Mzungu?

Hello family and friends,

Thanks for reading my blog again, I enjoy writing and telling you about my time here. As usual I hope you all have been working hard and studying hard. I heard the economy is going back up so "woo hoo" to that. I don't get a lot of in depth news about the US so I have to rely on what I hear on the the Tanzanian news channels. The other day I experienced something that kinda shocked me but I guess I could have seen it coming at some point and time. An older gentlemen called me an "Mzungu". I looked around wondering if there was someone else standing near me, he obviously wasn't talking to me.

Side note: According to Wikipedia, Muzungu is a word that has become to mean "white person" in many Bantu languages of east, central and southern Africa. There are a number of variations depending on the location. Any light-skinned non-asiatic person could be addressed as Mzungu/Muzungu in the region.

Now that you have the definition are you as surprised as I was? How can I be mistaken for a white person? I like to think I'm a nice mixture of Caramel and dark chocolate :-) I can honestly say in all my years of being on this earth I have never been mistaken for a white person....LOL. During training, my fellow trainees were taught how to dodge being called an Mzungu and deflect the attention away from their skin color. I didn't pay attention to that part of training, I was probably getting coffee or something. I was prepared to text Jenna, Jayce or Adrienne, other volunteers, because I had no idea how to respond. I proceeded to tell him my name in hopes that he would understand not to call me that again. OK, the conversation went on and he referred to me as an Mzungu again. I again reminded him what my name was, and he said "I know, your name is Shani". I asked why he kept referring to me as an Mzungu? I am the same color as he, my hair is almost as kinky as his, and we have some of the same features. His response was that although i was correct about my features and skin color, I still come from America. I couldn't argue with that. He said unfortunately we don't have a name for an African-American because we don't see many of them, so I would have to settle for being called Mzungu. WTH....I said it's very offensive to me and to White Americans, I cant believe I found myself defending white Americans but hey. I guess no matter how much I think I am integrated I am still seen as an American, whether I am dark in skin color or not I come from America. I speak English, I have opportunities that most Africans will never have and I can leave at any time and return home to a nice comfy couch. I thank God for giving me this opportunity and showing me that I am truly blessed, at the end of the day it doesn't feel so bad to be called an Mzungu. I think the moral of this story is if a Black person is ever mistaken for a White person they must be in Africa :-)

Sunshine & Rainbows!


I love you all,

Shani K. Cephas

So What Do You say?

Hey everyone…..

I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the season change. While most of you will be pulling out your long sleeves and down comforters, I will be wiping a little more sweat from my brow and sleeping in less clothing. Well, I thought I would make this entry an interactive one, giving each of you a chance to express yourselves. Below I’ve listed some “situations” that I may have been faced with in the past couple of months. I would like you openly express what you would do in each of these situations. Now, I’m not prepared to tell you upfront what my choices were, you may think differently of me…..LOL. Oh, and be honest, we’re all family here, right?

1. It’s 9pm, pitch black outside, and you only have ½ pail of water left until tomorrow morning when your house girl brings more. You’ve been walking in the heat all day so really want and need to bathe, your cat wont even come close to you because you’re a little ranky. You haven’t eaten all day and have a choice of rice or beans to cook for dinner, both of which require, yup u guessed it, a ½ pail of water. If only you had stopped at the Wal-mart super center on your way home you wouldn’t be in this bind but…you are so what will you do…..?

2. An elder in the neighborhood has invited you over for lunch and you finally accepted, everyone in the village, I mean community, knows that you DON’T EAT MEAT, she even told you what she was cooking the day she invited you, not a fleshy morsel on the menu. So you arrive hungry as hell because you don’t really have any food at your house besides 2 bananas that you are saving for a late night snack and dagaa (dried sardines), which you use as cat food. You wash your hands sit down and the first pot she uncovers is kiti moto, also known as fried pork. O.k. you’re not the only one eating so you just pass the pan to the right. The next pot smells great and looks like, oh beef and veggies, you pass that one along too. The last pot you cant wait to get to because everyone else is already digging in and so you uncover it and what do we have here….Da-freakin-gaa, the cat food! Prepared with lots of oil, tomatoes and onions, no rice, not even ugali (grits). So what do you do……?
Side note-(Depending on what you chose to do with your ½ pail of water the night before you may be very hungry)

