But I’m writing to say that I have moved my blog. Since I am currently no longer in Africa, it doesn’t seem fitting that I should still be using this blog, and thus I have moved to a new blog. I hope that your time reading this has been as great as my time writing it. I do hope that you will continue to follow my exploits. Take care!

After the conference, I worked in Dar to finalize my plane tickets for travel after service. At this moment, I’ll be flying out December 5th and heading to Ethiopia and Egypt to return December 23rd in St. Louis.

After taking the long haul back to my site, I found it as it was. I did some more teaching, studied some more math, and read a ton of books. I unfortunately learned after much effort that I will be unable to take the Math Subject GRE in Dar, so that kind of makes my plans pushed back, but that will be better for grad schools. I can apply in ease and take in more information to make a better decision, all the while studying for the first year or two. Either way, I was bummed, but it will be ok. This now makes me think of all the things I can do with my free year, and perhaps I’ll go abroad again?!? Sorry ladies, Jeremy has to keep saving the world. I know you want him back in the states, but who knows.

Also, after a few weeks of wondering about my application to be PCV of the week for the training of the new volunteers, I heard I was one of 8 people who would be doing so. I went to Morogoro for the planning sections and talking with the host schools contact teachers and others talked to the families people would stay with. It was a great time and not at all like the stories I heard about this training. The schedule turned out well, with the 3 second years being in Morogoro during the internship teachings, where we will sit in on volunteers teaching and give them feedback about how they are doing while teaching in tz classrooms. I will also be finishing up my document to give to math teachers to hopefully help them in their service. And to cap it off, I made my trip to Morogoro RIGHT before my trip to Dar to finish my service and meet with my friend Joel coming to TZ, so I won’t have travel back and forth all over the country. Should help a little.

Now, I’m back from that training, went to the beach with some folks, and have a week off of school for break. Three weeks of teaching after that (as well as waiting and watchin my form 4 students do well on national exams) and then i’m off to morogoro to finish my service!

Hope I can write again soon!

Oh, also, you should probably think about not sending any more mail my way unless you do it in the next week or two. That’s all.

After Bagamoyo, I headed back to Dar and caught a bus the next day to Tanga/Lushoto. I stayed in Korogwe for a night or two, and met a guy named Bill Singh, who turned out to be a huge resource. I stayed at his house, he drove me around Old and New Korogwe, and we saw all of his investments in tanzania, including a stone quarry and a large car garage, where all of the government vehicles in the area will come to get a tune up (ie, he’s going to make tons of cash). Basically it was a good time, and we were both sort of lonely guys in the country and stayed up lately having some drinks and talking. After Korogwe, I went up to Lushoto region, where I saw other volunteers’ sites. I made it to a place called Mtei, where it was said that if you wake up at/before dawn, you can see Kilimanjaro in the distance. Sadly, there were clouds that day, so I missed out, but the view down into the flatlands from way up high where we were was amazing. I hiked from here back down towards a volunteer’s site, and we did alot of cooking and hanging out. These volunteers were all heading down to Lushoto for the weekend, and so we joined with them and headed to town. By this point, I had met up with Amber, a PCV who lives near me, and we went on a hike near Lushoto to this outlook. I later found out that it is listed in Lonely Planet’s guide of things to do, or so they told me, but in my mind I thought we would be on a long grueling hike. It was a tiny incline that didn’t last long since we were catching up with friends, and we made it to this edge of a cliff/bluff where you can see for hundreds of miles. It was fantastic and I took many photos. When we arrived, clouds were rolling by, and it was like we were in a cloud, and you looked off the cliff-only white. It was fantastic and yet creepy. The clouds cleared, however, and it seemed we were above most of the clouds in the distance, which made shadows on the tiny villages and towns below. It was sort of like going to the top of the Arch, the Sears Tower, the Eiffel Tower, or a host of different things, and yet it was a natural environment.

