This is a big post, so I suggest getting comfy or reading it in the sections I’ve written about…
The sections are the following:
1. My Mental Turnaround
2. Vacation Bliss in Dar
3. Zanzibarian Wonder
4. My Christmas Holiday in Zanzibar
5. Returning to Dar and My New Adventure Mode
1. My Mental Turnaround
I’ve undergone quite the mental turnaround since my last blog post, which by this point was written more than a month ago! Before I get into the details about my transformation, I just want to say, first of all, thank you for having the patience to believe in me and wait out that difficult time with me before I could get back on my feet again. I also want to especially thank those of you who personally reached out to me during my time of need. Without your words of wisdom and convincing arguments to persevere, I could very well be stuck at home in the middle of a very cold and snowy New England winter right now rather than being baked at 95 degrees Fahrenheit every day under the hot Tanzanian sun! (Believe me, that’s not a complaint…haha).
2. Vacation Bliss in Dar
Speaking of which, that’s precisely what I’ve been doing throughout the past month. I’ve officially been on vacation since December 1. Before I left school I marked my students’ 200+ English exams over the course of three grueling (but very productive) days as fast as my hands could mark the pages so I could get out of Morogoro as fast as possibly. Although a piece of my heart undoubtedly belongs to Morogoro, I was more than ready for a change of situation and scenery by the time I’d finished marking the exams, as evident from my last blog post.
I’ve had the opportunity to enjoy myself in a plethora of ways since I’ve taken leave from Morogoro, which has done well to revive my spirits. I’ve seen oodles of my old Tanzanian friends and met new ones along the way. I’ve had the opportunity to sit and relax in the comfort of my friend’s mom’s apartment where I’ve settled in for the time being in Dar es Salaam. I’ve been spoiled by home cooked meals, ready access to television and up-to-the-minute news broadcasts, warm showers, and air conditioning. Overall, life has been very, VERY good. It’s nice to be able to take advantage of some of these luxuries after having had to forego their pleasures and deal with all the trials of living in Morogoro (what with the lack of running water in my house, above all) for the last couple of months.
In addition to settling into the apartment, I’ve also been able to spend ample time intensifying my familiarization with Dar. I’ve become more acquainted with some of the popular ex-pat places during the last month, where I’ve found solace in some of the charms of Western living, like indulging myself with amazing gelatos, pizzas, and other Western delights. I’ve also grasped a better mastery of where the best local Tanzanian hangouts are, which boast being home to the best combinations of beans, rice (especially pilau and biriani rice), vegetables, traditional African spices, and tasty meat the world has ever seen. The simplicity in some of the most popular dishes you can find there (like kachumbali salad, which is just a bunch of finely minced cold vegetables with lime juice and salt, or chipsi mayai, which is essentially a French fry omelet) is actually what keeps my taste buds dancing with joy every time I pick up my fork…or scoop some yummy goodness into my hands and into my mouth (you eat with your hands a lot here). It suffices itself to say that I’ve been able to enjoy myself in Dar, at least in terms of the food. The company of my friends and the serenity of the Tanzanian sunsets and beachfront have also done wonders to keep my spirit rising higher and higher to where I’m now not just back to feeling content, but I’m genuinely happy and ecstatic about living here.
3. Zanzibarian Wonder
As a bit of anecdotal evidence of my happiness, let me tell you about my recent trip to the beautiful little island of Zanzibar. Although Zenji (what Zanzibar is referred as in local Tanzanian slang) is just a two hour boat ride away from the mainland of Dar es Salaam, but once you arrive you could easily mistake it for being a country a million miles away. There’s something about Zanzibar, something really special, and I felt it the moment I arrived there. The whole energy of the place is absolutely intoxicating…and what I mean by that is that if you’re not happy when you’re on your way there, you’ll feel yourself engulfed in a huge burst of bliss once you step foot on land in Stone Town (the “city” in Zenji). As soon as I arrived and began walking from the waterfront to the place where myself and the other WorldTeach volunteers were staying for our mid-service conference in Stone Town (I still can’t believe more than half of my time is up here!), I felt like I was traveling back in time to a bejeweled treasure island where all the secrets of happiness lie and where only the lucky few ever get the chance to go. As we walked through a maze of alleyways and unnamed side streets to our destination, I felt like I’d suddenly been transported into the animated set of Aladdin when Princess Jasmine wanders the streets of the town and the market for the first time, disguised as a local. Although I undoubtedly couldn’t pass off looking like a local (my Whiteness never allows me to pass like that here, or anywhere in Africa, really), I received a surprising overabundance of genuinely cheerful greetings from local Zanzibarians that made me feel like I was home. Even though some of these Zanzibarians may have been trying to find a way to my heart order to charm me into buying something from one of their many small tourist shops hidden in the alleyways, I was beautifully duked into feeling extremely welcomed. The sense of welcoming I felt in Zanzibar was greater than any magnitude at which I’ve felt welcomed before in any other place I’ve been to in the world. There’s a superb calmness of energy and relaxed sense of peace that floods the air of Zanzibar that makes you feel anything but welcomed. In fact, if this energy could amass itself as a body of water, then Zanzibar might as well consider itself flooded to the deepest depths of the ocean just like in the myth of the lost Atlantis. This extreme feeling of welcoming came as a wonderful surprise, after I’ve struggled for months to feel at home in Morogoro where I’m constantly faced with hostile greetings of “Mzungu” (White European foreigner). I didn’t even realize I needed to feel this welcome until I felt it. For months I’ve put in so much effort into feeling like I belong in my community in Morogoro, and yet it only took me arriving for this very first time in Zanzibar to feel more like a part of the community there than I ever have in Morogoro over these last months.
Perhaps my bliss in Zanzibar could be attributed to the time of year at which I visited – it having been Christmas time and all – and the fact that many White tourists from all over the world flock here around this time to celebrate the holidays. Surely if so many tourists arrive then the community must adapt by making them feel welcome enough to stay and add to the economy of the island. But you have to ask yourself, “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” in this case. For, if Zanzibar weren’t a welcoming destination for tourists to come in the first place, then why would they travel all this way to come? It does seem bizarre that so many Christian tourists come to Zanzibar on vacation to celebrate the Christian Christmas holiday when over ninety percent of the island’s permanent residents at Muslim and seriously practice the Islamic faith. But this very trend just proves how much of a non-snow-globelike phenomenon the welcoming and accepting nature of Zanzibar really is for any type of people, no matter their race, religion, nationality, or reason for visiting etc. If I haven’t convinced you just how hospitable Zanzibar is, then perhaps the words I heard from an actual Zanzibarian will do well to convince you. He said that whenever he travels anywhere in the world, he never says he’s African, he always specifies that he’s Zanzibarian. He rationalizes that the pride he feels for being a Zanzibarian compels him to credit his origin as specifically as he does. He says for sure that Zanzibar is like other countries in Africa in many ways, and even indeed that it is a part of Africa, but he remains convinced that there is something special about Zanzibar and its unique acceptance of difference that exempts it from being lumped into the abstract description of just “Africa.” Even the government, alone, speaks to this fact. For the first time in all of Africa (if I remember correctly, at least…it may just be the first time in Tanzania, which is still a big deal on its own), Zanzibar boasts having a President from one political party and a Vice President (the runner up in the national election, in fact) from the opposition party. Although this is a recent change that just came about in this year’s election, Zanzibar’s willingness to even attempt a sharing of power among two different political parties is something that many other African nations cannot even begin to consider (even including the Tanzanian mainland, which has fervently been run by the CCM party since it became independent, which, as it seems at this time, is in no way willing to share power with other opposition parties). If you’re coming from America, imagine the implications if we had a Democratic President and a Republican Vice President, or vice versa! This change is that monumental, and it only happened in Zanzibar. Hence, who wouldn’t be proud to say, “I’m Zanzibarian” instead of “I’m African” when asked where he or she was from? I mean I just visited Zanzibar for only four days and already I can’t stop gloating about how wonderful it is. I mean of course it has its problems, but just from my one visit to Zanzibar, on the surface it seems like there’s something pretty special about Zanzibar that’s worth going back for, perhaps for longer, another time. Believe me, I’m already thinking about how I can get back there for longer…
4. My Christmas Holiday in Zanzibar
On a slightly less abstract and advocate-y level, let me tell you about my Christmas holiday and what I actually did in Zanzibar while I was there. On Christmas Eve the other WorldTeach volunteers and I, along with our Field Director, went to a very nice resort where we gorged ourselves on several courses of some of the most tantalizing buffet food I’ve ever had in my life. I’m not kidding. It was that good. We feasted on different kinds of seafood curries, soups, and other delicious bites. We ate octopus, lobster, prawns, several kinds of fish, each prepared both separately and together while infused with rushes of Zanzibarian spices. Each unique melodic dish came together on our plates, composing flavorful orchestral symphonies that graced our palates. In addition to eating our body weights in all the seafood (I mean we were surrounded by the ocean...how could you pass up such an opportunity?!), we devoured completely nonsensical (and of course unhealthy) portions of delectable goodies ranging from fresh raspberries and other tropical fruits drenched in chocolate fondue; chocolate cakes exploding with layers of icing, caramels, and cream fillings; and creme brulees, biscotti’s, and other delicious things I don’t even know how to describe. God it was wonderful. I haven’t eaten that much or enjoyed eating that much in a really long time. I topped my meal off with a crisp peppermint tea and then did my best to dance to the Macarena the live band was playing (in its own African style) with the other volunteers without toppling over from all the food I’d ingested. Even if I gain five pounds just from that one meal, I really don’t care (and don’t even think about commenting about the likelihood of that, haha)…it was TOTALLY worth it.
Following dinner we retired home early and got to be at a sensible hour so that we would all be refreshed on Christmas morning. On Christmas morning we all woke up at 8:00am sharp, made a big Christmas breakfast of homemade French toast, vegetable omelets, mixed fruit salad, and Christmas cookies and brownies that some of the volunteers had made at their teaching site and that we’d decorated the night before. After we cleaned up from our Christmas morning celebration, we all suited up in our bathing suits and beach gear and begun our daylong sailboat cruise along the southern coast of Zanzibar. Talk about a great Christmas holiday. Even though it was hotter than all of us could stand and the sun was shining radiantly above bright blue clear skies, staining our bodies to darker shades of white and brown and reflecting its glorious rays off the glistening ocean water below us…and therefore it didn’t feel AT ALL like my traditional Christmases have with my family in the icy cold Vermont winters, it still felt just as much like Christmas as Christmas should, at least when it wasn’t possible for me to experience my brain’s familiar version of Christmas at home. And honestly, what better gift can you get than sailing along an island paradise with your friends in amazing weather with no other obligation than to enjoy yourself on Christmas and taking a dip in the ocean whenever you want...except of course the gift of being with your family?! We did just that – enjoy ourselves and take many dips in the ocean. We even anchored near an island and trekked our way through the water onto it…without stepping on sea urchins, jelly fish, or scary pools of tiny fish which apparently will gladly stab you with stingers on the tops of their heads if you get to close to them. Haha. Our journey was well worth it because when we got on the island we discovered a small hotel resort too nice for words that lays claim to a huge fresh water pool, where we all pretended to be guests (no one noticed we weren’t, luckily) and swam around for a while. It was inexplicably refreshing and amazing. We waded back to the boat thereafter and continued the latter part of our day sailing without the motor on all the way back to the shore of Stone Town. We arrived back at the shore around dinner time, freshened up and went to dinner at a nice place in celebration not just of Christmas, but of our fellow volunteer’s twenty fifth birthday. We went out for a couple drinks after, but because the sun had sucked out most of our energy throughout the day, we retired early to bed. Overally it was an incredibly memorable, absolutely unforgettable, exceptionally wonderful and fantastic Christmas. As if I weren’t happy enough to be in Zenji in the first place, my Christmas holiday added oodles more joy to my overall experience there.
The day following Christmas we spent actually being productive WorldTeach-wise. We reflected on our teaching experiences and what we’d learned since we arrived six months ago. It was really rewarding to be able to talk so thoroughly and productively about everything we’d been through in the last half of a year and to discuss what shape we want the program to take next year for the future volunteers. It’s a nice perk, being the first batch of volunteers of a program like this, to be able to be so responsible for how the program will look in the future. Although being the guinea pigs has no doubt been hard and downright grueling at certain points (reference my previous blog post to read up on that), it ends up being more rewarding in the end. You get to make many well-informed and educated influential suggestions and decisions for the program that the home office wasn’t able to do as successfully before you started the program as one of its first volunteers. It’s a cool feeling to know that my experience here will be as meaningful to others’ future experiences as it’s been meaningful to me while I’ve been here. I like feeling like I’ve made a positive impact not only on people’s lives here, but on people whose lives will eventually end up here.
I spent one leisurely day on my own in Stone Town before I left. I met up with friends and went to my favorite café called “Stone Town Café” (very original, I know) then to a delectable Indian restaurant for lunch. I got my ticket and shipped out and now I’m back in Dar.
5. Returning to Dar and My New Adventure Mode
Frankly, it feels odd to be back in Dar all of a sudden. When I was in Zanzibar I was overwhelmed about the possibility of exploring everything there for the first time. I really did feel like Jasmine from Aladdin as I was opening my eyes up to an unbeforeseen magical place. My eyes were excited to explore the new wonders of a new place after having been between Morogoro and Dar (now both of which are familiar to me) over the past six months. Now that I’m back in Dar, I find myself back in comfortable familiarity. My brain has imprinted the layout of Dar as much as it’s been able to after each time I’ve visited here, which is probably almost a dozen times by this point. Since I’ve been to Dar so much, it almost feels like there aren’t too many new unexamined rocks that I could uncover now that I’m here again, but I know that’s not true. I just have to challenge myself to go to new places in Dar, and there are many of those. Although I’m finding that I feel a bit restless because I still want to be in my naïve Zanzibarian adventure seeking mode, it does feel good to be somewhere like Dar. I think I will choose to go on some new adventures, too.
If there’s one thing I’ve realized it’s that life always has the potential to be an adventure, you just have to be prepared to embark on the area that you’re in in an adventure mode, where you’re game to explore, mull around and discover new things about your environment and yourself. It takes a great amount of willingness to get into this porous adventure mode because being an explorer makes you quite vulnerable to discovering things about yourself, others, and where you are that you might not be ready, willing, or eager to know. But I say to hell with it. You shouldn’t be fearful to discover the new, you should just go for it and see what happens. People who have discovered it before you will hopefully be there to catch you in open arms should you slip up or need assistance. That’s what people are for…to help each other get through life. Now that I know I have a bunch of people behind me rooting for me to do great things and take advantage of life and live up to my potential (even if they haven’t been where I hope to go), I’m no longer fearful to explore. I won’t even need a map. No. I don’t even want a map. I want to be brave enough to be a heroic explorer, if for no other sake than just to explore and know for the sake of knowing new things I once didn’t know. That was a lot about knowing. Anyway, I’m excited, I’m ready, and I’m going to start exploring right now…and I’m going to try to keep on my enthusiastic adventure goggles on that I regained in Zanzibar for as long as I can while I’m still in Tanzania for the next six months. Maybe you might consider doing the same, too. If you can’t think of any other way to explore the world you’ve lived in for a while, just try to think of it in terms of smells, for example, just for one day, and be particularly attune to what you find. Then get back to me if you so choose, because I’m undoubtedly curious to know what you know. Whether or not you choose to share what you know, you can count on me telling you what I come to know as I continue my crazy teaching journey in Tanzania and share it with you through my blog posts. And with that said, I guess I better get cracking on that knowing, so I have something to tell you…haha.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
True Reflections of a Traveler
There comes a time in every journey abroad when even the most enthusiastic travelers, like myself, become homesick. In my past travels I’ve honestly never really felt homesick. Then again, I’d only ever been away from home at most for 4 months during which time I was dating someone, spending all my time with new friends, enjoying my classes at my University and having the time of my life. As I approach the 5-month mark of my time in Tanzania at the end of next week, I’ve come to realize that homesickness has crept up on me almost out of nowhere. While I’ve enjoyed most of my time here since I arrived in June, lately the cultural differences that I once perceived as charming and intriguing at the beginning of my trip have become quite troubling and burdensome. All of a sudden it seems like I’m struggling to shake the smallest annoyances that I previously held an indifferent attitude toward. The small things I’ve had to adjust to like not having running water, sharing my house with many species of insects, being called “Mzungu” wherever I go, and inhaling huge clouds of dust on a daily basis have all become taxing and sometimes even infuriating.
I suppose I started to really feel flustered and homesick for the first time here when I got malaria nearly a month ago. At that time all I wanted was to be in the ultimate comfort zone I experienced when I was sick at ten years old: sitting on my couch at home in Vermont eating soup and watching movies while my mom tended to my every health need. Not having the luxury of being at home nor with my family while I was sick provoked the homesickness bug to implant itself into my brain. It’s funny that I’m homesick because I’ll admit I was easily the most unlikely person to get homesick out of our WorldTeach group when we first arrived. I was the most excited person at the start of our program to be here and I even used to get annoyed when my fellow volunteers when they started to complain about this or that about the culture. Since I’d been to Tanzania twice before and I have so many great friends in Dar es Salaam, I felt like I was home and I didn’t want anyone to rain on my parade. Yet, when I started feeling some of the same irritations that the other volunteers had voiced, I felt embarrassed to suddenly feel bad about being here. I felt guilty, almost like I was turning my back on a good friend. All the experiences I’d ever had in Tanzania had been positive up until this point and I didn’t want to admit to myself or anyone else that my time in Tanzania could be anything but completely fantastic.
Once I got malaria, however, I got a harsh wake up call that keeping these feelings inside might not be as productive as I had once thought. While I thought I was being strong for trying to stay so positive, I realized I’d begun denying my right to express my true feelings, which are sometimes just plain shitty, just like everyone else’s sometimes are. I began to grasp that sometimes, no matter how much you love where you are and the people you’re with in another country, living abroad is really hard sometimes. Whereas I’d stubbornly kept my negative feelings to myself about my internal adjustments to Tanzanian living before I got sick, I immediately let my emotional floodgates free as soon as I got malaria. As a consequence of keeping these feelings to myself for so long before this point, however, I all of a sudden didn’t have enough bad things to say about Tanzania, my program, and my general life here. Rather than venting a healthy amount, I quickly saw myself falling into a deep depression because I was finally acknowledging all my qualms about being here. Life was not looking so hot.
While I sought solace in my housemate during this time by sharing my feelings with her once she returned from her month-long vacation away from Tanzania, we both realized quite quickly that instead of soothing each other’s negative emotions as we talked about them, we were instead feeding off of each other’s negative energy and making each other feel even worse about being here. Although I definitely felt listened to by my housemate and I utterly adore her for hearing me out, we always felt so hopeless at the end of our venting sessions. By some grace of God, a former friend of mine, whom I hadn’t seen in over a year, is currently traveling across Tanzania and she was able to make a pit stop in Morogoro for two days last week to visit my housemate and I. When she observed how my housemate and I talked about being in Tanzania (and hating it at the moment), she dawned new light on what we were doing by telling us just how destructive our empathizing for each other’s bad experiences had become. She could see that the more we talked about what made us upset, the more upset we got about them and the more we wanted to go home as soon as possible. Hearing her say this was a revolutionary wake up call for me. After she told us this, I almost instantly became open to the idea of accepting my life here the way it is, no matter how rough it is sometimes, because no one wants to be around nor talk to a Negative Nancy all the time. I could see my negative self reflecting back at me through my friend’s eyes, whom had always been accustomed to knowing me for my bubbly, friendly, and optimistic personality. I knew from that point on that I didn’t want to be the negative person I was turning out to be, for my sake and everyone else’s, and that I needed to find my old self again if I expect to survive here for another 7 months.
