Email No. 10: February, 22, 2005

Hey Fam,

Wow, it's been a month since I last wrote. Somehow, it feels longer and at the same time shorter. Things just seem to be moving incredibly slow when it comes to getting my house into order and really fast when it comes to the Femina Magazine and other work stuff, as it really feels like I haven't gotten much done in the past month or so, yet I know that I"m working really hard every day. The volunteers are great though and really put a lot of sunshine and feeling of worth into being here. I guess that it's just really hard now not to be working so hands on and face to face with people. What I'm currently doing deals a lot more with beaucracy (sad to say it, but on both the side of the Peace Corps Office and the different Tanzanian Offices that I"m dealing with) and meetings upon meetings, where I have to trust that people will do what they say they will once they leave those meetings. That's a really hard thing to do for someone that likes to have control over a lot of stuff and can really be a bit hard nosed of the "if you want it done right, do it yourself variety". I'm managing though, and on the days when I do manage to have two meetings of the four or so that are on my list for the day, it really feels like I"ve accomplished something. Plus, I'm walking on average something like four miles a day or so, which, was physically tiring at first, but is really giving me a lot more overall energy and making me feel a lot better about my fitness level. On a brighter note, I did manage to put on a last minute workshop for all of the teachers at the Teacher Training College here in town as to how the teachers could use the "User's Guide" and Femina Magazines as teaching aids in the classroom. They seemed really receptive, which was great, and I got to teach again, which was even better.

So, just in case not everyone is clear as to what exactly I"m doing with Femina Magazine, let me explain it a little bit better. As a part of my job as PCVL I am supposed to be working part time with an NGO, basically as free labour. =0) Femina-HIP is an NGO that deals with getting Health Information out to the public and young people in particular (HIP= Health Information Project). For five years, they have been publishing a popular magazine called "Femina" which uses currenty popular Tanzanian music and television stars as spokespersons for Health Topics, HIV/AIDS Education in particular, but also things like malaria, cholera, etc. It is the only magazine that talks about puberty and sexuality, and sexual health as well. It's written half in English and half Kiswahili and therefore is really targeted towards an audience with at least a secondary school education. About two years ago now, the project started up a second magazine called "Si Mchezo" (It's not a game), which basically deals with the same stuff as the Femina Magazine, but is written completely in Kiswahili and much more simply. Also, a lot of the articles are written about people in the Deep South (Mtwara/Lindi regions). So basically, I guess you can say that its target audience are the uneducated southerners of the country. Well, that's all well and great, but HIP has been sending the magazine down here for the past two years and hasn't really gotten any feedback for it and doesn't even know if the magazine is reaching where it's supposed to. That's where I come in. I am taking their distribution lists and trying to follow the magazine from when it leaves the Femina-HIP office in Dar to when it actually gets into its reader's hands and then do follow up with the people who are reading the magazine to get a bit of feedback about it.

In the past two weeks I've found out that the magazine sometimes doesn't even get down here. Then once it gets down here, the Regional Education Officer, who receives the magazine has never really been given instructions as to how he is supposed to distribute the magazine and so has just been dividing it up between the secondary schools, which is great, but not exactly the target audience the project is going for. On a bright note, most everyone that I've been talking to is really quite helpful, and with the extra copies I've been given, people really have been happy and excited to receive and read them.

When I do get to see the volunteers, it seems like everyone really is great. I do just get jealous sometimes of everything that they're doing. The APCDs for both the health and education sectors are down here these next few weeks, so I'll get to hop in a car with them and see the volunteers in the field and not just when they come to my house for a bit of rest. That will be really nice. I am supposed to be staying a few days with the volunteer that lives just down the road from Ndwika and so I am really looking forward to going up there and seeing everyone that is still there at Ndwika. I can't wait to see my students!!

I know that I've already mentioned something about the test results for form II to a few of you, so sorry if I repeat anything. If you've been following my updates at all for the past few years, you know just how much emphasis is placed upon national exams here, especially Form II, and also, just how hard I worked with my girls the past two years to prepare them for the exams. When the results came out, I actually felt that the girls had done terribly, and it broke my heart. We had worked so hard! But one of the great things about the Tanzanian fascination with test results is that the tabulate things like how well or poorly students of one school had done in a particular subject as compared to another schools in that same subject. So, even though only 12 of my girls passed math, I was able to see that they had performed the 25th best (in math) out of 99 schools in the southern zone (Mtwara, Lindi, Songea and Ruvuma regions), which, was actually pretty good as last year they were something like 70th, even though twice as many girls had passed. The test this year was extremely hard everywhere. It was almost as if they had wanted the students to fail or something (which, sometimes, I am convinced that they do and is yet another subject that really pisses me off). Also, compared to other schools in other subjects (English, Civics, Kiswahili, Chemistry, Bio, Physics, etc.) the girls did really really well in comparison to other schools... where they averaged out at number 65 or so, with us averaging out at 63rd over all. It's a bit of a let down to have to hold onto something as small as that, but at least it's a victory. And one thing that I've learned here is to hold onto those, no matter how small they are. I'd like to think that I had more of an influence on these girls when it comes to the things that will stay with them a lot longer, like self-confidence, motivation and critical thinking skills. Anyhow, if I do get to see them next week, it will be awesome!

Well, sorry if I've exhausted your eyes by making you read all of that. Hope all is well at home and miss you all lots!

love,

Jessica