Well it has been quite awhile since i wrote a last blog. I cant say i appoligize though because Im having the time of my life and i hate technology anyways. so there ya go. today is thanksgiving and im sure thankful that there is a missionary family here because they had us volunteers over and we had some amazing food. i have kinda forgotten all the luxuries that i live without now but when i come to their house, i quickly remember. the ice in my drink, condiments in the fridge, and the toilet paper conviniently in reach. and right now im eating a sandwich of leftover turkey and there are PICKLES. i have a stack of kosher dills baby sitting next to me... i am very thankful.

Ok, now for my true thanks. I can say that being here in Africa for this election was very interesting. First, the only news station i consistantly get is Al Jazeera so you can make your own conclusions on that. When i recieved my absentee ballot in the mail everyone was interested in looking at it and would crack up laughing when they saw that i had voted for Obama. No matter where i went people were interested in talking to me about the election and it truely sparked some interesting questions. Questions about democracy and capitalism. Our civil rights history and why women have rights. I guess i have never had to explain our policies or defend our most basic rights before. So eventough us Americans are naturaly self-centered, materialistic, overindulgent, and careless people...we have rights. And for that point alone, I am thankful to be an American. And even moreso, I am thankful to be an American in Africa because this place is way cool.

And now I have two questions for all of you guys out there. Christina's 3rd grade class and I have started our World Wise School program together, which is pretty much just being pen-pals, and my class is a bit large. I have 28 students and she has 22 so I have 6 extra kids that need a pen-pal. I am wondering if anyone is interested in having their kids be a pen-pal. Any grade would be just fine. My kids have already written a letter and we started with the basics. I would like to eventually talk about their daily life and culture. Please let me know asap.

Question two. I have been spending a great deal of time playing and teaching the orphaned children in my town. They are the sweetest children in the world and they are just startving for affection and love. Im thankful that my service has brought me here so I can get to know these kids. Statistically, orphaned children are the most vulnerable and at risk of contracting HIV, being abused and exploited, and death at an early age. There is a man here that has taken 11 children into his home and he already has 3 boys. Five of the orphans are of school age yet they are not going because of funds. Although primary school is free, the cost of uniforms, shoes, and school supplies is just to overwhelming. The new school year starts in January and I am asking if anyone is interested in sponsoring a child. I have already contacted the primary school and they are all registered. So I will be sending them to school regardless but if anyone is interested in helping us out, please let me know. I am asking for the help of 40$ and that would cover the cost of uniforms and supplies for the entire school year. 40 bucks and a child goes to school. If anyone is interested please let me know.

Im so sick of typing, so im taking off. I love ya all and give me a call.

PICTURES

So, my pictures are online on snapfish.com. If you wan to see them send me an email and Ill send you the link. thanks... peaceoutkorie@yahoo.com

So, Whats up all? hows life in the land of luxury? I feel like im caught in the movie " when the Jetsons meet the Flinstones." Its awesome tho. Im totally enjoying eachday and each moment.
I try to always remind myself how amazing each little moment is, however small it ma be. for example...My neighbors, a dad and 3 boys, are awesome. Two weeks ago the dad went to Kigoma, where they are from, and hasnt returned yet. The boys stayed here so they can go to school. Its incredible to me just how self-sufficient children are here. The other day a 7 year old started my jiko (small little "grill" thing that uses charcoal) for me because i could not. So i have been helping them out and watching out for them while their dad is gone. I took them to a small little restaurant in town and they had the biggest smiles on their faces the whole time. We had to wait a long time for the food and i was getting a bit bored. But then i reminded myself that although boring for me, they we incredibly happy. The just kept giggling and they must have drank like 8 sodas. Its the little things here that are so cool and if you forget to be present in each moment you could miss soo much.

