Pre January 23, 2004

This is Vicki's Ugali Report Part Three…this will be long…POLE(sorry). So I left you all with me about to begin my life in my village Namabengo...

>So my first week there I bounced between Songea (nearest main town) and Namabengo shopping for food and other various items for my house. We have befriended a lovely Dutch ex_pat named John. He is 74 years old and has a lovely house with hot showers, an eclectic assortment of books and movies. I have spent much of my free time in Songea at John's having tea, eating bread, and watching movies. In fact, I think I have watched more movies at John's than I think I have watched in America. John has two houseboys whom he sent to help me shop for house items. The boys took their bikes into town and I gave them the full list of what I needed for my house. They sat me down at their favorite hardware store and they went off shopping for my many items. I simply sat there and attempted to teach the children who worked as tailors (fundis) how to read English from the back of the Walt Disney Cinderella video box. The two boys went all around Songea and gathered all of my items for me…it was great!
When they were done we brought all of my items back to another PC volunteer's house where I stored everything until I went back to Namabengo. The next day my headmaster send a truck to the house and a million little watoto (children) helped me carry my stuff to the car. I gave them all plums for their lovely efforts. I then returned back to Namabengo and blasted my new Bob Marley tape on the drive home. I was warmly welcomed by my little neighbors who all shouted "Dada (sister) Vicki" when they saw me coming. I was delighted to be back home. They too helped me carry all of my items into my house. Did I mention that the school installed cheap plastic door locks and I broke both door handles. Yeah that is great…I fell down my back steps with my cheap plastic door handle in my hand. Needless to say I was not pleased. This was all the way back at the beginning of December and I still had another month and a half to go before school began. During this time I was supposed to be working
on my house, working on my farm, integrating with the locals and what have you. My days were actually spent sitting in my house staring at the wall, reading books, staring at the stars, avoiding the children when they were around, and missing them when they weren't around…that is how I spent my first 3 weeks in Namabengo. I attended a "Teacher's Day" celebration which had all of the local village teachers get together in Namabengo and we celebrated our profession of being teachers. They served everflowing soda and beer and served a nice lunch. A true sign of me becoming cynical was the fact that I wondered if the teachers were in fact celebrating being teachers or if they were they simply there for the free food and drinks…I just don't know. I went with my kids to the river and read a book while they played in the suspect river. The kids even loved taking the mud and rubbing it all over their little nekked bodies. I simply ignored this and read on. With all of my free time staring at the
wall I think about how underrated mud, sticks, water, tires, and water bottles are in America. The kids here use these as their toys. No such thing as a Snoopy Snow Cone machine or Easy Bake oven in the third world. American kids are spoiled rotten. When and if I ever have kids, they will have a blast making their water bottle trucks. I rolled a tire with some of my kids and could not stop laughing. Try it sometime. It provides endless entertainment. I also tred to bake one item a week at my neighbors house for the kids. Our ovens are constructed out of taking one pot and putting on top of 3 stones layed in a bigger pot. We then cover the whole contraption with a lid and place hot coals on the lid. It works brilliantly. So far I have baked yellow cake, brownies, and mango cobbler. Sometimes I play dead for my kids and they drag me around trying to get me to wake up. I was a bit frustrated because my headmaster was never around because he was always in Songea. I wanted to start on my farm but need help finding wood to build a fence. I wanted to have furniture made but no one was around to tell me where I could find the carpenter (fundi). All the teachers were gone for the holiday month. I constantly looked forward to the weekends where I would meet up with my friends in Songea and have conversations. No one stopped by my house except for my kids. I never ventured out of my house to the other part of the village. Another reason why I have not ventured into the village is because Tom, the volunteer who was there 3 years ago, was the "oobervolunteer". To this day everyone in Namabengo still loves him. "Tom spoke perfect Kiswahili, Kindendulele, and Kingone","Tom had a wonderful shamba (farm)","Tom went for runs every day","Tom said his first home is Namabengo","Tom this…Tom that …"…whatever… they don't seem to care that Tom had freakin taken one of his students as his girlfriend. In my many times of solitude, I have grown to hate Tom. Poor guy. I simply look at my pictures of home missing it more and more. So yeah I know that my last e-mail painted this fantastic picture. Many wrote and said how it sounded like paradise and how I must be loving life. Training was truly like summer camp. Now in my village, I have been most unproductive. So when people write me and say "We are so proud of you","You are saving the world", "You are so brave", know that I do not deserve any of these compliments. I only hope to deserve these compliments someday. Right now I am just squandering the US tax payers dollars staring at the wall. So Charles and I went to visit Alicia in Mbinga. It was good to go to another place. I did finally go out of my house and inquired about a dog and stopped by the mission to talk with the sisters at the convent. I had a great time chatting with them. They fed me cookies and made me eat moths (bugs...simply tossed in salt and you pop them in your mouth like peanuts. They taste fine). They also promised to teach me how to crochet and said they would love me to help at the hospital. Too bad they are nuns at the church with the creeper priest. They ask me why I don't come to their services. I told them I was gonna check out the Assemblies of God church in my village and they freaked out. So basically I am screwed if I go to one church or the other. The other bad thing is that the priest's probably think I am really rude because I have not spoken with them after returning to Namabengo. They have no idea that I think they are gross. They just think I am the ungrateful American who is so rude as to not stop by after staying at the church for a week during site visit. Dilemma, dilemma….

