Happy Birthday Mom!

"heri ya sikukuu ya kuzaliwa" which pretty much means happy birthday

Maulid

I went to a gathering the other day in a village a couple hours away. I went on a road trip with all my Muslim peeps to celebrate Muhammad's birthday. It was great and as usual, since it was a giant event, they called me to the front and had me speak. Good times.

Here are some pics of the celebration and me in my muslim garb, doin' what I do best.







Cheers,
Jayce

Volleyballin'

So one of my community groups that I started is a volleyball team. I use the time to talk about the health, the importance of staying active and fit and above all play volleyball!

They started out very bad, hitting the ball over on the first try, every time. But now they are getting it down. I have such a great time playing with them. I think next wee need to work on uniforms. It's kinda tricky to run around in jeans and dress shoes. Though, I guess it does add a little somethin' extra. Here are 3 of pretty much the same picture. You get the idea...





Cheers,
Jayce

Family Photos

My buddy Issa's dad is 93 years old. That's unheard of for Tanzanians. He's not doing very well right now and a bunch of his kids are coming from around TZ to see him. Here are a couple pictures of Issa's family. I don't know why he is wrapped head to toe in a giant blanket, just got with it...





Cheers,
Jayce

We Be Clubbin'

When we go to Dar for seminars or meetings we usually stay with an ex-pat named Mark. I talked about him earlier, he's the same guy who got us into the New Years Eve party last year. There are no words to express the gratitude I feel for this guy. He is amazing (If you happen to read this Gammo, you're awesome.)

The last time we were in Dar Mark took me and Maureen out for a fish-fry dinner at the yacht club. It was amazing, they bring in all this great fish caught that day and grill it up right in front of you. For me the highlight was real Ketchup and mayonnaise. My bar is set pretty low when it comes to getting excited about food. Condiments...really?

Anyways here are 2 pics of us sitting on the ledge watching the sunset at dinner.




Cheers,
Jayce

Missing Mafia Pics

Internet was crappy the other day and I didn't get a chance to post pics from my event-filled Mafia trip. Some sunset pics and some snorkeling pics. Like I said before, I was really surprised at how 'Finding Nemo' everything was. The fish and colors and everything were amazing. You probably can't tell from the pics, but it was pretty cool. Here are the pics in all their glory...










Cheers,
Jayce

Kids

Nothing much new here. Who doesn't love pictures of African children? I sure do.

Here ya go...











Cheers,
Jayce

Open Sesame

The secondary school in my village just opened its doors to become an A-Level school. This means they added 2 more years to it. Pretty big deal, only the coolest villages have an A-Level school. To celebrate everyone went to the school and we had a big ceremony with a bunch of people from the government giving speeches and such. This was the first time I've been to a big event and they didn't call me to the front and make me give a big speech. Thank god. It was a lot of fun and I'm stoked that my students get a better opportunity for further education.

Anyways here's two pics of the action.




Cheers,
Jayce

Mnada Lot Goin' On

Once a month our village has a thing called "mnada." Its when people from the big city, Singida, bring in a bunch of tents and post up shop to sell their stuff. It's pretty much for villagers who can't make it into town that easily. Cessie says they sell beer at hers and its like a big day-party, but mine was kind of boring. Nothing special. Anyways here is a pic of the action in the field and also a pic of me helpin my buddy Madai put some of his harvest on his roof to dry. Good times!



Cheers,
Jayce

Videos

I sent all my pictures and videos home to my parents. Now hopefully we can finally get some video action on this blog. Here are some of my favorite videos from the past 11 months…

...........................

Here is a video that my Canadian buddy Connor took on top of some mountains by my village. I try and head up here a couple times a month. Such an awesome place to chill, read a book and watch the sun rise or set...




Me, Connor and Cessie hitch a ride with some of her villagers out to the local well. To ‘chote’ means to fetch, ‘maji’ means water and the pump is called a ‘bomba.’...




Here’s a video of Cess and I pumping some water from her well. Of course we have to decide what kind of soundtrack we would want in the background. 80s anyone?...



