This post will have a bit more substance than the last one (queso), but may still heavily center around food...
We finished up IST yesterday, but 10 of us are staying in Morogoro for an extra day hanging out at a fancy hotel with free wifi. Tomorrow morning the deep-southerners will head to Dar for the day and and night, then back home on Sunday. IST was really fun and it was so good to see everyone again! The days were pretty long and packed with training (8-5:30), with only a break on Sunday. Although some of the sessions were pretty pointless, others were really great and I'm excited to go back to site and do some more things. Our counterparts (another teacher from school) joined us after the first couple of days. It worked out really great and my counterpart (my neighbor/the bio&chem teacher) really enjoyed it and was so excited to participate in everything, so I'm really pumped to go back and work on things together, especially co-teaching life skills (HIV/AIDS, safe sex, girls empowerment, etc.). Aside from some of the good sessions, the best part of IST was getting to hang out with everyone during the evenings, catch up, eat great food (cheeseburgers, pizza, ice cream, etc), and enjoy lots of cold beer. My birthday was especially fun. After we ended training sessions for the day, some of us headed to town to do a bit of shopping. Then we met up with some others at a nice hotel here in Morogoro for bacon cheeseburgers! I also drank a margarita that cost more than a day's salary, but it was so worth it. I got some great birthday gifts that included a ridiculously large party hat, a jar of Nutella, a bunch of snickers bars, a big bag of cookies, and best of all, I was surprised with a delicious birthday cake! Then we moved over to a cheaper bar and had some birthday shots and beer. It was truly a great birthday and I was so lucky to be able to celebrate with so many friends in such a nice town! Two nights later we held the "1st Annual IST Prom" at a local bar/restaurant...it was pretty ridiculous but a whole lot of fun. We even held prom king/queen elections, which were easily won by everyone's favorite older volunteers, Eula and Will. A couple of dance parties rounded out our evening events. We also borrowed the projector a couple of nights to have movie nights in the big conference room which was a relaxing change. I also went and hung out at my host family's house twice...it was really great to see them and play with Isaac! He's so much bigger now (he'll be 2 in July) and speaking a few more words. He can even say my name (kinda like Katie) and points to me in pictures, which is pretty adorable.
I'm excited to go to Dar tomorrow and spend more time there. On our way to IST we spent a day in Dar, which was really our first time to explore the city on our own. I really enjoyed it and we ate some amazing food. We went to this Indian compound/country club thing...we were surrounded by hundreds of Indians and zero Tanzanians so it was really strange, but I literally ate the best Indian food of my life there...it will definitely become a staple of future Dar trips. Tomorrow the plan in Subway (yep, the sandwhich chain) and a supposedly amazing Thai restaurant, so I'm looking forward to it! Then its back down to site, which I have mixed feelings about. I'm excited to get back to normal life, stop traveling and living out of a backpack, spending ridiculous amounts of money, etc. but at the same time it sucks to say bye to everyone again (most of us won't see each other for another 9 months), say bye to good food, and go home to 400 or so midterms that need grading!
Took advantage of free wifi and posted shit tons of pictures...enjoy!
Friday, April 1, 2011
Friday, March 18, 2011
queso
This entire post is going to be about one of the greatest things in the whole world: queso. A little background: Katie's family sent her a 16 oz log of velvetta cheese and a can of rotel in a recent care package. Since then we have been planning out our perfect fatass meal and it all came to fruition last night. Katie came to my vill on Thursday. Early in the day I had started a pot of beans, cooking with grilled onions, garlic, a hot pepper, and a bit of taco seasoning. I made a bunch of tortilla dough, and actually used as much oil as you should, because hey, you might as go all out. After Katie arrived from a typically shitty bus ride, we got started on the queso, tortilla rolling, and kachumbari (the closest thing to salad eaten by Tanzanians: fresh tomato, onion, sometimes bell pepper, and a little lime juice) chopping, all the while enjoying some of her bucket wine she also brought over. The end result, as you can imagine, was heavenly. Together we ate 11 tortillas, a pot of beans, and most of the queso. We were nearly to the point of throwing up, but that didn't even matter because it was so worth it. And as this was pretty much the first cheese we've had in 6 months, we were a bit worried about how our tummies would react, but so far so good.
Anywho, we left my village early this morning, and 3 bus rides later ended up in Lindi, in an air-conditioned internet cafe. We're meeting Ghee and another volunteer from our training class, Will, here today and then we'll leave bright and early tomorrow on a long bus ride to Dar. We've got big plans for our short time there, all of which include the major food groups: hamburgers, pizza, Indian, and ice cream. Then Sunday we'll head to Morogoro for 10 days of in-service training. Can't wait! During that time I will also celebrate my golden birthday (turning 24 on the 24th) as well as our 6-month anniversary in Tanzania so it should get pretty crazy. I will also be celebrating a much needed break from my school/students, as they are taking mid-terms (this week) and then have their spring break (next week).
Added some updated pics of my house and, of course, the aforementioned queso extravaganza. Enjoy!
Anywho, we left my village early this morning, and 3 bus rides later ended up in Lindi, in an air-conditioned internet cafe. We're meeting Ghee and another volunteer from our training class, Will, here today and then we'll leave bright and early tomorrow on a long bus ride to Dar. We've got big plans for our short time there, all of which include the major food groups: hamburgers, pizza, Indian, and ice cream. Then Sunday we'll head to Morogoro for 10 days of in-service training. Can't wait! During that time I will also celebrate my golden birthday (turning 24 on the 24th) as well as our 6-month anniversary in Tanzania so it should get pretty crazy. I will also be celebrating a much needed break from my school/students, as they are taking mid-terms (this week) and then have their spring break (next week).
Added some updated pics of my house and, of course, the aforementioned queso extravaganza. Enjoy!
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Teaching Update
Lots to update after my first month of real teaching...But first, a little background on the TZ educational system:
SCHOOL STRUCTURE:
Primary school: Grades 1 through 7, called Standard 1 through 7; taught in Kiswahili.
Secondary school, O-level: Grades 8 through 11, called Form I through IV; taught in English (at least officially).
-->continue on to A-level, go to a primary teachers' training college, or find a job
Secondary school, A-level: Grades 12 and 13, called Form V and VI; taught in English.
-->continue on to University, go to a secondary teachers' training college, or find a job
NECTA EXAMS: The National Examination Council of Tanzania (NECTA) gives a national examination to all students after Forms II and IV. This tests all subjects - math, physics, chemistry, biology, Kiswahili, English, history, geography, and civics - and your total score is averaged. NECTA exams really count for everything here, and grades given by teachers are essentially meaningless. The results of the Form IV NECTAs determine whether you get your O-level certificate, but more importantly determine whether you can continue on to A-level high school (and then which school you can get into), or to a training college for primary teachers, etc. The Form II results used to determine whether you could continue on to Form III, but now all students are able to continue. Mtwara, as a region, has the lowest scores in the country, which isn't really a suprise to anyone living down here. My school's results were pretty bad; of our 80 Form IVs who took the exam last year, 65 completely failed (scored below 20%) and therefore did not receive their O-level certificate. We had 15 students, just one girl, pass with a D average (21-40%); they'll receive their O-level certificate but are labelled division 4 and so cannot continue with any type of schooling (I believe you need div 2 to go on to A-level and div 3 to go on to a teacher's training college). Our Form II results (this year's Form III students) were not much better, with just a couple of C's, several D's, and a whole lotta F's. Most of our Form II and IV students got a straight 0 in math, with physics scores just a bit higher. I've also seen the NECTA results from two years ago (our current Form IVs) which are pretty similar.
CLASSROOMS: Students stay in one classroom all day, grouped in their forms, and teachers rotate in to teach. When teachers are not teaching, which is quite often, they hang out in the teacher's "lounge" which at my school is a small room with a couple of desks and chairs and a calendar posted on the wall. Although there is an official timetable, this system doesn't hold teachers very accountable because the students don't really know when they'll be taught what. So in reality, the students are just hanging out in their respective classrooms for most of the day, and teachers may or may not come in to teach.
