Camping. Yes I'm in a tent. Coming to Tanzania would have a lot of firsts for me, but I'm sure I was not yet ready to sleep outside. We are back in Maweni, this time the group is split up in two villages. I am working with one more volunteer in Maweni while the other three are in neighboring Usitu Ambogo. I was not excited about camping, I never thought sleeping outside would be fun, nonetheless in an environment where I have no idea what wild animals roam. There was no guest house option, but as the tent was set up I was sort of excited to share the space with the new female volunteers. We weren't on a real campground, Maweni had little to offer. This Mama's house was very humble--two outdoor toilets, no running water, and all the cooking was done outdoors.
After arrived and settling in, we headed to our respective villages to begin training. Like a real mbongo (slang term for Tanzanian) I got to ride standing up in the back of a pickup truck all the way there (sorry Mom, I was careful!) Our group was significantly older than those I'd been accustomed to working with-some bibis and babus (grandmas and grandpas). They too were farmers, but I'm not sure to what capacity as the last group was. We were training in a CCM office in the district, much more spacious than last week's digs. Except for the occasional wasp, which I noticed hovered around a hive right over the chalkboard.We began introductions and talked about compost, and the benefits of Biointensive Agriculture, etc. One of the mama's in the group made a very interesting point; she was thanking us at the conclusion of the lesson and remarked that these things seemed like common sense to her, that why weren't these farmers given this education about the science of farming when they were younger. That called for a round of applause from the room, and a conversation about the education system here in Tanzania.
I woke Tuesday morning feeling a little uncomfortable. Last night in the tent I couldn't bear the heat and this morning at around 4 the mama let the chickens out and I swear I heard a cockadoodledoo right outside of where I was sleeping. When I sat up at about 5:20 (my tentmates are super excited about this, and get up more than half an hour before we have to leave....sigh) and stretched I felt the rash on my neck ache and it stung to turn my head, not a good sign. Nonetheless, I got dressed and headed out to the Landcruiser to take me to my misery for the next couple of hours. Apparently, no one told me that I would be vaccinating for a ridiculous amount of time today. And I dont know if the others are impressed with my clear and easy assimilation into Tanzanian culture and language that they suddenly think I'm mbongo but we were out in the bush for 4 hours vaccinating, without any warning and without any breaks for water. When I would ask how much longer we would be vaccinating, I didn't get any clear answers. I really drew the line when we walked straight up through bush, jumped over a river to get to someone's shamba and I had dozens of thorns in my skirt, shoes, hair and in my socks. I retreated to the car, feeling almost as sick as I had last week in Maweni, and the week before when I'd collapsed in my room. Unlike the other mzungu who come to Tanzania, I don't regularly walk around with a huge water bottle, but perhaps I should start. And maybe bring along some biscuits. I realized this village had WAY more chickens than the last three. Each house was in the 50's and 60's. When we were done, our group had vaccinated about 300, and that evening we'd found out there were 500 vaccinations in total! Tuesday afternoon, we returned to the site for our lesson and we informed that a funeral was taking place between the two villages and the attendance may be low for our trainings. We ended up cutting short our lesson on composting and quickly began a talk on double dug beds, companion planting and crop rotation. Again, this group asked a lot of questions about what types of flowers and herbs to plant to deter pests. There wasn't much else to do that afternoon since everything was cancelled for the funeral. It was interesting to see how connected to community was for a death.
Those nights we had gone out to the dukas and bars to 'take newspaper', the metaphor here for taking beers. It was great to see how small villages are at night, until you realize everything really is how you'd expect. There are no lights, not even kerosene lanterns and the entire main road is only lit by moonlight. There were dozens of people out, not only men in the bars and some had already read too much newspaper. We were careful when we walked down the road, as many of the villagers already knew we were wageni (the Swahili word for strangers, and conveniently also 'guests') and me being mzungu, were sucessptible to drunken swings or altercations. Monday night we were sitting talking about our day when we suddenly heard a woman scream, some slaps, and several doors slam from a house across the road. Everyone was quiet after that, and it kind of put a damper on the jovial mood of the evening, until someone said to cut the silence 'Maybe she was just running from her brother'. Another volunteer chimed in 'Maybe she was running from the dog'. 'Or a spider' someone else had said. 'Maybe it was the tv' and then finally we were back to laughing. I guess drinking in town is not like drinking in the villages. It was pretty sickening to hear that.
Im beginning to dread sleeping in the tent, when evening comes I'm already bracing myself for the sea of flying bats that dip in between people when they're talking at dusk and the hiss of the bats on the tree right over our tent. I hate using flashlights just to get my water out of my backpack. The food here also isn't helping, the joke is that everyone's chewing magnesium to get rid of the gas. Also, I've been developing a pretty uncomfortable rash on my back, I think the sleeping back I've been issued is a petri dish of bacteria. I'm anxious to get back to my homestay and take a proper bath....
Tomorrow we will continue our training with some demonstrations on composting and the following day we will practice a double dig bed. Ugh, two more days until I have my creature comforts back.
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