Wilima Science Competition

First off, I would just like to take this opportunity to wish everyone out there a very happy Tanzanian Union Day! And how exactly does one celebrate this festive occasion locally, you ask? I have absolutely no idea, but it means a day off of school for me, and therefore an opportunity for soon-to-be-leaving PCVs from the area to have a "final Chani weekend" in Njombe. And so today, to clear out some space and make some extra cash, a few of us took to the streets of Njombe to sell all of the old clothes that have been accumulating over the last couple years. My haul was mostly supplied by the things that the volunteer before me left at my house. But hey, finders sellers. It was worth it just for the entertainment to be honest, seeing the crowd of Tanzanians following us around town to see what we had in all of those big fancy suitcases. Can't wait to see a few more people walking around town with their fashionable bike helmets!

The big news since my last post, however, was that I successfully completed my second weekend science competition, this one at my own school, Wilima Secondary, along with students from the nearby Wino Secondary School, which also has a PCV from my class. So he, along with 8 Form III and Form IV students, made the walk to my school on a Friday, making for a total of 6 teams of 4 students competing.

Form III parachute - based egg drop device

This competition was different from the first one in Njombe during March in that it contained twice as many students, was hosted by my school and therefore took place in front of a crowd of a couple hundred cheering students (wild and crazy kids if you will) throughout the weekend, and also featured a couple new events that we didn't get to try out in Njombe. Many of the competitions were the same, although it was interesting to see the differences in some of the design techniques compared to the younger students from the Njombe seminar. These students, for instance, actually were familiar with the parachute concept (to my surprise) and a couple of them used it in their egg drop devices. I also tried to incorporate more mini lessons into the activities to help the kids relate their classroom content to more practical applications (e.g. thinking about center of mass for building tall structures and Archimedes' Principle for building rafts).

A Form IV student presents his group's tallest jengo, or building, made from only paper and tape.

This seminar also saw the introduction of the JEOPARDY quiz bowl competition. Rather than testing them strictly on classroom facts, we decided to focus the JEOPARDY categories on things like completing number sequences and picture patterns, and presenting engineering-style scenarios that required them to use simple formulas to meet certain design specifications. Some of the problems were pretty challenging, even for the top students that we had participating. But they all really got into it and once again really impressed me with their abilities. The one disappointment, however, was that none of them seemed to appreciate the value of Final JEOPARDY. Only half the teams were even willing to gamble any of their points after my pulling their arms, and then only bet the minimum. I need to find a way to teach them about the value of high-risk-high-reward gambling and extreme thinking - someone has to set a good example after all...

Creating a fresh batch of Sudoku maniacs.

The bridge building competition again was saved for last, though this time it got to be a little ridiculous. I guess the bamboo sticks we gave them were bigger, so the groups were cutting them in halves and using multiple rails of bamboo on their bridges. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves in terms of the results - myself standing on one of the bridges while holding a cinder block I think was actually a reduction in the load compared to what we used while testing. But the kids certainly enjoyed seeing how they could make such a strong bridge with such few materials.

Each of these cinder blocks easily weighs 50 lbs.

Overall, I was extremely pleased once again with how the competition went, and it definitely seemed like the students appreciated it as well. That and the fact that, after using some leftover materials from the last one, this entire competition cost somewhere around $12 to put on. Now that's what I call a Peace Corps budget! And the added bonus was that one of the new teachers at my school has a video camera, and was able to take some great footage of the whole weekend, including plenty of my jumbled, babbling Swahinglish. So I'm currently working on making some kind of video / slideshow trailer that I can use to possibly further my extension hopes and maybe get more funding for doing future competitions. I've already gotten a good amount of confirmed interest from other volunteers in bringing things like this to their schools, but I'm still waiting to get more information from the Peace Corps staff about what is going to happen with my extension request. In the meantime, I'm really enjoying getting to do these small-scale seminars for the kids at my school. One of the Form I's that I took to Njombe actually approached me and requested that we hold another similar competition at Wino soon for the younger students who didn't get to participate this past weekend, so it's really cool to see how excited he is getting for these competitions!

