Mwezi Mmoja (One Month)

Today, August 8, 2016, marks one month since my return to the U.S.A.  The two worlds that I have lived in lie in complete discord, and reconciling these differences is taxing.  The simplest things – crosswalks, food delivery, the size of onions – are bewildering.  Struggling to remember a simple English word, I’m often met with blank and unsympathetic stares.  Driving through the neighborhood streets that once were filled with the bikes, scooters, Hop-its, and laughing kids of my childhood, I see only locked doors and dark windows.  The neighbors who stop at home for conversation have dwindled to none.  I see people ambivalently detached from the paralyzing reality of approaching the election of a brash, xenophobic, failed business tycoon as leader of the free world.  Conversations erupt around me – plans about where to go out that night, vapid complaints about emails, gossip about new faces – and I fail to engage.  It’s not that I’m unhappy with where I am – the opposite is true.  Prolific, industrious, and altogether happy people in a place that they are deeply passionate about surround me.  Still, I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting and revisiting my decision to serve two and a half years ago.

One of the most difficult decisions of my life took place when two fantastic opportunities waltzed into my life within hours of each other.  I was offered admission to my top-choice medical school, followed closely by an offer to serve in the Peace Corps.  I faced an immense decision between two lifelong dreams.  Minutes felt like days as my thoughts raced, and my stomach somersaulted more than Gabby Douglas in Rio.  Eventually, I decided to have my cake and eat it too.  The medical school supported my decision, in essence allowing me to run free in the Peace Corps with the assurance that my seat would wait for me.

During my service, I felt pangs of regret a handful of times at my decision.  Now, however, upon matriculating, those pangs have become tangible.  Regardless of how warm and welcoming my peers are, it’s hard not to feel left behind seeing them two years ahead of me in their educations and in their careers.  Have I been left behind in life also, or am I living an existence more enriched?  One month ago, I would have told you that my service has enriched my life in a multitude of ways.  Today, the same is true, but the story is a bit more complex.  My service HAS enriched my life, and it is important to keep revisiting and identifying the ways.

Today, as I place my service in the context of my current life and in the context of my career, the world is still happening around me.  Today, I seek to engage in a life strikingly similar to my own before the Peace Corps, my heart seems far away.  Today, the first day of medical school lectures – what are amino acids again? – happened to me.  This month, meeting with old friends and encountering new ones happened to me.  Bills, budgeting, emails, schedules – these are also happening to me.  And, I guess it’s time to make things happen around me rather than happening to me.  It’s time to dive in headfirst, just as I did two years ago, renewed and ready to cope with the road ahead.

SKILLZ KILO!

In Tanzania, HIV/AIDS is a mind-boggling problem that few know how to tackle.  Many of my fellow PCVs in the Southern Highlands region of Tanzania serve in villages where 1 in 4 people is infected with HIV.

Let that sink in.

1 in 4.

All of these villages have received HIV/AIDS prevention education, life-saving anti-retroviral drugs, and counseling, and, thankfully, HIV infection rates have declined over the past ten years.  Still, the battle is far from over.  Grassroot Soccer is a South Africa-based nonprofit aiming to educate youth - changemakers of tomorrow - about HIV/AIDS through the one activity that really ignites passion in Africa - soccer.

Grassroot Soccer has partnered with Peace Corps Tanzania for a number of years now to empower and educate Tanzanian youth to stop the spread of HIV in their communities.  Zinduka, SKILLZ, and SKILLZ Girl are three projects that have been met with immense success in hundreds of communities in which PCVs serve.

Graduating from our Grassroot Soccer Training
October 2015, Iringa, TZ

In October 2015, two of my community counterparts, Wilson and Isaya, and I were selected to attend a training for SKILLZ in Iringa, Tanzania.  For both of them, crossing the country was a first - and what a journey it was!  Deciding to save money, and time, we opted to travel on the "local" style bus that would transport us there in one day.  6 am found us cramped together and bumping around on the rickety bus seats, 4 pm driving through an incredible national park in central Tanzania while sighting giraffes and elephants, 6 pm through endless stretches of pine forests, and 10 pm safely in our guesthouses on a cool night in Iringa.

From November - December 2015, we toiled to reach out to out-of-school village youth.  We successfully completed a SKILLZ intervention of 12 practices and a graduation.  Due to the multitude of challenges we faced along the way, we felt proud to graduate just seven youth.

Uswaa SKILLZ Graduation Ceremony that took place in my home - skits, speeches,
food cooked by the guys and gals, a playing-field cake, and even the Macarena!