So finally the week of Christmas arrives and I leave Namabengo. My second master finally popped up and I gave him a long list of my many questions. I always drew out designs for bookshelves I needed. The only pieces of furniture I had in my house were my bed, dining room table, and a short table. Basically everything I had was on the floor. Another reason for frustration…how could I get my house sorted if I could not put my stuff away. I was not allowed to cut down trees around me for wood because they are trying to preserve the forest. My headmaster had stated that the school had wood, but no one had been around for me to ask so I could make my own furniture. I told the second master that I was going to travel illegally yet again and if Peace Corps ever got wind of it I might be sent home. Hearing this he said he would simply state that I was in Songea if Peace Corps were to come looking for me and he would call me on my cell phone if this were to happen. So I left Namabengo with a trouble-free mind. Went to Songea for a lovely Christmas feast with John, Charles, and Alicia. Charles, Alicia, and I did not sleep that night because we had to leave at 4am the next morning for Mafinga. We simply watched many movies and headed on our illegal Christmas adventure. The bus ride to Mafinga was only supposed to take 6 hours and somehow took 9 since the bus went past our stop.
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>MAFINGA
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>We arrived in Mafinga on Christmas Eve and joined 36 of our fellow PCV's. The two people hosting the party had secured 2 goats and a pig to roast. Unfortunately one goat died the week before. The locals had slaughtered the pig before hand. It was pretty funny to see a giant pig head in the compost pile. Never seen that before. So my Eve was spent eating roasted pig, chicken, making cakes, mashed potatoes, making tortillas, watching "BRAVEHEART " (I still have a soft spot for Mel), eating, talking, drinking, dancing, singing, eating…it was a blast. The funniest was Mafinga is really cold and no one brought warm stuff except for me so everyone was wearing my clothes. Even Dan who is built like the "Brawny Man" wore my clothes. Needless to say, my tops which are too small for me were way too small for everyone else. Dan looked like he was wearing a black crop top. At one point he had on my tight orange fleece, with my black hooded sweater over it. Due to his brawniess, the shirt became cropped from behind. One girl who was like 6 feet tall was wearing my black hooded sweater. She looked like she was wearing children's clothing. It truly entertained me. The hosts had secured about 30 mattresses from their school for us all. I made the unwise choice to put my mattress across from the cho (toilet)…it stank and every hour were streaming in and out all night. . Charles got all goofy and decided to write "Peace", or "Merry X-mas" on people's faces. Poor Jimmy was sleeping on the mattress between Caitlin and I and we decided to play "Piga (hit) Jimmy"! So we took a ball and back and forth hit him with it. I was totally amused…clearly I was in another state of mind. Then Christmas Day arrived and we sat around and did the same but sortof different. I made Gulab Jamun (Indian dessert with sweet balls in sugar sauce)…these quickly became called "Vicki's Salty Balls" …freakin scavengers!!!!! Then I helped Pete make homemade cheese fondue. People went in and out of the house all day except for me and a few others. Some played basketball. Some continued to drink while resting, some shopped, some ate.They brought the goat out and I watched it get slaughtered. Totally interesting. Let me tell you though, goats have very little meat on their bodies. Just go for the pig if you decide to roast in your yard. Rich, ex army sargeant, is our clown and he wore a special "Santa" outfit that day. He had gone to a tailor and had taken an ornament with him and an Indian couple to explain the "Santa Claus" outfit…several hours later they figured out what he wanted. That night we all sat around the goat and he read the Christmas story we all wrote up. The rules were you were only allowed to read the sentence before yours…Avi is typing it up and will post it. It is so funny. I swear these Peace Corps people are pretty damn funny.We continued to party hearty and have a good time trying to forget about the fact that none of us were with our own families, but yet embracing the fact that we had such a lovely group of people to be with…that is how saw my Christmas 2003.We started to play "Who is most likely too" and I ended up drifting to sleep while slipping down the bed that was at an angle. I awakened to the smell of dog poo in the hallway. None of us wanted to clean it so finally a mental cleaned it up, bless her. We argued over beds and sheets and somehow I ended up using another mattress as my blanket. Poor Charles, I stole his pillow. Poor Jimmy, I kept on wailing for chapstick and when he went to get it for me I
tried to steal his blanket…me and my clepto habits. Charles thought it was funny to stick the bag of poo in Kevin's tent. Too bad Kevin was not sleeping in there that night. That was my Christmas 2003…a cross between summer camp/college frat party/and a butchery.