CORPORAL PUNISHMENT: It's practiced by most Tanzanian teachers. I was actually shocked my first few weeks of school for not seeing any signs of corporal punishment. While all my PCV friends were talking about having to see students beat on a daily basis, I had decided that I was just lucky to get placed at the one school in Tanzania that doesn't beat the shit out of their students. In fact, the closest thing to punishment I saw was having the students leap frog into class for being late, which just gives me a good laugh every morning. But alas, a couple of weeks ago I walked out of the office to see my counterpart whipping a student with a big stick. Needless to say I was totally shocked and had to just turn around and walk away. Since then I haven't seen it again, although the new female teacher pinches the students' cheeks really hard and then twists. I'm pretty sure all the students know I will never touch them, but I've threatened them with something much, much worse - staying after school with me to write English sentences over and over and over again; so far its working and I haven't had any trouble.
Ok so on to my last few weeks of teaching...As I said last post, I spent the first couple weeks testing the school in math and physics and learning how far behind all the students are, particularly in math. In the meantime I was trying to learn some students' names (we made name tee-pees for their desks and played the name game), and going over classroom rules and expectations. I wrote out a 'Classroom Contract' in English and Kiswahili (the gist: ask questions, don't cheat); they all had to write the contract into their notebooks and sign them, and I signed them all too which they got quite a kick out of. I went and bought the standard 5 (grade 5) math textbook, which is in Kiswahili and has been helpful in translating some math terms...it also shows how poor their primary school education was, because that's when they were supposed to learn fractions and decimals. Although everyone is behind, there is still a spectrum and some students are significantly ahead of their peers. We do actually have the top Form IV student in the Newala district, who got a B average (61-80%) on his Form II NECTAs. He's an amazing kid, who is really self-motivated. His father is dead and his mother is a pretty serious alcoholic (alcoholism is a big problem around these parts) living in a nearby village, so he's been living with the other teacher (my next door neighbor) for the last 3 years. Yet he's always got a smile on his face, and when he's not helping run the school, cooking or taking care of my neighbor's house, he's studying. He wants to be a biologist, and I hope he does well enough to make it to a good A-level school. In general, it seems like each form has one or two students that are way ahead of the others because they are motivated enough to teach themselves. I have three Form I girls that come to the office everyday and actually ask for MORE homework! Granted I have around 197 others that don't, but it still blows my mind every time. But, as sad as it sounds, most of the students at my school are going to fail the NECTA at the end of Form IV, and most of the students that manage to pass will not have high enough scores to go on to any more school.
I spent a lot of time talking with my counterpart teacher about how different learning math is than a subject like history; some people just get math and some don't and you cannot just memorize yourself through it. In the U.S. we are completely used to grouping students based on ability (regulars, honors, AP/IB, etc), but that is a totally foreign concept here. My counterpart and Mkuu both acknowledged how far behind the students are and agreed that by regrouping the students during math lessons, I'd be able to cover a lot more material with the brighter, more motivated students that actually have a shot of passing, while I can go at a slower pace with those that have a harder time with math and atleast teach them some basic math skills. I spent about a week going over the results of my test, as well as their math scores for those that have taken the Form II NECTAs, lists of all the registered students,etc. in order to figure out how to best reorganize them. Let's just say that I'm glad my parents instilled a deep appreciation of the power of Excel spreadsheets! I ultimately divided all the students into four math levels A through D (youngest/slowest to oldest/fastest). Levels A & B will basically be doing lots of review of basic math plus Form I material, while levels C & D will start with review but then we'll try and move through as many of the main Form I-IV topics as possible. I'm sure there will be lots of playing it by ear and adjusting as necessary, but ultimately I think it will work out better for everyone. Because there are kids from 2 or 3 forms in each level, it meant that the timetable had to be completely reworked so that the other teachers weren't affected. I spent a while remaking the class schedule, which has also turned out really nice for me because I got to plan my classes when I wanted!
About three weeks ago I finally began teaching the new math levels, which started out a bit messy but is getting smoother everyday; although I can teach in one of our spare classrooms, the students have to bring their desk and chair which causes quite the commotion, not to mention that being in a classroom with students from other forms is totally new and different. But it's starting to become routine and once we're actually able to get class started the students have responded well and I've really enjoyed teaching math, especially to my top two levels. Teaching physics is less enjoyable for a number of reasons: the topics/syllabus are arranged pretty terribly and heavily based on memorizing facts rather than solving problems; the problems that they are expected to solve they don't have the math skills for (e.g. they don't learn how to calculate volume until Form IV math, but are expected to calculate things involving volume, such as density, in Form I physics); the Kiswahili/English language barrier poses a much bigger problem for lectures; most students like physics even less than they like math; and finally I teach physics in the afternoons when most of my students are hot, hungry, and tired.
About three weeks ago we also received two temporary teachers from the training college in Mtwara, who will be here for six weeks or so, and this week we received 6 more that will stay for just one month. They all basically teach the same subjects - history, geography, and Kiswahili - so it doesn't exactly help me out and they aren't really able to teach very much, but it's still nice to have some more teachers around. We've also got a guy from the Kitangali teacher's college coming in the afternoons to teach English, but he decided that he didn't want to teach Form I; needless to say I'm not a big fan of this guy and, as of a couple of weeks ago, I'm now teaching Form I English. When we had a staff meeting and my headmaster said that we still need a Form I English teacher, we all just sat around for 2 or so minutes of awkward silence, while everyone just stares at the one white, native English speaker in the room. I finally said I would do it, but I haven't stressed too much about it and will just try and have fun and enjoy the change from teaching math and physics.
I've also ended up with a few other school duties. Tanzanian schools, especially in rural villages, have no secretaries, administrators, janitors, counselors, etc, so all the "little" tasks it takes to run a school are divied up amongst the students, teachers, and the headmaster. So I am now officially our school guidance counselor, which is pretty funny because there's still quite the language barrier between myself and the students. I'm also the class mistress for Form I, and I'll let you know when I figure out what that means. Naturally, I'm head of the math and physics departments and, by default, the English department, although there's not a whole lot of fun in being in charge of just yourself! Head of the science club and assistant treasurer round off my school responsibilities. Every few weeks it will also be my turn as "Teacher on Duty" which means supervising school cleanliness and just doing general bitch work like writing permissions to leave school, etc.
But in all seriousness, I hope no one is misreading my sarcasm, because I still feel really lucky to be where I am. It's really interesting talking to other volunteers about their sites/schools because we all really have quite different experiences. There is huge variation between Peace Corps sites, each with its advantages and disadvantages. One of my good friends, for example, is way the hell on the other end of the spectrum, living in a fancy-schmancy apartment at the Mbeya Institute of Science & Technology and teaching all his lessons by PowerPoint! Most volunteers fall somewhere in the middle, but I've been told my school's NECTA results are the lowest of all PCV sites (not sure how true that is). And while there are certainly downsides to being at a rural, poor-performing school, I'm excited by the potential I have to make a difference here. I don't know anyone else that has been given the freedom and trust to reorganize their students and classes, completely change the school schedule, etc, and I'm excited to spend two years here and see what we can accomplish.
On a totally a different note, I want to send a delayed thank you to everyone who has sent cards and letters; they are truly exciting to open and it means a lot to me! It has certainly been an interesting few weeks for mail...A couple of weeks ago, my nearest fellow PCV called me on a bus headed to Mtwara; some random guy on the bus had four letters addressed to him and four for me. We still don't know how he got them or what he was doing with them. But hey, opening Christmas cards in mid-February is still pretty damn exciting! And then, the very next day I was walking around in Newala and a guy driving a motorcycle stopped, asked if I was Kathryn, and said he had some letters for me at the district agriculture office but hadn't known how to find me. I've had no problems receiving packages down here, but for some reason letters end up taking some interesting detours!
A few people have asked about my rats, which are still a problem but I've come to accept them as my housemates for the next 2 years/my allergies prevent me from getting a cat so I don't have much choice in the matter. So as long as they stay out of my bed and out of my food, they can have free reign of my house at night and I will clean up after them in the mornings. We've had a few disputes lately, as they apparently have an affinity for snacking on expensive, athletic wear; I've had a hole eaten through a $16 pair of underwear, as well as a running sock go missing after I made the mistake of leaving it on the floor one night. And despite the fact that not a single rat has succumb to my poison or trap, a couple of weeks ago I woke up to find a dead rat laying in my living room! (hmmm...isn't that how the Black Plague started?) How did it die, and how can I get more to do so?! My latest theory, or at least the theory that gives me the greatest pleasure, is that it choked to death on my stolen sock.
