Stanzania - Zanzibar

Monday morning Christine and I took the ferry from Dar to Zanzibar. It was very little extra to upgrade to the air-conditioned first-class section, so we rode in style, eating chocolate and watching the new Karate Kid movie. Arriving on the Zanzibar beaches was gorgeous, and we couldn't believe how big the island was. Of course we were constantly heckled by taxi drivers as we made our way on land, which was a little overwhelming, even for what I'm used to. I'm sure it must have been especially crazy for Christine. But we made our way to our hotel, which was very close by.

The people at the hotel were incredibly helpful, and gave us tips on everything we wanted to do on Zanzibar. We arrived around 1:00pm and found out that we still had time that afternoon to take a private boat out to Prison Island. The island was small, only about 250 yards at its widest point, and never actually was turned into a prison, though that was the original intention for it many years ago. Many of the original buildings have been preserved and now it is strictly a tourist site. We were first led around the island and stopped a ways off the coast to go snorkling around the coral reef. It was so cool to see the many types of coral, sea aneonomies, all different rainbow colored fish, starfish, those black, sharp, thorny guys, and plenty of other things that I don't know how to accurately describe. It took us both a bit to get a hang of the snorkling, but it was such a blast!

Then we got on the island, which had kind of a guided tour path around the buidings with some historical info, and there was even a fresh-water swimming pool for guests with the water coming from an underground pipe from zanzibar. We ran into a herd of peacocks for our first wild-animal sightings of the trip. By far the most interesting though was the tortoises, the oldest of which was apparently 189 years old! They were all kept in one area and ranged all the way to just 10 years old. Of course they filled the stereotype of moving incredibly slooow - I only saw one riding around on a skateboard, but he wasn't even wearing an orange bandana.

 

In the evening, we went to this place called Forodhani Gardens for dinner. It is a huge lantern-lit garden where people set up tables and sell (supposedly) fresh seafood or make other local specialties such as soups, mini pizzas, and sugar cane juice. The variety of seafood was incredible - among those I remember them saying are, tuna, baracuda, kingfish, lobster, crab, red herring...but there were plenty of others too. Everything had so much more flavor than I've ever tasted in Tanzanian food.

The next day we did the Spice Tour, which was a widely recommended must-do, even though it is rather touristy. I have to agree with the recommendations, though, it was a great full-day trip. There were 2 small vans for our group (the kind that I'm used to cramming 40 or so people into), and our first stop was to one of the local spice farms on Zanzibar, where we got a guided tour and got to see how various fruits and spices grow naturally. Some of the spices included nutmeg, vanilla beans, ginger, cinnamon bark, lemon grass, and some plant with orange seeds that the Maasai tribe apparently use for facial paints. We also had a demonstration on how to climb a coconut tree while singing the native Tanzanian "welcoming visitors" song, all the while being handed expertly made grass-woven bracelets, necklaces, ties, and even the coveted "King of Spices" crown.

After the actual spice tour, we stopped to see the old Persian baths briefly, and they gave us an excellent lunch of pilau (seasoned rice), curry, and chipatis, which were all cooked with the different spices we had just seen. We then drove a ways to a place called Bububu, where we went down into the entrance of a cave was used for hiding slaves during the time of slave trading. Zanzibar was a major port for slave trades, harboring and sending many East African slaves to various nearby countries around the southern coast of Asia. Arab immigrants and Zanzibar natives worked cooperatively to continue transporting slaves to and from Zanzibar, even after it was banned in the 1800s, by hiding them in caves like this during the night and boarding them onto small dhow boats in the daytime. We could see the many tunnels that went to different parts of the island from within the cave.

Nearby the cave was a short trail to an amazing and very isolated beach on Zanzibar's eastern coast. The water was perfect, not very warm like the Indian Ocean waters I'd been to in southern Tanzania. We stayed and swam for an hour or so and then got dropped off back at the hotel. Quite a full trip!

For dinner I wanted Christine to try possibly my favorite Tanzanian dish - chipsi mayai, which is essentially a french fry omelet, and therefore delicious. But apparently it isn't very common on Zanzibar. We passed this swanky restaurant that was right on the coast and wanted to eat there just so we could watch the sunset, and I asked them if they could make us chipsi mayai but they said no - i guess it wasn't a classy enough meal for that kind of place. The restaurant was called Mercury's, which we soon found out was named after Queen singer Freddie Mercury, who apparently was born on Zanzibar - who knew! Anyways, they clearly put his name to shame by not serving chipsi mayai.

Today we finally got whammied by the rain, which was on and off for most of the morning. We were planning to do a hike in Jozani forest, where there are very rare species of monkeys, three foot rats...? and other cool animals, but didn't have time in the end, so we walked around the fruit market for a while and then got on the afternoon ferry back to Dar. Tomorrow we take an early bus to Iringa, 7 ish hours, where we will leave from the following day for a safari in Ruaha National Park. We are both very excited and can't wait to see what kinds of animals show up to greet us. So more great pictures are on the way!

Stanzania - Arriving in Dar

The day has finally arrived and Christine has made it safely to Tanzania!! (After a day and a half of looooong plane rides, she was happy to finally be able to stand up) I went to go pick her up at the Nyerere International Airport in Dar, where I hadn't been since my night-time arrival just over a year ago now. It seemed a lot smaller and less imposing to me this time around, but I was still getting flash backs to how crazy and overwhelming everything seemed that day and how I'm sure it also was for her. When she came through the doors, I saw she had made a friend on the flight, Jenna (see above) who realized on the plane that her connecting flight to another city in Tanzania was in fact not for 2:30pm today, but tomorrow, and basically had nowhere to go in Dar for a day. So we all went back to the hotel which had plenty of rooms and then hit the town.

