Tanzanian Music Video

Lake Nyasa

Again

Our Hut

Kat and I

Jesus Music Videos, Bedazzled Clothing and a Meat Grinder

Life in the Peace Corps can change at the drop of a hat. I have found that a few uneventful weeks can go by and then all of a sudden some one turns on a faucet and you find yourself in a flash flood. I guess this is true anywhere you go, but I always figured that life here would always be relatively uneventful. 

Kwanza (First) the relatively uneventful:

-All right you heard it here first—a meat grinder has change my life (at site).  A couple of weeks ago I purchased a meat grinder for about $10 and I can now make hamburgers, sloppy joes, meatloaf, meatballs, meat sauce, Sheppard’s pie….  The possibilities are endless.

- Last week at school I realized I neglected to sign the teachers’ attendance book for three days. Simultaneously I noticed that I had lost my blue pen, so I began to graffiti the attendance book in red pen when I was promptly stopped by one of my co-workers. “AHH Madam! Only the President signs his name in red pen!!! You must use blue or black”. WOAH. (A) I was so taken a back I almost wanted to run away B) What kind of ridiculous rule is that?) I quickly copied over my signature in a borrowed blue pen and profusely apologized. I would just like to send a Thank You to the Peace Corps training staff for giving us a heads up on that rule during training… guess you cannot cover everything.

-Last Tuesday we received a letter addressed to the staff of our school. The letter, which was from a teacher who works at a near by primary school, had a proper heading but was written on notebook paper. The subject of a letter was the woman’s tree, which someone had cut down and possibly used for firewood or charcoal. The primary school teacher was accusing one of the teachers at my school of cutting down her tree and was subsequently asking for them to pay her 10,000 /= (Tanzanian Shillings). She concluded the letter by asking for the payment within 24 hours and her signature. She also included a postscript that read (in Swahili), “Sorry I used bad paper”.  My counterparts and I thought this was pretty fun and decided that the woman would not be getting her 10,000/=. Pole sana. Just goes to show that people here are cordial even when they are pissed off. 

On to the more eventful:

This weekend about 8 volunteers spent the weekend at Matema. Matema is a small village at the northern end of Lake Nyasa or Lake Malwai. To get to the village we departed from my site in the early morning, arrived in Tukuyu, took another coaster to Kyela and then rented a private car for the reminder of the trip. The car ride was interesting. I always seem to forget how lucky I am to live in the southern part of Tanzanian because the main roads are paved, but the road from Kyela to Matema is not. So, we spent about and hour and a half traveling through rice paddies and banana forests in a mini van with four people a breast in a small back seat down a gravel road. When you arrive in Matema it looks like a completely average Tanzanian village. It has a small, sufficient fruit market and plenty of mama run small places to eat. The Lutheran Center, where we stayed, is located right on the beach and boasts 10-15, one, two, three and four bed huts. The beach at Matema is absolutely gorgeous and is one of those places I never believed I would have the opportunity to visit in my lifetime. The water is a bluish turquoise—like the color of your toilet after you use 1,000 flushes—and the sand particles look a little smaller than that of gravel. If you look out at the lake you can see only the horizon in the distance—rightly so because Lake Nyasa is the third largest lake in Africa. To the East of Lake Nyasa lie the Livingston Mountains, which looks as if they rise right out of the water. Having a Jurassic Park feel to them, they are green, luscious and look as if they were folded. The water in the lake supposedly does not contain schistosomiasis (let’s hope not), and is as clear and as warm as bath water.

The locals in the area are very used to seeing travelers and were very welcoming. They also took no real mind and went along with their daily business; fishing in their dugout canoes and washing their clothing on the shores of the lake. I must confess it is a little surreal to be swimming in the lake, glance 100 meters down the beach and see children playing naked in the water and women doing their wash draped in their brightly colored kitenge and head wraps.