My community counterparts, previously meek and apologetic, transformed into energetic but carefully calculated community forces.  In 2016, we organized con-current interventions with in-school youth at Uroki and Neema Secondary School.  This time, we knew what we were doing.

L: Pre- and post- student assessment is extremely important to measure our impact!

R: Signing a covenant is vital to the success of Grassroot Soccer

Check out the following picture snapshots of the amazing six months we spent with youth of

Uroki and Neema Secondary Schools.

Playing an activity called "Risk Field" - avoiding unprotected sex, multiple partners, older partners, and mixing alcohol and sex as demonstrated by dribbling around these obstacles.

A student favorite: a simple game explaining the science behind HIV immunocompromisation and the action of anti-retroviral drugs.

Playing HIV Limbo!

Grassroots Soccer uses soccer in addition to other games, as well as energizers and a positive, trust-building relationship between participants and their coaches to empower youth in Africa.

A shootout activity demonstrating the effectivity of male circumcision in reducing HIV transmission by 60%

I was overjoyed to receive this photo during a time when I had traveled with students -

my counterparts were confident and capable of running practices on their own :)

"Gender Stadium," an activity designed to foster vital communication between boys and girls.

In this photo, the boys in the inner circle are asked to answer a set of pointed questions, while girls

listen silently from the outer circle. When the girls get their chance to speak, they feel respected by their male peers, something unheard of for them.  This is an extremely powerful exercise to do in the traditionally patriarchal Tanzanian society

Coacher's Story: an amazing way to connect and gain trust of the students.  Every so often, the coaches share a real-life experience when they came face-to-face with risk for HIV infection.

Our much-awaited graduation celebration brought firsts for all of us.  The coaches were brimming with enthusiasm and pride of having graduated 60 changemakers at once.  Music, dancing, food, and guests of honor made it truly a day to remember for our young people.

1: Coach Wilson teaching an "energizer" to add fun in the day, 2: certificates presented by our Ward Counselour
3: A skit about HIV/AIDS infection, 4: a wonderfully choreographed dance to popular Tanzanian music

Required staples of the Tanzanian function: 1: cake fed to everyone, 2: presentation of cash if we've done our job right,
3: a proud party committee, 4: the necessary full group picture!

You can learn more about Grassroot Soccer here: http://www.grassrootsoccer.org/

Until next time!

Wasichana Wanaweza (Girls Can)

Around the world, girls living in poverty face difficulty attending school due to their menstrual periods.  A majority of female students in Tanzania do not have the means to purchase menstrual pads - so they use pieces of mattresses, cloth, and even newspapers to cope.  Huru International is an organization that provides sexual and menstrual education to youth in East Africa, along with a "life changing freedom" to young girls.  Namely, this "freedom" comes in the form of a Huru Empowerment Kit, which consists of eight washable and re-usable menstrual pads, underwear, an airtight bag to store the pads in, and soap.  While still a growing program, Huru International has shown very promising results to reduce absenteeism among Huru beneficiaries.   You can learn more about Huru by visiting their website:

http://www.huruinternational.org/

My counterpart, Anna Ringo, and I, attended a Huru International training in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, this January.  We brought back the knowledge and skills that we learned to reach 500 youth our village in February - March.  While I served as a teacher for two years at Uroki Secondary School, a private, church-affiliated school in Uswaa, Ms. Ringo served as the second-master of Neema Secondary School, the government secondary school that serves the village of Uswaa.  We formed a fast friendship through a mutual passion to empower our female students.  

Check out the video (posted above) that highlights our series of three Huru seminars!  Make sure to watch the video in full screen with the volume up.  I made the video mostly for the purposes of our students, so there is a mixture of Kiswahili and English captions.  However, I hope the meaning is quite clear to all :) Bonus points if you can find three grown women showing off floral underwear to a filled assembly hall!

During our first seminar (February 27, 2016), we reached 500 youth with education about puberty, HIV/AIDS, STDs, and gender-based violence, along with a condom demonstration.  The second seminar (March 5, 2016) was for girls only, focusing on menstruation, the Huru kit, sexual and reproductive Health, handwashing, and early pregnancy.  Both of these seminars included student-prepared entertainment (songs, dances, and poetry) as well as peer-to-peer teaching.  Our final seminar (March 12, 2016) was a celebration of womanhood.  We taught shorter sessions about life skills: self esteem, supporting each other, giving compliments, and saying NO!, and allowed the girls to take the spotlight with their final performances.  After a delicious lunch prepared by the girls under our direction, we distributed 350 Huru kits to the neediest girls at Uroki and Neema Secondary School!

