Khainam Rotia

Good evening friends. I hope all is well with all of you! I am writing from Khainam Rotia Secondary School, where I will spend the next two years. Last Friday, Peace Corps announced the locations of our sites. It was an exciting day, and something that we had all been looking forward to for quite some time.

My site is in a village 13km outside of Karatu, Arusha. Four of us were placed near Karatu, which basically backs up to Ngorogoro Crater. My school is located 6km down a dirt road from the main highway. It’s closer to the main road than most others placed in this area, but it is pretty remote, and transportation to the main road is far less common. There is no electricity or running water in this area. There is a stream about 1km away from the school, which is where the school gets its water. My school is very small, and the surrounding village is just the same. There are a couple of small shops in the village, but for most things, it is necessary to travel to Karatu. The enrollment at Khainam Rotia is 162 students, but the attendance levels are much lower than that. It sounds to me like there might be 140 on a good day.  There are around 10 teachers, several of whom are part time. I have a headmistress, Madam Macrina, and I am looking forward to working for her. I am excited to have a headmistress, as it is quite rare considering the somewhat restrictive gender roles here. There has been no full time biology teacher here for a while, so I am ready to get started. I will live in the teacher’s compound, located on the school grounds. I will be living in half of a duplex. The house is relatively small, but considering how little I have with me, a large home might be a little depressing. There is a living room and a bedroom inside of the house. In the back, I have a courtyard with a choo, a shower room, a storage closet, and a kitchen space. The house was recently built, so it is in very good condition.

The scenery here in Karatu is amazing. I think I am at an elevation of 4000 to 5000 feet. The surrounding area is mostly used to farm maize and wheat. My site is at one of the higher points in the area, so the views are fantastic. It gets very cold here, at least for Tanzania. It is nearing the end of winter, and the temperature is about 40 degrees at night and about 70 degrees during the day.

I will stay here at site tonight, and then I will travel to a current volunteer’s site to stay for the next couple nights, along with the other volunteers and trainees in the area. Then we will travel to the city of Arusha, which takes about 2 hours. Then we will get on a bus and travel to Moshi, which takes about 2 more hours. We will spend the night in Moshi, which is a wonderful city. It is by far the cleanest place I have seen in Tanzania, and you can see Kilimanjaro from there. We got just a glimpse of it through the clouds on the trip in. After a night in Moshi, we will take an eight hour bus ride back to Morogoro. The trip in wasn’t too bad, but it was certainly cramped and a little on the long side. Fortunately, my standards of comfort are changing a little with regards to how bad it can sometimes be.

I’ve only been here for the better part of a day, but I am very excited to start living here in Rotia. It feels good to know where I will be living, and I can stop manufacturing the horrible possibilities that were floating around in my head up to this point. I’ll try to upload some photos later, but I don’t think the internet connection here will allow for it. Have a good night, and look up pictures of Ngorogoro Crater. It’s pretty incredible. Peace.

                                Matthew