Guerrilla Warfare

Where to start? It's only been a week or two since my last blog post, but as we have already established – events here come in waves.

I guess it is best to start with the sad news first. About a week ago my neighbor passed away. She left five children (one was three weeks old), a husband (a teacher at my school), a sister and many friends. No one is really sure what the cause of death was, but I guess it does not matter. I think what does matter however is how when tragedy strikes a community pulls together. I was actually amazed how similarly affairs are taken care of here and in America. The only thing I found a little different was the separation of the sexes. The day Mama Anna passed away all of the women who were close to her flocked to her house and the men sat outside. I should admit here that I become a very awkward person when I heard someone has died and go to visit the family. I never know what to say or do. Come to think of it... who really does? So, I dreaded going to the family's house, but I reminded myself I signed up for the entire experience – good or bad. As is custom, I wrapped myself up in my most colorful fabric, took my shoes off, greeted all of the women sitting on the floor in the house, sat against the wall and cried. To make matters worse one of the older woman directed me to sit next to Mama Anna's children who, as one can imagine, were inconsolable. I did my best to comfort them by rubbing backs, but like I said not really my specialty. I will miss Mama Anna. She was such a friendly woman. She  always smiled and waved whenever she saw me. She was also the only Tanzania woman I saw play physical games with her kids and for that she gets huge props in my book.

The last thing I would like to say about the funeral was the procession to the church. After people gathered at the family's house we all piled into lorries, students, teachers, friends, family. Lorries are big trucks that they transport potatoes and other produce in. It has a metal bar roll cage covering, but it is more or less a glorified pick up truck. Once we started rolling one of the older female students next to me started to sing. It quickly turned into a call and response song to which I wished I knew the words. It was absolutely beautiful to hear them all singing. As we climbed up the green mountain side and I stared out from the lorrie I realized how truly special my experience here has been so far. I have been accepted into a community with open arms, no questions asked. I am expected to celebrate with the community as member and mourn as a member. At school I am treated no differently than the rest of the teachers. My issues matter just as much as theirs. At this point I feel I could not ask for more – I have blended into the background.

Now for some happier news. This week our from VI A-level students graduated! Yesterday was the sherehe (party) for which I assumed my normal role in the kitchen. I know I have complained about being a woman in Tanzania before, but graduations are the one exception. Why? Well instead of having to sit at the head table with the Mkuu, Guest of Honor and other male teachers I get to hide in the kitchen and no one cares. In the kitchen I am usually placed on some sort of “baby task” (i.e. peeling carrots, cleaning peppers, cutting cabbage), but I do not mind. The rest of the time is spend gossiping, involuntarily inhaling smoke from the wood fires and being the unofficial food tester. Not too shabby.

Graduation went off without a hitch... four hours later than planned. Apparently the guest of honor decided that showing up at 2pm was much better than showing up at 10 am. About halfway through the ceremony I decided I had had enough smoke and loud music, so I went home for awhile and reappeared just in time to greet the guest of honor and be offered a beer, which I politely declined.

Not too much else to report from here. Today we had a staff meeting. We discussed the fact that the villagers think the teachers will be leaving the school because of what happened to Mama Anna and all of us being, supposedly, superstitious. We also discussed an issue that has plagued our school for a few weeks now. According to my head master there is a rouge ex-form IV student who hides in the bushes and ambushes form I students on their way to and from school. He attacks without warning and steals their notebooks. We were told to keep a lookout for him. If we see him, we are to capture him and bring him to the school office. I have two things to say about this:
1. I am amazed that I understood this whole scenario as it was explained in Swahili.

2. This story made me laugh so hard I almost had to leave the staff room. Apparently no one else thought a kid using guerrilla warfare to target only high school freshman and steal their notebooks was funny.

Oh! Almost forgot. I survived my 25^th birthday with the help of some awesome friends. They planned a BBQ, made me wear birthday glasses and even baked me a cake with Nutella frosting and candles! Thanks again Anna, Anne, Kat, TJ, Eric, Brandon, Andrew, Hannah and Jess!

Hope February is treating everyone well back at home. It has started to rain more here, but is still unseasonably cold for summer time. I just hope May, June and July are not too cold.

All my love from TZ.