Dear Friends and Family,

It's not too long since my last update, and not too long yet until I see many of you in the flesh. However, since the last update only detailed events up to mid-October, I thought I'd keep that groove going.

When I returned in mid- October from my trip to the deep south, I went directly to Dar es Salaam (without returning to Monduli) because it was time for my Close of Service (COS) Conference. This was an interesting experience, because I'm not actually closing my service... however, I was automatically scheduled with all the other people who swore in at the same time as me. In retrospect, I might have benefitted more from the conference by doing it next year (which I can't because I did it this year) but nevertheless, it was nice to spend a few days with folks I may never see again after they leave the country. It would have been even nicer had I not had a bad cold which put me out of commission for a few days that week.

The conference is basically about two things: Leaving Tanzania and coming back to the States. Leaving Tanzania: Leaving your site, saying goodbye, finishing up projects, paperwork, preparing for a replacement if you get one, etc. Returning to the States is a much harder issue; some time is spent on the things you might expect: Reworking your rèsumè, applying for jobs, graduate programs, other volunteer service options, teaching jobs, etc. However, a much more important part of the process is talking about readjusting to the pace and style of life in the United States.

Even as I was applying to become a Peace Corps Volunteer, I heard the same thing from every Returned Volunteer to whom I talked: The adjustment to a foreign culture is not nearly as difficult as the RE-adjustment to the culture of the USA. Dealing with excess consumption, excess packaging, excess product options... it can be a bit overwhelming -- as I'm about to find out, I suppose.

A lovely side note to our COS conference was that it was marked by a wedding at the end of the week. Two of my fellow PCVs who swore in at the same time as me, and who had been romantically involved since training, had a small ceremony at our Country Directors' residence here in Dar es Salaam. They will have another ceremony back in the States for their families, but they wanted to have a ceremony together with all the people whom they had known as their relationship deepened.

The ceremony was very short -- no church service -- just a missionary friend of the groom's leading the prayers and vows. I had the privilege of doing a little singing for the processional and recessional with some other musically inclined volunteers. The reception was nice and quiet, but featured all the trappings of a typical American wedding.

October 29th was Tanzanian national election day, and oddly enough, I voted. Not quite what you think -- What I mean is that while all my colleagues were at the various polling stations around town, I went back and filled out my absentee ballot. The day before, I'd spent two hours on the internet in Arusha researching the various candidates (mostly for the Franklin County offices) and got to punch out the little card Sunday afternoon.

Well, I know you're quite sick of American election madness over there (I was shocked when I found out Chad was pregnant.) I admit that I had figured I would know who my President was by the time I hit the ground in the USA -- looks like it was only a dream (I arrive in Boston on the 17th, the Electoral College votes are counted on the 18th.) However I thought you might like a little peek into Tanzanian election year politics, so here we go...

Election Day in Tanzania is a little more significant than it is in the USA, since they only have one once every five years. I don't just mean a presidential election -- I mean there's only one polling day of any kind every five years. On the 29th, Tanzanians voted for President, Members of Parliament, and village leaders. They do not vote on any 'Issues' or constitutional amendments, nor do they vote for judges, school boards, nor even county coroner.

Election day was interesting -- folks were required to register a month in advance. Registration is difficult with no Social Security numbers, no ID cards, and since many village-level Tanzanians can niether read nor write, no signatures. I'm actually not sure how they overcome that obstacle. However, on the ballot itself on election day, there is a picture of the people (or more likely, the person) running for the office, and the symbol of their party next to it. After putting the vote in the box, the polling supervisor dips the little finger of the voter's right hand in dark ink, so that person will not be able to cast a second ballot that day.

One of my best friends was a volunteer on Pemba, part of the Zanzibar Islands. All volunteers there were evacuated from their sites on the islands and that seems to have been a good idea. The deal is, the islands are overwhelmingly of the main opposition party CUF, even though the mainland is dominated by the traditional ruling party, CCM. The run-up to the elcetion was very tense, and Peace Corps thought it would be good not to risk getting our Volunteers caught up in the crossfire.

The official relationship between Zanzibar and the mainland is very odd. Zanzibar has its own President and Parliament. However, national laws still apply there. Also, the President of Zanzibar is automatically the Vice President of Tanzania. This is the main reason for the tension on the islands right now; since the current CCM President has definitely been reelected on the mainland, and if his Vice President would have been of a different party... the government might actually have to try to be multilateral.

Right now, with only Members of Parliament belonging to opposition parties, they're very easy to control. For instance, the MP from nearby Karatu district (also in Arusha region) is an NCCR member. For the past five years, the CCM Parliamentarians have blocked every effort he has made, right or wrong. That way, the people of Karatu have a big incentive to elect CCM... otherwise, nothing will ever get done.

