A Month In - Possible Sites

After more than a month of anxious speculation, Merritt and I recently got some good news about a site and work assignments. After hearing some sketchy details when we first found out about our placement to Tanzania, on Monday we learned that Merritt will be working, as a Peace Corps volunteer, for a government organization that is co-funded by the U.S. CDC Global Health Department and the Tanzanian Ministry of Health – where she'll be teaching public health trainers and developing public health training programs, largely in the field of HIV/AIDS education. It all sounds very interesting, and I am really excited for her. Apparently it's a new cooperative venture for the Peace Corps Tanzania, and Merritt was specially requested to be sent here for the job.

It also means that we'll not have the typical Peace Corps experience, as we will be living in a town rather than some small village, with to our surprise, running water and electricity. The two possible towns are Mbeya and Mtwara, which are both in southern Tanzania, the first high up in the mountains (approx. 5,600’) and known to be the coldest spot in the country, and the latter on the coast, slightly smaller, and considerably hotter.

Mbeya has about 270,000 residents and is known as a key transportation and trading center, with the Tanzam Highway and Tanzara Railway running through the town, and located near Tanzania's boarders with Zambia and Malawi. Though described as a “bustling” and “scruffy” town, it's also apparently “highly scenic,” given its location in a gap between the Mbeya and Poroto Mountains. Coffee, tea, chocolate, and bananas are all grown in the region.

Mtwara, on the other hand, is located near the boarder with Mozambique, and is smaller in population (around 70,000). Apparently the town was originally a small fishing port, but the infrastructure was greatly expanded after World War II, by the British, as part of an effort to develop the local groundnut oil industry. Though the venture largely failed, the region has had somewhat of a recent revival, thanks to the tourism industry.

Merritt and I will be sent to one of these towns, another trainee, who worked as a nurse in the U.S., will be sent to the other. The decision will largely hinge, it seems, on what kind of job they can find for me. The Peace Corps’ Tanzanian Program is not really designed to work at the town-level, being almost exclusively based at the village level. And the Peace Corps country staff, when they learned that they were getting two special health trainees, did not actually know that one of them was married and would be accompanied by her husband. So it seems like that it has been somewhat of a scramble to find an assignment for me, but the good news is that I may also be working with an NGO and perhaps using my legal background to some degree.

One possibility, which I have expressed strong interest in, is working in Mtwara in the area of fisheries and marine resource management. There is a newly designated marine reserve just off the coast, the Mnazi Bay-Ruvumu Estuary Marine Park, which could be a good source for potential projects for me, but the director of the Peace Corps environmental program here in Tanzania needs to find a counterpart with whom I can work, so it still remains up in the air. Either way, Merritt feels it will work out well for us, and we’re both really excited about her assignment, and
hopeful about mine.