Hatutaki kujifunza wimbo

Well the first week of school is in the bag. It was fun, but I learned some things, so I thought I would share.

1. It takes more than two weeks for 279 students to show up.

My school is supposed to be receiving 279 Form 1 students. Right now I believe our enrollment it close to 170 or so, which means we are still waiting on 100ish kids to arrive. Currently the students are in two streams (a difficult process because they cannot count off), but there are still too many in one classroom to teach. The is no space to walk to the back of the classroom and just enough space to stand at the board and teach (Fire hazard?). Hoping by the end of this coming week we will have almost all of the Form 1 students, so we can stream them properly.

2. Trying to stream students off their exams from the previous year would work, but....

Last year, after my students were streamed (ranked) according to GPA I found that teaching was a lot easier because I could tailor it to my classes. I could use more English in the classroom with the students in the A stream and teach at a slower pace to the students in the B stream. This year I suggested using the exit exam grades from primary school to stream the new students from the beginning of the year. At first my Mkuu thought this was a great idea and then said we would have to give our own exam (which would cost time and money that we don't have) because the kids “plagiarized”. I can only assume he meant cheat. Not to insult him, but to make a point, I added that our students cheat as well. In fact, the majority of Tanzanian students cheat. Cheating is rampant. The sad thing is that the students are awful cheaters. Their cheating so blatant, it is laughable. I am still suggesting we use the results from the exit exam, but we will see how this plays out. I would also like to point out that the Mkuu's son is one of the form one students I will be teaching this year.

3. Not everyone wants to learn a song...

To start the Form One year the Ministry of Education has an English orientation course put into place. We teachers are supposed to use this book dated from the early 1980's (before I was born) to introduce the new students to English. The book is actually pretty silly and I will admit that I glanced at it and immediately decided that I would go about the introduction to English in a different way. For the first few weeks my plan is to play a game related to learning English at the beginning of each class, then continue to start my Physics or Math lesson for the day. This past Friday I thought teaching the students “I'm a little tea pot” would be a fun start to class. About halfway through teaching the song, I saw interest was lagging and asked if they wanted to continue. Most responded negatively. Actually one of the boys in the class, who looks around 18, gave me the death stare, which left me pretty stunned. So I asked if they wanted to learn Physics. Most responded positively. So I turned around to the board, grabbed the eraser and said, “If it is what you really want, but Physics isn't fun”. As you can probably guess, I like to take advantage of the fact that they do not know English. And because they don't know English I assume that they were then lost for the next thirty minutes of class when I was talking about applications of physics and gravity.

4. I miss my old form one students

I know I will come to love my new form one students, but I miss my old form one, now form two, students. In a way it is nice that I am not their teacher. I feel I can be more candid with them. I also cannot believe how much their English has improved. Looking at the new form one class and the now form two class the difference is remarkable. I secretly hope their leap in English proficiency had something to do with my teaching, as most Tanzanian teachers teach in Swahili, but I could never be sure. What I do know, however, is that I can have a conversation with them in English. Pretty amazing. After my first few encounters with my former students I decided that I could not just let them flounder in form two without any other English besides their actual English class (taught by my awesome counterpart). So, I decided I would head up the English club. The club will meet during subject clubs after classes on Thursdays. I am hoping to work on vocab and grammar with them through games and a pen pal program with another English Club run by another PCV. We will see how this pans out over the next couple of months... I'll keep you all updated.

5. Not all PCVs look like “PCVs”

I bet most of you think of PCVs and get this image in your head of a guy who has not shaved, showered or cut his hair in 14 months or a girl with dread locks and hairy legs/ armpits, but that is not usually the case. Come to think of it most volunteers in Tanzania are clean and do not sport the Peace Corps hippie look. That being said, there are volunteers who fit that stereotype. This weekend I got a call from Eric who received a call from two Ugandan PCVs. They were traveling through Mbeya and needed some advice on where to stay. I ended up calling them and meeting up with them and a few other volunteers from our region. As you can guess these guys fit the PC stereotype, but, I assume, only because they were traveling for about a month. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy my daily shower, haircuts and keeping my self clean, but I wish I had the “I don't give two craps” attitude once in a while. I am not saying I would go a month without taking a shower, but I wouldn't mind having braids in for a few weeks and not caring if I wore a shirt more than twice. I guess the hippie attitude is great in PC, but not as culturally acceptable back in the states. I should also mention these guys were really cool. It is always great to meet PCVs from other countries. You get to see how their program is different from your and to swap stories. These guys were also thinking about setting up a couch surfing network for PCVs in Africa, which would be awesome! Countries in Africa are all very different and most do not speak the same languages, so it is always great, not to mention safer, to meet other volunteers, while you are traveling who have the place wired..

     6. I understand why...

Every time I walk back to my house from the village I am greeted by a backdrop of rolling green mountains, pine trees and dirt covered children hanging from peach trees. Not exactly what you think of when you think of living in Africa or Tanzania, but it still feels like a foreign place to me. I cannot help but smile and think how lucky I am to have this experience. I am still amazed how I ended up here. I guess there comes a time when you realize you just need to find yourself for one reason or another. It is a question that comes up often between PCVs and one that not everyone has a straight answer to-- So why Peace Corps? Personally my answer to this question has changed multiple times over the last 14 months, but I finally feel I have converged on an unwavering answer. I needed new direction in my life. After college/ rowing, which gave me some direction, I felt there was a hole in my life that needed to be filled. I tired to fill it with different things and people, but nothing really seemed to fit. I think PC has fit that hole pretty well and allowed me to feel like I have a new direction, a new path. This experience has also, for the time being, pacified a need for adventure and a need to feel like I am making a difference. During college I was pretty selfish and didn't get to explore too many things. I think after being deprived for a while it caught up with me. I should also add a big thank you for those people who have been so patient through this time and allowing me to do what I needed to do...you know who you are.

So there are just a few things I learned/ came to realize this week. This coming week is graduation for A- level students and then a meeting to plan the girls' empowerment conference in Mbeya, i.e. I get to see other PCVs from my region and eat Indian food! I will also be turning a quarter of a century this week, which probably makes my parents feel much older than I feel...

I hope everyone is enjoying the snow at home! Seeing as though I have not seen snow in 19 months I am a little jealous, but not really because it summer here!

All my love from TZ.