Dear Friends,

It's been a long time! (Barring technological mishaps of late). Sorry it's taken such a while for me to let you know how things are going... When school started my life all but ended, and most of my free time on weekends was spent replenishing my energy by visiting Peace Corps friends... but, I get ahead of myself...

School has been, to put it lightly, more rigorous than I was expecting. I have gotten some comfort from my other teacher friends, here and at home, who tell me that "the first year of teaching" really sucks no matter who you are or what country you're teaching in.

I do feel like I am somewhat successful, or at least as much as I'm able to be, and I'm careful not to push myself beyond that. And as I've told everyone who asks me how teaching is going, the work isn't bad, it's just too much. I like teaching, planning out lessons, etc.... but these past two months I've felt as though I would have coped much better with half as many hours in the classroom. It's coming, slowly.

My typical day: I get up around 6AM, just before sunrise (sunrise time doesn't change here as the months progress) fix myself a little something to eat, have my bucket bath, and head off to class by 7:30. I teach different periods each day, but I always have Form 5 for an 80-minute period and Form 6 for an 80-minute period. That's actually nice, because I always know I have the same amount to teach each day.

There's a short tea break around 10AM, some days I've finished teaching by then, some days not. I come home anytime between 11 and 1, have a quick bite, and work on some lesson plans. At around 2:30 I usually head into town (I wait until then because the corner shop and the Post Office are closed for lunch until then) and go to the market for produce, to the duka for things like rice, beans, flour, etc. and to the Posta to check the PO Box.

I come back home and work on lesson plans some more. When I'm tired of working on lesson plans, I take a break and fix myself some supper, which takes a little while (no microwave-ready stuff here. No fridge, either) to make everything from scratch. If I'm lucky and time it right (like I did tonight) I get to sit on my front step with plate in hand and watch the sunset around 6:30ish. Then I continue to work on lesson plans until I get too tired and go to bed.

Periodically throughout the day, I'll sprinkle in things like washing the dishes, cleaning up the clutter, writing letters or email (if we have power, which we usually don't in the daytime), or carrying water to my house (more on that in a bit). Quite often I still don't have enough in the way of lesson plans for the next day, especially if I started off the week running behind, for whatever reason. On those days I get up at 4AM and sludge through some plans.

On the weekends, I often go to see other Volunteers. Sometimes business, sometimes pleasure. It's always a pleasure, of course... but often, Brandon (the teacher closest to me, about 3 hours by bus, who also teaches A-Level Physics) and I will get together to share strategies and practice problems. We have also been planning a Girl's Education conference for April (more on that in the next mailing) and so I'm in Arusha from time to time for meetings like those. However, I confess, I have also been to a couple of parties since school started; parties in places to and from where it took the entire weekend to travel. So I guess I bring it on myself, ayuh?

One of the reasons I do feel a bit frustrated about feeling the time slip away are the things that I want to do not just for myself, but for my job as well. I don't get to spend more time with my students, getting to know them and what their specific difficulties are. I don't get to go watch their football (soccer) games. I don't get to spend more time learning Swahili and the Maasai languages. I don't get to get to know the other teachers better. Heck, I still don't know exactly what my "duties" are as head of the physics department, as Form 6 PCB class master, or what I'll need to do when I'm Teacher On Duty.

I also have much less time than I'd like to watch more sunrises and sunsets, to get some exercise, to explore further up the mountain, to spend more time on self-reflection, examining what I feel I'm learning and whatnot. Also staying in contact with friends back home, letting them know how I'm doing!

On the other hand, I do often spend more time than I need to in cooking myself fairly nice and extravagant meals for myself by way of making it all up to myself! I've baked myself oatmeal cookies, brownies, breadsticks with my spaghetti, soft pretzels, french onion soup complete with croutons and cheese on top, chili and cornbread (a great American combo), tons of guacamole, refried beans for burritos and enchiladas, Irish potato soup, tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches, fresh fruit crepes, and all this in addition to my standard fares of rice and pasta dishes.

I'm not only eating more pleasantly, but also more healthily than I ever did in the States! Not only that, but I've shed quite a few pounds since my beer intake decreased sharply at the beginning of the term. J

I am pleased to report that because I waited this long to write to you, this story has a happy ending, which I'll use as a beginning. The rains began slowly a couple of weeks ago. Over this past weekend, they got pretty serious and it's rarely clear anymore.

However, the rains that were supposed to come in November never came. People planted in November and all the seeds died in the parched soil. By December all the fields were abandoned wastelands growing brown weeds. In January most places were without water. By the beginning of February, almost every place had dried up. I couldn't walk ten minutes down to town without seeing at least two dozen people, anywhere from age 4 to age 80, carrying water somewhere.

