And I'm there: site

Hey everybody! Happy Holidays and all, I'm in my banking town for a couple days to do my banking and pick up all those things my house is missing, which is mostly spices. The two things I really want and haven't been able to find are some sort of cutting board (one of my friend's family had one in Morogoro) but no one here seems to have any clue why I would want something special to cut things on, and a little mortar and pestle for grindign spices. I may just have to have a carpenter make me a little cutting board and improvise the mortar and pestle. They must exist somewhere...

So it turns out the PCV I'm replacing left me with a ton of stuff. I started teaching very quickly, so it took me all of the last 3 weeks to really have a chance to go through all of it and find the goodies (e.g. a massive star chart! a hammock--if I can only find a good spot to hang it up) and separate them from some of the trash (IRS instruction from 2003, expired medical supplies). Anyway, it's been exciting.

Kind of exciting. Very interesting? Hmm. It's hard to describe. My first week at site was pretty miserable, I was really lonely and nothing was easy. I think I took some extra punishment for letting my homestay family take care of me in Morogoro, so I had to get used to cooking on a charcoal stove and other such things by myself. I've learned that to feel vaguely comfortable somewhere I really need to know how to get food, make food, and leave (getting on the bus and coming into town yesterday was like getting over yet another hurdle to feeling at home). Even just walking around in every direction, climbing the big hill to the South, walking to the road and a little beyond the the North, walking to the big church and big littlevillage to the West and to my closest PC neighbor about 5 miles to the East all have nurtured a slowly growing feeling of comfort.

Now, I can't publish openly the exactl location of my site, which probably includes my address, but I'm in the Souther Highlands region, and if you'd like my address just e-mail me and I'll be more than happy to get it to you. Or you can give me a phone call (text messages tend to work well): +255 752 122 810 is my number at my site, but here another line seems to work better so my alternate number is +255 786 229 772.

So, some news of my teaching: I'm lucky enough (I think...) to be teaching A-Level math and physics, which is the last two optional years of secondary school here. The kids begin to specialize in A-Level, so the courses of study offered by my school are PCB (Physics, Chemistry, Biology) and CBG (Chemistry, Biology, Geography). In addition to the three subjects of specialization, they take a General Studies course as well as BAM (Basic Applied Mathematics). So I am the only A-Level math or physics teacher here, which means I get to teach the 30 or so kids in PCB for physics and I get all 80-some kids at once for BAM.

For my first week I fit myself into the schedule that I think has been modified by some of the other teachers since the last volunteer left in October which gave me 12 40-minute physics periods and 4 math periods in one week. Now, however, the school is closed until Jan 3, and I've talked to the headmaster about balancing these periods a bit more, because the kids really need a lot more math than that.

The great benefits of teaching A-Level is that the kids are pretty highly motivated and are all quite bright--and generally speak English quite well. I also get to teach more fun stuff, we're working on derivatives right now in math and I covered simple harmonic motion in physics. A-Level is 2 years, Form V and Form VI, but my school recently opened A-Level so we only have Form V right now. Form VI will begin in March or April (I still don't have the calendar down very well), and I think before then I'm going to have to do a lot of work to re-learn lots of the Electricity and Magnetism is sort of botched my way through at Mudd.

My school also has a nice little computer lab (no internet of course) which they use to create school documents and such. No one is very competent there, but, unlike stories I've heard from many other volunteers, the people at the school are being very proactive in trying to learn and attempting to use the computer lab by themselves. So, in addition to my teaching, I'll also be conducting computer classes for students and teachers. The lab has power for about 2.5 hours each evening (the school has a generator), but apparently the school has a system in place where interested people can pay a little extra for the computer classes, the money being used to buy diesel for the generator.

I've also had one kid and one teacher show considerable interest in learning how to read and write music, so I may also start up some music classes. We'll see how much time I have... The old volunteer left me with a lot of coursework prepared for math, but the Physics is going to take a fair amount of preparation.

Anyway, that's gonna be all for this blog post. Miss you all.

-Gregor

p.s.
I'm updating my wishlist: there's very little need for flyswatters here. I think the nicest things to get are going to be sweets and edibles. Thanks to everyone who has written me, e-mails and letters are all greatly appreciated.

There!

So, I've got a ton of news. Last Wednesday was the swearing-in ceremony and now I am a full Peace Corps Volunteer. Very early Thursday morning we left Morogoro and six other volunteers and I came down here to the Southern Highlands where our schools are. If you want more details on where I am, for paranoid security reasons you'll have to e-mail me.

I'm hanging out in my banking town for the weekend. I haven't been to my actual site yet, I'm told it's 2-3 hours away by bus. For now I'm buying things I think I might need, which is difficult since I'm replacing a volunteer and I'm not exactly sure what all she's left me. So far today I've bought a big bucket (70 L), some food in bulk, cleaning supplies, bug spray, and when this rain lets up I'm gonna get a little charcoal stove and make a run back the the (absolutely amazing) hotel to drop stuff off.

The weather here is great! It doesn't feel at all like Africa. A few people have commented that the town feels like a ski-town, maybe Lake Tahoe or something, though it's definitely bigger than that. There aren't big mountains around, just big rolling hills everywhere, but we are well elevated and there's even pine and eucalyptus trees, adding to a Northern California feel. It's also pretty cold at night, I'm sleeping under a nice blanket and it's the summer now! I even wore the sweater that I brought and thought I would never use a little bit last evening.

I'm feeling really lucky because I get to teach A-Level Math and Physics (there were only 2 A-Level teaching spots for the 39 in my training group). However, A-Level is on a different schedule, so I may start teaching about as soon as I move in. I'll tell you all about my site as soon as I can.

A bunch of PCVs in the area have been traveling in to greet us, which has been pretty fun (one even brought chocolate chip cookies), and I can't wait to see my site which is supposed to be gorgeous. I think there may be some mountains around there, and it's reasonably close to a big lake. As I've got some time to kill here I'm going to be very persistent about getting some pictures uploaded later today or tomorrow.

Also, due to the distance to my site, I'll warn that my Internet access is probably going to drop to once every 2 or 3 weeks or so. I'll still be really happy to get e-mails from anyone, I'll just be a bit slower in the replies.