After the short hike, Amber and I booked it to Tanga town, where we stayed with this doctor that many of the peace corps people knew. We ate alot of Indian food, and not just Indian food, but Indian food with seafood, like prawns. Fabulous. I went with 2 other volunteers to a sort of late night dance party, that’s supposedly a cultural event, but really that means it’s just ladies dressed up in their finest and men just watching them dance (and by dance, i mean sort of stand there and do nothing). Well, us volunteers decided to go out and shake it up and have a great time and then call it an early night, compared to them, who kept dancing forever. The next day, we woke up early and went back to the restaurant we ate at the night before, and swam to a deserted island in the distance. This involved a one hour swim to the island, and then tromping around barefoot into the jungle. I ended up going further down a path, because the others felt some sort of spiky things on the ground, which perhaps my feet with huge soles didn’t get hurt from. I kept going til I found some ruins of an Arabic temple that was mainly some falling down buildings with several rooms. I decided it would be fun to keep going down the path further. Sometimes I would think the ancient path ended, only to see a path a bit further in the spiky brush. I kept going til I really did lose the path, which was a LONG way, all the while, of course, walking through spiky underbrush (crawling on all fours at one point), and then returning. I came back to meet the others at the water and began to tell them about my trip and the thorns, when i looked over at my shoulder and a stick was stuck to my skin, and i pulled it off. Emphasized my story i guess. They said my back was full of lashes like I had been whipped all morning. Heh. Oh well, the next hour was spent swimming back to the mainland. I seriously doubt I could have swam that much two years ago.

That same day, we headed out to the market in town, where I bought a new shirt. The prices were much different there, where I bought a shirt that was below my normal price, but he accepted to quick, I guess the price was much lower. Shrug. We ate some more food, and I went on a search with another volunteer for bbq like meat to eat, and ended up at this place he had never seen (but will from here on out always eat there), and we had a feast- bbq and doritos. Yes, it seemed very American, and I enjoyed it.

After Tanga, I came back to Dar, then headed back to Mbeya. In Mbeya, I met with Kava to copy exams for the form four’s pre-mock exams (In the future, as in last night, i just listened to a bbc show ‘africa have your say’ asking if students are overworked with too many exams. hehe), and then we headed back to site. There hasn’t been too much since then. The students took their exam, then we have taught a little bit, and my students are now preparing for their district mock exams, and later for national exams (too many exams, huh?). I got a huge box of books from my mother, which was AMAZING, and so I’ve upped my reading in the village, along with my studying and teaching. It’s been just normal village life, but I’m living great.

This week brings me to Tukuyu on my way to Dar then Arusha for our COS conference (close of service), because we all need some reminding on how to transition back to american life. Plus, we spend some time working on our description of service, the document we use for all official use in resumes and such about our service. It’s all slowly coming to an end. At COS conference, we are having a sort of prom like thing, where we are all getting tailored made clothing, and I’m getting stuff made as well. Pictures will come later.

Well, that’s all for now. I’ll update as I’ll be in town for over the next week. Sorry for the lack of updates. Also, on a random note, my dog had 7 puppies. Sweet. 4 girls and 3 boys. When I get back, hopefully they’ll be all walking around and be fun to play with.

That’s all for now. Til next time!

Since my last post, school has been mostly the same, except with some very recent news. My students had some more tests and class, and ended up the semester with a final exam, which i also made like a mock examination. Hopefully, while I’m on vacation, i’ll swipe some mock examinations from other districts/regions of tanzania and we’ll use them at my school for more exam preparation. I must say, I remember taking a class or two in high school that was very highly oriented for taking national exams, but I have never been at a school that is this insanely focused on exams only. Luckily i have spent countless classes stressing critical thinking and concept understanding while still using it for their exams, but really students are just worried about the actual exam itself. It’s probably really stressful for them. I kind of understand it since my plans right now are focused on retaking the mathematics subject GRE which could decide different things for me.

