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!