Special English

Well… the first week of teaching is officially in the bag…. and it went surprisingly well! I was supposed to be teaching three sections or streams of form 1 Math and Physics, but it looks as if there is only going to be two form 1 streams. So, in lieu of the third form 1 stream I am planning on picking up form 4 Biology! A Biology teacher is supposed to be coming to our school, but she has yet to arrive, so I figured I would put my knowledge and money to good use and teach something I actually studied in college.

The first couple weeks of class for form 1 are actually set aside in Tanzania for “Orientation”. Orientation is used to familiarize the students with the English language. Since the form 1 students do not know an ample amount, if any English, but must know it because all of the national exams (NECTAs) are in English they receive a jump-start in the first few weeks of school. This, consequently, means that I must teach in English and Kiswahili (which I have been speaking for less than four months) and it has actually has not been a total train wreck, but my English has to be what we PCVs like to call “special”.  I have to speak painfully slow, annunciate every word, avoid contractions, repeat myself at least once if not twice and formulate very direct and to the point sentences.  It is actually pretty exhausting to speak in Special English, but I am learning to manage. Despite moving at a snail’s pace, so far in form 1 we have learned how to tell English time* (see footnote), as I call it, how to tell someone about our daily routine, colors, verbs, numbers and words specific to Math and Physics. I have found it hard to explain to them, without feeling like I am a professional mime, that I want them to work in groups. I actually had to laugh the other day because it took me 10+ minutes to explain hangman to one of the classes. Eventually the kids picked it up and really enjoyed it, “Repeat game, Madam”. Personally, I really enjoy the games because I do not feel like I am lecturing, yet the kids are learning and watching the girls hand it to the boys, more often than not, especially in a male dominated cultural, is awesome.  I also feel my Swahili has gotten significantly better or at least I feel more fluid when I speak, after this week of teaching. I do not hesitate to correct my students’ English and I am glad they do not hesitate to correct my Swahili (spoken and written).

A few of you are probably wondering what exactly a Tanzanian classroom looks like. Well I can tell you it is in many ways not unlike a classroom in America and in a few ways it is a far cry. The classrooms are all open to the outside, meaning there are no enclosed hallways. There are five long buildings that house three classrooms each. In each classroom there is a black board, some windows, a cement floor, desks, chairs, a sign that says, “speak only English” and nothing else.  To be honest most of the desks and chairs are broken/don graffiti and there are often two students to one desk and chair. There isn’t even a ledge to rest the chalk, but to be honest I would not have it any other way. Some may see lack of resources as a serious obstacle, but I have started to view it as way to be really creative with my lesson plans! There are between 40 to 50 students in each stream, so (not including form 4) I have about 100 or so students. I would say this is a little different from the 9 students I taught last year using a SMARTboard, but I am managing.

Of course my duties reach beyond the classroom. Everyday after the academic day, from 1:50- 2:30 there are different meetings, Monday is self-study period, Tuesday HIV/AIDS club, Wednesday debate, Thursday subject clubs and (my favorite) Friday general cleanness (aka landscaping).  Tuesday, I decided I would pop into the HIV/AIDS club to see what it was all about and also because I am the only science teacher at my school. Thinking I would be just there to supervise I soon found myself with a piece of chalk in my hand and about 70 to 80 students staring at me. This is how it came to be that I ran HIV/AIDS club on the 3^rd Tuesday of January in the year 2011. This is also how I ended up answering questions about HIV/AIDS & kissing, masturbation, circumcision, blood types and why the prevalence of HIV/AIDS is lower in America than in Tanzania. Karibu teaching science in Tanzania / being the village’s teen health expert! It is a little scary that all of these students are receiving most of their sexual education from me, as it is considered somewhat taboo in Tanzanian families to discuss such things, but if not me they probably are not going to get it anywhere else, which is even scarier.  I have also been unofficially placed on sports and games duty two afternoons a week. So, from 4:30pm to about 6:00pm I trek over to the football/netball area and supervise. Until last week I had never seen netball played, but it seems like a really fun game and the girls from Isongole Sec. are pretty good. I was absolutely blown away by their teamwork, especially for a game of pickup netball.  I was also thinking how much I would love to take their passion, spirit, aggression, eagerness and teamwork and inject it into American teenagers.

In other news not related to school, I received two packages recently!! Thanks Mom and Dad! I just got my Christmas present today (i.e. new running shoes!). I will use the Christmas garland to decorate my house! Also, thanks Vashti! Magazines, fruit snacks, Star Wars stickers and chocolate were a great pick me up!!! Actually, earlier this week one of my students came to visit me and the Cosmo you sent me was on my coffee table, she picked it up and opened to a half naked woman in a perfume ad and proceeded to ask me if the woman in the picture was drunk because she had no clothes on…hence the reason I wear long skirts everyday.

Also, in the time between teaching periods I have taken up teaching my counterparts (fellow teachers) American slang. This has proved to be pretty entertaining. We have covered everything from, Sup?, *head nod*, What’s hanging?, what it means to “pound” your drink, chillaxin’, high five, wicked awesome, etc. This sounds funny to say but it is oddly comforting when my counterpart Mr. Gregory greets me in the morning with a “Sup?” and for a few moments I feel a little less far from home. I miss you all dearly! All my love from TZ!

Almost forgot!!! In my next blog post I would love to answer any and all questions people have about my service, teaching, Tanzania, etc. Either comment on the blog with your questions, Facebook me or email me!!!

*I am not sure if I explained this in one of my earlier blog posts and am honestly too mvivu (lazy) right now to go back and look, but in Swahili speaking countries there is a little thing called Swahili time. The Swahili day does not start at midnight 12am, but 6 am. Thus if it is 6 am in the morning and a Tanzanian were to ask the time one would have to tell them saa kumi na mbili asubuhi (hour 12 in the morning). For example school here beings at saa mbili asubuhi (hour 2 in the morning or 8:00 am) and ends at around saa nane na nusu mchana (hour 8 and ½ in the afternoon or 2:30pm).  So anytime anyone asks me the time here I have to add or subtract 6 hours (depending on how you look at it) from English time.

View of school from my front porch

Main Office of Isongole Sec.

Two kids picking fruit in my village