Home For the Holidays

For Christmas, I decided to surprise my entire family (except my mother who helped me to pay for the ticket) by coming home for Christmas. Although most people found out, my dad never did.

I arrived in Boston on December 13, after a 14-hour bus ride and 22-hour flight, in my favorite orange zebra dress and Masai sandals. The weather was way too cold to be wearing my Tanzania clothes. I have been in Massachusetts now for 16 days. In these last 16 days, I have visited friends from my old college town, I have visited friends in Boston, I have climbed walls with my brother, and I have watched a lot of terrible TV (most notable "Man vs. Food" on the food network. I am going to go off on a long spiel about this TV show, because it is disgusting and a huge demerit to American culture. On this TV show, a man travels around America trying different types of food. At the end of every show, he does a "food challenge" and tries to eat a massive amount of food, such as a 6-pound burrito or a super disgusting food like a roll of sushi that is so spicy it causes ulcers. It is a disgustingly wasteful endeavor. I could think of so many better uses of these resources than this already chunky man gorging himself for the sake of entertainment.) Anyway, to continue, I have drank good beer and eaten good cheese and good bread, and I have sat around doing a whole lot of nothing.

I have done a whole lot of nothing because, in the last year, people's lives have moved on. Sixteen months ago, when I left America, I was a kid fresh out of college. All my friends were kids that were fresh out of college. Nobody had real jobs, nobody had a life plan, we were all just kids and could be irresponsible on a Tuesday night and it wouldn't really matter. Now, a year and a half later, we're not kids anymore. Everybody has real jobs. They can't go out on a Tuesday night because they have to work on Wednesday.

In the scheme of things, this is good. At some point, people need to outgrow college. Acting like college kids is OK for college kids, but not for real adults. In the last year, my life and my friends lives have moved on. As I am sitting at home, I realize this. But I also realize that my life has moved on, not here, but in Tanzania. My life, right now, is not in America. When I am here, I can go out and act like a college kid on a Tuesday night, because I have NOTHING to do. I have no responsibilities here. No responsibilty, no job, free rent, free food. Sounds like I'm living the life, right? No! It's terrible. I am ready to get back to my life - in Tanzania. I'm ready to start working again. It's weird that in the last 15 months, my life has migrated from the USA and, in a way, Tanzania is my life...my home.

Not that it will always be. But for now, my life belongs in Africa.

Update.

Before I begin this post, let me update you on the status of my student going to America. After several days, lots of arguing with officials, talking to some lawyers, and silently praising the DMV for their efficiency, we successfully obtained a passport for the students. She has met with people from the embassy, seen a doctor to get health forms filled in, and is all-set to go. So that is really good news, and I am really glad that that process is done and behind me. I will nominate students again next year, but I am not looking forward to going through this process again. All’s well that ends well, right?

It’s been quite a while since I’ve written. I apologize. There are a few reasons that it’s been a long time: firstly is that I have been really busy. The past month and a half have been crazy with getting the kids ready for their final exams, marking, filling in report cards, and seeing the kids off.

Final exams were quite hectic this year. Two weeks before final exams were scheduled, we heard from the Rungwe District Council that we were going to have a district Form III exam, so that all the students and the schools in the district could be marked on their performance. This was really stressful because (a) the students got freaked out about it. (b) there was a topic and a half in the FIII syllabus that I had yet to finish and since I wasn’t writing the test, I couldn’t filter questions from those sections out of the exam. (c) the school didn’t have enough money to finance and carryout the exams…

So after two weeks of running around, trying to finish the syllabus (I almost did it!), and preparing the students for the exams, we did the finals. The FIII physics exam was, as Tanzanian tests go, OK. There were only a few ridiculous questions and I felt that the FIII material on the exam was well covered in class. Most students got C’s – which is between a 40 and a 60 and is a reasonably good grade. The math exam was terrible. It was littered with typos, to the point that many students could not even read the questions, and it was way too long for the allotted time. Students would have needed at least 4 hours to complete it, they were given 2.5 hours, the marking scheme was inaccurate, and most of the material on the exam was FI and FII material, so I really couldn’t gauge how much my kids learned this year…Scores on the math tests ranged from 7-70. I’ll be interested to see the district results. I did the best that I could. It wasn’t perfect. But I can guarantee I will be a better teacher next year. This year was definitely a learning year.

As for next year…we got our period allocations last week during a 7 – hour staff meeting. I am assigned to Form I physics and math and Form III physics and math. I did the math: that is 42 periods per week. If I taught every period, every day, there are 45 periods in the week. Too much. It is because there is only one other physics/math teacher at my school. I believe that this schedule will only last a few weeks until we can get another teacher, but for those few weeks I am going to be swamped! I’ll do what I can, but I may need to drop teaching one of the math classes. Quality over quantity.

But for now, my work is done and I am gearing up for some vacation traveling. I have had a really great few days, preparing to leave. People here are just so great, and the last few days I have had some really great interactions. It just makes me love Tanzania. There’s a guy at the market who makes sambusas (sambusas in English are samossas and are these little meat pies in filo-dough type crust). I don’t buy sabussas all that often but I always talk to the man. The other day he invited my site mate and me to his house for dinner. Unfortunately we had to decline but we’re planning on going at some point. And then the mama at the post office has decided that she needs to call me anytime I get mail to let me know. It’s unnecessary, but a really nice gesture. I brought a piece of fabric to my seamstress to get sewn yesterday and told her that I’d come get it in a month because I was traveling and wasn’t going to be in the area. She offered to sew it by the next day for me…no extra cost.

I now that those are all really little things. But it is the little things in life that matter, right? It’s the little things like being invited to church and a Sunday lunch with one of the fellow teachers. It’s laughing with the fundi about the clothes you want made. It’s greeting people in the street and knowing their name and them knowing your name. It’s bringing bananas as gifts to your neighbors or receiving a mango from one of the girls next door. It’s feeling like you’re becoming part of the community. Maybe it took a year to get there, and I’m sure I’m not there yet…but I am getting there. And it is really great. I am not going to be at my site for about a month, and I am a little sad to be leaving. I am excited too, of course, but I will miss everyone.

Anyways I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving and that you are staying warm. Being in Africa, in relatively warm weather, eating mangos and pineapples off the trees – it’s hard to believe that it is almost winter and that people at home are dealing with freezing temperatures, snow storms, obnoxious Christmas commercials and overplayed Christmas songs. It doesn’t feel like the Christmas.

Chance of a Lifetime

Coming to Tanzania was a chance of a lifetime for me. One of the main reasons that on my Peace Corps application that I checked Africa for my “first choice” of where to go was because I don’t know if I would have ever dared to venture to Africa on my own. It’s not like South America or Europe or Asia, where it’s possible that someday I would go. For some reason, at the time of application, all those places seemed less scary. In my mind, Africa was just so scary.

