, I have something like 150 logic puzzles at home!

Rounding third....

2011-04-08T12:34:00.001-07:00

Given that we’re at the end of a break, I find I have two options for things to talk about. I could discuss my break, which included a trip to the states as well as Matema Beach. However, I think it’s better to look to the future. Especially given that my remaining time here is shrinking incredibly fast. If you do the math, I have about a quarter of my time left, so in the spirit of the beginning of the baseball season, I'm rounding third. I kind of view it like my senior year of school. You have that one last go around where you’re both capable and in control. You can take the easy way out and coast through on easy classes, try to get a head start on future work, or you can acknowledge the opportunity sitting in front of you, which you are better qualified to take now more than any other time ever. I suppose if I was considering an extension, that experience could be the entire time beyond my two years of service I stay in country. However, I am blessed with a fantastic future back home and, as was proven to me on my break in the states, I will be ready to move on when my service ends. Therefore, to summarize what lies ahead I’ll go through my projects one-by-one with a goals list that I can reference on my way out of country. Teaching: My first priority has to be being an effective teacher. It has been a challenge fighting through materials that I was never fully comfortable with, however, I feel that I have a solid understanding of what concepts are beyond my ability to self-educate. Things like quality lab experiments and the higher ends of electromagnetism and circuitry are responsibilities I am hoping to share with someone who has taken the class before. I will see the results of my work with the first class in a few weeks when national exam scores are released. Hopefully, they will be positive. We shall see exactly how my work load turns out soon, once the schedule is set. It is possible I could return to a full-time math teacher which would bring in some more interesting and complex geometry and calculus work. Library: A major project of mine over time has been an upgrade to the library here at school and to say it hasn’t seen progress would be unfair. But it is equally unfair to imply that the library has been improved at all. It has moved from its small room in the back of a building to a series of four rooms, two recently constructed, in the front of the building. However, the books are still found in piles and boxes and are difficult to access for the students. The inability to use the library as a resource has not changed at all and its check out process still deters students. If work should continue on the building, I will actively get involved yet again and try to implement a system that is student friendly and effective. It’s possible this is a project that could extend beyond my time in Tanzania, as it wouldn’t be too hard to send books to the school in the future for use in the library. However, I have to see motivation on the part of the school administration to complete the project before I put significant effort into it. Gardening: I am still working through the preparatory processes of starting a garden project at the school. So far, a dedicated group of students has shown me they are willing to put in effort to maintain a garden and meet with me to work through the challenges we might face. The project still has to get a green light from the headmaster but I could see this being a success if for no other reason than that I would be in charge, cutting out bureaucracy, and we can start work immediately after approval. I also have counterparts that would be interested in this activity and be there when I am not, which is a sustainability factor that I haven’t been able to produce so far. Ministry of Water Cooperation: Recently, I’ve made a contact with a man in the Ministry of Water and Irrigation here in town. He currently works with a community education project on preserving the water resources here in the Rift Valley. Part of their work is to explain why we want to keep the watersheds clean and what actions are keeping them dirty. This affects everything from trash removal to farming techniques. In fact, it’s possible the garden and this project could merge into one if my friend finds the techniques useful in improving yields without fertilizer or farming immediately adjacent to the streams. Student Life Improvement Lectures: I gave my sleep lecture several months ago and I would consider it somewhat of a success. I think the information was taken to heart by some of the students who realized that sleep is as critical a part of succeeding in school as studying. I am working on a Time Management and Study Skills seminar currently, with plans for nutrition to be a third lecture that will hopefully coincide with the beginning of produce from the garden project. Conferences: Mbeya region has a Girls’ Empowerment Conference scheduled for June that I hope to participate with. While my role is more one of support than leadership, the function is quite large with upwards of 70 girls doing various events from education on appropriate social interactions, to goals planning, to health education. It is a fun week at camp for girls who might otherwise find themselves misguided and even taken advantage of in everyday society. Additionally, I’ve been working with a Scottish volunteer to put together a set of heath weekends that teach early college-age students simple heath facts that they may not otherwise learn. HIV and AIDS is a huge problem in Africa but it, along with malaria, can often overshadow other health issues to the point where they aren’t even considered, sadly, sometimes at the expense of a life. The health weekend would work to pass on information about issues such as diabetes and mental health that might otherwise be ignored to students in teachers’ colleges who could then further distribute the information to the classes they teach once they graduate. It’s interesting to compare my goals now to my goals just a year ago. I had just left my big training that occurs three months into service and had ideas for what I could do with the school. Those turned into focuses on the library and my Swahili skills, which, for better or worse, have fallen in the priorities list. I may not speak fantastic Swahili but I can get by, and the library has moved along at a snail’s pace. Yet, I think I can still accomplish a significant amount between now and my return to the states, even potentially starting new projects that could live beyond my time here. It’s both exciting and sad to think about the end, but my window is closing whether I like it or not. It’s time to make something of my two years here :P

The role of respect

2011-03-01T02:50:00.000-08:00

When you start the process of going somewhere where you will live in a different culture they warn you about the cultural issues. Watch out for the wrong hand motions, always be aware of how you are presenting yourself, try to use their language, etc. However, what they don’t always succeed in explaining is that the differences extend beyond that, into the very core ideas of what is acceptable interaction between humans. I’m finding it hard to deal sometimes with the idea of respect as it is shown here in Tanzania. Some of the ways of showing respect in this country look to me a lot more like submission and servitude than respect.

I suppose first of all, I should apologize to my brothers, Erik and Samuel. Some of the things that drive me up the wall today are the very things I would do to them when we were younger. Not because I thought they needed to develop more respect for me as their big brother, or even that I wanted them to fear me, but rather I just exercised the power that being a larger human being gave me at the time. I remember both Mom and Hannah trying to explain the problem with what I was doing and really not processing that what I was doing was harmful both physically and psychologically. Now, I think at least, my mismanagement as a big brother has not permanently hurt our relationship as siblings but similar cycles I see developing here are causing this country issues.

For example, one big issue, that entirely stems from the culture, is this idea that with age you somehow earn respect from those younger than you, like somehow you have done more respect-worthy things by just having been breathing for longer. I’ve developed a rather rigid rubric for what earns respect in my eyes, but one of the most important characteristics of someone who deserves respect is that they respect others. I think if you look through human history, you find that those who fit this bill, are some of the most powerful people in their generation. Fear and brute strength will only keep things quiet for a time, as we are proving with current events in the Middle East. Look how quickly Gaddafi lost the support of other nations once he showed that he had no respect for his people. Not all people are good, and not all people should be given a pass or even forgiveness (although I would challenge the notion that we have the right to withhold that), but we compartmentalize too quickly. In our heads it flows “that person is a thief, therefore” when in reality we need to understand what lead to the person thieving. It may not change the fact that they need disciplined, but context matters. Respecting them as a fellow human being means offering them a chance to defend themselves. But, before I get lost on an ideological tangent, the relevance to this situation is that the interaction here between the young and old is not always one of earned respect but of expected respect.

A teacher will expect the students to bring them food during morning tea break by just pulling them away from their group of friends. The headmaster will call meetings and have no issues running into class time. I think I’ve complained here before that no one worries about anyone else’s time. But rather, it’s the totem pole. I’m higher than you. The teacher is higher than the student therefore; the student must do as the teacher asks. Never mind that the student may be a star performer and have listened intently during the class the teacher taught that day, fulfilling his or her side of the education agreement. No, that student should get the food, expending effort to make sure the food is of the highest quality available, not just what was on top, instead of using what may be an important break for their ability to perform at a high academic level. Or, for our other example, the headmaster is higher than the student, so he is more deserving of the teachers’ attention. That’s fine once in a while but weekly meetings about things that are not immediately important and take away from the students’ instruction time are a lack of respect for the students.

Another issue that I have come across is the actual physical badgering of those below them, at least in a school setting. The country still has corporal punishment as a discipline method and I think I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m ok with that as a concept. Discipline given with respect and a sincere concern for improving the person is a good and necessary thing. However, corporal punishment is almost never followed as it is legally allowed and it often quickly loses its use as anything more than an oppressive display of power. One day recently, one of the worst abusers of corporal punishment walked along in front of me and I watched as kids retreated, even if only slightly, and cowered as he made slightly threatening moves with his stick. It was exactly the same response I get from animals in Tanzania who view any movement from a human as preceding some sort of beating. There is no respect there, only pure power, and that really bothers me. But what’s even more concerning is that those students see that power as what awaits them if they should become a teacher professionally. They earned the right to intimidate and abuse because they passed a certain level of school.

