At 66 Doug Angell is representative of about 5% of the Peace
Corps volunteers in Tanzania. Primarily
attracted by the newly graduated youth there has always been a small number of
middle-aged and seniors for e.g. Jimmy Carter’s mother volunteered in her 80’s. Peace Volunteers do not live an easy life as
the premise besides direct service delivery, is living in the community and
blending into said community by a common lifestyle.
Doug, a Shop Teacher by trade, is teaching Secondary School
children Math and Chemistry to help with the big shortage of Science teachers. His teaching load is much heavier than most,
if not all his colleagues partly due to the shortage and partly due to the
fact that he can and will do it. Doug tries to set an example for his fellow
teachers and students in terms of self-respect (work ethic) and respect for the
students (no corporal punishment, offering extra tuition, caring about each and
every student’s progress). He
occasionally expresses his differing views to the teachers but mostly he lets
his actions to do the teaching.
Doug lives in a small town several hours north of Dodoma and
due south of Arusha. The town of Kibaya
is in the Kiteto District of Manyara Region, on the edge of the Maasai Steppe. Being at 5,000 Feet Kibaya is nestled between
rolling hills and several small mountains.
Thanks to this elevation, the views of the Steppes are wonderful and the
temperatures are currently downright cool in the night and morning. Besides the 45 walk minute into to town (containing
the market, dairy and a variety of small Dukas), Doug hikes the hills with his VSO
friends.
Doug believes he has ‘safi’ housing (Swahili word for clean but
used to mean nicer, or Mzungu-style, or ‘cool’). This, because his house has two bedrooms,
living/dining space, a small fridge, gas cooking burners and cement
floors. I liken his life-style to ‘one
up from camping’ with no running water the ‘Choo’ (bathroom), cement shelter
for bucket bathing, and kitchen clean-up are all outside. Doug hauls water in 20 litre buckets from the
local ‘bomba’ or community tap, which luckily is just outside his walled
compound. His role-model is the 10year
old girl who carries such buckets of water on her head! The water is stored in numerous buckets and
other large plastic containers to ensure he is never without...there was a 10
day dry period earlier this year so he keeps it well stocked. All this sounds pretty good, but remember
this is brackish water which is only used for cleaning purposes. Drinking water needs to be boiled before
drinking (if you don’t mind the salty flavour) or purchased in large bottles in
town. Doug buys his milk from the local
Dairy (one large room with a can of fresh milk). He must boil this to pasteurize and use it up
fairly quickly, which means regular 1.5 hr walks to the Dairy and back.
Doug has always told his students that “we take from our
community all our lives, it therefore behooves us to give back when and where
we can”. It was this philosophy that
led him to sign up for Peace Corps. That
and having read Greg Mortonson’s books (including Three Cups of Tea), he
decided it was time to give back. A
divorced father of two adult children, and a senior-US- citizen, could easily be
ready to retire. But not so Doug. His
joie de vivre and future plans definitely belie his age. Doug attributes his philosophy of life to
several things, including having had many mentors over the years, and even in
the present.
Two life-changing experiences helped to form who he is
now. At 21 one Doug served in Vietnam
for 3 years. This left him with many
changed attitudes and views about violence and humanity. He recalls never having felt such fear before
or since that war experience. In the
early 70’s Doug and his wife took Transcendental Meditation (TM) and various
relaxation techniques, to help cope more easily with daily life. Doug is an atheist but has read many of the
texts from different religions, and eventually came to his own
awakening/knowing.
After 35 years of PTSD symptoms, primarily in the form of
suppressed and bottled-up anger, Doug had an Epiphany. Doug takes a yearly vacation at a Horse Ranch
in the Interior of BC. One day, deep in
experience of freedom and one-ness with the horse and the majestic
surroundings, he felt his anger release.
A subtle change on the outside, perhaps, he is much happier and finding
it easier to ‘go with the flow of the river’, which serves him well while
working and living in such a different culture.
Doug speaks of the personal changes that are unfolding
partially with an air of the unknown. He
guesses that many of the changes won’t be made evident to him until after he
returns home. But he is aware of a deeper appreciation of
the culture differences. He is studying
hard to learn his Swahili and allowing his students to help teach him. Doug mentioned briefly that he might be
‘putting off’ finding another life-partner, but he is clear the relationship
will be one of depth, and the language barrier precludes him finding another
soul-mate here. In the meantime he is
deeply valuing and enjoying the relationships he has made here, in particular
with Simon, the Maasai young man and Samson, the 28 y.o. Tanzanian teacher at
his school. It seems that Doug is
receiving as much as he is giving in this ‘2 year vacation’ as he terms this
experience.
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