As for travel, I try to go to Newala every other weekend to see Katie and stock up on fruits, veggies, and peanut butter.I'm currently in Masasi for the weekend to meet up with some ed volunteers that I haven't seen since Christmas, hit up the bank, and stock up on oatmeal. In wo weeks I'll be headed back to Morogoro for 10 days of Peace Corps training (they put on in-service training, IST, about 3 months into site). I'm so excited to see everyone again, visit my host family (Isaac is supposedly talking, kidogo kidogo!), and enjoy some big city pleasures like ice cream and hamburgers. My birthday also falls during IST, so I'm lucky to be able to celebrate turning the big 2-4 with lots of friends and cold beer!
Welp this post has gotten way too long, so I'll stop here for now. Hope everyone is doing well! Love, Kathryn
SCHOOL STRUCTURE:
Primary school: Grades 1 through 7, called Standard 1 through 7; taught in Kiswahili.
Secondary school, O-level: Grades 8 through 11, called Form I through IV; taught in English (at least officially).
-->continue on to A-level, go to a primary teachers' training college, or find a job
Secondary school, A-level: Grades 12 and 13, called Form V and VI; taught in English.
-->continue on to University, go to a secondary teachers' training college, or find a job
NECTA EXAMS: The National Examination Council of Tanzania (NECTA) gives a national examination to all students after Forms II and IV. This tests all subjects - math, physics, chemistry, biology, Kiswahili, English, history, geography, and civics - and your total score is averaged. NECTA exams really count for everything here, and grades given by teachers are essentially meaningless. The results of the Form IV NECTAs determine whether you get your O-level certificate, but more importantly determine whether you can continue on to A-level high school (and then which school you can get into), or to a training college for primary teachers, etc. The Form II results used to determine whether you could continue on to Form III, but now all students are able to continue. Mtwara, as a region, has the lowest scores in the country, which isn't really a suprise to anyone living down here. My school's results were pretty bad; of our 80 Form IVs who took the exam last year, 65 completely failed (scored below 20%) and therefore did not receive their O-level certificate. We had 15 students, just one girl, pass with a D average (21-40%); they'll receive their O-level certificate but are labelled division 4 and so cannot continue with any type of schooling (I believe you need div 2 to go on to A-level and div 3 to go on to a teacher's training college). Our Form II results (this year's Form III students) were not much better, with just a couple of C's, several D's, and a whole lotta F's. Most of our Form II and IV students got a straight 0 in math, with physics scores just a bit higher. I've also seen the NECTA results from two years ago (our current Form IVs) which are pretty similar.
CLASSROOMS: Students stay in one classroom all day, grouped in their forms, and teachers rotate in to teach. When teachers are not teaching, which is quite often, they hang out in the teacher's "lounge" which at my school is a small room with a couple of desks and chairs and a calendar posted on the wall. Although there is an official timetable, this system doesn't hold teachers very accountable because the students don't really know when they'll be taught what. So in reality, the students are just hanging out in their respective classrooms for most of the day, and teachers may or may not come in to teach.
CORPORAL PUNISHMENT: It's practiced by most Tanzanian teachers. I was actually shocked my first few weeks of school for not seeing any signs of corporal punishment. While all my PCV friends were talking about having to see students beat on a daily basis, I had decided that I was just lucky to get placed at the one school in Tanzania that doesn't beat the shit out of their students. In fact, the closest thing to punishment I saw was having the students leap frog into class for being late, which just gives me a good laugh every morning. But alas, a couple of weeks ago I walked out of the office to see my counterpart whipping a student with a big stick. Needless to say I was totally shocked and had to just turn around and walk away. Since then I haven't seen it again, although the new female teacher pinches the students' cheeks really hard and then twists. I'm pretty sure all the students know I will never touch them, but I've threatened them with something much, much worse - staying after school with me to write English sentences over and over and over again; so far its working and I haven't had any trouble.
Ok so on to my last few weeks of teaching...As I said last post, I spent the first couple weeks testing the school in math and physics and learning how far behind all the students are, particularly in math. In the meantime I was trying to learn some students' names (we made name tee-pees for their desks and played the name game), and going over classroom rules and expectations. I wrote out a 'Classroom Contract' in English and Kiswahili (the gist: ask questions, don't cheat); they all had to write the contract into their notebooks and sign them, and I signed them all too which they got quite a kick out of. I went and bought the standard 5 (grade 5) math textbook, which is in Kiswahili and has been helpful in translating some math terms...it also shows how poor their primary school education was, because that's when they were supposed to learn fractions and decimals. Although everyone is behind, there is still a spectrum and some students are significantly ahead of their peers. We do actually have the top Form IV student in the Newala district, who got a B average (61-80%) on his Form II NECTAs. He's an amazing kid, who is really self-motivated. His father is dead and his mother is a pretty serious alcoholic (alcoholism is a big problem around these parts) living in a nearby village, so he's been living with the other teacher (my next door neighbor) for the last 3 years. Yet he's always got a smile on his face, and when he's not helping run the school, cooking or taking care of my neighbor's house, he's studying. He wants to be a biologist, and I hope he does well enough to make it to a good A-level school. In general, it seems like each form has one or two students that are way ahead of the others because they are motivated enough to teach themselves. I have three Form I girls that come to the office everyday and actually ask for MORE homework! Granted I have around 197 others that don't, but it still blows my mind every time. But, as sad as it sounds, most of the students at my school are going to fail the NECTA at the end of Form IV, and most of the students that manage to pass will not have high enough scores to go on to any more school.
I spent a lot of time talking with my counterpart teacher about how different learning math is than a subject like history; some people just get math and some don't and you cannot just memorize yourself through it. In the U.S. we are completely used to grouping students based on ability (regulars, honors, AP/IB, etc), but that is a totally foreign concept here. My counterpart and Mkuu both acknowledged how far behind the students are and agreed that by regrouping the students during math lessons, I'd be able to cover a lot more material with the brighter, more motivated students that actually have a shot of passing, while I can go at a slower pace with those that have a harder time with math and atleast teach them some basic math skills. I spent about a week going over the results of my test, as well as their math scores for those that have taken the Form II NECTAs, lists of all the registered students,etc. in order to figure out how to best reorganize them. Let's just say that I'm glad my parents instilled a deep appreciation of the power of Excel spreadsheets! I ultimately divided all the students into four math levels A through D (youngest/slowest to oldest/fastest). Levels A & B will basically be doing lots of review of basic math plus Form I material, while levels C & D will start with review but then we'll try and move through as many of the main Form I-IV topics as possible. I'm sure there will be lots of playing it by ear and adjusting as necessary, but ultimately I think it will work out better for everyone. Because there are kids from 2 or 3 forms in each level, it meant that the timetable had to be completely reworked so that the other teachers weren't affected. I spent a while remaking the class schedule, which has also turned out really nice for me because I got to plan my classes when I wanted!
About three weeks ago I finally began teaching the new math levels, which started out a bit messy but is getting smoother everyday; although I can teach in one of our spare classrooms, the students have to bring their desk and chair which causes quite the commotion, not to mention that being in a classroom with students from other forms is totally new and different. But it's starting to become routine and once we're actually able to get class started the students have responded well and I've really enjoyed teaching math, especially to my top two levels. Teaching physics is less enjoyable for a number of reasons: the topics/syllabus are arranged pretty terribly and heavily based on memorizing facts rather than solving problems; the problems that they are expected to solve they don't have the math skills for (e.g. they don't learn how to calculate volume until Form IV math, but are expected to calculate things involving volume, such as density, in Form I physics); the Kiswahili/English language barrier poses a much bigger problem for lectures; most students like physics even less than they like math; and finally I teach physics in the afternoons when most of my students are hot, hungry, and tired.
About three weeks ago we also received two temporary teachers from the training college in Mtwara, who will be here for six weeks or so, and this week we received 6 more that will stay for just one month. They all basically teach the same subjects - history, geography, and Kiswahili - so it doesn't exactly help me out and they aren't really able to teach very much, but it's still nice to have some more teachers around. We've also got a guy from the Kitangali teacher's college coming in the afternoons to teach English, but he decided that he didn't want to teach Form I; needless to say I'm not a big fan of this guy and, as of a couple of weeks ago, I'm now teaching Form I English. When we had a staff meeting and my headmaster said that we still need a Form I English teacher, we all just sat around for 2 or so minutes of awkward silence, while everyone just stares at the one white, native English speaker in the room. I finally said I would do it, but I haven't stressed too much about it and will just try and have fun and enjoy the change from teaching math and physics.