So a while ago I heard of a pastor man here who has been collecting orphans on the street. A long time ago he tried to gather other pastor dudes together for their support but they all disagreed with his ideas. For the most part their parents have died of AIDS or have just abandoned them. The HIV stigma is so high that people just seem to turn their heads away from the problem. So he and his wife decided to take them in and together with their 3 children they support 14 children. So i went to his house and we sat in a room together to discuss his work and his future. He kept saying..my vision, my vision. he was so inspiring. I asked him about money and how he supports them all and he said he has a small farm that helps with food but mostly small donations from people. The room we were in was empty except for 3 beds that they take turns in every night. they have no money to send the children to school so one young woman comes each day to help teach. The classroom...completely empty except for 1 stool. I can hardly even discribe it to you now, so i know im not doing this justice. I was totally out of words (which we all know is hard for me) and it was very difficult to hold back my emotions. That night I was teary-eyed in bed thinking that right now there are 10 babies sleeping on a cold cement floor. Tonight when i go home I am going to translate "the wheels on the bus" into swahili because tomorow I am going to go spend the day with them. For right now, that is all i can do. Talk to ou all soon.

For those of you who havnt called/written letters/sent pictures...get on it!!!!

Holy Crap...we're growing up

So coming here to Tanzania is by far the biggest, the coolest, and the hardest thing I have ever done. I have learned an incredible amount of stuff in just 3 months and am progessing each day. Eventhough Im having a great time here its hard to think about whats going on at home with out me. My little nephew just turned one. Kristin is workin hard on her bowling skills. Jim passed the licsw and dating. Meaghan passed her nursing test and is moving to Hartford. And the biggest news of all.......Jenna is gonna be a mom!!! Whats going on here.

This morning I was talking with my school principal about some of my ideas. Here in Katesh there really are no programs for kids/teens. Eachday after school they have nothing to do. The girls go home to work, boys roam the streets and hang out, and we all know what the teenagers are doing. My thoughts right now is to start afterschool programs for primary school kids. Eachday there will be art projects, music/dancing/ and of course sports. I also would like the students from the secondary school to work with me to run the programs. So while everyone at home is growing up, im gonna stay here and play kickball for a while...peace

We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo

Forget Raffi and the zoo song, go to Ngorongoro Crater dude. Well from my last post you saw I was waiting on the word from PC staff. Well they let us go. I think today is wednesday which means I met those 2 teachers 1 week ago. Monday we hitched a ride to Haydom to meet their bus and the students were shocked that 2 white kids jumped on their bus. (i dont think the teachers told them!) So try to picture our old school field trips to Plymouth Plantation or something. A well organized, peaceful trip to see some boring stuff and eat sandwiches. Yum. well this is a bit different. The tiny bus us liscenced to hold 30 people. We had 48 total people on the "bus." Students were literally sitting on top of each other and perfectly happy to do so. We got to our hotel and the next morning woke up bright and early for the crater. What an unbelievable day!. Before I came here I knew I wanted to visit the crater. Then on the spur of the moment I was given and offer and took it. Some of those students have never left their region and I got to see so many firsts for them. So cool. The crater is scary as hell to go down and up, but well worht the near death experience. It was wonderful to see the kids eyes when then saw elephants, lions, flamingos.... amazing. We stopped at a picnic area, in the middle of the crater, to eat some bread and a monkey came running and stole a bag. That was awesome so I started laughing but soon realized that I was wrong. That was 1 of 2 meals we had that day. Today we went to Kilimanjaro Airport to see the planes and that was awesome to see the expresions on their faces to see planes taking off and such.

Its 1 in the morning here and im pretty tired and talking non sense, but its so cool to be here. The people you meet, things you see and the surprises around the corner. So crazy. Tonight i met this family from California who decided to pack up the kids and travel the world for 1 year. Im talking to them now while I use this crappy yet free computer. I dont know what Im talking about so im gonna end. Its time for bed. peace

yup...

So Im so disapointed that I do not know how to put pics on this blog. I think I may just buy an account somewhere and post them there. Who knows, but I have alot!!!