Much thanks to:

• Peace Corps Tanzania for funding this project and training, and for the purchase of Huru empowerment kits
• Huru International for invaluable expertise, education, and resources
• Anna Ringo (Second-master of Neema Secondary School, my community counterpart)
• Martha Mwaipopo (Biology teacher at Usharika wa Neema Secondary School, my community counterpart from a 2015 Huru intervention at Kindikati and Kisam Secondary Schools)
• Joseph Mchaki (Headmaster of Uroki Secondary School, for his constant cooperation and support for this project)
• Uroki staff: Christina Murro, Agnes Mkulago, Benson Mushi, Rev. Okuli Nkya, Agrey Swai, Japhet Ruseke, Arbogast Kavishe, Nickson Munisi, Aikandumi Swai, Aikonea Urasa, and others who helped contributed their time and effort to making these events successful)
• Neema staff who participated in Huru events
• Isaya Swai and Wilson Swai (my village community counterparts)
• Mary Gillis (a friend and Peace Corps Volunteer)

Let's LEAD Tanzania

Team CAHBIN: Carol, Angel, Humphrey, Ben, Innocent, Najma

At the end of April, volunteers across Tanzania came together for the second annual Tanzania National Leadership Experience and Development (LEAD TZ) conference.  For American teenagers, meetings, seminars, camps, and extracurriculars are commonplace, but many of the students attending this conference had never left their villages, and most had never been outside of their home regions within Tanzania.  After a creative application process, 10 groups were selected - each consisting of a Peace Corps Volunteer, a Tanzanian counterpart, and four students (two female and two male).  With changes in funding and leadership of the conference, the road to actually implementing the conference was difficult and lengthy.  Luckily, thanks to collaboration between PCVs, we managed to fund and attend the conference!

My big, strong boys who took my hand
and saved me from being washed away in
the thigh-deep, rushing "rivers"

Still the road to LEAD TZ had its challenges.  April is in the middle of masika, or the monsoon season, in many parts of Tanzania.  My village, situated in the mountainous Machame region of Kilimanjaro in the foothills of the big mountain, is subject to extreme rains that permeate every part of life.  The hard, rocky roads transform into a slippery, muddy mess, and transportation becomes even more difficult!

We had planned to ride our old, beat-up school truck for the mere 6 kilometers we had to travel to get to the main road where our cross-country bus would meet us up (travel got much easier when after I realized even the biggest buses were willing to negotiate a pickup on the side of the road!).  I guess you could call it the typical SNAFU to wake up before dawn to the unexpected thunder of fat, fast raindrops on tin roofs.  It turns out our mountainous village roads had transformed into slick, brown rivers.  We piled in the back of the pickup truck, drenched in seconds from raindrops pelting sideways into our faces.  Needless to say, our truck got stuck in muddy ruts once, then twice, then three times (see the video below!)

Fed up with angry phone calls from the bus conductor, and the relentless shower, I led my students' gaze to the paved road visible on the horizon, and told them we were going to reach, whether on foot or not.  We were in the farmlands only about a kilometer away from the road - but the path had become laced with rushing rivers with water reaching to mid-thigh!  My slippers, which quickly snapped, were left in the farms, and the six of us, with twelve bare feet, navigated the slippery landscape, and eventually made it to town, where a bus full of angry passengers lay waiting for us.  They were pleased to finally direct their anger at someone (me), and I gave them the simple answer that we were late - just simply late.  We arrived to Morogoro, a beautiful city in central Tanzania, still soggy and cold (except for myself, who had taken an opportunity when the bus was stopped in traffic to hide behind a thorny bush and exchange my drenched jeans for damp ones from my soaked backpack).

The conference proceeded without any other major obstacles.  Check out some of the highlights of the conference with the photos below!  You can also check out the Youtube video  (hyperlink) by a talented member of the Peace Corps Tanzania Media Team (posted below).



Our main focuses included team buildling, leadership, and career planning and empowering youth with knowledge about HIV/AIDS, malaria, nutrition, food security, sexual health, gender equality, and science.  Each session was led by a Peace Corps Volunteer/Tanzanian national pair from one of the 10 participating schools.

Morning exercise - a fun staple!

Teambuilding activities - making a team cheer, trust falls, obstacle courses, and other fun activities!  Pictured standing on the chair you can see my hardworking, insightful counterpart Benson Mushi, whose tireless work and collaboration made our work possible.

Activities from World Malaria Day - learning about the importance of sleeping under a mosquito net through games!

Sexual health and condom demonstration lessons - always interesting with shy Tanzanian teenagers

Gardening with limited space and resources - in a gunnysack!  And a nutrition lesson - making delicious guacamole!