I've also ended up with a few other school duties. Tanzanian schools, especially in rural villages, have no secretaries, administrators, janitors, counselors, etc, so all the "little" tasks it takes to run a school are divied up amongst the students, teachers, and the headmaster. So I am now officially our school guidance counselor, which is pretty funny because there's still quite the language barrier between myself and the students. I'm also the class mistress for Form I, and I'll let you know when I figure out what that means. Naturally, I'm head of the math and physics departments and, by default, the English department, although there's not a whole lot of fun in being in charge of just yourself! Head of the science club and assistant treasurer round off my school responsibilities. Every few weeks it will also be my turn as "Teacher on Duty" which means supervising school cleanliness and just doing general bitch work like writing permissions to leave school, etc.
But in all seriousness, I hope no one is misreading my sarcasm, because I still feel really lucky to be where I am. It's really interesting talking to other volunteers about their sites/schools because we all really have quite different experiences. There is huge variation between Peace Corps sites, each with its advantages and disadvantages. One of my good friends, for example, is way the hell on the other end of the spectrum, living in a fancy-schmancy apartment at the Mbeya Institute of Science & Technology and teaching all his lessons by PowerPoint! Most volunteers fall somewhere in the middle, but I've been told my school's NECTA results are the lowest of all PCV sites (not sure how true that is). And while there are certainly downsides to being at a rural, poor-performing school, I'm excited by the potential I have to make a difference here. I don't know anyone else that has been given the freedom and trust to reorganize their students and classes, completely change the school schedule, etc, and I'm excited to spend two years here and see what we can accomplish.
On a totally a different note, I want to send a delayed thank you to everyone who has sent cards and letters; they are truly exciting to open and it means a lot to me! It has certainly been an interesting few weeks for mail...A couple of weeks ago, my nearest fellow PCV called me on a bus headed to Mtwara; some random guy on the bus had four letters addressed to him and four for me. We still don't know how he got them or what he was doing with them. But hey, opening Christmas cards in mid-February is still pretty damn exciting! And then, the very next day I was walking around in Newala and a guy driving a motorcycle stopped, asked if I was Kathryn, and said he had some letters for me at the district agriculture office but hadn't known how to find me. I've had no problems receiving packages down here, but for some reason letters end up taking some interesting detours!
A few people have asked about my rats, which are still a problem but I've come to accept them as my housemates for the next 2 years/my allergies prevent me from getting a cat so I don't have much choice in the matter. So as long as they stay out of my bed and out of my food, they can have free reign of my house at night and I will clean up after them in the mornings. We've had a few disputes lately, as they apparently have an affinity for snacking on expensive, athletic wear; I've had a hole eaten through a $16 pair of underwear, as well as a running sock go missing after I made the mistake of leaving it on the floor one night. And despite the fact that not a single rat has succumb to my poison or trap, a couple of weeks ago I woke up to find a dead rat laying in my living room! (hmmm...isn't that how the Black Plague started?) How did it die, and how can I get more to do so?! My latest theory, or at least the theory that gives me the greatest pleasure, is that it choked to death on my stolen sock.
As for travel, I try to go to Newala every other weekend to see Katie and stock up on fruits, veggies, and peanut butter.I'm currently in Masasi for the weekend to meet up with some ed volunteers that I haven't seen since Christmas, hit up the bank, and stock up on oatmeal. In wo weeks I'll be headed back to Morogoro for 10 days of Peace Corps training (they put on in-service training, IST, about 3 months into site). I'm so excited to see everyone again, visit my host family (Isaac is supposedly talking, kidogo kidogo!), and enjoy some big city pleasures like ice cream and hamburgers. My birthday also falls during IST, so I'm lucky to be able to celebrate turning the big 2-4 with lots of friends and cold beer!
Welp this post has gotten way too long, so I'll stop here for now. Hope everyone is doing well! Love, Kathryn
Thursday, January 27, 2011
January Update
Uploaded a bunch of pics from Thanksgiving, Ruvuma river, Mikandani, Christmas, Kilwa, and New Years...check 'em out!
I've attempted to get online for the last couple of weeks, but the internet/electricity at the nearby Teacher's Training College is not the most reliable. So I know I'm a bit late, but I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays and New Years! Apparently I also had quite the celebration back at home, as I was pleasantly suprised to find a bunch of new pictures on facebook of me with my ridiculous but wonderful friends, cold beer, pitcher of margarita, chips and salsa, etc. In reality my New Years was significantly less exciting and tasty, although we did make some mac and cheese that tasted just like home. But anyways I had fun celebrating at Katie's house along with Ghee and Leslie. It was really nice to just hang out as a small group from our training class. We didn't have any champagne but we did bust open a bucket of mango wine that Katie started a couple of weeks prior. PCVs have discovered that pretty much anything can be fermented and try out lots of interesting recipes; this mango wine was actually really tasty, so long as you got over the idea of drinking bright orange wine!
I headed back to site on Jan 1st which was a bit of a relief after so much traveling over the holidays. I think I logged something like 90 hours on buses from Thanksgiving to New Years. Four-hour bus rides now seem completely reasonable, although they have not become any more fun and took quite the toll on my bank account. But with school now in session, I will likely be enjoying cheap village life and not traveling for some time!
Speaking of village life, in early January I attended my village's annual meeting which was really interesting. The meeting was supposed to start at 10 in the morning and my mkuu and I mosied on over around 10:20. The rest of the villagers came a bit later so the meeting didn't actually start until noon (Tanzanians don't stress too much about time). Both my VEO (village executive officer) and village chairperson are actually females which I think is pretty great. I had to sit with them up at the front along with a few other "honorable guests", facing the 100 or so villagers who were sitting under two giant mango trees. That actually added a bit of excitement to the meeting, as we were in peak mango season at the time and mangoes were literally just falling from trees; there were many close calls with villagers getting pounded and the crowd found it funny every time (Tanzanians literally laugh at everything...I love it and fit right in!). I had to stand and say a few words, so I just introduced myself and thanked them for welcoming me into their village (Tanzanians like to give speeches and they especially like to make guests give speeches). But the most surprising part of the whole meeting was when it was decided that the village will be split into two because it has grown too large, at about 2000 residents. The back part of the village, where I live, is now separate from Maputi. Unfortunately I already forgot my village's new name, so I'll have to get back to y'all on that. But it looks like my school will still be named Maputi Secondary, which won't be confusing at all.
The other highlight of the month happened in the same week, when Katie and Ghee both literally shit their pants. Before you get too grossed out, you should know that this pretty much happens to every PCV at some point. But it is still funny everytime. Ghee's soiled boxers now sit at the bottom of Katie's pit latrine, which should be enough to entertain us for the next 2 years. I'm pretty sure they shared this info in their respective blogs, but telling you all this definitely can't help my gastrointestinal karma, which has actually been pretty good so far (I've only had diarrhea once, ironically after eating pizza at a nice wazungu restaurant). So now I probably deserve to be next...stay tuned! In general, bowel movements are quite the hot topic among PCVs and are discussed with ever-growing casualness. Here's an excerpt from a recent phone conversation for an example:
Me: "How's the diarrhea going? Cleared up yet?"
Nameless PCV: "Well sort of. I'm no longer shooting water out of my ass, but I wouldn't exactly call it solid."
And now I should probably apologize to everyone at home that is thoroughly disgusted, and generally doesn't care to know about their family or friends' poops. But really, everybody poops.
Other than that, January didn't bring a great deal of news to share. Prior to school starting I had a great deal of free-time to try and fill. Because everything here takes way longer to do than in the US, I spent quite a bit of time just doing daily chores like cooking on my little kerosene jiko (stove), collecting water, washing clothes and dishes, and cleaning my house. I was sweeping my house and courtyard atleast once per day, which actually came to be one of my favorite things to do to pass the time. I've also done a great deal of reading, listening to my ipod or my shortwave radio (I can pick up BBC), or chatting on the phone with other volunteers (we all pay to be on the PC phone plan, which is awesome and lets us talk unlimited to each other). After my mom sent a jump rope and some resistance bands in a care package, I even started to get a little bit of morning exercise, although let's face it, jumping rope gets old fast.