Cess and Connor preparing one of my favorite meals, Ball Hash. Many Tanzanians carry around their cell phones in these little pouches around their neck, being the budding McGyvers that we are, we are able to create almost anything from scratch. We like to take advantage of all the resources available to us to make new products. Do I hear income-generating project?

Training

This is at one of our trainings. We usually have to sing songs or do some sort of energizer to keep things moving...




Here is a skit I did with my counterpart (the teacher) and Cessie’s counterpart (my fellow student.) We were discussing how kids need to chose good role models and not give into peer pressure. I was playing the bad student who was trying to convince his friend to come out and party with him that night, even though we had a test the next day. My character shows up the next day sick and hungover and does poorly on the test. Sorry about the sound but it’s all in Swahili so it probably doesn’t matter that much anyway...

(NOTE FROM JAYCE'S DAD - This video was 5 min long and had no sound. I improved it)



Here we are playing a game with the children. In this the kids form a ring around a fellow student and act as elephants protecting their young. The other kids are lions who try and get the baby elephant in the middle. As time goes on we decrease the number of people in the circle guarding until its very easy for the lion’s to get the baby elephant. We use this example to talk about the deterioration of the immune system when you contract HIV, and how it’s easier to get infected by other diseases...




Here we are leading a class of students in a little song. This was just a small lesson, regular classes in Tanzania are about 10x this size. The room is the same size, just 10x more children...




mama changanya and the funny mwafaka...



pendeza dance...

Zanzibar Music Festival

A video from the Music festival in Zanzibar. The lady on the right is like 100 years old and she can wail! She was so awesome. At some point some belly dancer came out and started dancing. I don’t really know what was going on but this gives you a good feel for the festival.




The festival had a bunch of very different acts; from very African tribal, to gospel Indian music, to Bongo Flava, which is like hip-hip. Here are some tribal dancers shakin’ what their mama gave ‘em!




This act had an asian guitar player and a lead singer that looked like Lafayette from True Blood. The highlight was every now and then these 4 Asian ladies would jump out and start dancing. We would go crazy every time they showed up. The expressions on their faces were great.




At some point during one of the performances, the backup singers decided to have a kick off. I don’t know why, but I know I liked it…




Tanzania’s very own Backstreet Boys. Enough said…




The end of the festival everyone just celebrating an awesome time.

More Videos

The national torch came to my village. It's kind of like the Olympic torch in that they bring it all around the country and it has a big parade and stuff. Pretty cool party that lasts all night long until the next morning when the torch arrives.




A couple girls playing around in my courtyard. I try to tell them to smile for the picture and they just keep making crazy faces. I guess they get that from me…




This is a reception after a wedding that I went to. For not having a lot, these people really know how to have a good time.




My kids playing around in my front yard with a soccer ball I brought.




Me killing a chicken. Nowhere near as cool as Cessie killing a goat, but it’ll do for now…




We visited a school for mentally disabled children as a field trip during one of our trainings. Here is just a brief clip of Maureen and Cessie chattin’ it up with some of the youngsters.




Cessie tried to jump in the picture, little did she know it was a video.




Some video during our new years celebration in Dar es Salaam. I don’t really know what’s going on.




Julie just dancing with her friend during our time shadowing in Morogoro. The girls on the right were not having it one bit…

Ellie

Here is the video I made for Ellie, a little girl who sent me Flat Stanley. Though I may sound like a nerd, it’s a good shot of my room.

Update

Sorry it's been so long since my last post. I've been trying to post but the internet in Singida has been down for a while. Right now its too slow to upload a bunch of pics so I'll have to post more later.

But I did send a bunch of videos home and hopefully someone in America will be able to get those up here soon. So look forward to that.

Talk to you all soon.