The first night a church choir was on the premises shooting a music video. Now when you think of a music video you might get the image of a good sound set up, a couple of cameras, a few famous people, blocked off set, possibly pyrotechnics, back up dancers and an awesome food buffet. Alright, now forget all that, add 15 women and 5 men in matching outfits, dancing/ singing to Jesus music (we all know how I feel about this, if not please refer back to an earlier blog post where said music gave me a migraine). The choreography is minimal, but simple shuffling moves that look almost like a retirement home jazzercise class. The recording equipment looks like something my dad used to film my 10^th birthday in 1997 and the music playback is one gigantic speaker. Also, a loud generator runs all of the electrical equipment. One can only hope that they dub the music over that noise during editing. Oh! Almost forgot. There are about 3 to 4 costume changes for the dancers/ singers and absolutely no set perimeter. I am almost positive that I will be background extra in the next installment of the Matema Beach Christian Choir sing-a-long. I also have no doubt that my home stay mama will buy the DVD when it is released and my home stay sisters will learn all of the dance steps.

It is pretty inexpensive to stay at the center 7,000/= a night with breakfast, so about $5. Breakfast is pretty awesome and I might just be saying this because I have lived here for six months now, but hot cocoa, tea, instant coffee, homemade toasted bread, eggs and warm orange mango jam was pretty amazing! Now some of you might think that is not a lot of food, but for $1.33 it is a great deal. At night we ate in the village—the standard rice and beans, and built a bon fire, complete with ice-cold beers on the beach. Even though it is March it felt so peaceful to sit on the beach in a grass A-frame hut with a cool breeze at dusk sipping a cool African beer.

I should also mention that although it is March, we are still located near the equator and the sun is pretty unforgiving. I am currently nicely toasted, almost like that marshmallow that you tried to brown, but then it catches on fire leaving you cursing and trying to extinguish a flaming ball of gooey sugar. Thankfully, I did not spontaneously combust, but I am a little charred.

One thing I tried to promised myself gong into this 27 month odyssey was that I would not look too far into the future, while this sometimes needs to occur for planning’s sake, I try to take life here one day at a time. If I don’t, I, and yes this has happened on occasion, start to sweat, get a little anxious, nauseous and panicked. Our last day at Matema, I was informed that one of the volunteers from my region was going home early. This was pretty disheartening and gave me one of those panic/ anxiety moments. Sometimes I fear that I am going to wake up one day homesick and that it will not go away. I had a significant scare during home stay, when I was unhappy and unsure of my decision for an entire week. I am petrified of the downward spiral. I have seen things be seemingly fine here one week and disastrous the next. This being said I rarely let myself cry here. Now that may sound strange, but I am afraid that once I start, I won’t stop. And this mainly pertains to missing home – something I have jested about in previous posts, but not actually openly discussed. So here are some obvious questions and answers:

1)   Do I get homesick? – Yes

2)   When? -- Mainly Sunday nights and Monday mornings, but also when I am extremely bored and when I open a pre-packaged card from my parents

3)   What do I do to feel better? -- Exercise, read, talk to other volunteers or counterparts, do work, and write; basically anything to stay busy.

Due to the volunteer’s leaving I adopted an adult dog. Also I should take this time to mention that Argo has gone to a better place. 80% of the puppies in her litter also did not survive due to a parasitic infection. I figured this dog should go to a good home and I could use a companion at site. I am just glad he is trained and mature. Also I should mention that on the way to my site, he got carsick and threw up all over me....

After this weekend I cannot help but think about how luck I am. There are many people who calculate their decisions in life. My decision to join was somewhat calculated, a week +, but in terms of the scale of the decision it could be considered flying by the seat of my pants. But as the Win Borden quote says, “If you wait to do everything until you're sure it's right, you'll probably never do much of anything”. No matter where my service takes me I am happy about my decision. I am happy to wake up in the morning to children singing and dancing before their school day starts, cook all of my meals, wash my clothes in a bucket and use a toilet that does not protrude from the floor. I made the right decision. I tell myself this often because I can easily forget it when I am sitting at a desk starring down 180 notebooks with 10 problems each (1,800 problems to grade), burning beans (only happened once so far) or waking up Monday morning. I think too many volunteers here mask their feelings. I will be the first person to tell you that there are times when I am unhappy, but I acknowledge it and try to not let it bother me. I never deny myself the feeling, but I never let it linger too long.

