I’m Extending (Part 3 of 3)

Although it probably could have been inferred from the fact that I’m not back in America after completing 2 years of Peace Corps service, I can finally say with certainty that I am in fact extending my service for a third year. After spending much of the last few months in uncertainty on what the next step for me would be, I was finally able to realize that what I most want to do right now is continue teaching here in Tanzania and continue the work I’ve been doing with the “Shika na Mikono” hands-on science group and conducting science competitions around the country. In other words, I want to be a travelling science man who goes around Tanzania promoting interactive science events and working with other Peace Corps Volunteers.

I will be staying at my current site at Wilima Secondary School near Njombe, and will continue teaching, though with a reduced number of scheduled periods. I am continuing to teach Form I Math, but will have more time to prepare Physics lab practicals for students in every grade level. Hopefully around once a month or so, I will be able to visit other Volunteers’ schools or nearby towns and provide the materials and planning to do science competitions / seminars with their students. Depending on how things go, it may also be possible to do region-wide science fairs and possibly gain added support from the Ministry of Education as well.

So please stay tuned as things progress, as I will continue to give inside looks into the various events and conferences that I take part in around Tanzania. If there is anyone who may be interested in supporting these kinds of events, either by donating money, books, supplies or other learning resources, please feel free to contact me by email (sbonomo3@gmail.com) for now, and please also be on the lookout soon for a more direct way to contribute that I will make available online. BUT PLEASE DO NOT SEND PACKAGES OR BOXES OF SUPPLIES TO MY PO BOX IN NJOMBE!!!! Problems with the Njombe customs office continue to stifle attempts at receiving care packages from America, so until things get figured out, please don’t send anything other than letters to that address.

In other news, I’ll be coming home in a couple weeks! For the last two weeks of September I’ll be home - a Game Night wedding and a Texas baseball trip are just too much of an excuse not to use to come home, so I am very much looking forward to that. Plus, one of the perks of extending for a full year with the Peace Corps is that they give you a month’s home leave to use whenever you want. So I’ll be adding on a few days using my regular vacation time to be home from Thanksgiving, all the way up through New Year’s! Can’t wait to hopefully get to see everyone over at least one of those trips!

Science = Explosions (Part 2 of 3)

Belle, Ben and I were the three chosen representatives from the Shika na Mikono hands-on science team to go to the pre-service training (PST) of the newly arrived 2013 class of education volunteers. The location of PST was changed this year, from Morogoro, where I completed my training almost exactly 2 years ago, to the altogether underwhelming new location of Korogwe, near the coastal region of Tanga. However, despite its lack of luxuries, conveniences and more than 2 dining options, Korogwe did perhaps offer the trainees a more genuine “Tanzanian experience” than its predecessor. And at least we were able to tell the new group in all honesty that going to their sites would almost certainly actually be an upgrade compared to what they’ve gotten used to in 10 weeks of training.

During the week, the trainees stayed at their CBT’s, or local clusters of nearby village schools, while we made preparations for our sessions on Friday and Saturday. Our task was to prepare the volunteers for teaching math and science in a Tanzanian context and to show them ways to use cheap and easy-to-find materials to make their teaching more interactive. But of course, as has been the case for the past couple years of such trainings, the primary area of focus was to make a dazzling explosion-filled introduction that would hopefully scare the new volunteers as much as inspire them. So that’s what we spent the majority of our week prepping for.

Here’s what we did: For a while, the Shika team has been working to perfect locally available recipes for gunpowder and smoke bombs, so we made a few trial batches of each to make sure everything would go as planned. For the introduction, the group was led into a dimly lit open dining hall as initial smoke bombs were thrown into the charcoal jiko’s (stoves) placed on the front stage. Out of the shadows appeared Ben, who as he walked out, initiated a video space montage, finely tuned to coincide with the song Lux Aeterna by Clint Mansell (think Requiem for a Dream). Throughout the video, Ben stood on the stage in front of the crowd, giving a passionate monologue on the mysteries of space and our attempts to understand the universe through science. Meanwhile, Belle and I slowly approached from the back of the room with lit toilet paper torches, lighting kerosene-soaked rocks on the ground on either side of the standing crowd, before setting off pouches of gunpowder front and center, and then finally ascending the stage for a synchronized final trio of smoke bombs as the music reached its final crescendo and Ben capped off his speech with, “We are….Shika na Mikono!”

Of course in a perfect world, things would have actually lit as they were expected, been timed correctly, and we would have mysteriously disappeared behind a wall of smoke and reappeared in the back of the room. But it was still pretty entertaining I think, and we made sure to admit that we are in fact nothing more than a bunch of nerds who like to blow things up.