Dar is so big, even I still don't know my way around it all that well, but I took Christine and Jenna to all the places a Peace Corps Volunteer would be expected to take his or her guests: the Holiday Inn Hotel, Subway, the Casino, the place where you can get pizza, the place where you can get real ice cream....sorry guys but this is what a Tanzanian vacation feels like to me after a year of being so far from all these things. We went up to the rooftop patio at the Holiday Inn, which had a really nice view of the city and the ocean nearby (see picture). Eventually we made our way to the water and got some fresh fruit along the way, and I finally was able to prove how big the avocados are here. They also got their crash course in Swahili essentials training: pipi = candy, lala fofofo = sleep like a log, the "banana" in "asante sana, squash banana" from Lion King acutally means "to squash together"... just the important stuff.

Later on, we met up with some other random PC Volunteers who are in town. It turns out another guy I know has family coming in for the same time and may even be in the same Safari National Park when we are, so we may run into them again next week. Then it was back to hotel room, which has good enough internet for real Skype, so we talked to Mom and Dad back home. I was happy to have stolen one of them to add on my end of the line this time.

I can't wait for the amazing two weeks that lie ahead. We are going on the ferry to Zanzibar Island tomorrow morning and will stay there for 2-3 days. I will hopefully learn alot more about the (early) history of Zanzibar and have plenty to share because it is a really interesting place. Things we may do include: a spice tour of all the natural rare spices that are found on the island, seeing and possibly snorkling with 250-year old tortoises, walking through forest trails packed with an uncommon species of monkeys, and maybe even just enjoying the beautiful white sand beaches all around the coast. I'll be trying to keep a running update of things as long as the good internet will be available, so keep checking back for the latest news!

TANZANIAN BRACKETOLOGY 101

WELL IT'S BEEN QUITE SOME TIME SINCE I'VE BEEN ABLE TO UPDATE THIS BLOG OF MINE, BUT LET ME BLAME THAT ON A COMBINATION OF INSUFFICIENT INTERNET OPPORTUNITIES AND MY OWN LAZINESS AS OPPOSED TO A LACK OF INTERESTING, HILARIOUS, CONFUSING, ANNOYING, MISERABLE, SATISFYING AND EUPHORIC EXPERIENCES SINCE MY LAST INSTALLMENT. RATHER THAN PAINSTAKINGLY RECOUNTING ALL THIS IN NARRATIVE FORM, I'VE CHOSEN TO USE THE OFTEN-PREFERRED (AT LEAST BY ME) BRACKET METHOD. HERE ARE THE CONTENDERS:

NJOMBE JAM / BEST BASKETBALL GAME EVER. CUE THE EUPHORIC EXPERIENCE REFERRED TO ABOVE. SO NJOMBE JAM WAS BASICALLY A BIG GATHERING OF PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEERS OVER EASTER WEEKEND, AT THE END OF THE MIDTERM BREAK WEEK. WE TEAMED UP BASED ON OUR HOME REGIONS IN TANZANIA AND DID DIFFERENT EVENTS, KIND OF LIKE AN OLYMPICS. ANYWAYS THE HIGHLIGHT OF THE WHOLE THING WAS A 3-ON-3 BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT (ON A COURT THAT WAS SLIGHTLY PREFERABLE TO THE SURFACE OF THE MOON). WE WERE DOWN 6-2 IN A GAME TO 7 POINTS IN THE FINAL AND CAME BACK TO WIN IN OVERTIME, 10-8. UNFORTUNATELY THE SPORTSCENTER CREW WE HIRED COULDN'T MAKE IT IN TIME TO DOCUMENT THE AMAZING COMEBACK, SO YOU'LL JUST HAVE TO TRUST ME THAT IT WAS AS EXCITING AS I'VE MADE IT SOUND...

LAKE MALAWI HIKE #1 - MIKONDE. CUE THE AFOREMENTIONED MISERY. MYSELF AND TWO OTHERS DID THIS HIKE FROM NEAR NJOMBE TO LAKE MALAWI OVER THE MIDTERM BREAK. THE HIKE, WHICH APPARENTLY USUALLY TAKES 7 HOURS OR SO, TOOK US CLOSER TO 13 IN ONE DAY. IT RAINED PRETTY MUCH NON-STOP FOR OUR TRIP, WHICH BASICALLY MADE IT THE WORLD'S BIGGEST SLIP-AND-SLIDE GOING DOWN THE FACE OF A MOUNTAIN. IF IT HAD BEEN CLEARER, WE WOULD HAVE HAD AN AMAZING VIEW THOUGH, AS YOU REACH THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN BEFORE GOING DOWN THE OTHER SIDE, YOU CAN SEE CLEAR ACROSS THE LAKE TO THE MALAWI SIDE. THEN IT'S SOMETHING LIKE A 4,000 METER DROP STRAIGHT DOWN TO THE LAKE. DEFINITELY THE TOUGHEST HIKE I'VE EVER DONE. IT WAS REALLY NICE, ASIDE FROM THE RAIN.