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>So the next day we set off the go hiking in Udzungwa National Park. Somehow our little group of 5 people became a massive group of 15. The original 5 of us were not pleased with this and eventually just ditched the rest and we headed to Dar en route to Kilwa. It took about 9 hours to reach.
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>DAR ES SALAAM
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>Dar is enemy territory because we would get in trouble in case someone from Peace Corps should lay eyes on us. We were so tired and just chilled that first night. The next day while walking in Dar, a car stopped right in front of us. All of us froze because the woman inside was a Peace Corps person. Good thing she looked the other way and we all look different. I would have been the dead give away if I had my big hair. She never saw me with no hair. Whoo!!!! We figured we needed to go to less populated place…Wet N Wild Water Park. We had so much fun. You really can do whatever you want at these parks in Africa…rules ,what rules!!!! Our favorite was to form chains backwards. We tried to do the "Indian Runs" where the last person would try to climb up everyone else and reach the top of the chain while going down the slide. Poor Jimmy ended up falling face down on me of course. We played volleyball, basketball, and chicken fights. Jimmy and I won! We then found a human sized (well child sized) mousewheel and we were entertained with turning in that. One of the workers decided to be all cool and show how to "Really turn". Then we played on jungles gyms and I nearly flew off the spinny thing because we had both Dan and Jimmy spinning the wheel. Water Park, hours of entertainment. We then went back into town and had dinner. Heidi, Alicia and I then watched Lord of the Rings Part III.
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>The next morning we left on a bus at 5:45 am for Kilwa. I was covered in dirt from the dirt flying in the window for another 9 hours. They had to change the tire and Denise got to help. Lucky bird. We played life questions again. OU bus broke down and Denise got to help change a tire!
>KILWA
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>Finally reached Kilwa to see Mitch and Cheng. This was Cheng's site. Mitch was illegally coming to see us from Lindi. He was the guy who got caught after we were sworn in and Peace Corps banished him to his site for 6 months. Yeah, he broke it to see us. We immediately went to the market, ate some lunch and trekked to Cheng's house. His house is nestled in between a swimming beach and a scenic beach..Lucky bastard. Too bad his house is filthy, dirty, and covered in termite trails. Cheng is pretty Cheng about these things and does not really care. So we went and hit the beach for a swimming session in the Indian Ocean. Bagamoyo's water was so hot you could cook your rice in it. The water in Kilwa was pretty perfect, balmy and cool. A freakin dream. We met some momma's on the beach who were carrying massive fish on their heads. We asked them to save one for us the next day. We were able to get some little fish for that night's dinner though. So we grilled fish, made pasta and ate
> fruit. For some reason I was on this soda kick and had to have about 3 sodas a day in Kilwa. My thirst was never quenched. I was on a sugar high.The next day we got up bright and early and went to see the ruins of Kilwa. We walked for a while past mangroves to where we had to catch the boat (dow) to the Kilwani Ruins. We caught several crabs along the way and met two PCV's who had just completed 3 years in Ecuador. They promised to come hang out later. We waited for the boat and set sail to the ruins. Our tour guide weas not too pleased with us because we were bloody exhausted from our long trek the day before. It sortof reminded me of the tourguides who would be dressed up in Annapolis touring us around in their costumes back in high school. None of us really cared too much. We did not savor the lovely ruins as much as we should have. Poor guy. Ahh bless.The ruins were gorgeous of course and one castle had belonged to a sultan that had 77 wives. Polygamy at its best. What would you do with 77 wives? Allegedly the Zulu King in South Africa is quite attractive and takes on a new wife every year. They hold a pageant of sorts to see who will become his next wife. Wow. We saw a rotting carcass of a dolphin and bought little ices for ourselves and 10 little village children…yeah I know the water was probably not boiled. We took the dow back to Kilwa and had a gorgeous journey on the way back with the white sail whipping away. I was able to stick my legs in the ocean the whole time and relished every second of it. We finally got back to the house and we went back to the beach for a another swim. We then crashed for a few hours while Dan and Cheng went to get our massive tuna from the mommas. They returned with a 40 pound tuna. I swear, it was bigger than me. So Mitch and Dan put on their headlamps and carved away while the rest of us ate jackfruit and made the remainder of dinner. We talked about the 101 ways we could cook tuna. Thanks to the winner of Yoyo and Rob's last SuperBowl party, I was set on making fish tacos. We put a ton of fish back into the fridge and told the momma next door to take the rest of the fish for herself and the little children. I don't think she had had that much food in her possession in her life. She sortof had the nerve to ask