3. You come into the office one morning, the village office, where all of the major decisions take place in the community. The Village executive officer is listening to a man and a woman who seem to be very upset. You attempt to apply your Swahili and determine what the problem is. The man and woman are married, have 3 kids, wait she has 2 kids, his other wife has a child….ok, the other wife has a farm nearby in the village, he lives between the 2 homes which is not uncommon in TZ culture. The man is cool, calm and collect. However, this lady is really upset and wants to leave her husband, which doesn’t normally happen in Tanzanian culture. The first wife is upset because her husband is helping the second wife in the rice fields more than he is helping her. He spent 4 hours with the other wife on the farm and only spent 1 hour last week helping her. She says that all of the other women in the village are talking about their situation and she is embarrassed and wants it to stop. Their last resort is to come to the village office and have this situation squared away. Did I mention it was 8am and you thought you were coming to the village office to do serious Peace Corps work. After almost an hour of non-stop bickering about how many more bags of rice the 2nd wife harvested than the 1st wife because the husband helps more days and hours a week, everyone in the office turns their attention to the smart, fair, diverse American….oh wait that’s me. The Village Executive officer does not know how to handle this situation and suggests that their Peace Corps Volunteer step in and solve the problem. So you say……

Ok so I cant wait to see how you handle these situations….

Word of the day:
Swahili=nyama
English=meat

Love,
Shani C.

Today at the office……

Hello folks,
I’m just reporting on my first month here in my village. So far so good, I’m not having any trouble keeping busy. I’ve met all of the Officials within the district of Mbarali. I’ve had lunch with the Officials in the Rujewa and Ubaruku wards. While visiting the 4 area schools I’ve met 2 headmasters, 2 principals, between 20-25 teachers who introduced me to over 3,000 very eager students. While during an analysis of my Village I’ve accepted over 20 invitations to breakfast, lunch and or dinner, received 4 marriage proposals, a kitten, and a chicken as housewarming gifts. I gave the chicken away because it didn’t lay eggs. I kept the kitten and named it Killer so that it wont forget what it’s job is. In my spare time I’ve had a lot of cocktails with 5 catholic priests, (2 Italian, 3 Tanzanian) help start a garden, distributed mosquito nets to the women and children, assisted with voter registration, attended 2 weddings, 3 funerals, and gotten kicked out of a nightclub. Needless to say I’m enjoying myself, having a great time and helping out where needed.

I would like to thank you all for your emails, phone calls and packages that you have sent me. It means a lot to me that you would take time out of your daily routine and think of me. It means more to me than you know! Sometimes i just need to talk English and not Swahili..thank you!
Love,

Shani C.

Where am I ?

Its Tuesday....a regular day. I woke up to children playing, the African sun shinning in my window, a nice breeze blowing in across my bed. Yes, this is the life, I roll over and decide to get up around 8:30 and have my warm milk with sugar, yummy. I walk to town and chat with the store owner who has named me her best friend; we laugh and talk swahinglish for a while. I'm back home now, it's around 3pm, I did some work earlier with the Village Executive Officer, had chai in town, and came home for a mid day nap. Nothing out of the ordinary, I drank way too much chai and water so I have to pee like 9 times in an hour. I proceed to walk across my nice private courtyard where my newly built choo is. I switch on the light because it's almost dusk....Ahhh...I’m doing the pee dance because I waited until the last minute, as usual. I proceed to take the lid off the choo, pull up my skirt, squat, and I feel as if someone is looking at my goodies.....on the inside of the choo peeking back at me, wondering why I’m bothering him in his home, is an orange and black snake. Now at this point I have to pee really badly and if you know me, you know I can't hold it. When I have to go, I HAVE to go. Within a time span of oh, about 10 seconds, I look at the snake, he looks back at me, he puts his head back down, I put the lid back on the choo and pee in the middle of my yard...yup! While I was enjoying my fantasy world, brand new house with electricity, computer access, private courtyard, house help...I forgot where the hell I was...AFRICA! This was a definite jerk back to reality. I went to get the maintenance guy, and explain to him how this snake was big, ferocious, and taking over my toilet. He gets the biggest stick he can find and marches over to my choo, he creeps open the door carefully and asks, "nyoka iko wapi?" Where's the snake?...I say lift up the lid and it's in the hole....he looks at me like I’m a 5 year old kid and says "hamna shida" no biggie, everything's cool as long as he doesn’t come out. "COME OUT!", How can I live my life knowing that there is a snake somewhere near where I have to squat and pee.....I mean I got over the squatting and peeing because the choo is really nice, I got over the monkeys in the farm, I got over the lizards that hang onto my window, I even got over the bats, but come on now. Becky can only take but so much!
Well, it's Tuesday night and I’m sitting in my bed typing this blog, and planning a late night squat in my yard in case I have to pee. I've decided to give the snake time to pack up his things and find another place. I mean it was short notice, I can’t' just expect time to find somewhere else to live in a couple hours, times are hard for everyone these days. I figure I will start using my choo again by Friday,

