December
2007
Year One at *Undisclosed Location* Secondary4
The new crop of education volunteers just arrived for their site installations and I’m feeling sentimental. It was this time last year that I constructed my water filter, struggled with lighting my charcoal stove, and first learned to keep myself reasonably clean and fed without the benefits of electricty and running water. My early days were spent cleaning up mounds of 2-year old decaying trash and trying to make my surroundings as livable as possible.Â
These days I’ve got a well-structured kitchen, stocked with all the basic appliances and accoutrements, a solar panel generating electricity for my laptop, a decent sized vegetable and herb garden-in-progress and a thorough familiarity with my community and its facilities, as well as a fluent knowledge of Kiswahili coupled with a working familiarity of the local Kibena.  Over the last year I faced the daunting task of teaching students 2 year’s worth of biology in a single year. Next year, all my students will start off with one syllabus topic already completed. Living well in the bush has been no small feat and one that I will undoubtedly continue to work on until the end of my service next year. It is my hope that the next volunteer (hopefully there will be a next volunteer here) gets to start off a few steps ahead because of what I’ve done. For example, my only “gardening” work this past year was composting. Right now, however, I’ve got about 15 avocado seedlings ready for transplanting and grafting, 3 hearty indigenous fruit bushes (Songu - whose leaves are also used as Typhoid medicine) cleared and surrounded with mulch, 4 major compost piles, natural fencing construction, 6 passionfruit vines growing from cuttings, a small herb garden (generously supplied with cuttings by my site mate and farmer extroirdinaire Jason Maglaughlin) and a number of double-dug beds in-progress for vegetable planting. (Thanks to Katy Wettengel for the recent package with seeds!)  But more on my gardening projects for a subsequent blog (and after more of it’s finished). Anyway, hopefully the next volunteer will have a decent garden to build on in their first year.
As for the year-in-review, I have also learned a great deal from my fellow volunteers and have had to say goodbye to far too many of them. I also continue to learn from Tanzanian friends in the village as well as those I meet in towns and while traveling. A prescient observation I made early in training has proven to ring true, that those volunteers and other foreigners with negative attitudes towards Tanzanians are those who have failed to learn Kiswahili beyond the elementary level.  Effective communication breeds understanding and understanding breeds affection – hardly surprising. Of course in keeping with the mission of the Peace Corps, I continue to find aspects of Tanzania that could benefit from American influence (e.g., aspects of the educational system, LGBT tolerance and gender rights, consumer rights) as well as those aspects of the United States that could benefit from Tanzanian influence (e.g., aspects of the community/family structure, religious tolerance, respect for seniors). There are practices common in the U.S. that I wish more Tanzanians would adopt (e.g., better business auditing and management) as well as practices common in Tanzania that the U.S. could use far more of (e.g., households growing some their own food, instead of chemi-polluting their yards for mere ornamental grasses).Â
While I am sure that, when the time comes, I will be ready to move on from UL Sec. for new opportunities and challenges, I am equally sure that I will never be completely finished with Tanzania.  In the best of all possible worlds, I will be able to continue to return here for the rest of my life. This country has gotten way under my skin. On that note, I do have another project in the works for post-Peace Corps work in Tanzania. But, more on that for another blog.
For those who have continued to keep up with me, in emails, letters and delicious candy-filled packages, I cannot thank you enough. I will do my best to keep the blog updates coming along with the pictures. For the next couple of months, my work is moving from that of teacher to farmer. But more on that later.
Peace, Dr. Josh
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