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!