Anywhere here I am, in Africa, teaching two subjects that I would never had had the chance to appreciate in America. I mean as a bio major, my interest in math and physics was pretty nonexistent. I am beginning to appreciate both of those subjects. I got the chance to learn a cool language, meet cool people, experience first hand something that without Peace Corps, I would not have been able to experience. For me, this was a great opportunity, a great change, a great learning experience.

One of my goals was to give some of the young adults that I am teaching some sort of memorable opportunity. Up until this point, I’ve tried to accomplish this by being a good teacher (which is not always the case), caring, trying to teach them things that they may not necessarily be able to learn from Tanzanian teachers because of cultural or educational limitations…condom demonstrations, girl’s empowerment, health, computers…I think all of the girls appreciate this.

However, let’s talk about opportunities of a lifetime. In a country with the 20th lowest GDP, in which the average annual income of the citizens is between $250 and $500 a year, opportunities like the ones that Peace Corps provided to me are pretty limited for your average Tanzanian. The plane ticket to America is 4 times the average income of Tanzanians. However, one of my students was chosen, along with 4 other students from around the country, to attend a Youth Leadership Program in America. She will get to go spend one month in America, attend an American high schools, and stay with an American host family. I am so excited for her. My teachers are so excited for her. My headmistress is so excited. This is, truly, an opportunity of a lifetime for her, and it makes me so happy. Many Tanzanian students have absolutely no global perspective. The boarder of Tanzanian is the end of the world. America is equally as far away and foreign as Zimbabwe or West Africa. Tanzania is Tanzania and the rest of the world is all just one big foreign country. I don’t think this girl yet realizes the magnitude of the world: being on a plane for 15 hours, flying over the Atlantic Ocean, being in a country who probably has never heard of Mbeya. I am quite excited to see her off and welcome her back. And I am so excited to see what she thinks of my home. My culture.

As I write this, I am sitting on my couch, listening to the Glee soundtrack. I haven’t yet told her that she was selected because I wanted to tell my mkuu first. So tomorrow, I will tell her. And then I have about 3 weeks to get her a passport. I can’t wait.

So, it's now the day after. I am writing this blog in installments. I have told my student. She literally skipped away. I have never seen a Tanzanian student so happy. We have a date to go to the regional capital to fill out her application for a passport and visa, and then in 5 months she will be in America for a month.

It's amazing how much that one awesome thing has brought my spirits up. The last few weeks have been very frustrating, for several reasons. The first reason is that three weeks ago our water pump at the school broke, so I haven't had any running water (if any volunteers are reading this that don't normally have water, I now feel your pain. Poleni) I have been surviving on about 1 ½ buckets of water today...thats about 30L (I also have not done laundry in quite a long time...). So now, students have to walk to the river to fetch water. Up until three weeks ago when the pump broke, I didn't even know there was a river near the school. Know why I didn't know? Because the river is nowhere near the school. It is about ¾ of a mile down a really big hill. And students have to go fetch 3 or 4 buckets of water a day: one for the kitchen, one for bathing, one for cleaning, and since teachers don't fetch their own water (myself included...), students also must fetch water for the teachers and workers at the school. I decided that I'd go with the students today and have them teach me how to carry a bucket of water on my head. I got about half a bucket of water and made it about half the way up the hill before I was exhausted and soaking wet from spilling the water (carrying stuff on your head is tougher than Africans make it look). The kids do this several times a day! So besides the kids being physically exhausted from walking up a giant hill with a bucket of water on their heads several times a day, it is also quite disruptive for the school schedule. Today, we didn't have any classes becauses students were choting water literally all day. And even on good days, the students don't get to the classroom until 9:30 or 10:00 because, at the very least, they must get 2 buckets before entering the classroom: one for the kitchen so the cooks can make breakfast and one for a bath, because it is absolutely unheard of not to shower in the morning...So, on a good day, the students miss 3 or 4 periods everyday.

On top of all the not-teaching that is going on...the Rungwe region has decided (we heard of this yesterday) that they are going to do a regional form III placement test so that the spectrum of the best students in the entire region to the worst students. Best schools to the worst schools. I teach form III. I haven't finished the syllabi yet. And since I am not teaching because there's no water...I probably won't be able to finish the syllabus. Ohhh stressful. Everybody's pretty upset about this test. For one, the students and teachers haven't really prepared, but also because the government isn't helping with any of the expenses of the test. And since they waived the fee for the Form II NECTA exam, the school is already over budget. Its just a no-win situation for everybody: the teachers, the students, the schools.

And, to make things just a little bit more ridiculous: the school has decided to send students home on Friday to collect school fees. Which means that they probably won't return to school until Wednesday or Thursday of next week....My question is why not send them home tomorrow, since we aren'ts getting the chance to teach because of the water, and have them come back Sunday...and pray that water is fixed by then...

Oh Tanzania. If I wasn't go excited that my kid gets to go to America, I'd probably be annoyed with the inefficiency.

Mock Exam Results

So the education system in Tanzania is as follows: Primary school goes from standard 1 to standard 7. At the end of standard 7, students need to pass a national exam in order to continue with their education. Students who “pass” the national exam move onto secondary school. I put pass in parenthesis because by western standards, the huge majority of them still fail miserably…I’m not sure what the grades are for primary schools but for secondary school, a 25% is passing….So, in secondary school, students study from form I – IV. In form I and form II students take nine subjects: civics, history, English, Kiswahili, math, physics, chemistry, biology, and geography. At the end of form II, students again need to take a National Test (called the NECTA). However, since so many students were failing the form II NECTA, in all it’s infinite wisdom, it was decided that although students still need to take the test, they can continue on to form III even if they do not pass the test (again, passing is a 25%). After form II students can drop physics and chemistry, so in form III and form IV, students study between 7 and 9 subjects. Again in form IV, students take a NECTA. The results of the form IV NECTA decide whether a student can continue on to A-Level. Students who pass their NECTAs are selected to A-Level schools, where they study a combination of three subjects. The subjects they study are dependent on which subjects they did well in on their form IV NECTA.

So every year, schools do what are called “mock exams”. Like the name implies, they are mock NECTA exams. Students in form II and form IV, sit for a week of tests to help prepare them for the real thing. This happened about 3 weeks ago in my region of Tanzania. And we got the results back today. My school was 34/204 in math and 127/204 in biology (I forgot the exact numbers so I am estimating a bit, but I remember we were about the 20th percentile for math and about the 50th for biology). That sounds pretty good right? We’re about average!

Yea. Great. 7 of the 104 students in the form IV at my school did not fail biology. Yes, 97 students got an “F” in biology. The 7 that did not get an F, got a D. Let me remind you that an F is anything under a 25%. A D is between a 25% and a 40%. Nobody got above a 40% and still we did better than about 50% of the schools in the region. Really? That’s ridiculous.

As we were looking at the results the other teachers and I got to talking about what the problem was. I said that I thought that the syllabi were way to long so that the students did not get the chance to understand the material because they were rushing through the material too much. The other teachers disagreed because it’s not like everyone fails, there are a few people that pass…the problem is that the students do not study enough, they just hang around and don’t do anything.