MATHLETES LEAGUE. IN AN ATTEMPT TO FURTHER PROMOTE MATH PRACTICE AMONG MY STUDENTS, WHILE SATISFYING MY OWN LOVE FOR KEEPING STATS ON THINGS, I STARTED A COMPETITVE "MATHLETES" LEAGUE AT MY SCHOOL. I QUICKLY LEARNED THAT MANY OF THEM ARE NOT FAMILIAR WITH THE WORD ATHLETE, LET ALONE ABLE TO SEE THE HUMOR IN THE PUN, AND I CAN SAY FROM EXPERIENCE THAT ME TRYING TO EXPLAIN IT GOES A SHORT WAY IN GETTING US ALL ON THE SAME PAGE. FORTUNATELY DESCRIBING IT AS A SOCCER LEAGUE BUT FOR MATH WAS GOOD ENOUGH. I SPLIT THEM INTO BALANCED TEAMS BASED ON THEIR PAST TESTS AND MADE MY BEST STUDENTS CAPTAINS, HOPING THAT IT WILL HELP THEM DEVELOP LEADERSHIP SKILLS TOO. THEY TAKE WEEKLY QUIZZES AND I USE THE TEAM AVERAGES TO GIVE THEM WINS AND LOSSES. NOW TO FIND A WAY TO KEEP THEM FROM COPYING OFF OF EACH OTHER....

WORKER'S DAY (AKA TANZANIAN LABOR DAY). FOR THE HOLIDAY MOST OF THE SCHOOL STAFF WENT TO A BIG WORKERS GATHERING PARTY IN A NEARBY VILLAGE. THE CLOSEST VOLUNTEER TO ME, WHO TEACHES AT ANOTHER SCHOOL THERE, ALSO CAME, SO IT WAS NICE TO HAVE ANOTHER AMERICAN TO SHARE IN THE HUMOR OF EVERYTHING THAT WENT ON. AFTER PILING 16 PEOPLE INTO THE SCHOOL PICK-UP TRUCK, WE ARRIVED FASHIONABLY, TANZANIAN-LY LATE, WHICH IS ANYWHERE FROM 1-3 HOURS AFTER THE STATED ARRIVAL TIME, WHICH WAS FINE, GIVEN THE ACTUAL STARTING TIME OF ANYWHERE FROM 4-6 HOURS AFTER THE STATED ARRIVAL TIME. WHEN WE FINALLY GATHERED TOGETHER, THEY WERE DOING A KIND OF "WORKERS VS VILLAGERS" COMPETITION THAT I CAN ONLY LIKEN TO SOMETHING BETWEEN THE TV SHOWS NICKELODEON GUTS AND MXC. COMPETITIONS WERE IN SOCCER, OF COURSE, BUT ALSO SHOTPUT AND JAVELIN THROWING (QUESTION MARK). I DIDNT KNOW THOSE THINGS EVEN EXISTED HERE, THOUGH THEY MAY IN FACT NOT, JUDGING BY THE WAY THEY ALL THREW THE SHOTPUT LIKE AN 8-POUND BASEBALL. I WATCHED THROUGH CRINGES OF WAITING FOR THE FIRST ONE TO THROW THEIR ARM OUT. THE INTERMISSION WAS BY FAR THE MOST ENTERTAINING THOUGH, AS WE ALL GATHERED AROUND AND FORMED A BIG CIRCLE, INSIDE OF WHICH WERE 4 TANZANIAN WOMEN AND A MAN WITH A WHISTLE HOLDING A LIVE CHICKEN. MY HOPEFUL ASSUMPTIONS WERE CONFIRMED WHEN HE LET THE CHICKEN GO AND WHISTLED THE START OF THE CHASE FOR THE MAMA'S. IT TURNS OUT THAT EVEN FOR LARGE, MIDDLE-AGED WOMEN, ALL YOU HAVE TO DO TO MAKE TANZANIANS MOVE QUICKLY IS TO PUT A CHICKEN UP FOR GRABS. IN MY HEAD OF COURSE I WAS PLAYING THE BENNY HILL THEME MUSIC AS I WATCHED THE CHICKEN DODGE, DUCK, DIP, DIVE, AND DODGE PAST THE LITERALLY DIVING MAMA'S UNTIL HE WAS FINALLY TACKLED. AS I LOOKED AROUND, I SAW THAT ALL THE OTHER TANZANIANS WERE LAUGHING ALONG WITH ME, BUT I COULDN'T HELP BUT THINK THAT IT WAS SOMEHOW FOR DIFFERNT REASONS.

LAKE MALAWI HIKE #2 - MBAMBA BAY. A DIFFERENT ROUTE TO A MORE SOUTHERN PART OF LAKE MALAWI, THIS HIKE WAS DONE AFTER THE RAINY SEASON HAD ENDED, WHICH THEREFORE MADE IT INFINITELY MORE ENJOYABLE THAN THE PREVIOUS ONE. IT TOOK ABOUT 6 HRS TO REACH THE LAKE, THROUGH MODERATE UP-AND-DOWNHILLS, AND WE STAYED AT A RELATIVELY NEW GERMAN-OWNED CAMP ON THE BEACH. THE PLACE WAS HEAVENLY, WITH SHELTERED TENTS SET UP TO SLEEP IN, AND PRETTY MUCH OUR OWN PRIVATE PAVILION SINCE WE WERE REALLY THE ONLY ONES THERE FOR THE WEEKEND. THEY MADE US AMAZING FRESHLY CAUGHT FISH FROM THE LAKE, AND BONFIRES ON THE BEACH BOTH NIGHTS. PERFECT WEATHER, AND WE DIDN'T EVEN RUN INTO ANY OF THOSE PESKY CROCADILES WE'D BEEN HEARING SO MUCH ABOUT. THE ONLY PROBLEM WITH THIS TRIP WAS THAT IT ONLY LASTED FOR A WEEKEND.

