August 27th
This week has been filled with learning experiences and I hope to share a few with you. First, and most important, always ask if water is boiled before you drink it. Do not assume that a family drinks boiled water. Second, don’t assign 150 students an assignment due on the same day. Third, if it isn’t rape than the gentleman is someone learning your preferences.
Last night, Lindsay and I decided to say hello to Mr. Mbughi. He called me as I was watching a soccer game but I could not understand what he was saying. Instead of trying to decipher him over the phone, I thought an appearance at his house may be easier. Lindsay decided to join me. She left for the weekend for Mbeya and wanted to say goodbye because she knew he would be angry with her. She promised to stop by his house during the week but he was never home when she did. We sat for about three hours chatting away with him. The postmaster is a very interesting man and sometimes he can be very draining to be around. By the end of the night I couldn’t stop laughing. It was one of those laughs that are uncontrollable. I usually only get them when I am really tired. I was very tired last night but I also was completely drained of understanding anything that the postmaster was saying to us. At one point he said that Lindsay was going to marrying his son (a form 4 student) and he wouldn’t pay her anything. We informed him that in America a boy does not need to pay a girl’s family cows in order to marry him. He did not understand. He wanted Noeli (yes, that is an “i” at the end) to marry Lindsay so he didn’t have to pay anything. He also wanted us to buy him a car and send it from America. Other random thought were said but as I mentioned, I was very tired and had trouble deciphering all of the words that were spoken. Around 9 PM we were served dinner: banana with pig meat. I jumped at the chance to serve myself first. Due to my fast thinking, I received the best meat (without skin and fat attached). I took my plate into my lap while the other two served themselves. When Mr. Mbughi finished serving himself, he didn’t think I had enough meat and threw a big piece with skin and fat still attached on my plate which hit my lap and made it dirty pig meat. Lindsay got very bad portions of the meat and I laughed throughout the whole meal. At one point I couldn’t hold in the laughter any more as I saw her face right before she dug into the fat. Mr. Mbughi didn’t understand why I was laughing but the two of us just sat laughing together. Towards the end of the meal I stopped laughing when Mr. Mbughi announced that he is lucky because he doesn’t need to boil his drinking water. His drinking water that I had three cups of and the drinking water that I had the day I got sick for an entire week. And the drinking water that I had last weekend before I ran home and sat in the bathroom for the rest of the day! I told Philmore, the second headmaster, today and he thought it was the funniest story I ever told. He told me that I should always ask because most families don’t boil water here. Now, I have learned my lesson. I am concerned that I am not sick from last night though, is my body now immune or do I already have some kind of bacteria growing inside me?
Each week I teach only about 10 hours total. I teach form 4 on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I teach form 3 on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday. Every Friday, I have trouble getting through any material with form 3. Having two days off in the middle of the week makes them forget much of the material. It does not help that I teach them during the last period on Friday. On Wednesday and Thursday I went into their rooms during the tea break and gave them two problems to work on. When they are done, they are supposed to visit me in the staff lounge so I can check their work. During this week, I started teaching form 4 about book keeping. Each problem takes about 40 minutes or more to complete and so at the end of class I assign a problem and ask them to complete it and bring it to the staff lounge at some point in the day. By giving all of these assignments, I made myself extremely busy this week. I have two sections of form 3 that I teach which total over 100 students and then I have 45 students in form 4 that I also teach. Luckily, only about 20 students show up in my form 4 class each day so I don’t have many problems to check, but each problem is very long and so checking the problems takes a long time. I didn’t get much of a break on Wednesday and Thursday. The other teachers noticed it and kept apologizing to me throughout the day. I am glad to finally get the students to start asking me questions, but I should learn to space the problems out a little better. So that was the second lesson I learned this week.
One of the new student teachers from the University of Dar es Salaam, Anwilile, was the first student teacher to talk to Lindsay and I. And, he doesn’t stop talking to us. Some days he will just stand over me as I work and then after a few minutes ask me what I am doing. When I was sick two weeks ago, he really wanted Lindsay and I to visit his home. I refused because I was on a rice diet at that point and didn’t want to mess with my stomach, Lindsay went instead. This week was my turn to visit and Lindsay made some excuse so I went on my own on Wednesday afternoon. As we walked to his house (about 20 minutes) we had some very interesting conversations. We argued about whether hitting a student with a stick is a good way of punishment. His argument was that he teaches the form 1 students (8th grade equivalent) and after he introduces a topic he will go to class the next day and call on someone to say what they discussed the day before. The students don’t answer so he must hit them with a stick to remember, it is the only way. I explained that the students are scared of him and in a month they won’t remember a single thing he taught them. This was obviously not a good enough response and we went on arguing. I explained that after I introduce a topic I do an activity for the students to practice the problems on their own. I gave an example. He told me there is not enough time to teach and to do activities. He most recently discussed public services to his students. He gave them two examples (water works type person and I can’t remember his second) and then called on students to give examples, but none of them would answer so he hit them with a stick and then they started answering. I told him that maybe he should give his examples and then break the students into groups to discuss and come up with examples together to share with the class. I had a second suggestion as well but it is a lot longer and I don’t feel like typing it up, sorry! He was never satisfied so the arguing back and forth continued for most of the walk. When we arrived at his house I met his mom, sister, and 4 young siblings that were running around. After eating we sat outside with his mother. She spoke with Anwilile and then occasionally he would ask me a question or two. One of his questions was about the gentleman that knocked on my door a month ago and asked to have sex with me. He wanted to know how I knew the gentleman wanted to rape me. I told him that a man does not ask a woman to have sex if his intentions are to rape her. He didn’t understand. Instead, he asked me to recount the evening for him. I did and he suggested that the gentleman wanted to know my preference and winked at me while he said this. Perfect, now I know that if it isn’t rape then it is just a man wanting to know your preferences. After the conversation we went to visit his grandmother who was in a little, smoky hut on her death bed. She was able to get up and greet me but I think she has seen better days. She wanted to know if I had any medicine for her “cold” and I explained that I would give her some Vitamin C! She wanted the hard stuff though and declined. After about twenty minutes the grandmother had to go back to bed and so we went to feed the cows before heading home. When we reached my home he stayed for a half an hour waiting for Lindsay to arrive back from Isoko. I was very happy to see her again.
There you have it, three lessons I learned this week. Hope you enjoyed them!
Love,
Gretchen
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Saturday, August 27, 2011
army ants
August 22nd
I know I wrote rather recently, but I had an interesting weekend and needed to share it! As I mentioned in my previous blog, I spent Friday relaxing and resting my feet. At 4 AM Saturday morning I woke up to use the restroom. As I got back into bed something bit my ankle. I pulled my legs out from under my blankets and threw a bug off me and then my head started to itch! Something was biting my scalp and so I threw it off as well. At this point I was a little distraught and turned on my head lamp and started checking my sheets. I couldn’t find anything else so I put on socks, tucked my sweat pants into my socks, tucked in my shirt, threw a sweater on, and went back to bed. At 7:30 I got up again and went to use the bathroom. My roommate, Lindsay, left at 4:45 that morning to visit two volunteers in Isongole. When I went to use the bathroom I realized she did not fill the water bucket and so I went over to the faucet that is located in the corner of our compound. I stopped dead in my tracks…army ants everywhere! Thousands of them swarmed around the water faucet with their pinchers ready to attack and attack they did. I couldn’t return to bed after seeing them because they managed to climb all over my body. At one point I thought they were all off and then felt one biting me on my stomach to find it in my belly button! I was starting a tutorial at 9 AM that morning for my form 4 students and I couldn’t be late but now I had a serious problem to deal with. My first thought was to wash the ants back down the holes they made in the ground. The trouble was that I could not reach the faucet. I took a chair out and climbed onto it to reach the faucet. The plan didn’t work for too long as the ants started climbing up the chair and they are fast! I did the best I could for the time and decided to eat my breakfast, go to school, and then deal with the ants when I returned in the afternoon.
For three and a half hours I stayed at school to tutor my form four students. Most of them stayed for two and a half hours which I was pleasantly surprised about. I have been preparing practice math questions for them so they sat and worked on the problems and asked me questions throughout. I had 19 students during the peak hours. After the tutorial, Philmore (the second headmaster) escorted me home to help with my ant problems. As we walked I vividly explained the situation at my home. He laughed and didn’t really understand what I was talking about. We arrived at my home to find maybe one hundred ants left! They hid from the sun! Philmore kept saying how there were too many ants, he has no idea! There were thousands when I was confronted with that that morning. He helped me clean the ground a bit and then we threw a mix of water and salt all over and then a mix of soap and water. By the time he left there were a few ants still wandering around but I knew they would be back. Lindsay made popcorn the other day and burnt most of the kernels. When she threw the kernels down by the faucet we didn’t expect the ants would be soooooo attracted to them. No more kernels can be found now, I got rid of them! I got rid of everything that was old in the house. For five hours I cleaned in and out hoping the ants would not return! And they didn’t, until the sun set…
Around 7 PM each night it starts to get dark outside. I went out to wash my dishes from dinner when I came across a couple of hundred of the army ants! There clearly weren’t as many as the previous night but I was not taking mercy on their lower numbers. I decided on the kerosene approach. I sprinkled a bit of kerosene in about a half dozen ant holes, sprinkled some in the door way to the house and then hid in the safety of my room. A half an hour later I returned to find a few walking about but wasn’t too worried and slept peacefully that night. I almost slept through church which doesn’t start until 10 AM. I obviously was still tired from my week of activities. I guess the kerosene worked because the ants have not been back since!