After the exam, I graded all my papers, and headed out on my vacation, which I am still on. I started out by heading to Dar es Salaam where I spent a few days, and began my buffet tour of Dar. I feel kind of ‘bleh’ to be stuffing my face at a buffet, especially since my life and its food choices have turned so healthy and organic (and practically vegetarian-hope John Tuley isn’t reading this. please don’t hurt me. haha). But, when I’m in town, and in a place with tons of good food, and when I know i won’t eat this kind of food for a long time, and i know the price is ridiculous high, i just say screw it, and enjoy myself. I went to the renamed (yet identical looking) hotel that used to be the holiday inn. The peace corps mindset at a buffet can be very different, because they know what is rare or expensive or gourmet. I was hitting up all the expensive things getting my money’s worth, and laughing at the touristy family next to me who were talking like ‘oh my god, these eggs are really good. i just got like 2-3 of them’ or ‘oh man, this piece of fish is good, i could eat so many’ etc. Basically, their meal and everything they eat in terms of village life amounts to about 1/5 the price they paid or less. An egg is like 25 cents, but their meal was like 12 bucks. ok, whatever, but it’s funny to see tourists these days.

Also, a common thing that happens to me when I’m in dar and a good 2 days travel from my site is that when i’m walking around and usually wearing my school shirt (sometimes not), I meet people who are of the Nyakusa tribe and we chat up a few greetings and basic Kinyakusa on the streets and they go crazy. After the mentioned Holiday inn meal, I heard two taxi drivers behind me talking in Kiswahili: “hey dude, hey dude, look, he’s from <my site>, look his shirt says <my site> - hey white man- Twa Mbombo!” and I answered “tununu” and they went nuts. Never fails. Another guys wife was from my area, i met a former student from my school (that was crazy, we met on public transportation), and last night i chatted up a guy at a bar from my area. It’s funny cuz i get really annoyed with the tribal stuff in my area sometimes when i’m at site, but when i’m in dar or another city far away and i get to talk to ‘my tribe’ i feel like i’m connecting to my home.

After hotel hopping in dar (i didn’t call ahead, so i just kept going from the ymca to the ywca every night scrounging for spots), I headed to zanzibar for some much needed rest. I arrived in stone town, but then made my way off into the village with sarah, another volunteer. She was still in school, so while she went off to school for the day, I spent time going around to different beaches around the island. I went to several different beaches in the north of the island, but I still think the best beach i’ve been to was the one all the volunteers were at for new years. Don’t get me wrong, they all have their good and bad points, but I feel like that was the best time (which of course could mean i just liked being at a beach with a ton of people). Also, while on zanzibar, I hit up stone town and got a ton seafood on the street and argued like hell with the locals. They ended up hating me and sarah because we kept bargaining in kiswahili like the locals, while the whole time they are staring at us like tourists. It’s true, the whole place is tourists trying to be all cool and try seafood (which we kind of technically are), but we definitely knew the score and correct prices on the island. I also got a chance to check out jozani forest the day before I headed out. We walked around the forest and then got to hang out with colobus monkeys, and i took alot of photos. When we first came up on them, two groups of monkeys were fighting over territory and making a scene and it was pretty cool. Oh, and a monkey definitely peed on me and sarah. We felt droplets and we were wondering what it was, and realized it was a monkey high in the tree. Go figure. Not as evil as flying monkeys of Oz, but mildly aggravating.

After zanzibar (which i do have tons of information, just not alot of time to write it all out, just ask me questions and i’ll put more), I headed back to dar to hang out while alot of volunteers were in town for a conference. I hit up another foreign buffet, which was actually very very cheap and had lots of amazing indian, chinese, pizza, turkish, etc food. This morning, a group of 6 volunteers went to a breakfast buffet and stayed for about 2.5 hours eating and chatting and drinking fruit juices. Delicious. Last night was pretty great also, which of course it should be since its vacation. We headed to Mlimani City, a big huge store/mall place that feels like America, and we went to see a movie. We, in true American form, bought tons of candy, soda, and chocolate and snuck it into the theater, but bought some popcorn also. Sat back and enjoyed the new Indiana Jones movie. Not the best movie by far, but the overall experience of being in a theater with an alright movie was well worth it all.