UP, UP MATH DAY. AN IDEA THAT WAS ACTUALLY BROUGHT UP BY ANOTHER MATH TEACHER AT MY SCHOOL, WE GOT ALL OF THE STUDENTS FROM THE WHOLE SCHOOL TOGETHER ONE SATURDAY TO PROMOTE / DISCUSS THE IMPORTANCE OF STUDYING MATH, SINCE THE VAST MAJORITY OF STUDENTS QUICKLY DISMISS IT AS BEING TOO DIFFICULT, OR SIMPLY THE "NATIONAL DISEASE" AS IT IS OFTEN DUBBED. I HAD A PROBLEM-SOLVING ACTIVITY PLANNED AND WANTED TO TALK ABOUT WAYS THAT THEY USE MATH IN THEIR EVERYDAY LIVES AND IN OTHER SUBJECTS. AND A FEW STUDENTS WHO ARE REALLY INTO DRAMA DID A FEW MATH-RELATED SKITS WHICH EVERYONE REALLY ENJOYED. THE DOWNFALL, I LEARNED, WAS IN GIVING TANZANIANS FREE REIGN TO SPEAK FOR AS LONG AS THEY DESIRED, WHICH MORE OFTEN THAN NOT IS A REALLY REALLY LONG TIME. WE HAD ANOTHER TEACHER'S BROTHER, WHO IS GOING ON TO STUDY AT UNIVERSITY, TALK AS A GUEST SPEAKER, WHICH WAS REALLY NICE, AND A FEW OTHER TEACHERS WHO USED THEIR OPPORTUNITY TO COUNSEL THE STUDENTS ON WHAT I CAN ONLY ASSUME TO BE THE MEANING OF LIFE, BECAUSE IT WAS FAR MORE COMPLEX AND LONG-WINDED THAN MY ATTENTION SPAN COULD HANDLE. THE SAME COULD BE SAID FOR THE STUDENTS APPARENTLY BECAUSE THEY WERE ALL FALLING ASLEEP IN THEIR CHAIRS. IT WAS STILL A GREAT THING TO DO FOR THE KIDS, BUT I THINK THEY COULD HAVE GOTTEN MORE OUT OF IT IF IT WERE MORE INTERACTIVE.

WAGENI (VISITORS). NEWS OF THOSE TO COME, THAT IS. I AM EXTREMELY HAPPY TO HAVE LEARNED THAT OVER MY JUNE AND AUGUST BREAKS, I WILL BE VISITED BY 3 GHOSTS, I MEAN, MY SISTER CHRISTINE AND RAFIKI NICK GIANGRANDE, RESPECTIVELY. CHRISTINE WILL BE HERE FOR HER 4TH OF JULY BIRTHDAY, SO I'M ON THE LOOKOUT FOR THE NEAREST BOOM CITY IN TANZANIA TO BUY SOME FIREWORKS. OTHER HIGHLIGHTS SHOULD INCLUDE ZANZIBAR BEACHES, FROLICING WITH LIONS AND GIRAFFES, AND OF COURSE SPENDING AT LEAST HALF OF OUR TIME TRAVELLING ON LONG BUS RIDES. KARIBU ANYONE ELSE WHO CAN COME THIS YEAR OR NEXT!!

AVOCADO SEASON. OH YES, IT HAS ARRIVED. ON MULTIPLE OCCASIONS I HAVE BEEN GIFTED BAGFULS OF GIANT, FRESH AVOCADOS AT SCHOOL, AND IN TOWN THEY ARE ALL OVER THE PLACE AND VERY CHEAP (EQUIVALENT OF 15 CENTS OR SO APIECE). LOOKS LIKE WE'RE OVERDUE FOR ANOTHER BATCH OF 50-AVOCADO GUAC-IN-A-BUCKET DELICIOUSNESS.

SO THOSE ARE THE PLAYERS, HERE'S HOW THEY MATCH UP IN TERMS OF BEST THINGS TO HAPPEN SINCE MY LAST BLOG POST....

ROUND 1

NJOMBE JAM------
                        ----------NJOMBE JAM
LAKE HIKE #1-----

NOT MUCH OF A CONTEST HERE. SPORTS, FUN AND FRIENDS VS FALLING ON MY BUTT 20 TIMES.

MATHLETES--------
                             --------WORKERS DAY
WORKERS DAY-----

AS MUCH AS I LOVE MATHLETES, IT'S TOUGH TO BEAT GROWN WOMEN CHASING AFTER A CHICKEN.

LAKE HIKE #2-----
                         --------LAKE HIKE #2
MATH DAY---------

DID I MENTION WE DIDN'T GET EATEN BY CROCADILES? NO WHAMMIES HERE.

VISITORS----------
                       --------VISITORS
AVOCADOS--------

...PROVIDED THEY BRING EVEN MORE AVOCADOS WITH THEM

SEMI-FINALS

NJOMBE JAM------
                           --------NJOMBE JAM
WORKERS DAY-----

6-2!!

LAKE HIKE #2----
                       --------VISITORS
VISITORS--------

TWO! TWO VISITORS! AH, AH, AH!

FINALS

NJOMBE JAM------
                         --------VISITORS
VISITORS--------

I LOVE HAVING PEOPLE COME TO SEE ME!!! HINT, HINT...

The Monthly Tanzanian - March 2012

9 months in to my time in Africa and 1/3 of the way through my Peace Corps service, I am beginning to see what a regular regimen in Tanzania is like. Since coming back from IST and starting the new school year, things have certainly gotten into a groove and I've developed my own daily routine of sorts in some ways, although I am trying to avoid this by doing things out of the ordinary (which is always easier when you're the only white person within miles). But the things that still always remind me that I'm in Africa are the amazing sunrises and sunsets EVERY day, and the ridiculously clear night skies that just do not exist back home.