Needless to say, the rest of our training was a let down compared to the introduction, but it was the first time the trainees had training sessions that weren’t just sitting and listening to powerpoint presentations, so they all said they really appreciated our days with them. For our first session, we split them up into small groups and dumped out a giant “Box of Fun,” filled with different items that can be found almost anywhere at very little cost. Each group was given a couple topics from the various science syllabi and had to come up with some kind of engaging way to present the topic. There were some really creative ideas from the volunteers, and Ben, Belle and I shared some of our own that we’ve picked during our time teaching. We also introduced them to the idea of doing science competitions by having them do an Egg Drop competition, and showed them how to set up and conduct science practicals, or lab experiments. A couple times we split up into separate math and science groups to talk about issues specific to those respective subjects.

In the end, it was a lot of work and travel for a couple days of training that went by incredibly fast, but we all loved being able to lead our sessions and getting to know the new group of volunteers. They will be headed to their sites in early September, and it sounds like 3 will be coming down to Njombe, so that’s very exciting.

And I’ll actually be able to get to know them because…

Puppies, Pills and P-hysics (Part 1 of 3)

A few weeks after starting the new term at Wilima, I decided to make my first stop as a travelling science man at Belle’s site, Mwatisi Secondary School in Tukuyu, near the town of Mbeya. Loading up the science wagon (backpack) with the necessary provisions, I hit the old dusty trail (crater-laden dirt road). But along the way, sickness struck in the form of some kind of tonsillitis / mono virus – I’m still not totally sure which one it was. The timing was convenient enough, since I was spending the week at Belle’s site anyways, and that made it much easier to recover and maintain a steady overdose of Advil. What also made things much more tolerable was that Belle had just inherited an 8-week old puppy from a nearby Volunteer’s recent puppy surplus, so Apollo was able to keep me in as high of spirits as possible as he struggled to adapt to new concepts of indoor bladder control and not being constantly smothered with attention.

Having tonsillitis / mono in Tanzania while sleeping with a puppy every night – is there any better way to define juxtaposition?

Luckily, by the end of the week I was feeling a little better, and so the science competition was able to continue as planned. Once again, science wins the day. It was slightly more difficult to do a weekend event at Mwatisi, since it is a day school, and most of the students do not come in on the weekends. But at least half of those who were expected to show up came within 3 hours of the stated starting time (pretty darned good by TZ standards), so everything worked out great. We were able to use several of the activities that I have done in the past, and saw some new and interesting ideas from the Form III students. They were all really excited to participate, especially when we handed out prizes of colored pencils and USAID-provided school supply pouches. At a school whose only 2 science teachers over the last 3+ years have been Peace Corps Volunteers, it was pretty cool to see the students getting so excited about doing science activities. And the school headmaster and some other Tanzanian teachers were there observing most of the time as well, and really seemed to appreciate and get into the events themselves.

So for me, it was back to Wilima, but only for a few days, since the following week would be the Shika na Mikono (hands-on science) group’s turn to lead training sessions at the new Peace Corps Volunteers’ pre-service training…

Jake’s Visit and Safari Circuit

Last month, I was lucky enough to have yet another visitor during my time here in Tanzania. Jake and I did a tour of some of Tanzania’s northern attractions, which was just as much of a treat for me, since I had yet to pass through many places in that part of the country. Over the course of our week and a half trip together, Jake and I were able to do some scenic hiking, scourge the country’s main safari circuit, while also getting some in depth looks at Tanzanian culture, village life, and of course a wide variety of bus experiences.
Our tour began with a ride up to Moshi, home of the famous Mt. Kilimanjaro and well-known for its cool climate, hilly forested landscape, and huge coffee production. After meeting up with some other Peace Corps Volunteers, we went for a day hike to a nearby waterfall with an incredible 20-foot cliff to dive off of into a swimming pond below. The water was freezing cold, but the exhilarating jump made it worthwhile.

Damp and shivering, we followed our guide to the house of an old coffee farmer who is of the Chaaga tribe. He welcomes any and all visitors and demonstrates the entire coffee production process, from picking and de-shelling the beans, roasting and “twanga”-ing (grinding) them, and boiling water to serve the fresh coffee on the spot. Admittedly I am not normally much of a coffee enthusiast, but even I thought this was delicious, and also the perfect thing to warm us up after our impromptu swim.



From Moshi, we made our way to Karatu, the starting point for our safari, located right in the middle of many of the big northern game parks, including the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater. Our safari was a 3-day trip through Lake Manyara National Park, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, and Tarangire National Park. We would have liked to hit Serengeti as well, but it is located much more out of the way from the other parks, and didn’t fit into our travelling plans as well as the others. But that doesn’t mean the trip was any less exciting.