I have been attending church every Sunday I have lived in Kafule but have yet to see the postmaster attend. Every Tuesday and Thursday he is at the church practicing with the choir/dance group, but I have yet to see him actually at church. He is full of so much energy so it is always fun to be around him. Yesterday he was in church which made me very happy. At one point he broke out in a solo with the choir acting as his backup. After church he invited me to his house. This has been my first invite after church so I see this as a stepping stone that I am finally being included within the community. Along with his invite, I received two more invitations. I usually go over to the postmaster’s house at least once a week and hang out with his family but due to the funeral I had not seen them. They were very excited to see me. First, we took a walk to the pastor’s house to retrieve a generator. We stayed for a half an hour so I could be fed and then we were back to the postmaster’s house. Mr. Mbughi and his family hooked up a television and stereo to this generator and for hours we listened to Tanzanian pop music. The CD went into the stereo and then a video showed up on the television. After the CD was through we switched to a cassette and the entire family got up to dance, me included. Neighbors came by and joined us,;it was one of my favorite days so far in Tanzania. We just enjoyed the music and didn’t care about anything. Unfortunately, my phone died (not my phone, just my battery—I said my phone died to Mr. Mbughi and he wanted to know who killed it…) and we only have one house key so I was worried Lindsay was locked out. I left the dance party early and finished cleaning my clothes at home while I waited for Lindsay. Once she returned I finished up things for school then headed back to the postmaster’s house. He wanted me to return after Lindsay arrived home so I went back to find him at church practicing with the choir. For an hour and a half I sat and watched and played with some of the kids. After practice I headed home and prepared for school today.
School today was mostly normal. We did have a visit from two representatives from the Moravian Church in Germany. With only two classes to go they showed up to do a skit about how it is wrong to bow down to shrines. It was pretty entertaining and the kids loved it! The elder of the two Germans spoke a little Swahili for the students and they loved it. I found out later that she memorized a ten line blurb for the skit so she doesn’t actually know Swahili! The other teachers made fun of Lindsay and I because she knew more than we did though…sooooo not fair!
I need to go prepare for tomorrow, good night!!
Love,
Gretchen
I know I wrote rather recently, but I had an interesting weekend and needed to share it! As I mentioned in my previous blog, I spent Friday relaxing and resting my feet. At 4 AM Saturday morning I woke up to use the restroom. As I got back into bed something bit my ankle. I pulled my legs out from under my blankets and threw a bug off me and then my head started to itch! Something was biting my scalp and so I threw it off as well. At this point I was a little distraught and turned on my head lamp and started checking my sheets. I couldn’t find anything else so I put on socks, tucked my sweat pants into my socks, tucked in my shirt, threw a sweater on, and went back to bed. At 7:30 I got up again and went to use the bathroom. My roommate, Lindsay, left at 4:45 that morning to visit two volunteers in Isongole. When I went to use the bathroom I realized she did not fill the water bucket and so I went over to the faucet that is located in the corner of our compound. I stopped dead in my tracks…army ants everywhere! Thousands of them swarmed around the water faucet with their pinchers ready to attack and attack they did. I couldn’t return to bed after seeing them because they managed to climb all over my body. At one point I thought they were all off and then felt one biting me on my stomach to find it in my belly button! I was starting a tutorial at 9 AM that morning for my form 4 students and I couldn’t be late but now I had a serious problem to deal with. My first thought was to wash the ants back down the holes they made in the ground. The trouble was that I could not reach the faucet. I took a chair out and climbed onto it to reach the faucet. The plan didn’t work for too long as the ants started climbing up the chair and they are fast! I did the best I could for the time and decided to eat my breakfast, go to school, and then deal with the ants when I returned in the afternoon.
For three and a half hours I stayed at school to tutor my form four students. Most of them stayed for two and a half hours which I was pleasantly surprised about. I have been preparing practice math questions for them so they sat and worked on the problems and asked me questions throughout. I had 19 students during the peak hours. After the tutorial, Philmore (the second headmaster) escorted me home to help with my ant problems. As we walked I vividly explained the situation at my home. He laughed and didn’t really understand what I was talking about. We arrived at my home to find maybe one hundred ants left! They hid from the sun! Philmore kept saying how there were too many ants, he has no idea! There were thousands when I was confronted with that that morning. He helped me clean the ground a bit and then we threw a mix of water and salt all over and then a mix of soap and water. By the time he left there were a few ants still wandering around but I knew they would be back. Lindsay made popcorn the other day and burnt most of the kernels. When she threw the kernels down by the faucet we didn’t expect the ants would be soooooo attracted to them. No more kernels can be found now, I got rid of them! I got rid of everything that was old in the house. For five hours I cleaned in and out hoping the ants would not return! And they didn’t, until the sun set…
Around 7 PM each night it starts to get dark outside. I went out to wash my dishes from dinner when I came across a couple of hundred of the army ants! There clearly weren’t as many as the previous night but I was not taking mercy on their lower numbers. I decided on the kerosene approach. I sprinkled a bit of kerosene in about a half dozen ant holes, sprinkled some in the door way to the house and then hid in the safety of my room. A half an hour later I returned to find a few walking about but wasn’t too worried and slept peacefully that night. I almost slept through church which doesn’t start until 10 AM. I obviously was still tired from my week of activities. I guess the kerosene worked because the ants have not been back since!
I have been attending church every Sunday I have lived in Kafule but have yet to see the postmaster attend. Every Tuesday and Thursday he is at the church practicing with the choir/dance group, but I have yet to see him actually at church. He is full of so much energy so it is always fun to be around him. Yesterday he was in church which made me very happy. At one point he broke out in a solo with the choir acting as his backup. After church he invited me to his house. This has been my first invite after church so I see this as a stepping stone that I am finally being included within the community. Along with his invite, I received two more invitations. I usually go over to the postmaster’s house at least once a week and hang out with his family but due to the funeral I had not seen them. They were very excited to see me. First, we took a walk to the pastor’s house to retrieve a generator. We stayed for a half an hour so I could be fed and then we were back to the postmaster’s house. Mr. Mbughi and his family hooked up a television and stereo to this generator and for hours we listened to Tanzanian pop music. The CD went into the stereo and then a video showed up on the television. After the CD was through we switched to a cassette and the entire family got up to dance, me included. Neighbors came by and joined us,;it was one of my favorite days so far in Tanzania. We just enjoyed the music and didn’t care about anything. Unfortunately, my phone died (not my phone, just my battery—I said my phone died to Mr. Mbughi and he wanted to know who killed it…) and we only have one house key so I was worried Lindsay was locked out. I left the dance party early and finished cleaning my clothes at home while I waited for Lindsay. Once she returned I finished up things for school then headed back to the postmaster’s house. He wanted me to return after Lindsay arrived home so I went back to find him at church practicing with the choir. For an hour and a half I sat and watched and played with some of the kids. After practice I headed home and prepared for school today.
School today was mostly normal. We did have a visit from two representatives from the Moravian Church in Germany. With only two classes to go they showed up to do a skit about how it is wrong to bow down to shrines. It was pretty entertaining and the kids loved it! The elder of the two Germans spoke a little Swahili for the students and they loved it. I found out later that she memorized a ten line blurb for the skit so she doesn’t actually know Swahili! The other teachers made fun of Lindsay and I because she knew more than we did though…sooooo not fair!
I need to go prepare for tomorrow, good night!!
Love,
Gretchen
Monday, August 22, 2011
Mr. Happy
August 19th
On Wednesday we walked to school at our normal hour. We weren’t entirely sure as to what the day would entail. I didn’t want to miss teaching my morning class and hoped the funeral would be later in the day. When I returned from my class at 9 AM Lindsay informed me that she received a phone call and that the funeral was at 10 AM. That gave us an hour to walk to Isoko which would be perfect timing. After discussing it with the headmaster we headed into town. When we arrived in Isoko we took the short cut to the church. No one was around. We thought it was a little odd and figured that maybe the service did not start yet. We walked back into town and ran into a friend who directed us to the house of Happy’s uncle which we went to on the previous day. As we approached we realized that there were not as many people as the previous day and that confused us that much more. Luckily, we found our friend who we call “the pastor” and he sat us down and introduced us to various people. The funeral was supposed to begin at 10, but the coffin that the carpenter built was too small so another one had to be built. We were told the funeral should start in a couple of hours.
For a little over two hours we sat and waited and attempted conversation with the men sitting around us. Since Happy worked for the government he had many friends throughout Tanzania. His close friend, a member of parliament, was returning home from Dar es Salaam for the funeral that day. Everyone was waiting in anticipation for the man’s arrival. Around 12:30 the hospital Land Rover approached the house. A group of four men in the back of the vehicle worked together to unload the coffin and bring the body inside the home. Everyone was hysterical. Inside the home, family and friends sat around and said their final goodbyes to Happy. His eldest daughter, his wife, and mother were absolutely distraught. After about ten minutes the coffin came back outside and songs were led throughout the crowd of people. After the first song the crowd’s mood changed, they all became very silent and then a gentleman spoke. He informed them that the Member of Parliament had just arrived. The famous Mr. Kibona walked through the front of the house then into the back where we were standing. He raised his arms in greeting and the place went crazy. People were screaming and crying all around me. I even got a little misty eyed in the turn of events. After some time, a procession of people started to walk past the coffin on their way to the grave site for the service. The women were the first to leave followed closely by the men. During this procession the MP’s wife was so distraught that she fainted as she passed the coffin. The MP directed someone to move her to the side and we kept on walking. We first walked down the mountain into Isoko and then up another mountain to the church but we didn’t stop at the church, we kept on walking. Halfway down this second mountain we stopped and made seats in the woods around a hole in the group. I sat on a tree root a bit of a distance away not sure what to expect. After ten minutes the place was filled. There was nowhere else to sit unless you climbed up a tree. I had people surrounding me on all sides as we sat for two and a half hours watching the ceremony. One after another people went up to speak with a few songs sung in between. Then, we sat and watched the grave become filled with dirt. In one of the speeches Lindsay and I were called out and we had to wave our hands in recognition. I was a bit embarrassed but glad they didn’t ask me to walk to the front as is a typical request at Tanzanian gatherings.
