Karibu Tanzania

For those who were concerned, rest assured that I am alive, healthy, happy, mosquito bitten but not yet sunburnt, and enjoying my first week in Tanzania. I don’t really have a lot to report just yet. I met the other trainees in Philidelphia and we had a long but mostly uneventful trip to Tanzania. The highlight of the journey came about 5 hours into the second flight when I glanced out the window and was shocked to discover that the ocean had turned tan. I hadn't expected the Sahara Desert to be so clear or so impressive from above. We landed in Kenya for a moment when it was still light out, and the landscape on the way down was incredible. Some of the others claim they saw a group of galloping giraffes (haha alliteration), but I'm not convinced they weren't a hallucination.

Since arriving, I've spent most of the time at the hostel/compound we're basically stuck at this week. My day mostly consists of: wearing long skirts even though my thighs are chafing and I keep tripping, greeting people in horrible Swahili and making them giggle hysterically, being frequently stared at and called “mzungu” (white person), and using a shower that is basically attached to my toilet. Meanwhile, I am still not entirely convinced that I am in Africa. For some reason I felt like "being" in Africa would feel somehow different than "being" feels elsewhere, but obviously it doesn't. I just feel like me, only more aware of my skin color and the importance of nonverbal communication.

On Wednesday we will be moving in to our homestay families, and I expect a cold bucket bath of reality will follow. I’ll be living in a village outside of Muheza with four other trainees, a host Mama (mother) and a host Baba (father) and most likely a few host siblings. Hopefully they’ll find some use for the 10 inflatable beach balls I impulsively packed.

Kiswahili lesson of the day:

Karibu Tanzania: Welcome to Tanzania! Also used to mean "get used to it." As in, "Ouuuch there's a rock in my rice....oh well, Karibu Tanzania!"

Time to go.

Leg one of my journey, the flight to staging in Philly, begins in about three hours. In about 24 hours, I'll be waking up to get my vaccines (yummm shots), then hop on a bus to New York, then a plane to Zurich, then Nairobi, then finally finally Dar Es Salaam. Of course I can't sleep. I keep arranging and re-arranging my stuff, suddenly deciding that it's incredibly important that I bring my Spanish poetry books. Then I decide that's a stupid idea when I should obviously be focusing on Swahili for the next two years. Then I decide I'll try to sleep... only to get up a minute later to freak out about whether I'm cheating somehow by bringing my ipod. That's really not "living at the level of the community." Ahhhhhhh no time for second thoughts. I've already been over this a million times, and I really do think that having an ipod will make me happier, and thus a more productive volunteer. Crisis resolved. Then I stare at my luggage and think about rearranging it again. But there's only so much you can do with one big duffle, one small backpack, and one guitar that I don't yet know how to play.

I think I had my first "Peace Corps Moment" tonight, staring at all the crap I'm leaving at home. I don't even remember buying most of this stuff, but for each item I possess, there was a moment in which I or whoever bought that item for me believed it was necessary or at least enjoyable enough to be worth whatever it cost. How could that possibly have been true when I am leaving the vast majority of my possessions behind?

Stripped of the essentials, my room feels foreign. Packed bags are anxiously waiting for me downstairs. What I am currently staring at is a room full of stuff but lacking anything necessary. Then back to those bags I'm bringing, all the thoughts that go along with realizing what I consider to be necessary. A netbook? An ipod? I probably won't even have electricity, but I know I will be so much happier for the opportunity to use these items when I can. Should that thought make me as sad as it does?

I am freaking out on every possible level. I think I have invented new levels of freaking out to freak out on. It's kind of impressive.


OK, apparently this blog is going to be a bit more emotional than my others have been. Get excited and/or have your barf bags at the ready...

- Lauren


PS: "Volunteers" was an excellent send-off movie. Thank you, Uncle Jimmy!

From Detroit to Tanzania

So it turns out preparing to move to Tanzania for two years is stressful. 500 cool points to my mom for being her awesome self and dealing with me.

Anyway. Here is a head's up about where I'll be and when...

(Mon) June 14th - Fly out of Detroit at 7am, arrive in Philadelphia, schlep ass to hotel, do Peace Corps Staging all day. This will probably consist of meeting the other volunteers and lots of paperwork... and if all goes well, some camp-style ice breakers. I am pumped.

(Tues) June 15th - Leave hotel early in the morning, get a bunch of shots, ride a bus to JFK Airport in NYC, flight leaves in the evening.

(Wed) June 16th - Layover in Zurich, Switzerland, but mostly just flying all day. Arrive in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in the evening. Counting the bus ride, that is about 33 hours of travel. Yum.

Next 8 days will be spent in Dar es Salaam doing...something.

After our time in Dar es Salaam, we'll travel up to a town in north-east Tanzania, where we'll be living and learning until Swearing In day, in mid-August. We'll be split up into groups of 5 (out of our group of 45ish) and put into villages which as far as I can tell are basically simulation Peace Corps sites. The people are real people, not simulation people, in case that wasn't clear. The simulation part is that we're in a group of 5 and not all by our lonesomes, like we will be after swearing in. And also that we have Peace Corps staff helping us. Our training includes 5 categories: Technical (so for me, Agriculture and Environmental stuff), Language (Swahili), Safety and Security, Cross Cultural, and Health.

Send me letters today!

Hello friends,

I'll be arriving in Tanzania in two weeks. I am so excited, so nervous, and so not packed. Packing is overrated; I have been preparing in other ways. I've been reading up on Tanzanian history and politics. It's really fascinating. I am a huge dork. I also have a guitar lesson tonight! I've decided to bring the old guitar my brother never learned how to play to give myself something to do. If I'm ever going to figure out how to play that thing, I think two years without electricity is my only hope.

If you write a letter today, it might beat me there. But it might not. So get on it. I have seen other volunteers from my crew pleading for letters already and I have decided it is a competition and I must win. Letters are better than email because they are portable and I can read over them in my electricity-less hut on steaming afternoons when I'm sweating my toes off and missing the beautiful Michigan winters, which I will have obviously romanticized by this point. Bonus points if you include a picture or a note from someone under age 4. Extra bonus points if that person is named Noa.

My address until August (I'll let you know when it changes):

Lauren Fink, PCT
U.S. Peace Corps
PO Box 9123
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
**AIR MAIL**

Tips for sending mail: (stolen from another volunteer, whatup Sativa??)
-Go over the writing in red ink to make it look more official and important
-Indicate that it contains educational materials
-Never disclose a value over $10 for the items being sent
-Draw religious pictures on (Jesus, crosses, Virgin de Guadeloupe... etc). Apparently the search people aren't too keen on messing with religious crap.


For those who wish to send me presents, here are some ideas:
- Guitar tabs (bonus points for Simon and Garfunkel, extra bonus points for labor organizing tunes)
- Cliff Bars! I am addicted and they are indestructible.
- Powdered drink mixes (crystal light, etc.) - not cherry flavored if you can avoid it
- Recorded cassette tapes (remember the early 90s??). Bonus points for mixed tapes.
- Photos of all the fun I'm missing
- Love letters
- Books (I'll read pretty much anything)
- Seeds (things that will grow anywhere)
- Coloring books, markers, and craft supplies

I also want your addresses!! If you want a letter, please reply to this post or send me an email with your mailing address.

Who's excited?? I AM!!