Our Site Assignment

Mambo!

We just recieved our assignment. We are going to the Tanga region near Lushoto. This is in the Usambara Mountains. We are told this is a beautiful place and is cool to cold, yet not a far ride to get to the Indian Ocean for some days at the beach. We will both be at the same school, a girls boarding school with 360 students. It has a highly committed faculty and the school has a stong reputation for student success. They are in great need of a Math and Biology teacher because a PCV is leaving(Math) and the Biology teacher left a month ago. There is a Science lab with equipment and a well stocked library.

I visited a girls boarding school last weekend near Kili and really enjoyed hanging out with the girls in their dorm area and am told that in boarding schools, projects, like sustainable Gardens and clubs(sports, health and academics) are easier to have work.
We are told we have a house with 4 bedrooms!, running water but no electricity. Yet the school does have electricity for us to use.
There is camping and hiking nearby and we can bike or hike to town for major supplies and such. Andrew is the PCV leaving and has been talking to us about the school and site all day,,, so we are confident of the infomation.

We will be cooking with wood, kerosene or charcoal, and will be warmed by a wood stove at night. It is still warm compared to MN so it should be a great life weather wise. The PCV leaving also said the teachers like to colaborate on teaching and projects so we are very excited!

This is said to be the beauty of Africa.

By the end of Next week we should be heading to site!

Enjoy the winter for me!


Happy Thankgiving and peace to all,

Randee and John

p.s. We are in Dar es Salaam and headed back to Morogoro tomorrow to finish training, have our swearing in ceremony, and say goodbye to our TZ host families. We had a Thanksgiving dinner at the PC directors house on Monday and have enjoyed roaming around Dar after sessions. We ate at a French Bakery this morning as we talked kiSwahili with the agriculture expert for the chamber of commerce and then learned the Kiswahili word for "the tide going out" from a man on the dala dala. Being in view of the Indian Ocean is also very fun. It is the first time I have seen this body of water and it is nice to smell the ocean and look at the ships and waves off shore. We are really enjoying the adventure of learning the language from the people and being in a different place.