I want to be a _________

A fun way to remember some of my students and their ambitions. What do Tanzanian students aspire to be? Here’s a sampling: though most say a teacher, nurse, or a doctor.

Peer Education Day

As a follow up post about the boys’ empowerment conference that we held a few weeks ago, last Friday we arranged for our students to facilitate their peer education day. We arranged with our school for all of our ninth grade students to gather in the largest hall at school Friday after school. We helped prep our boys the Wednesday before. Our boys stood up in front of their peers for two hours and taught about 160 students about goal settings, HIV and AIDS, and gender roles. Their presentation was absolutely wonderful and I was so proud of them. Some pictures below:

Fredy & Fanleck doing the Peel Banana energizer song

Fredy teaching about the difference between a long-term goal and a short-term goal

Nassoro teaching about the difference between HIV and AIDS

Victa doing the exercise of showing two males (or one male and spiderman) and two females and guessing which of the two has HIV. In the end, the students discuss how you can’t tell just by looking at two people who has HIV and therefore, if you are in a sexual relationship, you need to abstain or use protection.

 

George and John leading the lesson of the difference between sex and gender and identifying gender roles with the help of Fanleck, Victa, and Nassoro

Ruhuji Falls in Njombe

One of the only tourist attractions in our nearby town are the beautiful Ruhuji falls. It’s only a short 10 minute walk from the central area of Njombe. During the rainy season, the waterfalls come to life in full force and create a stunning scene of beauty. Locals come to relax by the waterfall or to do their laundry in the water.

Ruhuji Falls in the rainy season

Ruhuji falls in the rainy season

Ruhuji Falls in the dry season

Garage Sale

Two years ago some volunteers had a great idea to sell all of their belongings at the end of their service. When I first heard of this idea, I thought it was kind of selfish, to sell your belongings instead of just giving them away. After two years of living and working here, I realize it is far better to make people buy my belongings, even if it’s cheaply, instead of just giving things away for free. By giving things for free, it gives the wrong message that locals should just rely on free things instead of working to earn things. So, this past weekend, Jon, myself, and 3 other volunteers who will leave Tanzania soon had a garage sale of our own in town. We sold various items, mostly clothes. We all made a decent amount of money and it was a lot of fun. Some pictures below to see how much of a crowd we had at our garage sale! I love that I am starting to blog about the last of my few months here.

All of our belongings ready to get sold!

We never anticipated a crowd this large!

Tire Sandals

One reality of living in a developing nation is the lack of resources and things available. As a result, Tanzanians are incredibly resourceful and are able to discover ways to reuse nearly everything. This weekend, my sandals broke unexpectedly and so I went and bought myself a pair of tire sandals. A lot of Peace Corps volunteers buy these sandals and I have always hesitated because I worried about how comfortable they actually would be. I was in a pinch and needed some sandals so I figured now is the opportunity to try them out. The sandals are put together by old, cut up tires and four nails. The man cut them to fit my feet and wa-la, I have a pair of tire sandals for the cost of $2. My first day wearing them, I was correct, they aren’t terribly comfortable, however today they don’t seem as bad. I am hoping that they become really comfortable because let’s face it: while not beautiful, they allow me to leave a light footprint on mother earth (pun completely intended) by giving old tires a second use!

The 4 nails that hold them together: two in the middle and two by the toe wedge.