Now, I do want to address the fact that I seem to be dictating good and bad from my high American horse. I’m hesitant to actually address these issues outright because, as some of the teachers will tell you, it’s the way Tanzanians are. Taking away the system wouldn’t process as a shift in disciplinary methods but rather as a loss of enforcement. I recognize that I didn’t come to this country on some proselytizing mission devoted to instilling a system of best practices as compiled by Andrew Shook. I’m not here to fix everything, just to offer a little help, then leave. Additionally, I think the make love not war camp is just as far off base as the other end of the spectrum. Power that is fairly earned and exercised is something that should be preserved and fought for.

There is any number of reasons that humans do bad things to each other. We’re inherently sinful, we evolved under the context of survival of the fittest, or some people are just bad people. But being cognizant of when something is bad, and when it’s just out of cultural context can be a challenge. I do think there is an understanding between them that it is a discipline and respect issue, but it worries me that it clearly goes beyond that, and frequently. What to do about it is a never ending challenge for the Peace Corps volunteer, and an issue I hope to address soon.

The neglected story of coming to site

2011-02-17T04:08:00.001-08:00

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. :)

2011-02-14T01:48:00.000-08:00

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.

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

TZ Frustrations

2011-01-18T11:19:00.000-08:00

Part of the whole cultural exchange process in Tanzania is learning how to deal with situations where you feel wronged a addressing those appropriately. One of the prevailing issues in this country, and something I believe is holding back the nation as a whole is a sense of responsibility. No one will fess up to their actions and a large number take advantage of a situation where they can get away with doing something wrong that helps them. Ok, so maybe that generalization can be made to America too but it doesn’t change the fact that it is wildly frustrating. Little things go missing here and there and no one sees it as a problem, until it’s someone else who gets caught. They complain about corruption in the government but don’t see taking a pen as equal. Now, I am in no way free of blame but I think my track record is pretty positive. I also could be looking at this through an unrepresentative view. I am white and I am perceived to be well off. I do have nice things which slants their assumptions towards me being able to afford to replace what they take. But on a week where I’m trying to live off of less than 5,000 shillings (that’s $3.33 for those keeping track in the states) I find it incredibly frustrating to learn I’ve lost probably 4 meals worth of rice and my next two weeks worth of TP. So maybe some of this is my fault for coming here with a relative abundance of clothes and a computer, but the principle remains the same.

You can always question whether there should be disparity in income across the world and how I, as a member of the richest country in the world, have any right to tell these people what is mine should not also be theirs. But that’s a philosophical question far beyond the scope of me being here. The reality is, despite the poor economy, I could be making many many times what the people here are making. I chose to sacrifice that income to come here and try to help the situation, to pass on knowledge that can help them improve their situation. In a way, I feel abused. Not only are they taking my good will, they’re also taking what I use to support myself, allowing me to give what I can. Now, in the grand scheme of things, what I have lost this week is limited in importance at best, but the timing was not ideal. I’ll survive because, in reality, I can borrow a little, change some dollars, do any number of things that wouldn’t necessarily be a viable option for a struggling Tanzanian. However, I just want to be appreciated, and that was the exact opposite of the feeling I got upon returning.

Not only did the missing materials bother me, the first thing my headmaster said upon seeing me is “why haven’t we seen you?” Now, I recognize that Tanzanian culture expects you to stop by and say hello after a trip, but I was tired (and I have to grade tests too). But the tone of his voice was not one of “oh we missed you!” it was one of reprimand. That just adds insult to injury. I’m fairly sure the expectation was that I came to say I was back and tell them about my trip. Tanzanians will tell you oh, we’re in Africa or this isn’t America like that somehow changes the fact that I am a foreigner. The hypocrisy of their expectation of me to not be myself in their country when they’ve never had to live in a different culture is extremely frustrating. I have come to realize I loathe that line. I may not be in America but I am, in some of the most stereotypical ways, an American. I take comfort in Peace Corps’ second purpose which is to bring American culture to host country nationals to justify my decisions to go to sleep when they might expect me to come socialize. I’m learning, that despite our social practices, Americans are very private people. If you’re tired or sick especially, but even when you’re perfectly well, alone time is highly valuable. That is not the case here in Tanzania but I’ve come to accept the fact that I am absolutely not Tanzanian and there is no need to make myself miserable to assuage their concerns about my lack of a presence.

Anyway, the moral of the story is after only 3 hours of sleep the night before due to my painful back (more on that in my next post) and an early bus departure, followed by a 14 hour bus ride across the country, I had too much Tanzania upon my arrival. I just wanted to rest and around every corner was some issue preventing that.

Work, Weather, and World War II

2010-12-07T09:11:00.000-08:00

So I wanted to write another blog post just to catch up on current events. In terms of the day-to-day, very little has changed down here in the southwest of Tanzania. The O-level classes have closed and it is quieter around school with just the A-level kids hanging around. Currently we’re also in the middle of mock exams for form 6 so that keeps half the kids studying furiously in a corner in an attempt to prepare for their tests. My class’s exam was relatively easy. There were few tricky questions, as most of them were very straightforward and asking for very mainstream concepts to be produced. There were two questions that I thought were out of line as they were never mentioned in the syllabus but I suppose they were probably concepts taught in O-level which would make them fair game for an A-level exam, as they are supposed to be fully cumulative. However, partial fraction decomposition and (less so) the equation for a circle were concepts that we never went over and I’ll be surprised if the students score very well on them. Although, I guess I should be grateful they showed up here and not on the exam for the first time. Other than exams, school is continuing, if only at a seemingly sluggish pace. Since I lost my physics periods, my work load is down hovering around that line where I don’t have to do any work to still get by and at times it can be hard to motivate myself to do quality work day in and day out. However, I am attempting to use the time to give effort in my secondary work, library and presentations, to counter when I regain my physics periods in the coming weeks. However, I find I do better work when I have more of it so it may take that additional responsibility to trigger a consistent quality response.

The seasons are one thing that is changing, and rather rapidly, right now. It has looked like a storm several times and even spit rain while grumbling thunder, but until quite recently the actual precipitation has been lacking. That all changed this last Sunday when I could see the storm clouds gathering in the early afternoon. Part of the difference was the fact that the storm approached about 3 hours before they had been gathering lately, and part of it was the cloud structure, which was much more defined and solid. One of the cool things about tin roofs is that you can hear what is coming for a little bit before it arrives. The storm came in like a continuous crescendo of applause and once the rain showed up the wind picked up too. It got to the point where I was waiting outside to watch the tree that would inevitably fall, do so. I turned out to be correct, although it was only a large branch as opposed to the full tree this time, but I missed it because I was driven inside by the pea-sized hail (yes hail!) that was blown sideways compromising my porch as a shelter. Ever since that storm, we’ve had pouring rain every night, and even some showers during the day. It was clearly the beginning of the season which now looks to stay quite wet. Well, at least it feels like Tukuyu again!

I watched the movie Saving Private Ryan the other day for the first time. I’d wanted to see it ever since I remembered hearing Ian got to go see it in theatres when we were not even teenagers. I’d even seen some of the opening scene once, but never the entire movie. I have no idea if a World War II vet would consider that a good representation of the experience, but it moved me in a way few movies have in recent memory. I have levels of quality in my mind and often movies are good but do not get up to that highest rung, but this one certainly did. From the opening scene where the fronts of the boats open at Omaha Beach to greet a wave of bullets, I was filled with the feeling that I did not appreciate what that war meant to America and the world. We hear the words about how our soldiers are fighting in the name of freedom etc. in Afghanistan and Iraq but somehow, with all the disagreement on where we should be fighting and if we should still be there, the words lose their meaning. But to know that failure meant the conquest of pure evil in the world, the call to fight must have been undeniable. Yet, war in those days was so much different. Casualties were expected and you were happy with numbers lost in a battle that today are unacceptable in a war! Men went to fight, knowing it was likely they would die, and yet they did it anyway; literally for family, god, and country. I don’t think my generation can truly appreciate what war was for those fighting in WWII because I don’t think we think we equate war with such a high likelihood of death. Obviously today’s soldiers have to be willing to give their lives and indeed many have already given themselves mentally to the cause. But at least for me, “going off to war” doesn’t mean what it must have for the men in the 40s.

I think the other element of the movie that struck a chord with me was the camaraderie of the men in battle and dying for your fellow soldier. At the end of the movie, Tom Hanks’ character says to Matt Damon simply, “Earn this.” What an inescapable burden the survivors of that war must have felt from those they left behind on the battlefield. By some inexplicable roll of the dice, they were the ones that got to go home to their wives, girlfriends, and unborn generations that lived only because they did. I have never claimed to understand Post-traumatic Stress Disorder because I’m not sure what it could possibly feel like. But the moment where Private Ryan has grown to an old man and is begging for his wife to tell him he’s lived a good life, earning every life that was sacrificed to save his own on the battle field, I think I got a glimpse of what that burden must have been like to the survivors and how it could cause some to never recover. I’m not trying to say that from one movie I am suddenly privy to even a small portion of what that war did to America, but I think that movie did exactly what a great film does; it gave, if even for only a few moments, the sense of being in the experience and not behind a screen.

