Bucket List

So it wouldn't be a succesfull internet session without a poop story would it?

I don't know how these keep hapening but now in the training class I am infamous for my bathroom stories.

So since I fell through the toilet last week (see Red, White and Poo) my Choo has been under repair. I have been having to walk across to the neighboors bathroom a couple houses down. This hasn't bothered me, I usually just wear a towel and a tank top and head on over with my bucket, its a little walk but no worries.

Until the other night. As Jim Gaffagan says, "Why is Diahrreah so hard to spell, but so easy to get?"

So I've got the BG's all day. It's been painful. But I deal with it. Go abouts my usual busniess and head to bed. 2am hits and BAM, I gots to go. But the thing is I have already gotten yelled at by my parents here about leaving in the middle of the night to go pee. And to get to the neighboors choo would be too much of an adventure, I wouldn't make it. The Peace Corps gave us a couple buckets to filter our water into, so I made a game time decision, I had to poop in a bucket.

I pop the lid off and go to town, knowing full well that my family could probably hear me in the next room. I triend to put the silencer on as best I could, but there was no use. I finish and sealed it up with the lid and went to sleep, relieved.

I had to dispose of the goods, but since we had no toilet I had to bring the bucket with me to my school toilet. The next day I walked to school with my red bucket, like a little kid carrying his lunch pale to his first day of school. Greeting all the villagers along the way all the while thinking they had no idea what was in the bucket. Now my class mates know if I bring a red bucket to class that day it was an eventful night. Good times.

Cheers,
Jayce

Cell Phone

So I got a cell phone here. If you want to get in touch with me the number is 765853071. The country code is 255. And to get out of the USA its +011. So in total its...

+011255765853071

Pretty sick huh?

You can call or text me whenever you want, just keep in mind the time difference. Incoming calls are free for me so look into the best international plan you can find for you. Just google cheap calling cards or something. Skype isn't always the cheapest. Whatever is best...

The way cell phones work here is that you can switch out your SIM card to change carriers. So if I get announced to a site that works better with another provider I might change my number, but before that I would keep you all posted.

Take it easy,

Cheers,
Jayce

Updates

So I don't know how long I've been here, but I think its been about 7 weeks.

Time is flying by. Training is over on August 19th when we get sworn in, it is coming faster than I think.

Here are some updates, last weekend we went to Pangani beach for a weekend getaway for all the PCTs. Such an awesome place, if anyone wants to google Mkoma Bay Resort, in Pangani beach, its nuts.

The place is owned by a former Peace Corps worker so she hooked up a good price and everything. Great atmosphere and everything, and honestly who can complain when they sit in a hammock drinking a cocktail by day and are skinny dipping in the Indian Ocean by night.

All in all the weekend was a blast, a great getaway from the bootcamp our lives have been for the last couple months. Training sucks, but we'll all get through it.

We took our exams to see how our Swahili ranked. On the written exam the highest score was a 95. I got a 90. So I was pretty stoked with that. And on the verbal portion, the oral interview, I got an intermediate-mid raiting. Which is all you need to be sworn in. I think I am pretty good compared to everyone else so I think I will be laying off the books and flash cards for the next couple weeks, I have been on a Swahili overload and it'll be good to just focus on hanging out with my family the last couple weeks at site and not have to worry about cramming new verbs into my head.

Last thing. This next week is Shadow Week. It is where we get to travel to stay with a current PCV for a couple days and kick it and see what real PCV life is like. A highlight of the training process. They announced our sites and I am heading to visit someone in Morogoro (Again another badass place you need to google.) So I am pumped. Me and another trainee, Julie, are staying with this guy named Justin or something, who cares. Hope hes cool and we have a great time. I am just looking forward to the road trip across TZ. Holler!

Okay I guess one more last thing. This coming Sat is when we find out our site announcments. This is the big day where they reveal where everyone is going to be placed for the next 2 years. I could not be more stoked. That's a week from today. The day after we find out is Shadow Week, and the we ahve like 1 more week and its game time.

Hopefully I'll have internet access next weekend but if not try and give me a holler on my cell phone and I'll keep you posted!

Take it easy guys, I got a crazy couple of weeks ahead.

Cheers,
Jayce

Facts of Life

So here is a list of things that I have been getting used to in my months here in Tanzania. I like to call them my Facts of Life:

Bathroom:
-Squatting
-Watching and aiming my poop into a hole, I like to call it target practice
-Constantly being on the lookout for bug or flys trying to get up your who-ha
-Rationing toilet paper
-Using my left hand when in a pinch
-Trying not to use my left hand for anything else during the day because of the above

Sleeping:
-Sleeping on a bed that caves into the middle
-Listening to the calming sounds of the terrential downpours on my tin roof
-Hearing the family chit-chat until the wee hours of the night
-Hearing the family chit-chat in the wee hours of the morning
-Waking up to roosters, donkeys, chickens, cows and dogs EVERY morning
-Waking up with a ton of bug bites even though I sleep under a net
-Peeing in a bottle because I am not allowed to leave the house at night

Eating:
-Eating dinner at 8pm
-Using only my right hand
-Washing that hand with dirty water they think is clean
-Eating a combination of beans & rice or rice & beans
-Eating cold spaghetti noodles with Katchup they think is pasta sauce (I said I liked tomato sauce on my pasta noodles, be careful what you wish for)

Everyday:
-A never ending assault of greetings from the villagers

These are my facts of life. There will be many more to come.


