Life Always Has Its Hiccups

I’ve gotta say I’ve had better weeks than this past one, but I’ll go through it for you…

I ended up getting really homesick at the beginning of the week, which until then hadn’t been debilitating at all. It sort of snuck up on me out of nowhere. I really do miss home, my old lifestyle, and my family and friends most of all (which probably includes you!).

In order to get over my homesickness I decided instead of working in the closed off English department office I would instead do my work outside in the open and fresh air at the wooden tables that are just outside the students’ dormitories. When I first sat there on Monday this past week I was immediately swarmed by some of the kids who live next door to me. Until then they had been too shy to say anything more than really soft “hello’s” back to me when I greeted them. All of a sudden they came to life! I gave them some paper and pens to use and they went to town, so to speak. It was really adorable and they were probably the best cure I could’ve asked for that would lift my spirits back up. After they left a swarm of students (a mix of my own students and others I hadn’t met yet) approached me, introduced themselves, and asked me all about myself. I made the silly mistake of telling them I’d dated a Tanzanian before because after I told them his name there were a few girls around who share the same last name as him and they were like “Oooooh you’re my sister-in-law then! We’re sisters!” Haha. It was sort of hilarious. I tried to explain the concept that he and I are just friends now, but the concept didn’t really sink in because they’ve continued to call me their sister since that first encounter. It’s pretty cute, I have to admit. I love that everyone here is so open and welcoming to new people, even to the point that they’d gladly accept you into their families. It’s a really great feeling knowing that you can really connect with local people when you travel somewhere. It makes it seem you’re your effort to live there is more worth while. Since Monday was such a mood booster I’ve gone to sit at a table outside every day this week and it’s really been amazing. I’ve gotten to know so many wonderful students and they’ve even taken up a hobby of trying to teach me Swahili. They try to talk to me in Swahili as much as they can when they see me there and I also try my hardest to understand and respond to what they say. My Swahili has actually improved quite a bit already just from sitting with them for one week! At least my listening skills and level of comprehension for fast local speakers is improving. I’m excited to see what a couple more months of me sitting there will teach me!

On Tuesday this week I got to teach my very first computer classes to about half of my students. For some of them it was the first time they’d ever seen a computer, while for others they had learned to use computers well because they had them at home before they came to Dakawa. It was pretty fun explaining them first off. I was trying to explain the most basic elements of a computer: the modem, monitor, mouse, and keyboard. Even though I’ve never considered myself very tech-savvy, compared to most people here I have a vast knowledge of computers that I can share with them. I taught all my students how to login, open and use the word processor, and also how to play a game that will help them practice their English. They seemed to enjoy the class a lot. It was nice seeing all of the students in a different context outside of our normal English classes as well. On the down side, our computer lab here only has five working computers that all of the students have to share. During my first computer class on Tuesday there were fifteen students in the lab and during my second session there were only 9 students. Even though the small number of computers doesn’t accommodate all of the students at once, it helps to encourage them to share their knowledge with each other and teach their fellow classmates what they know as they share the computers together. Their willingness to teach each other definitely came in handy during my first classes because I could only be with one group at a computer at a time. Fortunately, some of my students had already learned how to perform the basic functions on the computers because they had taken beginner classes with the girl who came to set them up initially a few weeks ago. I tried to let them take charge as much as they wanted to. As a teacher, I believe in empowering my students to teach themselves and each other and to look to me as an extra resource or a checking point if they need me. All in all, it was super fun teaching the computer classes. One downer was that the power went out half way through my second session so we had to cancel it and we’ll just have to pick up where we left off next week.

On that note, the power goes out a lot, usually nearly once a day! On Sunday this past weekend after my housemates and I had returned from Morogoro the power went out around 7:30 in the morning and it didn’t come back on until 9:30 at night! We all just spent the day being rather lazy. We all get kind of mopey when the power goes out, haha. I ended up reading 300 pages of a book I’d started called, “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.” Luckily it was a really captivating read so I hardly put the book down the whole day. I’d really recommend it if you’re looking for a good page-turner to take on. It’s a really well written mystery that’ll really pull you for a loop. (I swear I didn’t get paid to advertise the book, haha. I just liked it a lot!). I’ve just started the second book in the series now and I’m already having trouble stopping reading in the evenings when I go to bed, even if I can barely keep my eyes open. It’s just so good!