So I can honestly say that my most favorite part of being here is the people you meet. In America I always say hello to strangers or initiate conversation with people but most people think that is wierd. And yes, I do agree that im a little off beat, but either way it is seen as a negative thing. Well, in Tanzania if you do not greet people as you pass, visit neighbors for no reason, or visit for dinner it is considered to be extremely rude. The other night Randy came into to town and we went out to dinner for some "kiti moto." It translates to "hot seat" but it is just pork. When we walked in we wanted to eat outside but I began to greet a young couple and they invited us to sit down. If we didnt sit, we would be rude "wazungu" so we sat with them and im so happy we did. They are a young married couple who are teachers at a nearby school and they are in town for grade reporting (right now students are taking national exams). We sat and talked with them for like 4 hours and we immidiately hit it off. They invited us on their school field trip to the Ngorongoro Crater next week. Well i am the kind of person who loves the spur of the moment decision to just get up and go with a crazy idea. I live for it. Right now I am trying to the get the approval of PC staff, cross your fingers for me.
What is so awesome is that if randy and i choose to sit outside we would not have met such interesting people. Here, when you greet someone it can go on for like 15 minutes (no lie). There are so many amazing people you get to meet, just like the old lady i mentioned in my last post. Living and working here is very difficult at times and volunteers naturally question their decision to come and continue. It is the expection of the people you will meet and the experiences you could gain that truely keep me going.
final thought: forget what mom said and SAY HELLO TO STRANGERS....

pictures

so i just wasted about 2 hours of my life trying to figure out how to get pictures online. I should have done all of this in America. I still have no idea how to put them all up at once. I only managed about 20. sorry, they are all random. The picture of my arm is when I had bed bugs. One is of my homestay family. most are Mikumi and the ones at the end are my new house. Enjoy the choo picture!!! ill try again soon...

My first 2 weeks!

Wow. Peace Corps is awesome. So I get dropped off in the middle of nowhere and have to figure it all out on my own. Its pretty cool. I have spent my past two weeks getting my house together. I built my own bed and my first night it crumbled to the ground. But now it has 7 legs and is perfect. I went to a huge market called Mnada and bought a Barabaig tribal knife and im having a spear and sandals made out of tires made for me. I live on school grounds so after school I walk home with a kid so I can get to know my town and meet their family and neighbors. That has been way cool.
For my birthday and 2 other volunteers bdays we got together for a party, of course. Although this was a party like no other. We bought a goat at Mnada for 50$ and had people from the Barabaig tribe (this is the main tribe in my area, google them) help us kill it and prepare it for cooking. So all day we roasted goat, drank horribly warm beer and refressments and watched some tribal dancing. It was pretty awesome. The next morning Randy and I decided to walk back to town which was about 3hours away. It was soo beautiful. Exactly what you picture Africa to be like.

Im sorry I have to be short so I will skip to my most favorite day of all. An old woman came into town a few weeks ago and one day she followed me back to my house. She wanted me to look at her baskets that she makes and see if I would want to buy them. Well alot of people assume I have money and want me to come to their stores. I agreed and I walked across the street to where she set up her baskets and they were gorgeous. So far I have bought about 30,000 Tanz Shilings worth and sat with her for a little bit. Since then the other vols. have come to visit and together we have spent about 115,000 Tanz Shilings ( about 110 US$). That is about 1/3 of what she usualy makes in a year she told me. Everyday I have gone to sit with her and just enjoy eachothers company. Which is so cool too because right now...thats my job. My American mind was thinking I need to get up and be busy but then I realized that yes, sitting here, eating pineapple and trying to speak swahili with this old lady is my job. How cool is that?
When I want to study swahili and go and sit with her because I know she loves me by now and she is very patient when talking with me. The other night she invited me over to the house she is staying at while in town to teach me how to cook ugali (flour & water). Last night I had her at my house and I made her pasta and garlic bread. She was so thrilled to try American food.

I have to end here because i need time to try to figure out these pictures. Peace

Where do I even begin...

So a week ago I moved out of my homestay house and moved to a training center for a few days. I will truely miss my mama and her family. Staying with them was an experience like no other. Weds was my swearing in day and everyones families made them their own Tanzanian outfit. So pretty much we all looked rediculously awesome. Pictures will be coming soon... I promise. So I am now settled into my new home at the bottom of Mnt. Hanang. I have the most amazing view from my little courtyard. my house is small but manages to squeeze 3 little rooms in it. It is also on a primary schools property so there are always cute little kids running around. It is very cute. For luxuries...the vol. before me installed electricity. But I am going to try to use candles and my lantern as much as possible too. I have a water pump in my courtyard but I still need to figure out the schedule of when its turned on. And here is the kicker....there is a small store here that sells CHEESE & HOT DOGS! No lie. It will be very expensive on my budget but I think I can afford a hotdog maybe once a month, we'll see.