The moral of this story is, never forget where you are and if you do, just pee in the yard.

Love From TZ,

Shani

I Swear.....

Today, August 19th 2009, is Swearing in Day for TZ 2009 PCV's (Peace Corps Volunteers). Since I am writing this entry prior to swearing in I will be sure to give a follow up entry with the details. I want to thank all of you who helped me get through training. Thank you for your late night phone calls, texts, packages, emails, and hand written letters. The last two months have been crazy! I had no idea what training consisted of prior to joining the Peace Corps, which is probably a good thing...LOL. Although I have not seen a mirror in weeks, haven't washed my hair since I’ve been here, often didn’t shower everyday, had diarrhea for a week straight and stopped eating most of the food, I don’t regret a minute of it. I've learned how to communicate properly with Tanzanians and I’ve gained a great deal of respect their culture. There were times when I questioned what I was doing, but I never questioned why I was doing it. Even when you stumble over words in Swahili and sound like a 4 year old child it means so much to an Elderly villager, or an out of school youth that you have attempted to learn their way of life. Training has also taught me that each volunteer has something different to offer. While I may not be the most athletically inclined volunteer, or I may not pick up the language as quick as others, I may not even be able to help a farmer improve his crops. What I can offer is an example of what a young woman can grow up to be. She can be strong willed, educated, pretty, encouraging, supportive, helpful, independent, outgoing and most of all happy. That's my contribution and so far I haven’t had any complaints :-)

This coming Friday we will be disbursing to our new sites. I will be living in a village in the Mbarali district of the Mbeya region. I am about 8 Kilometers from my banking town, which is also where i will be doing most of my shopping. I am about 1 1/2 hours away from Mbeya town which i heard was great. I will be visiting there very soon. My village has about 3,000 people to whom i will be teaching and assisting with various projects. The village has given me a brand new home with 2 bedrooms and a private court yard, separate storage area, and a inside choo. There is an area for me to plant my own garden and grow fresh veggies, yummy! Not exactly the hut I was tricked into thinking i would have :-) Although i have to say it's weird that i had to travel all the way to Africa to get a home of my own built from the ground, they didn’t run my credit, ask about my student loans, and i didn’t even have to give an arm or a leg?.?.? Feel free to send me some pics from the ikea catalog so i can get some furniture built. The carpentry here is excellent, if you give them a picture they can make anything. Beds, dressers, bookshelves, desks, cabinets, anything. Some of the Volunteers have even asked the carpenters to make wooden penis' to use during life skills courses so that there is a model to demonstrate how to properly put on and remove a condom.
Any way, I will be teaching HIV/Aids awareness and life skills to secondary school students while also working at the clinic with patients teaching birth control, HIV/aids awareness, malaria prevention, and helping the clinic with data management. I will be giving special attention to new and expecting mothers, women and young girls. There is a true need for girl power here in TZ. Some upcoming events include conducting a World HIV/Aids day on Dec 1st, Tree Planting projects, and a possible Permaculture garden at the clinic which can help teach good nutrition. I am so excited to actually get started with my villagers and lend a hand where I am needed.

Until later....Shani C.

Moving on Up.....

Moving on up…..