why we could not cut up the entire fish for her. Anyways she took it away. We grilled steaks that night and became sick of jackfruit. The next day we were excited about doing nothing. Jimmy, Dan, Heidi and I set about to cook up a storm and Jimmy and I attempted to make Chocolate Peanut Butter donuts. Jimmy and I named them "DeathWish". Most of us were sick of some sort (probably due to unsanitary conditions at Cheng's..aka butpiss) and tried to sleep all day or at least make sure were near a toilet. Not too bad if I may say so. They all reverted to asking me for advice on what and how to cook. I have to say that my ability to cook is due to my family and my old housemates. Rich, Alicia, and Kate came and surprised us that day as well. Jimmy, Dan, and I got some sodas in the village and talked awhile about what we would do if were sent home to America. We went for another swim where somehow Dan stole Rich's shorts and none of us went near him in the ocean. We returned to make fish tacos and more tuna steaks. Awesome. I have never had one bad Peace Corps meal. Sorry if I repeat things.The next day was New Year's Eve and most of us slept, washed clothes and relaxed while Rich and Kate went to the Ruins. The PCV's from Ecuador stopped by and chatted with us. We eventually set out cook corn tortillas but something went terribly wrong so we decided to turn it into corn bread. We made meals of tuna steaks, rice, French toast, and various mango salsas while drinking Cheng's not quite finished homemade pineapple wine. The corn bread was still not ready and we left the house at 11:40 so we could be in the Indian Ocean swimming amongst the phosphorescent waves at midnight. We made it there and saw the waves crashing on the shore with little green sparkles in it. This was the phosphorescent phenomenon that we were so eager to see. When you stay still in the water you see nothing. Once you start swimming or wave your arms and body parts around you see the little green lights. The phosphorescence occurs due to the plankton in the Ocean getting into contact with something. Don't know the whole science of it but it is really amazing. It is like a million lighting bugs in the Ocean surrounding you. Amazing…the best damn New Year's I have ever had…Pole to the Hogmanay crew. We brought a Nalgene bottle of Cheng's pineapple wine into the ocean and celebrated the New Year. The PCV's from Ecuador joined us since they could hear us from the bar nearby. They thought we were lame because we had no more booze on us nore carried any drugs of any sort. Our science group does not really fall into the "Hippyishness" of most PCV's. We decided to join the PCV's who were treating us to a beer at the bar. We headed to the bar and had one beer each and danced and talked with South Africans. I tried to get them to keep the bar open and change the music but to no avail. They shut down, the Ecuadoran PCV's left, and half of us went back to the beach while the rest of us decided to swim in the aquablue "Wild Things" like pool. We really only had about 1 hour left before we had to leave to catch the bus back to Dar. The corn bread never made it to cornbread but was only "Corn dust". We feasted upon it and Rich even stuck his entire face in it with glasses an all. Dan told me I had to be the last to bathe since I took part in throwing people in the Ocean. Cheng and Heidi came back north with us because we decided to hike Udzungwa since Rich said it was amazing. Mitch went back South the Lindi. We left quickly and caught the little bus back to Dar. This bus ride was the most entertaining ride. The short people (me, Heidi, Denise, and Dan) had the best viewing seats in the back. Kate was stuck up front with the gear stuck in between her legs. Jimmy had lots of leg room but was near the door so he had people knocking his head every second. Cheng was in the aisle and ended up fallin asleep with his head wedged in some guys armpit. Alicia was crammed. And then there was Rich. Rich was stuck in the fold up seat in the aisle in front of me. The seat is not sturdy and if you sit in that seat you end up richocheting off of the seat due to the unpaved roads. Poor Rich was bouced out of his seat and could not take it anymore. He decided to strap his head to the seat using two shirts. His face was covered. So when the seat bounced instead of bouncing out of the seat he bounced with the seat. I swear I nearly peed in my pants watching this sight. Then the bus driver yelled at Rich telling him he was breaking his seat. Rich with his limited Kiswahili said "Kiti Bovu" (seat ROTTEN), "Nimechoka sana" (I am very tired), "I want my money back" (English),"Give me a Discount"(English), "Nakupenda Tanzania" (I love you Tanzania),"I teach your children" (English). Needless to say the Tanzanians and all of us were thoroughly amused. I actually cried because I was laughing so hard. Rich then decided to sit on the aisle floor and rest his head in our laps for the duration of the journey. He is a good sport. This ride took 9 to 10 hours.We made it to Dar and left Alicia. She had to start teaching in the next few days and had to return to Mbinga. We got on a bus and went for 4 hours to Morogorro where we stayed with Avi (www.froboy.org) en route to Udzungwa.
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>Morogorro
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>We bathed and watched part of "Pirates of the Carribean" on his nice computer. The next day we took a 5 hour bus ride to Udzungwa National Park.