Up until I made this revelation last week, I hadn’t been able get over even the slightest ounce of my homesickness. In fact, it somewhat shames me to admit that I even went through a tough time a couple weeks ago when I was seriously considering ending my time with the WorldTeach program early six months and coming home in January. I just felt like I couldn’t take being here for any longer than six months. Fearful that I would say some things I would later regret, I refrained from uploading a blog post during this time and instead specifically reached out to my closest family and friends to pull me through my difficulties. As much as I wanted to go home, I secretly wanted the people I look up to most in this world to pull me out of my negative mentality and tell me to stick it out for the year. They know me well enough to know that I am not a quitter and that I can accomplish anything I set my mind to, as long as I want it enough. Fortunately, these amazing people ultimately believed in me enough to tell me to complete my time here with flying colors. Although it took a lot of convincing on their behalves, I’m now mentally prepared again to stay on board with my program for the entire year until June 2011. In my humble opinion, even the most flexible and open-minded travelers go through trialing times like this when they feel like enough is enough and all they want to do is go home. That’s the very definition of homesickness, really. Reflecting back on my whirlwind of emotions over the past month and a half, I’m honestly grateful to have gone through this grueling thought process because I think it’s helped me cleanse out my system. As I’m actively shifting my attitude, I’m starting to feel like my optimistic self again who knows that I’m here for very important reasons and I can’t leave until I’ve achieved what I set out to do by June of 2011.
I suppose I started to really feel flustered and homesick for the first time here when I got malaria nearly a month ago. At that time all I wanted was to be in the ultimate comfort zone I experienced when I was sick at ten years old: sitting on my couch at home in Vermont eating soup and watching movies while my mom tended to my every health need. Not having the luxury of being at home nor with my family while I was sick provoked the homesickness bug to implant itself into my brain. It’s funny that I’m homesick because I’ll admit I was easily the most unlikely person to get homesick out of our WorldTeach group when we first arrived. I was the most excited person at the start of our program to be here and I even used to get annoyed when my fellow volunteers when they started to complain about this or that about the culture. Since I’d been to Tanzania twice before and I have so many great friends in Dar es Salaam, I felt like I was home and I didn’t want anyone to rain on my parade. Yet, when I started feeling some of the same irritations that the other volunteers had voiced, I felt embarrassed to suddenly feel bad about being here. I felt guilty, almost like I was turning my back on a good friend. All the experiences I’d ever had in Tanzania had been positive up until this point and I didn’t want to admit to myself or anyone else that my time in Tanzania could be anything but completely fantastic.
Once I got malaria, however, I got a harsh wake up call that keeping these feelings inside might not be as productive as I had once thought. While I thought I was being strong for trying to stay so positive, I realized I’d begun denying my right to express my true feelings, which are sometimes just plain shitty, just like everyone else’s sometimes are. I began to grasp that sometimes, no matter how much you love where you are and the people you’re with in another country, living abroad is really hard sometimes. Whereas I’d stubbornly kept my negative feelings to myself about my internal adjustments to Tanzanian living before I got sick, I immediately let my emotional floodgates free as soon as I got malaria. As a consequence of keeping these feelings to myself for so long before this point, however, I all of a sudden didn’t have enough bad things to say about Tanzania, my program, and my general life here. Rather than venting a healthy amount, I quickly saw myself falling into a deep depression because I was finally acknowledging all my qualms about being here. Life was not looking so hot.
While I sought solace in my housemate during this time by sharing my feelings with her once she returned from her month-long vacation away from Tanzania, we both realized quite quickly that instead of soothing each other’s negative emotions as we talked about them, we were instead feeding off of each other’s negative energy and making each other feel even worse about being here. Although I definitely felt listened to by my housemate and I utterly adore her for hearing me out, we always felt so hopeless at the end of our venting sessions. By some grace of God, a former friend of mine, whom I hadn’t seen in over a year, is currently traveling across Tanzania and she was able to make a pit stop in Morogoro for two days last week to visit my housemate and I. When she observed how my housemate and I talked about being in Tanzania (and hating it at the moment), she dawned new light on what we were doing by telling us just how destructive our empathizing for each other’s bad experiences had become. She could see that the more we talked about what made us upset, the more upset we got about them and the more we wanted to go home as soon as possible. Hearing her say this was a revolutionary wake up call for me. After she told us this, I almost instantly became open to the idea of accepting my life here the way it is, no matter how rough it is sometimes, because no one wants to be around nor talk to a Negative Nancy all the time. I could see my negative self reflecting back at me through my friend’s eyes, whom had always been accustomed to knowing me for my bubbly, friendly, and optimistic personality. I knew from that point on that I didn’t want to be the negative person I was turning out to be, for my sake and everyone else’s, and that I needed to find my old self again if I expect to survive here for another 7 months.
Up until I made this revelation last week, I hadn’t been able get over even the slightest ounce of my homesickness. In fact, it somewhat shames me to admit that I even went through a tough time a couple weeks ago when I was seriously considering ending my time with the WorldTeach program early six months and coming home in January. I just felt like I couldn’t take being here for any longer than six months. Fearful that I would say some things I would later regret, I refrained from uploading a blog post during this time and instead specifically reached out to my closest family and friends to pull me through my difficulties. As much as I wanted to go home, I secretly wanted the people I look up to most in this world to pull me out of my negative mentality and tell me to stick it out for the year. They know me well enough to know that I am not a quitter and that I can accomplish anything I set my mind to, as long as I want it enough. Fortunately, these amazing people ultimately believed in me enough to tell me to complete my time here with flying colors. Although it took a lot of convincing on their behalves, I’m now mentally prepared again to stay on board with my program for the entire year until June 2011. In my humble opinion, even the most flexible and open-minded travelers go through trialing times like this when they feel like enough is enough and all they want to do is go home. That’s the very definition of homesickness, really. Reflecting back on my whirlwind of emotions over the past month and a half, I’m honestly grateful to have gone through this grueling thought process because I think it’s helped me cleanse out my system. As I’m actively shifting my attitude, I’m starting to feel like my optimistic self again who knows that I’m here for very important reasons and I can’t leave until I’ve achieved what I set out to do by June of 2011.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Feeling Under the Weather and Excited for the Changing of Seasons
Blog Post October 31, 2010
So it finally happened…I got really sick in Tanzania. Two weeks ago on Wednesday I woke up with a sore throat, stuffy nose, and major headache, which turned into the flu. I was sick for five straight days with the flu. Just when I thought I was getting better by that Sunday I went for a run, but when I got home I felt much worse and slept the whole day. When I got up, I knew something was definitely wrong and that it wasn’t just the flu anymore. It turns out that I had malaria! It’s one thing to be sick when you’re away from home and away from your family, it’s another thing to be sick when you’re alone my housemate was still on her month-long vacation), and it’s a whole new kind of scary to be sick with a disease that you’ve never had before that most people where you’re from have only heard vague horror stories about. On Sunday night I luckily had enough sense to go to my neighbors for help. I called the Head of my English Department, Safina, at Moro Sec who lives right next to me and I also called my neighbor, Mshauri, whose father is the doctor for Kilakala Secondary and mom is a nurse. Safina and Mshauri met me at Mshauri’s house where we spoke with him mom briefly about how I was feeling. We decided that Mshauri would walk me to the nearby dispensary where I could get a malaria test. Unfortuantely, by the time we went it was already closed, so I decided I would go on Monday morning. I called my supervisor at Moro Sec and told her I would miss class that Monday because I thought I had malaria.
On Sunday night I had the worst night’s sleep I can remember ever having. I was too hot, too cold, then sweating (I was having horrible fevers). By Monday morning at 6am I realized I had every symptom of malaria you can get. I went to Mshauri’s and told him I knew I must have malaria. Fortunately I had gotten malaria treatment medication from my friend’s mom in Dar es Salaam a couple weeks earlier (she’s a pharmacist), so I took it right away. By Monday afternoon I was feeling a lot better. I was absolutely exhausted though because I had gotten up constantly the night before so I ended up sleeping all day. I still had to get up every few hours because I was really sick. The whole time I was sick my neighbors took care of me. I am so blessed to know them. They helped calm me down and said everything would be ok and that if I needed anything I just had to call them and let them know and they’d be over to help me. They brought me over a dozen fresh oranges for me to eat to keep my strength up and Mshauri kept me company for a while because he knows I’m alone this month. I felt a lot better after they left. By Tuesday my health started to normalize itself again and by Wednesday I was feeling mostly healthy again. I taught at school again by Thursday.
I’m so thankful to finally feel better. The truth is, since I recovered from malaria I’ve been energized with a new vivacity for life. I’m gotten into a pretty comfortable rhythm here and I finally feel like I’m at home. I get out of the house more often these days and spend a lot of time sitting outside at a place down the road that has a beautiful outdoor garden where I write letters to people back home, lesson plan, grade papers, and relax. I go for runs in the mornings and evenings along my road, which outlines the base of the mountains behind my house. It’s a really beautiful place to run, even though it’s super dusty all the time. It’s currently the dry season, which means there’s dust, dust, everywhere! It actually rained for the first time in months one night last week and then again in the afternoon a couple days later. I can’t even communicate how happy I was to hear the rain. I went outside to stand in the rain just to celebrate the hint of the changing of the seasons. Although it’s a bit early, the rainy season should begin close to the end of this year. While I know I’ll probably get sick of the rain once the rainy season starts, I’m highly anticipating the start of the downpours.
In terms of teaching news, the past week since I’ve been back at school my classes have been going pretty well. I’m teaching my students how to write paragraphs and beginner-style essays with thesis statements. I was supposed to follow the Form 1 syllabus for writing texts this week, but the syllabus was complete crap, to be honest. It just showed examples of how to write checks, open bank accounts, and use an ATM. For most of the kids in my classes that isn’t even a practical reality, let alone applicable for this time in their lives because they’re still so young. I decided to take the writing texts topic into my own hands and plan the lessons for last week all by myself. I went on the Internet to search for tips on how to teach writing texts. Writing is such an important skill that all of these students will need to know how to do to be successful, so I rather scrap the syllabus’s instructions for “writing texts” and create my own agenda. It ended up working pretty well and it seems like most of the students are starting to understand how to learn how to write. We’ve gone over general paragraphs and introductions so far. I went over an example of each in class and had the students write their own. Most of the students did pretty well, but some of the students just copied the examples I wrote for them right off the board. I’m concerned that these students don’t understand English well enough to have done the assignment correctly. I’m struggling to figure out how I can help them understand English better. When half the class knows what’s going on and can do an assignment successfully while the other half of the class doesn’t have a clue, it’s tough to decide how I should pace the class. Realistically, I only have a month left with these students because by the end of November this year’s school year ends and then all the students move on to Form 2. By January, after my up-coming month-long vacation, I will get a new batch of Form 1 students.
What’s more, I now have an even tougher task on my hands for the next month: I just found out on Thursday last week that I’ll now be teaching four streams (classes) instead of the two I have been. Since I joined Moro Sec in the beginning of October I’ve been teaching Form 1 Streams B and C. Yet, on Thursday after I’d just finished teaching Form 1C and was waiting to teach 1C in the afternoon, a Form 1 Stream A student came to fetch me from the English Office. She said that I was needed in their class. I was a bit confused but followed her to the classroom, come to find out from the Form 1A students that their previous English teacher had disappeared. I taught the class with the materials I had with me about paragraph structure and followed up with the Head of my English Department after class. I asked her about the other English teacher and she told me that apparently she’s decided to go back to University so she’s leaving Moro Sec. I was really disappointed and caught off guard that the faculty at Moro Sec did not tell me about her leaving, since I unexpectedly have to pick up her classes. I’m now going to teach Form 1A and 1D also, each of which also have 45 students! I will now teach 24 40-minute periods a week (each Stream has 6 English periods a week), Monday through Friday. I’ll be twice as busy, but I think I can handle it. In a way it’s good that I’ll be teaching more, especially since what I’m here to do is teach. The more I teach, the more of an impact I’ll have here, and that’s what’s most important to me. I want to positively affect as many students’ lives as possible while I’m here.
On Saturday I went to visit my old school in Dakawa. I got to see the Head Mistress, my old students and neighbors, as well as my two housemates. Overall it was a really nice visit. Although it was brief, I enjoyed seeing everyone after having been away for two months. Being bac at Dakawa made me realize how much I miss there, but also made me grateful for my transition to Morogoro as well. Both places have their own styles of charm that make me happy to be there and I’m glad to have experienced both places since I’ve come to Tanzania.
Also, I just remembered that today is Halloween back in America. Happy Halloween everyone! I’m thinking about you and I hope you’re having a lot of fun! Today is also a very important day in Tanzania. It’s the day of the national election for the new president of Tanzania. The current President, Kikwete, is up for re-election for his second five-year term against six other candidates from opposition parties. So far only one opposing candidate, Slaa, has been rumored to have a chance at winning over Kikwete, but it’s still a tough call as to who will win. There hasn’t been much noise or hullabaloo today even with the voting, but then again I haven’t gone very far away from home today to see what’s happening in town. When I went for a run this evening I saw a lot of people crowded around their televisions and radios trying to get the latest news about which candidate was ahead in the polls. It’s far to early to tell who’s going to win, but I’m really looking forward to hearing the result in the next couple of days. In all honesty it will be nice not to have to look at the thousands of posters Kikwete put up of himself for his campaign anymore. I’ve seen them in the most populated and most obscure places of Tanzania over the last two months of his campaign and I have to say I’m ready for a change of scenery. I’m just wondering if, and when, all those posters will come down!
So it finally happened…I got really sick in Tanzania. Two weeks ago on Wednesday I woke up with a sore throat, stuffy nose, and major headache, which turned into the flu. I was sick for five straight days with the flu. Just when I thought I was getting better by that Sunday I went for a run, but when I got home I felt much worse and slept the whole day. When I got up, I knew something was definitely wrong and that it wasn’t just the flu anymore. It turns out that I had malaria! It’s one thing to be sick when you’re away from home and away from your family, it’s another thing to be sick when you’re alone my housemate was still on her month-long vacation), and it’s a whole new kind of scary to be sick with a disease that you’ve never had before that most people where you’re from have only heard vague horror stories about. On Sunday night I luckily had enough sense to go to my neighbors for help. I called the Head of my English Department, Safina, at Moro Sec who lives right next to me and I also called my neighbor, Mshauri, whose father is the doctor for Kilakala Secondary and mom is a nurse. Safina and Mshauri met me at Mshauri’s house where we spoke with him mom briefly about how I was feeling. We decided that Mshauri would walk me to the nearby dispensary where I could get a malaria test. Unfortuantely, by the time we went it was already closed, so I decided I would go on Monday morning. I called my supervisor at Moro Sec and told her I would miss class that Monday because I thought I had malaria.
On Sunday night I had the worst night’s sleep I can remember ever having. I was too hot, too cold, then sweating (I was having horrible fevers). By Monday morning at 6am I realized I had every symptom of malaria you can get. I went to Mshauri’s and told him I knew I must have malaria. Fortunately I had gotten malaria treatment medication from my friend’s mom in Dar es Salaam a couple weeks earlier (she’s a pharmacist), so I took it right away. By Monday afternoon I was feeling a lot better. I was absolutely exhausted though because I had gotten up constantly the night before so I ended up sleeping all day. I still had to get up every few hours because I was really sick. The whole time I was sick my neighbors took care of me. I am so blessed to know them. They helped calm me down and said everything would be ok and that if I needed anything I just had to call them and let them know and they’d be over to help me. They brought me over a dozen fresh oranges for me to eat to keep my strength up and Mshauri kept me company for a while because he knows I’m alone this month. I felt a lot better after they left. By Tuesday my health started to normalize itself again and by Wednesday I was feeling mostly healthy again. I taught at school again by Thursday.
I’m so thankful to finally feel better. The truth is, since I recovered from malaria I’ve been energized with a new vivacity for life. I’m gotten into a pretty comfortable rhythm here and I finally feel like I’m at home. I get out of the house more often these days and spend a lot of time sitting outside at a place down the road that has a beautiful outdoor garden where I write letters to people back home, lesson plan, grade papers, and relax. I go for runs in the mornings and evenings along my road, which outlines the base of the mountains behind my house. It’s a really beautiful place to run, even though it’s super dusty all the time. It’s currently the dry season, which means there’s dust, dust, everywhere! It actually rained for the first time in months one night last week and then again in the afternoon a couple days later. I can’t even communicate how happy I was to hear the rain. I went outside to stand in the rain just to celebrate the hint of the changing of the seasons. Although it’s a bit early, the rainy season should begin close to the end of this year. While I know I’ll probably get sick of the rain once the rainy season starts, I’m highly anticipating the start of the downpours.
In terms of teaching news, the past week since I’ve been back at school my classes have been going pretty well. I’m teaching my students how to write paragraphs and beginner-style essays with thesis statements. I was supposed to follow the Form 1 syllabus for writing texts this week, but the syllabus was complete crap, to be honest. It just showed examples of how to write checks, open bank accounts, and use an ATM. For most of the kids in my classes that isn’t even a practical reality, let alone applicable for this time in their lives because they’re still so young. I decided to take the writing texts topic into my own hands and plan the lessons for last week all by myself. I went on the Internet to search for tips on how to teach writing texts. Writing is such an important skill that all of these students will need to know how to do to be successful, so I rather scrap the syllabus’s instructions for “writing texts” and create my own agenda. It ended up working pretty well and it seems like most of the students are starting to understand how to learn how to write. We’ve gone over general paragraphs and introductions so far. I went over an example of each in class and had the students write their own. Most of the students did pretty well, but some of the students just copied the examples I wrote for them right off the board. I’m concerned that these students don’t understand English well enough to have done the assignment correctly. I’m struggling to figure out how I can help them understand English better. When half the class knows what’s going on and can do an assignment successfully while the other half of the class doesn’t have a clue, it’s tough to decide how I should pace the class. Realistically, I only have a month left with these students because by the end of November this year’s school year ends and then all the students move on to Form 2. By January, after my up-coming month-long vacation, I will get a new batch of Form 1 students.
What’s more, I now have an even tougher task on my hands for the next month: I just found out on Thursday last week that I’ll now be teaching four streams (classes) instead of the two I have been. Since I joined Moro Sec in the beginning of October I’ve been teaching Form 1 Streams B and C. Yet, on Thursday after I’d just finished teaching Form 1C and was waiting to teach 1C in the afternoon, a Form 1 Stream A student came to fetch me from the English Office. She said that I was needed in their class. I was a bit confused but followed her to the classroom, come to find out from the Form 1A students that their previous English teacher had disappeared. I taught the class with the materials I had with me about paragraph structure and followed up with the Head of my English Department after class. I asked her about the other English teacher and she told me that apparently she’s decided to go back to University so she’s leaving Moro Sec. I was really disappointed and caught off guard that the faculty at Moro Sec did not tell me about her leaving, since I unexpectedly have to pick up her classes. I’m now going to teach Form 1A and 1D also, each of which also have 45 students! I will now teach 24 40-minute periods a week (each Stream has 6 English periods a week), Monday through Friday. I’ll be twice as busy, but I think I can handle it. In a way it’s good that I’ll be teaching more, especially since what I’m here to do is teach. The more I teach, the more of an impact I’ll have here, and that’s what’s most important to me. I want to positively affect as many students’ lives as possible while I’m here.
On Saturday I went to visit my old school in Dakawa. I got to see the Head Mistress, my old students and neighbors, as well as my two housemates. Overall it was a really nice visit. Although it was brief, I enjoyed seeing everyone after having been away for two months. Being bac at Dakawa made me realize how much I miss there, but also made me grateful for my transition to Morogoro as well. Both places have their own styles of charm that make me happy to be there and I’m glad to have experienced both places since I’ve come to Tanzania.
Also, I just remembered that today is Halloween back in America. Happy Halloween everyone! I’m thinking about you and I hope you’re having a lot of fun! Today is also a very important day in Tanzania. It’s the day of the national election for the new president of Tanzania. The current President, Kikwete, is up for re-election for his second five-year term against six other candidates from opposition parties. So far only one opposing candidate, Slaa, has been rumored to have a chance at winning over Kikwete, but it’s still a tough call as to who will win. There hasn’t been much noise or hullabaloo today even with the voting, but then again I haven’t gone very far away from home today to see what’s happening in town. When I went for a run this evening I saw a lot of people crowded around their televisions and radios trying to get the latest news about which candidate was ahead in the polls. It’s far to early to tell who’s going to win, but I’m really looking forward to hearing the result in the next couple of days. In all honesty it will be nice not to have to look at the thousands of posters Kikwete put up of himself for his campaign anymore. I’ve seen them in the most populated and most obscure places of Tanzania over the last two months of his campaign and I have to say I’m ready for a change of scenery. I’m just wondering if, and when, all those posters will come down!
