Ludewa

We finally got our placements last night. I will be going to a small village called Mdilidili in the very southern district of Ludewa. It is one of the furthest placements from Iringa town, (6-8 hours by daladala) and is placed right near Lake Malawi, which is supposed to be beautiful. I've also heard that Ludewa is the hottest of the Iringa region districts which means that I'll probably get lots of malaria. There is a rumor that my placement does not have electricity. Of course, like everything else in this country, I won't know exactly what's happening until I get there.

My Tanzanian partner is named Rehema. She's 21 and from a city called Mbeya, which is west of here. I don't think she was overly ecstatic to be partnered with me but that's too bad cuz she's stuck and now we're going to be best friends. And hopefully she'll cook everything. During a bonding session after the partner selection I allowed Rehema to paint my nails with this dark red-brown stuff that all the Tanzanian girls use. It turns out that is is henna, which doesn't come off nails or skin. She got it all over my fingers and now I look like I have some sort of disease. Everybody's been commenting on how ugly it looks.

The past two weeks of training have been useless, to say the least. We learn things like the definition of self-esteem or "resource mobilization," when they really should be teaching us how to dig our own toilets. We also have a lot of group work, which consists of one mzungu, (me) and six Tanzanians. They all speak to each other in swahili while I pick at my nails and then they hand me a piece of paper with nonsense English phrases and tell me to present to the rest of the class. I tried to present about Non-formal education techniques (in Swahili!) yesterday and just ended up talking about how I hated ugali.

A few days ago I got into a heated discussion with several Tanzanian boys when we we were told to advise a 16 year old girl on how to deal with her sexual desire. The boys kept suggesting that she fill her time with "sport and games" or join a math club because 16 was way too young for thoughts of that nature...No wonder this country has a problem...and to think that these are the kids that are supposed to be the sexual health advocates!

I'm looking forward to village since I will only have to live with one Tanzanian instead of 40. One of my roommates gets up at 6am, turns on the light and starts singing. She also asks me every morning if I've showered yet, (Tanzanians bathe at least twice a day but they still manage to smell bad...forget HIV, the real public health crisis here is the lack of deodorant). But I'm sad to leave the other mzungu (white) volunteers. We have all become a tight-knit family and it's going to be difficult to live without a sounding board...

This will probably be the last post I'll be able to write before I go to village, since I leave next Friday, AHHHH. So you might not hear from me for a month or so. I'll be back here on April 12th or 13th. Also, my address in the first post will be my address for the entire time I stay here, so please go ahead and sent letters if you'd like.