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>Udzungwa
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>Rich decided to come to UNP for a second time since it was so awesome before. Jennifer joined us to go on it for a second time. Since we got there late the guide said that we would have the do the climb fast. Normally it takes you 3 hours to go up it. We hauled arss and did it in 1.5 hours. I nearly died. I was with the sportiest people of our group and I was the most out of shape and overweight. Denise, bless her, hung back with me and kept me going. I tell you, Old Rag, was a walk in the clouds compared to this hike. I was so delirious I did not even realize I had the same conversation about "Stand By Me" the movie three times. Jennifer quoted me saying three times "Stand By Me! You love that movie too!"…delirious. The whole group was amazing and never made me feel bad about being in the back. Jimmy, Dan, and Rich would hang back to relax and walk and chat to Denise and I. We sang, we laughed, I loved it really…but how the hell am I going to climb Kilimanjaro????I need to train for at least a year. We finally reached the first set of waterfalls overlooking Udzungwa. Amazing. Then we hiked some more to the best set of falls and went swimming. The water was biting cold but so fresh and so pure. The Indian Ocean in Kilwa was REALLY salty and stung my eyes. I have always said that I am more of an ocean person than a freshwater person, but I think this fall dip won me over to the freshwater lovers. The falls poured amongst us and climbed behind then and climbed up the rocks and did flipped out into the fall back into the water. With the rain forest backdrop, pure water, monkey noises in the background and fabulous company, we all felt like we were in heaven. We got out and took some self timed pictures. Jimmy was actually running and slipped on a rock. His camera caught the moment and we all had these looks of "Oh No" on our faces while he was on his back. A picture that is truly priceless. One of these days I will get him to send it to me and I will send it to you. We trekked back down the mountain and watched hordes of red colobus monkeys. I loved it.We said goodbye to Jennifer and Rich and the rest of us stayed at a hotel that night. At this hotel we met a Peace Corps volunteer who had just finished in Madagascar. He was first in Cote de Voire but was evacuated from there and then got sent to Madagascar. He told us about how we never had a home in CDV and how we went from place to place every two weeks, but loved it there the most. In Madagascar he lived in a house made out of steel drums and a straw roof. We all realized just how spoiled we were in Tanzania to have a house, cell phones, and house hands.We continued to play "Kill, Marry, What have you.." and the best one was for the guys "Kimmy Gibbler, Blossom, or Jennifer from Family Ties"…who would you pick???? We decided to keep the journey going and go to the meat market the next day in Dodoma and eat cheese, meat, and ice cream which is apparently abundant in the capital city of Dodoma.
I have never had a more miserable night of sleep in Tanzania. It was hideously hot and humid. Denise and I nearly striped down only shielding ourselves with the holey mosquito net from Jimmy . I even slept upside down but to no avail. The next day we set sail and took a bus another 5 hours back to Morogorro where we caught a bus leaving for Dodoma. This ride took 4 hours and we reached Dodoma eventually.
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>Dodoma
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>Glory (Tanzanians pronounce her name as "Ghi-lo")met up with us and took her to her place. We figured we missed the meat market and decided to cook dinner at her place. We bought ice cream and cheese to appease me since that was the whole reason why I came to Dodoma. Dan also bought me an egg chop which I think is Tanzania's most brilliant invention falling second to the ketchup packets of alcohol. The egg chop is a hard boiled egg surrounded by seasoned beef deep fried. Heaven…. I am surprised the British never caught hold of this since they deep fry everything they eat (i.e. mushy peas, Mars bars, remote controls,etc..)The dala dala we took stopped at the meat market and Denise and I jumped out to get some meat anyways while everyone else headed back to Ghi-Lo's. Denise and I got 40 little skewers of meat and she let me try the "Nundu" (phatty hump on the back of a cow). Let me tell you…it was a meat lovers dream. This bit of fat if it is a nice cut and cooked properly which mine was totally melts in your mouth…like butter/butta. I am now a phatty hump fan. We grabbed a soda and while waiting for our skewers went and looked at second hand clothes being sold amongst the tables of meat being hacked all around us. Denise managed to find 4 pairs of linen pants all for 10 cents each!!! I love Tanzania. Jimmy then found us and said that the police threw everyone off their dd since it was too full. So when did 50 people become too much for a 20 passenger vehicle in Tanzania. Bloody capital city. The ice cream had been melting and Heidi wanted to eat it while Denise and I were gone. Dan stopped her evil attempts. He named her GOLLUM, the creature/ex-Hobbit from Lord of the Rings who went back and forth from being evil and good although she knew how much I had been looking forward to eating the ice cream. I think the name is quite fitting. So we trekked to Ghi-Lo's where we Feasted on cooked fajitas with CHEESE! We also drank Kahlua Cookies and Cream milkshakes listened to Ani DiFranco and slept. Dan and Jimmy had convinced Ghi-Lo to go with them to see Dave and Matt in Hanang. The rest of us were going home. I said goodbye to Heidi and Cheng who headed back South to the beach where they lived. For some reason I waffled on heading back to Songea. I was only meant to be gone for less than 2 weeks. Now I was encroaching upon being gone for 3 weeks. Denise was from Dodoma so she was staying and was tired of travelling. Dave is my best friend in our group and why shouldn't I go see him? June was too far away to see him.What was I gonna do in the Bengo but become a hermit again and stare at the wall and look forward to going to Songea??? The woman at the duka (convenient store) convinced me to see Dave so off with them I went prolonging my return to my site. We officially had the most hideous bus ride from Dodoma to Singida. The bus was supposed to leave at 11am, but we did not leave until 2pm. Then they driver said he had no room for our bags underneath the bus so we had to schlept our bags with us. I then stood in the doorway of the bus and the rest of our group were wedged amongst 100 people standing in the aisle. So of course the Dodoma cops pull us over since there are too many people. We then have to go back to Dodoma and then set en route to Singida. We all eventually got seats. Ghi-Lo was stuck in the back next to a pervert. Jimmy was sitting up the burning engine. Dan was wedged somewhere. I was sitting next to the aisle and had some guy basically sitting on my back. I elbowed him but nothing changed. Finally the bus pulled over and something was broken. Dan and Jimmy soon found out that they had taken the brakes off wheels. We ate some chappati, unripe mangoes, and God help us more cookies (I HATE COOKIES NOW!) They is only one snack that is sold in Tanzania at bus stands…cookies. This Christmas adventure has turned me off to biskuti for life, maybe. We left again and Ghi-Lo and Jimmy ended up standing next to me shielding me from the guy sitting on my back. Dan took the hot seat and Ghi-lo escaped from the pervert. We took turns swapping seats and played more "Would you rather","Kill, Marry, What have you" and other life questions. We also resorted to "Categories" involving Actors, Songs, Movies…I totally kicked ass.