When the service was complete it was well into the afternoon and Lindsay and I walked into town for food before returning to Kafule. The pastor found us at the “restaurant” and invited us to return to the uncles home to mourn with the family. I had plans with my students to play netball and so we said our goodbye’s and promised to return on Thursday. I didn’t want to leave school early on a third day in a row but saw no way around the promise. After returning home on Wednesday and playing net ball for two and a half hours I was exhausted. I only teach one class on Thursday mornings and was done rather early. Lindsay and I decided it would be better to walk to Isoko early in the day so we would not be stuck down there for the evening. When she completed teaching at 1 we started the journey (again) to Isoko. As soon as we entered the village we ran into the pastor and walked with him to the uncle’s house. Fewer people were present than on the previous days’. We walked around saying “pole sana” to all and then sat and waited. Happy’s wife was finally receiving food after not eating for two days and so we had to wait until she was finished. After an hour and a half we walked into the back room of the house to express our condolences before we headed home for the day. We didn’t reach home until 5:15 in which I was already exhausted. That, however, did not stop me from playing net ball with some of the students.
Today, I am tired and taking the day to relax. I taught only one class again today so I have much free time to put up my legs and read.
Love,
Gretchen
On Wednesday we walked to school at our normal hour. We weren’t entirely sure as to what the day would entail. I didn’t want to miss teaching my morning class and hoped the funeral would be later in the day. When I returned from my class at 9 AM Lindsay informed me that she received a phone call and that the funeral was at 10 AM. That gave us an hour to walk to Isoko which would be perfect timing. After discussing it with the headmaster we headed into town. When we arrived in Isoko we took the short cut to the church. No one was around. We thought it was a little odd and figured that maybe the service did not start yet. We walked back into town and ran into a friend who directed us to the house of Happy’s uncle which we went to on the previous day. As we approached we realized that there were not as many people as the previous day and that confused us that much more. Luckily, we found our friend who we call “the pastor” and he sat us down and introduced us to various people. The funeral was supposed to begin at 10, but the coffin that the carpenter built was too small so another one had to be built. We were told the funeral should start in a couple of hours.
For a little over two hours we sat and waited and attempted conversation with the men sitting around us. Since Happy worked for the government he had many friends throughout Tanzania. His close friend, a member of parliament, was returning home from Dar es Salaam for the funeral that day. Everyone was waiting in anticipation for the man’s arrival. Around 12:30 the hospital Land Rover approached the house. A group of four men in the back of the vehicle worked together to unload the coffin and bring the body inside the home. Everyone was hysterical. Inside the home, family and friends sat around and said their final goodbyes to Happy. His eldest daughter, his wife, and mother were absolutely distraught. After about ten minutes the coffin came back outside and songs were led throughout the crowd of people. After the first song the crowd’s mood changed, they all became very silent and then a gentleman spoke. He informed them that the Member of Parliament had just arrived. The famous Mr. Kibona walked through the front of the house then into the back where we were standing. He raised his arms in greeting and the place went crazy. People were screaming and crying all around me. I even got a little misty eyed in the turn of events. After some time, a procession of people started to walk past the coffin on their way to the grave site for the service. The women were the first to leave followed closely by the men. During this procession the MP’s wife was so distraught that she fainted as she passed the coffin. The MP directed someone to move her to the side and we kept on walking. We first walked down the mountain into Isoko and then up another mountain to the church but we didn’t stop at the church, we kept on walking. Halfway down this second mountain we stopped and made seats in the woods around a hole in the group. I sat on a tree root a bit of a distance away not sure what to expect. After ten minutes the place was filled. There was nowhere else to sit unless you climbed up a tree. I had people surrounding me on all sides as we sat for two and a half hours watching the ceremony. One after another people went up to speak with a few songs sung in between. Then, we sat and watched the grave become filled with dirt. In one of the speeches Lindsay and I were called out and we had to wave our hands in recognition. I was a bit embarrassed but glad they didn’t ask me to walk to the front as is a typical request at Tanzanian gatherings.
When the service was complete it was well into the afternoon and Lindsay and I walked into town for food before returning to Kafule. The pastor found us at the “restaurant” and invited us to return to the uncles home to mourn with the family. I had plans with my students to play netball and so we said our goodbye’s and promised to return on Thursday. I didn’t want to leave school early on a third day in a row but saw no way around the promise. After returning home on Wednesday and playing net ball for two and a half hours I was exhausted. I only teach one class on Thursday mornings and was done rather early. Lindsay and I decided it would be better to walk to Isoko early in the day so we would not be stuck down there for the evening. When she completed teaching at 1 we started the journey (again) to Isoko. As soon as we entered the village we ran into the pastor and walked with him to the uncle’s house. Fewer people were present than on the previous days’. We walked around saying “pole sana” to all and then sat and waited. Happy’s wife was finally receiving food after not eating for two days and so we had to wait until she was finished. After an hour and a half we walked into the back room of the house to express our condolences before we headed home for the day. We didn’t reach home until 5:15 in which I was already exhausted. That, however, did not stop me from playing net ball with some of the students.
Today, I am tired and taking the day to relax. I taught only one class again today so I have much free time to put up my legs and read.
Love,
Gretchen
wali, wali, wali
August 16th
Last week consisted of a strict wali (rice) diet. My stomach had some serious problems. I started feeling much better after eating only rice. On Saturday I was feeling so much better that I planned on traveling to the market. I would have to first walk to Isoko (about 45 minutes) and then take a car up the mountain to the market (40 minute ride). Before I left for the market I stopped by the postmaster’s house to drop off some letters. He invited me in for food before my journey. I tried to back out of it to no avail. Since the previous Monday I have stayed away from eating at people’s homes. Unfortunately, I ate at Mr. Mbughi’s and my stomach rejected the food. I went home and rested for the remainder of the day…so much for the market. I am finally feeling better today-it just took me a week.
Since I wasn’t feeling well, I didn’t manage to walk too far away from the house all week or weekend. As soon as I would go for a walk I would find myself running back to my house. When you find yourself at home you tend to perfect the whole cooking technique, but I was too ill to think about food. Instead, I read a lot! On Wednesday, a group of students from Leeds University visited Kafule. They are in Tanzania through the nonprofit Read International. They came for a few hours to see the school. They wanted to see our facilities and take photos to bring back with them. They were very excited to see mzungus (white folk) and filled us in on world news. They will be back next week to bring about one thousand books for the students. They said they would bring a few novels for Lindsay and I if they are able to find any. We are on the verge of exhausting the novel section of the library so this is very good news.
On Sunday I spent the entire day hand washing my clothes. The faucet we have in the back of our compound is currently busted and only produces a trickle (this is when it is tied up, when we untie it our back yard floods). I walked back and forth up the mountain filling a bucket of water and then returning home to wash the clothes. I could have washed the clothes by the water spout, but the soap needs to soak into the clothes for a half an hour before it will work. I was happy to spend the day at home though as I greatly needed the rest for this week of classes. The only break I took outside my home was at church. A few of the new student teachers sat with me which was a nice change.
Yesterday I forgot to turn my phone on silent before classes began. During my first period I received a phone call (which I ignored) and then the phone rang again! I finally managed to turn off my phone but was greatly annoyed. The students thought it was funny. Tanzanians do not find it rude to answer their phones while teaching, but I do and I kept apologizing while the students giggled at me. After school I went for an hour and a half walk before heading over to netball. The girls were already playing a game and so I sat and watched for an hour before heading home. I arrived home from netball at 6:30 and didn’t shower until after 8. The coals just didn’t want to stay lit! By this time I wasn’t even hungry for dinner, I was ready for bed. Lindsay helped prepare a quick meal while I showered. At 9:30 I finally managed to get in bed and catch up on some e-mails before sleep. While reading my e-mail Lindsay received a text message that our friend Happy Simkonda passed away. We were in shock. Mr. Happy was one of the first people we met out here. He knows everyone. He is a member of parliament for the Mbeya region. He introduced us to a lot of people and assisted us with anything needed. He planned on taking me to a national park during our week holiday in September. We were shocked. He is in his early 40’s with three children and a wife. He was returning from a neighboring town yesterday morning when he suffered a stroke. He asked the driver to pull over. After spending some time in the bathroom someone went to check on him and found him dead inside. Death is very common out here and this was Lindsay and I’s first instance of it.
Today we attended some type of mourning ritual in Isoko. After teaching two classes, I walked down to the town with three other teachers. We were first asked if we wanted to view the body but we respectfully declined. We were then brought to Mr. Happy’s uncles home where approximately one hundred people were either sitting outside or inside the house mourning over the loss of their brother, uncle, son, cousin, father, husband, or friend. We were brought around to various individuals who we greeted with “pole sana” (very sorry). When we walked inside the home the floor was filled with women of all ages. As I walked around one woman broke out in tears. I found out later that it was Happy’s mother. After shaking hands with all these women we were escorted into a back room to meet his wife. She was delusional. As she sat on the bed various women were assisting to hold her up. Lindsay and I both sat on the bed and apologized. I asked if I could pray with her and I was brought outside and then brought in separately to pray. Obviously I spoke in English but she was genuinely grateful for it and looked me in the eyes and thanked me. This poor woman is now left to raise three young children in a foreign country. She is originally from Malawi and they moved to Isoko for his career. For almost an hour we sat outside watching people walk in and out of the house. We were told the funeral service has been postponed for tomorrow so we will return in the morning.
Time to go find some charcoal for cooking tonight!
Love,
Gretchen
Last week consisted of a strict wali (rice) diet. My stomach had some serious problems. I started feeling much better after eating only rice. On Saturday I was feeling so much better that I planned on traveling to the market. I would have to first walk to Isoko (about 45 minutes) and then take a car up the mountain to the market (40 minute ride). Before I left for the market I stopped by the postmaster’s house to drop off some letters. He invited me in for food before my journey. I tried to back out of it to no avail. Since the previous Monday I have stayed away from eating at people’s homes. Unfortunately, I ate at Mr. Mbughi’s and my stomach rejected the food. I went home and rested for the remainder of the day…so much for the market. I am finally feeling better today-it just took me a week.
Since I wasn’t feeling well, I didn’t manage to walk too far away from the house all week or weekend. As soon as I would go for a walk I would find myself running back to my house. When you find yourself at home you tend to perfect the whole cooking technique, but I was too ill to think about food. Instead, I read a lot! On Wednesday, a group of students from Leeds University visited Kafule. They are in Tanzania through the nonprofit Read International. They came for a few hours to see the school. They wanted to see our facilities and take photos to bring back with them. They were very excited to see mzungus (white folk) and filled us in on world news. They will be back next week to bring about one thousand books for the students. They said they would bring a few novels for Lindsay and I if they are able to find any. We are on the verge of exhausting the novel section of the library so this is very good news.
