October 23rd
Last night was one of the most enjoyable nights I have had in Tanzania. Before we get to that, you need some knowledge of the week.
On Monday, with the help of a student, I started a garden. Hopefully in a couple of weeks I will have some eggplant and green peppers sprouting! On Tuesday, I was escorted to my student, Nisile’s, home. While we were there she reminded me of the “send off” celebration for her sister. We sat and spoke more about it. I wanted to understand why these celebrations always occur. She told me a couple of things about her various sisters so I don’t know which one the celebration was for. What I gathered was that her sister would be moving to Mbeya. I am not sure whether she is starting university or getting married. I am leaning on the marriage answer, but the celebration yesterday did not have a male in attendance (besides the village men)! I was at her house until after 7 PM. While eating I heard Mr. Mbughi’s voice in the back yard. When I finished eating I greeted him. He was surveying the land for the celebration. He was building a structure to house Nisile’s sister. I decided to use the opportunity to go home and asked Mr. Mbughi to sindakisa (escort) me. I didn’t know that we were going to stop at various homes on the walk. A lot of the church folk that I see every Sunday live very close to Nisile and Mr. Mbughi. Now that I have been to many of their homes I can match up couples and children. Everyone wanted me to eat of course. Maybe they think I am looking too thin, not really sure. I believe I have gained weight though so I don’t know why they want me to eat so much! I finally arrived home close to 10 PM carrying my gifts of eggs and peanuts.
On Wednesday my field director, Ashley, arrived in Isoko. After a long school day Lindsay and I walked to Isoko to greet her. We ran into one of our student’s parent’s right after leaving Kafule and he escorted us to Isoko. I was really tired from teaching each period at school that day and did not care for the escort. He was very violent, but didn’t realize it as he continued to slap our back’s and pull on our arms. I was not a fan. I also did not enjoy the warm soda he treated us to when it was in the high 80’s and we just walked for forty minutes. As we were finishing up the soda he kept offering us food but luckily we saw the bus and ran off to greet Ashley. After dropping off her things at the guest house, Lindsay wanted to prepare her food at our home. We walked back up the mountain and after dinner Lindsay escorted her back and stayed at the guest house for the night.
Throughout the week I have had a full schedule at school. I am now teaching every student and have every period of every day that I teach. Things change all the time, but I am typically not found in the staff room anymore. If someone else wants to teach the class that I was intended to teach then I would just go to a different room to teach. I am trying to stay loyal to my form 3 students and teach them as much as before but that will be difficult in the coming weeks. I do enjoy my younger students though. Most of them attend class and do their work. For this week I have kept them in their separate streams (or classes) for each level because I hate teaching larger classes. This will be difficult to continue with as I will need time to rest my brain as well. I used the same lesson for form 1 and 2 this week which made classes and planning for classes completely manageable.
This week I was given the “Teacher on Duty” title and had other responsibilities to uphold on campus. Makhala, the second headmaster, worked alongside me (and did much of the work) so it wasn’t too awful. All the students had to talk to me if they wanted to leave campus. It was really depressing when ten students came up to me in the morning asking to leave because they are sick. Besides asking for permission to leave, I was also given the role of inflicting punishment. Each morning during assembly the students are hit with sticks if they did something bad or are dressed incorrectly. Sometimes I feel as though the other teacher’s make up excuses to hit the students. I told Makhala that there will be no piga-ing this week (strike-ing). He didn’t listen to me and many students were still hit. Each day he managed to give me a group of ten students while he hit the other 200+. I made the boys walk in laps around the grass at the front of the school like chickens while the girls gave me jumping jacks. The ones being punished did not enjoy it but everyone else thought it was comical. I was not given the group of ten students until the end of assembly which typically made me very late to class each morning!
Since I taught all the time and had to stay at school late for my “duties” I didn’t get the opportunity to hang out with Ashley very much on her visit. Lindsay took her around the town and introduced her to various people. After Ashley watched me teach on Friday I asked for permission and left school early to go to Isoko with the two of them. We enjoyed a big feast on Ashley’s last night before saying our goodbyes. She left at 4 AM Saturday morning so we had an early night!
I basically spent all of yesterday walking, eating, and dancing. I went for a long morning walk and got lost on the million trails that locals have created over the years. After my walk I ate before leaving for Nisile’s sister’s send-off celebration. When I arrived, they made me eat a massive amount of meat before walking up to the celebration. The celebration was in the middle of the woods. I sat next to a pine tree. Mr. Mbughi was the master of ceremonies and took it upon himself to constantly call me to the front to dance in front of everyone. At 6 PM we took a break to eat some more. I was offered a full glass of chunky milk. I quickly made the excuse that I was allergic (this to the only English speaker in the room). More rice, beans, and meat before returning to dance. At that point I was excited to dance and lose the tens pounds I gained from food. The dancing didn’t continue for long as the sun began to set and there were no lights in the woods. The party did continue at the church though! After going home for an hour of recovery I headed to the church until 11 dancing. I mostly danced with the younger women at church (in their late 20s maybe). The old women liked to join me and one kept competing with me about who could get lower to the floor. The church was jammed pack. It was nice to see so many of my students enjoying themselves. I especially liked how the old, middle aged, young, and infants could all be in one room dancing freely, enjoying themselves.
This morning, I am off to church and then one of the students is coming to bring Lindsay and I to her home in Isoko. Lindsay was not feeling well yesterday though so I might be going solo on this adventure…
Love,
Gretchen
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