I should also mention I had my 1^st site visit this past Friday from Peace Corps. James came to see my site, meet my mkuu and observe one of my classes. Things went off without a problem and he even brought me a package that had been stuck in Dar since early November. It contained a bunch of people magazines, pearl earrings (don’t leave home without spares), NYT crosswords and t-shirts. So excited for new clothing, I ripped open the package to find two bejeweled shirts that could have belonged to one of Brett Michael’s girlfriends. I did not want to offend my mother’s, taste, but I considered whether she had paid attention to my wardrobe for the last 24 years and simply said that I was happy to have them (also because most people here would be happy to have a new shirt). When she told me she found them on sale and that I could give them away eventually I told her my true feelings, which produced a good laugh. I will probably don said shirts at some point, but also gifty them when I leave Tanzania.

All right this post has gone on long enough, but I hope everyone is well at home and enjoying the March thaw. Spring is coming! Next week I will be traveling to in-service training in Morogoro. It should be fun to learn to write grants and meet up with everyone from my training class and visit my home stay family again. I will keep you all updated on how it turns out.

All my love from TZ.

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.

Monkeys and Electricity

So life has moved pretty fast over the last couple of weeks, but relatively void of events, so this post is going to be pretty uneventful and short.

Teaching is going well. I am proud to say I am ahead of my SOW (scheme of work), which means I am spend a lot of time reviewing with my students and setting up labs. I will say that students in Tanzania act the same as students in American when Friday afternoon rolls around. Last Friday my class of 80 students was getting a little rowdy. Usually when this happens with a normal teacher a thin, long stick emerges, the students are removed from the classroom, lined up and put through the gauntlet. Honestly, I do not want to waste space by telling you all how I really feel about this method of dealing with the situation, but I will say my feelings involve words that might offend some of you.  As an alternative I decided I would give the class three strikes. If I had to stop class three times, I would leave the class. After I taught most of the material I wanted to get through and with about ten minutes left in the period, the kids racked up their third strike, so I said, “I will see you all on Monday” and left the class.  I think my method of dealing with the situation worked fairly well because on Monday I could have heard a pin drop for most of the class. Most of the students here love to learn and love attention from the teacher, so not teaching seems like a better punishment then the stick. Like I told my students, I am here for them and because I want to be, not because I have to be. 

This past Monday, while I was looking in the science cabinet for a beaker one of my counterparts/ fellow teachers, Madam Yolanda, informed me that Nehema had a baby girl named Karen. My first thought was who the heck is Nehema? I asked who Nehema was. It turns out Nehema is the school secretary. A woman I see everyday and know very well, apparently not her name though. I had no idea that she was pregnant and just thought that she had a kitmabi or big belly. I told my counterparts this and it evoked a pretty good laugh in the office, especially for a Monday.

Yesterday, just like any other weekday, I got up, made some tea, got dressed while listening to some music and left the house at 7:35am. The only difference this morning was that there were no students at school. Usually by 7:20 the majority of students have arrived at school, but this morning…not a soul.  I quickly put two and two together and remembered that today was probably Maulid day, a lunar Muslim holiday, which is not announced until the day before it happens.  I decided to go into the village to buy some eggs for my breakfast, but on my way home I ran into a counterpart who told me that the holiday was actually tomorrow and that the students were confused, but there was school. So, long story short, I spent most of the day just hanging out because there were about 20 students at school and I have the day off today. Got to love the Tanzanian school system and lunar holidays!

So now for the more random part of my blog post: monkeys and electricity, unfortunately not simultaneously. Last Sunday, on my normal run down a dirt road through some farms I saw some animals crossing the road in front of me. As I approached I realized that they were Vervet monkeys, about 10 of them. Vervet monkeys are the little devils that steal stuff from your car, campsite or in this case corn from your fields.  I was pretty shocked to see them, but then again I do live in Tanzania… rule #56: expect the unexpected.