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>Singida
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>I knew we were nearing because I could see the enormous boulders. Singida is known for having nothing but boulders. It was strange to see boulders next to a main road. They were beautiful and reminded me of Joshua tree only these boulders were not bright orange but grey. We finally arrived in Singida 11 hours after leaving Dodoma.
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>We stayed at a PCV married couples house who were travelling. Their house is enormous and have massive boulders overlooking Singida next door. We did not have the key so Dan, Ghi-Lo and I slept on the front porch while Jimmy got the key. Upon entering the house I stepped in dog pee and what have you. Allegedly their dog is like the village bicycle "Everyone has had a ride"…the dog is full of STD's.But sweet nonetheless.We showered and slept for a few hours. The next day we embarked on a 4-5 hour journey to Katesh to surprise Matt.
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>Katesh
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>This bus ride was decent. Plenty of room since we were sitting in the back. Jimmy and I attempted to sleep resting our heads on each other but due to the bumpy roads and sever height difference we ended up knocking heads. Mt. Hanang loomed in sight. It looked gorgeous and suddenly Dan and Jimmy wanted to hike it the next day. I would have rather died than go on another hike at that point. Hanang has no internet or cell phone connection so there was no way for Dave or Matt to know we were coming which was exciting. That was how all of Tanzania was before 2 years ago. Matt was shell shocked to see us. We were disappointed because he did not shout for joy but Matt is not really that kind of guy. He was happy to see us though for real. He had his house girl wash our clothes, cook us lunch, and offered us beds to nap in. It was like a dream come true. Ghi-lo and I talked for hours instead of sleeping. We discussed men, God, and about how we were gonna screw the hike and bake the next day.
Figures that on this leg of my journey I found a new friend. Ghi-Lo reminds me of Kate Bisset…firey hair and all. So then Matt took us to see Dave in Katesh.
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>Katesh
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>Upon seeing us Dave ran, screamed incessantly, jumped, danced, and picked Dan and I up. Dan, Dave and I were finally together again. Dave looked so funny. His hair is all long and he had it in little girly clips to keep it out of his face. He says "Tanzanians don’t know any better so why not"…true, true. So we went to lovely little place. The PCV before him left him all hooked up. He had three bikes, a down comforter, and every baking ingredient known to man. He also had a lovely little enclosed courtyard much like Peter's first place in Putney. I would love my own private courtyard. Dave showers in his courtyard (when he bathes which is like every 2 weeks). We went to the sokoni (market)and bought up fixins for scalloped pototaes, rice, and peanut sauce curry. The next day they decided to screw the hike and veg. We baked, ate leftovers, and played drinking games all day. We were pretty wasted and it was so much fun. Matt is really good at the "Life Question" games especially. We talked about how life here in Tanzania is a waiting game and how we are tired of waiting. So that night we ate bean burritos and continued to drink the jungle juice/gin/tang concoction we had whipped up. Went to bed. I was gonna try to separate from the rest and do a loop and stop in Babati to see Lauren, then to Arusha to see my homestay family, then all the way back to Songea from Arusha. I realized I did not have enough money and went back with Ghi-Lo, Dan, and Jimmy. We said our goodbyes and headed back to Singida. 4 hours standing up. I started to lie to Tanzanians and make up stories to entertain in kiswahili. They told me I would be a good politician. Not sure about that remark. Finally got to Singida.