So for the next few months I will be introducing myself to the village. This means I will be sitting with Mamas as they cook, talking with teachers, visiting the local health dispensary, talking with the local govn, talking with elders and children. Pretty much do everything i can to learn about my new home and at the same time build relationships. I am now a village person, ya know. For starters, I beleive there is a teacher that is very interested in starting a soccer league so I will deff. be on top of that....talk to you soon and please just buy a phone card people, i cant afford to call you.....asante

Nimefurahi sana.... (i am very happy)

So lets see...this past week has been a trip and they next few weeks are going to be even crazier. I went to the kilimanjaro region for my Shadow week. Which means I lived with another volunteer for a week and follow her around and she how she lives. She has the most amazing site in the Pare Mnts, pretty much in a banana jungle. One of the nights we climbed the mountain side ( i was in a skirt) and hung out on a climb that had the most perfect view of Mnt kilimanjaro. It was unbelievable. A few days later we took an 11 hour hike thru the mountains and came across a beautiful waterfall. We swam in the small pool of water at the waterfall and when we got out i was informed of all of the snakes in the water. sweet. it was absolutely gorgeous and hopefully ill get the pictures up soon.

Now every volunteer is back in Dar for our site announcements!! we were all so ecxited and ready to find out where we will be living and working for the next 2 years. I can not be specific online of my site (email me and i can tell you) but i am in the Manyara region, Hanang district. So look it up. It sounds like i will be living the life there too. The vol. before me installed electricity (tho i didnt want it) and i have a water pump in my courtyard. What more can a girl ask for? when we had our site interviews i deff. underlined the point that I have a brand new arm injury and that if i were to fall the idea of being 13 hours away from a hospital scares me. So now im a few miles from the nearest "hospital" so i can fall whenever i want. Although i am not in a remote village, i will be in a small town, i am very far away from most things. So the small town in itself is pretty remote. The majority of volunteers went to the southern highlands which is about a day of travel away.

We came to Tanzania 9 weeks as complete strangers, from all over the counrty, and we have become best friends. more like family. I mean i was away from these kids for 1 week and i was missing them and wondering what wierd, awkward, crazy things they were up to. i can only imagine being away for so long. super cheesy i know but i really like being with people and i am already away from family in the US and now we are getting seperated again. SOOO this means that all of you guys reading this in the States who have yet to purchase a phone card to call ( i know who you are) GET TO IT. I get paid about 160$ us dollars a month to live so putting 20$ on it to make 2 phone calls is not very possible. I am going to make a link of good phone cards to look into.... :)

So my next blog I will post after i get to my site and it will probably be all over the place because i can only imagine what ill be going thru. Im not gonna lie...im pretty scared. but that has never stopped me before so wish me luck and ill talk to you soon......

Not Much....

Hey everyone,
Whats going on in the land of luxury? I am almost done with training whih is extremely exciting. Today was my last day in the classroom. This weekend we are heading off to Nane Nane (8/8) in Morogoro which is some sort of festival. After that we head off in groups of 2 to shadow another volunteer for 1 week. Then we head off to Dar for our Site Announcements!! Im pumped about that.
So these next fews weeks I have no idea what will come or how often I will make it back to a computer. The next time could be next month, who knows. (kristin dont worry I will call you alot) Jenna And Meg I have wanted to talk with you both real bad so this weekend Im gonna put 20 bucks on my phone and give you a call...so pick up the phone when a wierd number calls.

Does anyone else think its crazy that my first real job and my first time living by myself is in Africa??


wish me luck....