Speaking of unexpected, last night I was making dinner when I heard voices outside of my house. Interested in what was going on I walked out my front door to see two of my counterparts kneeling my the corner of my house with pliers, a hammer, a knife and electrical tape cutting into the wire on the side of my house that carries my electricity. My first thought was “holy crap are you stupid? “and my second was “I hope they do not cut the electricity to my house”. I greeted them and then suggested that they might want to turn off the electricity to my house before they go cutting into any wires. I also informed them that I did not want to be around to see one of them get shocked and would be inside should one of them fry themselves. After they had finished taping, but before they reburied the wires, it began to rain and because the wires were live they make a hissing noise when they were hit with raindrops, which freaked me out. Seriously do not know how they did not shock themselves and cut the power to my house, but I would like to congratulate them, hongera sana!

Like I said, the last two weeks have been pretty low key, but I hope everyone is well back at home and that the snow is starting to finally melt!!

All my love from TZ. 

Number 1 controls the water?/ Goats in the dining hall

This is your life. Four words I find myself saying at the most random times during my days here. When I am writing up physics definitions on the board, carrying water back to my house, speaking in full Swahili sentences to the Bibi (older woman) on my run through her shamba. I have written much about daily happenings here in Tanzania, but have yet to express how I feel, so I figured now would be a great time. First, let me say that eight months ago if someone had told me I would be living here I probably would have laughed and said it is one of those things in theory I would love to do, but in actuality would probably never act on.*  The day I had to decided whether of not to accept my invitation I also had a skype interview with a school in San Diego. No less than five minutes after the interview I sent my acceptance email to the Peace Corps. I was in retrospect on of the easiest decisions in my life, but the hardest to come to terms with. It was hard because I had to admit to myself I was a little crazy (aren’t we all?) and scared. Who really wants to give up things like seeing their friends and family, Dunkin’ Donuts coffee, Target, fall in New England, Holidays at home, cheese, their ability to drive a car, running water, a hot shower and many other possessions? I recently read and article by and entertainment journalist who quit his high paying job at the age of forty something to join the Peace Corps (slightly crazy?). I cannot recall his reasons for joining, but I would not be surprised if they change daily, as mine do. I can say this though as with anything it is a journey and the end point is not the important thing. Just like the stuffing of the Oreo, it is the “stuff”, daily life and daily events that make it worthwhile. I just like to think my Oreo is double stuffed now a days! (Any my inner fat kid emotionally satisfied)     

* Much like my college application experience. Not many people know this, but at first I did not want to go to Brown. I was scared of the unknown. So, the second time in my life the intriguing yet unknown stared me in the face I decided I had to confront it.

All right, on to my week. It was interesting to say the least. First things first, I turned 24 this past week. Honestly, I do not feel any older, in fact because there is no snow here or change in temperature I feel like I am permanently stuck in September 2010. To celebrate I made myself dinner, steak, salad, rice and a chocolate cake with mocha frosting. (Yes, anything is possible here if you just believe!).  I also went out with Kat and TJ this past weekend for burgers and a few drinks to celebrate. Saturday, I went to pick up Argo, my puppy! She is really cute and tiny… smaller than a soccer ball. The first few days with her have been a little rough to say the least, but we are getting used to one another. The second night Argo escaped from her crate and greeted me in the morning sitting on the couch wagging her tail (oh yeah she also had fleas… and was sitting on my couch) and a nice pile of excrement on the floor. I blame my bad hammering, as I had to attach the mesh sides to her crate with only a headlamp because the electricity was out.

Monday morning rolled around and I was really home sick. The homesickness usually hits on Monday mornings because let’s face it who really likes Mondays in the States, let alone in Tanzania. The saving grace of the morning came around 7:45am. Near the main office of our school, a dining hall for the boarding students is under construction, but is still missing part of one wall. There are also no doors for the doorframes, so the local goats roam through and use it as their hangout. For some reason the Mkuu decided this morning he did not want the goats in the dinning hall, so he summoned all of the Form 3 male students. The students then encircled the building and like a covert op started to sneak up on the goats. All at once, cement dust, the screams of goats, yelling of students and my laughter transpired. The students started to grab the goats; some dragging them by the legs, some carrying them off as if they were going to roast them and some walking them like wheelbarrows (my personal favorite). Next, other students emerged from the storeroom carrying twine and started to tie up all of the goats in three bunches of five. I honestly never thought any animal, let alone goats, could make such an awful noise or be so entertaining. So, the goats sat on the main lawn of the school, crying or screaming, I cannot be sure which, falling over each other and making me forget I was homesick.