I also did a fair amount of obsessing over my house and planning my future decor which probably doesn't surprise any of you. I painted a 4x4' chalkboard on one of my walls which has been fun and is now home to lots of lists and Kiswahili/Kimakonde vocabularly. And thanks to some recent lighting additions, it's a little easier to stay up at night (I've even pushed 10 pm a couple of nights). I bought a solar-powered charger that can charge my phone battery and also has a lightbulb that is now hanging from my living room ceiling. I also finished making my door-cinderblock-mattress-couch, which looks remarkably like a real couch (pics next time?). It is even pretty comfortable and was tested and approved by my first houseguest, Katie. Receiving a visitor was quite exciting because I won't be getting a whole lot of PCV-through-traffic over the next 2 years (my site is way off both the main roads and is kind of a bitch for everyone to get to).
And because a lot of you have asked about how my Kiswahili is coming along... I tested at 'intermediate-high' just before swearing-in (you need 'intermediate-mid' to swear-in which basically means you can greet, introduce and talk about yourself, use past/present/future tense and basic grammar, etc). I can definitely converse about basic things but I'm not to the point of having any type of extended, meaningful conversation in Kiswahili. Quite frankly I don't feel like I've improved at all since coming to site, which is pretty dissapointing but mostly my own fault. My headmaster and other teacher both started off speaking to me in English, which was really nice at first as I was trying to figure out what the hell was going on, but now I really should ask them to switch to Kiswahili full-time. And at this point most of my interactions with villagers are pretty superficial (basic greetings, etc) so I don't get much practice on a daily basis. Travelling with volunteers that have been here for a year also doesn't help because they are pretty fluent and end up doing most of the Kiswahili conversing. So it is definitely something I need to work on because it's really important to me to eventually reach fluency. And because learning one language isn't hard enough, I've also got to work on learning Kimakonde, the tribal language spoken here. My headmaster keeps appointing me Kimakonde teachers even though I keep saying I need to work on my Kiswahili first; basically the thought of me speaking Kimakonde might be the funniest thing in the whole world to the villagers here and everyone is pretty excited to teach me. So who knows, maybe after two years I will also be able to speak a bit of Kimakonde.
And before I forget the whole reason I'm here, my school has been officially in session since Jan 17. Just to update you, I am in fact responsible for teaching all of the math (form 1-4) and physics (form 1-3) at my school, so I have my work cut out for me. But there are no other teachers and I just can't rationalize doing the alternative, leaving half of the students not learning any math or physics at all. But anyways, this is Tanzania and the first week(s) of school means students and teachers may decide to start showing up, then the students must clean the school environment, etc. So last week I didn't do a whole lot, but this week I started off really popular by testing my form 2-4 (grades 9-11) students. Since my school hasn't had a math or physics teacher the last 4 years, I had no idea what level any of the students were at and whether I could just start teaching the syllabus or if I needed to do a lot of review. So I wrote what I thought would be simple exams, made from material that should have been covered in previous forms (i.e. I gave questions from form 1 material to my form 2s, form 1+2 questions for form 3, form 1+2+3 for form 4, etc.). I started with my form 4 maths and holy shit was it an eye opener! First off I thought it would maybe take an hour (29 questions, simple enough for no calculators). I finally cut them off at 3.5 hours because I thought they were either going to fall asleep, die of exhaustion, kill themselves, or kill me. And grading their exams was significantly more painful.
A few examples of answers from nearly every one of my form 4s (11th graders):
1) 1/4 + 2/3 = 3/7
2) 15 - -6 = 9
and my personal favorite because it would never have occurred to me,
3) Solve 5x - 3y when x=4 and y=3 --> 54-33 = 21
So as it turns out, I will need to start out with basic math for nearly all of my students. I'm going to try and meet with my mkuu tomorrow to talk about solutions. I've spoken with my second-master/other teacher about the possibilities for dividing the students up based on ability rather than grade-level and he seemed really receptive, so we will see. Ideally I could start all 4 classes with basic math but be able to move the classes along at different paces. Another serious problem is that most of my students speak little to no English, and of course we have no English teacher. I am hoping to start a "conversational English" club after school where we can have informal English lessons and they can get in some more practice.
Welp I think that's probably enough updatin' for now, so until next time!
I've attempted to get online for the last couple of weeks, but the internet/electricity at the nearby Teacher's Training College is not the most reliable. So I know I'm a bit late, but I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays and New Years! Apparently I also had quite the celebration back at home, as I was pleasantly suprised to find a bunch of new pictures on facebook of me with my ridiculous but wonderful friends, cold beer, pitcher of margarita, chips and salsa, etc. In reality my New Years was significantly less exciting and tasty, although we did make some mac and cheese that tasted just like home. But anyways I had fun celebrating at Katie's house along with Ghee and Leslie. It was really nice to just hang out as a small group from our training class. We didn't have any champagne but we did bust open a bucket of mango wine that Katie started a couple of weeks prior. PCVs have discovered that pretty much anything can be fermented and try out lots of interesting recipes; this mango wine was actually really tasty, so long as you got over the idea of drinking bright orange wine!
I headed back to site on Jan 1st which was a bit of a relief after so much traveling over the holidays. I think I logged something like 90 hours on buses from Thanksgiving to New Years. Four-hour bus rides now seem completely reasonable, although they have not become any more fun and took quite the toll on my bank account. But with school now in session, I will likely be enjoying cheap village life and not traveling for some time!
Speaking of village life, in early January I attended my village's annual meeting which was really interesting. The meeting was supposed to start at 10 in the morning and my mkuu and I mosied on over around 10:20. The rest of the villagers came a bit later so the meeting didn't actually start until noon (Tanzanians don't stress too much about time). Both my VEO (village executive officer) and village chairperson are actually females which I think is pretty great. I had to sit with them up at the front along with a few other "honorable guests", facing the 100 or so villagers who were sitting under two giant mango trees. That actually added a bit of excitement to the meeting, as we were in peak mango season at the time and mangoes were literally just falling from trees; there were many close calls with villagers getting pounded and the crowd found it funny every time (Tanzanians literally laugh at everything...I love it and fit right in!). I had to stand and say a few words, so I just introduced myself and thanked them for welcoming me into their village (Tanzanians like to give speeches and they especially like to make guests give speeches). But the most surprising part of the whole meeting was when it was decided that the village will be split into two because it has grown too large, at about 2000 residents. The back part of the village, where I live, is now separate from Maputi. Unfortunately I already forgot my village's new name, so I'll have to get back to y'all on that. But it looks like my school will still be named Maputi Secondary, which won't be confusing at all.
The other highlight of the month happened in the same week, when Katie and Ghee both literally shit their pants. Before you get too grossed out, you should know that this pretty much happens to every PCV at some point. But it is still funny everytime. Ghee's soiled boxers now sit at the bottom of Katie's pit latrine, which should be enough to entertain us for the next 2 years. I'm pretty sure they shared this info in their respective blogs, but telling you all this definitely can't help my gastrointestinal karma, which has actually been pretty good so far (I've only had diarrhea once, ironically after eating pizza at a nice wazungu restaurant). So now I probably deserve to be next...stay tuned! In general, bowel movements are quite the hot topic among PCVs and are discussed with ever-growing casualness. Here's an excerpt from a recent phone conversation for an example:
Me: "How's the diarrhea going? Cleared up yet?"
Nameless PCV: "Well sort of. I'm no longer shooting water out of my ass, but I wouldn't exactly call it solid."
And now I should probably apologize to everyone at home that is thoroughly disgusted, and generally doesn't care to know about their family or friends' poops. But really, everybody poops.
Other than that, January didn't bring a great deal of news to share. Prior to school starting I had a great deal of free-time to try and fill. Because everything here takes way longer to do than in the US, I spent quite a bit of time just doing daily chores like cooking on my little kerosene jiko (stove), collecting water, washing clothes and dishes, and cleaning my house. I was sweeping my house and courtyard atleast once per day, which actually came to be one of my favorite things to do to pass the time. I've also done a great deal of reading, listening to my ipod or my shortwave radio (I can pick up BBC), or chatting on the phone with other volunteers (we all pay to be on the PC phone plan, which is awesome and lets us talk unlimited to each other). After my mom sent a jump rope and some resistance bands in a care package, I even started to get a little bit of morning exercise, although let's face it, jumping rope gets old fast.
