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