I played a group game with my students on Wednesday to help them practice the 12 tenses in English and I have them a quiz on Thursday to test their knowledge of the tenses. I’d say just short of five students out of all of my 39 (I got another new student this week!) got 100 percent on the quiz! I’m really proud of them! Their success also implies that my teaching style is working well for them, which makes me really happy at the end of the day. Even though one might think it’s juvenile, I always put smiley faces on their assignments when they’ve done a good job. Even though they’re in high school, I still have to admit that seeing some sort of visual representation that implies you did well, like seeing a star or a smiley face, always made me feel happy and laugh a little when I got assignments back when I was in school, no matter how old I was. Since many of the students are weary about their English skills (although I have to say I think they’re all quite good), it’s good to find ways to boost their confidence and make them feel really good when they’ve done tasks well. So, I think I might stick with the smiley faces.

Three other events in class this week really helped highlight my whole week. The first is rather a conglomerate of little events. Four of my students this week wrote me little notes, made me cards, and drew me pictures and gave them to me after class. Every time I get one of them I’m absolutely on my heels laughing with a huge grin on my face. Some of my students are so sweet it’s hard not to smile at what they write for me. For instance, one of my students chose to write me a get-well note. Earlier this week on Tuesday I chose to go running in the evening for the first time in about two weeks. I ended up running rather far and when I got home I felt pretty good. However, that night my left heel started throbbing like crazy all of a sudden and when I woke up on Wednesday morning I couldn’t even put a smidgeon of pressure on my left heel without experiencing excruciating pain. I’ve never experienced that kind of pain no matter how long I’ve taken in between runs in the past, but the ground here is rather rough on your feet to be honest. It’s really packed down solid dirt with a ton of near-bowling ball sized rocks mixed in. All of the rocks are sticking out fo the surface of the dirt and when you run over them they really do a number on the bottoms of your feet. As a result of the pain I ended up limping and hobbling around for most of Wednesday. Even though how I’d hurt myself was rather pathetic, my student still chose to write me a nice note at the end of class telling me that she was so sorry I’d hurt my foot and that she would pray for me to feel better soon. I’m not quite sure if her praying or even well-wishing in the first place is what made me feel better, but by Thursday I only had a little pain left and I could finally put a normal amount of weight on my foot without cringing.

The second highlight of my week was when I sang Beyonce’s song, “Halo” for my class on Thursday morning. Ever since I’d started bringing music to class to play for them they’ve been asking me to sing them something. I’m not really the performing type and if I do perform I usually prefer to be somewhat in the background rather that front and center, or let alone by myself. However, after much pestering from them about my tendency to push back when I said I would sing for them (I kept saying “Tomorrow…”), I finally mustered up the courage to sing for them on my own to the tune of “Halo.” Although they’re just high school girls, they’re really impressionable and it seems like every little thing I’ve done in class so far has really affected all of them (hence most of their little notes), so if for some reason they thought I didn’t have a good singing voice I was nervous about how that would affect class, haha. It sounds ridiculous, but I felt like it was a legitimate concern. I was almost shaking like a leaf when I started singing, but by the time I got into the chorus I was fine and I was moving around the room semi-dancing as I sang. After I stopped they all cheered and clapped and were smiling a lot, haha. So I guess that means I passed their vocals test, haha. On another positive note, my singing made them happy enough that it gave them all a good boost of energy before they started the quiz.

The third high point of my week came from all the times I played with the children who live next door to us. There are sooooo many little kids who live around us and somehow our house has become as desirable to spend time at as the ball pit at McDonald’s Playhouse, haha (that’s how my housemate described it). The kids are all four years old with the exception of a ten year old, Ima, a three year old, and a couple of 5 year olds. They’re super adorable! They try to speak Swahili with us and we try to understand them and converse with them as best as we can in reply. On Wednesday when they came over I pulled out the two picture books I brought with me of Vermont and they loved looking at them. I sat wedged in a chair in our living room and the tidal wave of kids poured over my lap, squishing me further into the seat, as I went page by and page and tried to explain that Vermont was my “nyumbani” (“home”) in America. Every time they saw something they recognized (a cow, flowers, trees, birds, houses) they would belt out the Swahili word for it in unison. It was hilarious. After I finished the books I went outside with them with my computer and pulled up some pictures of my family and friends from back home and also some of the pictures I’d taken in Morogoro and also here at Dakawa. They really enjoyed looking at the pictures. While I was showing them the photos I played some Bongo Flava music that they knew and they were all singing along to the lyrics. My heart nearly melted at the sound of their little squeaky voices singing Swahili pop and love songs, haha. There’s a really famous song by Marlaw called “Peep, Peep” where the singer basically says, “Peep! Peep! Move out of the way. I’m tired of waiting in traffic. I have to get home to my baby…” Every time the words “Peep Peep” came on in the song all the kids would pipe up and scream “PEEP! PEEP!” haha. Ah it was great. I also got to talk with one of the kid’s mothers for a while who lives right next to us. She was very nice and talkative – all in Swahili! – although I couldn’t form some of the replies I wanted to, I understand most of what she was saying and could speak a little in Swahili. After she said, “Unasoma Kiswahili vizuri!” (“You speak Swahili well!). That piped up my confidence a bit. It’s nice everyone around here is so encouraging!