CUF feels (with some justification) that the CCM stole the (President of Zanzibar) election from them in 1995, and that they planned to do it again this year. My friend from Pemba says that there were tanks and hundreds of soldiers on Pemba for intimidation. Also, even though there is not a single CCM Parliamentarian on Pemba, CCM posters were put up everywhere... including at her school, which is illegal. One of her students tore one of the posters down and was arrested, put into jail until after election day. Apparently CCM has also been 'importing' members onto the islands for some weeks, and registering people as young as 12 years old (the voting age is 18). They voted there to throw the vote to CCM. The native CUF folks attack any such person quite violently when they find them out. That's why all the soldiers are there -- to protect the importees.

I don't know how much you've heard on the news, but I guess many of the polls on Zanzibar didn't even open until after noon. In several stations, the first person to vote reported that the ballot box was already full when they put their vote in. Voting at those stations continued until about 4 AM, because the lines were so long. The polling stations were deliberately few, in the hopes that people would get tired of standing in line and just go home.

In the end, the results in 16 of the 50 Zanzibar districts were cancelled because of 'irregularities', and a re-vote was done in those districts the following week. The CUF boycotted the re-vote, saying that they refused anything but a full re-vote of the entire archipelago. Since then, they have issued an ultimatum saying that a re-vote needs to be held in all districts within the next four months or... or else.

Two Volunteers were originally scheduled to go back on the islands to finish their service. However, with all of the above in consideration, Peace Corps decided to relocate those folks to new sites for their own safety.

It never fails; when I come back from a midterm break, I always have a hard time getting up the impetus to put my all into the classroom. Then by the time I finally get my energy back, the term ends. Bleah.

Additionally, the drought did not help my energy level. You may remember my description of last year's drought. This year's was much worse. I think I already recounted the effect on the school's crops. Well, as of the week before midterm, my school had been buying 18,000 liters of water every week for a sum of money equal to one student's semsterly school fees. Three days before midterm, there wasn't enough water to cook their morning porridge, and all classes were delayed until they could eat. We agreed in staff meeting that day just to send them home.

After break, things hadn't improved... and the water supply in my own house was slowly dwindling. I now have two big tanks for water and when one ran dry, I went into 'emergency water mode', meaning I use minimal amounts of water: I use my bathwater to mop the floor; I don't use my indoor toilet; I 'recycle' my clothes a lot more. Most of these things don't contribute to morale.

Just in time for me to leave Monduli, the rains began. We had a short storm one day, which didn't look all that special. But the old Maasai guy on the bus told me, "When it comes over the mountain, and goes out on to the plains, it's here to stay." And so it was. It rained every day for the last week I was Monduli... the most real rain we'd had since April/May 1999. Though I still wasn't getting much water in my house, the entire ground began to green up with little shoots of grass. My hope is that when I return in January that all the reservoirs will be full, the crops will be nourished... and the rains will have stopped so that everything isn't a big muddy mess like it is right now.

I spent my final week trudging through the mud and grading my final exams. I had to fill out all my students' parental report forms. Each student has a form with a list of all the classes they took, and I fill in the Phsics spaces for "Continuous Assessment", "Final Exam", and "Term Grade". I can also write any comments I want... but doing this all twice for all of my students doesn't encourage much in the way of verbosity.

During exams week I also had the minor distraction of someone else living in my house. A Peace Corps Trainee, in fact. The site placements for the Trainees were announced in mid-November, and it seems that Irkisongo Secondary School (which is about a 5-10 minute walk from my school) will be getting a new Peace Corps Volunteer for the next two years. Her name is Maggie Stanislawski and she'll be teaching O-Level Maths there.

In related news, Mark and Julie, the Lutheran volunteers at Moringe have finished their contract and are heading home (You may recall that Mark lived with me last fall). They may be replaced, but probably not until June. It will be nice to have a PCV for a neighbor, though... Mark and Julie were good folks, but they kept pretty much to themselves.

So with all this in mind, I left Monduli about 10 days ago and spend a few days at my friend Susan's house near Morogoro. I'd never been to her site, and she is COSing (Close of Service), so it was then or never. She and I got a nice lift into Dar in time for the Swearing-In of the new Peace Corps Volunteers on November 30th.

So for the past week or so, I've just been relaxing, writing my End-of-Term reports, and spending lots of time with the group who is COSing right now. Today was officially the last day of service for most of the people who swore in at the same time as me. They are in town for all their final paperwork and medical examinations. We've been spending time eating well, and making sure to get our last fun in together before we part ways.

Me? I'm flying out tomorrow! Woohoo! Tomorrow at midnight, I'll get on a plane for Amsterdam. I'll get off that plane and take a train down to Paris to visit my sister, who lives there. After that, a brief stay in Brussels to visit my old friend Randall Bauer, né Williams. From there, back to Amsterdam and flying to Boston for a few days with the Bucci family. Then on to my old stomping ground of Columbus, with some planned trips to Cleveland and Pittsburgh.

I'll be checking my email regularly while I'm gone, but I likely won't send another one of these messages out until I get back to Monduli. Therefore, I'd like to wish all those of you whom I won't see a very happy holiday season and New Year. Thank you all for all the love and support you have shown over the past two years. Blessings to you all.

Tutaonana, mungu akipenda.
(We will see each other, if God wishes.)
Ethan

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