Mel has been bad at updating this thing (lazybones) so she asked me (Justin) to step-up and write one for her. I’ve been told that I can’t write anything that might “compromise” her standing with anyone who reads this. I’ll try to be on my best behavior. Before I start, I want to let you know when I write I tend to use parenthesis a lot to throw in my own thoughts or little details. Sorry I’m not sorry I do this. (I would like to apologize for not always keeping my tenses straight and my atrocious grammar though. And I teach English.)
What has Mel been up to for the past 4+ months? According to her, she hasn’t written about a BUNCH of things she’s done. Let’s see…
Well, her school caught on fire 3 times in less than 4 months and was forced to close for a period of time. An investigation was performed, a priest was brought in (not kidding) to... “cleanse” the school, and the pyro-maniac was eventually caught. BUT, because of all the fires and the inquisition that followed, the whole staff at her school was transferred and new ones were brought in. Mel wasn’t a big fan of this. Her counterpart (a Tanzanian teacher us volunteers select to work closely with on any projects we might create) left, the school cook (and Mel’s neighbor) left, everyone left… except the Mkuu (headmaster/principal). It was kind of like an entirely new school was being moved to her. But things have been slowly returning to normal. Her students are slowly but surely returning and she began teaching again.
She also never mentioned that she was selected to be part of PSDN (Peer Support and Diversity Network) here in Tanzania (I was also selected- there were 12 of us total). Basically, PSDN is a group of volunteers who can be called on to help other volunteers with ANY issue/problem/concern they have here in country. We were called to Dar es Salaam in… April, I think, to take part in a training. We had sessions on how to talk through a variety of issues that volunteers may have: from site issues, to alcohol/drugs, to sexual assault, and everything in between. It’s a pretty unique group of volunteers and we are totally confidential about what volunteers tell us, even to Peace Corps staff.
She spent her birthday (25! She’s old) in Morogoro at a training-of-trainers with a bunch of other volunteers, and judging from the call I got that night, it sounded like she had a good time.
She was part of a group of us who went to Uganda in June to go rafting on the Nile. (before the Ebola outbreak.) THAT was really cool. But apparently she wants to tell you about that one herself, so I’ll move on.
After Uganda, Mel headed back to Morogoro for the Pre-Service Training (PST) of a new class of education volunteers. She spent the next handful of weeks bouncing between PST and her site. If you ask me, it sounded like she was pretty busy, but she seems to like (really like) teaching English and meeting the new volunteers, so I think she enjoyed herself.
Umm… what else?
She hosted a new volunteer for Shadow Week. (New trainees visit a volunteer to see how they live, get a little better idea of what to expect at their site, and see how awesome travel in Tanzania is (sarcasm).) It sounds like she and her shadower got along really well: Mel and her cooked food together, explored a little, and had a pillow fight in their underwear. (No? I thought that’s what girls did when they were alone.) But that trainee was placed in the closest town to Mel and I’m sure they will become the best of friends by the time she leaves (awwww).
Aaaaafter that Mel was supposed to come visit me on Pemba (an island off the coast of Tanzania that’s part of the Zanzibar archipelago) for a little bit (we both had extended breaks from school), but the ferry she was supposed to take was shut-down (for “maintenance” I’m guessing, as there’s been 3 ferry sinkings in the last year….yeah, Tanzanian transport systems are awesome, I know). So I came to the mainland and we headed to her site for a little while. We didn’t do toooo much. Lots of sleeping in, cooking gooooood food, reading, and watching TV shows and movies. I did build her a dresser (glorified bookshelf) so she’s no longer living out of her suitcase. She seems really happy with it, and I’m just happy she’s not living like a nomad anymore.
After about a week at Mel’s, we went to a little town called Bagamoyo, just an hour or two north of Dar (where we had to go anyway for our MSC the following week). We met up with three other volunteers there who were also on break and also not in America at the time (‘cause it seemed like everyone else was visiting the states). Bagamoyo was pretty cool: a sleepy little beach town with only a few resorts, which was perfect because it was just touristy enough to have good/western food, but not too touristy to have the place overrun with tourists. We chilled on the beach, saw some old ruins from when the Sultan of Oman ran things here, went to a museum (the area’s got a loooooot of history to it), ate really good fish, saw some cool art, closed down several bars, and just generally had a good time. Oh, and we discovered that the ocean there is full of bioluminescent micro-organisms - so when you go swimming at night (the Indian Ocean is super warm), the water around you lights up as you move. Very cool.
We were in Bagamoyo for about four days before we had to head to Dar for MSC. If you ask me, the Mid-Service Conference (MSC) was kind of a waste of time, and an even bigger waste of money (I’m broke!). MSC was a week-long and consisted of medical appointments, dentist appointments, and a handful of sessions put on at the Peace Corps office regarding teaching, our second year of service, safety and security, blah blah blah. (Like I said, I didn’t get much out of it.) But it was great to be able to hang out with everyone from our training class again and get some non-Tanzanian food for a week (Shawarma, burgers, salads, iced coffee, sushi...soo many delicious things). After MSC, everyone from our class was still on break from school so we rented a bus to take us to a town in the southern highlands, Songea, for an annual volunteer party.
Songea Fest was a good time, even though it was only a day and a half long. There was a BBQ, dinner, drinks, a dance party, even a talent show. One night we rented out an entire club and filled it with nothing but Peace Corps volunteers – there were over 70 of us there….yeah, we just kinda took over the town. It was a nice town too- mountainous and green and generally likable. But once that was done we headed back to Mel’s site. (I had a week to kill before a conference I had to go to, and I was broke, so I went back to her site). The trip back to her site ssssssuuuuuckkkkeeeeedddd (imagine 4 days of travel, sitting on a sack of beans for 7 hours, kondos that were blatant liars, spending too much money, the “comforts” of a Tanzanian bus) but we eventually did make it there.
That visit was very much like the previous one: housework (for me), good food, TV and movies, sleeping in. I hung a couple shelves in her house, switched out a busted door-lock, and we made some improvised poutine (a Canadian treat!). All the things I built/hung/fixed in her house are things she claims she could/would have done on her own (yeah, ok) but just hasn't gotten to. It’s been super dry at her site (prime for snot-rockets), and the water from the pipe is kind of salty, so we made a lot of kool-aid too (she says ‘thanks Dad!’). Her school re-opened so she’s back to teaching now.
I think that about sums up the last 6 months of Mel’s life (probably not). You all can heckle her some more to actually write her own blog-posts a little more often, instead of farming it out. Hope this wasn’t too compromising for her. Take care, everyone.
“All the soldiers say ‘It'll be alright, we may make it through the war if we make it through the night.’”