Science competitions -
my students creating an "egg-drop" contraption

A highlight of the trip - a visit to Sokoine University of Agriculture

Action-planning to take the knowledge back to their peers
at Uroki Secondary School

You can check out a more detailed description of the conference from the lead organizer, my friend and fellow Peace Corps Volunteer Chris Biles by clicking on the link below. (Today is actually my first day of medical school, and I guess this is one way to save time while still updating this blog :P)

https://usawatanzania.wordpress.com/2016/05/22/the-tanzania-national-lead-leadership-experience-and-development-conference/

LEAD TZ 2016 was an incredibly powerful and moving union of youth from all across Tanzania that admitted students and educators, but produced changemakers with hope and the prospect of creating a brighter future for Tanzania.

My confident, beautiful inside-and-out future leaders of Tanzania

Maua Mazuri

How quickly time passes!  Two years (precisely to the day) passed in what seemed like the blink of an eye.  I am typing this, not from my balcony surrounded by bananas and coffee in the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro, but from my sun-soaked, bursting-with-blooms backyard in Michigan, USA.  My final year of service passed me by surprise, each day filled with new opportunities and unique challenges.  These days, unfortunately, did not provide me with ample time (or internet access) to sit down, reflect, and update this blog.  So, we will save the reflection for another day.  For now, enjoy a backlog of stories about my incredible two year journey.

Singing what quickly became their theme song -
"Wanawake na Maendeleo," or Women of Development

Today, we will explore from start to finish one of the most fulfilling projects of my service: Maua Mazuri.  "Maua Mazuri" is Kiswahili for Beautiful Flowers - an educational program created by Peace Corps Volunteers to help adolescent girls harness their inner beauty and confidence.







As a young girl growing up in the USA, I was always told, "You can, you can, you can."  You CAN achieve your dreams.  And, I found that, with perseverance, I actually was able to accomplish virtually anything I put my young mind to.  In 24 years, I have yet to feel limited by any sort of glass ceiling, and am confident I can break through it if I ever feel it in front of me.


Girls in Tanzania face quite a different reality.  In some tribes, men boast pridefully about beating their wives and abusing them verbally.  In others, Female Genital Mutilation is still expected and widespread.  My village, set in the famed Machame region at the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro, has villagers who pride themselves on being different.  Their tribe, the Chagga, were happy to send their daughters to school.  Many were happy to allow them to study, and our school often saw 7 - 8 female students in the "Top 10" of every form.

Learning about storytelling through dance -
this original dance depicts a young girl "dancing"
with too many partners and becoming infected with HIV.

However, the whole story was not apparent in one glance.  Once young, unmarried girls finished high school, where did they go?  Were they in the corn fields?  No.  Carrying water?  A few times a day, at most.  Cheering at village football matches?  Far from it.  They were hidden behind four mud walls, boxed into smoky fireboxes at the perimeter of village lots.  They had children at their hips, and laundry at their hands.  Their hands, rough and wrinkled before their time, would place shiny dishes of porridge and sauces on lace cloths in the living room, and then retreat back to smokebox for a solitary meal.

A woman in Tanzania is expected to "kubali" - to agree without protest.  "Sawa" is the Kiswahili word for, "Ok," or "Sure, I'll do it."  Tell a young girl to prepare breakfast?  Sawa.  Tell her to sweep and mop the entire house?  Sawa.  Tell her to dig from point A to point B in the farm?  Sawa.  Tell a young girl that it's time to get married and have kids?  Sawa.  

Even in the most progressive parts of Tanzania, young girls need to be told, over and over again, that they do chart the course of their own futures.  This is what the Maua Mazuri program aims to do.  Through the arts - creative writing, poetry, songwriting, dancing, drawing, and painting - the lessons teach girls about self-expression and often focus on HIV/AIDS.

"Move Your Body" - learning self-expression through the best way
possible - dancing to Beyonce!

At Uroki Secondary School, Maua Mazuri began in October 2015.  My counterpart, Agnes Mkulago, and I, had chosen 20 girls based on essays written in Kiswahili about the importance of art.  We recruited girls from the Form I and Form III classes to get a decent mix of abilities and ages.

Left: Younger and older girls interviewing and drawing each other,
Right: Some of the girls showing off their face drawings.