Cheers,
Jayce

It Was Parliament To Be

On our way home from Mafia, a friend and I got a ride to Dodoma from a member of the Tanzanian parliament, Bunge. He asks us where we were staying and we say that we are able to find a guesthouse for the night. He insists on us staying with him. Being cheap PCVs, how could we turn down the idea of free food and lodging?
At dinner he says if we stay an extra day we can come to work with him and check out parliament. So we get up early the next morning and head over to the parliament building. We get to the door and get refused entrance. No, not because we are white, but because we are too dirty! Apparently our shabby Peace Corps wardrobe of unwashed cargo khakis and Teva sandals wasn’t quite up to snuff. So since we were not dressed appropriately, they wouldn’t let us inside. My friend and I ran over to the local market and buy some used clothes that we think would work. I actually ended up working my magic and borrowing shoes from the parliament man and pants from his driver, but my friend needed a couple things. Anyways, we change clothes and are granted entrance. We get escorted up to the top booth and sit VIP next to members of the Ugandan parliament! Just hobnobbing with the elite, no big deal. The whole thing was pretty boring; as would any government proceedings I’m sure, but still it was very interesting to see nonetheless. Very glad we stayed. Unfortunately there were no cameras allowed inside so I didn’t get any good pics.
The man we stayed with had a satellite that received a couple American channels. So here we are, a 70-year old Tanzanian man and two strange Americans, watching Will and Grace on T.V. You just can’t make this stuff up!

The African Mafia

           In April we had 3 holidays in a row off of work so a big group of us decided to take some of our personal vacation days and go on a week trip to Mafia Island, right off the east coast of Tanzania.
The vacation did not turn out as well as planned. From the start we knew the trip was doomed when the guards at the entrance to the marine park where we had made our reservations were trying to charge us an ungodly amount of money. Now we are used to getting screwed out of money for being white, but this was beyond the norm. They tried to charge us not 2x, not 5x, but 13x the Tanzanian price! For days we had to argue with them in a futile effort to explain we were residents. Even with an exemption card to prove our status, we still had to pay a ton of money. Strike one.

        In addition to that the weather was not the best. With wind, rain, and a bunch of clouds constantly looming, it was not ideal for working on a solid base-tan. Strike two.

        Lastly, on our penultimate day on the island, as we had begun to settle with the fact we had to pay tons of cash and dealing with the bad weather, one of our friends was robbed! One of the girls in our group went on a walk down the beach and a Tanzanian guy jumps out of the bushes and goes for her camera. The man grabbed her from behind and wrestled her to the ground where she proceeded to bite his hand and escape. The man got the camera and ran away. After she returned and told us what happened, of course, all of us boys men couldn’t stand for this and ran into the bushes to apprehend the camera snatcher. We eventually found the guy and chased him for a good 5 minutes. It was at this time, for some peculiar reason, the man got the genius idea to run into the water to escape. But of course, as with most Africans, he couldn’t swim. So there he was, standing 30 feet of shore in the middle of the Indian Ocean with 20 guys waiting on the shore to kick his ass.

             The man eventually came back onto shore where he proceeded to get beat like I have never seen before. I am no stranger to mob justice, I have seen it a few times in my village, but I’m usually far away and try to avoid watching. This, however, was the closet I have ever been to the action. I don’t usually get shocked or offended by most things (go figure,) but this was different. I was five feet away from this guy who was lying on the ground getting kicked, punched, spit at and beaten with a stick. At one point a huge man knelt on the guys back, grabbed his hand and began trying to break the man’s arm! It was nuts.

          Usually, the Tanzanian judicial system (and American for that matter) would take an extremely long time to process the case, but since we were on a small island with not much going on I’m sure the cops had nothing better to do, it was an expedited process to say the least. Long story short, we took the guy to the cops, he went to trial, my friend testified and the man was sent to jail. Dare I say strike three?

          On a lighter note, we did have a chance to party, relax on the beach and even do a little snorkeling…

Cheers,
Jayce

Shades of Glory

Unfortunately, and pretty surprisingly I’m sure, my stories cannot be ridiculously hilarious all the time. So in that case, I decided to tell you guys some of the funniest stories that I have heard from my fellow volunteer to keep you entertained. Here’s one I heard the other day.