On Sunday I spent the entire day hand washing my clothes. The faucet we have in the back of our compound is currently busted and only produces a trickle (this is when it is tied up, when we untie it our back yard floods). I walked back and forth up the mountain filling a bucket of water and then returning home to wash the clothes. I could have washed the clothes by the water spout, but the soap needs to soak into the clothes for a half an hour before it will work. I was happy to spend the day at home though as I greatly needed the rest for this week of classes. The only break I took outside my home was at church. A few of the new student teachers sat with me which was a nice change.
Yesterday I forgot to turn my phone on silent before classes began. During my first period I received a phone call (which I ignored) and then the phone rang again! I finally managed to turn off my phone but was greatly annoyed. The students thought it was funny. Tanzanians do not find it rude to answer their phones while teaching, but I do and I kept apologizing while the students giggled at me. After school I went for an hour and a half walk before heading over to netball. The girls were already playing a game and so I sat and watched for an hour before heading home. I arrived home from netball at 6:30 and didn’t shower until after 8. The coals just didn’t want to stay lit! By this time I wasn’t even hungry for dinner, I was ready for bed. Lindsay helped prepare a quick meal while I showered. At 9:30 I finally managed to get in bed and catch up on some e-mails before sleep. While reading my e-mail Lindsay received a text message that our friend Happy Simkonda passed away. We were in shock. Mr. Happy was one of the first people we met out here. He knows everyone. He is a member of parliament for the Mbeya region. He introduced us to a lot of people and assisted us with anything needed. He planned on taking me to a national park during our week holiday in September. We were shocked. He is in his early 40’s with three children and a wife. He was returning from a neighboring town yesterday morning when he suffered a stroke. He asked the driver to pull over. After spending some time in the bathroom someone went to check on him and found him dead inside. Death is very common out here and this was Lindsay and I’s first instance of it.
Today we attended some type of mourning ritual in Isoko. After teaching two classes, I walked down to the town with three other teachers. We were first asked if we wanted to view the body but we respectfully declined. We were then brought to Mr. Happy’s uncles home where approximately one hundred people were either sitting outside or inside the house mourning over the loss of their brother, uncle, son, cousin, father, husband, or friend. We were brought around to various individuals who we greeted with “pole sana” (very sorry). When we walked inside the home the floor was filled with women of all ages. As I walked around one woman broke out in tears. I found out later that it was Happy’s mother. After shaking hands with all these women we were escorted into a back room to meet his wife. She was delusional. As she sat on the bed various women were assisting to hold her up. Lindsay and I both sat on the bed and apologized. I asked if I could pray with her and I was brought outside and then brought in separately to pray. Obviously I spoke in English but she was genuinely grateful for it and looked me in the eyes and thanked me. This poor woman is now left to raise three young children in a foreign country. She is originally from Malawi and they moved to Isoko for his career. For almost an hour we sat outside watching people walk in and out of the house. We were told the funeral service has been postponed for tomorrow so we will return in the morning.
Time to go find some charcoal for cooking tonight!
Love,
Gretchen
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Tunduma
August 10th (part 2)
On Friday I was so excited to teach again. I hadn’t taught in two days and was becoming very bored at the school. I had two classes on Friday and felt like I could have gone for so much longer. Unfortunately, there are nine new teachers on campus and they all want to teach! After classes I went home and started packing my bag and cleaning my room. The academic master, Kassim, came by while I was in the middle of cleaning. Since I was busy, Lindsay joined him on a walk to Isoko. When I left to meet them a few hours later, I ran into a few of my students who live behind us. They invited me over for some food. Again, you can’t turn down an invite so I walked into their home. They heated up some yams for me and I sat and ate alone. After finishing the first one I went to eat the second to find mold growing all over it. If I did not eat their food it would be entirely disrespectful. I tore apart the yams as best I could and left the mold on the plate. My plate looked a mess. There were bits and pieces everywhere. As I was finishing eating they started bringing in more food. The food was covered up so I couldn’t make out what else they were trying to feed me. I grew nervous. Since it was getting late I told them that I must go because I am meeting Madam Lucas in Isoko. They reluctantly let me leave and I was free but only briefly. As I walked by the postmasters’ house his daughter invited me inside. Now, I was stuck for the remainder of the night.
The church was performing their dances in Isoko throughout the weekend and I was invited to go watch. When I walked by the postmaster’s house they fed me some rice and beans before I left with Willy to walk to Isoko. We quickly found Lindsay and then walked up to the church together. No one was there. The dancing was supposed to start but no one was around. We waited a half an hour and then decided to start heading home. While Lindsay was in Isoko she investigated on the transportation to Tunduma. There was a bus departing at 5 AM the next morning that we were to take. The bus was to take us to Mpemba and then from Mpemba we were to catch a short bus to Tunduma.
At 4:30 Saturday morning Lindsay and I left our house. We walked to the main road and waited. She stood talking on her phone while I watched the stars. I managed to witness five shooting stars before the mini bus came to pick us up. Around 5:15 we started our journey. I slept most of the ride. It wasn’t the most comfortable transportation. The bus had seating for eleven people and at times there were numbers in the low 20’s on the bus. Some had their legs inside and sat in the window with their head and upper torso sticking out. Towards the end of the trip a woman sat next to me with a rooster in her basket. I didn’t notice it until I heard the noise. I almost jumped into Lindsay’s lap. The chicken wanted to fly away! His body was tied inside a plastic bag though so he wasn’t going anywhere. I was still a little freaked out and kept my eye on the chicken the rest of the ride. When we arrived in Mpemba we sat and waited for Lisa and Nicole. Lisa and Nicole are two volunteers who live in Isongole about two hours from our home. We were to meet in Mpemba because it was the last stop before Tunduma. Our drive took four and a half hours and their ride was supposed to take two. The busses were leaving at the same time yet we arrived well before them. Their bus broke down. Then as they were driving, a car driving in front of them fell into a ditch and their driver got out to help them. They had a rough start to their trip. Lindsay and I sat in a little restaurant having tea and chapatti as we waited for them. Of course we attracted many locals and never had a dull moment during that hour wait.
The short bus ride took us right in front of a few hotels in Tunduma. We checked out two different ones before we decided on one. For ten dollars we stayed in a fairly upscale hotel. After dropping off some luggage we set off for town. Tunduma is right on the border of Malawi so it is a very crowded town. Malawi’s official language is English though so we had many people to talk to. We had a lot of people following us around the streets as well. Lisa and I stayed together while Lindsay and Nicole stayed together. Lindsay and Nicole had two Malawian gentlemen show them around and Lisa and I were escorted by a Tanzanian woman. We told her what we were looking for and she brought us around to the appropriate shop or duka. She was very friendly. When we stopped to buy bread Lisa offered to buy her a loaf for helping us. Afterwards we wanted to depart but she wouldn’t leave us until we bought her a soda. Lisa ended up just giving her the money because we were tired and didn’t feel like sitting around with her all afternoon. We arrived back at the hotel and rested for a little while until Lindsay and Nicole arrived. The four of us went to the restaurant attached to the hotel for a late afternoon lunch around 3 o’clock. The food was outrageously expensive. Of course we were not told until after we ate how much we owed. We each bought chipsi mayai (French fry omelet) and sodas. A soda normally costs 500 Shillings, we paid 1000; chipsi mayai normally costs 1500 Shillings, we paid 5000. We weren’t too thrilled to pay such a price but had no other choice. After eating I returned to the room to shower and everyone else took a nap. After my shower Lindsay, Nicole, and I departed for another walk around town and Lisa stayed in to shower and sleep some more. We were gone for a total of two hours. We bought some kanga (fabric) and steel wool. After being followed and begged for money throughout our walk we finally returned back to the hotel.
For dinner that night we decided to stay away from the hotel as we didn’t want to pay an outrageous amount of money again. We went to a nearby restaurant and sat in the back of the building. We each received some vegetables and Lindsay ventured in the meat. After an hour and a half Lisa and I left to go to bed. Lindsay and Nicole came back to the hotel shortly after. They informed us that after we left,r the gentleman eating with us grabbed Lindsay’s butt. She decided it was time to go. The next morning we stayed in the rooms until checkout at 10 AM to charge our laptops. We bought a few more things before we decided to leave Tunduma. Shortly after noon we were back on a bus.
On Sunday night Lindsay and I stayed in Isongole with Lisa and Nicole. It was nice to see their house and some of the people that lived close by. Because they live at the school there aren’t many people living close by. They do have one neighbor who helps them with cooking who I was excited to meet. While Lindsay and Nicole walked to town Lisa and I stayed around the house. We spent some time on the soccer field kicking the ball around with her neighbors. We ended the night with a movie, Bridget Jones’ Diary, which I had never seen before. I was excited to watch a movie, it has been a long time.
On Monday we left the house at 10:30, walked to Isongole, and waited for the bus to Isoko. A little after twelve we were nineteen deep in the eleven passenger vehicle. I was squished. I did manage to sleep though which took my mind off of the conditions. When we arrived home around 3:30 I was very excited. I just wanted to stay low and go to bed early that night. Plans don’t always work out as you may want them. After unloading our bags we went to find the headmaster and give him our gift. We bought some random spices for him. We stayed with him for almost an hour catching up. He was excited that we were able to have a nice weekend away. As we were walking home we were invited to a house by a lady. We went in and were offered chicken and cooked banana. We didn’t realize we were paying for the food and accepted for it. Probably the worst mistake we have made here. After eating we left and headed home. The postmaster asked us to join him at his home for dinner and we ended up staying until well after 9 o’clock that night…so much for an early night. We had three courses of food while at his house. His family loves us and I am always happy to spend an evening with them. We brought them some cookies from our trip and they were thrilled.
