Orientation

I began this post over a week ago (on a bus), but I have been so busy that I have not had a chance to finish it. Unfortunately, this is not a post with an overriding theme, because there are simply too many things I want to update people on. Of course, it is full of observations, but I wanted to provide a general update to my trip so far, and there is no one thing to focus it on, other than orientation as a whole.

I met up the up with other volunteers on August 14th, and we drove North of Dar to stay for a few nights at Mpingo (African Blackwood, or ebony) Farm. The farm was very pleasant – it was started to try and preserve the Mpingo tree which is prized by many Tanzanians as an excellent wood for creating charcoal. This has led to it nearly becoming extinct in Tanzania. It is also used by carvers up and down the coast to create beautiful wood carvings that are omnipresent in the coastal regions at curios (object markets). It was nice to be out of the city after my three weeks there. You could actually see the stars. The food was delicious, and I was happy to begin training and to meet the other volunteers. My days have been really busy, but things are going well. We are either traveling or training, but nothing has been too overwhelming yet – I just don’t have a ton of free time that isn’t spent in the company of fellow volunteers. At the farm about two weeks ago we all got fresh coconuts (literally we watched this some guy climb up a few trees and pull them off), which was pretty amazing.

Otherwise, stuff is happening at a rate too frequent to record. Some highlights include: making connections with fellow volunteers, many of whom I have really enjoyed getting to know; exploring areas of Dar I had not yet seen (including Kariakoo, the biggest market in Tanzania) with volunteers from the Tanzanian NGO Restless Development; driving for 8 hours to get to Iringa, where I will be until September 1st; learning more about my placement in Ngara, Tanzania (a roughly 26 hour bus ride from Dar es Salaam); teaching my first class to Tanzanian students; and observing the creation of a traditional Tanzanian dinner (ugali, a THICK corn porridge, chicken stew, and stewed cabbage and tomatoes).

Orientation has been good, though I’d be lying if I said I haven’t found myself bored during our actual orientation sessions from time to time. The training sessions and classes have largely been very good, but sometimes there is only so much time one can spend sitting in a warm room and learning about teaching techniques. That said, I have been enjoying the extracurriculars and exploring Iringa, the beautiful mountain town we have been staying in. The pace and energy of the town are much slower than Dar, which is very nice. It also has just about all the amenities of Dar, so I have not found myself wanting anything. Other volunteers have stocked up on some Western comfort foods for their sites, but I think I will just have to deal with whatever food cravings I have after the fact.

I think I will close this post here, and begin a couple more focused ones to hopefully post sometime in the next week. We will see what kind of internet access I have after arriving at site (on September 3rd or 4th, depending on the buses), but it could conceivably be a little while until my next update.