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>Singida
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>Ghi-Lo did aerobics to Brittany while Dan, Jimmy and I climbed up the boulders to watch the sun set amongst Singida. Singida is nestled between two lakes and you could see both lakes from where we stood. It was gorgeous. We all had to take a mental picture since none of had cameras on us (OR ME WHO NEVER HAS ONE). We then went and grabbed sinner at the safiest restaurant in Singida. Allegedly they play Premier football on the tv's there. Went back and the boys bathed and read while Ghi-Lo and I had one last pow-wow about life and its curveballs, peoples' expectations for us, how it is so easy to put on a smile when everything else is falling apart, life, life, life. Getting a few hours of sleep. We said goodbye to Jimmy who was staying in the Singida region.What a great guy. Will miss him and his antics.This bus ride was 10 hours to Dodoma where Dan and Ghi-lo got off since they are from Dodoma. I stayed on the bus to Morogorro. Sad to say goodbye. Oh well, will see them soon enough.
> 4 hours later I was in Morogorro.
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>Morogorro
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>I went from stand to stand and finally got a bus for the next morning to Songea. The guy who sold it to me was a complete asshole. While I was sitting in the daladala waiting to go to Avi's this crazy man brought out a knife and was wielding it in the street. The quickly shut the doors on the dd and the crowd jumped him. Very interesting. If you yell out "Mwizi"/thief in Tanzania when you are being robbed the crowd will jump the thief and will beat them to death. Don't mess with the crowds. Not sure what happened with this guy since he was not a thief but just plain crazy. Avi and I made homemade chili. Too bad I cut chili's and my hands were burning for the entire night. Sortof how they burned when I was in New Orleans with Erica and Laura after I ate crawfish. Ave brought out his ice chest and I had my hands in their for hours. I fell asleep with a cold rag on my hands. Next day said goodbye to dear Avi. The Daladala guys got into a brawl over me and were yanking my bags around. I was pissed. Then the nasty bus guy tells me my bus is full and I have to go to Njombe and pick up another from there to Songea. I called him a liar. I told him he has no clue about anything.I told him he cheated me. If I bought a bloody seat yesterday why the hell was it full today. How could he run a business. I called him a thief. Clearly I was tired and I hate jerks. But I was proud because I did it all in Kiswahili and he looked like a fool to everyone else because an American woman was giving him a verbal beatdown. I made him give me my money back,. He then put me on another bus and I went around asking everyone how much they paid so I would not get a Mzungu /white person price. I had to move seats since my seat had to be for a married couple. Then the momma next to me had 3/4 of the seat. I was so uncomfortable. These Tanzanian women and their massive asses. MASSIVE. But she also had a bag of food taking up space. So finally rain dropped on my head from above and I had to
> change seats luckily. 7 hours busride.
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>Njombe
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>Reaching Njombe I texted a friend who was there. I knew the wankers at the bus stop lied to me because there were no more buses going to Songea that night. I splurged that night and hung out with Carly in Njombe at the Chani, a nice hostel/hotel that PCV's have made their second home with VCR and all. They have hot showers too, but it was not hot when I took one. We watched the Spy Who Shagged me and ate dinner and drank. It was wonderful. Carly and I talked the night away and the next day we said our goodbye. She also bought me a massive wedge of cheese to take to Songea for John, my old man.
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>I was rain soaked but caught a coaster bus right when it was leaving to Songea. I loved this ride because they played Muslim songs the whole time. The songs they play from mosque services. I love listening to these songs. 4 hours later I was in my home away from home Songea
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>Songea
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>Walked straight to John's where we ate cheese talked and I slept for hours. We then had dinner and watched many movies. The next day I made the trek back to Namabengo. Of course the DD men all missed me and I was harassed for hours waiting for the dd to leave. These guys were trying to sell me watches and I said why should I buy a watch if you will just tell me the time for free. Poor guys. I started to ask people for money "Naomba hela" making fun of them when they ask me. Me and the mommas were entertained with my mockery of them harassing me. In case you did not notice, I have become more cynical here.