Yesterday, I had class as normal. Two more teachers from the University of Dar es Salaam arrived. Now, there are 23 teachers at our school. Only 4 total teachers teach math, biology, chemistry, physics, and environmental science. I also found out that the form 4 students are continuing their exams all week so no class today or Thursday again. I decided to bring my laptop up to school today to update you on my life!
Oh and the chicken from Monday still isn’t settling in either Lindsay or I’s body. I just want it out of there!!! Blah!
Love,
Gretchen
On Friday I was so excited to teach again. I hadn’t taught in two days and was becoming very bored at the school. I had two classes on Friday and felt like I could have gone for so much longer. Unfortunately, there are nine new teachers on campus and they all want to teach! After classes I went home and started packing my bag and cleaning my room. The academic master, Kassim, came by while I was in the middle of cleaning. Since I was busy, Lindsay joined him on a walk to Isoko. When I left to meet them a few hours later, I ran into a few of my students who live behind us. They invited me over for some food. Again, you can’t turn down an invite so I walked into their home. They heated up some yams for me and I sat and ate alone. After finishing the first one I went to eat the second to find mold growing all over it. If I did not eat their food it would be entirely disrespectful. I tore apart the yams as best I could and left the mold on the plate. My plate looked a mess. There were bits and pieces everywhere. As I was finishing eating they started bringing in more food. The food was covered up so I couldn’t make out what else they were trying to feed me. I grew nervous. Since it was getting late I told them that I must go because I am meeting Madam Lucas in Isoko. They reluctantly let me leave and I was free but only briefly. As I walked by the postmasters’ house his daughter invited me inside. Now, I was stuck for the remainder of the night.
The church was performing their dances in Isoko throughout the weekend and I was invited to go watch. When I walked by the postmaster’s house they fed me some rice and beans before I left with Willy to walk to Isoko. We quickly found Lindsay and then walked up to the church together. No one was there. The dancing was supposed to start but no one was around. We waited a half an hour and then decided to start heading home. While Lindsay was in Isoko she investigated on the transportation to Tunduma. There was a bus departing at 5 AM the next morning that we were to take. The bus was to take us to Mpemba and then from Mpemba we were to catch a short bus to Tunduma.
At 4:30 Saturday morning Lindsay and I left our house. We walked to the main road and waited. She stood talking on her phone while I watched the stars. I managed to witness five shooting stars before the mini bus came to pick us up. Around 5:15 we started our journey. I slept most of the ride. It wasn’t the most comfortable transportation. The bus had seating for eleven people and at times there were numbers in the low 20’s on the bus. Some had their legs inside and sat in the window with their head and upper torso sticking out. Towards the end of the trip a woman sat next to me with a rooster in her basket. I didn’t notice it until I heard the noise. I almost jumped into Lindsay’s lap. The chicken wanted to fly away! His body was tied inside a plastic bag though so he wasn’t going anywhere. I was still a little freaked out and kept my eye on the chicken the rest of the ride. When we arrived in Mpemba we sat and waited for Lisa and Nicole. Lisa and Nicole are two volunteers who live in Isongole about two hours from our home. We were to meet in Mpemba because it was the last stop before Tunduma. Our drive took four and a half hours and their ride was supposed to take two. The busses were leaving at the same time yet we arrived well before them. Their bus broke down. Then as they were driving, a car driving in front of them fell into a ditch and their driver got out to help them. They had a rough start to their trip. Lindsay and I sat in a little restaurant having tea and chapatti as we waited for them. Of course we attracted many locals and never had a dull moment during that hour wait.
The short bus ride took us right in front of a few hotels in Tunduma. We checked out two different ones before we decided on one. For ten dollars we stayed in a fairly upscale hotel. After dropping off some luggage we set off for town. Tunduma is right on the border of Malawi so it is a very crowded town. Malawi’s official language is English though so we had many people to talk to. We had a lot of people following us around the streets as well. Lisa and I stayed together while Lindsay and Nicole stayed together. Lindsay and Nicole had two Malawian gentlemen show them around and Lisa and I were escorted by a Tanzanian woman. We told her what we were looking for and she brought us around to the appropriate shop or duka. She was very friendly. When we stopped to buy bread Lisa offered to buy her a loaf for helping us. Afterwards we wanted to depart but she wouldn’t leave us until we bought her a soda. Lisa ended up just giving her the money because we were tired and didn’t feel like sitting around with her all afternoon. We arrived back at the hotel and rested for a little while until Lindsay and Nicole arrived. The four of us went to the restaurant attached to the hotel for a late afternoon lunch around 3 o’clock. The food was outrageously expensive. Of course we were not told until after we ate how much we owed. We each bought chipsi mayai (French fry omelet) and sodas. A soda normally costs 500 Shillings, we paid 1000; chipsi mayai normally costs 1500 Shillings, we paid 5000. We weren’t too thrilled to pay such a price but had no other choice. After eating I returned to the room to shower and everyone else took a nap. After my shower Lindsay, Nicole, and I departed for another walk around town and Lisa stayed in to shower and sleep some more. We were gone for a total of two hours. We bought some kanga (fabric) and steel wool. After being followed and begged for money throughout our walk we finally returned back to the hotel.
For dinner that night we decided to stay away from the hotel as we didn’t want to pay an outrageous amount of money again. We went to a nearby restaurant and sat in the back of the building. We each received some vegetables and Lindsay ventured in the meat. After an hour and a half Lisa and I left to go to bed. Lindsay and Nicole came back to the hotel shortly after. They informed us that after we left,r the gentleman eating with us grabbed Lindsay’s butt. She decided it was time to go. The next morning we stayed in the rooms until checkout at 10 AM to charge our laptops. We bought a few more things before we decided to leave Tunduma. Shortly after noon we were back on a bus.
On Sunday night Lindsay and I stayed in Isongole with Lisa and Nicole. It was nice to see their house and some of the people that lived close by. Because they live at the school there aren’t many people living close by. They do have one neighbor who helps them with cooking who I was excited to meet. While Lindsay and Nicole walked to town Lisa and I stayed around the house. We spent some time on the soccer field kicking the ball around with her neighbors. We ended the night with a movie, Bridget Jones’ Diary, which I had never seen before. I was excited to watch a movie, it has been a long time.
On Monday we left the house at 10:30, walked to Isongole, and waited for the bus to Isoko. A little after twelve we were nineteen deep in the eleven passenger vehicle. I was squished. I did manage to sleep though which took my mind off of the conditions. When we arrived home around 3:30 I was very excited. I just wanted to stay low and go to bed early that night. Plans don’t always work out as you may want them. After unloading our bags we went to find the headmaster and give him our gift. We bought some random spices for him. We stayed with him for almost an hour catching up. He was excited that we were able to have a nice weekend away. As we were walking home we were invited to a house by a lady. We went in and were offered chicken and cooked banana. We didn’t realize we were paying for the food and accepted for it. Probably the worst mistake we have made here. After eating we left and headed home. The postmaster asked us to join him at his home for dinner and we ended up staying until well after 9 o’clock that night…so much for an early night. We had three courses of food while at his house. His family loves us and I am always happy to spend an evening with them. We brought them some cookies from our trip and they were thrilled.
Yesterday, I had class as normal. Two more teachers from the University of Dar es Salaam arrived. Now, there are 23 teachers at our school. Only 4 total teachers teach math, biology, chemistry, physics, and environmental science. I also found out that the form 4 students are continuing their exams all week so no class today or Thursday again. I decided to bring my laptop up to school today to update you on my life!
Oh and the chicken from Monday still isn’t settling in either Lindsay or I’s body. I just want it out of there!!! Blah!
Love,
Gretchen
walking and talking
August 10th
Happy belated birthday Stephanie! :)
Last Saturday Lindsay and I started our walk to the market much later than we initially planned. We didn’t leave our house until after 1 o’clock. We passed by the postmaster’s house on our way down the mountain and were called in for food. When you get called to someone’s house for food you can’t say no. We had both just eaten but couldn’t turn down that extra meal. We were told that we needed to eat more to have enough energy for the trip to the market. A half an hour later we started again. When we finally reached Isoko I stopped to use the restroom before we continued on our journey. I was excited for the hike up the mountain because I had eaten so much food that morning. As we were leaving the shop an old man approached me and informed me that there was a minibus that was traveling to the market and we must run to catch it. Fortunately, we didn’t have to run too far. The ride up to the market was scary. On an unpaved road up the mountain you slip and slide to no avail. You must dodge cows, goats, and people as you drive. Our driver had obviously undertaken this feat in the past as he drove without much trouble. The market was much bigger than anticipated. We were told it was big but we were also told the Isoko market was big and that consisted of two or three stalls. There was about a half a mile of road covered with random shops. It was a bit overwhelming as we walked through with every single person staring at us. We were celebrities in this tiny village. Some people had never seen a white person before. We walked through rather quickly and bought some oranges. We didn’t really need much else and we didn’t want our ride to leave us. When we originally got off the minibus a gentleman from the hospital told us to find him in one of the bars when we were done shopping. At first we had trouble finding him. He walked out of a building to greet us and escorted us into a tiny bar. We walked in to more stares. He introduced us and then the drinks started coming our way. I informed them quite quickly that I do not drink beer so I was given soda after soda. Lindsay kept getting beer. The beer bottles are much larger than Coca-Cola’s so she had a lot to drink. We were also given kitimoto (pig) with ndizi (fried banana). The food made us thirsty so we didn’t mind getting all the drinks. We stayed in that little bar for almost two hours before we finally left to go. The ride back down the mountain was quite uneventful. Once we reached Isoko we were told to stay in the bus. The bus drove us all the way back to our house. Our house is straight up the mountain which is very challenging for a vehicle, but we made it nonetheless. We stayed in the rest of the evening.