On Thursday we also started what will be our regular Swahili lessons with a Swahili teacher at our school. It was funny to be a student in one of the classrooms! Usually we’re the one’s teaching, but when we started our lesson we were seated at the desks listening, writing notes, and responding. Our teacher, Sophia, reviewed the three verb tenses and taught us new vocabulary for body parts. I enjoyed the lesson. Now in order to actually learn the new vocabulary I have to study it!

Randomly on Thursday night we had a huge infestations of bees overtake our house. It felt like I was in some horrible horror film like Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds,” except this version was “The Bees.” They were swarming the lights outside of our house and they kept crawling underneath our doors at both ends of our living room. They looked sick for some reason. They couldn’t actually fly, they just buzzed and spun in circles on the floor. With a phobia of bees like mine I was definitely not happy. I took my sandal to all of them when they crawled under the door. I must’ve killed more than 50 bees last night, no exaggeration! I have no idea why they were all possessed to come through our doors – they’re never done that before… We have bug spray killer that kills on contact. We bought it mostly for the cockroaches and mosquitoes that hang around inside our house, but it works for bees too. You really don’t want to mess with the bees here. They’re a huge problem especially near the dormitories where the students stay. This type of African bee can actually kill you quite easily if you manage to get attacked by a hole hive. There’s something especially poisonous about the poison it injects into you with its stinger. That said, I have no desire to get stung even accidentally last night. I took my sandal and bug killer spray to them and after two hours most of them had died. They started coming into the house right around dinnertime and our dining table happens to be right in between the two doors they were coming through. We had to carry all of our stuff for dinner into one of my housemate’s room’s and eat dinner while sitting on the floor as we waited for the bug spray to take action and kill all the bees during our meal. It definitely worked because when we came back out to the living room there were about 25 bees dead on the floor! I even sprayed the foot of both doors and apparently the poison leaked outside and killed a bunch of bees that were buzzing around the lights outside. I swear I’ve never seen so many dead bees in all my life! I rather have them dead than alive though. Sorry bees, but I gotta look out for number 1! Haha. Luckily this morning there aren’t any bees around that I can tell…so far…

Today is Friday and I’m going to Dar es Salaam this weekend. A Tanzanian friend of mine has to leave to go back to his Masters Program in Sweden next Wednesday and I wanted to see him before he leaves. Two of the other WorldTeach volunteers are going to Dar this weekend and they’ve booked a really swanky resort at a place called “South Beach” where there’s a pool, Jacuzzi, and obviously the ocean. I’m going to try and meet them there to hang out on Saturday. Tonight I’m going to try to go to my favorite club in Dar which is called, “Billicanas,” or “Billz” for short. I haven’t been to that club yet since I arrived in Tanzania this time around so I’m hoping tonight’s plans will work out! Fun times ahead. For sure, it’ll be nice to unwind after this week. Dancing’s always a good cure for me when I’m feeling kinda down, so bring on the medicine! I’ll try to post updates when I can about my weekend when I return.

Also, I have a package from my family waiting for me to fetch it at the post office in Morogoro! I am so excited I can hardly wait. It wouldn’t even matter if they’d sent coal and an ugly letter – the fact that something actually got from my home in the U.S. all the way to Morogoro, Tanzanian is astonishing and wonderful to me. Way to go regular snail mail for delivering my package! I think I’ll pick it up on Monday when I come back from Dar. I don’t teach classes until Tuesdays so I figured I would stay through Monday in Dar since I have the time to do it. Again, I’ll report back when I can. Ciao for now! I hope you’re all doing super well!