I arrived in Arusha, Tanzania with 55 other trainees on Sept. 23rd, 1999 to begin our intensive 10-week Peace Corps training... here are some fellow trainees at the training site in Arusha... during our stay here, we studied Kiswahili language, job skills, cultural adaptation, and medical self-care, among other things
Mt. Meru, the second tallest mountain in Tanzania (behind Mt. Kilimanjaro), as it stands over Arusha and stood over me throughout my Peace Corps training
the family of Eliab and Juliet Orio, my homestay family in Arusha, in Oct. 1999... the tall man on the left is their guard, a man of the Maasai tribe
early in the training a bunch of us trainees went on a safari to Ngorongoro Crater, a conservation area near Arusha... here is a cape buffalo there in Oct. 1999
David and other fellow trainees take a break from the safari vans during our trip to Ngorongoro Conservation Area
many of my fellow trainees hanging out on the porch of the main building at the Peace Corps training site in Arusha after training sessions one day in Nov. 1999
Jackie, Joseph, and our language trainer Blandina at Arusha Day Secondary School, where three of us trainees had teaching internships for about five weeks in Oct. and Nov. 1999
Thomas, Frank, and Simon, the leaders of the education component of our training, at the training site in Arusha in Nov. 1999
a few fellow trainees with our Kiswahili language teachers and training coordinators at the training site in Arusha in Nov. 1999... we had just had site announcements, during which we trainees found out where we would be sent to work as Peace Corps Volunteers for the next two years
me, Amber, and Ben dining on fried fish and chips at Bongoyo Beach in Dar es Salaam in Nov. 1999... we were on our way to visit our site assignments in Mtwara Region in the remote south of Tanzania but were delayed for a day in Dar es Salaam due to a cancelled flight... we didn't complain too much
all in blue shirts at our Peace Corps swearing-in ceremony at the U.S. Ambassador's residence in Dar es Salaam in Dec. 1999: Sean, me, Brian, Clay, and Patrick... our status was about to change from mere Peace Corps Trainees to full-fledged Peace Corps Volunteers
newly sworn-in education and environmental Peace Corps Volunteers in Dar es Salaam in Dec. 1999... the ceremony concluded our training, and we each went to our individual sites scattered across Tanzania to begin our assignments for the next two years
my new place of employment: Tandahimba Secondary School, where I was to teach high-school mathematics and physics, in the village of Tandahimba in Mtwara Region in southeast Tanzania, near the border with Mozambique... here are some neighbor kids who frequently followed me around, by the school flagpole in Dec. 1999
Mr. Swalehe, his daughter Fatuma, and Mama Fatuma in front of their home in Dec. 1999... I lived in a room in their home for about five weeks while renovation and repair was completed on my house in Tandahimba
gathered for Christmas with fellow volunteers in the town of Masasi in Dec. 1999: me, Mona, Krista, Anne, and Dan... we were playing PVC-pipe flutes which Anne's family had sent to her in a Christmas package
the headmaster of my school, Mr. Mlaponi (right), and his family, by the road in Tandahimba waiting for the bus to go to Masasi for the New Year in Dec. 1999
in case of Y2K havoc, we volunteers were required to gather in a set location for New Year 2000 so that we would be easily reachable... we south Tanzania volunteers gathered at a remote beach south of Mtwara called Msimbati... here is everybody there moments before the New Year arrived
in an attempt to fit in to life in my village, I planted maize in my home's assigned plot just as my neighbors were doing in Jan. 2000... here I am in my maize field--it leads up to my house, the one on the left... it was hard work--took me 1 1/2 months to finish
me in Tandahimba in front of my house, which I moved into right before the school term began in Jan. 2000... I had a water tap in the back yard, but there was no electricity or phone in my house nor anywhere else in the village
Mr. Swalehe (the secondmaster), Mr. Mlaponi (the headmaster), and me at our school in Feb. 2000... I was the first Peace Corps teacher at the school and the first foreigner ever to live in Tandahimba
my Form II students and me at our school in Feb. 2000... Tandahimba Secondary was an O-Level school, which consisted of Forms I to IV (equivalent of Grade 8 to 11)
me, my fellow teacher Mr. Hassan, and a teacher from another school at a regional Peace Corps health workshop in Mtwara in Feb. 2000
Tanzania picture pages:
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