I am Bukoba Bobby

Check this out, I now know where I will be posted for my two year stint. I am going to be placed in the most northwestern corner of Tanzania, in a town of about 100,000 called Bukoba. Look it up on a map. Here's what I know about it so far... It is on Lake Victoria (the second biggest freshwater lake in the world) and is the capitol of the Kagera region. The staple food is...guess what?...bananas!! Alright, I have become adjusted to them, so no prob. Also, there is a ton of fresh fish like tilapia and perch. Sweet deal. Almond crusted filets followed by bananas foster, anyone? Maybe. The region tends to be between 75 and 85 degrees throughout the year, and it is considered to be very rainy (welcome to Seattle where it rains all day). Bukoba is a 2-hour drive from Uganda and a 5-hour drive from Rwanda. This means that I will be doing the following: a) gorilla tracking in Uganda; b) white-water rafting on the Nile, also in Uganda; c) touring the remaining carnage from the Rwandan genocide. I hear it is a powerful experience, akin to visiting the Peace Park in Hiroshima. Worth a weekend, at the least. The school I'll be at is one of the oldest secondary schools in all of Tanzania. It is called Ihungo Secondary, founded by German missionaries in 1929, when Tanzania was still known as German East Africa (I'm pretty sure). I am one of the few Peace Corps volunteers to placed at a school with another volunteer. There will be one of my friends, Aaron, living maybe a five-minute walk from my house. So long, fears of isolation. Everything else I've heard about the school sounds great. Well-equipped lab, good headmaster (AKA principal), good rep in general. It is situated on a hill overlooking Bukoba town and the lake itself. The headmaster said, verbatim, "It looks very good during night with all the flash lights." I took this to mean stars, Aaron thought the town lights. Either way, right on. Across this hill from me is the local girls school (my school is like 98% male), where a third volunteer, Jodi, has been placed. This means there are three of us within a 3-mile spread. Jodi says she's going to teach me how to cook (word on the street is that ladies like a man who knows his way about the kitchen...). The nearest major city to Bukoba is Mwanza, across the lake. Mwanza is one of the five largest cities in Tanzania, and to get to Bukoba we take an overnight ferry (by the way, its a 3 day trip by bus and ferry from Dar to Bukoba. I feel that karma got me for complaining about the last ride. Also, I forgot to mention that the return ride from Njombe to Morogoro, I managed to get a front seat on the bus. This meant leg room galore, which was wonderful. The unfortunate part was that my seat was directly over the engine block, and there was a hole in the floor which piped ridonculously hot air into my legs and face. This was perhaps equally uncomfortable to the original ride. I found myself debating in my head which ride was worse for a good amount of time.) What else to say about Bukoba....oh yeah, I will be teaching the "A" level of secondary school. For those of you ignorant to the Tanzanian school system, their secondary schools have two levels- "O" and "A". "O" level is basically grades 9-12, equivalent to high school. Maybe one year younger here. So "A" level would be the same as junior college, taking two years. So here I am, fresh graduate and all, expected to teach these kids some near-college level physics. I'm ok with this, except for two factors. The first is that these students that reach "A" level are intense. Only about 1% of all students pass the rigorous tests to enter "A" level. I'm not kidding, I looked at the exam and wondered if I could pass it. So these students are serious about learning, they know that getting a college degree (college comes after "A" level) is their only chance to truly provide for a family. Secondly, I will be coming into the middle of a semester. In fact, this will be nearing the end of the second semester which I arrive. The second year students take a test in February which summarizes what they've learned. Its even harder than the test I looked at. And they expect me to prep these kids to pass this test and get into college. Hmmm, nothin like a little trial by fire I suppose. So that's my situation. I'll get to Bukoba next week, maybe Wednesday or so.
All in all, I am really, really excited about this. I think it will be a great experience to teach these more challenging students. I think Bukoba will be a great place for me, especially being so near my friends from training. A lot of other volunteers come up through Bukoba when visiting Rwanda or Uganda, so I'll get guests too. If any of you are interested in potentially seeing these places, I would love to be your guide. So yeah, I guess now that I know all about my situation, I'm just eager to get started. Wish me luck, I suppose...