send-off sherehe

September 26th

Today I am in the city of Iringa. It is about halfway between Mbeya and Dar es Salaam. Yesterday was a long day of traveling. I woke up at 3:25 AM, left my house at 3:35, boarded a cattle truck at 3:50, and did not finish traveling until 6:40 PM last night. We were in three different vehicles throughout the day with not much rest time in between. I didn’t realize how long it would take us to travel to Iringa or I might have backed down from the trip all together. On Tuesday afternoon we had a staff meeting at school. I arrived late (because I was teaching) and then didn’t pay attention because I had a lot of work to do for my form 4 students. The meeting was also in Swahili which is difficult to follow for a two and a half hour meeting. My form four students take their examination in two weeks so I am trying to prepare them as much as possible. On Tuesday I prepared my own mock examination for them and I was administering it on Wednesday. Since we do not have copiers nor computers I had to hand write each examination. Luckily, only eight students signed up to take it. During the staff meeting I worked on writing up each of the problems. At the end of the school day I continued writing up problems at my home until Makhala (second headmaster) arrived to bring Lindsay and I to a celebration in Isoko. As we walked to Isoko, Makhala informed us that there will be no school the next day nor all of next week. I was very upset about this. I thought I wrote up all the examinations for nothing. I also very much need a break from teaching, but this week is the last week for me to help my form 4 students. I didn’t want to leave Lindsay alone to travel during the break and I definitely didn’t want to travel alone later in the week. For the rest of the evening I was in a bad mood.

One of the student teachers invited us to a “send-off” celebration in Isoko about a month ago. We couldn’t read the invitation and everyone told us it was a celebration. We thought the celebration was for her because she is leaving to go back to university. The invitation also said “send-off” within the text so we thought that it was appropriate to assume it was for her! We found out that it was actually for her sister. We think, we still don’t really understand, her sister will be getting married soon (maybe this weekend). Maybe it was an engagement celebration and she won’t be married for some time, not too sure. We arrived in Isoko around 6 PM to find the electricity went out so the party that should have started at 4 PM was postponed. When the generator arrived we are escorted into a little building with benches to sit on. In front of the benches there were three decorated tables with sodas on them. Slowly the procession of people began to enter. The student teacher didn’t enter with them! She entered in some side door wearing jeans! (It is inappropriate for a female to wear any type of pants in Tanzania, long skirts only!) The MC entered first in a white prom dress with jewels in her hair. Slowly following her were parents but there were three sets of them so I do not understand whose parents they were. Next, two girls walked in in bright orange matching prom dresses. They sit at the center table so at this point we believe the celebration is honoring them somehow. As they are walking in I get told to move and I go and sit closer to the front next to Mr. Mbughi. Shortly after I get moved two men walk in and take my seat. They sit in the tuxedos with their heads bowed down. The video camera is on and the party is starting.

I am still very lost in the events of the evening. I think one of the girls and one of the guys might be getting married, but then it might also be both girls will be getting married. Both girls walked together at a snail’s pace to the back of the room where the guys were seated. They kneeled down and one lady gave a bouquet of fake roses to one of the guys. People started hooting and hollering and the girls finally smiled! The guys followed the girls and all sat down in the front of the room. Cake was brought out next and each person in the room was given a slice the size of a crumb! This is the first time I have had any type of dessert since living here so cake (or caki as they call it) is kind of a big deal. Many people spoke. There was much dancing and finally around 10 PM we ate. I was very hungry by the time we ate. I did not have lunch that day because I was told I would be eating a lot of food at the celebration! There wasn’t even that much food! I received two types of rice: white and spiced and one piece of pig meat. I didn’t actually eat the pig meat but it would be rude not to accept and I needed some kind of juice to wash down the rice. Tanzanians do not believe in drinking while eating. I was so ready to go home. After eating we brought up our donation and were asked to speak, we refused. At this point we still didn’t understand what we were celebrating so what would we say?! And then for the next half an hour I had to stand in the front and dance with the student teacher while everyone stared (Lindsay ran away). Throughout the night there was a video rolling so I will definitely try to get my hands on that!

After the celebration we arrived home very late and I was exhausted. Unfortunately, I didn’t complete writing up the mock examinations and spent another hour writing those before going to bed. The next morning I woke up an hour early to continue writing up examinations. When I arrived to school the students weren’t gathered for assembly yet and I noticed none of the form 4 students were present. I was quite upset. I thought I wrote up the examinations for nothing! The headmaster told the form 4 students not to come until 2 PM so they were very confused. The other students were doing “environmental cleanliness.” I managed to tell one of the younger students to go to the homes of various form 4 students and tell them to come to school. I started the exam with 4 students, before we finished the exam 4 more showed up. I gave each of them the same amount of time. I spent almost the entire day in their room. By 4 PM I finished grading: 2 F’s, 5 D’s, and 1 C. That is surprisingly very good. On Monday they received the results from the mock examination for the region and only two received passing marks. Many of them were happy to see the improved marks. On Thursday I sat down with each student individually and we discussed their strengths and weaknesses on the examination. I think some of them will do very well in their real examination. I feel bad leaving them for this week, but vacation is badly needed from my end.

On Saturday I cleaned, packed, and tutored one last student for her examination before departing yesterday morning for my big trip.

In part two I will write about form 4 graduation on Friday.

Love,

Gretchen