It's a bird, it's a plane..... It's ndege/ Extracurriculars

Before I left for Tanzania my brothers warned me that life would be different for me over the next two years because I am woman. Knowing how I react to situations in which my gender is the focus, my brothers were worried for the physical well being of all men in Tanzania. I do not blame my brothers because they are partially right. I honestly hate to be told I cannot do something or do something as well as a man because I am a woman. I will say that my brothers were not completely wrong about life for women here in Tanzania. In a Tanzanian household the man has the last say. He is the decision maker, not his wife. This cultural formality, I have found, also spans into many Tanzanian places of work, i.e. our staff room. Let me preface my story with this; Everyday after school the school cook prepares a meal for the teachers usually ugali and mchicha or nyama [ a meal of cooked flour and water until it looks like mashed potatoes with veggies or meat]. A few days ago I was leaving the staff room to go into the village when one of my co-workers stopped me and asked me if I could see if lunch was ready yet. At first I did not think much of it, but on my way to the kitchen I stopped and asked him why he could not ask. (He was, after all, sitting about 100 feet from the kitchen and I was going to have to walk way out of my way.) His response, “Because you are a woman and I am a man”. At this I stopped in my tracks, gave one of those shocked reactions where you, raise your eyebrows, bulge your eyeballs, shrug your shoulders and exhale through your mouth and your nose simultaneously. And honestly, without thinking I yelled back at him, “Awww HELL no” and walked in the opposite direction to the village. As soon as I spoke and showed my anger, via body language, my counterpart started to apologize. Trying to handle the situation delicately I told him that what he said offended me and that his reason was neither a good nor appropriate. Truthfully, I know I should be sensitive of cultural differences and on all other accounts I am, but I draw the line where women are treated like second-class citizens. Seriously, the term “bride price” is still used here. Normally I would not consider myself a feminist, but I feel as an American woman I need to stand up for myself and try to set a new standard within my workplace here. I understand that it is hard to set an example because I am white and viewed very differently here than a Tanzanian woman, but hopefully my co-worker will think twice before he uses the excuse, “because I am a man and you are a woman”, again.

Alright…now onto bigger and better things. This past Wednesday I got up the courage to attempt my first lab with roughly 140 students, give or take 20 depending on the day. I split both of the streams into two groups. One group was to stay in the classroom and work on problems in small groups. The other group came outside with me, were split into groups of 5 or 6, given cylinder and asked of find its volume. Overall the 4 hours of teaching on Wednesday and three lab shifts went fairly well. My favorite moment of the day was in one of the afternoon shifts when a plane flew overhead. All of my students stopped working and started staring in to direct sunlight (smart kids…) in hopes of seeing the plane. At first I had no idea what was going on and had to ask why they were all not working… “Madam, the plane!! ndege! (Swahili word for plane and bird) WOOOOO!!! Ah!!!! In America we hear or see an airplane every day. Here it is such a novelty, which made me realize I would bet a lot of money that not one of my students has ever been on a plane or let alone seen a 757 up close. It is funny, but it is little things like this that make me appreciate the little things I am lucky enough to experience regularly such as flying on an airplane, watching a movie in a movie theater, using a washing machine or iPod, riding in a car or a boat, surfing, moving sidewalks, elevators, escalators…. the list could go on. Basically things we all take for granted on a daily basis, but things that many people in this world would never get to experience or even know about.

Now for a little office humor, a couple of days ago Mr. Gregory and Madam Yolanda, two of my counterparts, where hanging out in the staff room. I had just sat down to find the two of them laughing after another teacher who arrived last week left the room. I, of course, asked them why they were laughing and they said that the new teacher had admitted that he had not taught his students yet this week because he was busy with paper work. But, they thought maybe it was because he feared the classroom. I commented that that did seem a little strange and then looked outside to see the new teacher showing a student how she was supposed to be fixing the pebbles around the flag pole (sometimes priorities go a little awry in the schools here). I pointed this out to my counterpart Mr. Gregory, who, I think without knowing it, said, “He is hacking the stone…..maybe he just likes extracurriculars”. [As I am writing this I realize it is one of those “you had to be there” moments, but…. Oh well.] I thought this was pretty freakin’ funny. It was also nice to find out that my counterparts have a sense of humor and find the new guy a little weird too. I think relationships between co-workers was one thing that I felt would be very different here, but was surprised to find out that relationships between Tanzanian co-workers are much the same as relationships between co-workers in America. Maybe it is because most of us are under the age of 30, but my co-workers like to gossip, joke and speculate just like Americans.

Again, this week was relatively uneventful. I did however get a package in the mail from Mom and Dad. Let’s just say I have a new found respect for processes Velveeta cheese!

All my love from Tz.