Let me tell you the school-day schedule for my school. Students wake up at 6 am to do “usafi” (cleaning the school grounds) They then bathe and must be in the classroom by 7 am. They have school between 7:30-2:00 with a half hour chai break. From 3:00-5:00 students have remedial classes, meaning teachers can enter the classroom to teach more – if a teacher is not entering the classroom, then students do not need to be studying, but most days, students study during remedial time. From 8:00 – 11:00 students have “prep time”. All students are required to be in the classroom between these hours. Students study plenty here! They are studying, literally, all day. How can people think that it is the students fault? That they are not studying enough? The problem is that the syllabus is so ridiculously long, the tests are written so difficult, teachers are not super qualified to teach (I mean so of them, I’m sure got 26% on their NECTAs and are now teaching the material), and students don’t understand English. I mean, why does it matter how much they study if the material they are studying the do not understand?

It’s frustrating. However much I try to teach…most of my students will still fail. And, I’m not even that great of a teacher. It’s difficult to learn the material the night before and then have to teach it. What this country needs is to switch secondary education to Swahili or primary education to English so that students would either learn English in primary school and therefore understand English by the time they reach secondary school or they need to switch secondary school to Swahili so that students understand what the heck they are learning about. The way it is n

Peace Corps Tanzania Packing List

In the past several weeks, I have recieved some emails and a few facebook messages from my future wenzangu volunteers. In honor of the 35 some-odd education volunteers that we will be recieving at the end of this month, my site-mate (Andrew) and I wish to compile a list of "burdens to bear" and "parcels to pitch"

Kwanza. Burdens to Bear - stuff we brought and/or brought and are glad we did.
-Warm clothes. What you're going to Africa, why the heck would we need a fleece jacket and wool socks? Maybe you'll be stuck in Tanga, where you wish it was culturally appropriate to skinny-dip in an ice bath. Or you could end up in Mbeya, where, more often than not, in order to reach your classroom you need to trudge out in the fog'n rain and it 50-degrees out. But we have the best fruit :) Thank you rain.
-Computer. When you have 200 math papers to mark, you'll be really glad that you have a computer with 3 full seasons of Chuck, a season of Glee, and some Eureka, along with a handful of movies. (ps - for those coming this month, we formally request the second half of Eureka-season 3 and season 4, the second half of season 1 of Glee, season 2 of Dollhouse, and the movie "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.) Computers are also good for digital resources that are floating around the country.
-Good cooking knives unless, of cource, you want to try to decapitate a chicken with a knife that is as sharp as the edge of a wooden table. Not fun for the chicken.
-A textbook or two of the subject you are teaching (Andrew disagrees with me here. But I think he is wrong)
-Headlamp. For when electricity sucks.
-Spices. Because rice and beans get boring.
-Floss. Because my daddy thinks that flossing multiple times a day is normal and fun. And necessary. So two years worth of floss: whether that is one roll of twenty...Dad, how many rolls do you reccommend?
- Undies and bras - Unless you want to buy the low-quality(possibly pre-worn) undies and bras that they sell at the local duka. Andrew thinks its OK to wear pre-worn bras because at worst there's a little bit of milk-leakage.
-Maps are fun to look at
-A fun book to read. Don't bring to many. The PCV Tanzania book exchange will always be available.
-Andrew suggests clothes hangers.

DON'T OVERPACK ON CLOTHES. BUY THEM HERE.
TYPICALLY WORN IN ONE WEEK:
ANDREW: One pair of pants. Three collared shirts (2 of them Tanzania print shirts, bought here), two pairs of socks, 4 or 5 pairs of underwear, 3 undershirts.

KATIE: 3 skirts/shirts (many of them bought here in Tanzania), 7 pairs of undies, pair of pants, t-shirt.

Our point: Hand-washing is a bitch, the acceptable length between washings is dramatically increased. You'll also be able to buy clothes here for super cheap. Don't pack tons of clothes. Its silly.


PARCELS TO PITCH
-Mirror - They cost about the equivalent of 30 cents.
-Medicine - PC gives you a ton of medicine.
-Pillows and sheets - Unless you just can't let go of your little Mermaid sheets, PC gives you pillows and sheets, so don't waste your two bags trying to fit in a pillow.
-"One extra nice dress for special functions" - waste of money! They will get ruined. Mabye bring and extra $10 so you can buy fabric and get it sewn here. The only time Andrew has worn his extra nice dress was on a cruise. In Greece. Never in Tanzania.
-The TZ packing list suggests you bring 6 different pairs of shoes. This is silly. Bring one nice pair of dress shoes, and pair of walking shoes, and a pair of sandals. If you need more, buy them here.
-Cookbook. You get one here, which uses locally available foods.

Our advice is to PACK LIGHT. You get two bags and 80 pounds. Don't fill it. During PST, you will get a LOT of stuff, and somehow you need to get all that stuff on a bus to site, after PST. Most things you can buy here, for cheaper (and sometimes lower quality) than you'd buy in the states. But if Tanzanians do without them, so can you.

Look forward to meeting all the new volunteers! Hope your next 3 weeks in the States is great. Make sure to eat lots icecream and cheese and drink some good American beer, with come good company. It'll be a long time before you have it again!

Homa, hospitals, and hare-brained doctors.

In America, going to the ER was an all day process. Unless you had a bullet in head, you could expect to wait in the ER waiting room for about 3 hours before getting you vital signs taken and moving to one of the hospital rooms. At that point, you get really excited because, you're in the hospital bed, it must be almost your turn, right? Wrong. It takes another 2 hours of rolling around in the hospital bed in a silly johnny, with your bum hanging out, calling the nurse every half hour to request one of those warmed up blankets and pain meds, until finally: 5 hours after arriving at the ER, you get seen by a real doctor. And the real doctor sits with you for 15 minutes, asks you questions and then determines a series of tests to run, then hands you over to a lab tech, nurse, or intern. Your tests get run, you see the doctor for another 15 minutes to talk about your plan of treatment, and then you're done. 6 hours in the ER for a total of ½ hour with the doctor. Sound familiar.

That used to annoy me, as I am sure it does everyone else. I've heard complaints that doctors have too many patients now-a-days, that nurses are overworked, that patient care is no longer a priority. And, it's true. Ideally, everything would run smoother. Ideally, you wouldn't have to be dying to be able to see your doctor on short notice. But, that being said, let me tell you about my hospital experience in Tanzania.

So, I have been really sick this last week. Like 102.5 F, swollen/painful glands all over my neck – to the point where I could barely move my neck, headache, chills, not sleeping at night, the whole 9-yards sick. After 4 days of being miserable, and more neck lumps popping up, I called the PCMO and she suggested that I go to one of the PC approved hospitals. The closest one is in Mbeya town, about a 2 hour bus ride from my site. Being on a bus in Tanzania when you're sick is miserable.

When I first arrived at the hospital (which by American standards is a small clinic), I was actually pretty impressed. I registered at the front desk, and the woman actually spelled my name correctly and then I got my BP taken by a nice old mama and then was asked to wait for the doctor to call my name. It was a same, familiar process that would happen in the States.