Safari So Good

Wow!!! I had an amazing time this weekend. We left saturday morning on two crappy little busses and headed out for Mikumi National Park. First we stopped at our motel to dropp our stuff off. Its fun to see how our minds have already adapted. Now luxury means sit down toilet, shower, and eletricity. Also, it was right next door to a snake/croc museum. When we got to Mikumi a tour guide got on our bus and we headed into the park. You could see gazelle's and impalla's before you even entered. We drove around and soon saw some tembo's (elephants). its incredible how close you can get. I have amzing pictures of them and of twiga's ( giraffes). Altogther we saw zebras, water buffalo, wildabeasts running wild, wart hogs, and baboons and thier red butts. The first night at sunset we got out of the car at a watering hole and was 3 feet from the water filled with hippo's. And on one side you could see some huge croc's just hanging out. This makes me laugh because hippo's kill more people in Africa than any other animal. It was one amazing sight when youre standing next to watering hole filled with danger, and you could see twiga's far off in the distane under a setting sun. Priceless man!
That night we went back to the luxurious motel for one heck of a party. And it was a much needed party. We had no worries and lots of toilet paper! the girls wore their kangas as toga's which is entirely culturaly inapropriate and we danced the night away under palm trees and stars. (Alot of other real crazy/funny things happened but i cant post that stuff)

The next morning we tried to leave the motel at 630am but there is no such thing as time in Africa and we were served bfast at 715. We wanted to leave that early so we can catch the simba's (lions) on the hunt for their morning meal. The second time out of the bus was at the simba watering hole but we saw no simba. I did find a huge skull tho.

On the way back into the park I saw a bunch of people just inside the gate. Greating people here is VERY important so I stuck my head out the window to do some Shikamoo's and Habari's. You're all gonne like this one......I wanted to say "Nimefurahi kuwa hapa" = im happy to be here. Instead I said "Nimefurahi kunya hapa" = Im happy to shit here. YUP thats what I said and they were pretty shocked.

Yup- Safari So Good


This is a shoot out to Carol Glantz...what up girl. come visit us in Africa baby!

This is the way I live....

What up Rafiki's..
Happy 4th of July!!! Life here is pretty awesome. We got to celebrate the 4th by having the afternoon off and meeting up for a sports day. we played soccer, vollyball, and frisbee. then we enjoyed some warm pepsi and meat triangle things. One volunteer brought a flag with her so we sang the National Anthem before the games began. I got a lil teary eyed. I got some real cool pictures to share too!
I love my host family. My mama is the sweetest lady ever. Today I told her I was going to town to write a letter on the computer and she said ( exact words) "okay Korie, you tell them i say hello. tell them i love you and happy you here and tell them im fat like you" haha i get that alot, its pretty funny. i love it when she stands there talking with me, holding nothing in her hands but she has tupperware on her head. So cute. My sister is the sweetest girl too. she tries to teach me how to hold stuff on my head but it went down hil real quick when i spilled all of my water on the ground. thats a big deal here and i didnt get a bath that day. oh well.

Training is pretty intense. I am learning all sorts of things: community assessment, grant writing, PACA tools, Hiv, malaria, water bourne illnesses and the wonderful side effects, and cultural stuff. Im kicking but at all of that except for the kiswahili, which is kinda of a big deal. In 4 weeks i get dropped off in the middle of nowhere. that just might top the getting dropped off at most host family story.
There is so much that happens everyday but then i get here and forget but pretty much i study alot, learn how to survive, take bucket baths in dirty water, drink warm beer on sundays with other volunteers, where long kongas cause i cant show my knee caps ( keep the caps under wraps, i like to say), eat white rice, slap mosquitos on my ankles while i hang out under palm trees next to an open fire as my mama cooks stuff i cant name, and chill with Maasai when they come out from the bush. The ussual stuff, ya know! In two weeks my friends and i are going to visit a Maasai "house" or something to visit his tribe. Incredible huh?
Next weekend I will be going to Mikumi National Park so I wont beable to make it to the internet for 2 weeks. I will let you know how that went tho.

Sending me stuff continued.......

Padded envelopes and appartently there is a box you buy at the post office that is one price and you fill it up. Idont know tho.
With calling me: my # 782-136-664
and dont leave a message because i dont even know if you can do that

I have also heard of a great calling card at alosmart.com and it is called the "goodcard"
aparently it lives up to its name...

Tanzania is 7 hours ahead....you can call me monday-saturday 10am- 2pm and Sundays early morning - 2pm ( yes i go to bed at 9pm and i love it)

ill talk to you all in 2 weeks - Peace out & send letters man...wheres the love?