 I thought things had settled out until I got a message from another PCV I got Argo

from that said the rest of the puppies at his house had worms. So, I went to Tukuyu to meet him and buy worm and flea medicine. Upon returning home I was informed that there was no water in the village because the neighboring village, Number 1, that controls the water had shut it off for some reason. Having about 20L of water and no water in reserve I decided to walk down to the river with Argo and a few buckets to get some water. When I got the river it was brown from the silt, so I trekked back home, waterless. At this point I felt it would be worth it to give Argo her flea bath with water I got from a large puddle in my yard. As I was bathing her, she drank some of the water and started to hiccup/ dry heave and foam at the mouth. At this point I called my Dad, thinking I had killed my dog of three days. Feeling completely awful, after a few hours, I put her to sleep in her crate with some water, rice and a prayer that she would make it through the night.

Haha and you thought I was done…. While I was eating dinner I noticed that the skin around my eyes and nose were stinging. The stinging intensified and I figured I had gotten some of the flea medicine too close to my eyes. Well the intense stinging continued throughout the night. At one point, around 1 am, I got up to splash milk on my face and take a Benadryl (figured if it didn’t help the stinging it would knock me out, thankfully it did one of them). Needless to say this was quite clearly the worst day at site thus far. Thankfully, the water came back on today (for a few hours) and it poured for about an hour, so I have enough water to last me a day or two. Honestly, hoping to make it through the rest of this week without any more majors.

To tie up a couple of loose ends…. Judy and Ed thank you so much for the Christmas card! The mail is a little wonky here and I just got it yesterday!!! Also Grandpa, thanks for the card and thinking of me on my birthday.

Pretty random, but I thought I would add it to the blog incase anyone eats rice every night and wants to change up their dinner as well… banana (not cooked) and rice go really well together…seriously do it!

To not break with tradition, I hope everyone stateside is doing well and if you live in New England putting that snow blower you bought last winter at the Home Depot to good use, or in the case of my aunt shoveling it for your self! You go girl! All my love from TZ. 

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

Slasher supervisor/ Where is a blowtorch when you need one?

So, I after one important month (plus a few days) of me feeling a little useless I have officially started school! This past Monday (3^rd) we had a staff meeting that started at 10 am and lasted until 2 pm. For the non-calculators out there or people who are bad with time, like myself, I sat through a 4-hour meeting that was mainly in Kiswahili. Not to worry, I was prepared for the meeting. I brought a pen, notepad and the all-important novel. If I have learned one thing it is this: bring a book wherever you go in Tanzania.  I am grateful however, that my counterparts and Mkuu did not take offence to my reading. In all honesty, I paid attention to as much of the meeting as I could, but after a while my brain gets tired of having to translate from Kiswahili to English and I tune it out. After four hours, I learned that I would be teaching Form 1 Physics and Math (about 28 periods a week). Now some of you out there might be laughing, especially if you know how many Calc and Physics classes I took in college. If you guessed, one Calc class and no physics classes you would be correct. In fact, I have disliked physics since senior year in high school (Thank you, Mari Jones for helping me to pass!).  That being said, I am actually excited to teach both subjects because I will have the opportunity learn the material over again and hopefully obtain a new liking for both! Towards the end of the meeting my Mkuu addressed the 5 year plan for the school and subsequent goals of which numbers 13 and 14 were to construct a “botanical garden” and a “frog/ fish pond”.  I commend my school for trying to improve itself aesthetically, but I think it would be more important to finish putting windows in our classrooms and buy the computer we need to type exams. As an aside, one of my secondary projects is to get a used desktop for my school so we can type up our exams instead of paying someone to do it. In the long run it would save the school a lot of money. My other secondary goal is to build a basketball court at the school (not entirely altruistic), but a goal I feel I can accomplish within the next two years.  Okay…so in all the meeting was actually the shortest 4-hour meeting I have ever sat through (probably due to the novel) and I am proud to say I survived my first meeting in a different language.

