Emily's Worldview

Four of us had gone up to a hillside village to speak with the local leaders about starting a community health worker program. On the way up, I practiced driving for the first time. The car is an old, enormous landcruiser with no power steering, and a sticky gearbox that had recently been rebuilt. The wheel is on the right side. The staff member who is teaching me to drive assured me that this road was much easier than most others I would encounter. It was a combination of ruts, ditches, piles of sharp-looking rocks, and slick patches of mud frequented by animals, women with loads on their heads, and darting school children. I drove for maybe half an hour and my arms and legs were shaking from the effort. I did not get stuck and I did not hit anything, and I did not even stall out. But that big heavy truck moves, no matter what is in front of it or under its wheels. And even though I had been nervously watching the other SIC drivers and the challenges they took on, all of the sudden I couldn’t wait for the second lesson. The next frontier will be town, with its fluid definitions of lanes, aggressive drivers, and creative pedestrians. I'll be in the mix, high off the ground, above a diesel engine.

For those of you who don’t know, I have been hired to a two-year contract with Students for International Change (www.sichange.org), based in Arusha, Tanzania. My title is Tanzania Managing Director, and I am directly in charge of the non-volunteer related programs in the rural areas around Arusha including education outreach, mobile testing services, support of anti-AIDS clubs in schools, community health workers, and whatever new programs make sense to assist people living with or fighting HIV in these areas. I am overjoyed and excited about this position because it promises to provide hands-on, day to day management experience, but also experience with program development and proposal writing. It should be an enormous challenge, often frustrating, but also a lot of fun.

The last few weeks have been a blur and my apologies to everyone for my distractedness and abrupt departure. Two weeks ago, I was working three jobs, wrapping up my thesis, finishing four classes early, 100% not packed, and trying to say goodbye to everyone I knew. I made it out of the country as scheduled, but I didn’t get to prepare as much as I had wanted to, and I definitely did not get to spend enough time with everyone at the end. So, my apologies for that, and my thanks for the well-wishes and support. It's hard to believe I'm actually here.