Friday, October 15, 2010
Updates
Written Thursday, October 14, 2010
Last weekend I went to Dar to deliver something to my roommate before she left for South Africa for the rest of her vacation. While I was in Dar I met up with some of my friends and went to the Visa2Dance performance. It showcases dancers from all over Africa for three nights and serves as a reminder of how difficult it can be to get a visa just to perform in another country. I just went to the performance on Friday night, but it was fabulous. It was a really nice treat to see dancers from Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, and even France. Afterwards the four people I went with and I decided to walk for an hour across town rather than waste money on a taxi (four of us are White so the drivers were asking for really unreasonable prices). We saw one of our friends off at the end of our journey and continued on in a bus to a small eatery/bar where we just hung out and talked the night away. It was a nice and relaxing evening. Although I usually stay with my friend’s mother right in the city center, I decided to stay the night at my friend’s house since we were really far from town. I woke up Saturday feeling refreshed and spent the whole day hanging out at my friend’s house reading amazing books, drinking tea, and chatting. It was utterly amazing to be so relaxed. I haven’t felt that at peace in quite a while. Saturday evening we had a small dinner party in which we ate baked chicken and pilau (which is like dirty spicy rice and it’s exquisitely delicious). Dinner was great. We hung out for a while and decided to join up with our friend across town who was at a party to celebrate the Ugandan Independence Day (he’s Ugandan but studying here in TZ). The party was really fun because I got to listen to a lot of Ugandan music that I hadn’t heard before. I returned late Saturday night to my friend’s mother’s house where I usually stay and got up Sunday ready to go to the beach. Unfortunately, my ride was running very late so I decided to scrap plans and hang out with another friend instead. We went to a nice lunch together and even got to hang by the beach after all…although I didn’t get to swim it was still nice. I got dropped at the bus station thereafter and ended up having to wait an hour for my bus. When you get a ticket from the station they write the license plate number of the bus you’re supposed to ride on on the bottom of your ticket. I waited and waited and my bus never came! Another woman next to me shared the same problem so after an hour of waiting we decided to throw our luggage under another bus run by the same company and snagged two seats onboard. Luckily it wasn’t a problem. I arrived in Morogoro by the time it was dark and caught a taxi home. Since I was all out of water at the house I walked across campus and filled up two large jugs of water and then came home, made dinner, finalized my lesson plan for Monday’s classes, and got to bed early.
On Monday I woke up at 5:30am (my usual wake up time on class days now) and made it to school by 7am. I went to the secondary campus that I’d been teaching at the week before, come to find out by 7:30 at the beginning of my first period with my Form 1C class that they had been moved to the main campus down the road. By the time I made it there and found my classroom almost half of our class time had blown by, but fortunately I was able to teach for the remainder of class. I was totally awed by how much smaller, for one, and quieter, the class was on Monday. I came to discover that the week before what I had thought was just my previous Form 1C class was actually Form 1C and 1D combined. I now only had 40 some odd students compared to the nearly 80 or so I’d once had. My Form 1C students blamed the Form 1D students for being so loud, rude, and disruptive the week before. I couldn’t help but agree with them because they were angelically quiet and attentive during our lesson on Monday, even though I’d embarrassingly showed up a whole period late. That’s the thing when you start teaching at a new school – it’s really hard to learn about changes to where classes are held etc since you barely know what it normal protocol yet anyway. Luckily I asked some students at the secondary campus who turned out to be in Form 2 and they alerted me to the location change for the Form 1 students. Following class I went to visit the Head of my Department, Madam Safina, and spent some time in the Commerce office with her and four other female teachers at Moro Sec. Although I couldn’t understand much of what they were saying because they were all speaking in Swahili together, it felt nice just to sit there in their presence and at least feel somewhat immersed in my new staff room. We all drank tea and ate various traditional Tanzanian breakfast foods like chapatti (which is like very oily tortillas) and chipsi mayai (an omlette with French fries in it). After a while I introduced myself and chatted in English with Madam Safina and she even taught me some Swahili after all the other teachers had gone. I taught my second and last period of the day around noon. The class was as well behaved as I had remembered them being from the week before and we made great progress in class. When I finished teaching an hour and a half later Madam Safina escorted me through another shortcut from Moro Sec to Kilakala. Since it was sweltering outside by the time we went home we stopped at a little shop and got some fresh mango juice for only 200 shillings a glass (that’s a major deal!). Since mango juice is my favorite, I have a feeling I’ll be stopping there a lot on my way home. It turns out that the shop owner is also a neighbor of mine at Kilakala. The more time I spend here the more I realize that this really is such a small world. After spending about an hour relaxing and watching “Sex and the City” (which has become a nice relaxing ritual since my roommate left for break), Madam Safina invited me over to her house just across the way to hang out for a while. When I arrived she and some of her friends were watching a Tanzanian soap opera that was so bad it had me totally enthralled after only twenty minutes, haha. We watched the show until the T.V. decided to stop working, randomly. I played with Safina’s nephew and his friend. They’re just learning English and they can count to ten in English so far. Her nephew, whose nickname is Babu (“grandfather” in Swahili), brought out his exercise book in which he practices writing the letters of the alphabet. For some reason, he can never draw a successful “a” for the life of him, haha. I spent some time trying to teach him, to no avail, although I’m happy to say that he got how to write “b” right away. It’s funny how little accomplishments like that by others will make me, as a new teacher, so happy and proud, haha. I spent a few hours there and then retired to my house, made dinner, watched some “Sex and the City” again, and finished my lesson plan for Tuesday. So pretty much, I followed my new usual routine.
On Tuesday I taught both of my classes right in a row and then headed home right after. I was exhausted for some reason even though I’d gotten 8 hours of sleep the night before. I napped as soon as I got home for three hours and then made a lazy dinner of Annie’s macaroni and cheese (a special item my family had sent me weeks before). Since my last day of teaching this week on Thursday was Nyrere Day (a Tanzanian holiday) I didn’t have class. In fact, mostly everyone in Tanzania gets the day off. Hence, by Tuesday night I was free to let loose for the rest of the week and do whatever I needed to until next week’s classes. On Wednesday morning I woke up with an excruciating headache and a stuffy nose. And so it began – my first official cold in Tanzania. It hasn’t been that bad now that my headache has disappeared, but I’ve mostly been confined to my couch doing little else other than watching movies and drinking lots of tea since I got sick. On Wednesday I never even unlocked my front door from the night before because I couldn’t even make it out of the house. Luckily I didn’t have a reason to leave my house on Wednesday. I had enough food from shopping at the market on Monday and I had enough water – a rare occasion for me.
Luckily on Tuesday night when I was still feeling mostly fine my neighbor, who is a Form 4 student that my roommate and I have been tutoring in English, invited me to take water from the tap behind his family’s house. Ever since the water ran dry at Kilakala the tap outside our house hasn’t worked, whereas mostly everyone else’s tap works for an hour or so around midnight every night. It felt as if I’d struck gold Tuesday night because I filled up five huge jugs of water as well as a small bucket that I’d borrowed from Safina the day before. Usually I’m only able to fill up two previous jugs at a time and lug them all the way across campus by myself because 1) I can only carry two myself and 2) the water runs out of the only working tap on campus so slowly that it takes almost 8 minutes just to fill up one jug. Every time I got there with my water jugs there are usually at least 10 students crowded around the tap sitting on their buckets waiting to fetch water. I always get star treatment when I go to the tap because I have a higher status as a teacher compared to a student (so the students have decided). The students always take my buckets and jugs from me and put them under the tap as soon as I get there, no matter how many of them are in line for water. Since I already get special treatment and realize how fortunate I am to not have to wait, I’ve made it a rule that I only fill up two jugs at a time because I don’t want to be selfish and fill up 8 jugs and made the girls wait an hour just to get a bucket of water for themselves. It’s a highly political issue for sure, so whenever I can get water by another means and leave for time for the students to get water from that tap, I take advantage of it. I was so grateful to my neighbor for letting me take water…in fact I still am. It’s nice that everyone here is so neighborly and friendly. It makes me feel so much better being here when I know that I have really nice people who can be my allies in this new place to me.
On Wednesday night I couldn’t stay awake past 10pm. By Thursday morning I woke up at 7am, made some breakfast, watched some Sex and the City, and then mustered up enough energy to wash some of my clothes. Believe me, it’s no easy feat here washing clothes. I know I’ve spoken about how much time it takes before, but when there’s a water shortage and you need water for things like flushing a toilet, washing dishes, cooking, and taking baths, washing clothes drops way down on the list of priorities for water use. I’m embarrassed to say that since I arrived at Kilakala over a month ago now, I’ve only done laundry once at my friend’s mother’s house. I know it’s really not that difficult to go to the water tap three times to get enough water to wash my clothes, but it takes a lot of energy that I usually don’t have to psych myself up about washing my clothes here. It really is laborious. On Thursday I managed to wash just about everything that I’d brought with me to Tanzania, an impressive accomplishment considering my health. In fact, by Thursday I’d gotten even sicker and couldn’t walk around the house without a tissue in hand. Nevertheless, my headache was gone so I decided to stick out my illness and do my washing anyway. Now that it’s done, I have to say I’m glad I forced myself to do it. There’s nothing like having freshly washed clothes in your drawers after they’ve been lying in an ever-accumulating dirty heap on your floor for weeks and weeks. In spirit of washing my clothes I also cleaned the whole kitchen and bathroom. It feels good to be in a clean house. A dirty house is one less thing I have to worry about while being sick, so I can focus on getting better.
Last weekend I went to Dar to deliver something to my roommate before she left for South Africa for the rest of her vacation. While I was in Dar I met up with some of my friends and went to the Visa2Dance performance. It showcases dancers from all over Africa for three nights and serves as a reminder of how difficult it can be to get a visa just to perform in another country. I just went to the performance on Friday night, but it was fabulous. It was a really nice treat to see dancers from Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, and even France. Afterwards the four people I went with and I decided to walk for an hour across town rather than waste money on a taxi (four of us are White so the drivers were asking for really unreasonable prices). We saw one of our friends off at the end of our journey and continued on in a bus to a small eatery/bar where we just hung out and talked the night away. It was a nice and relaxing evening. Although I usually stay with my friend’s mother right in the city center, I decided to stay the night at my friend’s house since we were really far from town. I woke up Saturday feeling refreshed and spent the whole day hanging out at my friend’s house reading amazing books, drinking tea, and chatting. It was utterly amazing to be so relaxed. I haven’t felt that at peace in quite a while. Saturday evening we had a small dinner party in which we ate baked chicken and pilau (which is like dirty spicy rice and it’s exquisitely delicious). Dinner was great. We hung out for a while and decided to join up with our friend across town who was at a party to celebrate the Ugandan Independence Day (he’s Ugandan but studying here in TZ). The party was really fun because I got to listen to a lot of Ugandan music that I hadn’t heard before. I returned late Saturday night to my friend’s mother’s house where I usually stay and got up Sunday ready to go to the beach. Unfortunately, my ride was running very late so I decided to scrap plans and hang out with another friend instead. We went to a nice lunch together and even got to hang by the beach after all…although I didn’t get to swim it was still nice. I got dropped at the bus station thereafter and ended up having to wait an hour for my bus. When you get a ticket from the station they write the license plate number of the bus you’re supposed to ride on on the bottom of your ticket. I waited and waited and my bus never came! Another woman next to me shared the same problem so after an hour of waiting we decided to throw our luggage under another bus run by the same company and snagged two seats onboard. Luckily it wasn’t a problem. I arrived in Morogoro by the time it was dark and caught a taxi home. Since I was all out of water at the house I walked across campus and filled up two large jugs of water and then came home, made dinner, finalized my lesson plan for Monday’s classes, and got to bed early.
On Monday I woke up at 5:30am (my usual wake up time on class days now) and made it to school by 7am. I went to the secondary campus that I’d been teaching at the week before, come to find out by 7:30 at the beginning of my first period with my Form 1C class that they had been moved to the main campus down the road. By the time I made it there and found my classroom almost half of our class time had blown by, but fortunately I was able to teach for the remainder of class. I was totally awed by how much smaller, for one, and quieter, the class was on Monday. I came to discover that the week before what I had thought was just my previous Form 1C class was actually Form 1C and 1D combined. I now only had 40 some odd students compared to the nearly 80 or so I’d once had. My Form 1C students blamed the Form 1D students for being so loud, rude, and disruptive the week before. I couldn’t help but agree with them because they were angelically quiet and attentive during our lesson on Monday, even though I’d embarrassingly showed up a whole period late. That’s the thing when you start teaching at a new school – it’s really hard to learn about changes to where classes are held etc since you barely know what it normal protocol yet anyway. Luckily I asked some students at the secondary campus who turned out to be in Form 2 and they alerted me to the location change for the Form 1 students. Following class I went to visit the Head of my Department, Madam Safina, and spent some time in the Commerce office with her and four other female teachers at Moro Sec. Although I couldn’t understand much of what they were saying because they were all speaking in Swahili together, it felt nice just to sit there in their presence and at least feel somewhat immersed in my new staff room. We all drank tea and ate various traditional Tanzanian breakfast foods like chapatti (which is like very oily tortillas) and chipsi mayai (an omlette with French fries in it). After a while I introduced myself and chatted in English with Madam Safina and she even taught me some Swahili after all the other teachers had gone. I taught my second and last period of the day around noon. The class was as well behaved as I had remembered them being from the week before and we made great progress in class. When I finished teaching an hour and a half later Madam Safina escorted me through another shortcut from Moro Sec to Kilakala. Since it was sweltering outside by the time we went home we stopped at a little shop and got some fresh mango juice for only 200 shillings a glass (that’s a major deal!). Since mango juice is my favorite, I have a feeling I’ll be stopping there a lot on my way home. It turns out that the shop owner is also a neighbor of mine at Kilakala. The more time I spend here the more I realize that this really is such a small world. After spending about an hour relaxing and watching “Sex and the City” (which has become a nice relaxing ritual since my roommate left for break), Madam Safina invited me over to her house just across the way to hang out for a while. When I arrived she and some of her friends were watching a Tanzanian soap opera that was so bad it had me totally enthralled after only twenty minutes, haha. We watched the show until the T.V. decided to stop working, randomly. I played with Safina’s nephew and his friend. They’re just learning English and they can count to ten in English so far. Her nephew, whose nickname is Babu (“grandfather” in Swahili), brought out his exercise book in which he practices writing the letters of the alphabet. For some reason, he can never draw a successful “a” for the life of him, haha. I spent some time trying to teach him, to no avail, although I’m happy to say that he got how to write “b” right away. It’s funny how little accomplishments like that by others will make me, as a new teacher, so happy and proud, haha. I spent a few hours there and then retired to my house, made dinner, watched some “Sex and the City” again, and finished my lesson plan for Tuesday. So pretty much, I followed my new usual routine.
On Tuesday I taught both of my classes right in a row and then headed home right after. I was exhausted for some reason even though I’d gotten 8 hours of sleep the night before. I napped as soon as I got home for three hours and then made a lazy dinner of Annie’s macaroni and cheese (a special item my family had sent me weeks before). Since my last day of teaching this week on Thursday was Nyrere Day (a Tanzanian holiday) I didn’t have class. In fact, mostly everyone in Tanzania gets the day off. Hence, by Tuesday night I was free to let loose for the rest of the week and do whatever I needed to until next week’s classes. On Wednesday morning I woke up with an excruciating headache and a stuffy nose. And so it began – my first official cold in Tanzania. It hasn’t been that bad now that my headache has disappeared, but I’ve mostly been confined to my couch doing little else other than watching movies and drinking lots of tea since I got sick. On Wednesday I never even unlocked my front door from the night before because I couldn’t even make it out of the house. Luckily I didn’t have a reason to leave my house on Wednesday. I had enough food from shopping at the market on Monday and I had enough water – a rare occasion for me.
Luckily on Tuesday night when I was still feeling mostly fine my neighbor, who is a Form 4 student that my roommate and I have been tutoring in English, invited me to take water from the tap behind his family’s house. Ever since the water ran dry at Kilakala the tap outside our house hasn’t worked, whereas mostly everyone else’s tap works for an hour or so around midnight every night. It felt as if I’d struck gold Tuesday night because I filled up five huge jugs of water as well as a small bucket that I’d borrowed from Safina the day before. Usually I’m only able to fill up two previous jugs at a time and lug them all the way across campus by myself because 1) I can only carry two myself and 2) the water runs out of the only working tap on campus so slowly that it takes almost 8 minutes just to fill up one jug. Every time I got there with my water jugs there are usually at least 10 students crowded around the tap sitting on their buckets waiting to fetch water. I always get star treatment when I go to the tap because I have a higher status as a teacher compared to a student (so the students have decided). The students always take my buckets and jugs from me and put them under the tap as soon as I get there, no matter how many of them are in line for water. Since I already get special treatment and realize how fortunate I am to not have to wait, I’ve made it a rule that I only fill up two jugs at a time because I don’t want to be selfish and fill up 8 jugs and made the girls wait an hour just to get a bucket of water for themselves. It’s a highly political issue for sure, so whenever I can get water by another means and leave for time for the students to get water from that tap, I take advantage of it. I was so grateful to my neighbor for letting me take water…in fact I still am. It’s nice that everyone here is so neighborly and friendly. It makes me feel so much better being here when I know that I have really nice people who can be my allies in this new place to me.
On Wednesday night I couldn’t stay awake past 10pm. By Thursday morning I woke up at 7am, made some breakfast, watched some Sex and the City, and then mustered up enough energy to wash some of my clothes. Believe me, it’s no easy feat here washing clothes. I know I’ve spoken about how much time it takes before, but when there’s a water shortage and you need water for things like flushing a toilet, washing dishes, cooking, and taking baths, washing clothes drops way down on the list of priorities for water use. I’m embarrassed to say that since I arrived at Kilakala over a month ago now, I’ve only done laundry once at my friend’s mother’s house. I know it’s really not that difficult to go to the water tap three times to get enough water to wash my clothes, but it takes a lot of energy that I usually don’t have to psych myself up about washing my clothes here. It really is laborious. On Thursday I managed to wash just about everything that I’d brought with me to Tanzania, an impressive accomplishment considering my health. In fact, by Thursday I’d gotten even sicker and couldn’t walk around the house without a tissue in hand. Nevertheless, my headache was gone so I decided to stick out my illness and do my washing anyway. Now that it’s done, I have to say I’m glad I forced myself to do it. There’s nothing like having freshly washed clothes in your drawers after they’ve been lying in an ever-accumulating dirty heap on your floor for weeks and weeks. In spirit of washing my clothes I also cleaned the whole kitchen and bathroom. It feels good to be in a clean house. A dirty house is one less thing I have to worry about while being sick, so I can focus on getting better.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
My First Experiences Teaching at Moro Sec!
I woke up at 5:30am on Monday to give myself plenty of time to eat breakfast and relax before walking to the Morogoro Secondary School. My first class was scheduled for 7:30am. I left the house at 6:30am and walked the only route I knew of to get to school along the main road in town, which ended up taking me half an hour. As I approached the school I saw children of all ages in their uniforms of white button downed shirts and turquoise green pants and skirts. As I walked into the campus I got a lot of curious and rather suspicious looks from many of the students. I walked around the corner and ran into a group of teachers and asked them where I should go to teach my Form 1C English class at 7:30. Alex, the Deputy Head Master of the school, escorted me to the main office and told me to wait for assistance until another teacher could show me where to go. I was met shortly after by another teacher who teaches history and geography. Although I cannot remember his name (it was hard for me to pronounce when I first met him so I don’t remember it), we chatted for a while about what I was doing at the school and how he found the campus etc. As we were talking I was surprised to see another teacher lead another white girl into the office. She looked about as confused as I had first been when I ran into all those teachers when I arrived on campus. She sat down and introduced herself as Sarah. She said she was a Peace Corps volunteer and had just arrived in Tanzania only a week before and Morogoro the previous Friday. She came to the campus with her host family who lives just near Becky and I on the Kilakala campus road. She was waiting for the four other Peace Corps volunteers to meet her at the school at 8:00. They are going to be studying Kiswahili intensively for the next two months before they go to their final sites where they’ll teach subjects like chemistry and biology.