I waited for the doctor for maybe 15 minutes before my name was called and I entered his office. His office had a sink, a desk, and two chairs. Nothing like an American doctor's office. There was really nothing there that would enable a complete physical evaluation to occur. I explained to him what was wrong, told him about my fever (which I was even nice enough to convert into Celcius), about my very painful swollen glands, about how I had pain medicine that I was taking to reduce the swelling and be able to move, about everything (he didn't speak English, and my Swahili actually held up pretty well). He then felt my swollen glands very roughly, even after I had stressed how much they hurt and diagnosed me with “inflammation” and “pains of the neck”. And that was it. No temperature taken. No tests. Nothing at all medically competent. It was the biggest waste of time of my life. And the kicker: he prescribed me an antibiotic and then three different types of pain medicines (even after I told him I already had some). Even doctors want to rip of the white people. I didn't get any of the prescriptions. The PCMO recommended a different antibiotic which I could get at a local “duka la dawa”.

So moral of the story: the 6 hours spent in the ER is at least a productive 6 hours. You get a knowledgeable doctor to give you a real diagnosis. You get tests to prove that diagnosis. You get medicine. Even though you only see the doctor for half an hour, there are nurses, interns, heated blankets, magazines, and real proffesionals to fill up the 5 ½ hours that you are not seeing the doctor. Here, you see the doctor for 5 minutes, and come out no more knowledgeable than when you went in. Except that he's given you the names of 3 different brands of medicines that do the same thing.

I'll take the knowledge.

Things Aren't Always Rainbows and Puppies.

School restarted last week: July 2nd, although most students didn't show up until a week later (which worked to my favor because I could go to Matema and hang out with Scotty instead of teaching – guilt free.)

So, I started teaching again on the 8th. On July 9th, one of my students, during the evening drank a mixture of different chemicals in an attempt to kill herself. She was rushed to the hospital. Fortunately, she survived. On July 12th, she returned home. Sadly, for her, she is only allowed to return to school on the days of National Exams...She will sit for exams but not be able to be in school to learn the material necessary to pass the exams. Apparently, the reason she drank the poisons was that she was upset about her report card grades. But that is heresay, it may not be thereal reason. She was upset about her grades, tried to kill herself, and now her grades will suffer as a result.

It's too bad that she felt like grades were THAT important. It's too bad that there was no one that she felt like she could go to to get help. It's too bad that there's no services in Tanzania for her, or other troubled teenagers, to help them learn how to deal with there emotions in a more appropriate manner. It's too bad that she had to return home after on 2 days in the hospital, instead of being able to get adequate treatment. It's too bad that she all but lost her right to an education because of one bad decsion. And it's too bad that there's virtually nothing that I can do to help her.

I wish in highschool that I had understood how unimportant report card grades are. That is even more true here. At least in America, your report card has some effect on which colleges that you can get into. But even then, not super important.Here it is even less important. Here, report cards mean nothing. O-Level report cards have NO effect on which A-level school you get into. Which A-level school you get into depends solely on National Exam results. Report card grades mean very little, besides maybe, that you need to work a little harder or that you are in good shape for the National Exam. Especially here, report card grades are NOT a measure of how smart you are. The questions on exams are usually so obscure that they are not a real test of understanding. Take form IV English grades. Form IV is the equivalent of sophomores or juniors, it is the highest o-level form. They, hypothetically, should know English. There are some Form IV students who could get an A in English and I can't hold a basic conversation with them in English. On the otherhand, there is a Form II student, who I think got a C in English: who absolutely refuses to speak to me in Swahili. Only English. Her English is impeccable. How did she get a C in English? Although she understands English and can speak English: (a) the English tests are written with so many awful, grammatically incoherent questions that even I would do poorly on the exams and (b) The exams ask for themes of poems (and all poems, apparently have the exact same theme – poverty, so students need to regurgitate an answer), asks you to write letters to friends (and if the letter is in the wrong format, but the English is perfect, it is graded as incorrect), and asks other really advanced question to students who can not speak the language. English tests, in no way, test for understanding of English. Same goes for other subjects.

Obviously the important thing is that the girl is, physically, OK. It's just a shame that there is really no help that she can get, so that there isn't a next time. It's really a shame that her opportunities in life have been dramatically reduced, that she can no longer study, that she can't return to school, that she can't return to being a normal teenager.

Other than that, I have bulked up my schedule this month. I am painfully behind in both my physics and math syllabus, so I've arranged extra meetings each week for both English and Math. With the result that many days I am teaching from 7:30 in the morning to 5:30 at night with a 1 hour lunch break. And then two nights a week I will be teaching from 8:30-10:30 at night: about 31 periods of physics and math a week. In addition, I announced that I was going to start teaching computers to students who were interested during prep time (8:30-11 pm every night). I expected maybe 30 or 40 students to apply. 96 students. 7 computers. Hmmm. So, I will be teaching computers three nights a week, 4 kids per computers. And really no idea what I should be teaching them... And then of course, health club, which is morphing into a FEMA Club, under that students guidance. They are very excited about having a FEMA Club.

Our FEMA Club Motto: “Badilisha vijana kubadilisha dunia” = “Change the youth to change the world”.

Scotty vacation

So, my Scotty-vacation is officially at an end. Yesterday, Scotty bussed to Kenya and I bussed back from Dar to Mbeya. It was sad to say bye.

The trip started off great...with AirKenya losing Scotty's checked bag. So we had the option of waiting around for them to find it or we could leave Dar without any of Scotty's stuff and just kind of wing-it as far as clothes go. We chose the second and left for Mbeya the next day, after splurging on some expensive and delicious food in Dar (I even found a SUBWAY restaurant and had a sandwich). We go to my site on Sunday night. Technically school started on Monday, but only about 20 of my 110 students were there so on Monday, we packed all my clothes into a bag and headed to Matema beach until Wednesday.

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday we hung around my site, I did test revisions with my students that were there. On Friday we had a long staff meeting. The outcome of the staff meeting: we decided to send all the students home again to collect school fees. So, I am pretty sure that I am not going to have any students this week, too. And tomorrows a holiday. Oh...Tanzania.

Anyways, on Saturday, we bussed back to Dar: ate at a really nice rooftop restaurant, and went to bed. Sunday we hung out in Dar, went to get Scotty's bag from the airport, and found this really odd Big-E type fair. It was cool, we walked around there for a while. I bought some cheese. And some jewelry. And then Monday, we parted ways. Sad.

The bus ride yesterday was AWFUL! I finished my book about 1/2 way through the ride. Usually it takes about 13.5 hours to go from Dar to my site. The bus leaves at 6 am and usually arrives at Kayuki around 7:30 pm. Yesterday, the bus left at 6 am and arrived in Mbeya (about 2 hours from my site at 9 am). Since the guy that sold me the ticket is an idiot and said that the bus was going to Malawi, when it was really going to Zambia, this bus wasnt passing my site, so I need to get off in Mbeya town. But since the bus took 4 hours longer than it needed to to get to Mbeya town, all the cars running to my site had stopped running, so I was stranded in Mbeya. I hate African travel...So I am in Mbeya now, getting ready to finally head back to Kayuki. I think I am done with long bus rides for a few weeks...

