Planes, Trains, & Automobiles

After leaving Tanzania at 4pm (EST) on Thurs Dec 18, I finally made it home at 12:30am (EST) on Sat. Dec. 20. After departing Dar es Salaam, a 9 hour flight to Amsterdam, an hour or so layover there, an almost 10 hour flight to Detroit, my travel plans were delayed due to bad weather and an airport line organization system that I'm still not quite clear about. I missed my connection home due to long lines & could not get a flight out to home for two more days. Instead, I took a flight to BWI, rented a car, & drove home. This was a three hour drive after traveling & being awake for almost 48 hours. Oh well, I made it to the winter wonderland safe & sound.

I debated closing this blog, but I think I will keep it up for the time being. My PCV friends want to keep track of me & I still want to post some pictures & video of my time in TZ to give you a better picture of what life was like there. I will be able to get to a faster internet connection within the week, so I'll wait until then to post video & pictures.

As for now, I'm chillin' in PA (literally, it's 10 degrees F today), looking for a job, looking for a place to live, & visiting w/ family & friends. I have an interview on Monday & am looking at a duplex on Saturday, so I guess things are moving along. If you want to get in touch with me, my old cell phone # is reactivated & I'm using my yahoo email for the most part.

Happy Holidays

I'll Be Home For Christmas

Yes, that's right. Due to circumstances of a personal nature, I have made the excruciatingly tough decision to terminate my service with the Peace Corps. I should be home within the week, but as of right now I'm not sure exactly when. I want to thank all of you for your letters, packages, prayers, and everything else you have done to support this endeavour. I am feeling pretty disappointed that things didn't work out better, but I know that this is just another bend in my road. My immediate plans are unclear, but I hope to rejoin the MNMS family in Sept. 09 if all goes well. If you've sent things to my Njombe address I am sorry that I won't be here to receive them, however friends of mine have been instructed to get the packages, open them, and spread the wealth. Know that your gifts are going to other deserving PCVs who will truly appreciate them! If you sent things to my Dar es Salaam address that I have yet to receive I may get them when I'm in Dar prior to my flight home. If they are things I believe would benefit current PCVs more, I'll be sure to leave them in the PCV Lounge where you will be beloved by fabulous people you've never met! If you are a teacher interested in keeping touch w/ a PCV in TZ I can suggest some wonderful people who will be happy to take my place keeping State College in touch with the world. I still want to post more pictures & video I took of my experiences here so you can get a better picture of my life here, but I will do that once returning home where it's faster!

Happy Holidays to you all.

Some Pictures

Here are some pictures. Sorry there are so few, but it takes so long to load them that this is what I could get. There may or may not be a video of my new house at the bottom as I don't know if it'll load before my internet time runs out... it's not looking good. Next time I come to internet I'll start loading it first thing & hopefully that'll be enough time!

My homestay house.
Me w/ my Tanzanian sisters and our matching outfits for the swearing in ceremony.

Me with the girls from my language training group in dresses one of the teachers had made for us. We were having Thanksgiving dinner at one of the medical officer's house.

Tanzanian sunset in Mikumi National Park. Notice the sky. What color is it? That's right - it's sky-blue-pink. (That's for my family who're probably the only ones who get that...)

Studying Swahili with the rest of my language training group.

Questions & Answers

I've gotten some questions via email that I thought I'd post responses to here for all to read. If you have questions about life here, email them to me & I'll get back to you.

1) How do I get to town? Well, it's 8km by car. I can walk the 8km, or I can walk 3km & take a van the rest of the way for about 30 cents. My other options are to walk the "shortcut" which is 4km over a mountain - did it once, it sucked, won't do it again. If I ever get $ I can buy a bike & bike the 8km to town. Either way, it's a lot less convenient than in the U.S. and it's taking some getting used to. It sort of makes me feel trapped at my site, but, bonus, I can't avoid exercise anymore!

2) Where do I use internet? In town there's a few internet cafes, one that PCVs use most often is the Altek. It's pretty fast. Since I have to come to town to buy groceries, I might as well use internet while I'm here - maybe once a week.

3) What kind of furniture did I get made? I had a wardrobe made that holds clothes, books, medicines, and miscellaneous items. I had a smaller version of it made for my kitchen that holds food, pots, etc.

4) What does it look like where I live? No kidding, it looks like PA. I know, you're thinking "Africa - must look like The Lion King, or desert, or whatever", but no. I live up in the mountains where it's green & there's forests w/ pine trees, etc. Seriously, looks like PA w/o the paved roads. Keep in mind that TZ is a big country & just like the US, the landscapes, climates, etc. vary greatly as you travel around the country. I just happen to live in a part of TZ that doesn't look like what we stereotype as "Africa".

5) Do I have a bug on my nose? The person who asked this knows who they are... I thought it would be funny to post an answer! No, I don't have a bug on my nose, but speaking of bugs, I'm done w/ mosquitoes, bug spray & nets. There are still bugs, mostly flies, but not a lot of creepy crawlies to deal w/ so far. We'll see what happens as the seasons change.

6) When am I going to post pictures? Well, as I have more access to internet now, I'll try to post some soon. I'm still in the phase where I'm internet deprived, so when I come to internet (& have to pay to use it mind you) I'm still wanting to use my time & money to email and catch up on news rather than waiting for pictures to load. I'll try to get to that in December, though.

I can't think of other questions, but I know there's more, so ask away.