My life in TZ

On what a life it is. I only have 1 minute on my computer left so i will skip the bologna and get to the important stuff. sending me stuff, everyone keeps asking. The only things that is invaluable and keeping me alive is hand sanitizer.

SEND ME LETTERS
it makes me supper happy. the best way to send them is in a padded envelope to:
po box 9123
dar es salaam, tanzania

love you bye

ps- supper cheesy but ill say it anyways......there is one star here that shines super bright and at night when im brushing my teeth and/or peeing in a hole i think of all of you back home. awww

Tanzania man!!

Where to begin..whatever I said now can not do justice to what Ive been thru in the past 3 weeks, but i'll try. First, the other PCV's are awesome. Ive met a lot of really cool people and we seem to have alot in common just based on that fact that we are all crazy enough to do this. The first few days we stayed in Dar es Salaam then we moved to the Morogor region for a few days. I got Alot of shots, trainings on safety & security and how to stay healthy. I built my own water filtration system out of 2 buckets. Sidenote: my name KORIE is everywhere here. I knew before i came that KORIE was a product of somesort but i didnt know what. With my luck I thought it would be a tampon brand or something, but its a type of Veggie oil.

I have spent the last 2 weeks in Magomeni village for my CBT (community based training). On the ride here, i was scared to death. I have done alot of crazy things in my life but I have NEVER been so scared before. Its insane. We were 5 white kids driving around a rural area in Tanz. and they drop us off one by one. All i could say was "hello/goodbye, my name is korie, thank you, & hakuna matata(they really say that too)." scared to death.The first week was pretty hard emotionally. my village is very poor and the cultural shock of being there was pretty heavy. Nothing is the same here. I live with my mama, who is just lovely, 1 brother and 2 sisters, and about 20 ducks. they are very hospitable and very welcoming. I train 6 days a week,8am-5pm. I have learned about a semesters worth of swahili in 2 weeks. As part of training went to the Kilosa town officails to ask questions abouth about the school systems and health issues. its like practice for when we are on our own at site we will know what to do. The average income for my village is about 275,000 shiling a year. thats about US 275$ a year. as a volunteer i will get about 200,000 a month.

Its a very hard lifestyle here. Nothing is easy. there arnt many cars but tons of bikes. its normal to see a granny, like 70yrs old, riding shotgun on the back of a bike heading into town. I walk to pump my water but i havnt mastered how to carry it on my head. Im working on it tho. I hand wash my cloths and every laughes at me. I usualy have a crowd. When my friends and i walk around the village all we hear is Wazungu, Wazungu!! ( white people) i hear it 100x a day. its pretty funny. the children here have nothing to play with. The only toy i have seen is a plastic bag, rolled into a ball with string around it. thats a soccer ball. the other day we should up to the field with a real soccer ball and no joke, 25 kids were there within Minutes ready to play. it made me real eager to learn the language cause it was hard trying to coordinate a game. it was awesome anyways. i stopped in the middle of playing just to remind myself how awesome this was. its what ive always wanted and its the sole reason that keeps pushing me on.

I need to give one Choo story just to keep everyone updated. the choo, toilet, is a small mud hut thing (about the size of a porty potty) with a hole in the ground. you will also find a bucket of water for cleaning. well my first real try (poop) at the choo....i missed the damn hole. thats it, it was pretty awesome.

The Masai.....there are alot of Masai in my village. according to my brother Musa, they live in the bush and come out during the day. well they love us wazungu! especialy me because im the fattest so they think im the richest. I get asked to marry someone everyday. Its crazy to see some modernized Masai...they are dressed in their traditional red/purple robes, jewerly, & machete, but they have a cell phone and playing pool. so funny. last week one funny Masai man wanted us to buy his friend(who was cross-eyed) and it would cost us only 4 cows. And the other night my Musa brought me to a "bar" to watch a soccer game with him. first, there are no women at the bar so when a white woman walks in, its a big deal. these 2 Masai men immidiately want to buy me a drink but i refused thinkin they must not have much money. I was wrong. during the game they pulled up a chair to talk with me and Musa translated for me. I asked what he did for work and he informed me that he was Very rich because he owned about 500 cows. the average cow costs about 500,000shiling. I explained that i had zero cows and he wanted to give me a cow. I wish he wasnt drunk because that would be pretty sweet if a Masai man gave me a cow. what would i do with a cow? then he drove off on a motorcycle...this place is awesome.