Given that today is December 7, I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to every veteran that fought in World War II and every other veteran who has served to keep America and her people safe. And thank you to those who continue to do that duty today, especially my friends and family who are serving. I could not do what I am doing without your work.

A Transit Tangent!

2010-11-30T00:51:00.000-08:00

To those who have read my blog in the past you may have consistently come across a reference to a transit project that I have spent a significant amount of time designing. While it seems at times like a colossal waste of time given I live in Africa having limited contact with people who could identify the merits and faults of my proposal, it has been an enjoyable exercise and a good creative outlet. However, often my ideas aren’t finished until I’ve reached some sort of tangible ending point to the project. A few months ago, I put the idea into an actual document that I sent to be produced into a physical booklet (thank you Katie!) and sent to people who could indeed have an effect on it. I was rewarded with a thoughtful response by the director of Wichita Transit, giving me a look at the document they have chosen to guide them in the future.

However, I have since found an additional solution to my list of kinks to be worked out, which brings me here, in search of another end. So therefore, I’ll present the plan and its associated update.

I have been working on this idea in one form or another since my freshman year of college, when I realized that the city had an interesting situation in that in every direction from the city, towards every other town nearby, there were rail corridors in various states of use. Then, I further recognized that most every major destination had one of these corridors in close proximity to it. Over the course of the next few years I developed several iterations of my plan until settling on open-ended bus-rapid-transit (BRT) corridors as the best use of the facilities. I admit, some would require more significant construction than others, and the costs could be significant, but with a commitment to the project, other necessary improvements (that will be constructed without the system) could be modified to make the project even cheaper.

Anyway, the system is based around consolidating the current offerings of the Wichita Transit into branches of an effectively high-capacity corridor where service would be dramatically increased. In places where buses run on nearby streets, they would be consolidated to one corridor and timed to cut the wait time for the next bus in half. The further you travel from city center, the less frequent travel is on the transit corridor, as buses turn off to offer local service on various streets. In the center of town, this does shrink service coverage, but if the corridor offers truly frequent service, people will walk to take it. The other advantage, and biggest gain, of the system is an assistance of non-downtown-oriented trips. Since stations on the busway could be used as a transfer point, the rider could ride one bus to the transitway and then switch services to another destination without going downtown, as is required now.

The busways with the most potential boil down to four different routes. A northeast busway which follows abandoned railroad tracks from Washington, just north of Central, to Wesley hospital before turning north towards WSU, and then turning east to travel at roughly 17th street to Rock Road. A second busway would follow Southeast Blvd from its break off with Washington all the way to 47th Street South and the Oaklawn community. This could be constructed concurrently with an effort to raise the train tracks paralleling the boulevard by sacrificing lanes on a street that is redundant to Washington, Hydraulic, and I-135 in the north, and has sufficient space for additional lanes further south. The western branches both begin in Delano, just north of Douglas, then the southwest splits to follow the active railway past Friends and then branches off to travel along the southern side of Kellogg to the airport. The northwestern line would travel parallel to the rails heading northwest along Zoo Boulevard. Perhaps, with the construction of a rail connection between Maize and North Broadway, the railroad could be convinced to abandon the right-of-way and the transitways would require very little property acquisition. There are other potential corridors, including a southern transitway I included in phase three that follows the western edge of the river, however, these four are the foundation of the system.

The product being put together for Wichita Transit’s expansion, currently focuses on decreasing wait times and increasing transfer opportunities which is a necessary goal. However, the busway concept allows users to take advantage of potential redundancies closer to the region’s core as buses converge on the downtown area, all the while seeing more comfortable transfer facilities. Even initially at the start up, frequencies at transitways are often much better than 10 minutes between buses. The following is a diagram of my hypothetical build out after the second phase:

There are some obvious shortfalls of the suggestions and service does lack to some important parts of the city. I had to create a hypothetical implementation in order to effectively show the potential of my system and this is the map for one potential solution. Two places that would really require service that I have not served well are the manufacturing hubs of Hawker Beechcraft and Cessna Aircraft. I would also advocate better north-south connections on the near east side (Hillside and/or Oliver service). With this level of investment in the system, it would develop beyond one of basic mobility service to one riders could truly plan their day around.

The current plan for Wichita Transit is to significantly increase frequencies, in some cases to every 15 minutes. Since this is already under consideration for improved bus service, I adopted it into my proposal as well. Each line is upgraded to 15 minute service, which creates very busy transitways where over half the system stations have frequencies of 6 minutes or less!

That is the express version of the plan, which is all about focusing on serving a transit district completely, as opposed to trying to serve the entire region with basic mobility. I’m not sure if it would be possible in this economic climate, but Wichita Transit has suggested perhaps seeking a transit tax or some other increase in funds in order to fund their ambitious expansion. I would perhaps suggest defining the transit district and levying the tax on those individuals residing and businesses operating within it, and people living outside the district could vote on if they want more basic mobility based services, funded by a smaller tax. I find that system both more fair, and more likely to get passed. As the people who need it are the people in the core but also are often overruled when the suburban vote is added to the mix.

The gap at the center of the map where the busways seemingly end in the downtown area is the subject of my recent work. I have been bothered by that problem since I finished the project. I will admit the idea came from a fun little hypothetical redesign of the Union Station site as a redeveloped transit center with the expansion of the Heartland Flyer. Connecting it to the bus network was a priority and developed the idea of William as an exclusive transit corridor. During the inevitable upgrades required at the station, a connection would be built from the back of Union Station to the William Street corridor to allow transit vehicles to pass underneath the railroad tracks above. To the west, William Street becomes Water street after curving northward next to Century II and the busway could extend northward following Water and the abandoned railway it comes to join. The recent downtown master plan has identified that the downtown area has an excess of lanes, which I agree with whole heartedly. However, the suggestion of a Douglas St transit facility takes away lanes from the one place in downtown where they are actually at a shortage. With a few connections, using excess lanes on other streets, the William/Water bus facility could be connected to the busways radiating out from town. The following is my drawing of such designed facilities:

The portion of Douglas between Water and the Delano district has a portion with 6 lanes, in front of Century II and 4 lanes across the river connecting to a two lane portion through Delano. Taking two lanes from each section should not significantly impair the traffic flow on the street, as it is simply moves the funnel east to near the Waco/Douglas intersection. The southeast busway would be accessed by converting one of the side-streets west of Washington into a transitway to connect to the back of Union Station and the northeast busway could connect to the William/Water transitway through dedicated lanes on Murdock St. A future redesign of Washington Street for service as both a street and transit facility could create Wichita’s own version of the loop, connecting all the major downtown facilities.

Implementing this also creates the potential for several transit oriented developments with a focus on residential (near Cleveland/Central), office and light industry (near Washington/Kellogg), or shopping (west of Delano). While the focus at this time should be the true core of the city, success of such a transit system could feed the need for additional transit focused space to be developed in the areas immediately surrounding the downtown core.

Another aspect of the design that I really like is the attempt to make downtown truly a multimodal travel center with the introduction of full bicycle facilities. Blue lines on the map represent fully separated bike paths, and dashed blue lines represent prominent bike lanes. With these facilities, the entire area from I-135 to the river and from Lincoln to Murdock would be bicycle friendly. With the improvements in walkability being promoted downtown, it would create a truly multimodal hub with walking, biking, potentially intercity rail, and transit given a significant presence, although I will not say equal footing, compared to cars. The first street corridor could be designed to look something like this:

Tired yet? I have one more thing :P When I made my proposal, I based it on population and income distribution data from more than a decade ago. The recently released Wichita Transit Plan has a section showing the population and employment densities for 2008 of the Wichita Metro Area. I combined them into a product that suggested transit suitability, as follows below:

*Sorry for the crazy colors. I messed with it in Picasa to try to improve the contrast, but I really couldn't get it to look all that good.

I have drawn on the Phase 2 build out of my transit system for reference. I think it does a pretty good job of hitting the biggest concentrations of high transit potential. The pink dot (highest score) just northwest of downtown would be near a transit stop built at Murdock and Waco. However, the other pink dot, between Lincoln and Harry on Oliver, is not served directly by a busway. It does make an interesting case for bus lanes on Harry street between Southeast Blvd. and Rock Road however, and I wonder if the Wichita Transit officials have considered that when advocating a BRT-light system for Douglas between the shopping malls. The map also demonstrates there may be potential for express buses to Andover and Derby then local service within their respective city limits.

And there you have it: my official update. It’s not perfect, and it would require significant investment, in both time and money, from the city. But I think it would start to develop a system that promotes non-automobile orienting living. A denser city is a cheaper one to supply basic infrastructure to so from an economic standpoint as well as an cheaper on to live in, especially if the price of gas starts to climb again. I think it's in the city's best interest to be actively seeking things that support enhanced density.