As we were all getting to know each other Alex popped back into the office and asked Sarah and I to go to the morning assembly with him so the Head Master could introduce us to the students. Because the A-Level students are still on vacation there were only O-Level students (Form 1-4) present. Sarah and I walked to the front of the area (the assembly was held outdoors in a grassy area in the middle of the school buildings). I felt like I was some sort of dog at a dog show, haha. Everyone was ogling at us! The Head Master asked me to introduce myself first so I stepped forward and told all the students that I was a new teacher who would be teaching Form 1B and 1C English from now on. As soon as made my announcement all of the students started cheering and clapping and jumping up and down. I couldn’t help but smile at their warm welcoming. It felt really good to be so accepted so fast, especially since it’s just me on my own this time as the only WorldTeach volunteer at the school. I stepped back and Sarah took her turn introducing herself. She said she was a Peace Corps volunteer and that she would be at the school learning Kiswahili. The students gave her a huge rush of claps and cheers as well as Sarah retreated to where I was standing behind the Head Master. The Head Master told the students that they should be grateful for our presence on campus and that he expects them to treat us with respect and to listen well when we teach. I thought that was a nice gesture of him. Once he finished his words about us, Alex brought us back to the office to wait again. Sarah was laughing herself silly and was slightly embarrassed because the Head Master had said that she was also going to be a teacher at the school with me. Oops. I guess the students will figure it out sooner or later that I’m the only new teacher (so far at least).
After a minute another Peace Corps volunteer, Carly, joined Sarah and I in the office to wait. I seemed to be waiting a lot during my first day, haha. T.I.T (This is Tanzania) and the cultural motto “Hurry Up and Wait” seemed to be especially salient that morning. The next time I looked at my clock it was already 7:40 and I was late for my first class! I got up and started looking around for Alex again to check to see if someone was coming to show me my classroom. I didn’t want to be any later than I had to be for my first class…I didn’t want to make a poor impression on my new students, after all. I found Alex and he said not to worry. Since it was thestart of a new semester and the first day back on campus for O-Level students who had just finished their break it was unknown where most of the new classes were going to be held. In fact, most of the teachers had no idea where their classes were so I felt a little relieved. Alex insisted he was getting another teacher to show me where my class was, so I sat back down in the office. A moment later the familiar face of Madam Ngowi who was the Academic Master I met the first day I went to Moro Sec to set up my teacher schedule greeted me at the door. She said she was trying to find Madam Shayla, another teacher I had met my first day who also teaches Form 1 English, so she could show me where to go. After 10 minutes Madam Ngowi reported to me that Madam Shayla was sick so Madam Safina would show me to my class instead.
Madam Safina came into the office and introduced herself as the Head of the English Department. I was excited to meet her since I’d be working with her so closely for the rest of the year. She seemed really nice and patient. Funnily, she’s the wife of a teacher at the Kilakala Secondary School whom Becky knows rather well and she lives right next door to us on the Kilakala campus! What a small world! As we walked to the English Department for a brief visit she told me that the Form 4 students are going to take their national exams for the next three weeks and are hence taking up most of the classroom space on campus (there are over 400 Form 4 students at the school). Since the A-Level students are still on break she said that the Form 1 and Form 2 students had been moved to the school’s secondary A-Level campus down the road for the next three weeks. It took us about 10 minutes to walk to the campus. It didn’t look like much when we got there. There were several one-floor school buildings lumped next to each other in a wide-open field and that was about it. There were tons of students scurrying around and the whole campus looked like it was in a state of chaos. Teachers were yelling orders at the students as they ran around with brooms and wet rags to mop the floors. Since it was the first day of school at the A-Level campus in a few weeks, the school buildings had become incredibly dirty and were in need of a good cleaning. Therefore, rather than going to classes on the first day of school, most of the students were cleaning instead. In one way this was good because it was 9:00 by the time we reached the secondary campus and I’d already missed the entirety of my first class, which ends at 8:50 on Mondays. Although my second class didn’t begin until 11:10, I decided to call it off and just start teaching fresh on Tuesday. Since both of the classes I’m teaching are the same levels (Form 1 English) I want to keep them as balanced as possible to make my lesson planning as easy as possible for myself. Before I left the campus, however, Madam Safina and I greeted my two classes and told them I would start teaching them on Tuesday. They seemed pleased.
Madam Safina and I left the campus and took a shortcut to our homes. I’d heard of the shortcut before coming to the school that day, but I didn’t actually know where it was so I’d chosen to just take the long way. Yet, it turns out that it only takes 10 minutes or less to walk between my house and the secondary campus where I’ll be teaching using the shortcut! I was really excited about that. What’s even better is that the shortcut runs right through the local food market where Becky and I get the majority of our fresh fruits and vegetables, so if we even need anything I can just pick it up on my way home from work. Although I’m only teaching Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, I’m sure I’ll be going through the market often enough so I won’t have to make special trips there, which makes my life easier. Madam Safina and I made it home by 10:30. I’d already had a full day of excitement and it was still just the morning! I prepared myself a delicious lunch of stir fried vegetables and decided to walk to town to run some errands for the rest of the day. On Monday evening I looked over my lesson plans that I’d prepared and watched most of the Invictus movie. I got to bed early to make sure I would be fresh and awake for my first 7:30 class on Tuesday.
On Tuesday morning I woke up at 5:45, ate breakfast, bathed, watched the rest of Invictus, and was out the door by 7:00. I decided to attempt taking the shortcut to work and see how it went. I went past the market and followed a seemingly familiar path toward the campus behind a bunch of students clad in their school uniforms. Some of the students were wearing the white and green uniforms I’d seen from the day before so I was sure I was going the right way. After walking for 15 minutes, though, I sensed that I’d gotten a little lost so I ran into a girl in one of the Moro Sec uniforms and asked her what form she was. It turns out that she was one of my own Form 1C students from my first period class! I was relieved and followed her lead to the campus. I made it there just in time for the start of my class.
When I walked into the Form 1C classroom my eyes were overwhelmed to see more than 60 students crammed in the classroom. All of their desks were jammed together so there was absolutely no way I could walk in between the students. I went to the front of the classroom and set my bag down at an empty desk and got out the chalk I’d brought with me that I’d kept since teaching at Dakawa. I wrote my name on the board as “Madam Megan” and began my lesson. I introduced myself and told the students a little bit about who I am and where I’m from. I showed them some pictures of Vermont from a book I’d brought with me. They were pretty wowed by all the snow in the photos of Vermont’s winters. I asked the students if they had any questions for me about anything before I began my actual lesson and they all said no. I had planned to do an icebreaker activity to get to know my students a bit, but since there were so many students I decided to scratch that at the last minute. It would’ve taken the whole class to do something like that and I wanted to make sure I taught them at least something on the first day. So I jumped right in. I began reviewing vocabulary that I thought might be challenging for them from the story “Mabala the Farmer” that I was told to assign the students to read. I went over about 15 vocabulary words. I’d originally planned to put the students in groups to define the words themselves and then go over them as a class, but I didn’t have any paper for the students and some of the students didn’t even have notebooks of their own so I decided to just review the vocabulary myself on the board for the class. Again, I had to be flexible and change my plans. Going over the vocabulary took a lot less time than I’d anticipated so I had to improvise. Luckily, I’d brought the book with me to class. Since I didn’t know what the students’ reading abilities were yet, I decided to make the first day more of a listening exercise. Listening is always the easiest learning exercise to do when you’re learning a new language. Although I thought it would be beneficial since the students could start getting used to the way I pronounce words with my American English background (they’re more used to the British English pronunciation). I read Chapter One to them and asked them comprehension questions after I finished each paragraph to see if they could understand me and were listening. They did surprisingly well and I was happy about that! Then again, only a group of about 8 students consistently insisted on answering my questions and there were more than 60 students in the class, as I said. I assume these 8 students know English a lot more than the majority of the students in class do, so I’ll still have to keep most of my lessons pretty basic. I want to create a diagnostic test to see just how much English my students know. I think I’ll prepare a test like that for Monday’s class next week.
Overall the first class did pretty well with the reading comprehension, but I did have a few problems with them. First of all, many of the students came into the class late. Even by half an hour! As I was going over the vocabulary a ton of students kept knocking on the door from outside and interrupted me while I was teaching. It made it really tough for me to stay on track and I assume these students had a hard time catching up with the lesson since they came in late. I tried to tell the class at the end that I really want them all to come in on time next class because it’s hard to teach when so many people come late. I’m not sure how they’ll do on Thursday, but I guess I’ll see! Also, the class was generally very noisy and chatty. I had to stop reading a lot because they were being so loud. I asked them to quiet down every time they started talking a lot. I shouldn’t have to yell or talk over them in order to teach, you know? Hopefully they’ll be more respectful and ready to listen for the next class. All in all we got through three chapters of the book and we’ll continue from where we left off on Thursday.
At the end of my first class students from the Form 1B class whom I was supposed to teach next knocked on the door and escorted me to their classroom. They insisted on carrying my bag for me to the front on my room. They were really sweet. When I walked into the classroom the room looked a little more organized than the previous class. There were just as many students but there were actual aisles I could walk through! Right at the front of the classroom I had several new pieces of chalk and a board eraser waiting for me. I felt relieved to get such a nice welcoming from this class after a rather chaotic and spontaneous first class. I went through the same lesson as I had with my first class except it flew by with my second class. They were so quiet and studious that I didn’t even have to tell them once to quiet down and listen. They made my job so easy and enjoyable! The lesson went so smoothly that we got through one more chapter than the first class (so much for trying to keep the classes balanced…but then again, if one class behaves better than the other I’m not going to punish them by holding them back just so the other class is on the same page. I want to reward them for being good students). As I left the class some of the students walked me out and one of the guys stopped me and said, “Madam, I really like the way you teach us. You are so good!” I smiled at that, happy that I’d at least satisfied one of the students in the class!
As I walked out I went and chatted with a few of the other teachers on campus and introduced myself to them. Then I took the shortcut home, this time without getting lost! As soon as I got home I was so mentally exhausted that I napped for four straight hours! I got up after, still drowsy, made myself some lunch and watched Ratatouille and then the Whole Ten Yards. I was planning on going to town later, but I just decided to relax and let myself rest after my first big day at school. After all, I’d taught for three hours straight and it was pretty exhausting. I made myself awesome homemade tortillas for dinner to go with more veggie stir fry I’d made earlier for lunch. I cleaned up the house a bit and got to bed early again.
I woke up this morning and went for a run. It felt really good to get some exercise again. While I was in Dar staying with my friend’s mom I used their bicycling machine and started to really like it just as I had to leave to come back to Morogoro. Luckily, running is an enjoyable form of exercise for me, too. After my run I watched a few episodes of Sex and the City and then came to town to pay Becky and I’s Tanesco electricity bill (it was painless this time) and to get more drinking water. Since then I’ve been relaxing at the Oasis Hotel where I can get wireless internet! Life’s pretty good so far this week. Tomorrow is another long day of teaching, but I’m ready for it! I’ll finish up my lesson plan tonight and be ready to teach tomorrow morning. I’ll have more updates later about how teaching goes tomorrow.
That’s it for now! Hope you’re doing great!
As we were all getting to know each other Alex popped back into the office and asked Sarah and I to go to the morning assembly with him so the Head Master could introduce us to the students. Because the A-Level students are still on vacation there were only O-Level students (Form 1-4) present. Sarah and I walked to the front of the area (the assembly was held outdoors in a grassy area in the middle of the school buildings). I felt like I was some sort of dog at a dog show, haha. Everyone was ogling at us! The Head Master asked me to introduce myself first so I stepped forward and told all the students that I was a new teacher who would be teaching Form 1B and 1C English from now on. As soon as made my announcement all of the students started cheering and clapping and jumping up and down. I couldn’t help but smile at their warm welcoming. It felt really good to be so accepted so fast, especially since it’s just me on my own this time as the only WorldTeach volunteer at the school. I stepped back and Sarah took her turn introducing herself. She said she was a Peace Corps volunteer and that she would be at the school learning Kiswahili. The students gave her a huge rush of claps and cheers as well as Sarah retreated to where I was standing behind the Head Master. The Head Master told the students that they should be grateful for our presence on campus and that he expects them to treat us with respect and to listen well when we teach. I thought that was a nice gesture of him. Once he finished his words about us, Alex brought us back to the office to wait again. Sarah was laughing herself silly and was slightly embarrassed because the Head Master had said that she was also going to be a teacher at the school with me. Oops. I guess the students will figure it out sooner or later that I’m the only new teacher (so far at least).
After a minute another Peace Corps volunteer, Carly, joined Sarah and I in the office to wait. I seemed to be waiting a lot during my first day, haha. T.I.T (This is Tanzania) and the cultural motto “Hurry Up and Wait” seemed to be especially salient that morning. The next time I looked at my clock it was already 7:40 and I was late for my first class! I got up and started looking around for Alex again to check to see if someone was coming to show me my classroom. I didn’t want to be any later than I had to be for my first class…I didn’t want to make a poor impression on my new students, after all. I found Alex and he said not to worry. Since it was thestart of a new semester and the first day back on campus for O-Level students who had just finished their break it was unknown where most of the new classes were going to be held. In fact, most of the teachers had no idea where their classes were so I felt a little relieved. Alex insisted he was getting another teacher to show me where my class was, so I sat back down in the office. A moment later the familiar face of Madam Ngowi who was the Academic Master I met the first day I went to Moro Sec to set up my teacher schedule greeted me at the door. She said she was trying to find Madam Shayla, another teacher I had met my first day who also teaches Form 1 English, so she could show me where to go. After 10 minutes Madam Ngowi reported to me that Madam Shayla was sick so Madam Safina would show me to my class instead.
Madam Safina came into the office and introduced herself as the Head of the English Department. I was excited to meet her since I’d be working with her so closely for the rest of the year. She seemed really nice and patient. Funnily, she’s the wife of a teacher at the Kilakala Secondary School whom Becky knows rather well and she lives right next door to us on the Kilakala campus! What a small world! As we walked to the English Department for a brief visit she told me that the Form 4 students are going to take their national exams for the next three weeks and are hence taking up most of the classroom space on campus (there are over 400 Form 4 students at the school). Since the A-Level students are still on break she said that the Form 1 and Form 2 students had been moved to the school’s secondary A-Level campus down the road for the next three weeks. It took us about 10 minutes to walk to the campus. It didn’t look like much when we got there. There were several one-floor school buildings lumped next to each other in a wide-open field and that was about it. There were tons of students scurrying around and the whole campus looked like it was in a state of chaos. Teachers were yelling orders at the students as they ran around with brooms and wet rags to mop the floors. Since it was the first day of school at the A-Level campus in a few weeks, the school buildings had become incredibly dirty and were in need of a good cleaning. Therefore, rather than going to classes on the first day of school, most of the students were cleaning instead. In one way this was good because it was 9:00 by the time we reached the secondary campus and I’d already missed the entirety of my first class, which ends at 8:50 on Mondays. Although my second class didn’t begin until 11:10, I decided to call it off and just start teaching fresh on Tuesday. Since both of the classes I’m teaching are the same levels (Form 1 English) I want to keep them as balanced as possible to make my lesson planning as easy as possible for myself. Before I left the campus, however, Madam Safina and I greeted my two classes and told them I would start teaching them on Tuesday. They seemed pleased.
Madam Safina and I left the campus and took a shortcut to our homes. I’d heard of the shortcut before coming to the school that day, but I didn’t actually know where it was so I’d chosen to just take the long way. Yet, it turns out that it only takes 10 minutes or less to walk between my house and the secondary campus where I’ll be teaching using the shortcut! I was really excited about that. What’s even better is that the shortcut runs right through the local food market where Becky and I get the majority of our fresh fruits and vegetables, so if we even need anything I can just pick it up on my way home from work. Although I’m only teaching Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, I’m sure I’ll be going through the market often enough so I won’t have to make special trips there, which makes my life easier. Madam Safina and I made it home by 10:30. I’d already had a full day of excitement and it was still just the morning! I prepared myself a delicious lunch of stir fried vegetables and decided to walk to town to run some errands for the rest of the day. On Monday evening I looked over my lesson plans that I’d prepared and watched most of the Invictus movie. I got to bed early to make sure I would be fresh and awake for my first 7:30 class on Tuesday.
On Tuesday morning I woke up at 5:45, ate breakfast, bathed, watched the rest of Invictus, and was out the door by 7:00. I decided to attempt taking the shortcut to work and see how it went. I went past the market and followed a seemingly familiar path toward the campus behind a bunch of students clad in their school uniforms. Some of the students were wearing the white and green uniforms I’d seen from the day before so I was sure I was going the right way. After walking for 15 minutes, though, I sensed that I’d gotten a little lost so I ran into a girl in one of the Moro Sec uniforms and asked her what form she was. It turns out that she was one of my own Form 1C students from my first period class! I was relieved and followed her lead to the campus. I made it there just in time for the start of my class.
When I walked into the Form 1C classroom my eyes were overwhelmed to see more than 60 students crammed in the classroom. All of their desks were jammed together so there was absolutely no way I could walk in between the students. I went to the front of the classroom and set my bag down at an empty desk and got out the chalk I’d brought with me that I’d kept since teaching at Dakawa. I wrote my name on the board as “Madam Megan” and began my lesson. I introduced myself and told the students a little bit about who I am and where I’m from. I showed them some pictures of Vermont from a book I’d brought with me. They were pretty wowed by all the snow in the photos of Vermont’s winters. I asked the students if they had any questions for me about anything before I began my actual lesson and they all said no. I had planned to do an icebreaker activity to get to know my students a bit, but since there were so many students I decided to scratch that at the last minute. It would’ve taken the whole class to do something like that and I wanted to make sure I taught them at least something on the first day. So I jumped right in. I began reviewing vocabulary that I thought might be challenging for them from the story “Mabala the Farmer” that I was told to assign the students to read. I went over about 15 vocabulary words. I’d originally planned to put the students in groups to define the words themselves and then go over them as a class, but I didn’t have any paper for the students and some of the students didn’t even have notebooks of their own so I decided to just review the vocabulary myself on the board for the class. Again, I had to be flexible and change my plans. Going over the vocabulary took a lot less time than I’d anticipated so I had to improvise. Luckily, I’d brought the book with me to class. Since I didn’t know what the students’ reading abilities were yet, I decided to make the first day more of a listening exercise. Listening is always the easiest learning exercise to do when you’re learning a new language. Although I thought it would be beneficial since the students could start getting used to the way I pronounce words with my American English background (they’re more used to the British English pronunciation). I read Chapter One to them and asked them comprehension questions after I finished each paragraph to see if they could understand me and were listening. They did surprisingly well and I was happy about that! Then again, only a group of about 8 students consistently insisted on answering my questions and there were more than 60 students in the class, as I said. I assume these 8 students know English a lot more than the majority of the students in class do, so I’ll still have to keep most of my lessons pretty basic. I want to create a diagnostic test to see just how much English my students know. I think I’ll prepare a test like that for Monday’s class next week.
Overall the first class did pretty well with the reading comprehension, but I did have a few problems with them. First of all, many of the students came into the class late. Even by half an hour! As I was going over the vocabulary a ton of students kept knocking on the door from outside and interrupted me while I was teaching. It made it really tough for me to stay on track and I assume these students had a hard time catching up with the lesson since they came in late. I tried to tell the class at the end that I really want them all to come in on time next class because it’s hard to teach when so many people come late. I’m not sure how they’ll do on Thursday, but I guess I’ll see! Also, the class was generally very noisy and chatty. I had to stop reading a lot because they were being so loud. I asked them to quiet down every time they started talking a lot. I shouldn’t have to yell or talk over them in order to teach, you know? Hopefully they’ll be more respectful and ready to listen for the next class. All in all we got through three chapters of the book and we’ll continue from where we left off on Thursday.
