COS Conference and The Persian New Years

Oh-la all, sorry haven't written in a while! Just thought I'd relate some of the interesting events of the past couple weeks in order to entertain. First though, gotta say, its all true. Not a stretching of events. And I know that if I were me back in the states I would think I was pulling my leg. Not so!!.

So the Persian New Year in Makunduchi on Zanzibar is an event for all to behold. This year me and almost all of my Zanzibar compatriats decided to check it out full scale (saw it last year but missed some stuff), and especially with one of us undercover as a villager in the south, we were golden on the who what when's. This also turned out to be a great time to send off in style two great PCVs Don, and an honorary-Zanzibari at heart-Jess. Don you are no longer a part of Broke-back Pemba! And I shall miss talking sports with you and playing yahtzee and UNO! Have a great one.
Anywho after a great time at the full moon-party (yep it was a party weekend!) we trekked down south with the help of Kiparo's taxi and some killer bargaining by an unnamed accomplice. The next morning we nursed some hangovers with Chai, and then omba'd a lifti (hitched a ride) down to the coast by literally standing on the side of the road and flagging down cars. This lifti was the back of a pick-up truck. All right by me! The lifti even drove us straight to the site of the main event, the banana whipping.
Yup! Folks from all over the south had formed teams to celebrate persian new year, and in an area a field of sorts was set up, with a few teams fighting at a time while the other teams circled in running parade format chanting things like "we're gonna beat you till you look chinese". The teams on the field would go back and forth a bit, one team gaining ground, another losing it, while spectators looked on, from the outside inside and all over. Yes a huge TIA (This is Africa). Its wonderful. Of course this is not a sterile event where teams are cordoned off into an area. There are spectators getting accidently mixed up in fighting here if they aren't careful. And by fighting I mean each team wins by beating the crap out of the other team with banana stalks. No one got seriously hurt as far as I know...teams back off when its too much. But really there were like a couple thousand people there, watching and fighting, and when one team backed up cause they were losing ground spectators had to frantically run backwards or risk getting caught up. As one of my friends commented "the most dangerous thing about this whole scenario is probably the people running away from the fighting". And I have to agree, think about all the extremely crowded congested people situations you've been in and how dangerous it is for numerous people at once to begin screaming and running. Mob scenario anyone?!
But yea, so that added a whole level of excitement, but anyhow in total the whole situation was just so ridiculous and hilarious that I had a wonderful time. Me and Jess too ran the parade route with groups of ladies who followed the teams, chanting and singing. And got some hi-LAR-ious picks of certain PCVs who joined in the whipping. Jess got herself some serious supporters from the ladies who were excited to see a girl join in. Also got some good picks of people just tricked out for the fights. They were wearing all sorts of homemade gear, from football helmets to self made cone-head helmets with slits for eyes. And one great pick of a guy who came in with the trunk of a banana tree instead of just a stalk for the whipping.
Anyhow after a bit with the banana stick whipping the festivities continued to the house burning. In this part of the ceremony a house which has been recently built is lit on fire and the local wizard (witchdoctor) is within when this happens. This serves double purposes. First it tells you the quality of your wizard, second, the state of the crops. So the wizard was escorted to the house, then we ladies started running in circles chanting and the men came forward with torches and set the house on fire. The wizard made it out, no worries which means a) He was a real wizard -if he doesn't make it out it means he wasn't a real wizard so the village is better off anyway b) the crops will be well this year.
So all's well that ends well eh? Anyway afterword we went up to the fair grounds and had street food (fried food) and wandered around a bit. Played some GHEtto carnival games...and chilled on the beach a bit. An all around event.
COS conference though just finished and that was really great as well. We were put up in Arusha at the Arusha national Park in a hotel inside it. It was rather safi, but also quite cold for my liking. During the conference we learned about all the things we'll have to deal with at Close Of Service. Learning about resume's and health care plans and etc. Also picked up some knowledge about PC jobs and networking which I love. Got to talk to the second in command at the embassy about foreign service jobs, he was a former PC volunteer and they had an RPCV panel (returned peace corps volunteer panel) to help volunteers be able to talk to people who'd been through the process. Also there was a lady from the World Food Program and another lady who'd just worked for loads of different NGO's and was now running her own business in Tanzania. But the funnest part was of course, as always, seeing volunteers. It was the last time we'll be together before we leave and we had a wonderful prom-yagi where I got a fabulous dress made and for the first time ever, I was PROM QUEEN!! yay! And Jeremy, my date, was Prom King. He looks like a porn-star on his facebook photo, its a picture of his white suit. Unfortunately my camera is flipping out and I was not able to take my own picture though hopefully I'll get some from others. I'll bring the dress back for sure at least.
Anyway thats all I got for now. Hope all is well in the U.S. and I CAN"T WAIT to see you all when I get back. Current plans put me back in the U.S. hopefully at Detroit Airport on 23rd Dec. maybe can get a flight back to gaylord??? Don't know yet what people's plans are for Christmas and New Years but I hope to see everyone!!!

Love much
Sarah