Hakuna Matata.......

All my bags are packed, Im ready to go...

So I leave for Tanzania is 3 short days and I’m Freaking Out…..So many things are going thru my mind right now it is hard to focus. I feel excited, overwhelmed, proud and anxious all at the same time. I am truly ecstatic and over stimulated. Its awesome. I first heard of the Peace Corps 8 years ago during the final episode of Boy Meets World. Mat Lawrence’s character, Jack, joins the Peace Corps. At age 15 I remember looking it up online and thinking of how cool it sounded. Of course, freshman year in college I saw the re-run again but this time the idea of becoming a volunteer was a possibility. Sooo, I applied, wrote some essays, got recommendations, had an interview, saw a bunch of doctors, crossed my fingers and waited 10 months. And here I am, packing my bags and saying goodbye.

I have wanted to go to Africa since I was a little girl. This is my dream. To be honest, I think that is why I am so scared. So many people go their whole lives without ever having the opportunity to make their dreams come true and here I am, at 23, about to live mine out. How lucky am I? I know it won’t be easy and it will test me in ways I have never been tested before but I look forward to the challenge and I hope I rise to it. Thank you to everyone who has given me support these past couple of months. You know who you are and I have certainly appreciate all of your kind words and well wishes. I hope you continue to read this blog, even in a year or so. I love you all and keep me in your thoughts. Peace Out!

Two year supply of underwear....

So what to pack? That is a big question, this is no weeks vacation:

Work clothes- For the most part I will buy them in Tanzania
pants- 1 pair of jeans & 1 pair of khakis
A two year supply of underwear - however many that is?
A Windbreaker
Merrel hiking shoes & 1 pair of sandals
3 pairs of socks
6 t-shirts
Red Sox hat
My rediculous pair of prescription sunglasses

Toys:
Camera
Creative Zen mp3 player
Solio solar charger - the sun will charge my mp3 player and camera. How cool is that?
Battery charger & a few batteries
Soccer ball of course
Sketch pad and charcoals
Aerobie disk
Still thinking about getting small speakers so my Tanzanian friends can see how cool Dylan, Joplin, and Tupac are. We'll see how much room there is in my suitcase.

Extras:
hand sanitizer Water bottle
deoderant pictures of my family & friends
fingernail clippers Small gifts for my host family
hair elastics Baby wipes

Thats it!! Hopefully it all fits.

Peace Corps & Tanzania

Since the establishment of the Health Education section of the Peace Corps in early 2000, Volunteers have been effective in addressing the HIV/AIDS challenge in Tanzania. The major contributing factor in HIV transmission are poor access to information among communities and behavioral changes in individuals. Two million people are estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS in Tanzania. The virus creates many challenges in Tanzania and the effects of the epidemic are felt in each sector. There are increased numbers of orphans and vulnerable children, increased cost of providing services especially in health and education to the affected groups.

Tanzania is one of the countries supported by the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). The Peace Corps also receives a small amount of the funds to support its interventions. The funds are used to train volunteers, obtaining rescources, and support volunteer projects.

My Assignment

Health Education Project
June 2008- August 2010

Project Purpose: To assist the Tanzanian government to improve the health of Tanzanians by promoting healthy behavior among community members, particularly teachers and students. This will be achieved by :
1) Empowering young people to make healthy decisions about their lives in order to protect themselves from becoming infected with HIV.

2) Increasing teachers' ability to make healthy life choices in order to protect themselves from becoming infected with HIV and to model responsible behavior to their students and in their communities.

3) Increasing teachers ability to integrate HIV/AIDS curriculum into their classrooms.

4) Healping communities access health information about disease prevention, esp. HIV/AIDS. Communities will increase their awareness of HIV/AIDS and actively participate in developing preventative strategies.

Wooo Hooooo

Im going to Tanzania!!!!