At the end of my first class students from the Form 1B class whom I was supposed to teach next knocked on the door and escorted me to their classroom. They insisted on carrying my bag for me to the front on my room. They were really sweet. When I walked into the classroom the room looked a little more organized than the previous class. There were just as many students but there were actual aisles I could walk through! Right at the front of the classroom I had several new pieces of chalk and a board eraser waiting for me. I felt relieved to get such a nice welcoming from this class after a rather chaotic and spontaneous first class. I went through the same lesson as I had with my first class except it flew by with my second class. They were so quiet and studious that I didn’t even have to tell them once to quiet down and listen. They made my job so easy and enjoyable! The lesson went so smoothly that we got through one more chapter than the first class (so much for trying to keep the classes balanced…but then again, if one class behaves better than the other I’m not going to punish them by holding them back just so the other class is on the same page. I want to reward them for being good students). As I left the class some of the students walked me out and one of the guys stopped me and said, “Madam, I really like the way you teach us. You are so good!” I smiled at that, happy that I’d at least satisfied one of the students in the class!
As I walked out I went and chatted with a few of the other teachers on campus and introduced myself to them. Then I took the shortcut home, this time without getting lost! As soon as I got home I was so mentally exhausted that I napped for four straight hours! I got up after, still drowsy, made myself some lunch and watched Ratatouille and then the Whole Ten Yards. I was planning on going to town later, but I just decided to relax and let myself rest after my first big day at school. After all, I’d taught for three hours straight and it was pretty exhausting. I made myself awesome homemade tortillas for dinner to go with more veggie stir fry I’d made earlier for lunch. I cleaned up the house a bit and got to bed early again.
I woke up this morning and went for a run. It felt really good to get some exercise again. While I was in Dar staying with my friend’s mom I used their bicycling machine and started to really like it just as I had to leave to come back to Morogoro. Luckily, running is an enjoyable form of exercise for me, too. After my run I watched a few episodes of Sex and the City and then came to town to pay Becky and I’s Tanesco electricity bill (it was painless this time) and to get more drinking water. Since then I’ve been relaxing at the Oasis Hotel where I can get wireless internet! Life’s pretty good so far this week. Tomorrow is another long day of teaching, but I’m ready for it! I’ll finish up my lesson plan tonight and be ready to teach tomorrow morning. I’ll have more updates later about how teaching goes tomorrow.
That’s it for now! Hope you’re doing great!
Monday, October 4, 2010
My last break before teaching at Moro Sec!
Dear readers,
Last week I spent time in Dar while I was still on holiday from teaching.
The weekend I arrived in Dar I hung out at the pool at the Double Tree hotel with some of my friends and we went around town to a couple of places to eat. One of our favorite places that we went to last Friday night is called “Addis in Dar” which is an Ethiopian restaurant. They give you a huge soft tortilla that’s the size of a large pizza in the U.S. to share amongst you and other people. Together you get to decide to put certain food dishes on top of the tortilla. Then you rip off parts of the tortilla with the toppings on it to eat it and it’s sooo good! We had really amazing lamb curry, chickpea curry and some other ones too.
On Monday I saw Becky off for her vacation. She left to meet her parents in Arusha, Tanzania to go on a safari with them. She’s going to be gone for an entire month so I’m going to be alone at the house in Morogoro for quite a while! I hope she enjoys herself!
On Tuesday I went to meet up with my friend Liz who is another WorldTeach Volunteer at her placement in Kibiti, Tanzania. It’s two hours south of Dar. Kibiti is super rural, just like Dakawa, and it’s really quiet and peaceful. Duffie and Liz have managed to form really strong connections with everyone there and they’re big parts of the community now. They both teach at the all boys secondary school in Kibiti. When I visited Kibiti Duffie was on vacation in Iringa, Tanzania (up north) so I just saw Liz. We hung out together and had a lot of fun. It was so nice seeing her after all this time, especially because I hadn’t seen her since we had orientation together way back in July! I honestly can’t believe it’s already October! Time sure is flying here. Liz and I had a great time catching up with each other. I was in Kibiti from Tuesday until Thursday this week and during my time there we went to the local market to buy food and to the one restaurant in town to hang out and drink coke light (the version of diet coke here). I really liked Kibiti and I think it’s actually my favorite WorldTeach site out of all of the ones I’ve seen so far. I’ve seen them all except the one at the Mzumbe Secondary School where the only guy in our program is located. Of all the sites Kibiti is the smallest and most rural, but I liked the quaintness of it. Kibiti actually just got full time electricity only a couple weeks ago. Before that there was only electricity between 6 and 8pm! Although there’s plenty of water in the area, they still only have running water in the house from 6-7am, 2-3pm, and 6-7pm. It’s funny how much electricity and running water here become privileges when back home in America most people don’t really think about either of them. All in all though, Kibiti is a really inviting, welcoming, and friendly environment. I think I’ll go back to visit Liz and Duffie again sometime, maybe in December when I have a break from teaching, since I liked it there so much. The coolest thing ever there was that right from their back porch you can see monkeys hanging out in the trees outside. I don’t care how old I get or how often I see monkeys in my lifetime…I think they’ll always be fascinating to watch. I saw the biggest monkey I’ve ever seen in my life at a distance from the house and it was super cool. I didn’t get a picture of it unfortunately, but hopefully I can get some pictures to show you another time.
On Thursday once I got back to Dar I got to meet up with a friend of mine who I used to hang out with while I was in Cape Town. It was awesome to see him again after all this time. We got to hang out at his house and spend time with his cousin who I met for the first time in December when I was here doing research for my thesis. We went to the beach on Friday to hang out and I got to see his two sisters and his mother. I remember last time I was here I knew absolutely no Swahili and I was super embarrassed because I couldn’t properly communicate with my friend’s parents, especially. When I saw his mom again this time I could talk to her in fluent Swahili about what I’m doing here in Tanzania. It was nice to be able to redeem myself and be able to properly talk with her. I think she was impressed! My Swahili is slowly improving!
On Friday I just relaxed at Mama Lemi’s and then saw my friend from Cape Town again. We hung out at his house for a bit and then went to the beach to walk around. I absolutely love the beach. You know people call Morogoro, “The city without an ocean” in TZ, haha. Too bad! It was nice to be by the water again. As we were walking the beach we found an awesome starfish that had died. It was bright red with purple and pinkish colors on it. I wanted to take it home and dry it out so that I could keep it so I bagged it up and took it home with me. By the time I got home though it was really gross so I ended up chucking it. Oh well, I’m sure I’ll find another cool starfish to save sometime! I ended up leaving my friend’s house just before it was getting dark so by the time I got to the final bus stop by the house it was pitch black outside. I wasn’t really sure where I was because I’ve never been at the bus station when it’s dark, but I asked some people and found my way home safely. I have to say I was pretty scared at first because I was alone and being White and hence assumed as wealthy, it makes me a pretty vulnerable target of crime when it’s dark like that. Luckily nothing happened, though. I found some nice people who escorted me all the way home from the bus station. I was a little frazzled when I got home on Friday night because I’d been so anxious getting home, so I just decided to stay home that night and not go out again.
On Saturday I spent the day at home at Mama Lemi’s and I made us some homemade tortillas. I’d made tortillas with Liz while I was in Kibiti and I wanted to make some for us too. I bought Mama Lemi a small wooden platform with a wooden roller that you can use to roll out dough on. Usually they’re used to make chapatti, which is kind of like Indian naan or tortillas that are super oily. They’re as tasty as they are bad for you, haha, but once in a while they’re nice to have. The tortillas came out great though and I had a few for dinner before I went out that night. One of my friends from Dar was having a house party and I went to that. It was really fun and I got to meet a lot of new friends.
Last week when I visited Dar I finally began mastering the local bus system so I can get around pretty much anywhere. A one-way fare on the buses is only 250 shillings and you can get all the way across town by taking only two buses usually, which is only 500 shillings. It’s a great deal considering that to get from one side of town to the other in Dar in a taxi will cost you 10,000 shillings at the minimum! It’s nice that I’m finally figuring out my way around so that I don’t have to spend so much money everywhere. Dar can be really expensive if you have no idea where you are and you have to take taxis. Hopefully I won’t have to take taxis anymore unless it’s at night and it’s too unsafe to take buses.
I returned back to Morogoro on Sunday and didn’t make it home until 5pm. I went to fetch four large jugs of water across campus and I bought food at the local market. I made myself dinner and planned my first teaching lessons for Monday’s classes and got to bed early.
Today is Monday and I just got back from the Morogoro Secondary School where I’m teaching. I woke up at 5:30 am today so that I could walk to school by 6:30! I’m not used to getting up that early, but I managed to wake up on time. I took the only route I know to get to school this morning and it took me half an hour’s walk to reach the school. When I got there I didn’t know where my class was so I had to ask someone where I should go. I met the Deputy Head Master, Alex, and he escorted me to the Head Master’s office and told me to wait there while he found someone to talk to me before class began. I spoke with a teacher who teaches History and Geography while I waited. All of a sudden another white girl, Sarah, looking rather confused (as I was) came into the room and sat down. I learned that she’s a Peace Corps volunteer and that she just arrived here with five other PC volunteers about a week ago. They’re going to learn Swahili intensively at the Moro Sec School for the next two months before they go somewhere else in Tanzania to teach. They’re all doing homestays with families right near where I live so hopefully I’ll see them from time to time. I offered to show them around town since they just got here.
While we were chatting Alex came to fetch us so that we could introduce ourselves in front on the whole school at the assembly. It was super cute seeing everyone huddles together outside. All the students were standings in the green area of the campus for the assembly. Alex led Sarah and I to the front of the assembly next to the Head Master and he told us to introduce ourselves. I went first and told the students that I’m an English teacher from America and that I’ll be teaching Form 1B and 1C English until June of 2011. When I was finished all the students started clapping and cheering. It was really fun and welcoming. I felt like a mini celebrity, haha. Getting such a warm welcome really makes me feel good since I’m going it alone teaching at this school now. After I went Sarah told the students how she was a Peace Corps volunteer and she’s just here to learn Swahili. I think the Head Master who was leading the assembly was confused because he said we were both teachers, haha. Sarah was a little embarrassed about the confusion, but when she announced that she’d be learning Swahili at the school all the students cheered for her.
After the assembly Sarah and I went back to the office we were in before. By that time it was already 7:30 and I was supposed to start teaching my first class with Form 1C. Yet, since today is the first day that the O-Level students are back at school after their holiday the assembly went extra long. On top of that, it’s still sort of unclear where all the classes are being held for now. The school teaches Form 1-Form 6 (O- and A-Level) and the capacity of the main campus is too small to host all the students. Since the Form 4 students are taking their final exams this week and next they get the privilege of staying on the main campus, along with the Form 3 students. Since the Form 5 and 6 A-level students are on holiday right now, the secondary campus they usually occupy is temporarily accommodating the Form 1 and Form 2 students. The secondary campus is a bit far from the main campus and I had no idea how to get there so I was sort of stuck in the office waiting until someone came to escort me to the other campus.
Madam Safina who is the Head of the English Department met me at the office and we walked together to the secondary campus. There were only a few classes going on when we got there because most of the students were cleaning the classrooms out since the A-Level students hadn’t been there for a few weeks. Since it’s the dry season there’s dust everywhere so most of the students were sweeping the classrooms out. We found a teacher who showed us where the Form 1 students were in class. By the time we reached the students it was 9:00 and I’d already missed teaching my Form 1C English class which ends at 8:50. Madam Safina and I knocked on the door of one of the classrooms which had Form 1A and IB students inside. I introduced myself to them and told them that I would be teaching them starting from tomorrow. We moved to the classroom next door for the Form 1C and 1D students and I told them the same thing. Even though I was supposed to have English class with Form 1B this afternoon I decided to cancel class and just start teaching tomorrow. Since I missed my 1C class today I didn’t want to teach Form 1B and have them be ahead of the 1C students. I want to keep my lessons balanced so that it’s easier for me to teach both classes.
From seeing the way the classes were set up today, I have a feeling that I should try to make teaching as manageable as I can for myself. There were probably about 80 students in each of the classrooms I saw today and many of the students were sharing desks and even chairs. There wasn’t even enough room for me to walk in between the students’ desks like I used to at Dakawa because there were so many students packed into such a small room that there wasn’t enough space for aisles. The students seemed really enthusiastic for me to teach them, but they were also really chatty so I have a feeling it’s going to be pretty challenging for me to keep the classes quiet and focused. It’s especially going to be difficult because some of the students know barely any English so they might not even understand when I ask them to quiet down! It will be interesting for sure to start teaching tomorrow.
I’m really excited to start teaching at Moro Sec, honestly. I felt immersed in a generally friendly and welcoming environment when I was at the school today and I can only hope that those feelings get stronger during my time there. Even after we saw the Form 1 classes Madam Safina nicely escorted me all the way back to my house at Kilakala. It turns out that her husband teaches at Kilakala so they live in one of the other teacher houses on campus. She showed me the shortcut between Kilakala and Moro Sec that I can take from now on. It only took us about ten minutes to get home versus the half an hour’s walk I’d done in the morning to the school along the main road. It really helps to know the ins and outs of a place and have people show you where to go when you’re new. I know that shortcut will make my life easier from now on so I’m grateful I know about it now. The cool thing is that the shortcut runs right through the market that Becky and I go to buy most of our fresh food. Hence, it will be really convenient to pick up anything we need on my way to and from school. I teach Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays so I’ll be walking through there pretty often. I’m crossing my fingers that tomorrow’s lessons will go well and the students will be able to understand me. I was even encouraged by Madam Safina today to try and use the little Swahili that I do know to help the students comprehend what I’m saying in English. We’ll see how that goes! I’ll have more updates for you soon about how my first week of teaching goes.
Meanwhile, I hope you’re doing well!
Last week I spent time in Dar while I was still on holiday from teaching.
The weekend I arrived in Dar I hung out at the pool at the Double Tree hotel with some of my friends and we went around town to a couple of places to eat. One of our favorite places that we went to last Friday night is called “Addis in Dar” which is an Ethiopian restaurant. They give you a huge soft tortilla that’s the size of a large pizza in the U.S. to share amongst you and other people. Together you get to decide to put certain food dishes on top of the tortilla. Then you rip off parts of the tortilla with the toppings on it to eat it and it’s sooo good! We had really amazing lamb curry, chickpea curry and some other ones too.
On Monday I saw Becky off for her vacation. She left to meet her parents in Arusha, Tanzania to go on a safari with them. She’s going to be gone for an entire month so I’m going to be alone at the house in Morogoro for quite a while! I hope she enjoys herself!
On Tuesday I went to meet up with my friend Liz who is another WorldTeach Volunteer at her placement in Kibiti, Tanzania. It’s two hours south of Dar. Kibiti is super rural, just like Dakawa, and it’s really quiet and peaceful. Duffie and Liz have managed to form really strong connections with everyone there and they’re big parts of the community now. They both teach at the all boys secondary school in Kibiti. When I visited Kibiti Duffie was on vacation in Iringa, Tanzania (up north) so I just saw Liz. We hung out together and had a lot of fun. It was so nice seeing her after all this time, especially because I hadn’t seen her since we had orientation together way back in July! I honestly can’t believe it’s already October! Time sure is flying here. Liz and I had a great time catching up with each other. I was in Kibiti from Tuesday until Thursday this week and during my time there we went to the local market to buy food and to the one restaurant in town to hang out and drink coke light (the version of diet coke here). I really liked Kibiti and I think it’s actually my favorite WorldTeach site out of all of the ones I’ve seen so far. I’ve seen them all except the one at the Mzumbe Secondary School where the only guy in our program is located. Of all the sites Kibiti is the smallest and most rural, but I liked the quaintness of it. Kibiti actually just got full time electricity only a couple weeks ago. Before that there was only electricity between 6 and 8pm! Although there’s plenty of water in the area, they still only have running water in the house from 6-7am, 2-3pm, and 6-7pm. It’s funny how much electricity and running water here become privileges when back home in America most people don’t really think about either of them. All in all though, Kibiti is a really inviting, welcoming, and friendly environment. I think I’ll go back to visit Liz and Duffie again sometime, maybe in December when I have a break from teaching, since I liked it there so much. The coolest thing ever there was that right from their back porch you can see monkeys hanging out in the trees outside. I don’t care how old I get or how often I see monkeys in my lifetime…I think they’ll always be fascinating to watch. I saw the biggest monkey I’ve ever seen in my life at a distance from the house and it was super cool. I didn’t get a picture of it unfortunately, but hopefully I can get some pictures to show you another time.
On Thursday once I got back to Dar I got to meet up with a friend of mine who I used to hang out with while I was in Cape Town. It was awesome to see him again after all this time. We got to hang out at his house and spend time with his cousin who I met for the first time in December when I was here doing research for my thesis. We went to the beach on Friday to hang out and I got to see his two sisters and his mother. I remember last time I was here I knew absolutely no Swahili and I was super embarrassed because I couldn’t properly communicate with my friend’s parents, especially. When I saw his mom again this time I could talk to her in fluent Swahili about what I’m doing here in Tanzania. It was nice to be able to redeem myself and be able to properly talk with her. I think she was impressed! My Swahili is slowly improving!
On Friday I just relaxed at Mama Lemi’s and then saw my friend from Cape Town again. We hung out at his house for a bit and then went to the beach to walk around. I absolutely love the beach. You know people call Morogoro, “The city without an ocean” in TZ, haha. Too bad! It was nice to be by the water again. As we were walking the beach we found an awesome starfish that had died. It was bright red with purple and pinkish colors on it. I wanted to take it home and dry it out so that I could keep it so I bagged it up and took it home with me. By the time I got home though it was really gross so I ended up chucking it. Oh well, I’m sure I’ll find another cool starfish to save sometime! I ended up leaving my friend’s house just before it was getting dark so by the time I got to the final bus stop by the house it was pitch black outside. I wasn’t really sure where I was because I’ve never been at the bus station when it’s dark, but I asked some people and found my way home safely. I have to say I was pretty scared at first because I was alone and being White and hence assumed as wealthy, it makes me a pretty vulnerable target of crime when it’s dark like that. Luckily nothing happened, though. I found some nice people who escorted me all the way home from the bus station. I was a little frazzled when I got home on Friday night because I’d been so anxious getting home, so I just decided to stay home that night and not go out again.
On Saturday I spent the day at home at Mama Lemi’s and I made us some homemade tortillas. I’d made tortillas with Liz while I was in Kibiti and I wanted to make some for us too. I bought Mama Lemi a small wooden platform with a wooden roller that you can use to roll out dough on. Usually they’re used to make chapatti, which is kind of like Indian naan or tortillas that are super oily. They’re as tasty as they are bad for you, haha, but once in a while they’re nice to have. The tortillas came out great though and I had a few for dinner before I went out that night. One of my friends from Dar was having a house party and I went to that. It was really fun and I got to meet a lot of new friends.
Last week when I visited Dar I finally began mastering the local bus system so I can get around pretty much anywhere. A one-way fare on the buses is only 250 shillings and you can get all the way across town by taking only two buses usually, which is only 500 shillings. It’s a great deal considering that to get from one side of town to the other in Dar in a taxi will cost you 10,000 shillings at the minimum! It’s nice that I’m finally figuring out my way around so that I don’t have to spend so much money everywhere. Dar can be really expensive if you have no idea where you are and you have to take taxis. Hopefully I won’t have to take taxis anymore unless it’s at night and it’s too unsafe to take buses.
I returned back to Morogoro on Sunday and didn’t make it home until 5pm. I went to fetch four large jugs of water across campus and I bought food at the local market. I made myself dinner and planned my first teaching lessons for Monday’s classes and got to bed early.