Hopefully I was reasonably articulate. It’s easy to see to see my maps and know all my ideas but not always simple to put those into words. Please feel free to comment and question the idea below! And if you’re still reading, thanks so much for actually considering it all!

One year finished, what did we learn?

2010-11-23T00:46:00.000-08:00

So it has been official for nearly a month now but I feel it’s still relevant to address the fact that I’ve reached the halfway point in my service. It makes complete sense to me, standing here, now why the Peace Corps asks you to commit two full years to service. It took me this long to even get an idea of what I can do if I want to. Granted, that makes it sound like my abilities are fully known and my options are listed on a sheet of paper, which is of course, not even slightly true. I will be learning and developing relationships till the day I leave, that’s just how it goes. But all in all, I feel as though I have command, albeit limited, of the situation. They say during training it takes a year to become fully comfortable; it does. They also say it takes a year to get the Swahili skills; it does not. It takes longer….at least for me. But I am working on it and I do see improvements. But I’m not going to worry about that because I’ve written plenty on that topic.

I had a productive exercise the other day. I took what I feel I can do, and wrote down what projects within that I think I would like to do in the coming year. I came up with a semi-surprisingly attainable list of goals. It was mostly made up of quality education and adding valuable non-academic information about lifestyle and health. But things like develop a library, within a Tanzanian budget, are things that are happening. It made me somewhat reflective on what I have learned while in country, and so I present to you, with no order whatsoever, and a range of sincerity, the things that I think I’ve learned in the last year:

1) Whoever made the connection between cocks crowing and dawn isn’t awake at any other time of day. It doesn’t matter if it’s day, night, or twilight. Those annoying birds will crow at any time, making eating them all the easier.

2) How to study. I used to think I knew what it meant to study, and to some degree I was right. But when I have to teach a concept I’ve never seen before, based in a science I didn’t do so well in, the true meaning of understanding becomes much more apparent. I’ve shared this anecdote several times, but my sitemate Theo and I were once discussing over lunch our preparations for class. In our commenting about the 3-5 textbooks open at a time, working slowly through material to get the details, and the vigorous note taking, I realized that I had truly studied for the first time. They say the third step in learning is teaching, and I believe it 110%. You wont learn more material faster but still effectively than if you’re expected to teach it to 40 kids the next day.

3) I have some really strange hobbies, and very selective commitment to them. In the same way that I could spend hours looking at weather forecasts and stories when I was a kid, I’ve developed, if possible, even further my affinity for transportation planning. Perhaps the time consumption is so high because I don’t have the tools I could potentially acquire in the states to speed up production. But I have filled nearly 100 pages of a workbook with ideas for a transportation plan for Wichita. I do want it to be considered but I recognize the impracticality of it, especially right now. Still, it is satisfying to produce something that, at least when looked at through my biased eyes, would effectively serve, and even develop the community.

4) I just don’t do as well with languages. I am able to learn when I give it effort and use it frequently, but if it is not something I am forced to use every day it can fall by the wayside and I don’t learn via osmosis in the way I can with the sciences. It still takes lots of practice and I have to give the effort, but for now it just seems like a lot more work than it’s worth, given I can get what I need day to day.

5) I really can cook; I just don’t think I want to most of the time. I actually enjoy cooking, when it’s a shared task. It is also quite satisfying to produce an enjoyable meal that is both filling and tasty. The problem is, when it’s just me, cooking for an hour for 10-15 minutes of eating seems not worth it. Therefore I end up with the same pasta every night with the same spices and the same filled but unsatisfied stomach. This should be a fairly limited issue as once I have someone who would get upset by the blandness of my meals, I’ll have someone to help me cook something better!

6) Apparently drugs are even less effective on me than I had previously thought. So I’m taking Mephaquin once a week, which is an anti-malarial medicine. The side effects can include insomnia and vivid dreaming. I know I’m a big guy, but when we arrived in country, we took a large dose to get it into our system. Many people didn’t sleep for two whole days but I actually slept really well considering the fact that I was also suffering from jet lag. Another side effect has been an upset stomach but that has only happened when I took the pill on an empty stomach.

7) Speaking of upset stomachs, they can ruin your day if you’re not careful. My time in country has been somewhat marred by a recurrent digestive issue resulting in abdominal cramping and long stints in the bathroom. At this point, I’ve accepted it as part of the experience and I work around it. I usually can recognize the onset of trouble and take appropriate action. I have yet to have it be a debilitating issue but we’ll see where the adventure goes!

8) Staying in the same theme. Weight loss has been fantastically easy! All you have to do is not eat anything of nutritional value very often and consume all filler foods. It’s worked without any real attempt to control the situation on my end. I eat fairly well on the weekends and I’m still significantly slimmer. I think it’s all the stuff in American food but between my digestive problems and the lack of worthy nutrition in the food I do eat, I have effectively returned my weight to the range I should be.

9) Culture runs so much deeper than ethnic clothing and dance. Maybe this was obvious for other people but I remember a discussion of culture always being accompanied by a picture of some non-Caucasian in ethnic get up doing some sort of dance. Still today, even in Tanzania, tribes who define themselves independently of Tanzanians can be identified by the clothing they wear. Yet, I’m finding cultural differences extend to everything from outlook on life to food preferences. For example, the people of Tanzania are very often fatalists and feel that what happens to them is out of their hands. (Yes Peace Corps I acknowledge you did teach that but I, predictably, didn’t file it away as important). Mungu akipenda (literally translated: if God likes), I will go to school next year. I think in America we would generally agree that that is mostly in our hands to decide and work through but here it really is mostly left up to God. Unfortunately, that approach also removes one from responsibility for failure, as it wasn’t my fault! God just didn’t want it to happen so it didn’t matter how hard I tried. While, there are obviously exceptions to the rule, they also are a culture of reproducing what’s given to them. I have seen a tailor turn down business because he was asked to make a shirt out of cloth that was sewn together as a skirt. it was plenty of cloth but because it wasn’t started from the simple flat sheet he was used to, he was unable to make the shirt.

10) I imitate not innovate. On the same lines as my Tanzanian students, I have a hard time thinking outside the box sometimes. I take what I see as a good idea and I apply it to a situation. My teaching is mostly made up of lecture since my students are a step away from college. Although, when I do try and make the experience more engaging, I find myself reverting to those who taught me and trying to emulate their very successful teaching methods. When I work with my transportation things, I tend to choose the most appropriate already-established idea for the given situation (or at least recently I have, LRT for Wichita notwithstanding :P), not thinking of some creative new system. (Although it could just be that there aren’t better alternatives :P) I recognize being truly innovative is really hard and perhaps beyond me, so I’ll take what I can be good at and further develop those skills.

11) I’m irrationally devoted to things at times. I have finished tv shows and books while I’ve been here just to say that I did. On more than one occasion despite not really enjoying the subject of my attention but I finished it to say I had. I’m not really sure what this says about me as a person, but I find myself wondering why I do it, only to realize three hours later I’m back watching the tv show “to finish it.”

And I’m out of ideas that come immediately to mind. Back to serious, I think it’s easy to look at something like Peace Corps service and see only the few central goals. Teaching school and educating about health issues are the really obvious surface issues. But 2/3 of the point of Peace Corps is cultural exchange and establishing relationships and developing them. Inadvertently, you begin to discover things about yourself which you’re then forced to acknowledge, develop, and utilize. I have my goals for the second half of service, all of which are attainable if I put my mind to it. I have to see the potential places where I can fail and either mitigate the risk or recruit someone else to help where I’d fail. I’m excited about the next 6-8 months with the possibilities, so we’ll see how it goes!

Shadows!

2010-11-18T10:22:00.000-08:00

So last week I got my first official taste of being a year older. I hosted shadows for the week from the new class of ed volunteers incoming this year. It was interesting to be on the other side of that exchange for sure. It’s funny, every time I find myself in a position of authority or “power” for lack of a better term, I’m increasingly realizing that there I have nowhere near the command and comfort of the situation that I attribute to those who are in those positions over me. I looked up to the guy I shadowed as some wise volunteer who knew the ins and outs of the situation and really had the situation under control. But for me, while I do generally have a handle on the situation, I definitely don’t have my life in perfect order like his seemed to be back then.

Anyway, the shadow process was extended this year so I had them for a full 7 days. We received them on Sunday evening and then hosted till the next Sunday when they returned. It’s strange to think about how the routine of a volunteer can get kind of overly comfortable. I’m able to walk into my 7:30 am class on Monday with a few notes and the notes I wrote for last year and be comfortable, whereas I could see neither felt like teaching was something they could do without preparation. I know for a fact I felt that way back then so it’s cool to think I have grown in some ways. I’ve always been generally ok with public speaking (although public performance hasn’t always been easy) but once I know my kids I have no worries walking into class. Anyway, the result was a day off on Monday while the shadows grew accustomed to my house and welcomed being generally lazy which hadn’t been an option for several weeks. They also grew accustomed to my cats. When I first got in contact with them, I asked what their cat situation was and both are, of course, allergic. However, Paul was way more so than Veronica and after a night of what I think was actually pretty painful allergies, we tried to set him up in my mattress-less third bed.