On Sunday I woke up, read, and then went to church. I was not informed that the church service was different but boy was I surprised. The church members owe dues on the last Sunday of the month and they typically have a guest preacher. The church service lasted four and a half hours!! Thirty minutes into the service a gentleman approached me to let me know that a seat in the front was reserved for me. I told him that was okay but he didn’t understand. While a lecturer kept talking in the front I was escorted up front next to the pastor where I remained for the rest of the service. I was deeply embarrassed as the church was filled more than ever before. Most of the speaking was done in Kindali, the tribal language, and so I didn’t understand what was going on. Parts of the service were very exciting. The guest preacher preached with such enthusiasm. I have no idea what he was saying but he got the crowd going and it was a lot of fun to watch. Then there were parts of the service which were just dreadful. The music director, if that is what you call him, asked the congregation for money for an hour!! He begged and pleaded and bothered people that they could give more. I guess someone has to do it but I really didn’t like watching it. It was also announced who paid their dues and how much they paid. When the service was finally over we stood outside in a circle while an auction went on. Each Sunday some families give crops instead of money for the pastor. At the end of the service there is an auction so those crops can turn into money. Luckily, there weren’t many crops and the auction was very short. I practically ran home after. I was hungry and tired. When I arrived home Lindsay was busy making chapatti (thin pancake) and I quickly got to work writing lesson plans for the remainder of the year.
On Monday, Lindsay and I had to turn in our “scheme of work” to the academic master. Originally we were under the impression that we must complete it for the month of August. On Friday when I went to turn in my “scheme of work” I was informed that I had to turn it in for the rest of the term. I put it off throughout the weekend mostly because I had other things to do. I also didn’t expect to be at church all afternoon. Until 10 PM that night Lindsay and I wrote up the documents. Luckily the “scheme of work” is very vague and you can copy from the syllabus most of what you need to write. I don’t consider it something that I will follow much. It did help me realize how little time I have left this term with my form 4 students. They graduate at the end of September and we still have much to cover.
Last week was very relaxing at school. The form 4 students were taking a mock examination all week so I did not teach on Wednesday or Thursday. I read a lot and prepared my notes for a study group I am starting in a few weeks. Throughout the week we kept getting more and more teachers. The University of Dar es Salaam sent nine teachers to come help for the next two months. They invaded the teacher’s lounge. One gentleman took Lindsay and I’s table which we were not too thrilled about. He even sat in between us and never once apologized! How rude. The new teachers are quite scared of us and don’t say much. Slowly they are loosening up to the fact that we aren’t monsters but I think it will take a while to have a conversation with any of them beyond hello and how are you.
On Tuesday I decided to go for a walk after school. As I passed the postmasters house, one of my students walked out from the bush in front of his house. Huruma is one of my form 3 students. She, along with six or seven other girls, live in a little compound connected to the postmasters home. She invited me into the house. She showed me her room. The room was extremely dark and all I could make out was the mosquito net on the bed. When we left her room all the other girls in the compound came out to look at me and giggle. Eventually I said I wanted to leave for a walk and Huruma decided to join me. I had no idea where I wanted to go. I just wanted to go for a walk. She was very confused by this. I just kept taking trails and she would tell me the village we were walking to. I have no idea what she said half the time. At one point we approached this farm. A lady from the church owned the farm and was so excited to see me. Again, I have no idea what she was saying and Huruma had a lot of trouble translating for me so we just stood there smiling at one another. For some reason the lady thought I wanted to buy lettuce from her. We walked through the fields until we reached the lettuce patch. She picked a whole bunch of lettuce and then I did my best to communicate that I had no money with me. I would return tomorrow to pay was the consensus. As we turned to leave we were invited inside her home where we were given freshly pulled from the earth peanuts. I said peanuts and they said no they are ground nuts. After about ten minutes of sitting we got up to depart again. We were given the lettuce, more ground nuts, and two eggs to take home with us. I had to return on Wednesday with 200 Shillings for the woman (approximately 14 cents). We walked back to my house and I said goodbye to Huruma and told her we would meet tomorrow.
After school on Wednesday I walked to the postmasters’ house and told Huruma she must return with me to pay the 200 Shillings. When we arrived the woman was so excited. I paid the two hundred Shillings and then I was brought inside once again to eat more ground nuts. When we went back outside they gave me sugarcane and laughed as I attempted to eat it. Tanzanians have much stronger teeth than me. As we left, she slipped two avocados into the basket which made me very happy. Huruma was to return the basket the next day. I think the lady didn’t want me to keep returning because she would feel obligated to give me more food. I didn’t want her to feel obligated so I let Huruma take the basket. I gave Huruma half of what I received and the rest of the sugarcane once we returned back to my home. I spent the rest of the evening cleaning and reading.
After school on Thursday I went for a walk. I started collecting some wildflowers when Lindsay called to see where I was. She received a call from the postmaster and he wanted us to visit. When he calls it is very challenging to understand what he says. Even in person it is a bit challenging. He talks very fast and it always seems like ten thoughts are trying to come out of his mouth at one time. We walked over to the house and all the girls greeted us and said we were welcome. I tried to ask where Bwana Mbughi was and they directed me inside the house. (Bwana means Mr.) When we entered we found his nephew who just graduated from university and so speaks very good English. He invited us inside the living room and we asked where Bwana Mbughi was. Of course, Mr. Mbughi was at church dancing because it was a Thursday. How could we forget!? Actually, the postmaster has told us numerous times how he goes to the church to dance every Tuesday and Thursday evening. We told him he must call so we can remember to come. We told him to call because we didn’t really want to go and thought he would forget to call us. He actually remembered and we were escorted by his nephew, Willy, to the church.
For a few hours we sat and watched the performance. It was all very exciting. Tanzanians love to dance and they were just jumping around in the front of the church. Lindsay and I sat in the back and watched. After practice we were invited forward to say hello. I said my name and that I love to dance. Everyone hooted and hollered and invited me to join them dancing any time. After the practice we were brought back to the postmasters’ house for dinner. Dinner is served pretty late in Tanzanian households so we were there late until the night. At 9:30 we walked into our house to hear the water in the back running. We walked out back to see the stop cock in the faucet broke and our back yard was flooded. We ran to stop the water with no avail. I went outside to turn off the water and that failed to work as well. We weren’t sure what to do and knew we couldn’t leave the water running all night. I called the headmaster. He didn’t pick up so I called the academic master. The academic master was flustered and not sure what was going on. I hung up with him and called the postmaster who sent his nephew to help. If we put pressure on the top of the faucet it would slow to a trickle. Willy called for Noel, his cousin, to bring some elastic. With the elastic band he tied up our faucet so that only a trickle of water came out. Moments later, our headmaster and academic master arrived and we showed them what happened. Our headmaster informed us that it was happening at many houses in the area. The water pressure is too strong for the stop cocks and he must buy us a new one. We were satisfied with the answer, said our goodbyes, and went to bed for the night.
On Friday we started our plans for the weekend away. Monday was a holiday and our first three day weekend was quickly approaching. I will fill you in on our weekend in Tunduma in part two!
Love,
Gretchen
Happy belated birthday Stephanie! :)
Last Saturday Lindsay and I started our walk to the market much later than we initially planned. We didn’t leave our house until after 1 o’clock. We passed by the postmaster’s house on our way down the mountain and were called in for food. When you get called to someone’s house for food you can’t say no. We had both just eaten but couldn’t turn down that extra meal. We were told that we needed to eat more to have enough energy for the trip to the market. A half an hour later we started again. When we finally reached Isoko I stopped to use the restroom before we continued on our journey. I was excited for the hike up the mountain because I had eaten so much food that morning. As we were leaving the shop an old man approached me and informed me that there was a minibus that was traveling to the market and we must run to catch it. Fortunately, we didn’t have to run too far. The ride up to the market was scary. On an unpaved road up the mountain you slip and slide to no avail. You must dodge cows, goats, and people as you drive. Our driver had obviously undertaken this feat in the past as he drove without much trouble. The market was much bigger than anticipated. We were told it was big but we were also told the Isoko market was big and that consisted of two or three stalls. There was about a half a mile of road covered with random shops. It was a bit overwhelming as we walked through with every single person staring at us. We were celebrities in this tiny village. Some people had never seen a white person before. We walked through rather quickly and bought some oranges. We didn’t really need much else and we didn’t want our ride to leave us. When we originally got off the minibus a gentleman from the hospital told us to find him in one of the bars when we were done shopping. At first we had trouble finding him. He walked out of a building to greet us and escorted us into a tiny bar. We walked in to more stares. He introduced us and then the drinks started coming our way. I informed them quite quickly that I do not drink beer so I was given soda after soda. Lindsay kept getting beer. The beer bottles are much larger than Coca-Cola’s so she had a lot to drink. We were also given kitimoto (pig) with ndizi (fried banana). The food made us thirsty so we didn’t mind getting all the drinks. We stayed in that little bar for almost two hours before we finally left to go. The ride back down the mountain was quite uneventful. Once we reached Isoko we were told to stay in the bus. The bus drove us all the way back to our house. Our house is straight up the mountain which is very challenging for a vehicle, but we made it nonetheless. We stayed in the rest of the evening.
On Sunday I woke up, read, and then went to church. I was not informed that the church service was different but boy was I surprised. The church members owe dues on the last Sunday of the month and they typically have a guest preacher. The church service lasted four and a half hours!! Thirty minutes into the service a gentleman approached me to let me know that a seat in the front was reserved for me. I told him that was okay but he didn’t understand. While a lecturer kept talking in the front I was escorted up front next to the pastor where I remained for the rest of the service. I was deeply embarrassed as the church was filled more than ever before. Most of the speaking was done in Kindali, the tribal language, and so I didn’t understand what was going on. Parts of the service were very exciting. The guest preacher preached with such enthusiasm. I have no idea what he was saying but he got the crowd going and it was a lot of fun to watch. Then there were parts of the service which were just dreadful. The music director, if that is what you call him, asked the congregation for money for an hour!! He begged and pleaded and bothered people that they could give more. I guess someone has to do it but I really didn’t like watching it. It was also announced who paid their dues and how much they paid. When the service was finally over we stood outside in a circle while an auction went on. Each Sunday some families give crops instead of money for the pastor. At the end of the service there is an auction so those crops can turn into money. Luckily, there weren’t many crops and the auction was very short. I practically ran home after. I was hungry and tired. When I arrived home Lindsay was busy making chapatti (thin pancake) and I quickly got to work writing lesson plans for the remainder of the year.
