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.