Today is Monday and I just got back from the Morogoro Secondary School where I’m teaching. I woke up at 5:30 am today so that I could walk to school by 6:30! I’m not used to getting up that early, but I managed to wake up on time. I took the only route I know to get to school this morning and it took me half an hour’s walk to reach the school. When I got there I didn’t know where my class was so I had to ask someone where I should go. I met the Deputy Head Master, Alex, and he escorted me to the Head Master’s office and told me to wait there while he found someone to talk to me before class began. I spoke with a teacher who teaches History and Geography while I waited. All of a sudden another white girl, Sarah, looking rather confused (as I was) came into the room and sat down. I learned that she’s a Peace Corps volunteer and that she just arrived here with five other PC volunteers about a week ago. They’re going to learn Swahili intensively at the Moro Sec School for the next two months before they go somewhere else in Tanzania to teach. They’re all doing homestays with families right near where I live so hopefully I’ll see them from time to time. I offered to show them around town since they just got here.
While we were chatting Alex came to fetch us so that we could introduce ourselves in front on the whole school at the assembly. It was super cute seeing everyone huddles together outside. All the students were standings in the green area of the campus for the assembly. Alex led Sarah and I to the front of the assembly next to the Head Master and he told us to introduce ourselves. I went first and told the students that I’m an English teacher from America and that I’ll be teaching Form 1B and 1C English until June of 2011. When I was finished all the students started clapping and cheering. It was really fun and welcoming. I felt like a mini celebrity, haha. Getting such a warm welcome really makes me feel good since I’m going it alone teaching at this school now. After I went Sarah told the students how she was a Peace Corps volunteer and she’s just here to learn Swahili. I think the Head Master who was leading the assembly was confused because he said we were both teachers, haha. Sarah was a little embarrassed about the confusion, but when she announced that she’d be learning Swahili at the school all the students cheered for her.
After the assembly Sarah and I went back to the office we were in before. By that time it was already 7:30 and I was supposed to start teaching my first class with Form 1C. Yet, since today is the first day that the O-Level students are back at school after their holiday the assembly went extra long. On top of that, it’s still sort of unclear where all the classes are being held for now. The school teaches Form 1-Form 6 (O- and A-Level) and the capacity of the main campus is too small to host all the students. Since the Form 4 students are taking their final exams this week and next they get the privilege of staying on the main campus, along with the Form 3 students. Since the Form 5 and 6 A-level students are on holiday right now, the secondary campus they usually occupy is temporarily accommodating the Form 1 and Form 2 students. The secondary campus is a bit far from the main campus and I had no idea how to get there so I was sort of stuck in the office waiting until someone came to escort me to the other campus.
Madam Safina who is the Head of the English Department met me at the office and we walked together to the secondary campus. There were only a few classes going on when we got there because most of the students were cleaning the classrooms out since the A-Level students hadn’t been there for a few weeks. Since it’s the dry season there’s dust everywhere so most of the students were sweeping the classrooms out. We found a teacher who showed us where the Form 1 students were in class. By the time we reached the students it was 9:00 and I’d already missed teaching my Form 1C English class which ends at 8:50. Madam Safina and I knocked on the door of one of the classrooms which had Form 1A and IB students inside. I introduced myself to them and told them that I would be teaching them starting from tomorrow. We moved to the classroom next door for the Form 1C and 1D students and I told them the same thing. Even though I was supposed to have English class with Form 1B this afternoon I decided to cancel class and just start teaching tomorrow. Since I missed my 1C class today I didn’t want to teach Form 1B and have them be ahead of the 1C students. I want to keep my lessons balanced so that it’s easier for me to teach both classes.
From seeing the way the classes were set up today, I have a feeling that I should try to make teaching as manageable as I can for myself. There were probably about 80 students in each of the classrooms I saw today and many of the students were sharing desks and even chairs. There wasn’t even enough room for me to walk in between the students’ desks like I used to at Dakawa because there were so many students packed into such a small room that there wasn’t enough space for aisles. The students seemed really enthusiastic for me to teach them, but they were also really chatty so I have a feeling it’s going to be pretty challenging for me to keep the classes quiet and focused. It’s especially going to be difficult because some of the students know barely any English so they might not even understand when I ask them to quiet down! It will be interesting for sure to start teaching tomorrow.
I’m really excited to start teaching at Moro Sec, honestly. I felt immersed in a generally friendly and welcoming environment when I was at the school today and I can only hope that those feelings get stronger during my time there. Even after we saw the Form 1 classes Madam Safina nicely escorted me all the way back to my house at Kilakala. It turns out that her husband teaches at Kilakala so they live in one of the other teacher houses on campus. She showed me the shortcut between Kilakala and Moro Sec that I can take from now on. It only took us about ten minutes to get home versus the half an hour’s walk I’d done in the morning to the school along the main road. It really helps to know the ins and outs of a place and have people show you where to go when you’re new. I know that shortcut will make my life easier from now on so I’m grateful I know about it now. The cool thing is that the shortcut runs right through the market that Becky and I go to buy most of our fresh food. Hence, it will be really convenient to pick up anything we need on my way to and from school. I teach Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays so I’ll be walking through there pretty often. I’m crossing my fingers that tomorrow’s lessons will go well and the students will be able to understand me. I was even encouraged by Madam Safina today to try and use the little Swahili that I do know to help the students comprehend what I’m saying in English. We’ll see how that goes! I’ll have more updates for you soon about how my first week of teaching goes.
Meanwhile, I hope you’re doing well!
Monday, September 20, 2010
Getting Settled in Morogoro
I just spent my first week in my new home of Morogoro and life seems to be going quite fine so far. Since I’m still not teaching yet, I’ve found other ways to preoccupy myself for the rest of my vacation. Surprisingly, I’ve kept rather busy. I’ve walked to town and back every day since I’ve been here to do quick errands, buy groceries and other household items, and to use the Internet. One interesting errand I had to go on this past week was paying our electricity bill at a place called Tanesco. At first I had no idea where the place was in town, but by the time I found it after asking four different people along the way I’d walked over an hour just getting there! Tanesco was utterly packed with people who were crammed up against each other waiting for the only teller who was working then to pay their bills. I walked in with my bill and money in my hand and silently stood behind a group of three old men who were waiting to the side of the longer line. After about twenty minutes of standing idly I asked them if they were waiting and I showed them my bill and they pointed to the end of the other line. Great. I moved to the end of the other line just as two new tellers opened their windows, yet as I found out a little later, they weren’t accepting my kind of bill so I had to wait until getting to the last teller in the line who’d been there since I arrived. After a lot of confusion trying to pay at those first two windows I awkwardly rejoined the line slightly behind where I’d been waiting before. Almost instantly an older man behind me tapped me on the shoulder and pointed for me to go to the end of the line. At this point my patience was running out…I’d already waited more than 45 minutes just to figure out that I could only pay my bill in one spot. I tried to babble out in Swahili that I’d been waiting for almost an hour already and I had been ahead in line before, actually. The man and a few others around him laughed and told me to move and I simply said, “Hapana” (“No”). Sometimes you just have to hold your ground. I wasn’t trying to be some White ass hole who was trying to cut everyone – I was tired of waiting just like everyone else and I actually had been waiting longer than them! Finally the guy behind me let up and I was able to keep my spot in line. After another half an hour of shuffling in a line that didn’t really seem to be moving, I approached the counter with my bill and handed over my money. After swiftly stamping everyone else’s bills, the teller took one look at my bill and said, “Subiri” (“Wait”). Of course…wait! Haha. I stood off to the side with a defeated look on my face while a man behind the counter went to reprint my bill. As I was waiting, I immediately thought, “Yup, I’m definitely in a third world country!” I caught myself longing for the simple electronic bill pay at that moment that you can do with one click of a mouse on your computer back home in the States. No lines, no waiting, no questioning, just fast and simple. Sometimes I miss America. Ayayay. Anyway, the man finally came back with my bill and after stamping it and typing a bunch of info into her computer, the teller finally handed me back my change a new receipt for the bill! I was so happy to leave after being there for an hour and a half that I released a huge sigh as I walked out the door. By the time I left the line had gotten even worse. There was a guard standing at the entrance to Tanesco preventing people from going into the building, which was still massively overcrowded. As I walked back in the direction of town I passed by a long line of people who were waiting outside the door to Tanesco, eager to make their way into the building. At least I’d made it into the door when I got there…but I think I’ll have Becky pay the next bill for us, haha. I’d like to think I have a great deal of patience and understanding when it comes to being here in TZ, in fact I enjoy mostly everything here, even if it is different from America. Yet, I have to say, after all that, I really miss the way I used to pay my bills in America!
On the upside, I have to say it’s really great living in town and having everything I need be only a half an hour’s walk away. One thing that’s really amped up my mood since I moved is running in the area I live in. Although I’ve slightly destroyed my feet in the process because the ground is so harsh, running here versus Dakawa has been really enjoyable. I get to run to the backdrop of the Uluguru Mountains right behind me rather than just running in open savanna. Not only is the view spectacular but, thanks to the mountains, the weather is also cooler here and hence nicer to run in. During the day it gets extremely hot still, but during the mornings it’s sometimes cool enough to even put on a sweater! The summer hot season is fast approaching though so I’m going to try to do all the running I can before it gets unbearably hot. Aside from that, this week was rather relaxed. I settled into my new room, cleaned and decorated the house, and allowed myself to chill out for a while. Becky and I have been getting in a routine where we cook dinner together every night and then watch a movie in the evenings before going to bed. We made the best vegetarian fajitas I’ve ever had in my life – especially thanks to the abundance of fresh ingredients we have available to us right down our road.
This weekend Becky went to Dar es Salaam with some of the other volunteers and I decided to stay in Morogoro for the weekend and continue to get settled. During the day on Friday I went to the used clothes market again by myself this time and mulled around for a while. I found some cheap deals and went home with a couple of new outfits for work. I made myself dinner that evening and watched some episodes of Family Guy, complements of Becky’s awesome DVD collection. Unfortunately right after I’d eaten dinner the power went out! I felt like I was a girl scout who’d all of a sudden been abandoned in a lone cabin without electricity or running water for the weekend, haha. I’ve been getting used to the lack of running water, but combine that with a lack of power late at night and it’s even more of a pain than usual. It was a bit freaky being alone when the power went out, mainly because all the doors in our house slam open and closed all the time because of the wind…and the wind was whipping like crazy outside. Luckily I lit some candles so I could maneuver my way around the house and called it an early night since my computer’s battery ran out. The power didn’t actually come back on until noon on Saturday, but by then I was on my way to town to finally skype with my parents! We haven’t heard each other’s voices since I arrived in TZ all the way back in June! It was wonderful to catch up and be able to tell each other in real time what’s been going on. On Saturday night I was blessed to have power the whole night and I relaxed and watched “Death at a Funeral” and “Wedding Crashers” and went to bed. It’s nice to do things like that like I would do at home – to just watch a movie on the weekend and crash. Doing things like I would do at home here make me feel more at home and at ease, which I am sure is the same for most of us. On Sunday I went into a really cleaning stint and I mustered up the energy to collect 8 full large jugs of water from the working faucet on campus. I went to the market in town to get vegetables for our meals this week and by the time I got home I was so exhausted I could barely move!
It’s funny how even if I only do a few things in a day here I’m so tired at the end of the night that I can barely make it past 10:30pm without falling asleep. One thing you get used to here is African time, in that you should allow yourself at least an hour’s break from any “strenuous” activity that may only take three hours or so. Even when I’m walking to town people will say, “Oh, you’re doing exercise!” even though walking to town just makes the most (and cheapest) sense to me like it would at home. I don’t consider it exercise, but here even walking is considered work for most people. They’re partially right…due to the rugged conditions of the red clay, dusty and rocky roads here it is quite a workout going to and from town by foot. The funny thing is that even when you’re just walking normally people will call out to you “Pole” as in “Sorry for your work.” Especially when you see someone who is carrying or pulling a large load on the street, you’re supposed to tell them “Pole Kazi” (“Sorry for your work”) as a way of recognizing how hard they’re working. It’s quite a different perspective than what a lot of people in the Northeast in America tend to think. When people are doing work there it’s considered really prestigious and productive, like they’re earning a right to live. Yet, here, working is considered more of a pain and like it’s something one has to do to get by. You might not agree, but that’s just my perspective.
Right now I’m on break from teaching. There’s a break from mid-September to mid-October for the high school level I’ve been teaching at. This week my boss is coming to Morogoro to try to set me up with another teaching position for the rest of the year. She wants me to teach at the Morogoro Secondary School, which is just a short walk from where I live. I might be teaching middle school there instead of high school, which will be really different. The Tanzanian education system is set up so that students go through Standard 1-7 learning only in Kiswahili. Standard 1-7 is like Elementary School education in the States. After Standard 7 students have to take an exam to enter into Middle School, which is called O-Level education. O-level lasts from Form 1-4 and is conducted completely in English. Hence Form 1 is pretty much the first year that Tanzanian students really start learning English. I’ll most likely teach a level between Form 1 and Form 4 at the Morogoro Secondary School if all goes well. After completing O-level and taking a Form 4 exam, students are placed into a school for their A-Level education, which is basically like American high school. A-Level is composed of Form 5 and Form 6. Before at Dakawa I was teaching Form 5. It was really tough teaching Form 5 because at the end of Form 6 students have to take another final exam that will determine whether or not they get into university or not. It’s a huge deal breaker if they don’t do well on their exams, so a lot of the time teachers are forced to teach just to the exam so that students are able to do well. Even my students who had just begun their Form 5 education were already stressing about knowing things for the exam at the end of Form 6. It put a lot of pressure on me to not teach them anything that wasn’t on the exam. I managed to strike a good balance, but still it was a hard task. If I teach O-Level, especially Form 1 or Form 2, my job will be much more relaxed and I’ll have more of an opportunity to set the groundwork for English structure and grammar that will help my students in their futures. A lot of my former Form 5 students had picked up a lot of bad habits from their past English teachers who didn’t know proper English. For example, they would say, “We are five in our family” instead of “There are five people in my family.” Once students get up to Form 5 and they’ve been told that what they’ve been saying is right, it’s really hard to undo grammatical mistakes like that. That’s why I’m so excited to teach the younger students in Forms 1 and 2 maybe. I’ll have great room for creativity too, since I won’t be teaching to such an important exam, you know?
On Monday last week Becky came home with some really good news. She’s been volunteering to teach at a school down the road that teaches beginning English to students who are about to enter Form 1. She said that a Headmaster from a nearby secondary school came to meet her and invited her to teach at his school, the Yespa Secondary School. Since Becky is already so busy teaching at two different schools, she told him I might be able to take the position as the school’s English teacher instead. On Wednesday Becky and I went to Yespa to check it out and meet with the Headmaster. Getting there was quite a feat! We rode for fifteen minutes from our house on the main paved road in Morogoro to the junction of the dirt road that the school is on. We continued for another fifteen minutes winding around that really curvy dirt road until we finally reached the school. On our way we passed by a ton of men in orange jumpsuits (prisoners, no doubt) and about 7 other Secondary Schools before we got to Yespa. It felt like we were on a quest for some long lost Secondary School way out in the middle of nowhere. For the last 10km to the school there were little signs directing us toward Yespa staked in the ground pointing to which ways we should turn. Once we got out of the taxi it felt like we’d just been on a small version of a ride at a theme park. The crazy trip was more than worth it when we arrived, though. The school is set in a really beautiful area in which you can see most of the Uluguru Mountains and almost all of Morogoro at a distance. It felt like I was looking at a small snow globe of Morogoro from where we were standing at the school. I could get used to that.
As for the school, it’s quite sparse but very well manicured so far. The school just opened for the first time in January of this year. Since it’s is so new it only has 35 students so far who are all in Form 1. There are two streams, or separate classes, of students; one has 15 students and the other has 20. The Headmaster there said that there currently is not an English teacher at the school, so he is in dire need of hiring someone to teach English right away. So far the school only has 7 teachers who teach 12 subjects in total which range from Chemistry, Biology, and Physics, to Geography, History, and Kiswahili. The small size of the student body and faculty would make teaching there really cozy and welcoming. Being as social as I am, I have no doubts that I would be able to adjust to the small environment. I’m pretty excited about being able to teach such small classes after teaching a huge class of nearly 40 at Dakawa! I’m really interested in taking the position and I’m going to talk to my boss about it this week while she’s in Morogoro helping set up my job at the Moro Sec. School.
Under my contract with WorldTeach I have to teach at at least one government school while I’m here, since I get living stipends from the Ministry of Education, which supports government schools. Since Yespa is a private school, I’ll have to teach somewhere else that’s a government school, like Moro Sec, if I end up teaching there. Hopefully by later this week I’ll be able to work out a schedule so that I can teach at both schools. It would be so rewarding teaching at Yespa because the need there for an English teacher is so great. If I work there I’ll really feel like I’m making a big difference in students’ lives here. Before at Dakawa I only had three classes a week because there were over 6 English teachers at the school! The funny thing is that WorldTeach seemed to place us at schools in Tanzania that don’t have such a great need for English teachers, even though there are tons of schools around that could use our help a lot more. It’s really no fault of World Teach’s, but rather more of a decision made by the Minsitry of Education, which ultimately decided where it wanted us to teach at for the first year of our program. I have to say, although I’ll really miss my students at Dakawa, I’ll be happy to teach at other schools in Tanzania that have a greater need for the services I’m able to offer as a native English speaker and teacher. I’m enthusiastic to get things rolling this week so that I can start teaching soon. Hopefully I’ll have an update later this week about what my teaching position will look like for the rest of the year. I’ll keep you posted!
On the upside, I have to say it’s really great living in town and having everything I need be only a half an hour’s walk away. One thing that’s really amped up my mood since I moved is running in the area I live in. Although I’ve slightly destroyed my feet in the process because the ground is so harsh, running here versus Dakawa has been really enjoyable. I get to run to the backdrop of the Uluguru Mountains right behind me rather than just running in open savanna. Not only is the view spectacular but, thanks to the mountains, the weather is also cooler here and hence nicer to run in. During the day it gets extremely hot still, but during the mornings it’s sometimes cool enough to even put on a sweater! The summer hot season is fast approaching though so I’m going to try to do all the running I can before it gets unbearably hot. Aside from that, this week was rather relaxed. I settled into my new room, cleaned and decorated the house, and allowed myself to chill out for a while. Becky and I have been getting in a routine where we cook dinner together every night and then watch a movie in the evenings before going to bed. We made the best vegetarian fajitas I’ve ever had in my life – especially thanks to the abundance of fresh ingredients we have available to us right down our road.
This weekend Becky went to Dar es Salaam with some of the other volunteers and I decided to stay in Morogoro for the weekend and continue to get settled. During the day on Friday I went to the used clothes market again by myself this time and mulled around for a while. I found some cheap deals and went home with a couple of new outfits for work. I made myself dinner that evening and watched some episodes of Family Guy, complements of Becky’s awesome DVD collection. Unfortunately right after I’d eaten dinner the power went out! I felt like I was a girl scout who’d all of a sudden been abandoned in a lone cabin without electricity or running water for the weekend, haha. I’ve been getting used to the lack of running water, but combine that with a lack of power late at night and it’s even more of a pain than usual. It was a bit freaky being alone when the power went out, mainly because all the doors in our house slam open and closed all the time because of the wind…and the wind was whipping like crazy outside. Luckily I lit some candles so I could maneuver my way around the house and called it an early night since my computer’s battery ran out. The power didn’t actually come back on until noon on Saturday, but by then I was on my way to town to finally skype with my parents! We haven’t heard each other’s voices since I arrived in TZ all the way back in June! It was wonderful to catch up and be able to tell each other in real time what’s been going on. On Saturday night I was blessed to have power the whole night and I relaxed and watched “Death at a Funeral” and “Wedding Crashers” and went to bed. It’s nice to do things like that like I would do at home – to just watch a movie on the weekend and crash. Doing things like I would do at home here make me feel more at home and at ease, which I am sure is the same for most of us. On Sunday I went into a really cleaning stint and I mustered up the energy to collect 8 full large jugs of water from the working faucet on campus. I went to the market in town to get vegetables for our meals this week and by the time I got home I was so exhausted I could barely move!
