I came back and hit the ground running!  Literally.  The past two weeks I’ve been working out with the group of students who were chosen for the Kili trip, and I feel great!  I was convinced that “exercise releases endorphins” was just garbage when I was in college because the only good I ever felt from our workouts was that they were over.  However now that I’m running at my own pace and after over a year of being a blob, I’m pretty sure it’s true and exercise does make you feel good. 

Let me back up a bit and explain this Kili trip.  Jen and I have been talking about taking students to climb Kili since the day we got to site.  It’s a pretty popular trip with Peace Corps Tanzania volunteers and we thought what better way to end our service than with a few students we’ve spent over a year teaching and getting to know on the trip of a lifetime!  We each held essay contests at our schools asking the kids why they wanted to go on this trip, what qualities they have that would make them a good choice, what they hope to learn, how they’ll teach others when they get back and also to come up with an action plan to get ready physically for the trip as well as be able to contribute towards the cost of the trip.  I had 61 students participate in the contest and had to narrow it down to just a lucky 6.  Together with Fred, another teacher at the school who will be going on the trip with us, we read all 61 essays.  Some were great, some were really bad and some were pretty entertaining. (One girl wrote she wanted to check out the beer situation on the mountain because she heard Kilimanjaro beer is made right there.)  One thing that struck me was that a majority of the kids wrote that a quality they had that put them above the rest was that they can read and write.  At first I was thinking how ridiculous it was to consider that an extraordinary quality, but after reading it so many times I realized that here it really is something to be proud of and I was just overlooking it because it’s so taken for granted that everyone can read and write at home. 

We had decided on taking two kids from each of the three grade levels participating.  After choosing 5, we were torn between two boys, Marijani and Juma, from form 4 who had both written great essays and were great students.  We went to the Head Master to get her opinion and she recommended Marijani because his grades were better.  So it was set.  From form 2 we had Abilahi and Jabili, from form 3 Mwanahamisi and Njambila and from form 4 Sauda and Marijani. 

I went to the school for morning assembly that Monday to announce the winners and as they all came up to stand in front of the school we noticed one was absent, Marijani.  Right then and there, in front of the entire school, the Head Master announced that since he wasn’t there Juma would take his place.  I have to say I felt pretty bad that this kid was made an example out of on the one day that the Head Master decided to make a point about truancy.  However, it was definitely Juma’s lucky day and he had the biggest smile on his face every time I looked at him so that made me happy. 

I met with the six of them that afternoon to explain the whole trip to them.  They could hardly contain their excitement, which isn’t surprising considering four of them have never even left the Mtwara region.  We planned our workout schedule and they decided they would like to make beaded bracelets and sell them as their contribution to the trip.  So far we have gone on a few runs, taken a hike down to Mahuta Kisimani at the bottom of the plateau where the water supply for Mahuta is and we have a bike trip to Newala planned where we will meet up with Jen’s students who are going and they are going to teach us how to make these bracelets so we can get our little business started! J

While working with these kids is the most exciting thing I’ve got going on, I do have a couple other things that are fun too.  Mwafo and I trained the Hamasisho health group on permaculture techniques and we have started a garden.  The goal is to be able and sell their yield along with their business of selling chicken eggs and meat which they’ll hopefully be able to start soon.  We are just waiting to see if the grant proposal for the chickens I wrote gets approved.  We might have a slight delay because of fund availability from different pots of money, but one way or another it should work out. 

Other than that I’m still teaching, but none of it is too exciting and I’m actually pretty bored and over it myself.  Aside from Peace Corps work, I’m trying to get myself ready to re-enter the real world in 5 months.  I’m tweaking my resume and writing cover letters with the hopes of getting it out to employers well in advance so I don’t end up getting home in August having done nothing.  Who knows how much I can realistically accomplish from the African bush, but I’m trying.