Lake Manyara National Park has a very diverse landscape and offers a wide range of stunning scenery. It has many dense forests which house a large number of baboons and elephants, as well as expansive plains near the lake which contain large herds of wildebeest and buffalo. These animals prefer to roam in open areas to get a better look at approaching predators. The entire park is bordered by a wall of mountains on one side, which is where our campsite was located and offered a wonderful view of the lake and trees below at sunrise. Even though it is a relatively small park compared to others in the area, Lake Manyara had a huge variety of animals and other wildlife, and was the perfect way to start our safari adventure.












Day 2 of our safari took us to the famous Ngorongoro Conservation Area, known for its 22 km-wide crater that is home to nearly every animal you could hope to find in East Africa, including the endangered black rhino, of which there are only about 100 left in existence. The crater is officially not a national park, because there is also a large population of the Maasai tribe that continues to live in their native home amongst the animals.

Shortly after descending down into the crater, we spotted a male lion laying low in the tall grass with a small herd of zebra approaching unknowingly. When the zebra came close enough, two additional female lions who had been hiding with the male sprang up, and one of them took off chasing after the zebra. She was unsuccessful in her attempt, but it was such an amazing sight to see up close and in person. The male and the other female remained behind, but amazingly were then actually chased out of their territory by a group of buffalo who apparently saw how tired and outnumbered the lions were. The male gave an angry roar, but had to accept the will of the buffalo and so the two of them retreated to a safe distance, which, conveniently for us, was right in front of our car on the side of the road.

 











Although the majority of our excitement came early on in the crater, the rest of the day was still filled with many spectacular sights. We saw elephants, giraffes, ostriches, flamingos, warthogs, and a mother hyena nursing her pups. At one point we stopped the car in the middle of the road, surrounded on all sides by TONS of zebra and wildebeest. Watching them graze and roam from as close as a couple of feet in every direction was really something special and quite a sight to behold.

 


After a great day in Ngorongoro, our final stop on the safari tour was Tarangire National Park. Known for its many massive baobab trees and enormous elephant population, Tarangire was a great way to finish our trip. The many hills and evenly dispersed baobabs created another very unique and beautiful landscape for Jake and I to experience. We were able to spot a female lion and her cub from a distance, but by far the most prevalent animals in the park were the blue-butted, lunch stealing monkeys. We managed to eat in safety, but the unfortunate people eating near the fenced part of the picnic area were literally invaded by a hoard of hungry hungry monkeys.













The safari lived up to all of our hopes and expectations, but with its end our trip was only just beginning. We bid farewell to the luxury of having a private car to drive us around and prepared to face the real world of Tanzanian public transportation. After a couple hours of waiting on the side of the road as full bus after full bus rolled by, we managed to secure standing space (just slightly smaller than the size of our bodies) on a bus headed towards the town of Katesh, the home of another volunteer friend of mine who we were going to visit. The bus to Steph’s village was comparably packed with people, though we had at least secured seats this time by getting our tickets as early as possible.

Since it was impossible to make it all the way down to my site during Jake’s short visit, I figured the next best thing was to see another volunteer’s site. Although it was slightly out of the norm in that her house had electricity and indoor plumbing, and her neighbor had a refrigerator(!!), Steph’s site was still located in the middle of nowhere and served as a good look into the life of a Peace Corps Volunteer. We cooked, played card games, visited the neighbors, went on a long day hike to a couple of salt lakes adjacent to Mt. Hanang, the 4th tallest mountain in the country, and on the final night were invited to a massive goat roast next door where we stuffed ourselves beyond discomfort.













With the end of Jake’s visit drawing near, we made our way to Morogoro, the home of my 10-week training at the start of my service over 2 years ago, hopped on a loaded daladala and paid a visit to my host family whom I hadn’t seen in a very long time. They were really happy to get to meet Jake and greatly appreciated the surprise visit. We then finished our final leg of travel to Dar, where we enjoyed an evening walk-around and boarded Tanzania’s finest cruise vessel, a 5-minute 200 /= (about 15 cents) ferry boat that we stayed on and scored a free return trip, before finally returning to the airport.

All in all I thought it was a fantastic trip, and I was so glad to have another person to be able to share Tanzanian memories with when I return home. Thanks for visiting Jake!