One of the things that Scotty and I noticed while being together and reminiscing on old college times is how much our "normal american social skills" have deteriorated. There were several times that we'd be doing something, and we'd realize that - wow, if our friends back home saw us right now, they'd be absolutely mortified with us. Some examples:
-We each wore the same clothes for like 5 days, before we thought that they were dirty enough to be changed
-My parents sent me packets of condiments (after not eating condiments for 10 months, they are pretty much the most delicious thing ever), so Scotty and I feasted on avocados and mayonaisse. Healthy, huh?
-When we are on the bus, we had saved our chicken fried rice for the night before. Without thinking much about it, we dug into our leftovers with our hands, since we didn't have any silverware. Yes, we ate chicken fried rice with our hands on a crowded public bus. We also ate avocados and mayo with out hands, but that was in the privacy of my own home.
-At that fancy restaurant, each night we went, we polished off half a bottle of ketchup with out fries, because ketchup is so yummy. We also played cards while waiting for our food and then had a debate about whether we were supposed to tip or not: usually in Tanzania, you do not tip, but we were at a fancy, touristy restaurant, so maybe we were supposed to. We ended up tipping 1000 shillings on a 18,000 shilling bill.

But the good news about our social detereoration is that at least we notice that we are behaving oddly. But the bad news: we've still got one more year to pick up weird habits. :)

Thats all. Today I am back to school to start work again and to get back into a routine. It'll be nice, I am looking forward to starting work again, but I'm sad vacation is over. Happy belated fourth of July.

Girls Conference

Letter from a Student

I received a letter two days ago from one of my students that I would like to share with the world. This letter made all the huge frustrations that I've encountered since I came to Tanzania seem pretty small and and all the small successes that I've experienced seem pretty huge.

Before I share this letter with you, there are a few things that I tell you. First, to get ANYTHING done in Tanzania, you need to write an “official letter”. I mean anything. To get my ATM card, I needed to write an official letter to the bank, requesting that they give me my card (which had already been ordered). To get photocopies of tests made, I need to write an official letter to my headmistress asking for money. To go away, Tanzanians need to write an official letter to the education office to ask for time off. To choose girls to go to the Girls' Conference, I asked them to answer three questions. Instead of getting answers to questions, I got 20 official letters. Letters are huge here. If you want something done, chances are that you have to write a letter to get it.

Secondly, the girl that wrote me this letter is from a family which doesn't have a lot of money. She came and asked me to borrow (in Tanzania, most of the time “borrow” means “give”) 2000 Ts /= so that she could buy a notebook and pencil. 2000 /= is about equivalent to $1.54 USD. Not a huge sum of money. I gave it to her. And didn't really think much of it. I mean, what is $1.54, a 20 oz bottle of soda in the USA? Anyways, apparently she thought that was a pretty big deal. The next day she came hodi-ing at my house with a letter which said this (I'm writing it exactly how she wrote, with the exception of omitting her name):

TO
MY
ADORABLE ONE
MADAM CATHELINE
KAYUKI GIRLS

KAYUKI SEC SCHOOL
S.L.P 232
TUKUYU
30TH MAY 2010

Dear Madam Catheline,
I think you continous so very well with your daily activities come back to in my side I feel so good and I continous so good with my daily activities with my studies.
The main motive of this letter just to tell you something. The something is that I want to be your friend because I want to study something to you and me too. I want to tell you something which you can't & no understand in Swahili. And the two resons for me to write this letter to asking to be friend me and you because I LOVE YOU SO MUCH MORE THAN OTHER PEOPLE LOVE YOU. Believe it or not I love you so much Madam Catheline. Madam if I see you I be so happy because I love you Madam. Me am a student of form two B. My name is --------------------- and I come from at Tukuyu. I will be glad if my request it good.

SMS
I love you for the WARMTH of your heart, the NICE things you do for me, and for the SWEETNESS you fill my LIFE with. Loving you is a DELIGHT.
Its
me
-------------------------------------------------

That's for $1.50. And, as you can probably tell, Form II students aren't totally comfortable with English, so for you her to write the letter in English, means that she spent a good amount of time on the letter. I thought it was really sweet. Especially the last part, which I am thinking is either from a greeting card or a song. I'm not sure which.

So she stood there as I read the letter and I didn't know how to respond. I told her that “of course I'll be your friend! I love you too.”

So that made me feel pretty good about Tanzania.

First Semester...DONE

So today was officially my last day of my first semester! I am in Mbeya sharing some good time and homemade Kahlua with sometother volunteers. yes - I come to Tanzania and learn how to make my own booze...Kahlua, wine...it's delicious, inexpensive, and a good gift to give to Tanzanians and other PCVs. An all-around successful endeavor.

So, once I return to site, I have a stack of physics exams to grade. The form II and form IV students are sticking around the school to study more for exams, so maybe I will continue teaching a little (oh my, i need to learn about magnetic induction and trigonmetric functions without using a calculator...yikes) Marking my tests will be interesting. The invigilation of exams is horrible here, I was pretty annoyed. Firstly, we are not allowed to invigilate our own exams. Which would be fine, but all the Tanzania teachers give the students their exams. Stand in the room for a few minutes. Then walk out of the rooms for 10 minutes, then walk in and watch for 5 minutes and then walk out again. So, on average, they "invigilate" for a total of about 45 minutes out of a 3 hour exam. Tell me that the students aren't cheating? It's interesting...students who usually get 20s on my exams all of a sudden understood the material...they got 60s and 70s on my final......I must have gotten MUCH better as a teacher or they cheated some. I'm gonna guess option 1. Just to make myself feel better :)

But as for my break, the only thing I have really scheduled is the girl's conference in mid-June and then travelling around Tanzania and possible Kenya with Scotty. I am so excited to see Scotty.

The last few weeks at site have been hectic but good. We had a blood drive at my school (I imagine that as my dad reads this following section, he may have a heart attack...), and as the "health teacher", I felt it was my duty to set an example and donate blood...at first I was a bit skeptical. I mean, purposely sticking myself with a needle in a country with an evelated HIV rate, a little scary. But it was very clean and professional. Besides sitting on unsturdy wooden chairs in a classroom, it was like the red cross in America. I even got cookies and soda afterwards. I was one of 9 people that gave blood. The only teacher.

One of the interesting things about the blood drive was teh conversation we had. It realyl illustrates some differences between Tanzanian and American culture. So before we go the blood taken, they tested our blood for iron, weighed us, asked us questions (you know the usual: have you been to africa in the last 6 months...) So, I don't think a lot of the girls had really ever had their weight taken before. As we were sitting, with needles in our arms, our conversation went something like this:

Student 1 : Dada, so and so, how much did you weight?
Student 2: 82 kg
Student 1: THATS SO MUCH!
Student 2: I know! How much were you?
Student 1: I was only 72kg.
Student 2: Madam Catherine, how much were you?

