Last days in Moro

The last few days in Moro were excellent.  We all had to take a Language Proficiency exam to make sure we would be capable of fending for ourselves in the real world. And then I had a day of gardening with a  guy named Peter Jensen.  Ill send you some pictures another time but it was a project or business idea he had called Permagardening helping to empower and enable those living and coping with HIV/AIDS to live a more self sustaining life when so much around them has been loss. I could have described that much better, but I’ll bet you can find it online and Peter does a far better job of explaining...

On the last night with my host family, my brother and I were alone a majority of the evening because baba and mama were at a wedding for my mama’s brother I believe. And so Stephani and I decided to try and make some pizza. I bought cheese at some super expensive store in town, and the rest of the ingredients were easy to get at the market and at home. All and all the pizza turned out quite excellently considering it was cooked on a charcoal jiko in a frying pan. And even though we had no idea what the measurements were supposed to be for the flour and yeast when making the dough, it tasted really rather delicious. We made our tomato sauce with some tomatoes and garlic all ground up together, cooked it for a while, and strained it to make a makeshift paste. After letting the dough rise a bit, using the power of palms we flattened it into mini pizzas, cooked it up in some oil, and topped each little mini pizza with some green peppers onions and cheese. Not too shabby at all. When my parents came home they tried it, as well as the other guy living with us (still not sure who he is, sometimes my brother calls him brother, but my baba calls him brother as well, so its hard to figure out). They pretended to like it, but since Tanzanians never eat cheese, I think it was a little too much for them to handle. They politely said they were full even though they proceeded to make ugali haha.

It was time to take off the following morning. I gave my brother and baba a big hug, and had to chase my mama around the house to give her a big bear hug. It is not really socially acceptable to bear hug and pick up the women here or really touch in any way other than a hand shake between genders, but I decided that she would get over it. She laughed and sort of punched me in the head, but all was well and good in the end and I am pretty sure I have not been shunned from the Kazoka home. Hopefully. All the trainees took off for Dar after lunch, bringing the homestay portion and the training as a whole to a close.

Dar was a nice transition, and a good time to be able to hang out with everyone once more before we all took off to our respective parts of Tanz.  The few days in Dar were dedicated basically to meet our heads of school (or mkuu in Kiswahili so I don’t have to write head of school any more), and officially swearing into the Peace Corps. The former didn’t work out so well for me because my mkuu was the only of the 38 who was unable to make it. Mainly because the message did not reach him until too late I believe. He did send a proxy to meet me and accompany me to Chome, but he arrived a few days late so I did not meet him until after swearing in. The swearing in process was pretty cool actually. We all went to the US embassy for it, along with all of our mkuu’s, and the Peace Corps staff. The ceremony was pretty brief; the country director said a few words about us all, we sang both the US and the Tanzanian national anthem, we sang a song with Kiswahili words to the tune of With a little Help From my Friends (which they kindly forced us to do), the US ambassador said a few words, and an honorary guest speaker said a few words as well. Oh, also two of the volunteers gave a speech, one speaking in English the other translating in Kiswahili. We all held up our right hands, swore to do good, and now we are all volunteers. Short, sweet and excellent. We were invited to an early thanksgiving dinner at the ambassadors house that night, which was the best thing of all times… especially the deserts in my sugar-loving opinion. Really everything was quite amazing, some tasty potatoes, gravy, stuffing, no turkey sadly, but I could not have asked for a more delicious meal. Having a meal like that on thanksgiving in Tanzania makes me realize how much I take for granted back home from time to time.  But I’m not one to get too sappy… lets just say I was very thankful to have been given so many amazing opportunities and to know so many amazing people.  So, thanks to everyone at home, I miss you all and love you very much, and was thankful for you all that night!