Random Time to Kill

Don't get used to me being on internet everyday. I just happen to be in town to pick up furniture I had ordered, so I had some extra time before I get the furniture to do some internet stuff. I really don't have much else to post, but I remembered that I'd like a 2009 wall calendar so if someone has one they want to send to me, I'd appreciate it. If I get more than one w/ different themes - hamna shida (no worries) I can use them to decorate my walls! Oh, in case you're wondering why "no worries" is hamna shida and not "hakuna matada" like the Lion King song, it's because hamna shida is Tanzanian Swahili, but hakuna matada is Kenyan Swahili. There's a joke around here, at least all of our language teachers told us this, that Swahili was born on Zanzibar (island of the coast of TZ - part of TZ), anyway, Swahili was born on Zanzibar, grew up in Tanzania (mainland), got sick in Kenya, and died in Uganda. There are some other countries somewhere in the joke, but that's the main idea. Anyway, apparently the purest form of Swahili is spoken in Zanzibar and then the further you get from Zanzibar the more diluted it gets w/ other tribal languages.

New Address

My address has been changed to:

Rebecca Henry
Peace Corps Volunteer
PO Box 959
Njombe, Tanzania
East Africa


The East Africa part is not always needed, so use it or not. However, the rest of the rules still apply as far as using padded envelopes, filling out the declaration slips strategically, and using religious stuff. Please be sure to write the Peace Corps Vol. on it as it saves me some customs fees! Things sent through the PC address will make it to me, but start using the new one as I'll get it sooner! I hope letters will get here now! Pass along the new address & don't forget to read my other new blogs for more info on my new place. Karibu Njombe (You are welcome to visit me in Njombe!!)

Holiday wish list continues

Yes, it's the holiday season, so I'm taking advantage & begging! Here are some other things, in addition to other blog list I made a few weeks ago, that I could use. I love Goodwill clothes, so any clothes I ask for, please don't spend lots of money! Clean out your closets, go to Goodwill, etc. Njombe is about 65-70 degrees now w/ my house colder w/ the concrete floor (remember - no heating in houses here!) so I need more warm clothes ASAP!

CDs: The Weepies (any of them), Carbon Leaf (indian summer)
DVDS: ANY!!!!
Slippers - warm & fuzzy
Leggings/yoga pants (size L any color)
Socks (shoe size 8.5) any color but white!
Long sleeved Ts (size L)
Magazines (Readers' Digest, Cosmo, People, whatever!)
Nalgene water bottle (or any reusable water bottle)
Hot chocolate
Warmer weather clothes (goodwill stuff is great!)
Snack foods!!!
Books - any & always!

Thank you a million times over.

Home Sweet Home

My house is half of a duplex. There are 2 male teachers who live on the other side of my duplex. They seem nice, but play music loudly 24/7. That could be a problem. My house has a livingroom w/ a couch, coffee table, & two chairs. My bedroom has a bed and a desk/chair. My kitchen has a coffee table, pots, utensils, and buckets. My bathroom has a shower, spigot, and toilet. Yes, there's running water in the bathroom. The water is cold, though, so I'll only be using the shower on warmer afternoons! Don't worry, I'll still bathe! I have a solar shower I can hang and put warm water in. My spare room has NOTHING in it. It won't for a long while as I have no money to furnish it. I hope to at least get a mattress at some point for visitors. Otherwise it's the couch or sharing a bed w/ me! Actually, I did hang a laundry line in there as it's the rainy season here so drying clothes outside won't be happening. Saturday I managed to buy 2 jikos (stoves) one kerosene and one charcoal. Now I can boil water. I got some food, too, but have been fed much of the time I've been here, so haven't cooked much other than tea & eaten some mangoes & bananas. There are 5 teachers who live on my campus. The two who live in my duplex, one other guy who lives near the dorms, and a woman who has a family on campus. Campus is in a field with no village to speak of since we're so close to town. The kids left for vacation last week, so it's basically deserted. I'll be spending a lot of time in town, I guess. Hopefully not spending a lot of money though! Oh, yes, I have electricity, too. It's a nice set up & many PC friends are jealous. All of the amenities in the world don't make up for the lack of nearby companions, though. I'd give up much of it to have a PC roommate (yes, roommate - I know!). All in all things are going well, but it is going to take some time to feel like home. I ordered some furniture for clothes, books, and kitchen stuff. Once that comes (tomorrow??) I'll be able to start unpacking and decorating a bit. Feel free to send house warming gifts!!! Anything you have duplicates of in your kitchens, etc, that you want to get rid of would be welcome in TZ.

The Toughest Job Just Got Tougher

Ok, so if the mental & emotianal stress of Peace Corps was hard before, it just got harder. In the past week I moved 6 huge pieces of luggage on and off buses 6 times went 3 hours of my way to turn around and go back not to mention that Dar was a million degrees and 100% humidity. I'm not exaggerating. We were all totally soaked w/ sweat and we weren't even moving around. Then we had to lug bags around - fun fun. Anyway, that's not even the tough part. Saturday I went to my new house and things were ok. I woke up Sunday morning and wondered if I could get out of bed. I was an emotional wreck. Thank goodness for text messaging and 100 texts for 400 shillings (40 cents) per day. Friends of mine got me out of bed and going for the day and I felt much better. I spent the day w/ my 2nd headmaster (like a vice principal). His family fed me, he showed me around town (for hours on end) fed me again, and then took me home. Now I'm back in town with current volunteers and they're showing us around (more) and we're getting to buy things we need. Peace Corps didn't give us nearly enough money - I spent my entire settling in allowance on furniture for my house. I had the basics, but no place to put clothes, kitchen stuff, books, etc. Basically my stuff is all still in bags. I will hopefully get my new furniture Wed. and can move in. Now I'm spending money I brought from home & money I saved the past few months. I have no access to my bank at home because my ATM card had to be replaced, so I'm hoping my money holds out. We have no idea when we get paid again - yes, we've asked, but no one really seems to know & just keep telling us to ask someone else. Tough, tougher, tougher. I guess if it was easy everyone would do it.