So by the end of the process, I knew everyone's weight and they knew my weight. And no problem. It was all in good fun. No awkwardness. Just interest.

The other interesting piece of news is that my headmistress got transferred. So I have a new headmistress. She seems really nice. We had a 2.5 hours emergency meeting today to discuss whether we should require our students to purchase school t-shirts. All in Swahili. Only about 1/2 of which I understood. Glad we got that important issue settled...especially when more important issues are being ignored. Like how to address the issue of cheating on exams.

OK. So that's it. I'll leave you with some words of wisdom from my site mate, the incredible insightful Mwalimu Theo, "I really with you could just jump on people's heads in real life to kill them" (said as he was playing a 2nd grade computer came.

Cheers!

Cultural Differences

So my dad the other day asked me about Cultural differences between here and America. So I made Lists. Here They are.
THINGS I'M REALLY WEIRD FOR DOING IN TANZANIA
- Wearing flip flops anywhere but the shower.
- Letting my dog in the house.
- Not putting 6 tbsp of sugar into my chai (although the amount I put in has dramatically increased in the last 6 months)
- Reading books for fun.
- Showering only one time a day.
- Not mopping my floor every day.
- Planning more than 1 day ahead.
- Not hitting my dog.
- Enjoying some alone time.
- Not drinking chai every morning.\
- Going for walks just for the hell of it.
- Being a woman and having a house to myself.
- Not going to church every week, plus additional prayer sessions 3 days a week.

THINGS WHICH I DO HERE BUT WOULD BE CONSIDERED REALLY WEIRD FOR DOING AT HOME
- Eating with my hands in public if I can't find a spoon.
- Wearing dresses with either butterflies, or chicken (yes, I've seen chicken print vitenge), or flower print.
- Eating sardines (dagaa) on a regular basis.
- Drinking water that runs off of my roof.

There's definitely more, but I can't think of them right now.

Things here are going well. I have a school break starting in two weeks and I am very excited. I'm am EXHAUSTED. Like in America, I am very good at making my schedule just a bit too busy. But I love it. So it's OK. Over break, after the girl's conference, I am going to Kenya we my friend who is a PCV in Mali! I am really excited. Especially to see Scotty.

The other day I went to visit a friend for the day. It's been pouring rain here for the last week, so I left the dog inside. I was gone for probably 7 hours. When I came home, my Doxycycline bottle was on the floor with pills EVERYWHERE! So, of course, I had a bit of a panic attack. When I take one of those pills, I feel like I'm going to throw up, and I had NO IDEA how many Orion took. So I called everyone I knew that would have any idea about what to do if your dog ODs on malaria meds. In the end, there wasn't a lot I could do. But good news: he's fine. And he's as much of a trouble maker as always! I'm trying to upload photos of him right now on Facebook but seeing that I've been trying for the last 20 minutes, I'm not too hopeful. Sorry.

Alright. Hope all is well back home!

Orion.

So I have returned from IST with my new friend, Orion: a 2 year old, really skinny dog who is super sweet and has way too much energy! As of yesterday, he was not neutered. I decided to get him neutered for a total of 2000 Ts /=, the equivalent of about $1.75. When the vet first told me this price, I was shocked. I was expecting it to cost at least $10. However, as the process continued, I became less shocked. The vet asked me to get a bucket of water, a kanga (piece of cloth), some soap, and a flour bag. The flour bag went of his head, the kanga over the flour bag and was then used to tie him to a post, we flipped him upside down, held his legs, and the vet did his business, as my poor dog was whimpering and flailing and biting (yes, i did get bit once). No sedative. No painkiller. Just a razor blade and flour bag. It was terrible. So moral of the story: in America, you pay for humane neutering.

What amazes me even more is dog's ability to ignore stuff. Like the fact that I was holding him down as the vet cut him open. As soon as the bag came off his head, he was really angry with the vet. Trying to bite him and attack him. But he was super sweet to me. Just like I hadn't been just holding him down as the vet cut out his manlihood. Having a dog has been really fun so far. It's a really great way to meet people. Every morning we take an hour or so walk through the village and stop to talk to people. It's a lot of fun.

So that's about all that's going on with me. Right now is Easter break. I am super busy grading midterms, which is a relatively depressing process. Two of my classes have an average score of about 35 (which is a D) here. The other class has an average of about an 80. Same test. Same lesson. Different motivation. It's frustrating how little some of the kids try. But it happens right? I'll do what I can for the ones that want to learn.

So Happy Easter!

IST. Iringa. Orion.

Hello Everyone.
I haven't updated in a while, and I have quite a bit to talk about, I guess. Nothing exciting, just a lot of little stuff.

First of all, my IST started last week in Iringa and goes until this Saturday. IST is in-service training which includes more technical training and also PEPFAR training: that is, HIV/AIDS training. You have to bring a "counterpart" - Tanzanian buddy- to IST. I, at first, asked the English teacher at my school. She said yes, which was super exciting because we get along great and she is super active in the school. It was great until I saw that her name was on the "invigilating schedule for midterm exams, which was happening the second week of my IST. So, I just checked her travel plans last Friday, the day I had to leave, and she told me that she couldn't go anymore. 2 hours before I needed to leave. Oh great... Everything worked out fine in the long run, I ended up inviting a woman who I don't talk to that much: but I realize that she's just really shy. And it's been very nice getting to know her this last week. I'm not upset at all that the first woman didn't work out.

But the real reason I told you this story is to highlight a huge difference between Tanzanian and American culture. The first woman obviously knew that she wasn't going to be able to come for about 3 days before I needed to leave, because that is when the invigilating schedule was written. But she didn't tell me. She never actual told me. I needed to ASK her about it. At first I was furious. Absolutely irate. And I'm still annoyed when I think about it. But that's just one cultural difference I need to get used to. Tanzanians aren't the most direct people in the world. It's OK. I just need to watch for the subtle signs that say "hey, I don't think I can go" instead of the big signs. Tanzania: the place where common courtesy means something entirely different.

So, IST has been very beneficial thus far in many ways. First of all, all the sessions have been really helpful. In a mixed group of Tanzanian/Americans we've been able to talk about corporate punishment (the pros and cons...it was a pretty even debate: the Tanzanians supported it, the Americans didn't) and alternatives to corporal punishment (since almost anything is legal here, there were some interesting suggestings: embarass the kids in class, throw their notebooks out the window if the aren't taking notes, make them chote-haul- water or do a lot of farm-work if they're caught cheating on an exam, etc. The tried and true method of sending kids to the principal is counterproductive here because then the headmaster will just hit them...and we're trying to avoid hitting.), we've also started talking a lot about HIV and AIDS, which is really interesting. The infection rate in Mbeya is about 12%, and the national rate is about 6%. Which means, in my area, 12% of the population has a debilitating, deadly disease which is preventable. That is sad. But it is also encouraging. I work with highschoolers. Most of the are uninfected. Which means that if I can give them information and skills that allow them to stay uninfected then the next generation will have a lower infection rate. And then lower during the next. That's the plan at least. And to help implement this plan, my counterpart and I want to start a "health club". Which would just be me and here talking about any health issues that the students may need to know about: malaria, nutrition, gender equality, relationship skills, and of course safe-sex and HIV and AIDS. I think since I'm a female and their all females, it will a great chance for the students to ask me questions that they aren't necessarily comfortable asking other Tanzanians. There will also be an anonymous Q & A box. Then the best 5 girls from the club will be invited to the conference.