Cheers,
Jayce

Red, White and Poo

Remember the days when you could just sit back and relax while going number 2? Those were the days. I would check my text messages, read an Entertainment weekly, and just relax. Those days are long gone....

I know you have all been dying for another bathroom story so here it goes.

As I told you before my toilet consists of a hole in the ground leading into a big cave of poop. No long tube or anything just a thin layer of soil as the roof to a giant cavern of poop, let me emphasize, thin. I think you can see where this is going...

I decided to go number 2. I walk over to the "choo" and I was going about my business as usual. I walk into the bathroom look around and BOOM! The ground gives in and my right leg sinks into the ground! Here I am with half of my right leg stuck in the ground all the way past my knee. I am stuck dangling over a cavern of shit! I am there for what seemed like an eternity trying to free myself. I quickly get a grasp and pull my leg out and proceed to run and tell my host mama.

We go back to look at the hole and I am in shock of how close I was to the entire floor giving way and me falling in entirely. The whole night I could only imagine what I would have done having to climb out of this cavern of poop, all while screaming broken Swahili for my mama to come save me.

Did I mention this was all on the 4th of July?

God Bless America.

Cheers,

Jayce

A Mother's Love

As of now our class of 35 has split into 7 groups of 5. Each group is called a CBT. Each CBT lives in a different village. On Fridays every CBT gets together to go over things like logistics and safety. The trainees basically use it as a time to exchange our most ridiculous stories of the week. This was my favorite from a friend of mine named Shani...

So we were all hesitant at first to take a bath from a bucket. We didn't really know what to do. It is pretty self explanatory but you never know if there is certain protocol to follow. So Shani gets to her home-stay, likes it, likes the family yada yada yada. It gets time to bathe and the mother walks her to the 'choo.' So they stand outside and the mother explains how to wash. 'Here, here, etc." Bearing in mind that the mother doesn't speak a lick of English.

Shani is like 'Yeah, yeah I get it.' And she goes in and does her business.

Next day same thing, mother walks her out, explains how to do things, and Shani goes in to wash.

The third time same thing. Shani gets the explanation, goes in and starts to wash up, this time, the host mom walks in and proceeds to start scrubbing Shani down! Shani is so in shock she just stands there and is like, 'Oh my god! What is going on!' She doesn't want to offend her mom or anything so she doesn't know what to do since she's a guest in her house, and in a brand new country. Shes just there wondering what the hell she is supposed to do!?

Remember folks, the lady doesn't speak any English, so Shani is just standing there butt naked while her african host-mom scrubs her down! Head. To. Toe.

The mom then leaves and Shani is left there, jaw on the floor, she can't believe what just happened.

I loved that one.

Cheers,
Jayce

Splat on a Hot Tin Roof

Well I finally realized why this place is so ridiculously green and beautiful, when it rains, it freakin pours!

Our house is the typical mud hut with clay walls and high vaulted ceilings. The rooms however don't have their own roof, that is its just one big building with walls separating each other. I don't know if I am explaining it well but I could essentially stand on my table and look over the wall into the other room. Talk about privacy. That means that whenever anyone in the house does ANYTHING, you hear it. Its just like they're in the room with you. There are times in the middle of the night freaking out because I think someone or something is in my room, turns out that they are either in another room or outside because of course, we don't have windows, just screens separating us from the elements.

Anyways the common material used for roofing are these wavy metal sheets of like aluminum or tin. At night, when it starts to rain, you would not believe the sounds that sucker makes. The sound just bellows through the entire house since it is all one big open room. Just when you think it can't get any louder, it does. I don't know if its just to roof or if its ridiculous rain, but man it is louder than any rain I have ever heard. It's nuts.

Anyways, as far as life goes, same ol' same ol'. I keep trying to think of cool stuff that happens but nothing is that out of the ordinary. School just sucks the life out of you and when you think you are done with Swahili, and you are going home to take a break, its just right back into the fray. The Swahili never stops. Taxing at times, but in the end will be worth it.

The internet I have here is about an hour walk away. Which is fine, but I don't know how often I'll be able to post since we only have time to go on Sundays. I'll do what I can. I'll try to post pics but if the internet is too slow I'll have to wait until I find somewhere better, which could be a while. I'll try and figure things out.

Cheers,
Jayce