Life As I Now Know It

I feel a little silly writing a blog about the new life I live after only one week but here it goes. Peace Corps placed me in a village outside of Masasi town in the southernmost region of Tanzania, called Mtwara (near the border with Mozambique). I’m not going to post the name of my village for confidentiality reasons but if you want to google map it, send me an email. Even after 9 weeks of training, I don’t think there’s any way that Peace Corps can prepare us for living alone in a rural Tanzanian village. I was really anxious about moving out on my own, for the first time in any context, but I survived the first week, which I count as a tremendous accomplishment. And although I’d give about anything to be sharing a room with my sister or fighting with my college roommates over dishes again, I have a sense of peace that this is where I’m supposed to be.

My house:
I live in a duplex on the health clinic compound. I have 4 rooms and right now it slightly resembles a prison with crumbling cement stucco-ed walls (I plan to buy lots of wall tapestries and put as much color around as possible to make it more like a home). The only furniture I have right now is a bed and with my current budget it may be all that I can afford for the time being (eating on the floor is the traditional way to dine in TZ anyways). I’ve made one room my kitchen, one my bedroom, one a store room, and I have a large living room with great lighting where I entertain the 15 people who stop by house everyday just to greet me. I have a big thatch courtyard that will be perfect for my new puppy (when I find one) and a pit latrine. Living at the health clinic has its ups and downs. The health clinic has solar power (the only place in my village with any kind of electricity) and they were generous enough to wire a light bulb in my house so I’m no longer 100% dependent on my headlamp. There’s no doctor but the clinic-staff are great neighbors to have. Unfortunately, I wake up around 6:30 every morning to the sound of 100 sick women and their children waiting outside my window to be seen at the health clinic. Sleeping alone at night has been a big adjustment but it helps that I can hear my neighbor in the other side of the duplex snoring.

My Village:
My village has about 7,000 people living in the main village plus 8 other sub-villages. It's flat with lots of cashew and mango trees. The soil is pretty sandy so nothing seems to grow other than these trees, some beans, and cassava. That has proved to be a problem because I'm not able to buy food in my village other than cassava! Cooking takes forever anyways so I've been eating spoonfuls of peanut butter for at least one meal a day. I'm not far distance wise from the town of Masasi where I'll be able to re-stock on most things but the only way for me to get to town is getting a lift on a lorry. The lorry that comes to my area is one size larger than a pick-up truck and i counted this morning: we had 42 people and 5 chickens people crammed together standing in the back for a bumpy hour long ride into town. I felt like I was trying to hop a border with a group of refugee! So funny story about the chickens, this guy hops on holding 5 chickens by their feet. After a couple minutes one wrangled loose and flew away. The lorry actually stopped and let this guy go chase down his chicken. He got back in and 3 minutes later another flew away. This time people got mad so we just drove off leaving him behind. Ok, back to village life: The Kiswahili in this area is a different dialect and they speak it so fast so understanding people has been my primary struggle. For that reason, I don't actually know much about my village yet. There's one secondary school with 3 teachers for 300 students. There are 2 primary schools. People seem to spend most of their time farming. Unfortunately I've already noticed that alcohol abuse is rampant in my village. The older people will be drunk by noon every day! They drink this cashew-apple pombe stuff that looks like oatmeal. They sell it out of buckets on the side of the road. Sketch! There also seems to be a huge need for family planning and reproductive health education so I'm excited about that opportunity! First up though, I need to learn more Kiswahili and start integrating into my community so that I know what its actual needs are and how they might best be addressed.

Communication:
Unfortunately my internet situation has not improved at all with this move. I will try my best to update my blog and read emails every few weeks so please continue to send me updates on your lives and be patient with response time. My cell phone number is still the same, however reception in my village is horrible. If you would like to call me (please do!) it may be best to text me before with a time (or just say I'm going to call you in 2 minutes) and I’ll be waiting for you under the one mango tree with 2 bars of reception! My new mailing address is:

Katie Morris, PCV
PO Box 218
MASASI TOWN
Mtwara Region, Tanzania
EAST AFRICA
**AIRMAIL

Ok, I could spend all day updating this blog (I'm going to try to post pictures soon) but my mission for the day is to buy some food! Thank you all for the emails and I'll be in touch soon!

LOVE,
Katie