Tuesday did result in teaching, which I was glad about. While Peace Corps generally does a good job of preparing their volunteers for teaching, they can sometimes focus only on the lower levels of the system, which is reasonable given the split in volunteers between O and A levels. Therefore, I felt it is important for the shadows to get a chance to stand in front of an A-level classroom and see what the issues are. English, while still a challenge, becomes less of a problem. Presentation of material is much more lecture-like. Creative teaching gives way to solid explanations. While it’s all part of the natural shift to higher level teaching styles, I felt it important to show that difference so they felt more prepared.

Wednesday morning was a little bit of teaching, then a trip to Katie’s site, which in my opinion, has the best view in Tanzania. Unfortunately, the rains are only just starting so the sky was still hazy and not all way visible. It was still enjoyable as we made a feast of bean burgers and lots of toppings! Katie’s dog had apparently acquired a girlfriend. And one of her shadowers developed a love for Chuck! (It’s spreading!)

Thursday was an Ngozi hike with the shadows. I’ll refer you to photos in other posts but it was just as gorgeous as ever! And Friday we went into Mbeya, introducing them to the tastes of Metro cuisine! The rest of the weekend was mostly spent hanging out with various groups of people. As always, the kitchen at Anita’s house was a busy place and everyone chipped in for good food. When everyone gets together in Mbeya it is such an enjoyable atmosphere as everyone lounges with a beer and stories. And we just hang out for hours on end doing very little. Again, I’m starting to feel old. I remember back when I couldn’t understand how my parents would just sit at family gatherings and talk the whole time. Now I’m wondering why they didn’t bring a six pack to share :P It’s just amusing to see how the tables have turned.

So it seemed like a pretty uneventful week, and it most certainly was. Given my excuse that I had to take care of my shadows, and using the fact that they were teaching my classes, my week turned into one big lethargic break. Alas, how I suffer! Anyway, moral of the story: shadows were great and I had a really restful week!

Feeling Successful!

2010-11-06T21:05:00.000-07:00

I gave my sleep presentation last night and I would consider it a moderate success! I made a powerpoint because I knew the novelty would attract students, and I used my towel, which was shown to be fairly dirty, as a screen to project on. Unfortunately hanging from a tree it didn't turn out quite as smooth as I would have hoped, but the effect was the same. I suppose this is where I need to thank Theo as he let me borrow the projector for the project.

Anyway, although I think the presentation lacked super engaging qualities beyond the technology, I think it hit its target audience. I found students who freely admitted they sleep 4 hours a night, and by then end they were asking questions about how to ensure they sleep better. I'm not sure I kept everyone interested as I started with essentially the entire A-level population and whittled it down to maybe 30 students by the end of the hour. But those that stayed asked questions for 15-20 minutes and we discussed what they could do to improve sleep and when to worry about waking.

I even got a request for another presentation! So I think the next time we'll do the study skills and time management presentation! Then from there, who knows. Maybe this could even develop into a research education sort of thing where I have students do the research and production, which will help them as they go to universities. We'll see what unfolds but for now, I'm feeling pretty good about the situation :)

A little of this, a little of that

2010-11-04T11:37:00.000-07:00

So again I've lapsed on my blogging. I apologize for the gaps, but I'll do my best to bring you up to date. I finished break in mid-October which essentially means for a week I was typing 4-5 exams a day, which in perspective, isn't an issue at all. However, what I'm realizing is that many of the exams could be typed by the teacher who puts them together. So one thing I have considered trying is to do a basic computer education and typing seminar type thing to introduce computers as a resourse in the school. While most teachers in my school have used computers before and have a basic knowledge, it doesn't go far enough to where they can really utilize it to make their lives easier. Granted, having them type their own tests would infringe up responsibilities which have been clearly defined and although it may make sense, it's just not right. Things that are done a certain way are often not to be questioned and are that way for a reason, regardless of our ability to explain that reason. However, on occasion that argument does not apply. I'm still working on figuring out when these things matter and when they don't because, often, there is little rationale, or so it seems to the volunteers.

The biggest news, in the short term at least, is the embracing of my seminar series for student life by my school administration. I have finished preparing my sleep presentation and am really just looking forward to an opportunity to give it. In that process, I asked my headmaster if I could present and he began suggesting not only do we do this, we expand to talk about studying habits and nutrition and everything I had been thinking from day 1!! So, I'm currently focusing on a study habit and time management presentation and looking to present the original sleep presentation. I still have at least two more presentations with one on extracurriculars and creativity and another on nutrition and wellbeing. The issue came up between a sitemate of mine and his students and they admitted it was information they had never heard before. Nutrition is a part of the biology syllabus but often the connections between the books in the classroom and real life are lost on the students. So that project is alive, and honestly, doing much better than I expected!

Finally, I'm getting back into reading. I've recently been watching shows and working through them. One downside of having several seasons is a commitment to watch a show requires strong dedication! I recently have watched It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (a bit extreme for my tastes, just too ridiculous and edgy most of the time), How I Met Your Mother (enjoyably entertaining, but somewhat mindless), and Sports Night (a witty comedy that does a good job of blending the real and the hilarious). The downside to this is that I haven't read as much. I just finished the first book of the Uplift Triology, which is the 4th book in the series. It finally got quite interesting in the final pages (which is not a good ratio considering there were 659 of them) as my favorite story from book 2 comes back to play a prominant part. But now I've decided to take a short break. Due to a limited time opportunity (in other words, someone else wants the book) I've began to read the book The God Delusion. Just as it sounds, it's a book written by an athiest about why religion is a bad thing. Acknowledging that I've only read maybe 25 pages, he brings up some very good (and often ugly) points about religion as a whole, but I find myself feeling he assumes any truely rational thought will give the reader only his conclusion about the situation. And if it does not, it is somehow misguided by the force fed religion of our previous generations. Granted, he admits to writing the book as a rallying cry to athiests so it is reasonable to expect it to be a solid voice advocating that ideology. I think it will be interesting to read on and see if there are new arguments to be delt with or if all his scientific evidence will be made up of ideas I have already encountered.

Inevitably, I have more I could say, but I'll wait for another post. I'm getting tired and my bed looks awfully inviting! Anyway, I hope things are going well wherever you are!

"Sometimes you're ahead. Sometimes you're behind. The race is long. But in the end it's only with yourself."

2010-10-12T08:57:00.002-07:00

I have frequently caught myself saying that all the growth people told me would happen to me in college, has more effectively occurred here in the Peace Corps for me. Granted the next question following that is usually along the lines of “what has changed?” Well, then starts the stuttering and the blank mind because putting it into words is often more difficult than I expect. But perhaps it’s not that I’ve changed so much as I’ve become more self aware, and ideally in most situations more confident.

One place where my confidence still lacks is in putting myself into a situation where I have the potential to, at least in my eyes, embarrass myself. I suppose if we looked back in the crystal ball or through some psychological analysis we could come to various events in my development that impeded my growth as a confident outgoing individual. The most obvious was a certain picture of me in clothing not appropriate to my gender that got to school and was that quintessential gaffe that someone becomes known for. I really feel as though it was some time earlier as I can recall those concerns before then, but in elementary school I remember often feeling exceedingly confident and capable, which was, in hindsight, a product of my ability to digest information very quickly. When I was young (haha I’m 23 so that’s kind of a ridiculous statement but you know what I mean), I learned very quickly and so I think I probably was a step ahead of most that surrounded me, which would naturally give anyone confidence. However, I think my early successes did not develop in me an ability to bounce back, for lack of a better way to say it. So as I grew up, I continued to get myself into the company of people who I would consider truly brilliant. Yet I failed to see that while I was not the smartest, best, or most capable, I was absolutely not the other end in any categories. I just failed to see beyond the first part. IB, orchestra, athletics, all of which carried over to college at Cornell where there are herds of geniuses running around. Even now, in Peace Corps, the people here come from a slice of America that is…impressive, at the very least. Just considering these peoples’ secondary education achievements and it is quite the group of individuals. Anyway, I set a high bar for myself, but when I fail to clear the bar, I never really deal with it. I just kind of feel sad for a little while, think self-deprecating thoughts, and sit with my tail between my legs before moving on to the next thing and put it out of my mind.