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>Namabengo
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>Home sweet home. I was ready. My neighbors noticed my lock off my door and the kids came and bombarded me with hugs. I missed them tons. Termites, my enemy, ate through two of my books. I was pissed off that my bookshelves were not ready yet.I tried to wash some clothes before the water turned off. I fell back into my Namabengo schedule and ate late, stared at the sky, slept in my bed and loved it. The next day not so much. It was a holiday and I played with the kids. They pissed me off and I kicked them out of my house. The cooks of the school harassed me and compared me to Tom the volunteer before me. The father of the kids had returned and he scolded them for giving me a hard time. I had a teacher's meeting the next day. I scowled at the kids when I saw them. The meeting was boring. They tried in English and then reverted to kiswahili. I shut myself off at that point. The meeting was useless and no one talked to me. They were impressed that I could open a coke bottle without an opener or without using my teeth. They all think that since I wrote "Ms. Victoria Mathew" on the sign in sheet that I am a "Master of Science"…HAH!!!Upon coming back I found my kids sitting on my front porch making many little vases out of shampoo caps and filling them with flowers. They placed them all on my windowsill. Bless them. These kids are my joy. The next day they came in and swept for me and we went for a walks and we made mango cobbler. It rained like cats and dogs and I told them I would love to bathe in the rain but that I could not so they went and bathed in the rain for me. The cooks of the school came buy to harass/chat with me and I made them chai while they looked at my pictures. My neighbor next door killed a snake and I picked it up and threw it at the kids. I did this for a while. My shelves came much to my pleasure. I now have two bookshelves and a kitchen counter. I am so happy.Every day I scrape down termite trails. I HATE THE WANKERS! I washed my clothes and harassed the kids who watch me by throwing water at them. I even took a pair of jeans and wrung them out on top of someone's head. I know I am cruel, but I am tired of them watching me!!!THEY LOVE IT I KNOW THOUGH! So I went to Songea for a day and went shopping, went to the bank since I was wiped out, did a little e-mail, had dinner with volunteers in town, drank, ate meat!!!, saw John, started on this e-mail, and went back the next day since I had a meeting to clean my lab. Too bad my dd was too full and had to go back to Songea and I was 2 hours late for my meeting. I guess I am becoming Tanzanian…they are never on time. I went back to find a rotting carcass of a massive lizard in the lab. My department head figured injecting it with formeldahyde would work to preserve it and I had to clarify that he was wrong. I scraped its maggot infested body off the table and cleaned my lab. It is a beauty. My Department Head is awesome and I think we will be fine together. He is young and a progressive thinker. He is also a teacher because he loves to teach. I am really lucky. So then the next week school began (last week). But not really. Students were only trickling in. Those that came were made into little slaves by the staff and cleaned and did shamba (farm) and yard work. The teachers did nothing but talk in Kiswahili the while time only addressing me every once in a while making fun of me and the fact that I don't believe in corporal punishment. My Department head and I chatted. I told one woman teacher we needed to do aerobics together and she agreed. The only other woman has breathing problems and is a no go for aerobics. The remaining 14 are all men. I told my second master I am tired of hearing about Tom the old PCV who was there. So I spent the week holed up in my lab because I would rather be there alone and day dream then to be in the staff room and feel like an outsider. The cooks tried to tell me that since my b-day was coming up I needed to buy everyone sodas, make rice, and bake them a cake. This pissed me off because they only see me as money and that I can afford such things. I can afford such things which is sad but who the hell are they. They don’t do jack for their own birthdays why should I. Then the neighborhood kids (not my neighbors/angels) harassed me and called me MzUNGU/Muhindi and I was worried they were gonna teach this to my little neighbors who are the only children never to call me these names. I chased them away. My little children saw how upset I was and yell at these dirty village children and tell them to call me "Teacher","Mwalimu""dada Vicki" not Mzungu. Bless them. Then on Thursday the men took me to the farm. I think the Headmaster told them they needed to talk to me more.Too bad, I witnessed the beating of 6 students within a 10 students within a 5 minute. I could not take it and went home. These kids were just late. Why do you need to whip them? The kids and teachers all laughed when I walked away because they knew my dismay. The next day was my birthday. I came late to school. The teachers were late every day and I never was. I already finished my schemes of work I could do what I bloody want right? So I made fudge for my little neighbors and brought a cake to school for the teachers. They don't deserve it I know, but whatever I did it anyways. The cooks asked for their coke and rice. I told them too bad, I forgot. I left early and hung out with my little kids who loved the fudge. My headmaster then had a special car come and get me and take me to Songea to celebrate my birthday. I guess he has some redeeming qualities…we will see. In Songea I met up with 15 of the voluneetrs here (VSO, Peace Corps, JJKA) and we had a buffet dinner and they blew up balloons and gave me a kiddie snooker ball set. It was really lovely. Too bad my foot was infected and I could barely walk let alone go dancing as planned.We then went back to John's and watched more movies. A wonderful b-day evening.Yesterday I shopped, talked with Alicia loads, got a phone call from mom, Vivian, and Amy rfom Baltimore, and made homemade ravioli. Kate called me this morning. Poor girl did not use a calling card...I fear for her phone bill. Calling cards are super cheap..really!Now I frantically finish this novel so I can run to town, e-mail it, and go back to Namabengo to start on preparing for "Classes" tomorrow. God, I hope I have classes. I need something to do at that school.

So there you have it. I guess this is more like a journal. I miss you dearly. Thank you to those for the letters, e-mails, phone calls, and just thoughts. It will get better I know in my village and at my school. I just need to take it day by day.Breathe another breath.Life is good. I am healthy. Everyone I know and all are healthy. That's all one can ask out of life right?

>Missing you all. Let the games begin tomorrow. Maybe I will teach and maybe I won't. Welcome to the Peace Corps and Tanzania.

>Love,
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>Vicki
PO Box 1104
Songea
Tanzania
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When in Songea via phone 255748632549

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