Monday night also brought a new experience for me. Let’s lay the scene: I was on the phone because for once my Zain plan was working (it allows me to call other volunteers for free!) with my friend Kat. I was cooking rice and veggies and sitting outside on my back porch. It is also important to note that my umeme (Kiswahili for electricity; pronounced ooo-may-may) had gone out, so I was cooking by flash/candle light. So, while I was cooking/talking on the phone I noticed something move by one of my buckets on my porch. Being the curious person that I am I stood up and held my lamp over my bucket when I saw it…. a tiny black SNAKE! Alright, so although it was tiny, it was none the less …. a snake. Honestly, I like snakes about as much as Indian Jones, so not really at all.  Actually, Kat got the brunt of my encounter with the snake because I proceeded to scream, bellow, yelp, and shriek into the phone. My first thought was to jump on to the chair, which I did. My second was to grab the kerosene that was in my kitchen, throw it on the snake and then light the snake on fire. Thankfully, Kat talked me out of this bright idea by saying that I probably would not want a flaming serpent anywhere near my house and truthfully, she was right. Although…. it would have made for a better blog entry, no? So..in the end the snake and I went our separate ways, but next time I see one near or in my house…it will be getting the blow torch I purchased yesterday. (Just kidding)

School officially started on this Monday and foolishly I thought I would begin teaching, so I prepared a lesson plan. Little did I realize the first couple days/ week of school is designated for school clean-up. Back in the states, school clean-up might involve having students clean up garbage on the playground. In Tanzania, school clean-up means that the students arrive at the school with buckets, hoes and “slashers” from home. For all of you unfamiliar with a slasher, it is a metal tool that looks a lot like a golf club, but has a sharp end and is swung back and forth to cut grass. Apparently there is a severe lack of lawn mowers in the country and livestock that wish to eat the grass around our school, but no lack of teenagers with slashers.  So, my first officially duty as a teacher in Tanzania was as (and yes, I was given this title by the assistant head of school), Slasher Supervisor. I was to make sure that the students were cutting grass and if they were not, I was to punish them. Now, I had no problem supervising the slashing of the grass, but I was not about to punish a student for failing to cut grass. Hell…I wouldn’t even want to cut grass. I believe the students should be in class learning, but schools are run differently in Tanzania. I would not say that their way of opening school is bad or good, but just different. Truthfully, I am glad that the grass in front of my house was slashed and that snakes will probably no longer want to live there, but am I glad that students were doing the work, no not entirely.  Today the same events took place, but in the afternoon it started to rain and the students took shelter in their classrooms. Since I had a nothing better to do I ventured into one of the classroom and had a very long and impromptu Q&A session with some form 4 students. I was asked every question from, “How old are you?”, “Do you have a boyfriend?”, “Do you drink beer?”, “Why does America have nuclear weapons?” to “Are widows inherited by their husband’s brother?”, “Is female circumcision practiced in America?”, “Do people eat ugali?” and “Why is there not a cure for HIV?”. I found all of the questions to be very good, but some more difficult to answer than others. In all sincerity, so far, the opportunities when I get to share my culture and what life is really like in America with students here are the times I feel I am doing the most. Afterward I just exude happiness… there is really no other way to put it. I think, or rather know, that in the long run my students here will do more for me, but in the meantime, hopefully I can teach them something that will stay with them for life.

As for other updates on my life here at site: I planted my first crop! Mchicha (mm-chee- cha), a leafy green, has started to grow, so I think I will start to plant the rest of my seeds this week. I will hopefully go to the fundi this week and ask him to make a crate for my mtoto wa mbwa (dog of baby), aka puppy. She will hopefully arrive within the next two weeks, just in time for my birthday!!  Also currently in training for the Kilimanjaro half-marathon that will take place at the end of February. I have no idea why on Earth I decided to train for another one, but I figure I shouldn’t let the opportunity pass me by…you only live in Africa once, right?

In all I am just thankful for the start of school, a daily routine and what I consider to be the beginning of my real life in Tanzania. As is wont, I hope that everyone back at home is doing well. Miss you all. All my love from TZ.