The other exciting thing at my school has been that I've found a couple teachers who are also big basketball enthusiasts, and so I've shared with them some of the old Bulls playoff games and Michael Jordan videos that I got while I was home. We've started having evening screenings for some of the basketball playing students as well, so I'm happy to say that MJ is quickly becoming a household name around Wilima!

Next week I will be heading up to Dar for our class's Close of Service (COS) Conference, which basically means spending a week on vacation at a nice hotel on the south beaches of Dar. I guess it's Peace Corps' way of saying congratulations on making it for two years, now enjoy a free week in Dar. So check back soon for more updates on that and hopefully some good news about my extension finally! Thanks for stopping by, San Diego.

Karibu Kwangu (Welcome to My Home)

The week before Easter, I had my week-long break from school, so I decided to take the opportunity to get a closer look at my home town of Njombe. For the beginning of the break, I took my tent on the road to a small lake a few miles outside of town, where other volunteers and ex-pats sometimes go for water skiing and other fun things. But most of the time it's just an empty space that offers a quiet retreating point with a beautiful backdrop. A very nice Tanzanian man keeps up the place and provided a roaring fire each night, which was much appreciated during the now-beginning cold season of Njombe (which actually is COLD, go figure!). Aside from the hordes of raging siafu (vicious biting army ants), it was extremely pleasant, and a very nice way to regroup after the first few months of teaching. Why haven't I been taking advantage of this place more over the last 2 years?!

After that, I visited a village called Uhekule near Njombe, where there is an ex-Peace Corps volunteer who has stayed in Tanzania for seven years now, and has built an orphanage for kids in the village. I had been meaning to pay a visit for quite a while now, and so it was really nice to finally see the place. The kids provided a warm welcome by literally jumping all over me and asking me to do Spiderman impressions. I guess they don't get enough visitors... The orphanage is fantastic, though. It's been up and running for 2 years now, and gives a home to 11 kids from the village, and the other village members seem to have taken very well to it.  There is also a fantastic kitchen, so we made some very tasty fajitas, and I paid for my stay by making my own specialty - banana pancakes.

Following these small excursions, it was back to the Chani Hotel in Njombe for the 2nd Annual Njombe Jam. For those who didn't read about it from last year's blogs, Njombe Jam is Peace Corps Tanzania's newest Easter tradition, started last year by myself and a few other Njombe PCVs. Volunteers from all over the country compete, representing their home regions, in a decathalon of events seeking the right to claim nation-wide superiority among Peace Corps Tanzania.  Events include basketball, bags (cornhole for those from Indiana), Mario Kart, a relay race, egg toss, and of course the Easter Beer Hunt. And if you think I indulged myself by making over-elaborate poster-sized brackets for each event, then you know me all too well. There was a great turnout, and even better, Njombe came out victorious! I was particularly excited that we won the one event I really cared about, 3-on-3 basketball. I believe our victory can be credited to a pre-game viewing of Michael Jordan highlight films, followed by a mandatory screening of Space Jam. For two straight years now, we have tried to make a Stanley Cup-esque trophy for the tournament, and for two straight years now it has been lost/stolen. At least this year I was able to get a picture!

Since my return to Wilima, I have been teaching my normal classes, and was very pleasantly surprised to see a Form I student of mine get a 100% on my Physics midterm exam, and another get a 98% for math. I was particularly happy because both of them were female students, and girls in general tend to get more easily discouraged in math and science in this country. Over the last week, I've been getting through the greatest predicament of my life - too many avocados!! I got a gift from the school of a 10-liter bucket full of them, which is just the tip of the iceberg of how many the school has gotten this year. So I've been averaging about 4 per day for a while now... and loving it!


Next weekend is my second installment of science competitions - this one will take place at my school and will be a 6-team competition including students from the nearby school that also has a Peace Corps teacher. I plan on trying out some new variations, like Jeopardy-style academic competitions, together with some of the activities that were a big hit last time in Njombe. This competition however will consist of older students, Form III and IV, so it will be interesting to see how their designs compare to the Form I and II students from last time. I've sent in my application for Peace Corps extension doing these kinds of competitions around the country for the next 6 months to 1 year following my end-of-service time in mid-July. So now I play the waiting game to see what they have to say about my idea, but I will be sure to keep the updates coming as I find out more!