New Beginnings

After an intense two-month training period I am finally a real Peace Corpse (that's what we're called here)! I arrived at my site last weekend and began to settle in. The people of my village are very friendly and hard-working, the house I stay in is spacious and has a beautiful view of the next mountain over, and there is a lot to be done in the way of projects. I live right next to a primary school, which I will no doubt work very closely with, though right now I'm pretty sure the kids are mostly just terrified of me. They performed a welcome dance and song for me when I arrived, which was really beautiful, but I still sense fear.

So far I am healthy and happy, and just trying to adapt to the abrupt change in lifestyle from the training-site homestay. I had a lovely host family, with many kids who helped me learn the language, as well as how to cook, clean, dance etc. Tanzanian style. Leaving them behind, as well as the other volunteers and trainers was a bit hard. The Swahili training I got was excellent, but it is a bit different in this region. Most of the people in my town are Hehe, and the elders mainly speak the local language Kihehe.

My job right now is to talk to people and get to know their challenges in the village, because we are not allowed to do any projects until after our first in-service training in three months. I am sorry for being a poor correspondent for my first couple of months here, but there were no computers in my training site.