I’m curious to know what that might have lost me. I think as a musician I was only as good as my concern for failure would let me be. I hate(d) solos because it was me and my warts for all to see where as the further into a group I was the better I felt. I know for a fact my best quality viola playing was in a massive orchestra where I was completely covered. Yet somehow I couldn’t translate that quality to when I would play alone, and that made it all the harder to keep my confidence at a level even basic skills needed to succeed. Vocally, I was much more comfortable and that allowed me to do things like Madrigals. Still, when it came time for me to sing alone in front of a piano, or heaven forbid, in front of the auditorium, I got extremely nervous, to the point where it was difficult to do things that were automatic at most times.

I suppose I could also list the number of relationships that didn’t, or at least couldn’t, happen due to my lack of confidence. I’m fairly certain at least one relationship I had was sabotaged by my lack of self-confidence. And I had several situations when a less concerned person would put himself out there. But despite myself, I’m in a very good place on that front! Since I tried so hard to avoid getting myself into a situation where I could get hurt, I waited until I couldn’t not pursue the relationship and it has worked out wonderfully.

Anyway, to get where this is going, I’ve found my new confidence dependent issue. Language. Somehow, standing in front of a classroom teaching material I learned the night before is not a huge concern for me. However, I can’t deny that the teaching profession is in my blood so maybe I have some help in that department. But my language ability is less than what it should be and even with effort to practice grammar and improve vocabulary, I’m way behind. I have all these excuses ready to flow out for why I don’t understand when all my peers seem to do better than me with the language. My host family spoke mostly English, I teach in English, I don’t live in a situation where I even have to speak English, and the current hot one, it’s easier if they speak so there isn’t confusion so I’ll stand in the back. The reality, however, is that I just don’t try as hard as I should and I don’t try because I’m worried what will happen when I make a mistake. I’m not really sure how to correct this fault of mine but being aware that it is often a problem far greater than trying and failing is a first step. That’s not to say I wouldn’t have agreed with that statement in the past, but I would have found some excuse for why it didn’t apply in that situation. I would rather not ruin a good friendship, or I don’t want to say something offensive. I can’t say I know what I need to do now, or every situation will be met with the appropriate internal preparation, but I do need to deal with this. When it makes me avoid buying wood for months because I’m worried about vocabulary I need to do something. And today I did AND I said something that made absolutely no sense. But I laugh about it, and learn. And tomorrow, I’m that much better a Swahili speaker.

All in all I realize this is cliché. Yet, it’s a battle I constantly wage….still. I’m sure, now, it will be one I fight for the duration of my life, but maybe putting myself here in a world where my ability to survive is tied to doing things that make me uncomfortable will prove to myself I can do whatever it is that makes me so nervous.

If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day....

2010-10-11T09:10:00.000-07:00

I had an interesting experience today. So this past weekend, after a 2 night stay at Matema Beach, I found my way back home with about 5000 shillingi to spare which was all part of my plan to limit my spending. Although, frequently not taking a lot of money just turns into more excessive borrowing but I like to think it instills some frugality that would otherwise be lacking. Anyway, my fortune in being near an ATM allows me to extend my wallet somewhat in that I can refill the immediate wallet with the bigger bank wallet in less than 5 minutes. However, this also depends on the ATM functioning, which in any western world country would be a valid assumption, but as you might have noticed, I am not in the western world. Therefore, the ATMs break down with some frequency and Sunday night happened to be one of those nights. Compounding that problem was my friends’ needs to travel places either that night or the next day and they had essentially no money themselves. Therefore, my 5000 shillingi went to travel expenses for the friends and I was left with about 400 shillingi in change. Not to worry! I had a just eaten a small pack of spaghetti and a sauce made of my spices and some oil. I also had a couple slices of bread.

Ok, so fastforward 18 hours. I figure when I start getting hungry I can go out to get money then food today. Well, that didn’t quite go as planned as the ATMs were out of money today. At this point, my food intake has been about 2 slices of bread dipped in some olive oil for the last 22-24 hours, not entirely as planned but fixable when the ATM is working. But alas, it is not. So, my friend Linda and I scrape together 1000 shillings between us. I have an avocado and an onion at home, so we decide to buy chapati (basically tortillas) and make some rudimentary guacamole for food. With 2 and a half small-plate-sized chapati and maybe 4 spoonfuls of guacamole, I am now satiated for the short term. However, given the money situation, I’m not sure what I am going to be able to do. I do have a couple potatoes, so I wont starve, but after that, if the ATM doesn’t work tomorrow? Well, fortunately, we were able to go back to the ATM a bit ago and I’m happy to say they are restocked and we were able to take out money. However, I can’t remember a situation where I was literally out of food and out of money to the point where I was worried about where my next meal would come from.

Now, at this point, a lot of people would point out that many people here in Africa do live that way, and maybe that number is larger than what I see, but I find that it’s not the situation most frequently found here. Granted, a caveat for me is that I live in quite possibly one of the most fertile valleys in the country, and perhaps the continent or even the world. Growing food here is not hard. With the frequency of rain and the rich volcanic soil, sustaining yourself is as simple as throwing seeds out back. What we do have here, and it is present even in my school, is malnutrition and an unbalanced diet. People here can afford food to sustain them. Maize grows at least as fast as the weeds here and they ground that up into the country’s favorite dish: ugali. Imagine a cornbread batter that’s half cooked and that’s kind of the idea of ugali. The problem is it is ALL filler. It has almost no nutritional value in terms of vitamins and minerals etc. Yet that is the base of every meal here, then you add beans and maybe some greens, which gives you malnutritioned kids with full stomachs. It’s interesting, the biology syllabus in school is supposed to teach about nutrition and healthy diets, but no one sees that as more than an academic exercise. But then again, why would you try to eat healthy if sickness isn’t a product of what you put in your body but rather God’s will alone.

In my experience, education is what is most needed. Education that eating a balanced nutritious meal will save you time and money in the long term with better health even if it cost a bit more in the short term. Or passing on gardening techniques to maximize the product they get from their land. They know the land produces a lot, so very few question if they can get more out of it. Also, educating in terms of finances would help significantly. In my experience, people do not look long term here. No one begs for seeds for their garden, they beg for a soda, or in even worse cases, alcohol. If they should find a 5000 shillingi bill on the ground, most people would have that mentally spent as 3 beers and a soda. Granted, if I find money on the ground in the states my mind goes to what fun things that would buy pretty quickly. My point is, few people are actually starving, but a lot of people are not healthy and I think don’t think money is the answer to the problem. Now, I’m not trying to dissuade anyone from donating to the International Children’s Fund or whatever charity they feel most directly benefits those in need in the third world, I’m just saying that writing checks will not solve these problems. I suppose that’s easy for me to say as someone without a job or daily responsibilities preventing me from volunteering, but maybe think twice about what your money goes? Does it just go into some third-world government “aid fund” where it can be misused, or does it go to someone doing aid work in the field? Someone who is doing the education and the community work to make a lasting sustainable impact. Just thought I’d offer some food…..for thought :P

28 Miles, 3 days, 2 Peaks

2010-10-05T23:15:00.000-07:00

One of the goals of Peace Corps is to have the American volunteers experience their host country and bring it back to America. In fact, two of the three goals of PC are simply cultural exchange on the part of the volunteer. Part of that process is seeing what your community has to offer. Now, granted, what I, as a westerner, want to see and what the local community wants to see seem vastly different. In Mbeya, we have a long list of quite impressive natural wonders and, in my experience, I’ve seen at least twice as many of them as my fellow Tanzanians. Perhaps this is a work issue, where we have defined off days but the pattern here seems to be just take a little time off each day. Or maybe it’s just an appreciation thing. I can understand how the work required to get to some of these sites is not worth the effort if you’re not terribly interested. Anyway, given that this week is as complete a break as we have in Tanzania, as all forms were off school (save form 4 who are taking their national exam but that doesn’t involve me at all), it was (technically still is!) the perfect week for outdoor activities. I completed two hikes, Ngozi Crater Lake and Rungwe Mountain. According to Google Earth, the land that I walked over during those three days amounted to 28 miles, 24-25 of which was in two distinct hikes. Needless to say I’m quite sore and my feet don’t want to touch the ground.

Saturday we took a coaster to the stop on the side of the road, where we began the Ngozi hike. It is a substantial walk on a dirt road before finding a path off into the forest. Walking along this path continues for 45 minutes or so before coming to a staging area of sorts and the path continues, in much smaller form up the side of the mountain. The first time we did this, which was outside of hiking season, we were required to push through vegetation that was in our way, while this time the path was very clear. I suppose that money that we pay to enter really does get some of the path cleared. Anyway, after rising for maybe 30 minutes you walk along with ups and downs, with understandably more ups, until you reach the overlook. At this point you can see the entire lake within the crater. The area looks like some untouched oasis, and to some degree it is. The last time we did this, however, we didn’t get to go down into the crater, while this time we figured it out. Of course, descending 200m in a short distance requires a lot of climbing, but there is a path and plenty of vines and roots. It felt very Tarzan. Then at the lake shore we sat for a while, throwing volcanic rocks into the water and watching them float. After a while, we climbed back to the overlook and returned to the road. All in all, that day was around 9 miles of hiking.

