Onward to Shadow... and Site Announcements!

Big news!  Today we finally learned where we're going to be living for the next two years.  On top of that, we're all departing Morogoro tomorrow for Shadow (i.e. the time during training when we live for another volunteer for a week to see if we can survive on our own in the wilderness).  So, for those of you who are following along, break out your oversized maps of Tanzania, invisible ink pens, and secret decoder rings and get ready...

For shadow, I'll be traveling to Tukuyu in the Mbeya region.  A 12-hour bus ride on a decent road.

For site, I'll be living in Songea in the Ruvuma region.  A 15-hour bus ride on a not-so-decent road.

Both these assignments are pretty damn cool, especially my site.  Songea is supposed to be gorgeous: it's high elevation, cool, and fairly green.  Moreover, it's somewhat off the beaten path given its relative inaccessibility, making it less prone to the crime and touristy nature of some other Tanzanian cities.  There are a bunch of other volunteers there, too, so I won't be so isolated.  And, to top it off, I'll be close to Lake Nyasa, which is pretty freaking awesome in and of itself.

As for my job, I'll be teaching A-level physics and math... which is EXACTLY what I wanted.  A-level is essentially college-level material, meaning that I can finally define force as the product of mass and acceleration as opposed to simply a "pulling or pushing action" and all that other O-level B.S.  I'm really excited to be responsible for a group of kids, and I hope to God I'll be a good enough teacher to get them through the exams.  To get into specifics, I'll be teaching at Songea Secondary School, an all-boys boarding school that covers both O-level and A-level students, and it's huge---847 students.  It's a bit intimidating, especially since I'll be the only A-level physics/math teacher there.  That's a big responsibility.  But whatever, we'll see how tough things are when I get there.

As for housing, I don't really know.  The only thing the headmaster put on my form is that I "will have a house," which is not really helpful.  I've heard from PCVs that I'll probably have at least electricity (or at least a place to charge my stuff), so that's nice.  If I had to put money on it, I'll probably live in a two- or three-room concrete house on campus, which will be good if I can get to work more easily and bad if student riot breaks out (which sometimes happens here).  As a bonus, I've recently learned that there's a German mission in Songea that specializes in salami and cheese.  SCORE.

That's about it for now.  Hopefully next time I'll have some cool stories from Shadow in Mbeya!