Hello everyone! I hope you are having a wonderful week. I am having a great week, so far. The Swahili is moving along….I think I got left at the station but the language is still moving…..LOL. Remember Ku Ku, my little friend, well he is no longer little and I think he’s a she. Man you think you know someone, anyway we are still friends but she has been spending a lot of time with the birds next door so I’ve decided to give her the freedom she needs. I’m still not eating chicken but I’m also not eating a lot of other stuff, I am tired of rice, beans, cabbage, rice, beans, cabbage, rice, beans, cabbage, rice…well I hope you get the point. What I wouldn’t give for some nachos from Chili’s or some fries from McDonalds…..OMG…..a slice of pizza from Bottom’s up in Richmond. I would even pay top dollar for a pack of ramen noodles! It’s so bad that I saw a mirage the other day while I was walking 45mins to Muheza to use the freaking internet, I could have sworn I saw a Wet Willie’s sign…I’m serious! I know I saw it…..I would give my next meal of rice, beans, and cabbage for a “call a cab” with a splash of sour apple on top *sniff sniff*
Speaking of freedom, I wanted to talk about my Ba Ba situation. It’s hard for me to explain it to you, but I will try my best. The host family that I am staying with for the next 2 months is comprised of a Ma Ma, Ba Ba (father), Da Da (sister), and Ka Ka (brother). The Peace Corps has instructed the family to keep the volunteers secure while we are here in the village completing our training. I think it’s a wonderful situation and so far the Ma Ma has taught me how to cook Tanzanian food, the KaKa has shown me some of the games that the children here play, the Dada has been helpful in my studying Swahili, and my Baba……he has taken top flight security to another level! I can’t do shiznit without him being at least 5 feet away. My own Dad isn’t even that protective. I can’t walk to school by myself, All of the other kids at school can go play but me, I have to come straight home. Even when I try to sneak away, 40 mins by foot to the next village, I will be damned if he doesn’t appear out of nowhere on a bicycle asking me what’s up in Swahili…..wth! To make matters worse, he’s the chief of a village up the road, the same village I was trying to sneak to with the other trainees. The other trainees laugh at me and make jokes about my BaBa hiding in the bushes. When I come home late from class he asks “Unlichelewa kuwenda shule, Kwanini?” In English, “Yo, Why u late coming home from school?” I act as if I don’t understand what he’s saying and I just smile…..actually I do that a lot because most of the time I don’t know what he’s saying. It’s bad enough that he speaks no English but he also stutters. So imagine me trying to decipher the few words I do know in Swahili while someone is speaking a mile a minute and stuttering. I’m so lost most time, and I’m sure my facial expression shows it. The family is really nice though, honestly I don’t have to do anything, they cook for me, heat my bath water, clean my room, help me wash my clothes, they take really good care of me. I just can’t go anywhere without a security guard, it’s cool but kinda weird.

Speaking of weird, if I hear one more Michael Jackson song on the radio I am going to scream! I think all of Michael’s fans live in Africa and they won’t let him rest in peace. I’ve heard “We are the World” every morning since they announced his death. Not to mention, every other hit he’s ever made. I think they have an hour dedication every night on the radio. I stay in most nights listening to the radio since I can’t go out and play…LOL. I am dog tired most of the time because I cant get a moment to rest, or a moment alone. From the time I wake up until the time I go to sleep I always have to speak to someone, or do something. Sunday is the only day that I don’t have class so I try to sleep in, YEAH RIGHT! The roosters start crowing at 4am, then they hit snooze. After that the prayers start at the Mosque, followed by the baby next door crying, the cow mooooing, the goat baaaaahing, and the donkey making a very awkward noise. By this time it’s 5am and MaMa is up sweeping the porch, backyard, and house, she always seems to spend a lot of time right outside of my door….hmmmm. The roosters have proceeded to crow again and by this time my BaBa is up with the radio blasting, music, news, I dunnoh it’s not like I know what they are saying. So by this time, it’s getting close to 8am and I’m still hiding out but I have to pee sooooooo bad and I don’t want to leave my room. I found a solution to that this morning, a water bottle. I cut the top off so I wouldn’t have to perfect my aim, and there I was still able to hide away in my room with all of the sounds outside and no one realizing that they were successful in waking me up. Once you let them know you’re up it’s over. You have to remain up for the rest of the day. There are no naps, no rests, no nothing, I can’t even study alone or for a long period of time without having to say what I’m doing. The reason is mostly because they have never seen an American, and the ones they have seen are white. They are so amazed that I am American; most of the elders think I am from another African country or that I am pretending that I can’t speak the language. They are familiar with the slave trade but they would never think to meet another person who looks like them and is able to travel from America back to Africa. I feel like a new toy that they can play with whenever they get ready. They want to do my hair, dress me, bathe me, feed me, and show me off. I hope the newness wears off soon or someone kept the receipt.

