It's almost here!!

It is only two days until I leave the great US of A for my year long adventure to Tanzania!! I felt it was only appropriate to start this blog to detail my time abroad. I am going to try and keep this blog as updated as possible with all the crazy details of what is sure to be one heck of a year. To start things off as I sat down to create this blog i checked my email hoping to get an update on where i would be living once I had completed my orientation period. To my surprise in my inbox i found the following news:

I’m happy to tell you that your placement in Tanzania is Kafule Secondary School, located in Mbeya Region. The school is on a mountain top, and you’ll wake up every day to a beautiful vista of the town below and the surrounding mountains. It’s idyllic.

About your location and housing arrangement:

Mbeya Region is located in southern Tanzania and Ileje is the farthest district south, bordering both Malawi and Zambia. To get there, you will be taking a private car, arranged by the district’s current Member of Parliament, Mr. Kibona. The drive is a long– brace yourselves – 14 hours from Dar es Salaam. Most likely you will sleep in one of the major cities on the way to break up the drive. As a result of such a distance, you get to see most of Tanzania through your car window. You’ll pass the southern highlands, then farms, and as the scenery gets more and more lush, you know you’re getting closer to your new home.

When you start to climb the mountains, you’re entering Isoko. It’s a very small town, but is the location of the large district hospital and has many transportation options to surrounding towns. There are few stores here and only one restaurant. Two of your fellow WorldTeach volunteers are a 2 hour drive away, and Tanzania’s third largest city, Mbeya, is 4 hours away.

You will live on the school grounds in teacher housing, in a two bedroom house. Your neighbors will be other teachers at Kafule, so you’ll have an instant community upon your arrival. The house lacks electricity, but running water is available outside your front door. It will be fully furnished and your new hosts will definitely make you feel comfortable.

About the school:

Kafule Secondary School gave me the best welcome of any site I have visited. The headmaster had prepared a speech outlining all of the details of the school- what it has, what it lacks, and how best to make improvements. You’re very lucky to be working under such a professional and motivated headmaster. There are 390 students and only 8 teachers. There are no science or math teachers, at all, and if you are interested in picking up some extra classes in these subjects, your community would be grateful. Apart from your assigned classes, it is up to you how much you want to take on. Don’t be afraid to say no, or to choose the number of extra classes you feel comfortable with. In the beginning of the term, you can sit down with the headmaster and staff and work out a time table together.

I am so excited that you are going to live in Isoko. When I was there, I didn't really want to leave. It was so beautiful, and the people were extremely welcoming.

I hope in reading this letter you quickly began thinking to yourself two things

A. the 14 hour car ride, the only type of car coming to mind when i think of this car ride is something along the lines of this

Classy, maybe. Air conditioning, absolutely not.

And B. the other major red flag that I hope came to your mind was the fact that they have no science or math teachers and could potentially ask me for some assistance. Those of you who know me know me well know that if I were to teach anyone let alone children math or science, they would end up knowing less about the subject then when they entered the class. I can barely add without using my fingers for goodness sake.

Finally I know your wondering to yourself how I have managed to skip over probably the most important aspect of the entire message about my new home for 10 months, the fact that it does not have electricity inside the house and the whole running water outside thing. Well friends I have "come to terms with it" What i mean by that is I ran around freaking out and screaming for a good ten minutes then sank into a depression because i wont be able to constantly check and update twitter with my every move but at the height of my freak out i remembered that I did live in the delta for three days without electricity during Narnia 09 and survived right? I know it is going to be hard I did not sign up for this knowing I would spend the next year living a luxurious glamourous life, I am excited for the adventure that lies ahead. Also I have decided that the primitive nature of the town/village/hamlet that I am going to live in will provide me with some great stories for you to enjoy.

This is it for now I will try and find some pics of the region I am going to be staying in to give you guys a better idea of what I am working with.