It's been a while since I've been able to get into town, which has given me a good opportunity to do more things at my school. A few weeks ago we got the results back from last year's national exams...and I guess they weren't very good - worse than the year before and lower than the nearby Ward school, which we are supposed to do better than apparently because we are the more expensive private school in the area. We had a few meetings to discuss what can be done to improve the test scores, even the school Manager came, who I had never seen before. A lot of the teachers said we need more books, since even most of the teachers don't have the books for the "new" (6 or 7 year old) syllabus. The only ones who do are those who I've given Peace Corps-supplied books to. Some of the kids do have a few books of their own. Our library (which I finally saw opened for the first time!) has a good number of donated books, mostly math and science, but they are not all that compliant with the Tanzanian syllabus, or at least organized very differently, so I don't think they get used too much. I agree that there needs to be a better supply of books, but the secondmaster said he was concerned that they would be outdated soon too if the syllabus changes again. I suggested that all the teachers make their exams as much like the national ones as possible, even for monthly and midterm tests, so that the students aren't totally shocked when they see how difficult those are. That's what I've been doing for my Math students, and it seems to be helping. They decided that the students who failed last year in Form II would be sent home, and those who almost failed have to get a certain score on the first midterms this year or else they will be sent home too. I guess that is common practice for private schools to keep up their overall scores and reputation, though I don't know what will happen if they end up sending everyone home.

I also found out where the bar is set for the Math exams this year. Of 130 who took the test last year, 8 DIDNT fail math - 2 C's and 6 D's. But I already know we will do much better this year - I really do have some very smart students, and I think this group of Form IV's has had a Peace Corps teacher now all 4 years for Math, so they are my golden children, and hopefully a good Peace Corps success story.

We had our first monthly test a couple weeks ago, which was difficult, but not impossible since there were still a couple A's. But in my one slower class, most of them failed badly, and because of mistakes in simple things like adding and subtracting that they just never learned well enough. I know there are definitely those that are lazy and don't want to study, but I'm sure there are also some who just never got a good foundation in Math from their Primary schools and now don't have a chance to keep up with what we're doing this year. But it's not like they are incapable, they just need to start back from the beginning. So when I gave back the tests, I gave all those who failed a post-it note attached. And I told them starting tomorrow we are doing extra math in the mornings before school, starting back as early as we have to so everyone at least knows the basics. i told them to be there at 630 and not a minute late, and they said they understood. Well, at 630 the next morning I stood there waiting by myself, not a single one made it on time. About a quarter of them trickled in over the next hour, but I didn't even bother doing any math. I was pretty upset because I'm going out of my way to give them extra practice and they didn't even care to show up. So after the afternoon assembly, I had the student leaders call all of their names, and lined them up and had them do running in place, up-downs, and push ups for about a half hour. It must have had some effect because the next morning there was a big group waiting for me when I got there, and almost all of them showed up.

It was good because most of the students see me as much more lenient than the other teachers, which I definitely am since I don't hit them with a stick. But at least they saw that I have my own methods of punishment to use. I'm still trying to use more of the rewarding good behavior tactics than punishing bad. The school store/ point system has been going well so far. I've been getting a lot of students asking for more problems to do and almost everyone comes to class now. Though I think they're all hoarding their points to try and get soccer jerseys- no one's really bought any school supplies yet. I've been working on organizing all the old NECTA problems I have by year and subject, into like a class binder, so they can all study what they need help with. And I also got a ton of digital copies of old exams, so they are taking practice tests in the evenings when we bring out the computers. If they still fail this year, it won't be because they didn't have anything to study from...

So that has been my life for the last few weeks, with much of the remaining intermittent time spent spitting seeds on my porch while it downpours around me. It's kept me much busier than I ever thought I would be during Peace Corps, but I prefer that to having nothing to do. In other news, I've successfully introduced 16 inch softball to Africa! And of course by introduced I mean taught them how to swing a big stick at a ball. There was a guy at school fixing up old desks, and I gave him some crude bat blueprints and he said he would try to make it. It turned out really well, except that it's probably as heavy as 4 or 5 real bats - I guess I estimated poorly in the specs. So the thing weighs about 10 pounds and I was surprised none of the tiny children threw their back out swinging it, but they still seemed to be having a good time. The name of the game quickly became: one kid hits the ball and the other 30 in the general vicinity run in circles around the pitcher until someone finally gets the ball. I managed to get some pretty priceless video footage of it as well.

In other sports news, our basketball court now finally has rims! Although it was pretty fun just dribbling, passing and running around (should have even taken away the basketball to do an Air Bud reenactment) and especially good for our fundamentals. [We no able to dunk, but good fundamentals. It more exciting that way.] Besides, it's pretty hard to do a layup anyways when theres a pool of mud right under the hoops. I'm still hoping we can get some concrete laid out soon. Not sure if the school will front the cost for that though.

The solar power project is still invoking interest, at least for my headmaster. A technician came to the school to give a cost estimate, and after cutting back a bit, it should at least be in the range for grant-writing opportunities. There is one through the U.S. Ambassador's office that may be the best option. It would be around $5000 and could feasibly run our computers, printer, and most classrooms to lower dependency on the oil-guzzling generator. The only issue was the headmaster initially wanted me to do all the grant writing, but I told him (although that sounds like a very sustainable solution...) I wouldn't do anything unless someone else was in charge of it. So he designated the physics teacher to lead it with me - I'd still rather have someone who actually has interest in the project and wants to do it than someone he tells to write it, but it's a start I suppose. There's another Peace Corps site in Njombe that did a similar project a few years ago, so I will probably go visit there to get ideas/contacts.