My friend had lost her sunglasses. In one of her packages from home she got a brand new pair to replace them. They were great. Not a cheap Tanzanian pair, but a good solid American pair of glasses. Just days after getting the new sassy shades, my friend had go to the bathroom… really bad. In a rush she ran to the bathroom and quickly put the new glasses on her shirt rather than her head, in order to prevent them from falling into the hole-in-the-ground-style toilet. As she scrambled to assume the appropriate position, she leaned over and BOOM! The glasses fell in the hole. Because the toilet was just a deep hole in the ground, there was so hope to retrieve the glasses but since she had to go so bad she just keep right on going. My friend had no choice but to sit there, sad, angry and disheartened, all while urinating on her new glasses!

She walks out and a friend asks her what’s wrong to which she replies “I just dropped my glasses in the hole and peed on them!”

Ha. I Love that one.

Cheers,
Jayce

Job Update

So I am actually working here, right?

I haven't posted pictures of any of my work in my village because im trying very hard to not seem like the rich white person. It's hard to start teaching a class and then after five minutes say "Oh can I take a picture of you guys for my friends back home!? They would love it!" I really don't wanna bust out my camera every chance I get in the village, that's why most pics are of me outside my village.

So in the future I will have more pictures of me at work. But here is a description what I have going on right now...

Youth Group – Currently there is no group concerned specifically with the youth of the community. The village officials have expressed a strong desire for one to be started. Having a group would provide the youth a place to feel comfortable discussing certain issues they may have during the growing up process. Sometimes the children here do not have anyone to talk to about puberty, sex, or just the various problems of life. This would also provide the volunteer a perfect opportunity to discuss HIV/AIDS & STI education. I am currently working with a group of youth playing volleyball and during practices I try to incorperate a health lesson of the day or have time for questions, where they can ask me about anything. It's great.

Affordable Nutrition – The main doctor has expressed a need for improved eating habits. Villagers, as well, have expressed a concern to eat more nutritiously but are unable to because of financial concerns. It would be extremely beneficial to educate the village about how they can improve their eating habits affordably. I am trying to meet with the mothers and start a group that could meet once a week to discuss nutrition, but I have hit a snag because the last volunteer gave them tea and biscuits when they came to her meetings, so now these mothers expect the same, if not more, from me. I'm working very hard to ween them off of uncle Sam's teet. It's tough to do.

Honey / Wine / Jam Production – Because there is a large amount of commerce present in Ilongero due to the proximity to the main road, it is very difficult to acquire products to sell that are not currently available. Wine, honey, and jam are all products that currently are not being sold in the village. This would be an amazing opportunity for a community group or an out of school youth trying to acquire an income. The roles of the volunteer would be to assist in the initial education and help create funding for materials. Because of the current lack of these products, it should not be hard to make a profit in a short amount of time. This is a great way to generate income for a variety of people. I am currently working with the people living with HIV in creating wine. I made sure that they came up with the money themselves for the initial ingredients and materials because if I give them even a cent, when they run out of money, they will not know what to do on their own. The whole give a fish, teach to fish phrase could not be more applicable.

NGO Collaboration / OVC – As a small secondary project it would be beneficial to contact the local NGOs around the area and see when they are holding events or see if there is a way you can get involved to bring them to the village and help out in any way that they can. This is simply a secondary project but could prove extremely beneficial if you are able to utilize resources you are not able to obtain otherwise. I am working with a group I found that deals with orphans and vulnerable children. Cessie and I feel very strongly about the importance of starting a database of OVC in order to help them access the various resources available from the local government. Right now I am working on getting this database established.

Well that's about it. I have little things going on here and there such as Biology and English tutoring or teaching proper farming techniques, but these are the main focuses I have right now. Let me know if you have any thoughts or advice for me with any of these projects!


Cheers,
Jayce

It's Been a Nang Day's Night

So this past weekend I had a great opportunity to check out a women's empowerment seminar put on by my friend's over in the Katesh area. The conference brought primary school girls to talk about different women's issues such as puberty, how to put-off sex, and being strong and independant.