I also did a fair amount of obsessing over my house and planning my future decor which probably doesn't surprise any of you. I painted a 4x4' chalkboard on one of my walls which has been fun and is now home to lots of lists and Kiswahili/Kimakonde vocabularly. And thanks to some recent lighting additions, it's a little easier to stay up at night (I've even pushed 10 pm a couple of nights). I bought a solar-powered charger that can charge my phone battery and also has a lightbulb that is now hanging from my living room ceiling. I also finished making my door-cinderblock-mattress-couch, which looks remarkably like a real couch (pics next time?). It is even pretty comfortable and was tested and approved by my first houseguest, Katie. Receiving a visitor was quite exciting because I won't be getting a whole lot of PCV-through-traffic over the next 2 years (my site is way off both the main roads and is kind of a bitch for everyone to get to).
And because a lot of you have asked about how my Kiswahili is coming along... I tested at 'intermediate-high' just before swearing-in (you need 'intermediate-mid' to swear-in which basically means you can greet, introduce and talk about yourself, use past/present/future tense and basic grammar, etc). I can definitely converse about basic things but I'm not to the point of having any type of extended, meaningful conversation in Kiswahili. Quite frankly I don't feel like I've improved at all since coming to site, which is pretty dissapointing but mostly my own fault. My headmaster and other teacher both started off speaking to me in English, which was really nice at first as I was trying to figure out what the hell was going on, but now I really should ask them to switch to Kiswahili full-time. And at this point most of my interactions with villagers are pretty superficial (basic greetings, etc) so I don't get much practice on a daily basis. Travelling with volunteers that have been here for a year also doesn't help because they are pretty fluent and end up doing most of the Kiswahili conversing. So it is definitely something I need to work on because it's really important to me to eventually reach fluency. And because learning one language isn't hard enough, I've also got to work on learning Kimakonde, the tribal language spoken here. My headmaster keeps appointing me Kimakonde teachers even though I keep saying I need to work on my Kiswahili first; basically the thought of me speaking Kimakonde might be the funniest thing in the whole world to the villagers here and everyone is pretty excited to teach me. So who knows, maybe after two years I will also be able to speak a bit of Kimakonde.
And before I forget the whole reason I'm here, my school has been officially in session since Jan 17. Just to update you, I am in fact responsible for teaching all of the math (form 1-4) and physics (form 1-3) at my school, so I have my work cut out for me. But there are no other teachers and I just can't rationalize doing the alternative, leaving half of the students not learning any math or physics at all. But anyways, this is Tanzania and the first week(s) of school means students and teachers may decide to start showing up, then the students must clean the school environment, etc. So last week I didn't do a whole lot, but this week I started off really popular by testing my form 2-4 (grades 9-11) students. Since my school hasn't had a math or physics teacher the last 4 years, I had no idea what level any of the students were at and whether I could just start teaching the syllabus or if I needed to do a lot of review. So I wrote what I thought would be simple exams, made from material that should have been covered in previous forms (i.e. I gave questions from form 1 material to my form 2s, form 1+2 questions for form 3, form 1+2+3 for form 4, etc.). I started with my form 4 maths and holy shit was it an eye opener! First off I thought it would maybe take an hour (29 questions, simple enough for no calculators). I finally cut them off at 3.5 hours because I thought they were either going to fall asleep, die of exhaustion, kill themselves, or kill me. And grading their exams was significantly more painful.
A few examples of answers from nearly every one of my form 4s (11th graders):
1) 1/4 + 2/3 = 3/7
2) 15 - -6 = 9
and my personal favorite because it would never have occurred to me,
3) Solve 5x - 3y when x=4 and y=3 --> 54-33 = 21
So as it turns out, I will need to start out with basic math for nearly all of my students. I'm going to try and meet with my mkuu tomorrow to talk about solutions. I've spoken with my second-master/other teacher about the possibilities for dividing the students up based on ability rather than grade-level and he seemed really receptive, so we will see. Ideally I could start all 4 classes with basic math but be able to move the classes along at different paces. Another serious problem is that most of my students speak little to no English, and of course we have no English teacher. I am hoping to start a "conversational English" club after school where we can have informal English lessons and they can get in some more practice.
Welp I think that's probably enough updatin' for now, so until next time!
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Merry Christmas!
Hope everyone enjoyed the holidays! I went to Newala on the 23rd to meet up with Katie and then we went to Ndanda the morning of the 24th to meet up with 9 other PCVs for holiday festivities. We went again to the watering hole for a nice swim and ended the day at a restaraunt for some basic Tanzanian fare and beers. We began Christmas morning by cooking a fabulous breakfast feast. We had eggs scrambled with lots of veggies, sausage (made by local nuns), and Katie and I even channeled our southern-ness (she's from Oklahoma) and cooked up some rockin' biscuits and sausage gravy. After brunch we did a gift swap...the theme was ridiculous stuff you can buy in Tanzania and we each had a 3000 shilingi (~2 USD). It was a lot of fun and the gifts ranged from a Hannah Montana CD case to a bottle of ranch dressing and CD of porn (there was a lot of regifting from care packages). I think I ended up with the best present of all...a 4-pack of Starbucks double shot espresso drinks. I even got to drink them chilled, courtesy of Dylan's fridge! We spent the rest of the day just relaxing, puzzling and playing scrabble, drinking bucket wine and cooking. For dinner we made beef fajitas that also turned out to be pretty tasty, and ended the night playing charades. All in all a very nice Christmas.
On the morning of the 26th me, Katie, Ghee, Grant, Jeff, and Jose hopped on a bus to Lindi and then went onwards to an island village called Kilwa Kisiwani, a UNESCO World Heritage site for its 9th century ruins. On the 27th we took a little sailboat over to see the ruins, which were pretty neat, and then spent the afternoon at the beach. The beach was really nice and I can now cross 'playing Marco Polo in the Indian Ocean' off my bucket list. Ice cold beers at a safi hotel bar on the beach ended out the vacation nicely. Katie, Ghee and I headed back to Lindi this morning (the others went on to the next stop of their trip) and we're spending the day here in an air-conditioned internet cafe, tonight in an Anglican church, and tomorrow we'll head back to Katie's site in Newala to spend New Years. I'm just about out of computer time, so that's all for now, hopefully pictures later. Hope you all have a fun New Years!
On the morning of the 26th me, Katie, Ghee, Grant, Jeff, and Jose hopped on a bus to Lindi and then went onwards to an island village called Kilwa Kisiwani, a UNESCO World Heritage site for its 9th century ruins. On the 27th we took a little sailboat over to see the ruins, which were pretty neat, and then spent the afternoon at the beach. The beach was really nice and I can now cross 'playing Marco Polo in the Indian Ocean' off my bucket list. Ice cold beers at a safi hotel bar on the beach ended out the vacation nicely. Katie, Ghee and I headed back to Lindi this morning (the others went on to the next stop of their trip) and we're spending the day here in an air-conditioned internet cafe, tonight in an Anglican church, and tomorrow we'll head back to Katie's site in Newala to spend New Years. I'm just about out of computer time, so that's all for now, hopefully pictures later. Hope you all have a fun New Years!
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
a few more pictures...
Got cut off the computer before I could finish uploading all my pictures. I finished captioning the last of the swearing-in pics and created a new album (PC Tanzania - service) with a few pictures of my house* and school. Enjoy!
*My house pics are already a bit outdated, but my laptop is dead so I can't upload new pictures at the moment. Recent additions to my living room include a bookshelf and the beginnings of a what will one day be a couch...so far I've just removed one of my doors and gathered up some cinderblocks to set it on. Hopefully I'll find a couple of cheap mattresses soon and some fabric to upholster them!
*My house pics are already a bit outdated, but my laptop is dead so I can't upload new pictures at the moment. Recent additions to my living room include a bookshelf and the beginnings of a what will one day be a couch...so far I've just removed one of my doors and gathered up some cinderblocks to set it on. Hopefully I'll find a couple of cheap mattresses soon and some fabric to upholster them!