Ticket to Ride (Zug um Zug) Tanzania

All aboard the Tanzanian Express! On my way up to Dar for our Close of Service (COS) Conference a couple of weeks ago, a few other volunteers and I decided to take a ride on the Tanzanian railroad system. Despite what you may think, the trains in this country are actually considerably slower than the buses (no small feat), only run twice per week to a very limited number of cities, typically arrive hours after schedule, and, aside from 3rd class tickets (think standing only, rush hour subway - esque sardine packing for multiple days) are even more expensive than your average big bus. So why would anyone in their right mind actually choose to ride the train rather than a bus? Well, as far as Tanzanians go, very few actually do take it aside from those in 3rd class who are simply looking for the most economical way to travel, since those tickets actually are very cheap. But for we foreigners, why the heck not? As long as you have a 2 day time frame within which to reach your destination. There's much more leg room than a bus, a small fold-out table to watch movies on, "concessions" being sold by mama's along the way, and a rare chance to see some of the more stunning scenery in an already inspiringly beautiful country.

The train starts in Zambia and passes through the town of Makambako, which is about an hour north of Njombe, my banking town, on its way to Dar es Salaam. There are two trains in each direction weekly: an express train and an ordinary train. Unfortunately the one we needed to take was the ordinary, but then again, we were in it for the experience and to get to see the country in a new light, so longer wasn't necessarily worse in our case. The station gets very busy on the train days, and seems to turn into a free hotel for a lot of people. Outside there is a sizable shanty town of various vendors and child salesmen, selling things like hot tea, roasted corn and blankets, since this is now the winter season in the southern highlands. We found a small plot of wall space to set up camp and wait an unknown number of hours for the train to arrive.

The arrival time itself was quite ambiguous, but we ended up waiting around 4 hours until our train rolled in at around midnight. Not too bad given our expectations. After waiting for them to attach the car that contained our actual train cabin, we were finally settled in around 2am. The cabins had 6 fold-out padded benches for beds stacked in 2 columns 3-high. In between was a fold-down table and above was a good amount of storage space for luggage. Even though it was only four of us travelling, we bought out the whole cabin to ensure our privacy.

When we woke up the next morning, we were a good ways farther north into some much hotter weather, but there was plenty of breeze in the cabin - another major plus over the buses. We entertained ourselves by playing some card games, including the Ticket to Ride Card Game, which, being played while travelling on a train, could only be likened to playing Settlers of Catan on the Old Settler's Trail in the Smokey Mountains. At various stops along the way, children would come playing around the train tracks (right in line with typical Tanzanian children's standards of safety). We gave them paper cranes and airplanes made of colored post-it notes, which they got really excited for.

The train arrived in Dar almost exactly at midnight, so our full trip was right at 24 hours. We then went from looking like homeless train bums to staying at a schnazzy beach resort in Dar for our COS Conference. The hotel had its own beach, swimming pool and air conditioned rooms, so a big change from what we had just gotten used to on the ride up. But undoubtedly the best feature of the hotel was its thrice daily buffet meals, each consisting of about 8 courses, linked together by intermittent chai and snack breaks. I guess they were trying to compensate for all of the volunteers who have lost too much weight over the last 2 years by fattening us up over a week of binge-eating.

The week was a great vacation and final opportunity to spend time with the remaining volunteers from my training class. Although it wasn't quite as relaxing for me, since I am still trying to figure out if my extension will work out. At this point, it sounds like it would be very easy to extend at my site and just change the focus of my service from teaching to doing other secondary projects like these science competitions. There are a couple potential partner organizations that I could end up extending with, but those obviously take more time to figure out and to see if their needs match up with what I want to do. Nonetheless, I am trying to remain patiently optimistic to have my plans for the next year settled before long.

Since finishing our COS Conference, I have been staying in Dar for our Shika na Mikono (Hands-on Science Group) handover meeting to the new class of volunteers. We have been helping them to plan the upcoming trainings for the Education volunteers coming in July, as well as handing off all of our training resources and brainstorming new ideas for the future of the group. We are hoping to put more of an emphasis on science competitions along with doing more practice "practical" lab exams similar to those given for the national exams, to help the PCVs get a feel for what preparation duties they may have at their schools. Of course if I end up extending, I will still remain a part of the group and hopefully be able to help push the competitions and confereces aspect myself. Woo science!

I am now on my way back home, where I will be for one night before taking a handful of students to Wino (the nearby volunteer's school) for another mini science weekend. One of the original students that I took to Njombe in March came up to me and asked if we could do another competition there to get more students involved, so we will do that Saturday and Sunday. This time we may try out some new ideas like building gliders, paper helicopters and probably more JEOPARDY games. More on that to come!

Meanwhile, using the magical powers of Dar internet, I've been able to upload my video from the science weekend at my school in April. One of the teachers at my school was able to take some great video footage, which was a great help in putting this together. Enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt-ZGmLOfKQ&feature=youtu.be

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!