Representing the Eastern Hemisphere....

Being here nearly a year has made it hard to identify what qualifies as important information. Obviously posting gives an opportunity to recap the big events of the past year and I’ll try to do my best. If you’re interested in more short term analysis feel free to check my blog at andrewshooktoafrica.blogspot.com. Also, I’m not sure if we can, but I enjoy putting together a reading list of blogs with my Google account. It has said that our blog isn’t one that can be read in such a way. Also, I may not have looked hard enough but I see other people post as themselves but I cannot, what am I doing wrong? Anyway, minor technical stuff, not a terribly big issue. Onto the real post!

It’s hard to describe the experience of truly living in another country. In many ways it is no different than home and in other ways it is as different as I can imagine. Learning Kiswahili (the Swahili way of saying the language) has been more of a challenge than I expected. I had hoped that I would be functionally fluent by now but I’m realizing just how far one has to go to achieve that. It makes me feel better to say my path to my current situation was somewhat to blame, as every place I’ve been Swahili has been a secondary priority with an English speaking host family and an assignment where it’s in my student’s best interest to speak absolutely no Swahili to them. In reality, it has been a secondary priority of mine as well, but I’m attempting to change that. Ninahitaji kufanya mazoezi kila siku kwa muda mrefu, halafu nitajua sana.

The teaching has been an interesting challenge. It was my luck to be assigned to a place, as a math teacher, where their biggest need was Physics at the highest level for secondary school here. That physics course is a watered down version of the two I took my sophomore year at Cornell. Point of interest: my worst class at Cornell was my second semester sophomore year Physics course. So basically I’ve been reteaching myself what I failed to learn in college, which is a surprising amount. Although, I’ve also been learning what it truly means to study. There is no test of your command of a topic better then teaching others the topic. So that’s a skill I had to learn eventually, ironic it happened after college. However, recently another teacher has stepped in to take my classes in the short term while waiting for a posting at another school. That leaves me with two math classes and a LOT of time on my hands. I’m working in the library too trying to improve the situation before we move the facility to a new room.

Time is one of those things that you find an immense abundance of or a complete lack of (just like home remember!) and Tanzania has a way of edging itself towards the excess of time. I’ve read way more than I ever used to (monthly Animorph books at 16 pt fonts not included). Granted, four of those books have been the Twilight Series (thanks for guilting me Hannah) but the other 13 were all legit! I’m currently working on a sci-fi series referred to as the Uplift novels. I’ve read two and they’re quite satisfying! In the media realm I’ve acquired quite the collection of movie/tv show entertainment. I’ve been intermixing new materials with rewatching my favorites. I’ve developed a strong affinity to the Sci-Fi channel show Eureka and Chuck has been my favorite show since approximately its third episode. I’ll just leave it at this, I thought college was the ideal place for the trading of entertainment material but I suppose the missing ingredient is the trapped in a foreign culture because the collection between the volunteers is massive!

Despite what it may seem, my spare time has been quite productive at times. I am cooking for myself way more than I did in college. I think it stems from the fact that there is no supermarket with heatable dinners here. Everything is made from scratch and if you want something good you have to work for it. In doing so, I’ve found I like cooking, especially when there are multiple people to do it. I think my most impressive food creations (in no particular order) are the lasagna, full size (and toppings) pizza, scalloped potatoes, and fully flavored stir fry that I have on occasion. My meals are steadily improving in consistent quality so that’s a plus! Unfortunately the amount of time the dishes sit clean is rapidly declining. My other fairly successful use of spare time has been the creation of a transit plan for the city of Wichita, to improve the bus system around town and make it more useful. Like any development thing I dream up, it’s probably way too expensive but for the first time, I feel like I actually correctly paired needs and assets with results. If you’re interested in reading it, I can get a copy to my parents, if they don’t already have one.

In keeping with the spirit of general summary, the area I am in is absolutely gorgeous. It is a valley that is trapped by mountains north of something like the 9th largest lake in the world. We get rain a lot and occasionally we get RAIN. There was a week in April where it literally did not stop raining and it wasn’t just drizzle or mist, it rained the entire time. I’ve read we get nearly 3 meters of rain a year which is quite impressive. But the result is some of the most luscious nature I have ever seen. I know places that are so thick with jungle you couldn’t pass through without a chainsaw and still I know others with a view that rivals any overlook you have ever seen. If you sift through the pictures I have up on my blog you can get an idea. It’s a beautiful place to say the least.

Bringing the focus in a little bit in terms of time, we just welcomed our new Health and Environment volunteers. The 7 newbies (that no longer refers to me!) just completed their 9 week training and are facing that daunting process of finishing out their house so it becomes their home. I was elected to be the VAC representative (Volunteer Advisory Council) and will serve for most of 2011. I’m really looking forward to having an impact on the volunteer experience. I can’t imagine I’ll be moving any mountains but I’m going to take it seriously. The library process is continuing but it’s going at a Tanzanian pace which is affording me the opportunity to consolidate my inventory into an excel spreadsheet which is giving me ideas for a check out system if a computer is available. I got a suit made last week. A custom tailored suit for a total of 31K Tanzanian Shillings, slightly over 20 bucks I think. I’m excited to start using it! We’ll see how it works (and if it stays together!). I suppose the big news for the area is that the president of Tanzania is coming tomorrow. We’re rolling into campaign season as we’re less than 2 months from election day (ironically also Halloween, go figure). Anyway, I’m curious to see (since it’s unlikely I’ll understand) the festivities tomorrow.

My two cats, Felix and Magellan, are doing quite well. They’re getting big, although that doesn’t stop them from assuming they can fit everywhere they used to. Felix enjoys sitting on the top of a window facing the west in the afternoon and forces himself between the screen and the glass yet somehow is able to work himself over to lay on his back so he can sun his belly. It’s amusing, but that’s the reason I got them (well their mother first but that’s a longer story), for the entertaining company.

That’s all I can think of for now. If you have a question about things, or if I forgot something that seems like important news, I’ll post something about it on my blog, just comment or send me an email etc. It’s great to hear what people are up to, as it has been a while! Also, if you have a spare 25-3500 and want to spend time in Tanzania, let me know! There is so much more to see here than is well known, which is amazing as the list is pretty spectacular to start with.
I hope things are going really well for all of you! Get well soon Grandpa!

God’s Blessings!

Andrew

PS. I was going to post a couple of pictures but they wouldn't load tonight. They were mostly repeats from my blog so you can jump over if you want to look at them!