The second exciting part of the conference is that I met up with one of the other volunteers who is going home. She has 3 dogs. I am getting one of them! His name is Orion. I know nothing about him. But I am super excited.

It's very nice to be around Americans, eat American food (I had a salad and icecream bar tonight!), go to bars, and speak some English, but to be honest I am very much look forward to going back to site- despite the stack of 150 physics and maths midterms that will be waiting for me! It's nice to get out, but I do miss everyone. I miss the students. I miss the teachers. I miss my own house and eating ugali and greeting everyone in the morning. And being around Americans is a little exhausting. American culture is a little exhausting. I like washing my feet, reading a book for an hour, and then going to bed at 9:30 pm. Trying to keep up with Americans who like to go to bars, is tiring. It's fun, once in a while. But I am definitely looking forward to returning to site, and returning to the calmness of my school and my routine. Especially now that I have a dog. maybe I can add a 5am run to my routine! We'll see.

Anyways, thats what's happening in Africa. I hape everyone at home is doing well and enjoying the beginning of spring. Happy late birthday Mommy, happy early birthday Danny, and Happy Easter to all! Eat an extra cadbury egg, drink some water straight from the faucet without boiling and filtering, speaking extra-fast English, watch some Family Guy and other incredibly American shows , and wear shorts that show your knees for me and remember that I miss you all and will be thinking about everyone!

Heri ya Pasaka kwa wote. Mungu akubariki!

Clubs, Labs, Midterms.

So every Monday night we have "subject clubs" at my school. During the subject clubs, students ask other students questions and try to solve problems. I switch up between going to the Math club and the Physics club. This week, I went to the physics club. One of the questions was about friction, which I just finished with my IIIA class. So one of my students stood up and answered the questions, full with explanation on Normal Force, vectors, and advantages and disadvantages of friction. She even pretended to slip when she said that without friction we wouldn't be able to walk. It was pretty awesome.

I held my first physics lab with my physics class yesterday. Despite being in the same laboratory space as the chemistry lab (which is equipped with battery acid and other nasty chemicals) no body got injured, we didn't start a fire, and we relatively successfully completed the lab. The students had never used a triple beam balance, so we learned how to do that and then how to use my calculator to get sin and cosine. They had a lot of fun.

Thats about all I've been up to. midterms are next week, but I will not be at school, so another teaching is supervising my class. Next week is "In-Service Training". We go to Iringa for 2 weeks with a Tanzanian buddy to learn about HIV/AIDS, writing grants, and farming. It should be fun.

Hope all is well back in the states.

Hot puddles and Bat Caves

Last weekend, I met up with some other volunteers in Mbeya to start planning a girl's leadership conference that we'll be holding in May (exciting, isn't it?) Anyways, as part of the weekend we planned to hike to these hot springs that we've heard all about! So keep in mind that we're in Africa, so white people stick out, especially in large groups. We get off the dala, and are waiting for other people to join us when a guy comes up to us and tells us we need to get a letter from the village council in order to go to the hot springs. BS. Then he told us that the letter cost 50000 shillings - about $50. Total BS! So we just left and start hiking. About an hour later 3 guys catch up to us and tell us we need to pay! We ended up getting the price down yo 10000 shillings for all 12 of us, so it wasn't too bad. But the hot springs were literally warm puddles. Very unimpressive. The bat cave on the other hand, was very cool. It was worth it. Then this weekend, we hiked to a waterfall pretty close to me. It was really awesome.

So besides hiking, things are going well. Like I said, we're planning on girl's conference for early June. I'll bring 5 of my students to Mbeya town for a week, to meet with students from other schools all around the area. We're planning sessions like computer skills, HIV/AIDs awareness, leadership, study skills, team building, womens health: things like that. It should be a lot of fun. The tough part will be choosing which 5 girls to bring.

Teaching is going well. I gave my first math test last week. The grades ranged from 10%-98%. The average of one class was a 76% so I was pleased with that. The average of the other classes was around a 36%, which, unfortunately, is very average here. My physics class asked my to teach them and review material from Forms 1 and 2 on Tuesday and Thursday nights. I've been enjoying that. It's very relaxed and I have 3 hours, between 8pm and 11pm, to teach them and do problems without having to worry about time. They seem to enjoy it to. I think for my math classes, I'll have a once weekly, mandatory "problem" session during prep time (between 8pm and 11pm students are required to be in the classroom studying). I'll hopefully start that soon.

I've finally started figuring out my student's schedule. It's ridiculous. The wake up every morning at 6 am to do school cleanliness, except Monday's and Thursdays when they wake up at 5:30 for mchakamchaka - running. Then they are in the classrooms from 7 am - 2 pm with a 40 minute chai break at 10 am. 2pm-3pm is lunch. Except for Mondays, which is clubs, students then have to be in the classroom from 3pm - 5pm studying during what is known as "remedial time". Then from 5 - 8pm they have some free time and dinner. 8pm - 11 pm is prep time. Then they are done. And have to be up the next morning at 6 am. Isn't that crazy, they are so busy. Except for Tuesdays and Thursdays when I am teaching until 11, I am usually in bed by 10 and up at 6:30. I get like 2 and a half hours more sleep then them and have a lot less to do during the day. Crazy.

But my time on the internet is almost up. I hope everyone is doing well and the cold weather hasn't bogged you down too much!

The Moment You Have All Been Waiting For...

PICTURES:

Go here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2389169&id=9119874&l=41e70cadef

I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoyed taking them. Actually, I did not take a lot of them. I have realized that the best way to get photos is to let one of the kids borrow the camera for a little while. 20 minutes later, you have 200 photos. Sweet.

A WHAT bit your hear?

So I am getting more and more confident with Swahili every day. And, of course, you all know that I'm an exceptionally classy human being. Both that confidence and that classiness took a serious blow the other day...

The other day, my 13 old neighbor came over the other day to braid my hair and to talk and to visit. After she finished braiding my hair, I was scratching my hear and she asked me (keep in mind, this is all in swahili), "are you trying to undo the braids". I wasn't trying to undo the braids, but my head was itchy. It was itchy because I hadn't washed my hair in 2 days. But I didn't think I needed to tell her this so I lied and said "my head is itchy because an mboo bit it". I was trying to say a mosquitobiyt it. Mbu means mosquito, but my neighbor just stared at me, obviously in shock. Apparently, it is very important to annunciate and say mbu because mbu and mboo mean two very different things. So, long story short: I just told a 13 year old girl that my head was itchy because a penis bit it. Classy Katie, classy. Now I know the difference between mboo and mbu. And I won't make that mistake again. I'm an idiot. Hopefully the girl understands my mistake, and doesn't think I'm this crazy weird American.