On Monday, Lindsay and I had to turn in our “scheme of work” to the academic master. Originally we were under the impression that we must complete it for the month of August. On Friday when I went to turn in my “scheme of work” I was informed that I had to turn it in for the rest of the term. I put it off throughout the weekend mostly because I had other things to do. I also didn’t expect to be at church all afternoon. Until 10 PM that night Lindsay and I wrote up the documents. Luckily the “scheme of work” is very vague and you can copy from the syllabus most of what you need to write. I don’t consider it something that I will follow much. It did help me realize how little time I have left this term with my form 4 students. They graduate at the end of September and we still have much to cover.
Last week was very relaxing at school. The form 4 students were taking a mock examination all week so I did not teach on Wednesday or Thursday. I read a lot and prepared my notes for a study group I am starting in a few weeks. Throughout the week we kept getting more and more teachers. The University of Dar es Salaam sent nine teachers to come help for the next two months. They invaded the teacher’s lounge. One gentleman took Lindsay and I’s table which we were not too thrilled about. He even sat in between us and never once apologized! How rude. The new teachers are quite scared of us and don’t say much. Slowly they are loosening up to the fact that we aren’t monsters but I think it will take a while to have a conversation with any of them beyond hello and how are you.
On Tuesday I decided to go for a walk after school. As I passed the postmasters house, one of my students walked out from the bush in front of his house. Huruma is one of my form 3 students. She, along with six or seven other girls, live in a little compound connected to the postmasters home. She invited me into the house. She showed me her room. The room was extremely dark and all I could make out was the mosquito net on the bed. When we left her room all the other girls in the compound came out to look at me and giggle. Eventually I said I wanted to leave for a walk and Huruma decided to join me. I had no idea where I wanted to go. I just wanted to go for a walk. She was very confused by this. I just kept taking trails and she would tell me the village we were walking to. I have no idea what she said half the time. At one point we approached this farm. A lady from the church owned the farm and was so excited to see me. Again, I have no idea what she was saying and Huruma had a lot of trouble translating for me so we just stood there smiling at one another. For some reason the lady thought I wanted to buy lettuce from her. We walked through the fields until we reached the lettuce patch. She picked a whole bunch of lettuce and then I did my best to communicate that I had no money with me. I would return tomorrow to pay was the consensus. As we turned to leave we were invited inside her home where we were given freshly pulled from the earth peanuts. I said peanuts and they said no they are ground nuts. After about ten minutes of sitting we got up to depart again. We were given the lettuce, more ground nuts, and two eggs to take home with us. I had to return on Wednesday with 200 Shillings for the woman (approximately 14 cents). We walked back to my house and I said goodbye to Huruma and told her we would meet tomorrow.
After school on Wednesday I walked to the postmasters’ house and told Huruma she must return with me to pay the 200 Shillings. When we arrived the woman was so excited. I paid the two hundred Shillings and then I was brought inside once again to eat more ground nuts. When we went back outside they gave me sugarcane and laughed as I attempted to eat it. Tanzanians have much stronger teeth than me. As we left, she slipped two avocados into the basket which made me very happy. Huruma was to return the basket the next day. I think the lady didn’t want me to keep returning because she would feel obligated to give me more food. I didn’t want her to feel obligated so I let Huruma take the basket. I gave Huruma half of what I received and the rest of the sugarcane once we returned back to my home. I spent the rest of the evening cleaning and reading.
After school on Thursday I went for a walk. I started collecting some wildflowers when Lindsay called to see where I was. She received a call from the postmaster and he wanted us to visit. When he calls it is very challenging to understand what he says. Even in person it is a bit challenging. He talks very fast and it always seems like ten thoughts are trying to come out of his mouth at one time. We walked over to the house and all the girls greeted us and said we were welcome. I tried to ask where Bwana Mbughi was and they directed me inside the house. (Bwana means Mr.) When we entered we found his nephew who just graduated from university and so speaks very good English. He invited us inside the living room and we asked where Bwana Mbughi was. Of course, Mr. Mbughi was at church dancing because it was a Thursday. How could we forget!? Actually, the postmaster has told us numerous times how he goes to the church to dance every Tuesday and Thursday evening. We told him he must call so we can remember to come. We told him to call because we didn’t really want to go and thought he would forget to call us. He actually remembered and we were escorted by his nephew, Willy, to the church.
For a few hours we sat and watched the performance. It was all very exciting. Tanzanians love to dance and they were just jumping around in the front of the church. Lindsay and I sat in the back and watched. After practice we were invited forward to say hello. I said my name and that I love to dance. Everyone hooted and hollered and invited me to join them dancing any time. After the practice we were brought back to the postmasters’ house for dinner. Dinner is served pretty late in Tanzanian households so we were there late until the night. At 9:30 we walked into our house to hear the water in the back running. We walked out back to see the stop cock in the faucet broke and our back yard was flooded. We ran to stop the water with no avail. I went outside to turn off the water and that failed to work as well. We weren’t sure what to do and knew we couldn’t leave the water running all night. I called the headmaster. He didn’t pick up so I called the academic master. The academic master was flustered and not sure what was going on. I hung up with him and called the postmaster who sent his nephew to help. If we put pressure on the top of the faucet it would slow to a trickle. Willy called for Noel, his cousin, to bring some elastic. With the elastic band he tied up our faucet so that only a trickle of water came out. Moments later, our headmaster and academic master arrived and we showed them what happened. Our headmaster informed us that it was happening at many houses in the area. The water pressure is too strong for the stop cocks and he must buy us a new one. We were satisfied with the answer, said our goodbyes, and went to bed for the night.
On Friday we started our plans for the weekend away. Monday was a holiday and our first three day weekend was quickly approaching. I will fill you in on our weekend in Tunduma in part two!
Love,
Gretchen
Sunday, August 7, 2011
mpira neti
July 30th
A week later and I hope to update you yet again. On Sunday after I updated my blog I had a very interesting evening. Since my computer died I walked up to the school to see if a teacher could plug in my computer to a generator. In front of the school I found Philmore and the headmaster talking. The headmaster just arrived back from Mbeya after being gone all week. While I chatted away with the headmaster Philmore took my computer to his house to charge. The headmaster and I started the walk back to our homes. We approached his house first and he invited me in to talk. I sat and talked with him for over an hour and then realized that I must get home as it was getting dark and I hadn’t started to cook yet. A little before 7 PM I arrived home and went into the back to start the charcoal grill. Just after I lit the grill a gentleman started yelling “Mzungu, mzungu!” outside my house. I went into the front and opened the door. I walked onto the porch and greeted the gentleman asking how he was and his name. I was so excited that I didn’t mess up my greetings. After I said it was nice meeting him he starts to point two fingers at his groin area. I thought he might have to use the bathroom so I said, “Choo?” And then he points at me and then him again and the door. I got the point and said “Oh no no no” and closed the door in his face and locked it. I was very overwhelmed, nervous, and upset that I was home alone. I called Ashley and asked her if this was a common incident and she said it had never happened to her but has heard of it happening to others. She asked me if there was anyone I could go stay with until Lindsay arrived home and I let her know that I only know the male teacher’s around here and I really didn’t want a male around. She told me to call my headmaster since I was just with him. I called Isaac and he came right over. A few minutes after I got off the phone with him there was a knock at my door. Since I was still very uneasy I asked who it was and the person only spoke Swahili back. I figured it could be the little 9 year old boy that comes over occasionally but I didn’t want to take my chances and didn’t answer back. Eventually the boy left and a minute later Isaac started knocking. I let him in and informed him of the situation. He was very upset and sorry and told me he was going to call the leaders from the area. He sat and got on his phone while I went to tend to my cooking. He eventually talked to many people and informed them of the information and they set up a meeting for all the people of the area the next morning.
Isaac was worried that I would be alone until late since we did not know when Lindsay was to arrive and started calling for the house girl again. Luckily, Lindsay arrived before the house girl and Love was told to stay home. That night Lindsay filled me in with her exciting trip to Mbeya as I filled her in with the tales of my weekend. I slept a little uneasy that night but knew that I would be safe. The next day at school it was announced that you are not to come by my house unless asked. I thought some of the students would ask what happened, but they must have already known because none of them asked me. After school on Monday I just relaxed at home and started cooking as soon as I arrived. We had yet to cook beans and since I know they take a long time I thought it would be good to start them. I ended up staying at the house all evening cooking. Around 4 PM we receive a knock on the door. Lindsay walks out to find about thirty of the community members and our headmaster. Our headmaster enters the house and informs us that the locals would like to enter and offer an apology to me. We quickly tidied up the house and told them to enter. The group decided to stay outside so we went out and one by one they apologized. They felt very bad. They hired a gentleman to sit as a guard outside our house from now on. Philmore came by at 5:30 to assist Lindsay and I with cooking chapatti. We didn’t realize how long it would take and he was at our house until close to 9 PM that night! We felt bad because he didn’t even stay to eat in the end. He said it was very late and he must return home.
On Tuesday after breakfast Lindsay came from her room and told me she wasn’t feeling well and was going to stay home for the day. She slept maybe a total of two hours all weekend and it caught up with her. I arrived to school and informed the academic master and he said he was very sorry. The rest of the day was very busy as I taught all of my classes. When I did have a break I realized that Lindsay was supposed to teach English to form three at that hour and that was to be my next class. I walked in and gave them a very difficult math problem and told them to try it. When I arrived later for my class I realized they wrote on the problem but no one solved it. I told them the answer and said if they want to see the work then they must come see me in the staff lounge. No one ever showed up. I slowly need to win over them in order to get a response.
When I arrived home on Tuesday Lindsay seemed to be feeling much better. I went for a walk before preparing dinner. As the food was cooking, our headmaster and Philmore came over to see how Lindsay was doing. She sounded about ten times worse when she saw them and said she was planning on teaching the following day. After dinner, I locked myself in my room for an early sleep that night.