The plan for today is to use the internet, sit back for a little bit, and then head to Bagamoyo to the north and then after a night or two there, head further north to Tanga.

Alright, i’m sure there is more and when I think of it I’ll write, but that’s it for now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTDM0-eEagE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhl47iuLS7o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQsBUXj3Ego

Since then I have been spending tons of time at site, which has its ups and downs. Two separate weekends, I gave my students a mock exam for mathematics, mimicking the national exams they would be taking in october (pictures in link at bottom). Classes have been flying by. The first semester ends in 2 weeks, and I am basically done with the form 4 topics, so i’ll give them some review work to do during their break, and let them take more exams (pre-mock, mock, and NECTA) and finish out their o-levels. I’ll then have almost no work for the rest of the year. I’ll be teaching form 3 i think, and i finished about half the topics in half the year. I’m on target. The great and different news, however, is that our school will most likely be A-level this year. That means, if the rumors are true and we get students who are studying math, that I’ll be teaching more advanced students. Take all the best students from the schools in O-level, and put them together and you have a great upper level advanced class. I’d be teaching intro calculus topics and other advanced geometry, algebra, etc. I’m really excited if this is the case. Sure, i could relax the rest of the year, and i will, but i really would love to teach an even greater gifted class of students who want to suck up math. I mean, these would be like your upper level high school kids who get a chance to choose topics of study, and they chose math! Awesome. I’ll definitely keep you informed though.
I’ve been doing alot of amazing cooking with local ingredients, as well as some things i received in a care package. I also went all out and cooked a large yellow cake with chocolate frosting on charcoal (oh man, it was AMAZING!). It’s gotten to the point that the women teachers all want to taste the stuff I’ve made. Even the headmaster’s wife, who kept claiming men can’t cook because she never tried my stuff, finally gave in after she tried the cake and said I did indeed know how to cook. I’ve still been trying to convince people to learn with me how to make stuff, and every time they get closer and closer to commiting to actually learning, but then they just end up not caring, and you can tell they just want to eyeball what you are doing so they can eat it later, so i end up not doing it. oh well, maybe i’ll teach some students and they’ll do it when they are older. you know, hit up the younger generation.
That’s one great thing that has been going well. The school is finally doing more with secondary project stuff, and I feel like i’m very well niched in, in a very specific role. I’m not running any of the clubs, and yet I get to help with info and development. Kava (who did not die, by the way) has been doing work with a drama/health group for months and performing things with decision making and life skills for the school. It’s been great. Kava was helping to train the debate team, and I helped him out. I’ve never done debate, but it was only a matter of giving my insights into logical thought and argument. Kava seized on the info very quick and we began training a great debate team. When we visited a local school for soccer game, the schools did a debate, and our team just crushed them. Kava took the opportunity to teach the other school the things he had gained from me and our practice with the students and taught the other school. None of this involved me, which made everyone concerned look at Kava as a well informed, very experienced TZ who was educating. Now that school will probably implement those ideas on logical thought. Our plan is to hold a debate every time we have schools meet up for soccer games, and then to up their level of debate and have our school be the role model for debate in the region and teaching the rest. it’s a good start so far.
Also recently, along the same line, my other teacher friend named Elieza Swilla came to me and said ‘I must start a Scout group and I want to start it. Can you help me?’ I explained that last year I was exactly in his position but that my interests and job as a peace corps volunteer leads me to help more in the development and training than the actual doing of the clubs. I told him i woudnt be the leader and the only time i’d do something would be through follwing him. If he needs ideas, I could help, if he needs training and logistics, i can help, but the leader would be him. he agreed. Last week, we had our first intro meeting. It went off smoothly, and I helped him as he ran the meeting. We taught about what it means to be a scout and started them like early scouts in america. then we finished it all off with a game. They are very eager and will definitely continue. I’m so happy that so many activities are occuring, but i’m NOT leading them. Its not because I’m lazy, it’s just this is a better way, i think, in promoting skills training and having projects that outlast me and don’t need a ‘foreign expert’ to run them. I’d rather my local friends learn to believe in themselves and make amazing things happen. It’s been a long wait, but I think things are finally going that way.
Since I’m not running the activities, I have alot of time to do school curriculum stuff, and I’m doing it. I even began making jeopardy boards and a bulletin board for math/science (picture of board in link below). Kava helped finish the board, and now we both use it for challenge questions and what not. He even took my board without me and did a whole school program with teams and they had a competition. I didn’t even know! I was so happy. It all is making my time here that much more beneficial.
As well as the photos of the board and exams as I mentioned, in the link below you will find many photos of my house from the inside. The site should have the descriptions of the rooms underneath the photos. ALso, there are photos of the destroyed bridge area and my pets. ENjoy them, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask.
Other than that, site has been great. I made some wine awhile back, and have been enjoying my vintages of mango wine as well as mango pineapple wine. Delicious. I also tried some of my friend Amber’s wine- banana and ginger. wow. Also taught some german volunteers and my headmaster how to make it. Maybe after some time, I’ll teach some other locals and they can use it for income generation. Doesn’t really help the old men drinking in the village, but who knows. Also, I planted potatoes recently, so in July I’ll reap the benefits of that.
Well, that’s all for now. Glad you’re still reading after my long time away. If you have any questions, feel free. Jeremy out!