I found out that this year Tanzania is doing a nation-wide census, which is going to throw off the school year schedule apparently. They want all the kids to return home for the census in August, so instead of our usual June-long break, there will be a couple weeks off in June, and then school will close for the month of August. I'm a little worried for the students' exam prep since the tests will be pretty much right when they come back from break, but it is nice that the schedule is the same all over the country, so I can plan travelling with other volunteers (and all of you who are coming to visit!). For our week break in early April, I think I am going hiking in some mountains around Njombe, and I still have my sights set on doing Kilimanjaro - maybe for the August break. Some others are also talking about doing a trip to go rafting on the Nile, which would be pretty amazing as well.

Please try to keep me posted on your lives at home as often as possible! And thank you everyone for your birthday well-wishings! It was an interesting one in Tanzania, with about 12 hours of it spent traveling for a trip that should only take 5 or 6...but eventually arriving and getting to see everyone was great! And of course the funfetti cake mix sent from home was a welcome addition!

Weekend Update

Just a "brief" update on things here over the last couple weeks. Classes have still been going well, and the workload is a good amount. I have class every day but am always done by early afternoon and have time then to work on my next lesson plans. It also gives me time to work on other kinds of practice and review for my math students. I'm trying to do a different review focused on their old math topics from the last three years each week or so to give them enough practice for the national exam at the end of the year. My only concern now is having enough time to get to all of the topics on this year's syllabus since things always seem to move slower in class than I plan on. The test is about 60% old topics and 40% Form IV so they definitely need to review while learning new things.

The new FEMA life skills club has gotten off and running pretty well so far. There are 4 or 5 of the older students who have been organizing and running the meetings. I go just to be available if they have any questions, but they are all talking in Swahili so I usually understand little of what is actually being said. I'm hoping more of the other teachers will come regularly so they can at least catch it if false info is being given out. But I know the student leaders know good amount about the topics and they have the books to go off of too. So far we've had about 250 or so students come each time, which is great. Most of them are the Form I and II students, so it's good that they are curious and interested to learn about these things.

So that is on Fridays, when we have our social clubs, and academic clubs are on Mondays, so I attend the Math Club. It's mostly led by my best Form IV student, whose name is Mansweet a.k.a. the "King of Mathematics" as he's been dubbed. It's actually really great to go to those meetings because it's all students who actually like math! What a concept! And then Wednesdays are for Debates, which the whole school is supposed to attend and is done (more or less) in English.

And I'm still bringing out the computers in the evenings - 3 nights for students and 2 nights for teachers. The students love using Encarta and listening to different countries' national anthems. The teachers have gotten hooked on this typing program that gives out stats on your accuracy and words per minute. It shows them how to type with both hands though, so it's not too bad of an obsession. I guess a couple of the computer charges I brought to get fixed actually got fixed (shocking!) so I'll try to get them this weekend so we can have more functioning computers.

We had a staff meeting a couple of weeks ago - there is usually about a 5-hour minimum, but somehow this one was only like 4. And I brought up a couple ideas as suggestions for this school year, one of which was the possibility of trying to get some sort of solar system set up at the school so that the computers could be used during the daytime, which I had already discussed a bit with my counterpart. They seemed to be pretty interested and the headmaster said he would like to try and do it. From what I've heard, grant writing is always a long process, but hopefully it won't be too difficult. The first step is to get an idea on how much power would be needed so we can see how many solar panels and all we would need. I think it could be very helpful - even though there is the rainy season for a few months like now, there is still sunlight for a good part of the day most of the time, so there should be enough power available.

This past Saturday was the Graduation for the Form 6 students, who will be taking their final exams and leaving soon. Naturally I was the photographer, being the only one with a digital camera. I'll get some of the pictures developed for them in town this weekend. They played this game after lunch called "Jenga" -unfortunately it didn't involve moving little wooden bricks like I'm familiar with. Instead, it was like a fundraising game, I'm not sure exactly what for, maybe their exam fees or something...? So it's kind of like a truth or dare auction from what I could gather. One person tells someone else to do something goofy, like roll across the room on the floor apparently, and puts a price on it. Then the person either has to do the dare or pay/increase the amount of money, and then they can make up their own thing for someone else to do. Luckily for me they all showed the mercy not to drag me into the game, since I still didn't really know what the heck was going on, but it was sure entertaining to watch!

Sunday was a typical laid back Tanzanian Sunday - cooking, laundry, cleaning around the house, and putting in work on my new Risk board. It's not nearly as impressive as the first one made on the ping pong table - just poster board size. I was wishing I had the old crew here to help with it - especially Ray's drawing skills, but it's coming along pretty well. Soon I will be able to occupy my free time by playing myself in Scrabble AND Risk! Yea one-person game nights!

Oh yea, and I finally decided to set up my tent outside in my courtyard to sleep under the stars/rain, but it didn't work out so well. I set it up in the daytime, but when I went outside at night to brush my teeth, I felt some stings on my feet and ankles... and then all over my legs... and then I ran inside and feverishly scrubbed myself and sprayed all over. When I went back outside with a flashlight, there were swarms and swarms of ants all around the tent- it looked like the ground was moving. So I unloaded about a full can of spray. Luckily the tent was zipped up, so they didn't infest the inside, but needless to say I did not end up sleeping in there after all. My only idea was that the ants saw some new foreign object and decided they wanted to take it to their queen, so they sent every living ant in the area to retrieve a giant 7x7 foot tent. Anyways, they were gone the next day luckily, save for the carcasses of the unfortunate spray victims, and I cleaned up my tent and put that idea of backyard camping far out of my head.