On Wednesday I had a short day at school and was done at 9:20. After class I spent a few hours working on an activity for the next day and then set off for the library. In October of a student’s form 4 year they sit for a national examination. If they don’t pass then they cannot advance any further in school. If they advance then they can move onto an Advanced Level or an A-Level school. The examinations are very difficult. I even have trouble comprehending some of the English exams. In the library at Kafule there are thousands of papers of past exams. There are thirteen different exams the students will sit for each year. The school receives a couple of copies of each of these and the students throw them around in the piles on the shelves in the library. My goal for the week was to go through all the piles and find the mathematics exams. It took all of Wednesday and Thursday but I finally sorted through the exams. This week I plan to go through the mathematics exams, arrange them by year, and then figure out the categories of math that appear most often. Mostly, I want to get comfortable with the exam to help the form 4 students. On Thursday I spoke with them and we will start a review session in two weeks. This next week I need to prepare for the review session. This week the form 4 students sit in on a mock examination and so I will have a lot of free time without teaching them.
Besides school I started playing more games in the village. After a run on Wednesday I went to watch a couple of girls playing net ball. Eventually I joined them and we did a bunch of drills until enough people showed up for a game. It was a lot of fun. It was very good to play as I am now recognizing some of my students and able to learn their names outside of school. I think and hope it will pay off in the classroom. I also realized how poor their English truly is when they couldn’t understand a single sentence while playing. Hopefully after a year things will turn around. On Thursday I went back and played netball later in the afternoon. This time we played a real game of netball and so I had to slow down and learn some of the rules. At the end of the game a girl brought me some sugarcane and they all laughed as they watched me attempt to eat it. Tanzanians use their teeth to tear off the outer casing of the sugarcane but I told them I could not do it. The casing is hard!! Eventually I received some help and I sat to eat with all twelve girls staring back at me! I enjoyed playing though and am excited to continue throughout the year.
Yesterday I was very moody at the end of the school day. The woman that usually brings tea up to school has not been present. Along with tea she brings porridge which I usually buy because it fills me up until the end of the school day. Since she doesn’t arrive we walk a little ways down to a village and order tea. Tea is good and all but it doesn’t fill you up too much. I eat breakfast at 7 AM, have tea at 11:20, and then school doesn’t let out until 3 PM! I was very hungry. I feel bad for the students because they don’t even receive tea and here I am complaining that I am hungry. I guess they are used to it, but my body is not. I was very sluggish and counting down the minutes until I arrived home. I finally reached home and had some food and lied down. A half an hour later, Kassim, the academic master, arrived and we walked down to Isoko with him. In Isoko we relaxed with some sodas for a good hour and a half before we walked the short street of shops. In the end we decided on chips mayai for dinner and then went back to more sitting and waiting. Chips mayai is an omelet with French fries in it. It is a local favorite and Linsday and I have yet to have it in Isoko. It was very delicious. By the time we received the food I was approaching my hungry mode once again!
We arrived home around 9 last night and I did some e-mailing before I went to bed for the night. Today Lindsay and I are planning on walking to a market about a two hour walk away so I must go and prepare myself!
Love,
Gretchen
A week later and I hope to update you yet again. On Sunday after I updated my blog I had a very interesting evening. Since my computer died I walked up to the school to see if a teacher could plug in my computer to a generator. In front of the school I found Philmore and the headmaster talking. The headmaster just arrived back from Mbeya after being gone all week. While I chatted away with the headmaster Philmore took my computer to his house to charge. The headmaster and I started the walk back to our homes. We approached his house first and he invited me in to talk. I sat and talked with him for over an hour and then realized that I must get home as it was getting dark and I hadn’t started to cook yet. A little before 7 PM I arrived home and went into the back to start the charcoal grill. Just after I lit the grill a gentleman started yelling “Mzungu, mzungu!” outside my house. I went into the front and opened the door. I walked onto the porch and greeted the gentleman asking how he was and his name. I was so excited that I didn’t mess up my greetings. After I said it was nice meeting him he starts to point two fingers at his groin area. I thought he might have to use the bathroom so I said, “Choo?” And then he points at me and then him again and the door. I got the point and said “Oh no no no” and closed the door in his face and locked it. I was very overwhelmed, nervous, and upset that I was home alone. I called Ashley and asked her if this was a common incident and she said it had never happened to her but has heard of it happening to others. She asked me if there was anyone I could go stay with until Lindsay arrived home and I let her know that I only know the male teacher’s around here and I really didn’t want a male around. She told me to call my headmaster since I was just with him. I called Isaac and he came right over. A few minutes after I got off the phone with him there was a knock at my door. Since I was still very uneasy I asked who it was and the person only spoke Swahili back. I figured it could be the little 9 year old boy that comes over occasionally but I didn’t want to take my chances and didn’t answer back. Eventually the boy left and a minute later Isaac started knocking. I let him in and informed him of the situation. He was very upset and sorry and told me he was going to call the leaders from the area. He sat and got on his phone while I went to tend to my cooking. He eventually talked to many people and informed them of the information and they set up a meeting for all the people of the area the next morning.
Isaac was worried that I would be alone until late since we did not know when Lindsay was to arrive and started calling for the house girl again. Luckily, Lindsay arrived before the house girl and Love was told to stay home. That night Lindsay filled me in with her exciting trip to Mbeya as I filled her in with the tales of my weekend. I slept a little uneasy that night but knew that I would be safe. The next day at school it was announced that you are not to come by my house unless asked. I thought some of the students would ask what happened, but they must have already known because none of them asked me. After school on Monday I just relaxed at home and started cooking as soon as I arrived. We had yet to cook beans and since I know they take a long time I thought it would be good to start them. I ended up staying at the house all evening cooking. Around 4 PM we receive a knock on the door. Lindsay walks out to find about thirty of the community members and our headmaster. Our headmaster enters the house and informs us that the locals would like to enter and offer an apology to me. We quickly tidied up the house and told them to enter. The group decided to stay outside so we went out and one by one they apologized. They felt very bad. They hired a gentleman to sit as a guard outside our house from now on. Philmore came by at 5:30 to assist Lindsay and I with cooking chapatti. We didn’t realize how long it would take and he was at our house until close to 9 PM that night! We felt bad because he didn’t even stay to eat in the end. He said it was very late and he must return home.
On Tuesday after breakfast Lindsay came from her room and told me she wasn’t feeling well and was going to stay home for the day. She slept maybe a total of two hours all weekend and it caught up with her. I arrived to school and informed the academic master and he said he was very sorry. The rest of the day was very busy as I taught all of my classes. When I did have a break I realized that Lindsay was supposed to teach English to form three at that hour and that was to be my next class. I walked in and gave them a very difficult math problem and told them to try it. When I arrived later for my class I realized they wrote on the problem but no one solved it. I told them the answer and said if they want to see the work then they must come see me in the staff lounge. No one ever showed up. I slowly need to win over them in order to get a response.
When I arrived home on Tuesday Lindsay seemed to be feeling much better. I went for a walk before preparing dinner. As the food was cooking, our headmaster and Philmore came over to see how Lindsay was doing. She sounded about ten times worse when she saw them and said she was planning on teaching the following day. After dinner, I locked myself in my room for an early sleep that night.
On Wednesday I had a short day at school and was done at 9:20. After class I spent a few hours working on an activity for the next day and then set off for the library. In October of a student’s form 4 year they sit for a national examination. If they don’t pass then they cannot advance any further in school. If they advance then they can move onto an Advanced Level or an A-Level school. The examinations are very difficult. I even have trouble comprehending some of the English exams. In the library at Kafule there are thousands of papers of past exams. There are thirteen different exams the students will sit for each year. The school receives a couple of copies of each of these and the students throw them around in the piles on the shelves in the library. My goal for the week was to go through all the piles and find the mathematics exams. It took all of Wednesday and Thursday but I finally sorted through the exams. This week I plan to go through the mathematics exams, arrange them by year, and then figure out the categories of math that appear most often. Mostly, I want to get comfortable with the exam to help the form 4 students. On Thursday I spoke with them and we will start a review session in two weeks. This next week I need to prepare for the review session. This week the form 4 students sit in on a mock examination and so I will have a lot of free time without teaching them.
Besides school I started playing more games in the village. After a run on Wednesday I went to watch a couple of girls playing net ball. Eventually I joined them and we did a bunch of drills until enough people showed up for a game. It was a lot of fun. It was very good to play as I am now recognizing some of my students and able to learn their names outside of school. I think and hope it will pay off in the classroom. I also realized how poor their English truly is when they couldn’t understand a single sentence while playing. Hopefully after a year things will turn around. On Thursday I went back and played netball later in the afternoon. This time we played a real game of netball and so I had to slow down and learn some of the rules. At the end of the game a girl brought me some sugarcane and they all laughed as they watched me attempt to eat it. Tanzanians use their teeth to tear off the outer casing of the sugarcane but I told them I could not do it. The casing is hard!! Eventually I received some help and I sat to eat with all twelve girls staring back at me! I enjoyed playing though and am excited to continue throughout the year.
Yesterday I was very moody at the end of the school day. The woman that usually brings tea up to school has not been present. Along with tea she brings porridge which I usually buy because it fills me up until the end of the school day. Since she doesn’t arrive we walk a little ways down to a village and order tea. Tea is good and all but it doesn’t fill you up too much. I eat breakfast at 7 AM, have tea at 11:20, and then school doesn’t let out until 3 PM! I was very hungry. I feel bad for the students because they don’t even receive tea and here I am complaining that I am hungry. I guess they are used to it, but my body is not. I was very sluggish and counting down the minutes until I arrived home. I finally reached home and had some food and lied down. A half an hour later, Kassim, the academic master, arrived and we walked down to Isoko with him. In Isoko we relaxed with some sodas for a good hour and a half before we walked the short street of shops. In the end we decided on chips mayai for dinner and then went back to more sitting and waiting. Chips mayai is an omelet with French fries in it. It is a local favorite and Linsday and I have yet to have it in Isoko. It was very delicious. By the time we received the food I was approaching my hungry mode once again!
We arrived home around 9 last night and I did some e-mailing before I went to bed for the night. Today Lindsay and I are planning on walking to a market about a two hour walk away so I must go and prepare myself!
Love,
Gretchen
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