It’s funny how even if I only do a few things in a day here I’m so tired at the end of the night that I can barely make it past 10:30pm without falling asleep. One thing you get used to here is African time, in that you should allow yourself at least an hour’s break from any “strenuous” activity that may only take three hours or so. Even when I’m walking to town people will say, “Oh, you’re doing exercise!” even though walking to town just makes the most (and cheapest) sense to me like it would at home. I don’t consider it exercise, but here even walking is considered work for most people. They’re partially right…due to the rugged conditions of the red clay, dusty and rocky roads here it is quite a workout going to and from town by foot. The funny thing is that even when you’re just walking normally people will call out to you “Pole” as in “Sorry for your work.” Especially when you see someone who is carrying or pulling a large load on the street, you’re supposed to tell them “Pole Kazi” (“Sorry for your work”) as a way of recognizing how hard they’re working. It’s quite a different perspective than what a lot of people in the Northeast in America tend to think. When people are doing work there it’s considered really prestigious and productive, like they’re earning a right to live. Yet, here, working is considered more of a pain and like it’s something one has to do to get by. You might not agree, but that’s just my perspective.
Right now I’m on break from teaching. There’s a break from mid-September to mid-October for the high school level I’ve been teaching at. This week my boss is coming to Morogoro to try to set me up with another teaching position for the rest of the year. She wants me to teach at the Morogoro Secondary School, which is just a short walk from where I live. I might be teaching middle school there instead of high school, which will be really different. The Tanzanian education system is set up so that students go through Standard 1-7 learning only in Kiswahili. Standard 1-7 is like Elementary School education in the States. After Standard 7 students have to take an exam to enter into Middle School, which is called O-Level education. O-level lasts from Form 1-4 and is conducted completely in English. Hence Form 1 is pretty much the first year that Tanzanian students really start learning English. I’ll most likely teach a level between Form 1 and Form 4 at the Morogoro Secondary School if all goes well. After completing O-level and taking a Form 4 exam, students are placed into a school for their A-Level education, which is basically like American high school. A-Level is composed of Form 5 and Form 6. Before at Dakawa I was teaching Form 5. It was really tough teaching Form 5 because at the end of Form 6 students have to take another final exam that will determine whether or not they get into university or not. It’s a huge deal breaker if they don’t do well on their exams, so a lot of the time teachers are forced to teach just to the exam so that students are able to do well. Even my students who had just begun their Form 5 education were already stressing about knowing things for the exam at the end of Form 6. It put a lot of pressure on me to not teach them anything that wasn’t on the exam. I managed to strike a good balance, but still it was a hard task. If I teach O-Level, especially Form 1 or Form 2, my job will be much more relaxed and I’ll have more of an opportunity to set the groundwork for English structure and grammar that will help my students in their futures. A lot of my former Form 5 students had picked up a lot of bad habits from their past English teachers who didn’t know proper English. For example, they would say, “We are five in our family” instead of “There are five people in my family.” Once students get up to Form 5 and they’ve been told that what they’ve been saying is right, it’s really hard to undo grammatical mistakes like that. That’s why I’m so excited to teach the younger students in Forms 1 and 2 maybe. I’ll have great room for creativity too, since I won’t be teaching to such an important exam, you know?
On Monday last week Becky came home with some really good news. She’s been volunteering to teach at a school down the road that teaches beginning English to students who are about to enter Form 1. She said that a Headmaster from a nearby secondary school came to meet her and invited her to teach at his school, the Yespa Secondary School. Since Becky is already so busy teaching at two different schools, she told him I might be able to take the position as the school’s English teacher instead. On Wednesday Becky and I went to Yespa to check it out and meet with the Headmaster. Getting there was quite a feat! We rode for fifteen minutes from our house on the main paved road in Morogoro to the junction of the dirt road that the school is on. We continued for another fifteen minutes winding around that really curvy dirt road until we finally reached the school. On our way we passed by a ton of men in orange jumpsuits (prisoners, no doubt) and about 7 other Secondary Schools before we got to Yespa. It felt like we were on a quest for some long lost Secondary School way out in the middle of nowhere. For the last 10km to the school there were little signs directing us toward Yespa staked in the ground pointing to which ways we should turn. Once we got out of the taxi it felt like we’d just been on a small version of a ride at a theme park. The crazy trip was more than worth it when we arrived, though. The school is set in a really beautiful area in which you can see most of the Uluguru Mountains and almost all of Morogoro at a distance. It felt like I was looking at a small snow globe of Morogoro from where we were standing at the school. I could get used to that.
As for the school, it’s quite sparse but very well manicured so far. The school just opened for the first time in January of this year. Since it’s is so new it only has 35 students so far who are all in Form 1. There are two streams, or separate classes, of students; one has 15 students and the other has 20. The Headmaster there said that there currently is not an English teacher at the school, so he is in dire need of hiring someone to teach English right away. So far the school only has 7 teachers who teach 12 subjects in total which range from Chemistry, Biology, and Physics, to Geography, History, and Kiswahili. The small size of the student body and faculty would make teaching there really cozy and welcoming. Being as social as I am, I have no doubts that I would be able to adjust to the small environment. I’m pretty excited about being able to teach such small classes after teaching a huge class of nearly 40 at Dakawa! I’m really interested in taking the position and I’m going to talk to my boss about it this week while she’s in Morogoro helping set up my job at the Moro Sec. School.
Under my contract with WorldTeach I have to teach at at least one government school while I’m here, since I get living stipends from the Ministry of Education, which supports government schools. Since Yespa is a private school, I’ll have to teach somewhere else that’s a government school, like Moro Sec, if I end up teaching there. Hopefully by later this week I’ll be able to work out a schedule so that I can teach at both schools. It would be so rewarding teaching at Yespa because the need there for an English teacher is so great. If I work there I’ll really feel like I’m making a big difference in students’ lives here. Before at Dakawa I only had three classes a week because there were over 6 English teachers at the school! The funny thing is that WorldTeach seemed to place us at schools in Tanzania that don’t have such a great need for English teachers, even though there are tons of schools around that could use our help a lot more. It’s really no fault of World Teach’s, but rather more of a decision made by the Minsitry of Education, which ultimately decided where it wanted us to teach at for the first year of our program. I have to say, although I’ll really miss my students at Dakawa, I’ll be happy to teach at other schools in Tanzania that have a greater need for the services I’m able to offer as a native English speaker and teacher. I’m enthusiastic to get things rolling this week so that I can start teaching soon. Hopefully I’ll have an update later this week about what my teaching position will look like for the rest of the year. I’ll keep you posted!
Monday, September 13, 2010
New Beginnings at Kilakala
Dear Readers!
I’m writing this blog from my new house at the Kilakala Girls’ Secondary School in Morogoro!! I moved on Friday. Our friends Becky (my new housemate) and Matt came all the way to Dakawa on Friday in a taxi to pick me up and help me move all my stuff to Kilakala in Morogoro. They ended up getting wicked lost on their way and drove by a ton of Maasai villages that were heavily populated by mud huts and they also drove through a random prison accidentally - I didn't even know that was near us at Dakawa...yikes. It was quite a journey for them so by the time they reached our house they were so tired and glad to be out of the taxi! Abby, Alice and I cleaned the house and prepared lunch for them.
When we got to the house at Kilakala on Friday I unpacked and then Becky (my new housemate) and I made Annies for dinner and then watched “Grown Ups” which just came out. You can get new movies that have just come out in theatres here for about $3. They’re all imported from Japan and China. While we were watching the movie about 10 of Becky’s students surprised us at the house because they wanted to meet me. They all read a bunch of Becky’s gossip magazines and danced to music that Becky and I played for them. It was so nice to get such a warm and inviting welcoming to the community here through her students. They were all really sweet and I know it will be nice to see them while I’m living here with Becky. We finished the movie after they left and I fell asleep even before midnight…I was super tired! I slept like a baby because I felt totally relaxed and comfortable in my new environment. It was an unbelievable feeling.
On Saturday I woke up and Becky and I met Alice in town to go to a used clothes market. It was really nice to explore around and see what was there. All the clothes were between 200 and 500 shillings, which is super cheap since 1500 shillings is $1. Most of the clothes were kinda ratty looking but there were some nice things. There are a lot of super random American t-shirts that you’d never really expect to see in Africa…like Alice got an old Sesame Street t-shirt. We’ve seen a lot of shirts for a bunch of the colleges and universities we all went to before we came here, haha. It’s sort of fun to look through everything and see what’s ended up here.
I might go back to the used clothes market to see what’s there again, but on second thought though, I might not because it was really scary there at times. Becky almost got her phone stolen from her right after we got into the market. A guy came out of nowhere and reached around Becky to distract her while another guy tried to steal her phone out of her pocket. Becky started screaming “Fuck You!” and I said “Sitaki!” which means “I don’t want that” or basically “Get away!” I hit one of the guys over the head with my water bottle and pushed him away from Becky. Luckily her phone didn’t get stolen, but Becky was still really shaken up and annoyed. Actually, we were all livid. The used clothes market was jam-packed with people but they didn’t do anything about it. It seemed to be normal to them that people get mugged and robbed. The fact that no one was really willing to help us or do anything to the thieves was really uncomfortable and unsettling. Their apathetic behavior seemed to completely contrast with the huge sense of communal wellbeing and protection that I’ve felt among most Tanzanians since I’ve been here. What’s more, the attempted robbery was definitely planned, which makes it extra eerie because we know that people here are actually scheming to steal from us... I have to say it was ironic when Becky almost got mugged because it happened a moment after we’d gone into a little outdoor shop in the market. When we went inside the shop vendor saw our purses loosely strung over our shoulders so they were draping behind our backs and immediately told us to make sure we kept our purses in the front of our bodies and tightly around our shoulders so no one would take them. Even though we left the shop following his guidance, Becky still got attacked. Oy vey.
It’s hard to live here knowing that you’re so vulnerable to robberies and muggings every day, especially because of how we look. Everyone can tell we’re not from here because we’re White. Tanzanians’ assumptions about our unfamiliarity with the environment and their thinking that most Whites here are very affluent makes us prime candidates in their society to steal from. I really hate thinking that just because I’m White people see a huge dollar sign masking my face and think that I’m so new to and hence unfamiliar with the environment that they’ll have an easy time stealing from me. Thinking about that puts a really rotten feeling in my stomach, so I rather not think about it. After all, I’m actually living here and not just visiting. In order to protect myself, I just have to remind myself that since I do stand out here and I seem like an easy target for crime I should always be aware of my surroundings and abide by general city smarts to stay safe. Hopefully by doing such I won’t run into such trouble during the rest of my time here. I can only hope the same goes true for the other volunteers as well.
Becky and I mentioned what had happened at the used clothes market to one of her students who came to visit us on Sunday and she said that it’s really common for even Tanzanians to be the targets of such petty crime. She told us a story of when she was holding her friend’s purse at a craft market in Mwenge, Dar es Salaam. She was waiting on a daladala for her friend to finish shopping and these girls started talking to her on the bus distracting her. She had been clutching her friend’s and her purses so tightly around her shoulder that she never noticed that while the girls had been talking to her they had cut the straps of the girls’ purses and took them, leaving her to think that her purses were still fine. When her friend returned to the bus she was horrified that her purse had been taking. Meanwhile, Becky’s student had no idea until her friend acknowledged that the purses were gone. It was devastating. On another occasion she told us that she had gone to Karume, Dar es Salaam, to a well-known shopping center to buy new school shoes. Before she had left her mother had warned her that new thieves were selling really nice shoes for super cheap prices as a way of stealing from people. They were selling nice shoes that should usually be 10,000-15,000 shillings for only 2,000 shillings. Becky’s student brushed off what her mom said and went to the market confident that nothing would happen to her. After she’d spent all day shopping and had bought a pair of shoes she saw a man with some really nice shoes that were just right for school. He said he’d sell her one pair for only 2,000 shillings so she paid the man and took a pair of shoes. Immediately after the man started screaming “Give me back my shoes, you thief!” and making a huge scene. He claimed that she’d only given him 2,000 shillings when the shoes were really 12,000. He was lying of course. Feeling helpless, Becky’s student told the man to calm down and she’d give back the shoes if he gave her back her money. She was so uncomfortable that she rushed the exchange and started walking off. A bunch of people around started yelling at her to look at the money the man had given her back. She just ignored them until about a minute later. When she looked at her hands she saw the man had only given her a piece of paper instead of her 2,000 shillings back, hence he’s stolen her money. Her stories are not atypical of most Tanzanians’ experiences here. Even though we’re all White volunteers and are more easily spotted as easy targets for stealing from, regular native Tanzanians still experience similar crime. It’s a real shame, but in a developing country such as Tanzania where many people barely have enough money and resources to support themselves day-to-day, petty crime becomes somewhat of a normal element in the society. I’m counting my blessings because I’ve managed to avoid all such interactions, but I’m sure a day will come where I won’t be so lucky. Until then, I have to try to do as I said and be as smart as I can in making sure I’m safe here. That’s really all I or anyone else can do. You just have to accept it, suck it up and get on with living your life.
After the mugging fiasco on Saturday, Alice, Becky, and I mulled around the center of Morogoro town for a bit and then retired to our house at Kilakala to rest before dinner. We met up with our friend and fellow volunteer, Matt, and went out to dinner at Dragonaires Saturday evening. I had chicken masala curry with chapatti (which is like Indian roti) and the rest of the volunteers had pizza. Dragonaires is known for its amazing pizza but it’s also generally a Chinese and Indian restaurant. Usually it only makes pizza on Friday and Sunday nights, but on Saturday night the stone-hearth oven was lit so pizza was fair game on the menu. We ate and talked until about midnight and then took a cab home. Alice and Matt were staying at a small hotel nearby Kilakala called Amabilis, which is run by nuns, so we dropped them off there first. The funny thing about Amabilis is that they lock the doors to the hotel at 10:00pm no matter what, so by the time we got there at midnight to drop Alice and Matt off they couldn’t get inside to their rooms. We had to get the guard at the front gate to call one of the nuns with Alice’s cell phone to let them in. It’s quite a whacky system. It seems a little weird that the guard to the hotel wouldn’t have his own key to any of the doors to unlock the place, but T.I.T. (This is Tanzania) so not everything here makes sense to us. Becky and I arrived home safely shortly thereafter and fell asleep immediately.
On Sunday Becky and I waited all day for her students to come by so that we could all play volleyball together. There are only two more weeks of school left for the girls here and their midterm exams are approaching, so Becky and I wanted to do something fun and relaxing with the girls before they had to start studying for exams. We only left the house once for about 15 minutes to visit the little vegetable market down the road from us to get an avocado, lettuce, some tomatoes, small chili peppers, and bananas for dinner. When we returned we still hadn’t seen the girls anywhere so we both took short afternoon naps. The stress of moving here, although it’s been somewhat of a relief in many ways, has generally made me exhausted the last couple days. When I woke up around six in the evening Becky’s student came by to tell us that she and the other students had come by earlier in the day but we weren’t around. Becky and I were so sorry and realized they must’ve come while we were at the market for that brief amount of time. Hopefully we’ll be able to play volleyball with them at another time in the near future.
On Sunday night Becky and I made homemade tomato soup, which we poured over avocados, and garlic bread. The meal was so good, especially considering that all the ingredients were fresh from the market that day. That’s what’s so nice about living here – we can always get fresh fruits and vegetables no more than half a mile down the road from where we live. There’s always a plentiful amount of produce at the market so we never have to worry about getting food for the day. Although the prices aren’t nearly as cheap as they were in Dakawa (e.g. 5 tomatoes here is 500 shillings whereas I could usually get 20 or more tomatoes in Dakawa for the same price), they’re still relatively cheap compared to prices in America for the same types of foods. It’s nice to be so close to fresh food for once in my life. Actually, the route I’ll have to walk everyday to get to the new school I’ll be working at next month passes right by the food market so everyday when I come home from work I’ll be able to get food for Becky and I. Talk about convenient!
Overall I’m warming up to Kilakala in general. The campus is really pristine and nice looking. The school really prides itself on its aesthetics. Kilakala is known for being the best girls’ secondary school in the Morogoro region and even most people from Dar es Salaam have heard about Kilakala. Kilakala’s students usually rank quite high on the national examinations for public government schools. In some ways it seems like we should be placed at other less-successful government schools where our native English speaking skills would really help the communities more, but Kilakala will be fine this year. I think the Tanzanian government placed us at schools that are high in the ranks like Kilakala, Dakawa, and Mzumbe because one, they’re close to Dar es Salaam and for the practicalities of our Field Director visiting us (who lives in Dar) it made the most sense placing us here. Secondly, I think the TZ Ministry of Education wanted to make a good impression on us by placing at the schools whose English is the strongest, creating the illusion that Tanzanians are really ok with English and we’re not as needed here as we might’ve originally thought. Whatever the reason, we’re placed here at these schools this first year of the program and we’re going to finish the year and then reassess if there might be other schools which might be able to use our help more than these ones in the future.
You know it’s funny because when I first signed up for WorldTeach I was originally told I would teach at Kilakala, not Dakawa, so it’s ironic that I’ve ended up here anyway after all the changes that’ve gone on. Even though I’m mostly liking Kilakala so far, there are some things I definitely miss about Dakawa. For example, when I was living at Dakawa our water only ran out a couple of times and even then it was only out for a few hours and then it came back on. Adversely. Kilakala currently doesn’t have any running water on campus other than in the kitchen where even so there is only one spout that provides running water. Kilakala’s water supply started to run dry a couple of weeks ago and during that time, when Tracy was still living her with Becky, they’d have to go behind the house every night around midnight to collect the running water from the faucet that only worked around that time of night. Since Tracy left and I moved in, however, one of Becky’s students told us that Kilakala has completely run out of water except for that one spout in the kitchen. Thank god there’s still water to cook with here, but really it’s become a bit of a pain for us Americans who are usually spoiled to use as much water as we please back home in the States. Fortunately, since Becky is part of the staff here, we get the privilege of filling up our water jugs and buckets in the kitchen. Even then it’s completely on the other side of campus from where we live so usually on our way back to the house when we’re struggling to carry our water a lot of students will run up to us and help us carry our water. It’s a really nice gesture of respect, since they understand that we’re certainly not used to this. As for most of the students here, they have to walk about 20 minutes (at least!) to go fetch water from a neighboring school in the region whose supply hasn’t run out. Usually the girls can only carry one full bucket at a time which they balance and carry on their heads the whole way back. Becky and I would try that but being Wazungu (White people) I think we’d get so laughed at we wouldn’t be able to stand it, haha. Plus I don’t know how we could do that without breaking our necks! It’s a wonder girls half our size that we’re teaching can handle that much weight atop their heads for such a distance! Since it’s been such a hassle for us to get water, Becky and I have learned to conserve, conserve, conserve! We try to use less than a bucket of water a day per person. It’s funny to think that we’re actually able to do it considering that most Americans go through more than an average of 20 gallons of water a day just for one shower! It’s a totally reality check being here.
It’s a real shame with the water situation because apparently there’s another secondary school with a big water supply that’s much closer to Kilakala than the school the Kilakala students have been going to to get water, but apparently that school will not allow Kilakala girls to get water from it because Kilakala has Americans working for it and the school is Muslim. Talk about crazy politics, ayayay. It’s not just Becky and I who are lumped into the American pool because a couple years ago two Peace Corps volunteers from American were working here also, but even so the fact that the girls have to walk twice as far just because we’re Americans really is a punch in the gut. It sucks that it has to be that way. Oh, this is a crazy world we live in.
Aside from the water disaster, one of the luxuries of living at Kilakala is that I don’t have to shell out 2,500 shillings to and from town and ride for a minimum of one hour each way in a crammed daladala that goes between Dakawa and town just to get to town anymore. I can’t even tell you how happy that makes me. Personally, I really don’t mind the daladalas usually and I find them kind of charming, but it’s nice not to have to travel an hour just to go to town to get airtime for my phone or groceries we’ve run out of at the house. I can just walk to town from Kilakala pretty much whenever I want which makes my life so much easier. I can also use the internet more often and stay in touch with people from home a lot easier. Clearly there are a lot of perks to living in town.