So for all of you who are anxiously waiting for pictures, good news is that I have many to post: from the Form 1 welcome dance and from my site. Bad news: internet cafe is down today and I'm using my friends modem internet, but since he needs to pay for internet by the byte, it's super expensive to post pictures, so I'm not going to post them today. Hopefully Tuesday, but this is Africa, no guarantees. Sorry.

Other than that, things are going well. Teaching is going. Slowly and surely. My students are a lot of fun, I've gotten someone to teach me how to cook, which is great. I'll come home and make everyone ugali...the traditional Tanzanian food: cornstarch and water. Yummy. Besides the occasional social faux-pais, my Swahili is improving. So things are good! Miss you all. Hopefully there will be some pictures up on Facebook by Tuesday, but we'll see!

Men with Fish

Story #1 - So I was on the daladala today heading into Tukuyu. I was standing because there were no seats left. A man in the front, sitting next to the driver, started talking to me. By talking, I really mean, yelling across the dala so that I could hear him. I told him my name was Megan (my Tanzanian alias when I don't want to give people my real name) and that I was coming from Kyela (where I say I teach when I don't want people to know where I live) and we went through all the formalities of introductions in Tanzania- still yelling across the dala. He was a nice guy. We had a good conversation. When I went to get off the dala he was like "oh wait, let me give you a fish." At first, I couldn't really connect the Swahili words together and asked him to repeat it. "Let me give you a fish. Do you eat fish?" Afraid that taking a fish from a Tanzanian is the same as accepting a marriage proposal, I politely denied. But I thought it was funnny, in America, would you ever offer to give a random stranger a fish? Ps- the fish here aren't your nice slabs of salmon we see in the States. It's a dried, whole fish - eyes and all, tons of bones, and not very yummy. It's like saying "hey, you're me new friend, let me give you a can of sardines". That's pretty normal here. It made me laugh.

Story #2: Last night I went down to the basketball court at school because I heard people bouncing a ball and I was bored. So there were 5 guys just shooting around. Me, making 6 people, allowed them to play a 3 on 3 game, so they invited me to play. I said yes. So imagine this picture: 5 Tanzanian dudes and 1 white girl. Nobody took me seriously. We played seven games of seven. My team won 5 of them. I scored 3-6 of the points in every game. By the end, one of the guys on the other team just kept yelling, "don't let the mzungu get a basket". It was funny because they were so shocked that a white GIRL could beat them at basketball. It was funny and tt was a little of an ego boost too. It was a lot of fun and it was great to get some exercise.

So enough of the stories, and some of the facts. I actually started teaching this past week. A lot more students have showed up, but still not all. I am supposed to have 3 streams of math and 1 stream of physics. Math is going great. The students are starting to be a little more willing to answer m questions, and more importantly are starting to ask their own questions once in a while, which is good. Like I said, I normally teach 3 streams, IIIA, IIIB, and IIIC. On Wednesday, I walked into my IIIC class and there were no desks or charis or students. So I went to the second master and asked what the heck happened to my class. He had no idea. So I went to the Academic mistress. She said she consolidated the IIIC class into IIIA and IIIB but "just for this week" because there still weren't a lot of students in the classes.. WHAT! It's Wednesday! Is it really worth emptying out an entire classroom for 2 days. Apparently. Anyways, that wouldn't have been too big of a deal, but all three classes were at different lessons. So I had to go back and review starting from the second lesson. But, hopefully the students understand well, since many of them were taught the same lesson more that once.

So that's about it. Still no pictures, although I do have a camera. Hopefully next post. But no guarantees. Hope everyone is enjoying the snow and the cold. Go sledding and build a snowman for me!

Teaching

So school opened monday, January 10th. I was expecting to start teaching Monday January 10. As of yesterday, Friday, 20 of the 90 or so form 3 students had arrived to school. On of my classes only had 6 of the 32 students. Once all the students arrive, it'll be a bit tough. I only count 18 desks in the room. I gave them a quiz. The mean was a 58, with the lowest score being a 21. The highest was a 95! What that means...I'm going to have a tough year teaching Form 3 math and physics, when the students don't understand Form 1 physics. I will make so. All of my students seem very nice and I am really excited to have the students back and to be starting work!

Slowly, I am learning the school rules, learning what is expected of me, and learning the school schedule. Some of the more important school rules, as far as I can gather are: polish your shoes everyday, wash your shirt. Being on time isn't quite as important as polished shoes. I feel like an mshamba (redneck) because I haven't polished my shoes since I've been here. I need to get some shoe polish. I have, right now, 21 periods a week, but, according to the schedule, I am only teaching one of the streams physics, and I think I am supposed to be teaching all of Form 3 physics. So, when that glitch is fixed, I will be teaching 27 periods, which is a good amount. Enough to keep me busy without stressing me out.

So, the main purpose of this purpose was to give you my friend Andrew's blog. http://andrewshooktoafrica.blogspot.com Andrew is the closest volunteer to me and has also posted pictures on his blog! The last 5 or 6 are of my site, so you can see the view from my yard. Good news: I will be getting a camera sooner than expected, so hopefullly will be able to start posting pictures. Enjoy the pictures. Maybe next post, i'll be able to post some of my own!



Next week, I am actually going to start teaching (with or without students)

Christmas. New Years.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years everyone! My first holiday season away from home was very nice. I went to Mbeya town to spend some time with some of the volunteers from that area, and the kid's that they work with. There was a Christmas tree, stockings, we sang Christmas carols, and Christmas morning the kids got to open up presents. It even rained all day so the "weather outside (was) dreary)". We stuck around Mbeya for a few days after that, waiting for banks to open.

I returned to site for New Years. Andrew(the volunteer who lives closest to me) and I cooked brownies (and ate them all in one sitting!) and bean burgers, watched 28 Days Later, played cards, then I went to bed at about 12:02. It was a crazy evening.

I start teaching next Monday. My mkuu has been in Dar for the majority of the break so I still do not know my schedule or my responsibilities as a "class master" and "dorm headmistress". I still have a week, I'm sure I'll figure it out. I've written and typed up my pre-class exams, but just asked, and to print the tests and then photocopy enough for all the students will be about the equivalent of $25, 1/8 of my monthly living allowance. I'll have to ask my headmistress what to do.

Things at site are going really well. I've made several friends (two of whom I can't walk by without giving them a high-five, low-five combo). That's pretty much all I have for now. Things have been pretty uneventful and I've been adjusting to my site more and more everyday. Give me a week, once school starts and students return, and I'll have a lot more to say, I am sure.

I hope everyone had just as a relaxing holiday season as I did!