But in between ant attacks, life is good, as I hope it continues to be for everyone back home.

A New Year

[written 1-19-12]

Well it's a new year and the start of a new school year here at Wilima Secondary School. The school opened on the 9th, but I quickly learned that there is a difference between school opening and classes actually starting. The first week mostly consisted of students slowly filtering into the dorms and doing cleaning and groundkeeping around the school, which was nice because everything looks very nice and clean now, as opposed to the jungle-like tall grass and weeds that engulfed the school over break. But now with everything clean and soo green all over, it really is a sight to see.

I ended up getting the classes I wanted to teach this year: Form IV Math and Form II Physics. They are the two classes that have their national exams at the end of the year, so I'm very happy to be able to try and get them well-prepared for those. I started teaching for real on Monday. I think most of the Form II's have gotten to school by now, but still probably only half of the Form IV's. It's typical apparently for the students to trickle in over the first few weeks after a long break, especially at a private boarding school like mine, where students are coming from farther away. So I'm trying not to go too fast right now so the late-comers don't get whammy-ed too badly. We're doing Coordinate Geometry in Math and Static Electricity in Physics. I've been having some fun making different things to use as teaching aids. So far I've got a giant rice bag for a coordinate plane, a couple geoboards (slabs of wood with a grid of nails), and some other "works-in-progress" (aka failures) for different physics demos. It is cool though, some Peace Corps Volunteers over the last few years have started this Hands-On-Science program, with all kinds of lesson ideas using simple easy-to-find resources around the country. It definitely helps for the students to be able to see and touch things, rather than just sitting through lectures. And it keeps their attention- they sure loved watching me rub balloons on my head.

I also decided to open up a School Store of sorts for my Form IV students. They get points for coming to class, doing homework, participating in class, doing extra practice problems, and things like that. Then they can use them to buy notebooks, pens, rulers, candy, even paper cranes! I considered using cranes as the currency, but even at full capacity I don't think I could make enough for that. But hopefully I'll get some students to be my apprentices and see how many we can make as a class, maybe even make it a competition. But the big money prizes are things like soccer jerseys and balls. And the top 10 or so from each week will get to use the computers in the evening, so that will hopefully be a big enough motivation for them.

Speaking of computers, there has been a bit of an issue with them lately. I guess they were left plugged in over break when a big lightning storm hit and knocked out the generator, and it ended up frying a few of the chargers. I took them to a fundi (repair man-man-man-man...) last weekend, but I don't have too much optimism for getting them fixed soon. So we're down to 3 or 4 right now that can actually run, which makes it difficult to please the 15 teachers and 500 students, all of whom want a chance to play with them every day. But it's still better than nothing, and with my new typing and geography games, they will hopefully get something useful out of their computer time.

The other thing I'm focusing on now is trying to get a FEMA Club (Life Skills group) started at my school. A lot of other schools have them- it's basically just a club to teach about different life skills like communication, decision-making, relationships, and about diseases like HIV/AIDS and malaria. Our first meeting is tomorrow (Friday). I already have a few older students who are interested in leading it, which is great because it has to be led by them if it's going to continue after I leave I feel like. We'll do a True/False type game to talk about some facts and myths about HIV/AIDS.

Aside from that, my free time has been occupied by making Scrabble boards, shotty bamboo furniture for my house, watching the full Star Wars collection (now moved on to Indiana Jones), and reading/listening to some books Christine sent me for Christmas. I got the last straggling Christmas packages in town last weekend, which contained gifts and some tasty, tasty homemade Christmas cookies, so I busted out the Christmas movies one more time and treated myself to Christmas 2.0 on Sunday. Thanks guys!!
I got some passion fruits in town as well, and made some awesome fruit salad with mangos and pineapple. I don't think I'd ever seen passion fruit before, except the juice, but they're pretty dang good. A couple of the avocado trees at school are starting to produce, which is very exciting. I've been closely monitoring the one in my back yard - just tiny buds now, but that won't stop me from checking up on their progress every day...
I hope everyone is braving the winter back home, assuming the snow has started by now. It's still surprisingly cold at my school because of the daily rainstorms, but I like it, it reminds me of home.

Til next time, love and miss you all, and here is the solution to last post's swahili joke that you've all been racking your minds over for the past few weeks:

Recap:
dog = mbwa [MMM-bwah]
Q: What is a Tanzanian dog's favorite breakfast food?
Answer: Mbwa-ffles!

Happy Holidays!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone! [Helia Christmas na Helia Mwaka Mpya!] I hope you all had a nice, peaceful, happy holiday season. Mine was different for sure, but much better than I ever could have expected for a Tanzanian holiday. After my IST travels, I went back to my site for about a week before going to Tukuyu for Christmas. It was really nice to have some quiet time after alot of travelling. My school was pretty empty with most of the students gone for break, but it gave me time to do some running, fashion some Christmas presents and decorate my house, thanks to all of the awesome Christmas decorations I got sent from home. My house was pretty well decked out with solar and battery powered Christmas lights, a mini tree, and even a creepy hanging snowman of Christine's from back in the day. Before I got back, there was apparently a big storm and lighting struck the school's generator, so there was no power most of the time I was there. Aside from the mild disappointment of not being able to watch Christmas movie marathons, it was actually really nice to just sit by candlelight in the evenings and go to bed early.

