Countdown To Departure

I can see people developing friendship without ever meeting face to face. If I have an opportunity, I may pay a visit to the Peace Corps Medical Office nurse whom I corresponded with over the last two months. See post below. 

She said "after all this hard work that you have a wonderful experience with Peace Corps.  From my point of view you should make a wonderful volunteer."

That's very encouraging. 

T minus 9

Current status
Jun 25: I have been anxious, besides the packing of my stuff at home to clear the way for Alan to live there, I am still waiting for complete medical clearance—perhaps I will blog about the requirement to have my antibiotic allergy tested some day….

What a perk on Tuesday 25th Jun! The Peace Corps Medical Office nurse emailed "You are amazing'" when I told her I finally got an appointment at the Allergy Clinic. This made my day.

Jun 26: I completed the allergy to antibiotic test. So now I have completed ALL medical tasks requested by the Medical Office. I am expecting medical clearance to depart. Yea!!

Jun 27: Finally, I received medical clearance...!

Now I am panicking because I am overwhelmed with so much stuff to pack. I am so behind.
Where did I put the tape?
Where did I placed the bag with my travel essentials?
Very time consuming.
Very annoying.

Jun 24: My Toyota Scion was sold. She was a friend. 

010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101

Ah, Friends, in case you are confused: my neighbors, Sharry, Rob, and their son Alan, will be looking after my home, my dog Sashi, and my plants for me. Alan will live in my home. This means I have to pack up my stuff, leave space for Alan, Nikki, baby, plus cat. 

Next Adventure

Peace Corps service to Tanzania. It is not an adventure per se, but due to the nature of being in a foreign land, foreign cultures, foreign foods, I have a lot to learn and will have new and remarkable experiences, hence I regard this as an adventure.

Service 

Mt. Kilimanjaro’s Mt Kibo, one of three peaks
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9084438

Secondary school science teacher, 7/7/19 to 9/17/21, returning to USA in Oct 2021, unless I embark on a new adventure in 2021. I teach in English. But need to learn Kiswahili so I can talk to local people. You know, people would smile if you can speak a little of their language.

7/7/19, a group of volunteers will fly from our home states to Alexandria, VA, and get our special Peace Corps passports. The fact that special passports are issued for Peace Corps really impressed me.

We are expected to attend 6 hours of orientation (breaks included), no T-shirt, no jeans, wear business casuals.

We leave the hotel at 5 a.m. next morning for a 11 am flight to Dar es Salaam from Dulles airport on 7/8/19. Dar is the biggest city in Tanzania on the coast of the Indian Ocean.

We stay there for 3 months of intensive pre-service training.

We don’t know where we are assigned yet. During the 7th week, we are expected to travel to our assigned village and look around, set up a postal box for mail.

Tanzania
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=33843808

Kiswahili (Swahili) 

Ki means language

Jina lanko ni nani? What is your name?

Mambo, Alice? What’s up, Alice?

Habari nyumbani? How is your home?

I have sort of mastered the Swahili pronouns, now I am onto greetings…

Haven't learned how to count from 1 to 10 in Swahili yet.

There are 65 modules
(including tests) levels of the language in Duolingo. I am only up to level 4 (:-

Are you impressed that Peace Corps made a request to have Duolingo host Swahili? I am.

Tanzania factoids 

Tanzania is 8 hours ahead of Minnesota, 9 hours when we have daylight savings time.

1 USD is about 2300 TZS (Tanzanian shillings)

Tanzania is known for wildlife safari, besides South Africa and Kenya (the oldest).

Dar es Salaam was the capital city, now it is a big commercial urban city. Dodoma, further inland to the west, is now the capital. But most of the foreign embassies remain in Dar es Salaam.

Over 100 different languages are spoken in Tanzania, making it the most linguistically diverse country in East Africa. Approximately 10 percent of Tanzanians speak Swahili as a first language, and up to 90 percent speak it as a second language. English is used in foreign trade, in diplomacy, in higher courts, and as a medium of instruction in secondary and higher education. 

Tanzania is south of the equator. The country has only rainy and dry seasons, not like the rebirthing and rejuvenation that we see as spring in Minnesota. In 19^th century (1848), two German missionaries reported snow-capped Kilimajaro (Kili). This initiated hot debate across Europe – because westerners think the equator and snow did not go together. In 1889 German geographer Hans Meyer climbed Kili and witnessed snow.

Weather:

Up in the highlands, climate is not bad, less humid, and less mosquitoes. About 84^oF high in summer (January), 48^oF low in winter (July) (more about weather when I get there). Two returned Peace Corps volunteers I met confirmed that. Coastal regions are always hotter and more humid.

The highlands are where the marathon (long distance) runners are from, in Tanzania and Kenya.

Is Africa a country? 

Binyavanga Wainaina, Kenyan author, who died 5/21/19, sarcastically and hilariously advised writers: “In your text, treat Africa as if it were one country” in his Granta article in 2005. We have all done that in one way or another.

The continent of Africa is the world's second largest and second most-populous continent, being behind Asia in both categories. 

Friends, I know you can look up things for yourself, and are intelligent and knowledgeable. I want to point out that when business people take cultural competence courses, instructors may begin teaching with a slide “Africa is a country” and see if any student would react to it. 

Africa has over 1,500 languages spoken, across 1.1 billion people. Some African nations have over 50 ethnic tribes/cultures, each with its own language, and more than one official language. USA has 567 federally recognized native American tribes, but so far, English is the only official language across our nation. 

Sometimes people tell me they are from West Africa. I want to know which country since Africa is so huge and diverse:-

West African cultures are different from East African cultures, and North Africa is different from South Africa, and I am not talking about the country of South Africa.

For example, Benin is different from Sierra Leone. And Uganda was not the country where teenage school girls were kidnapped by Boco Haram in 2014. It was Nigeria.

In North America, it is so easy because there are only three countries. In the continent of Australia, it is even easier, it has only one country.

Communication with you, the reader 

There is likelihood that I will not have telephone or internet access for a few weeks after arrival.  I will be called a trainee, and get assessed 3 time during the 3 month pre-service training (PST). 

Around week 8, I get to go site-visit to the assigned school (can be a remote village) and report back to HQ around week 8.  I may need to go the next banking and get into an internet café to check my emails.

Since I will not be able to notify you of any updates. please bookmark this site and check any of my Tanzania updates yourself.

Peace Corps has a message for family and friends

Below are repeats to this Home page.