Don’t forget to visit http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2428614&l=daa25&id=6803262 !

So another sad part about all this was that I wanted to stay around for the funeral and procession, because it would be the first funeral in Africa that would actually mean something to me, but I was leaving to Zambia for Easter Holiday (Spring Break) a few days later. So unfortunately, and it pained me to do so, I gave all the condolensces I could but sadly went on my way.

During my long stay in the village, I also ran into the problem of money. I had been spending the limited funds I had because I hadn’t been to town in a long time and I had been using the money to buy cell phone credit in order to arrange the vacation long distance. Plus, it’s tradition to give money for funerals so I was only able to give a small amount with the promise of more later. Either way, it made a dent in my funds and I was using my last bit of cash to make it to town. When I arrived in town right before Easter it turned out to be a Muslim holiday so the banks were closed. The following day was Good Friday and the next-train. So here I am, train ticket bought and going into a foreign country and i have no money. None. I met up with Sarah later that day and found out she had many bus problems along the way. We tried to figure out the money issue, but since the banks and money exchange places were closed, we went to some more shady places. I wouldn’t say it was black market dealings, because I have never heard of stuff against currency exchange in shady corners as illegal, but it definitely wasn’t normal. Unfortunately, the money changers were not around precisely because of the holidays and after some cops eyed us suspiciously, we decided to move on. We went to the hotel and slept, trying to weigh our options.

We finally decided to just go to the train station even though we did not have any USD. We had heard that lack of Zambian Kwacha was not a problem and that all of the places we were going we could use USD. But all we had was TZ shillings. Unfortunately, we didn’t think we could exchange this anywhere in Zambia except for maybe Lusaka, but that wasn’t our immediate destination. There was always the border, and maybe we could get a deal, but we weren’t sure how the system was going to work and it was better to have the money beforehand, right? But that’s exactly what we didn’t have. We arrived at the train station with nothing useful and we were worried.