The final climb up to the rim:

The view from the outlook:

Climbing down to the shore:

At the lake shore:

Sunday I took off to recover, for the most part. I did have to hike to a friend’s house to start prepare for the Rungwe hike, which was another 2 miles or so. But I felt reasonably recovered by the time we left Monday morning and headed up the mountain. The Rungwe hike is an interesting one as you start out hiking through modern rural Africa, then get to a less modern rural Africa, then in the matter of about 5 feet you’re in Jungle Africa. It’s kind of amusing because upon entering the forest, you immediately drop down probably 50-75 feet to reach a creek (and yes you can drink from it!). It’s the gorgeous setting with trees everywhere and birds calling. There is an occasional monkey (as rungwe has its own species) but they aren’t always around. Anyway, the upward hike begins and goes on forever it seems. Eventually, the trees thin and you start to get peeks of your surroundings. It’s about this time my stomach seems to realize that it’s out of food. So eating is a priority. Then as the trees continue to thin, they eventually give way to bamboo, which is a really cool setting. After some time in the bamboo, you find yourself in a group of scratchy scrub bushes and the last segment of vegetation. Finally, escaping the bushes, it’s a quick climb to the summit of the peak through short grasses and rocks. All in all it takes between 4-5 hours to get up to the summit. However, this time, my Ngozi weakened legs had to rest quite frequently near the end. At the onset of the bamboo, I had to let Andrew, my hiking partner (yes it was two Andrews hiking together :P) go ahead and I came along at a slower pace. Regardless, it was a lovely hike, and although it was hazy we could see Tukuyu, although not all the way to Lake Malawi. Anyway, after an hour or so we returned to my friends, and then continued to the road to catch a dala dala (remnants of a van that acts as a bus). All in all, that hike was around 17 miles giving me my 28 miles in three days. Thank you Google Earth :P

The bamboo forest:

The view from the top:

The monkey is from my first hike of Rungwe but still quite exciting to see!

And here you can see the hike almost in its entirety. We start just out of the picture to the right and work our way up the ridge on the right side of the picture until reaching the summit.

In other news, there was a massive fire in Tukuyu. Some PC friends and I were visiting an acquaintance that does work in the Tukuyu area and were walking back when we met a group of people on the road who were walking into town saying there was a fire at a hardware store. When we reached the top of the hill in town, you could see red colored smoke rising from main street. The flames were about two stories tall by the time we got there and the entire town, it seemed, was out to watch or empty the stores adjacent to the fire. The experience gave me a new perspective on the dangers of fire. For the first time in my life, I actually could see the fire getting out of control. I’ve seen the forest fires on TV but in real life I’ve always felt like fire was something that could be contained to what it already had affected. Here I could see people scrambling to save whatever they could from a building a block away and I couldn’t argue with their logic because the fire did not seem as though it could be stopped from reaching those buildings. Fortunately, it ran out of fuel before it spread too far and only the hardware store burned, but it was a humbling experience knowing the town was at the mercy of the fire. The firetruck from Mbeya even made an appearance although it was after the fire had subsided to well within control. Fortunately, I don’t think anyone was injured and only one store was lost. The area is already back to normal, just with one less business.

Thoughts well beyond TZ

2010-09-30T09:02:00.000-07:00

So in the past I’ve tried to keep this exclusively a Peace Corps related blog, commenting on things from my daily life and occasionally throwing in my thoughts about things that make it here from America. But I’m realizing that daily occurrences in America are actually a part of my life here. My access to information has indeed been set back, but only slightly. I have daily access to the internet, albeit through an expensive choice compared to the US where it is more standard. But still I’m constantly reminded about my connectivity. Be it following a tornadic supercell, or learning of the shooting at UT Austin within an hour or two of it happening. So, due to this fact, I thought I’d break from thoughts on Peace Corps and PC related material and ideology and discuss the things that roam around in my head way more than they should :P

There were two studies recently released that have particular interest to me. The first, and perhaps most obvious, was the downtown development study for Wichita. If you’re interested in the documents, they can be found here! I think it’s the American symbol of prosperity to have a downtown core full of skyscrapers making an identifiable skyline for the world to see. Iconic buildings give us a sense of pride and place. Even the terrorists on 9/11 knew that and took out the two biggest symbols in America. So when someone suggests downtown development, the first mental response is really big, tall buildings. However, the study for the Wichita downtown redevelopment did not suggest new high-rise buildings putting the Epic Center to shame, and I’m finding I agree with the plan. While the goals seem modest at best, I think they are the right focus for the city right now. The city council has had a chronic issue of approving things project by project and figuring it will all congeal into a neighborhood of sorts. Now they have a blueprint on which to build their plans and something to lean on if they want to say no this isn’t something we’re looking for. At the same time it puts their plans out there so developers can see if the plan fits a project they’re interested in. I like consistent plans, but I also appreciate the fact that the plan is not too grandiose. While I’m all for more high-rise construction in the city, I think building from the ground up works better than the sky down. Developing the area as a denser multi-use neighborhood ensures that services are available once someone does become interested in building big and tall. There is no advantage to putting a 30 story building downtown if all that surrounds it is its own parking. That option is available very cheaply and readily, with better highway access too, at the edges of town. Therefore, in order to make the CBD more appealing than say, The Waterfront, the residences and services have to be in place. I would also complement the study on prioritizing transit in the core, as higher density is sustainable when transit is a prominent part of the equation. However, I have A LOT of thoughts on that topic so I’ll leave it for now :P

The second study (found here) is the release of Amtrak’s dream plan for the Northeast Corridor, connection Boston and Washington via NYC and Philly. It’s suggesting a 220mph high-speed train on separate tracks, similar to California’s system, for a tidy sum of $117 billion. Now before sticker shock sets in, let’s remember that the last NEC report issued suggested that the current right-of-way requires $52 billion to be brought up to current standards. I admit, that’s still over double the cost but let’s think about what we’re buying with this. The proposal is about as ambitious as one can get without getting ridiculous. It asks for new tunnels through the center city in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and NYC. But when you consider the fact that doing all that only slightly more than doubles the maintenance costs it seems like a potentially good investment. The report suggests the line would generate a $900 million operation surplus annually (which is getting close to Amtrak’s current budget). It would certainly change the lifestyles of those in the corridor as it suggests that travel times will be shortest on rail, once security and travel from the airport is considered. I’m not really justified in saying whether it is “worth it” or not but I foresee many more studies like this one suggesting the development of HSR in corridors like this (although admittedly not as ideal). We’ll see what comes of this!

I’m noticing a shift in my ideas as to what makes good policy when it comes to urban development. It was not that long ago that I had a build big early and make what you want happen. But as I’m spending time living in a situation where sustainability is such an important part of being effective, I see how sacrificing the day-to-day for the big spectacle can be very dangerous. Now if the government wrote a blank check for the NEC project and work started next month, I’m fairly sure that the project would be well utilized and the benefits would hide the cost. However, the report suggests instead of a one-time payment, committing to a $4.something billion per year plan and make the improvements over 25 years. Building in increments fixes the worst parts of the system first and builds the hype for the rest of the system. Building the downtown core of Wichita with the basics first, then slowly add the eye-candy allows the system to be sustainable. What qualifies as basics and the most needed fixes is always up for debate, but I’m learning how much of the battle is in the implementation, both sequentially and quantitatively. It’s a huge balancing act, and it doesn’t help when the ground is moving underneath you so your support isn’t stable. I can’t say with any confidence that I know this is the case but I think the Interstate system had much more universal support, always standing on solid ground where it is understood to be part of the future. Much of development today has no consensus on what is “the future” so it is a challenge to implement anything sustainably because someone often has a different idea of which way things should be heading. In reality, I’m surprised long-term projects do really ever get done because the people leading them can destroy them so easily. I suppose that’s one of the dangers of democracy, but the security of checks-and-balances is worth the roller coaster for sure.

Anyway, I’m trying to keep my rambling in check, so I’ll stop there. I’d be interested to hear thoughts from those affected by either project because, as one person, I certainly do not have a full view of their significance.