The week before Christmas I headed to Tukuyu where Hannah lives, and there were about 11 of us meeting up at different times for Christmas. There were already some very impressive decorations up at the house, but I brought all of my contributions as well and it really was amazing how Christmas-y we got it to look. We even went out tree-hunting, since there are a lot of pine trees in that area. After passing on a couple very promising ones because they happened to be in people's back yards (whammy), we finally found the perfect Christmas branch for our living room, and yes it was bigger than a Charlie Brown tree. ***Joke setup: The Swahili word for tree is "mti" [MMM-tee]*** So we decided to name her Mti-na Turner, and got her to stand up in a cut-off water bottle in a bin filled with dirt. We decorated it with solar Christmas lights, popcorn garland, lots of ornaments, and I made a giant Christmas crane to put on the top in lieu of a star. It was great.
I was very happy that several of my own personal Christmas traditions were still able to come true. Every year at home we like to go out to Olive Garden on Christmas Eve for dinner. This year we made this delicious "pizza soup" which should totally be added to the Olive Garden menu, and also had salad and bread - pretty close if you ask me! And we all watched Polar Express before bed, though we were all missing some of the classic cartoon and animated shows. Christmas morning we had cinnamon rolls with colored frosting, which is also one of my favorite Bonomo traditions, along with a giant fruit salad and breakfast casserole. Our Christmas dinner included a big steak pot roast, garlic mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing, honey carrots, and of course, mac and cheese. A great success for a Tanzanian Christmas dinner!

We also had a few new traditions-in-the-making that I can very much see catching on for years to come back home. On Christmas Eve we made sugar cookies and frosted / painted them with toothpicks to make some really cool shapes and designs, including Christmas giraffes. Another great new tradition was the introduction of the Christmas tent in Hannah's living room. I brought my 2-person tent in order to avoid the mosquitos at night, and so we set it up inside and strung Christmas lights along the top and crammed 3-4 people inside. It was a little warm and certainly got interesting after chili night....but still worth doing again!
Tanzanians don't really do too much special for Christmas, aside from some travelling and all going to church. But since it fell on a Sunday this year, it really wasn't too different from normal. Some of the small stationery stores turn into mini Christmas shops and I did see some fake trees and other decorations being sold. And it was nice not having to worry about stores being closed on Christmas morning for those last-minute cooking items.

Aside from pretty constant cooking and eating, there wasn't a whole lot going on around Christmas other than just relaxing and such. The day after Christmas we went to another volunteer's house nearby for a big spaghetti lunch, and there were lots of people from all the other classes of volunteers. We stayed in Tukuyu until the middle of the next week, and then a few people left to go home or other places for New Year's, and the rest of us went to Matema Beach on lake Malawi, which was just a few hours away. To get there faster, we got a private taxi to drive us to the beach, and on the way there we made a stop for gas on the side of the road, where usually people will come up to the car to try and sell different foods and things, especially for a car full of foreigners. But this time a guy came up with a little baby monkey wrapped around his arm and tried to sell it to us. It was actually a very reasonable price and probably would have saved the monkey from a lot of abuse to take it off of their hands, but one of us was just too concerned about the certainty of attracting many diseases and talked us out of buying it. But I got to hold it for a little bit and was petting him when he gave me a nice little going-away present on my shirt. I guess I scared the poop out of him.

Matema was a lot of fun, and again there were lots of volunteers there that I hadn't seen ever or in a very long time. The first day we were a little unprepared for the power of the beach equator sun and all got torched with sunburn. But we got to go on a really nice hike to this giant waterfall where there's a big pool and the water is ice cold. You can even climb up on a rock and sit under the falls and jump off into the pool. I brought the Christmas tent with and set it up on the beach but only ended up sleeping in it one night. It was really cool because it was during a lighting storm (no rain luckily) and it was neat to see the lightning flashes above while going to sleep. The beach also had some fantastic sunrise and sunset views that I will have to post pictures of soon. New Year's Eve was actually the birthday of someone in our group, so we had a double celebration and made a guitar pinata out of newspaper. And at midnight everyone went for a celebratory swim in the lake.

It was also great because I was able to skype several times with family and friends at Matema. I was even able to join in our first-ever successful trans-continental Game Night with my sisters and cousins back home. We found some good games that could be played over skype and I got to introduce a couple new participants on the Tanzanian end. Next step is outer space game night.

I'm excited to be going back to my house now to get ready for the next year of school. Soon we will have a meeting to plan for classes and scheduling next year. I'm hoping to teach Form IV Math, so that I can keep my same students from last year and help them prepare for their national exams, and I also want to add on Form I or II Physics in addition to the evening computer classes continuing from last year for students and teachers. It will be good to have the class for a full year now, as opposed to awkwardly coming in in the middle of the semester last year.

Many things to be thankful for and to look forward to this new year. Some current goals include climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro and having my family come to visit. I will be doing all I can to help make them come true. I hope everyone else has enjoyed the holidays and is looking forward to an exciting year ahead as well!

P.S. If you'd like more terrible Swahili pun jokes, I'll try to keep you satisfied, but first we will need some crash-course vocab.

Example:
short = fupi [FOO-pee]
Q: What is a short Tanzanian's favorite form of martial arts?
Answer: Kung Fu-pi!

New:
dog = mbwa [MMM-bwah]
Q: What is a Tanzanian dog's favorite breakfast food?
Answer: Coming next post...