Friday, December 17, 2010
Big Update! with pictures!
Hello from the deep south! I've been at site for 3 weeks now, and it's been quite the adventure so far. I added a bunch of pictures from our swearing-in ceremony at the US Embassy and Thanksgiving dinner at the Ambassador's house plus a few of my new house! Check 'em out in the photostream above.
So what's my new life like?!
MY VILLAGE...is called Maputi, and is near the town of Kitangali (or Kitangari) on the Makonde plateau in Mtwara region. It is pretty small, but it's hard to get any kind of accurate population, so I'm just going to guess that there are 1000 or 2000 people living here. I think my village is really cute, and pretty much looks like what you all probably imagine a rural African village to look like...lots of little mud huts with grass roofs. It has just a couple of dukas (shops) that sell some basic goods. We don't have much of a market, and the only produce I can buy here is onions, potatoes, and shitty tomatoes. Kitangali has a small market where you can usually find some sort of leafy green vegetable and maybe a bit of fruit. Unfortunately there is a huge valley between me and Kitangali and so it is about an hour walk up and down a couple of very steep hills. Another PCV lives in a village on the other side of Kitangali; his name is Tyler and he is from the most recent (swore-in in August) health and environment group. He's nice and has been really helpful so far, showing me around Kitangali and letting me share his PO Box. There is also a teacher's training college about a 20 minute walk from my house; I visited it the other day and I was pleasantly surprised to find a very nice looking computer lab that is hooked up with internet! The vice principle told me I could use it anytime I want for free, which is great news considering the closest internet cafe is probably a 4 hour bus ride away. Anyways, one of these days I'll snap some pictures of my vill, although it is a bit awkward to just whip my camera out most places.
MY SCHOOL...is on break now so I don't have much to update you all on. My mkuu (headmaster) is really nice and seems really dedicated to the school and students. He already got a bunch of math and science textbooks donated from an NGO out of the UK and even obtained some lab equipment from another school. My neighbor/other teacher has also been super helpful and I think he'll be great to work with. His name is Likulu and he's the only other full-time teacher besides myself, teaching Biology and Chemistry. The school has never had a math or physics teacher, and would like me to teach both at all 4 grade levels. That would be an extremely heavy teaching load (8 classes/day --> double what PC recommends) and require a lot of lesson planning, so I haven't quite figured out how I'll manage that...I may talk to my mkuu about cutting it down. But either way I'll begin teaching with the next term in mid-January.
MY HOUSE...is pretty basic, but I like it. I share a duplex with Likulu and our mkuu's house is maybe 50 yards from ours. We don't have electricity, which means I get quite a bit of sleep (usually in bed at 8pm) because there's just not much to do after dark. Fortunately the primary school connected to the teacher's training college has electricity, so I can take my cell phone over to one of the two teachers that live there and they'll charge it for free. Water in general is a problem on the plateau, but I've actually got a big concrete storage tank right next to my house that is connected to a rain catchment system from me and my mkuu's roof. It's pretty low now because the rainy season is just starting, so for now it gets filled by students that carry buckets of water from the main tap in the village. My house has a living room and 3 bedrooms which is way more space than I need...one room is storage at this point and another is completely empty. I also have a private courtyard which is really nice and where I spend a lot of my time. It's got a little room with a choo (bathroom/hole in the ground), a little room for bucket bathing, a storage closet, an area to cook, and clotheslines for laundry. My house started out extremely empty with just a bed, table and chairs, and desk. But I've since "borrowed" a few more desks from my school so now it's just mostly empty. I also went to a fundi to work on getting some shelves/cabinets built so that I can really begin unpacking my things. But they turned out to be a lot more expensive than I thought/can afford, so I'm going to have to just get one piece built at a time...up first is a bookshelf that should be ready today or tomorrow! And one day in the far far future I hope to be a proud owner of a couch, but for now I mostly just hang out on my bed. Every time I go to a town I try and pick up a few things to help me settle in (you can never have enough buckets). All in all setting up house will be quite a slow process, as everything I buy has to be either carried by yours truly or somehow shoved in/on a jam-packed bus.
But most unfortunately for me, I've got a serious rat problem. At first I could just hear them scurrying in my roof at night, find half-eaten bars of soap, and would sweep up rat poop every morning. But lately they've become quite the daredevils and like to come into my room at night. About 2 weeks ago I was completely startled to find a rat in one of my duffle bags. I bought rat poison and mixed it with some tomatoes and left it out one night, but apparently those little guys aren't easy to kill. Then I woke up to scratching behind my head...I turned my headlamp on and sure enough there was a rat trying to get into my tucked-in mosquito net! It turned into a pretty restless night's sleep as I'd wake up to more scratching every hour or so and have to hit my bed to make it scurry away. I left the next morning to go out of town for 5 days and sure enough it managed to eat through my mosquito net in that time. I came home to find a 2x2 inch hole in my mosquito net and a bunch of rat poop and pee on my bed. I washed my sheets and patched up my mosquito net, and just recently acquired a rat trap that I will test out tonight. If that doesn't work I think I'm going to get a cat (yep, that's right, did you ever imagine me a cat owner?!).
TRAVEL...down here is no fun. So far I've been on a bus that got stuck in the mud for 2.5 hours, a bus that broke down for 2.5 hours, 2 flat tires, a fire extinguisher explosion, drove on a 30 degree incline while dodging giant dirt piles, witnessed a full-blown physical fight over seats, held sleeping children on my lap, and completely changed my definition of the word crowded. There is only one paved road in the region, so most bus travel is done in shitty buses on shitty roads. And rainy season is just starting which should make travel even more interesting! But on the bright side, I get a great core workout every time I spend a bus ride trying to maintain my balance while standing in a variety of uncomfortable positions!
Buses don't go through my village very often, but there is one daladala that runs once a day to Newala, where my good friend Katie lives. Unfortunately it leaves my village at 5:45 in the morning, but it only takes about 1.5 hours to get there. Newala is pretty nice and has a big market where I have bought most of things for my house and also where I've found the most fresh produce. There is even one duka that sells peanut butter which has been a huge lifesaver! There are also a few other health/env volunteers that live near Newala so it is one of the meeting points in the region. If I go the opposite way on the main road from my village (north), I can reach a town called Mtama in about 2 hours. There is another ed volunteer, Grant, that lives there. Mtama is on the paved road that runs from Lindi to Masasi. A few volunteers live in villages along this road, including my good friend Ghee, who ended up getting transferred down here last minute. I've gone west to the town of Ndanda, where two ed volunteers, Dillon and Jeff, live. It's a pretty big town with a nice market. Dillon has a really safi house there with electricity, water you can drink straight from the tap, an oven, etc. so that is another big congregrating point for volunteers (and where I spent Thanksgiving).
So all in all I've already done quite a bit of traveling, mostly because the other ed volunteers are on break from school and it's holiday season. Although we're pretty isolated from the other regions, Peace Corps has been building Mtwara up so there are quite a few of us down here and we are relatively close to one another. It has definitely been nice to see/travel with other PCVs and have more of a transition into full-time village life. I got back about a week ago from a 5 day trip that was a lot of fun...I went to Newala for a couple of days to celebrate a volunteer's, Claire, birthday. We hired a truck to take us from Newala down to the Ruvuma river, which defines the border between Tanzania and Mozambique. It was a really pretty drive down the edge of the plateau and the river was also nice. It was quite tempting to make the short cross over to Mozambique, but we resisted because there are supposedly alligators and also because Peace Corps would shit themselves and then quickly send us home if they ever found out some crossed into northern Mozambique (which is still covered in lots of landmines). Then aobut 8 of us headed by bus to Mtwara town. We stayed 2 nights in Mikandani, a nearby village, at a pretty nice guesthouse that we were able to get a good deal on. We also stuffed our faces with extremely tasty but extremely expensive food. I ate quite possibly the best steak of my life and I drank a margarita! But the best part is that we went snorkling! In the Indian Ocean! It was my first time to snorkel and it was absolutely beautiful. I also recently went to Masasi, a 4.5 hour bus ride away and where the closest ATM is, and soon I'll be headed back to Ndanda to celebrate Christmas with some of the volunteers down here. Still not sure about New Year's plans, but thinking about heading to Lindi.