The first few months were challenging!  Most Tanzanians do not see the value in extracurricular activities, and Uroki was no different.  Our meetings were set to happen every Thursday at 4 pm, but invariably, a surprise assembly would be held, and the entire school sent to clean the school grounds or cut grasses.  Maybe a teacher would keep the students late, and then another might need to enter for an "announcement" that would take until dusk.  Maybe the students would face a surprise inspection of their hair, their toenails, their school uniforms, and each of them would be thrashed with a stick to the point of tears, and far past the point where any singing and dancing would be possible.  However, we eventually learned to take firm ownership of our girls, and the other teachers began to understand that they could do absolutely nothing to deter Agnes and I from holding these weekly sessions with the girls.

Self-Portraits! These confident, beautiful girls told me,
"Madam, Sisi ni Mishale!"
(Mishale means arrows. But basically, "Madam we are BEAUTIFUL!")

Most of the time, visible results were few and far between.  I do remember one conversation with a teacher about a particular girl - a girl in Form II who kept her hair covered in a white ushungi (hijab).  Her sparkling eyes always said more than her timid mouth.  However, this teacher was marveling at the fact that she, although previously silent began to answer questions in class over the past few weeks.  I smiled and said that she must have been getting the extra confidence from somewhere :)

Learning to make beats using their bodies!

Two girls leading a lesson about STDs for 500 youth
from Uroki and Neema Secondary Schools.

How did Maua Mazuri girls actively challenge the status quo set for them?  I think looking at a few of their accomplishments gives you a good idea.  They were strong leaders, and took ownership of every project I gave them.  While their peers were still teasing them for the group's seemingly silly name, the girls gave me secret smiles and carried on with what they were doing.  They were leaders and my main helpers for the Huru empowerment seminars, a 3-week intervention that reached 500 youth in Uswaa.  Whether I needed them to sing and dance, act, or even teach lessons, they proved to me that they were capable, goal-oriented young women.

Singing their original song

Do you need more examples?  On May 31, 2016, the girls had reached the end of the Maua Mazuri program - and the day had finally arrived to show the entire school the fruits of their labor.  Their first number was an original a capella song called, "Kusema Hapana ni Muhimu" (Saying No is Important).  They took the stage more timidly than I expected.  The "drums" started amid chatter and laughing in the audience, the first singers faltered in their entrance, and the "guitars" came in reedily at first.  Then, all of a sudden, they looked at each other and smiled.  Melody, harmony, and rhythm blended together beautifully, and their peers only stopped and stared. The lyrics, which stemmed from a songwriting session last year, are below.  The Kiswahili original is on the left, and a rough English translation on the right.  (It doesn't quite have the same ring in English).

After this, they sang, danced, and acted their hearts out.  The youngest and smallest ones fearlessly stood in front of their peers to explain their drawings and paintings, something that would have been unheard of eight months ago.  I don't know that I had ever been as fiercely proud of anyone.

Maua Mazuri's last skit

Performing their storytelling through dance -
HIV infection and progression of the disease through AIDS and death.

They explained the mural that they had been working so hard on throughout May 2016, titled, "Wanawake na Maendeleo" (Women of Development), after the song by Vicky Kamata that had become their mantra.

Some pictures of progress on the mural - with big thanks to Madam Karishma, our guest all the way from America who you can see working hard in top center amid the maua mazuri (beautiful flowers)

The Final Product!
The young woman, depicted in her graduation gown while holding a doctoral diploma, has our own Mount Kilimanjaro and farmlands around her as she heads off into the world.

Their final number was "Move Your Body" - a dance we had adapted from Beyonce's famous music video.  They had been up until late in the night perfecting their dougie, salsa, and sashay. Any of them, previously timid and shy, danced unabashedly with all of their hearts.  More than anything, their faces were filled with joy that they would have been so embarrassed to show a year ago.  The entire school erupted with cheers.

"Move Your Body," Beyonce

Exhausted and giggling, they finished their performances and settled down, as always, on the pink mat in my living room.  They had adopted to do a no-frills, all-fun graduation celebration in my living room.  There were no guests of honor and no formal speeches.  Agness and I both expressed a word of thanks to the girls.  Then, their word of thanks, prepared by one of the quietest and youngest girls, Dorcas, brought me almost to tears.  Luckily, as my students tell me, I've become hardened by two years in Africa and don't cry nearly as much any more.  We cut cake (our labor of the previous night), drank soda, and danced some more.  Instead of formalities when handing out certificates, we distributed them all facedown with every girl instructed not to look at the certificate.  We began by telling one girl to open the certificate in her hand, announce her fellows name, and name specific talents that she had brought to the group, and particular days when she had made the group successful.  Throughout the program, giving positive feedback was an important part of each lesson, and the graduation celebration was no different.  Each girl left with a smile on her face and a spark unwilling to leave her eyes.