Luckily, we got saved by some volunteers from Malawi that were passing through on their way to Dar es Salaam. They had a bunch of USD and needed TZ shillings, and us vice versa. So, we did what anyone would do: we took our wallets, money pouches, and various money storing devices, and took them into the bathroom of the train station. As we entered the bathroom, the Malawian volunteers groaned and fidgeted. This ancient bathroom of the train station came complete with one large pissed-stained urinal and two moldy tiled stalls, the likes of which I best not describe for you. “Let’s make this quick,” they said to me and I nodded in agreement. We began taking out our wads of cash and cell phones (for the quick currency conversions) and money began changing hands. Each of us every so often glanced our eyes towards the door to make sure no one was coming in, but of course as the door groaned, we realized that we hadn’t watched closely enough. I quickly slid myself at the door and planted my foot at the base and stopped the entering person. He pushed harder, but I slammed my body against the door. I mean, heck, we had hundreds of dollars in the open. The Malawians were shoving their cash into their pockets as I battled the guy at the door, each of us never seeing the others face. I heard a pound of finality as the guy stopped. I turned to my wide-eyed companions, and with my body against the door, we made the switch. Stuff was where it needed to be.

We left the room as secretly as we could, but you can’t do that very well if you are 4 white guys in a train station full of Africans. The commotion had been heard and we were all wondering who the guy was who was trying to force his way in was. There were too many eyes on us to know for certain, but we kept watching each others backs.

The train arrived about an hour later and there was only really one guy that kept staring at me, but after staring back at him and confronting him in Kiswahili, he left us alone. Didn’t seem like he meant trouble. Never can be sure though. We boarded the train, and I got a room full of tourists- a British man who lived in TZ and a Korean university student. Sarah got a room with a Zambian family. And we were off. We were so glad to finally be on the train, that we had been planning and scheduling on for a month or so, we just gleefully walked around and explored it, and eventually just settled in for a meal.

After the meal, we were reaching close to the Zambian border and we found out how the system worked. The currency exchangers got onto the train and were asking everyone who wanted to change. We took some time debating with one guy about rates and money and finally made an agreement close to international rates of that morning. We began to fiddle with our hidden money pouches when it happened: the man from the train station showed up and came closer to us. Suddenly I realized it was only us in the train compartment along with the money changer and the man from the border. “Shit,” I mouthed to Sarah. We threw our clothes back over the money and stood up, thanking the man hastily and trying to walk away. The man grabbed my arm and I turned and faced him. “Let go of me,” I said. “Give me the money,” was all he replied. I thrusted my arm and punched him in the shoulder. “Get the fuck away from me,” was all I could think of, completely abandoning the drive to use Kiswahili. He began to inch closer and more desperate and then suddenly he stopped with a shift in his eyes and began to step backwards. He gave one of those laughs like the always do when they are caught in a situation they can’t win and want to joke it off. “No problem, no problem.” And with that he walked away. I turned to Sarah, who now had a pocket knife and a look of terrored fury, and sighed. A dining car staff member entered the door behind us, opened his eyes wide and stood still. We reassured him by putting the knife away, and made our way back to our cars.

The rest of the way was mostly sleeping and relaxing except for our heated argument with the immigrations officer. She argued that we had to pay more than we knew we did. She stated that she wasn’t stealing our money and if we disagreed we could get off the train. After complaining and wanting receipts, she complained to her supervisor about us, who then informed her that, in fact, we were correct. God, it never fails to happen.

So, after reaching Kapiri/Mposhi, we decided to just grab buses all the way to Lusaka and Livingstone. The rest of the vacation went pretty smoothly, except for the bus crashes, almost falling into Victoria Falls near the edge (pictures coming soon), and jumping off bungee jump like stuff in a third world country (isn’t this the place where first world countries send their old and used equipment? Not sure, but maybe). I can’t spend too much more time online writing lots of stuff because my time is limited, but I do hope that by this point you have realized that my entry is dated for April 1. If you happen to see this a different day- woah, sorry for you. But considering this all is based loosely on reality, it makes you wonder how much is real and how much isn’t. Doesn’t it? I guess the only way to know would be to call me, but considering I’ve only received one phone call in 1.5 years, I’m not expecting much. Thanks for reading!