Uniqueness and Fantasy

2010-09-28T04:31:00.000-07:00

So here in Peace Corps we have a rather large network of media sharing. Favorite shows (Chuck!) are passed around and time is spent (or wasted) watching the ridiculousness of the American cultural addiction to highly over dramaticized versions of life where romance, death, and song are as likely as meeting your friend in the hallway at school. But it made me think about why. We tend to criticize Tanzanian television because half the time it is two people sitting in a room with some alcoholic drink talking, or often yelling, about daily life. Yet, we also think it is amusing that so many people in the third world look at American media and assume we all live these lives that they see on TV. I think that’s a cultural difference I hadn’t really considered until now. We use the media, theatre, and other creative outlets to play out our fantasies and it builds the capacity for dreaming within us as a community. I know there are a lot of us who would love to have our lives run in musical format where significant events were always punctuated by song but we’re not THAT creative to the point where we can do that to any great effect as a people. Yet, here these fantasies are often built on a foundation of reality. Dance and theatre are present but the dance is all still within the confines of a reproduction of a tribal product that has been around for a long time and theatre is rarely punctuated by more than dialogue. I feel like here the prized way of expressing yourself is repeating something widely known, and repeating it very well. Meanwhile, in America uniqueness is heavily valued and when it is produced with quality it hits the spot much more effectively. We love our glitz and glamour and strive for it, even at inappropriate times.

Of course I’m not trying to say one is better than the other but it is interesting how those two ideals tend to come into conflict. I’ve tried to pull creativity out of the students by giving them less rigor in their instructions and the results are nearly disastrous. I take questions until every student finds some sufficient amount of instructions in what I say. I had a group of students doing a lab once where they had thought of an original (well original in that they were the only ones doing it that way) lab and had already produced valid, useful results. Once the rest of the class came up with very similar versions of the experiment that differed dramatically from this group’s, they practically begged me to allow them to change their experiment and take new data. It was incredibly frustrating, considering growing up in America, we tend to encourage uniqueness and focus on appreciating our differences. (Obviously this is a wild generalization and there are many parts of America that are significantly more narrow minded on many issues than even the most stringent of cultures).

There are the ideas in America that you should enjoy what makes you happy, it’s the journey that matters not the destination, etc. I mean, framing a lot of what we do in certain ways can make us look of questionable intelligence. For example, why do people go outside and intentionally let the sun damage their skin while doing nothing but resting? Because it feels good. Why do people spend money on a pair of jeans that costs them twice as much as another perfectly reasonable pair? Because they like the way they feel while wearing them. For all this short term gratification, Americans still have a surprisingly effective work ethic. What I’ve seen here suggests that the basic premise is those who have the tools to work their way up in the culture do so doing whatever is available to them. If the best job they can get is teaching, they do so despite any aversion to truly analytical grading, lesson preparation, or sometimes even standing in front of a class. The phrase “those who can’t do teach” is taken as truth here and teachers often don’t like what they do and the students don’t like that they do them. Even students, if they have an interest in something, but struggle at all, they give it up for the next easiest path to a “decent sized” paycheck.

Obviously there needs to be a balance. There are the people that look at everything as a means to an end and find their life passing them by without any worth or enjoyment. There are also the people who are totally encamped in the live-for-now clan and a good day is measured by how many drinks they can buy that night. I think that’s an understanding I’ve made it a goal to pass on. People here tend to fall on one side or the other and balance is significantly lacking. I would imagine though, if you took a close look at the variations between the two cultures you would find fewer differences in terms of the goals and motivations but mostly just a change in materials, or lack thereof. Yet I think we tend to identify and be aware of this balance (and how we don’t have it) whereas I’m not sure that is the case here. The reasons for that are numerous and not worth trying to recount but the general ease with which information and ideas moves in America plays a large part I think.

A Quick Check-In

2010-09-19T07:44:00.000-07:00

So my first post of break falls on the 5th day of break; a product of my attempts to write every day but the inevitable tiredness that befalls me later in the day when I had planned to write my blog post. I saw my friend’s blog sign in screen the other day and I saw she has written 42 posts to my 19, and she doesn’t have access to the internet as frequently as I do. Oh well, it’s not a real issue, just thought I’d vocalize my guilt for not writing more often.

Current news in the area isn’t too exciting. That’s mostly because I’m on break. I have a tentative plan to do some hiking at the beginning of October with a friend of mine. He’s in the previous class so he’s sort of doing a farewell tour so it’ll be fun to hit the highlights!

I’m trying to be productive every day and work a little bit on my projects. The big ones are my time management presentation, an AIDS day my fellow volunteer and I are trying to organize for the end of next month, more Kiswahili studying with a larger application approach, more consistent blogging, and a full clean of the house. I have two articles to really work through on my plate currently. One is material I was given by a grad student from the Cornell Psych department in response to an email I sent my Intro Psych prof at Cornell. He specializes in sleep and it’s affects on productivity and lifestyle so I’m hoping I’ll be able to use it to make a pretty impactful presentation! As for my house, I think if I can buy wood and build a set of shelves in addition to the one I found in the house that would really solve a lot of issues. Organization has been troublesome and I’m realizing I really do need to hang a lot of my clothes which I cannot do here. Dad will be happy to hear, that I’m taking this with an approach where everything has to have a place or it has to go. My room is significantly more livable and my extra room is much more organized. Next is the office/guest bedroom which has become a dumping ground for all that “extra” stuff so we’ll see how this turns out.

Not much else is coming to mind. I’m still working on The Uplift War in terms of my reading ventures and the cats are doing well. They did bring a dead bat into the house the other day which has made me consider getting them rabies shots if it’s not too difficult. The election cycle is starting to seep into my life over here (Oh! I have to get my absentee ballot!) so I can only imagine it is getting quite intense on the American side. Seems like people are generally upset with the situation in the states but I fully admit I’m too removed to know who to blame. I’ll have to take some time over the next few weeks to educate myself for voting.

Sorry for so little to say. Hopefully in the coming days I’ll have specific issues to discuss and generally be more interesting. I guess until then, I’ll wish you all well!

An update

2010-09-08T09:45:00.000-07:00

So my situation has continued to develop into an interesting mix of nothing and piles of work at the same time. I'm learning how a job can take as much or little time as you want to give it. I want to be thorough on preparing my Form VI math class for their exam since my work load has been siginificantly reduced in the teaching department. I have such a good model to work from in my high school math teacher Mr. Reimer. I realize that it wasn't just his test prep work that got such consistently high-quality results but his results speak for themselves and are therefore my foundation. We just took a test of the material we reviewed due to its higher difficulty and we have a lot of ground to cover but we also have some time. So I'm trying to make my review the best it can be.

In other non-classroom work, my list seems to grow ever longer of things I would like to do. I recently realized I probably could have done PCV of the week, which I had not applied for due to my perception that there were many more qualified than I. This realization left me bummed but I've realized that I should have been more confident or this situation wouldn't have happened. So, I'm using it to motivate myself to fix the things I thought I lacked: Kiswahili skills and a solid outside project.

I'm trying to ramp up my studying to even more than the one lesson a day. I'm currently doing two lessons and after this week will start more intensive vocabulary work. It's hard to place a finish line but I have a general idea of what I want to be able to do. I want to feel comfortable enough in pretty much any conversation where as now I know I'll survive but not necessarily get everything. Future phases are book reading and listening to the radio or tv. I know this has been a never-ending issue but that's what happens when you live in a country that speaks a different language :P

As for the outside project, the library is going....slowly. I had hopes initially that things would go faster than standard Tanzanian pace but I forgot that the project allowing the library work to happen is being run by others so alas, I'm finding little things to do to fill the time between now and whenever it is that we move the library. I also have made some progress in the hypothetical sense about a new building for the computers and library. The reality is the school is going to have additional students living on the campus next A-level year so the need for a new building is inevitable. However, I think we planning we can make it the library and turn the current one back into the dorm space it is right now. So that's very long term. More practical and in reach is the reorganization of the library into a bigger room with more shelves. I think the biggest change I'm aiming to make is still making it available to students at more hours than one person can offer, but we'll see what we can do.

My idea of making a time management presentation is still hanging around but it has kind of fizzled to the background for now. That's not to say I wouldn't appreciate any articles on sleep patterns, effective study skills, or extracurriculars. I would definitely like to pick this up during my break, so we'll see how it goes.

But the new development is an AIDS day in coordination with my sitemate Katie. We're looking at getting our schools together and teaching the students about the situation here in Mbeya and what they can do about it. It's still in the developmental stages but we've made some contacts and got some agreements. Even though AIDS education is very common around here, there is an issue with the it going from the classroom or seminar to practice in the real world. AIDS is rampant, nearly one in every five or six people has it and much of that is due to the disconnect between awareness and practical applications of education. For example, the students here learn in their Biology class the process for putting on a condom but many school officials feel having a condom demonstration in school is promoting sexual activity. That's an understandable concern but we volunteers often find ourselves arguing for a more practical approach because the age at which people become sexually active here is surprisingly low and often they don't have the proper education by that age. So I will let you know how that progresses! It's exciting to see something start to come together that could really affect someone's life in such a big way as helping them avoid HIV and AIDS!

Other than that, not a whole lot is going on. I saw Kikwete (the TZ prez) last week in a campaign "speech" (it was more of a list of things he did). The cats are doing well and are getting quite big! I'm not sure how much more they'll grow but it can't be too much. That's it for now, I hope things are good in the states!