Welp, that's just about all I can think of to write at the moment. But I am doing well and still feel really lucky to be in Tanzania and Mtwara! I hope everyone is well and enjoying the holiday season!
So what's my new life like?!
MY VILLAGE...is called Maputi, and is near the town of Kitangali (or Kitangari) on the Makonde plateau in Mtwara region. It is pretty small, but it's hard to get any kind of accurate population, so I'm just going to guess that there are 1000 or 2000 people living here. I think my village is really cute, and pretty much looks like what you all probably imagine a rural African village to look like...lots of little mud huts with grass roofs. It has just a couple of dukas (shops) that sell some basic goods. We don't have much of a market, and the only produce I can buy here is onions, potatoes, and shitty tomatoes. Kitangali has a small market where you can usually find some sort of leafy green vegetable and maybe a bit of fruit. Unfortunately there is a huge valley between me and Kitangali and so it is about an hour walk up and down a couple of very steep hills. Another PCV lives in a village on the other side of Kitangali; his name is Tyler and he is from the most recent (swore-in in August) health and environment group. He's nice and has been really helpful so far, showing me around Kitangali and letting me share his PO Box. There is also a teacher's training college about a 20 minute walk from my house; I visited it the other day and I was pleasantly surprised to find a very nice looking computer lab that is hooked up with internet! The vice principle told me I could use it anytime I want for free, which is great news considering the closest internet cafe is probably a 4 hour bus ride away. Anyways, one of these days I'll snap some pictures of my vill, although it is a bit awkward to just whip my camera out most places.
MY SCHOOL...is on break now so I don't have much to update you all on. My mkuu (headmaster) is really nice and seems really dedicated to the school and students. He already got a bunch of math and science textbooks donated from an NGO out of the UK and even obtained some lab equipment from another school. My neighbor/other teacher has also been super helpful and I think he'll be great to work with. His name is Likulu and he's the only other full-time teacher besides myself, teaching Biology and Chemistry. The school has never had a math or physics teacher, and would like me to teach both at all 4 grade levels. That would be an extremely heavy teaching load (8 classes/day --> double what PC recommends) and require a lot of lesson planning, so I haven't quite figured out how I'll manage that...I may talk to my mkuu about cutting it down. But either way I'll begin teaching with the next term in mid-January.
MY HOUSE...is pretty basic, but I like it. I share a duplex with Likulu and our mkuu's house is maybe 50 yards from ours. We don't have electricity, which means I get quite a bit of sleep (usually in bed at 8pm) because there's just not much to do after dark. Fortunately the primary school connected to the teacher's training college has electricity, so I can take my cell phone over to one of the two teachers that live there and they'll charge it for free. Water in general is a problem on the plateau, but I've actually got a big concrete storage tank right next to my house that is connected to a rain catchment system from me and my mkuu's roof. It's pretty low now because the rainy season is just starting, so for now it gets filled by students that carry buckets of water from the main tap in the village. My house has a living room and 3 bedrooms which is way more space than I need...one room is storage at this point and another is completely empty. I also have a private courtyard which is really nice and where I spend a lot of my time. It's got a little room with a choo (bathroom/hole in the ground), a little room for bucket bathing, a storage closet, an area to cook, and clotheslines for laundry. My house started out extremely empty with just a bed, table and chairs, and desk. But I've since "borrowed" a few more desks from my school so now it's just mostly empty. I also went to a fundi to work on getting some shelves/cabinets built so that I can really begin unpacking my things. But they turned out to be a lot more expensive than I thought/can afford, so I'm going to have to just get one piece built at a time...up first is a bookshelf that should be ready today or tomorrow! And one day in the far far future I hope to be a proud owner of a couch, but for now I mostly just hang out on my bed. Every time I go to a town I try and pick up a few things to help me settle in (you can never have enough buckets). All in all setting up house will be quite a slow process, as everything I buy has to be either carried by yours truly or somehow shoved in/on a jam-packed bus.
But most unfortunately for me, I've got a serious rat problem. At first I could just hear them scurrying in my roof at night, find half-eaten bars of soap, and would sweep up rat poop every morning. But lately they've become quite the daredevils and like to come into my room at night. About 2 weeks ago I was completely startled to find a rat in one of my duffle bags. I bought rat poison and mixed it with some tomatoes and left it out one night, but apparently those little guys aren't easy to kill. Then I woke up to scratching behind my head...I turned my headlamp on and sure enough there was a rat trying to get into my tucked-in mosquito net! It turned into a pretty restless night's sleep as I'd wake up to more scratching every hour or so and have to hit my bed to make it scurry away. I left the next morning to go out of town for 5 days and sure enough it managed to eat through my mosquito net in that time. I came home to find a 2x2 inch hole in my mosquito net and a bunch of rat poop and pee on my bed. I washed my sheets and patched up my mosquito net, and just recently acquired a rat trap that I will test out tonight. If that doesn't work I think I'm going to get a cat (yep, that's right, did you ever imagine me a cat owner?!).
TRAVEL...down here is no fun. So far I've been on a bus that got stuck in the mud for 2.5 hours, a bus that broke down for 2.5 hours, 2 flat tires, a fire extinguisher explosion, drove on a 30 degree incline while dodging giant dirt piles, witnessed a full-blown physical fight over seats, held sleeping children on my lap, and completely changed my definition of the word crowded. There is only one paved road in the region, so most bus travel is done in shitty buses on shitty roads. And rainy season is just starting which should make travel even more interesting! But on the bright side, I get a great core workout every time I spend a bus ride trying to maintain my balance while standing in a variety of uncomfortable positions!
Buses don't go through my village very often, but there is one daladala that runs once a day to Newala, where my good friend Katie lives. Unfortunately it leaves my village at 5:45 in the morning, but it only takes about 1.5 hours to get there. Newala is pretty nice and has a big market where I have bought most of things for my house and also where I've found the most fresh produce. There is even one duka that sells peanut butter which has been a huge lifesaver! There are also a few other health/env volunteers that live near Newala so it is one of the meeting points in the region. If I go the opposite way on the main road from my village (north), I can reach a town called Mtama in about 2 hours. There is another ed volunteer, Grant, that lives there. Mtama is on the paved road that runs from Lindi to Masasi. A few volunteers live in villages along this road, including my good friend Ghee, who ended up getting transferred down here last minute. I've gone west to the town of Ndanda, where two ed volunteers, Dillon and Jeff, live. It's a pretty big town with a nice market. Dillon has a really safi house there with electricity, water you can drink straight from the tap, an oven, etc. so that is another big congregrating point for volunteers (and where I spent Thanksgiving).
So all in all I've already done quite a bit of traveling, mostly because the other ed volunteers are on break from school and it's holiday season. Although we're pretty isolated from the other regions, Peace Corps has been building Mtwara up so there are quite a few of us down here and we are relatively close to one another. It has definitely been nice to see/travel with other PCVs and have more of a transition into full-time village life. I got back about a week ago from a 5 day trip that was a lot of fun...I went to Newala for a couple of days to celebrate a volunteer's, Claire, birthday. We hired a truck to take us from Newala down to the Ruvuma river, which defines the border between Tanzania and Mozambique. It was a really pretty drive down the edge of the plateau and the river was also nice. It was quite tempting to make the short cross over to Mozambique, but we resisted because there are supposedly alligators and also because Peace Corps would shit themselves and then quickly send us home if they ever found out some crossed into northern Mozambique (which is still covered in lots of landmines). Then aobut 8 of us headed by bus to Mtwara town. We stayed 2 nights in Mikandani, a nearby village, at a pretty nice guesthouse that we were able to get a good deal on. We also stuffed our faces with extremely tasty but extremely expensive food. I ate quite possibly the best steak of my life and I drank a margarita! But the best part is that we went snorkling! In the Indian Ocean! It was my first time to snorkel and it was absolutely beautiful. I also recently went to Masasi, a 4.5 hour bus ride away and where the closest ATM is, and soon I'll be headed back to Ndanda to celebrate Christmas with some of the volunteers down here. Still not sure about New Year's plans, but thinking about heading to Lindi.
Welp, that's just about all I can think of to write at the moment. But I am doing well and still feel really lucky to be in Tanzania and Mtwara! I hope everyone is well and enjoying the holiday season!
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