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!

Public Transportation Makes Me Cranky

So, I live about a 10 minute daladala ride from Tukuyu. It took me 45 minutes today to get to Tukuyu. Argh. And during that 45 minutes, I had to argue with the driver about the price of the fare (he tried to charge me 1000 Ts /=, the fare is 500/=...and it's weird, even as I was arguing with him, I felt ridiculous - I was arguing about less than 50 cents. But it's the principle of it.), fend off people asking me for money (because, I'm a mzungu, I must be rich), fend off men hitting on me, and try to pretend not to be totally miserable. But after 45 minutes, I reached my destination. I am dreading going back...

Other than that, things are going well. I spent last weekend at Matema Beach (Lake Malawi) with Theo, Kate, Deb, and 5 of the kids from the Olive Branch. The Olive Branch is an NGO that takes care of orphans. I am not calling it an orphange, because it is not. There are a total of 14 kids, and they're much more like a family than an orphanage. All the kids were great. Many of them had never been to a beach before, so it was really fun to watch them swim and play in the sand...and get to be kids. Not to mention, it was really fun to be on Lake Nyasa with my friends and get to go swimming and WEAR PANTS! It was really gorgeous. Unfortunately my replacement camera broke, so there are no pictures. You'll have to take my word for it. Good news is that I should be getting my camera (the one that was stolen was found!) back in February.

Things are going really well at site. I am making some friends, and learning some Swahili. I had about a half hour argument (mind you, mostly in Swahili - some English words thrown in) yesterday with two of the teachers about how they thought I was damned to hell because I didn't think drinking beer was wrong, if done in moderation. They insisted that I never drank again becaue the bible says you shouldnt. I tried to explain that I don't think the bible should be interpretted totally literally and that you need to find the message behind the words. So, I thought the bible meant that you shouldn't drink in excess and since I don't, hamna shida. But they disagreed thoroughly, so I brought up the example of how the bible says that the sun moves across the earth. And this is obviously untrue. The sun is stationary, and the earth moves. At which point they told me I was being to scientific, and that I should never ever have even 1 beer. I changed the subject. But, no harm done...they made me dinner last night!

I hear that the snow has finally arrived back in the states! That's fun. I hope everyone is staying warm and having a great holiday season!

Home Sweet Home

So, after a 15 hour bus ride on Thanksgiving, I have arrived safely at my site. I live within the school compound, at my all-girls boarding school. Everyone, so far, has been super nice. They've fed me when I've had no food (or when I've been too incompetent to light my charcoal jiko- you'll be glad to know that i've bought hot plates), they've given me gifts of a plunger and a trash basket (very important household items), and they've really just been super nice. My house is cute: three rooms and an outside kitchen, and has electricity and running water most of the time. Within the school grounds are tons of banana and mango trees, cows, chickens, pigs, pumpkins. I also live in the mountains, so the view from my house is amazing. I look out and see green farm land that eventually becomes green mountains and when a storms coming, I can watch it travel over the mountains. It's really very quaint. And, for those who worry, it's very safe. I have lots of neighbors, a big wall around the school, and a night watchman.

Last Friday, was my first day at the school, and the last day that the students were at the school before their break. It was nice because I got to briefly meet the students and introduce myself at the morning assembly. Some of the students showed me around the compound after classes and then at night, there was a talent show. That was really fun to watch. Students dance, sang, prayed. All sorts of things. Then they invited me to give a speech. AHH. PS- the English proficiency at my school is pretty low from what I've gathered. So this speech was in Kiswahili. My speech went something like this : "I am very happy to be here. You have welcomed me nicely. I hope you have a good rest time. And I will be happy to teach you when you come back" But imagine that with tons of grammatical mistakes. Nice Katie, great first impression! That's ok, I tried. I am going to learn Swahili very quickly, because no one speaks English. Which is good.

So, I've already gotten my assignment for next year. I will be teach form 3 (junior) physics and math. I will be the headmistress of form 1B and the headmistress of one of the dorms. I have no idea what those responsibilities entail. I guess, I'll find out. Right now, since classes don't start again until January, I am just hanging out, getting to know the other teachers, making my house a home, trying to learn how to cook, and playing games with the little kids around the school.

That's about all that has been on. I still do not have my mailing address, but email me if you want it: catherineannmartin1@gmail.com. I am not going to post it publicly on here, under the advice of the Peace Corps. But I'd be more than happy to send it to people. Miss you all!