I didn't have any water in my house at all from late January until early March; I had to carry it at first from the school kitchen, until that dried up. Then from the teacher's college (about 1 kilometer away) until it dried up. Then we got rationed, because the only way for us to get water was for the school truck to drive up the mountain to the water source, fill a 1000-Liter tank, and bring it back down for 500 students and 40 staff to share.

Let me tell you, it takes a lot of water to be alive, clean, and healthy. We don't think about it too much in the states... water not only for drinking, cooking, and eating, but for washing dishes, bathing, cleaning the house, washing clothes... (one's body, house, and clothes get filthy here rather quickly). And having a sit-down toilet isn't much of a luxury when you don't have enough water to flush it with. I was usually able to flush every couple days with my used bathwater and dirty dishwater combined.

The people in town weren't nearly so lucky as me, though. They may have been able to carry water, but many of them couldn't afford to buy it. Their lives depend on their crops and livestock. The crops never came, and due to lack of food the livestock was wasting away. A friend of mine saw a full-grown cow that weighed less than I do simply collapse and die in the road one day. They can't get much nutrition from dead grass that just passes through the system.

A woman came to my house the other day whose entire family, including six children, hadn't eaten in 3 days. I was able to help her out with some food, but there were still people dropping dead every day from hunger and dehydration in February and early March. Reports I saw from American newspapers confirmed what I was hearing from the older folks in the neighborhood, which was that this year's drought was the worst in 20 years.

But around Mid-March, we had a few afternoon showers, and then rain every afternoon for a week. Last Friday, a heavy rain started at about 3PM and poured like Armageddon until 10AM the next morning, signaling that it was for real.

We'd begun planting two weeks ago when we first started getting the showers; I think the crops this time around will be OK. This is pretty important, because the school provides quite a bit of its own food. If it doesn't grow, we don't have enough money to buy more. In February we had to consider the possibility that we'd have to send the students home. So now we're just deep in the mud, but that's better than the alternative...

In late February, possibly one of the most upsetting and depressing things that has yet happened to me happened. I was going out of town over the weekend to a Peace Corps party, and my bag was stolen off of a bus; along with many things that are valuable to nobody but me (to whom they were, of course, very valuable.)

I got on a bus in Moshi, a full size traveling bus, took my seat near the middle, and put my bag overhead. The bus wasn't to leave for another 45 minutes, so I just sat, and being tired, closed my eyes for about 5-10 minutes, and when I opened them, it was gone. I hadn't heard or seen anyone, nor had anyone else on the bus. It was a dingy old backpack that I'd used in college, on either side of it were very nice suitcases of other people's... they were not taken. Mine was taken because it was the one above the white man.

In it was very little of value to other people... my walkman, my electric razor, and my travel alarm clock are the only things I think people would be able to sell for any amount of money (not only was the bag old, but it was locked closed so they'd have to slash it to open it... not much resale value there.) No money, no camera, nothing like that -- which is what they wanted.

On the other hand, there were some clothes that I liked, pictures (including negatives) of a hiking trip I had taken a few weeks before, and some letters from friends back home. Also, because I was going to a party, almost half of my tape collection was in the bag. As you can imagine, this is what pains me most... because almost all of it is music I could not possibly find here, and most of the tapes were "mix" tapes I had made before I left, meaning they can't even be bought stateside in that form.

Many of you know me well enough to know that I listen to music round-the-clock; and here it's especially important for letting me take a break from some of the craziness that I have in my life. So in addition to the violation of my own feeling of security, I was also left with my primary coping mechanism severely crippled. I was and still am pretty upset about this, obviously... especially knowing that since they're of no resale value, they probably were thrown in a gutter in Moshi somewhere, sewage washing over them. That really, really, gets me.

Fortunately my family and friends who've already heard about it are coming to my rescue, sending me music from my collection back home and dubbing out of their own collections. I couldn't be more thankful for such a wonderful response! Of course, I won't see any of these tapes for a month or two, but that's a lot better than almost two years without those tunes. So if any of you other folks have some free time and want to send Ethan some funky grooves... you've got my address! J

Speaking of time, today marks a full six months since I left home en route to sub-Saharan Africa. Since I'm here for 26 months, this means in just two weeks, I'll have completed 1/4 of my tour... time seems to be flying by fast. But things in general seem to be slowing down long enough for me to catch an occasional breath, and I'm sure that once this term is over, the coming months will hold new adventures and surprises.

I hope everything finds you all well; as word has gotten around to my friends here and there, this list has grown... you are now a full 60 people hearing of my adventures and experiences. I hope you're continuing to enjoy your vicarious experience of the Tanzanian lifestyle as much as I enjoy sharing it.

Umeamka salama leo asubuhi?
(Did you wake up peacefully this morning?)
Ethan

P.S. Name the significance of this message's subject heading and win a prize!

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