The conference went great, and on the second day the group climbed Mt. Hanang. A pretty good climb. At about 3400m it took about 2 hours to walk to the mountain and then about 4 hours to the top. Here are some pics from the climb...

The mountain from afar...

Looking west over the great rift valley...

Mt. Hanang is a old volcano that blasted out one of its sides. All the land around it is littered with massive craters, very cool.

The first group to the top (mine of course!)

All the girls from the conference [that made it to the top]

Cheers,

Jayce

Take a Ride on the Readin'

Just FYI, 

I added a new thing on the sidebar to the right that has the book that I'm currently reading, the one I just finished and the one I'm planning to read next.

If you got any suggestions for new books or opinions about the ones I have read, feel free to let me know...

Cheers,
Jayce

Muslim-Dog Millionaire

Assalmu Alaikum!

Well hello there. Heres a good story for all you god-lovin' folks out there. Going to mosque (Islamic church) over here is not something that you can just show up to and say "What's up!?" You have to be invited.

So the other day I get the invite, thinking I'm very special of course. When I get to the church I sit in the back and watch as the Muslims pray. Very interesting, just sitting there minding my own business when the elders catch wind that I am there. I don't know why I constantly think that anything I do is not going to be a huge spectacle, because it always is!

They bring me to the front and show me the procedure before praying (you have to wash yourself in a specific way while reciting some Islamic words) and then hold my hand and have me recite certain passages from the Koran. At this time I'm thinking, "Oh lord, what am I getting into!"

After this they give me a new Islamic name and then they give me an Islamic hat, scarf and the white robe and ask me to speak

This in itself is fine, I've spoken in front of people before, no biggie, but this time was different. For those of you who don't know. Muslims pray 5 times a day everyday. Before each prayer session they have a call to prayer which is over this giant loudspeaker, heard throughout the village. So when they ask me to give a little chat, its not to the group in the church, but over the microphone to the entire village!

I stumble through it saying how grateful I am to learn about their religion and be allowed to be there. Thinking I'm just there to learn. After I leave the church and people come up to me "Oh man, I can't believe you're a Muslim now. Wow! This is great! Now you know you have to go to church 5 times a day everyday! You know that right!?"

And I'm thinking to myself, "Whoa dude! I don't really have a religion. But if I did... I would definitely not pick the hardest one to keep up with!" Oh man...

Well, we will see how this goes...

Khoda Hafiz,

Omari

Random

Here again is my favorite post... RANDOM!

Cool shot at Cessie's village...

Nothing says "Home" like a big leg o' meat hangin' in the window...

Found some guy with a McChord AFB shirt. How random!?

Allen... is that you!?

Best slogan ever?

Laundry on a lazy Sunday...

Kids enjoying the crayons and coloring books sent from home. Thanks again!

So get this ridiculous story. I meet this guy, thinking he's just another Tanzanian wearing some used clothing from my hometown. So I start the usual "I like your shirt. It's from my hometown." discussion in Swahili. Then he busts out in English "Yeah, that's where im from where do you live?" I was shocked. Turns out this guy was born and raised in Zanzibar til he was 16 then moved to Washington state to go to college and lives like blocks away from my house. WHAT THE HELL!? We're best friends now...

Now this is probably a random Tanzo wearing Washington gear that he has no idea where its from...

So my roomate lost the key and I have to get into my room. I ask a lady to help and she says that they can't help, they only have 1 key per room. I demand she finds a way into the room. So she comes back with a huge load of random keys from all over and begins to start trying each one, hoping that one will work. I couldn't believe it. It worked eventually...

Even Cess got some home-town lovin...

Just bringing a dog on the bus, no biggie...

So I cooked some beans that had been in my pantry for a while. The white specks are all the larva and maggots that had gotten into the beans...mmmmmm...

No explanation necessary...

Apple store in Africa? No big deal...

Cheers,

Jayce