Now for the topping on the cake…..drum roll please………I have a cell phone. That’s right a cell phone. I think it was one of the first cell phones ever made but hey, it only cost me $30 bucks brand new and it works. My cell # is 255(country code)76-585-3032. You may have to dial 011 prior to entering the country code. It costs me $1.00 a min to call to the US, so it’s cheaper if you get a calling card and call me, they cost about $5 for 58 mins, I think it’s called island flavor. Other options include skype calling and international plans on house phones are usually pretty good. I get free incoming calls but all of the cell phones here are pay as you go so I have to purchase vouchers and add time. It’s kind of a hassle but at least I have a steady form of contact. I look forward to hearing from you soon. It’s always nice to get handwritten letters too. Get some kids to draw me pics or something…LOL.
I love you all and be safe!

Word of the week:
Swahili: Kunywa

English: to drink

Until next time…..

Shani C.
Peace Corps TZ
p.o. box 9123
Dar Es Salaam, TZ

Ghosts and Goblins?.?.?...nope a Bat?

So this morning around 4:45am I’m laying in my bed sleeping peacefully alone, or so I thought. Now for some reason I went to sleep last night without pulling down my mosquito net. Maybe it was my lack of sleep over the last couple of days, maybe it was the bread and water I had for dinner, you never can tell. Anyway, I feel this flash of wind accompanied by a quick flapping noise. I think I hear something hit the wall or stop at the wall by my bed, I’m not even sure at this point because I’m still in la la land, dreaming about a slurpee from 7-11 and a bag of doritios. Right when I was about to take the 1st sip of my slurpee (I’m dreaming of course) I hear the flapping noise again followed by 2 quick swooshes of wind….at this point I realize I’m not sleep and this thing is flying right over my head. OK! I try and pull myself together and make out whether it’s a very vivid dream caused by the Mephaquin, my malaria medicine, or if I’m really seeing a bat fly over my bed! Well folks it wasn’t the Mephaquin, although I wish it had of been. This bat is having a field day flying over my head, swooshing in and out, getting extra points for hitting the wall. All I could do is pull the covers over my head and pray that it would leave soon. I don’t know how big it was but, it’s shadow (in the dark) was the size of a small child, I’m serious! Then I remembered something from all of those vampire movies I’d seen; bats don’t like sunlight! All I have to do is wait until the sun comes up and he’ll go back to his bat cave. OK…just wait, with the covers over my head, for another hour and a half, until the sun comes up….tick tock, tick tock, ok 3 mins have passed, no sun yet…..tick tock, ok it’s been 15mins, no sun but also no bat, that’s a good sign. Tick tock, ok 30 mins, he’s still here and I think he brought a friend….what the heck! Finally the sun comes up, the roosters are crowing and I hear people moving around, this is my queue that it’s safe to come out from hiding. I hurry up and jump out the bed, no shoes, and run into the yard where my host family mama was heating water for my bath. Now I don’t know the Swahili word for bat, but I do know night and bird…..great! I tell her with my arms flapping that there is a night bird in my room. She doesn’t get it….ok bird of the night, still flapping my arms like a chicken. Finally the daughter gets my morning game of charades and screams PoPo! Aahhhh the PoPo was in my room?.?.? That’s the Swahili word for bat, popo? Any way I guess they are use to it and I was the one acting erratic because all she said was "oh it’s gone". I had a near death experience and all they had to say was oh, it’s gone now.

Don’t worry I’m ok now. I managed to escape that episode with my life dangling by a thread, who knows what other wild and crazy things I will endure while in Africa. I’ll keep you posted.

Word of the day:
Swahili: Popo
English: killer bat-very dangerous-beware

Shani C.

this post goes out to my training bff Jayce, I'm sorry I laugh at your bat episodes :-)