On the other hand though, I really don’t mind the daladalas and I’m especially going to miss the commute between Dakawa and town from now on. For example, the other weekend when I was on the daladala coming to town from Dakawa we picked up some Maasai from the villages that populate the area between Dakawa and town. One Maasai woman sat next to me in the back of the daladala for about half the ride. She was adorned with tons of beautiful yellow and white beaded necklaces and different metal chains that were folded through her gauged earlobes and metal bracelets that were wound around her ankles/shins and forearms. She was absolutely stunning and it was such a privilege to be able to sit next to her and interact with an authentic Maasai person from her original environment. Most of the time when foreigners come to Tanzania they only get to hear about the Maasai or see the ones who live in town. Usually the Maasai you see in Tanzania if you’re a foreigner who’s just sticking to the major areas of TZ like Morogoro and Dar, especially, are almost always males who work as security guards at clubs, hotels, and restaurants and guards for parked cars in any parking lot you can imagine, mostly at night. They’re almost always robed in two flannel-patterned kangas, one of which they wrap around their waists to cover their legs and the other which they wrap around their torsos to cover up their chests. Most of their kangas are red and blue colors that are patterned with different geometric lines that make really cool patterns. Almost all of the Maasai I’ve seen have gauged earlobes from which usually only the women hang different ornaments and earrings. Although they mostly speak their own Maasai language, some Maasai know Kiswahili, too. When I was on the daladala sitting next to the Maasai woman she started speaking to me in Swahili and I was able to tell her a little bit about myself…that I’m from American and I work in Morogoro as a high school English teacher, etc. You should’ve seen the smile gleaming from her face when I spoke Kiswahili with her. That’s why it’s so important to me to learn Kiswahili here. The more I learn, the more I can get the opportunity to learn about and exchange information with people who don’t know barely any English here. It’s an absolutely wonderful feeling. I’ll never forget that daladala ride. Even though I won’t be riding to Dakawa as often as I did before when I lived there, I will still gladly make the trip periodically to visit my old students, my former Headmistress (whom I still adore), and be able to reap the cultural benefits of the daladala rides.
This morning (Monday) I went for my first run in the Kilakala area. It was nice to start running again since last week. The scenery is absolutely stunning because there's a backdrop of the gorgeous Uluguru Mountains right behind the school so everywhere you're in Morogoro you can see them. When I finished my run I filled up two jugs of water for Becky and I. We were out of water when I got back to the house so I had to make the trip. Becky was busy teaching beginner English classes to some kids down the street at a new school that just opened up. When Becky got back from class we took a taxi into town for lunch and then did some shopping for the house and now I'm here at the Internet Cafe. While we were at lunch a street vendor came up to us with a lot of stuff and then started jabbering off in Swahili about something. I just told him "Hapana, asante" ("No Thank You") but he ended up taking our plates and eating our food! We were already done so it wasn't a big deal but it was kind of uncomfortable because we didn't know what was going on at first. We left shortly thereafter. We tried to buy some shelves for our house at some little shops next to the restaurant but they kept trying to rip us off so we just moved on. It's always an interesting experience being in town here. You really never know what's going to happen. You just have to go into town with a brave yet friendly face on and see what awaits you!
I’m writing this blog from my new house at the Kilakala Girls’ Secondary School in Morogoro!! I moved on Friday. Our friends Becky (my new housemate) and Matt came all the way to Dakawa on Friday in a taxi to pick me up and help me move all my stuff to Kilakala in Morogoro. They ended up getting wicked lost on their way and drove by a ton of Maasai villages that were heavily populated by mud huts and they also drove through a random prison accidentally - I didn't even know that was near us at Dakawa...yikes. It was quite a journey for them so by the time they reached our house they were so tired and glad to be out of the taxi! Abby, Alice and I cleaned the house and prepared lunch for them.
When we got to the house at Kilakala on Friday I unpacked and then Becky (my new housemate) and I made Annies for dinner and then watched “Grown Ups” which just came out. You can get new movies that have just come out in theatres here for about $3. They’re all imported from Japan and China. While we were watching the movie about 10 of Becky’s students surprised us at the house because they wanted to meet me. They all read a bunch of Becky’s gossip magazines and danced to music that Becky and I played for them. It was so nice to get such a warm and inviting welcoming to the community here through her students. They were all really sweet and I know it will be nice to see them while I’m living here with Becky. We finished the movie after they left and I fell asleep even before midnight…I was super tired! I slept like a baby because I felt totally relaxed and comfortable in my new environment. It was an unbelievable feeling.
On Saturday I woke up and Becky and I met Alice in town to go to a used clothes market. It was really nice to explore around and see what was there. All the clothes were between 200 and 500 shillings, which is super cheap since 1500 shillings is $1. Most of the clothes were kinda ratty looking but there were some nice things. There are a lot of super random American t-shirts that you’d never really expect to see in Africa…like Alice got an old Sesame Street t-shirt. We’ve seen a lot of shirts for a bunch of the colleges and universities we all went to before we came here, haha. It’s sort of fun to look through everything and see what’s ended up here.
I might go back to the used clothes market to see what’s there again, but on second thought though, I might not because it was really scary there at times. Becky almost got her phone stolen from her right after we got into the market. A guy came out of nowhere and reached around Becky to distract her while another guy tried to steal her phone out of her pocket. Becky started screaming “Fuck You!” and I said “Sitaki!” which means “I don’t want that” or basically “Get away!” I hit one of the guys over the head with my water bottle and pushed him away from Becky. Luckily her phone didn’t get stolen, but Becky was still really shaken up and annoyed. Actually, we were all livid. The used clothes market was jam-packed with people but they didn’t do anything about it. It seemed to be normal to them that people get mugged and robbed. The fact that no one was really willing to help us or do anything to the thieves was really uncomfortable and unsettling. Their apathetic behavior seemed to completely contrast with the huge sense of communal wellbeing and protection that I’ve felt among most Tanzanians since I’ve been here. What’s more, the attempted robbery was definitely planned, which makes it extra eerie because we know that people here are actually scheming to steal from us... I have to say it was ironic when Becky almost got mugged because it happened a moment after we’d gone into a little outdoor shop in the market. When we went inside the shop vendor saw our purses loosely strung over our shoulders so they were draping behind our backs and immediately told us to make sure we kept our purses in the front of our bodies and tightly around our shoulders so no one would take them. Even though we left the shop following his guidance, Becky still got attacked. Oy vey.
It’s hard to live here knowing that you’re so vulnerable to robberies and muggings every day, especially because of how we look. Everyone can tell we’re not from here because we’re White. Tanzanians’ assumptions about our unfamiliarity with the environment and their thinking that most Whites here are very affluent makes us prime candidates in their society to steal from. I really hate thinking that just because I’m White people see a huge dollar sign masking my face and think that I’m so new to and hence unfamiliar with the environment that they’ll have an easy time stealing from me. Thinking about that puts a really rotten feeling in my stomach, so I rather not think about it. After all, I’m actually living here and not just visiting. In order to protect myself, I just have to remind myself that since I do stand out here and I seem like an easy target for crime I should always be aware of my surroundings and abide by general city smarts to stay safe. Hopefully by doing such I won’t run into such trouble during the rest of my time here. I can only hope the same goes true for the other volunteers as well.
Becky and I mentioned what had happened at the used clothes market to one of her students who came to visit us on Sunday and she said that it’s really common for even Tanzanians to be the targets of such petty crime. She told us a story of when she was holding her friend’s purse at a craft market in Mwenge, Dar es Salaam. She was waiting on a daladala for her friend to finish shopping and these girls started talking to her on the bus distracting her. She had been clutching her friend’s and her purses so tightly around her shoulder that she never noticed that while the girls had been talking to her they had cut the straps of the girls’ purses and took them, leaving her to think that her purses were still fine. When her friend returned to the bus she was horrified that her purse had been taking. Meanwhile, Becky’s student had no idea until her friend acknowledged that the purses were gone. It was devastating. On another occasion she told us that she had gone to Karume, Dar es Salaam, to a well-known shopping center to buy new school shoes. Before she had left her mother had warned her that new thieves were selling really nice shoes for super cheap prices as a way of stealing from people. They were selling nice shoes that should usually be 10,000-15,000 shillings for only 2,000 shillings. Becky’s student brushed off what her mom said and went to the market confident that nothing would happen to her. After she’d spent all day shopping and had bought a pair of shoes she saw a man with some really nice shoes that were just right for school. He said he’d sell her one pair for only 2,000 shillings so she paid the man and took a pair of shoes. Immediately after the man started screaming “Give me back my shoes, you thief!” and making a huge scene. He claimed that she’d only given him 2,000 shillings when the shoes were really 12,000. He was lying of course. Feeling helpless, Becky’s student told the man to calm down and she’d give back the shoes if he gave her back her money. She was so uncomfortable that she rushed the exchange and started walking off. A bunch of people around started yelling at her to look at the money the man had given her back. She just ignored them until about a minute later. When she looked at her hands she saw the man had only given her a piece of paper instead of her 2,000 shillings back, hence he’s stolen her money. Her stories are not atypical of most Tanzanians’ experiences here. Even though we’re all White volunteers and are more easily spotted as easy targets for stealing from, regular native Tanzanians still experience similar crime. It’s a real shame, but in a developing country such as Tanzania where many people barely have enough money and resources to support themselves day-to-day, petty crime becomes somewhat of a normal element in the society. I’m counting my blessings because I’ve managed to avoid all such interactions, but I’m sure a day will come where I won’t be so lucky. Until then, I have to try to do as I said and be as smart as I can in making sure I’m safe here. That’s really all I or anyone else can do. You just have to accept it, suck it up and get on with living your life.
After the mugging fiasco on Saturday, Alice, Becky, and I mulled around the center of Morogoro town for a bit and then retired to our house at Kilakala to rest before dinner. We met up with our friend and fellow volunteer, Matt, and went out to dinner at Dragonaires Saturday evening. I had chicken masala curry with chapatti (which is like Indian roti) and the rest of the volunteers had pizza. Dragonaires is known for its amazing pizza but it’s also generally a Chinese and Indian restaurant. Usually it only makes pizza on Friday and Sunday nights, but on Saturday night the stone-hearth oven was lit so pizza was fair game on the menu. We ate and talked until about midnight and then took a cab home. Alice and Matt were staying at a small hotel nearby Kilakala called Amabilis, which is run by nuns, so we dropped them off there first. The funny thing about Amabilis is that they lock the doors to the hotel at 10:00pm no matter what, so by the time we got there at midnight to drop Alice and Matt off they couldn’t get inside to their rooms. We had to get the guard at the front gate to call one of the nuns with Alice’s cell phone to let them in. It’s quite a whacky system. It seems a little weird that the guard to the hotel wouldn’t have his own key to any of the doors to unlock the place, but T.I.T. (This is Tanzania) so not everything here makes sense to us. Becky and I arrived home safely shortly thereafter and fell asleep immediately.
On Sunday Becky and I waited all day for her students to come by so that we could all play volleyball together. There are only two more weeks of school left for the girls here and their midterm exams are approaching, so Becky and I wanted to do something fun and relaxing with the girls before they had to start studying for exams. We only left the house once for about 15 minutes to visit the little vegetable market down the road from us to get an avocado, lettuce, some tomatoes, small chili peppers, and bananas for dinner. When we returned we still hadn’t seen the girls anywhere so we both took short afternoon naps. The stress of moving here, although it’s been somewhat of a relief in many ways, has generally made me exhausted the last couple days. When I woke up around six in the evening Becky’s student came by to tell us that she and the other students had come by earlier in the day but we weren’t around. Becky and I were so sorry and realized they must’ve come while we were at the market for that brief amount of time. Hopefully we’ll be able to play volleyball with them at another time in the near future.
On Sunday night Becky and I made homemade tomato soup, which we poured over avocados, and garlic bread. The meal was so good, especially considering that all the ingredients were fresh from the market that day. That’s what’s so nice about living here – we can always get fresh fruits and vegetables no more than half a mile down the road from where we live. There’s always a plentiful amount of produce at the market so we never have to worry about getting food for the day. Although the prices aren’t nearly as cheap as they were in Dakawa (e.g. 5 tomatoes here is 500 shillings whereas I could usually get 20 or more tomatoes in Dakawa for the same price), they’re still relatively cheap compared to prices in America for the same types of foods. It’s nice to be so close to fresh food for once in my life. Actually, the route I’ll have to walk everyday to get to the new school I’ll be working at next month passes right by the food market so everyday when I come home from work I’ll be able to get food for Becky and I. Talk about convenient!
Overall I’m warming up to Kilakala in general. The campus is really pristine and nice looking. The school really prides itself on its aesthetics. Kilakala is known for being the best girls’ secondary school in the Morogoro region and even most people from Dar es Salaam have heard about Kilakala. Kilakala’s students usually rank quite high on the national examinations for public government schools. In some ways it seems like we should be placed at other less-successful government schools where our native English speaking skills would really help the communities more, but Kilakala will be fine this year. I think the Tanzanian government placed us at schools that are high in the ranks like Kilakala, Dakawa, and Mzumbe because one, they’re close to Dar es Salaam and for the practicalities of our Field Director visiting us (who lives in Dar) it made the most sense placing us here. Secondly, I think the TZ Ministry of Education wanted to make a good impression on us by placing at the schools whose English is the strongest, creating the illusion that Tanzanians are really ok with English and we’re not as needed here as we might’ve originally thought. Whatever the reason, we’re placed here at these schools this first year of the program and we’re going to finish the year and then reassess if there might be other schools which might be able to use our help more than these ones in the future.
You know it’s funny because when I first signed up for WorldTeach I was originally told I would teach at Kilakala, not Dakawa, so it’s ironic that I’ve ended up here anyway after all the changes that’ve gone on. Even though I’m mostly liking Kilakala so far, there are some things I definitely miss about Dakawa. For example, when I was living at Dakawa our water only ran out a couple of times and even then it was only out for a few hours and then it came back on. Adversely. Kilakala currently doesn’t have any running water on campus other than in the kitchen where even so there is only one spout that provides running water. Kilakala’s water supply started to run dry a couple of weeks ago and during that time, when Tracy was still living her with Becky, they’d have to go behind the house every night around midnight to collect the running water from the faucet that only worked around that time of night. Since Tracy left and I moved in, however, one of Becky’s students told us that Kilakala has completely run out of water except for that one spout in the kitchen. Thank god there’s still water to cook with here, but really it’s become a bit of a pain for us Americans who are usually spoiled to use as much water as we please back home in the States. Fortunately, since Becky is part of the staff here, we get the privilege of filling up our water jugs and buckets in the kitchen. Even then it’s completely on the other side of campus from where we live so usually on our way back to the house when we’re struggling to carry our water a lot of students will run up to us and help us carry our water. It’s a really nice gesture of respect, since they understand that we’re certainly not used to this. As for most of the students here, they have to walk about 20 minutes (at least!) to go fetch water from a neighboring school in the region whose supply hasn’t run out. Usually the girls can only carry one full bucket at a time which they balance and carry on their heads the whole way back. Becky and I would try that but being Wazungu (White people) I think we’d get so laughed at we wouldn’t be able to stand it, haha. Plus I don’t know how we could do that without breaking our necks! It’s a wonder girls half our size that we’re teaching can handle that much weight atop their heads for such a distance! Since it’s been such a hassle for us to get water, Becky and I have learned to conserve, conserve, conserve! We try to use less than a bucket of water a day per person. It’s funny to think that we’re actually able to do it considering that most Americans go through more than an average of 20 gallons of water a day just for one shower! It’s a totally reality check being here.
It’s a real shame with the water situation because apparently there’s another secondary school with a big water supply that’s much closer to Kilakala than the school the Kilakala students have been going to to get water, but apparently that school will not allow Kilakala girls to get water from it because Kilakala has Americans working for it and the school is Muslim. Talk about crazy politics, ayayay. It’s not just Becky and I who are lumped into the American pool because a couple years ago two Peace Corps volunteers from American were working here also, but even so the fact that the girls have to walk twice as far just because we’re Americans really is a punch in the gut. It sucks that it has to be that way. Oh, this is a crazy world we live in.
Aside from the water disaster, one of the luxuries of living at Kilakala is that I don’t have to shell out 2,500 shillings to and from town and ride for a minimum of one hour each way in a crammed daladala that goes between Dakawa and town just to get to town anymore. I can’t even tell you how happy that makes me. Personally, I really don’t mind the daladalas usually and I find them kind of charming, but it’s nice not to have to travel an hour just to go to town to get airtime for my phone or groceries we’ve run out of at the house. I can just walk to town from Kilakala pretty much whenever I want which makes my life so much easier. I can also use the internet more often and stay in touch with people from home a lot easier. Clearly there are a lot of perks to living in town.
On the other hand though, I really don’t mind the daladalas and I’m especially going to miss the commute between Dakawa and town from now on. For example, the other weekend when I was on the daladala coming to town from Dakawa we picked up some Maasai from the villages that populate the area between Dakawa and town. One Maasai woman sat next to me in the back of the daladala for about half the ride. She was adorned with tons of beautiful yellow and white beaded necklaces and different metal chains that were folded through her gauged earlobes and metal bracelets that were wound around her ankles/shins and forearms. She was absolutely stunning and it was such a privilege to be able to sit next to her and interact with an authentic Maasai person from her original environment. Most of the time when foreigners come to Tanzania they only get to hear about the Maasai or see the ones who live in town. Usually the Maasai you see in Tanzania if you’re a foreigner who’s just sticking to the major areas of TZ like Morogoro and Dar, especially, are almost always males who work as security guards at clubs, hotels, and restaurants and guards for parked cars in any parking lot you can imagine, mostly at night. They’re almost always robed in two flannel-patterned kangas, one of which they wrap around their waists to cover their legs and the other which they wrap around their torsos to cover up their chests. Most of their kangas are red and blue colors that are patterned with different geometric lines that make really cool patterns. Almost all of the Maasai I’ve seen have gauged earlobes from which usually only the women hang different ornaments and earrings. Although they mostly speak their own Maasai language, some Maasai know Kiswahili, too. When I was on the daladala sitting next to the Maasai woman she started speaking to me in Swahili and I was able to tell her a little bit about myself…that I’m from American and I work in Morogoro as a high school English teacher, etc. You should’ve seen the smile gleaming from her face when I spoke Kiswahili with her. That’s why it’s so important to me to learn Kiswahili here. The more I learn, the more I can get the opportunity to learn about and exchange information with people who don’t know barely any English here. It’s an absolutely wonderful feeling. I’ll never forget that daladala ride. Even though I won’t be riding to Dakawa as often as I did before when I lived there, I will still gladly make the trip periodically to visit my old students, my former Headmistress (whom I still adore), and be able to reap the cultural benefits of the daladala rides.
This morning (Monday) I went for my first run in the Kilakala area. It was nice to start running again since last week. The scenery is absolutely stunning because there's a backdrop of the gorgeous Uluguru Mountains right behind the school so everywhere you're in Morogoro you can see them. When I finished my run I filled up two jugs of water for Becky and I. We were out of water when I got back to the house so I had to make the trip. Becky was busy teaching beginner English classes to some kids down the street at a new school that just opened up. When Becky got back from class we took a taxi into town for lunch and then did some shopping for the house and now I'm here at the Internet Cafe. While we were at lunch a street vendor came up to us with a lot of stuff and then started jabbering off in Swahili about something. I just told him "Hapana, asante" ("No Thank You") but he ended up taking our plates and eating our food! We were already done so it wasn't a big deal but it was kind of uncomfortable because we didn't know what was going on at first. We left shortly thereafter. We tried to buy some shelves for our house at some little shops next to the restaurant but they kept trying to rip us off so we just moved on. It's always an interesting experience being in town here. You really never know what's going to happen. You just have to go into town with a brave yet friendly face on and see what awaits you!
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