3/24/14 - 3/29/14

3/24/14 

got a call from mahumi sunday night telling me i was tod and that he would be picking me up early. at 6:45. tried not to let it get me down but i treasure those morning minutes with amber. of well. really just not feeling the tod business. well anyways, it was rainy this morning which didn't help the mood but did help the farmers and pushed back the pick up time. also incredibly thankful for rain because our water has been out since friday night. so water in any form is much appreciated. we threw out the buckets and yolito-ed it. 

so i got to school early and watched the kids work on cleaning the environment. they tried to get the morning parade going but it started to rain and the head boy decided to just send everyone to their classrooms. i got bombarded with some form 4 students, asking me some math questions before i left to go to class. i left that class around 9:30 to find mahumi coming to find me. he wanted me to leave with him because he was having a meeting at bariadi today. mmmmkay. aint no way i am going to refuse that offer… even if im tod this week. so i made it home and just relaxed. just not feeling it today but i crawled into bed with the hunger games and read the day away. our water came back on this afternoon! we cooked hash for dinner. oh and i asked mahumi about the break today and i think i may be getting an extra week. hello beaches in dar and mwanza!?!

3/25/14 

although the 6:45 pick up time was confined three times he was still late. haha. but his two young kids were in the car this morning. so cute. and they seriously have conversations in variations of ‘ah’s’. its quite impressive. we also stopped to pick up two police officers this morning with huge guns. yolito. 

watch the kids work hard again this morning and then we had a long parade. i was forced to say something so since all the teachers were harping on the kids for this and that, i totally flipped it around and just gave them a super encouraging message. i told them to keep working hard, that the environment looks great, and to keep studying for their midterms because i know they will do well. some of the teachers kinda laughed at my little message. grrr. oh well i believe in these kids. mahumi came to parade and had all kinds of new sports equipment apparently biashara has been chosen to be the second sports school, along with bariadi. how? i dont know since we dont have a field or anything… but anyways we got 2 javelins, shot, discus, 3 volleyballs, netball, basketball, soccer ball, and 3 badminton kits. mahumi was so cute explaining everything and acting it out. he throw the shot put into the parade. got out a badminton racket and hit the shuttlecock into the students. they were loving it. the only mishap was mahumis explanation of badminton. he told the students that it was played on a huge capital like 4 x 6 meters and that the needed the capital to make one. they mistook it for table tennis. this also came with 2 books - syllabi- for teaching as a class. thats the 10th class at biashara now. straight after the parade i ran to his office to straighten him out and him explain that you just needed a field. he was excited and said that we would start right after the break and that i will be the coach.

also the midterm schedule was released today. of course, mine is the last day. april 4th when i wont even be there. oh well. oh and on a side note heres an example of funny, formal, long english words that they try to use. so the title of the schedule said something about the midterm test invigilation. of maybe an example of my ignorance/ lack of vocabulary… ill let you decide. 

they are also having a parents meeting here on thursday and then there is a program here on saturday. this program is a celebration of the research sponsored by world bank, when my form 3s had to take that day long exam maybe 2 weeks ago. 50 headmasters and 50 teachers from schools in the area are coming to biashara. 

taught stream b and then came back to the class to catch up on journaling and then to watch an unfolding drama/ adventure in the staff room. some guy came into the staff room and the teachers all told me that he was crazy. so sad. well it gets worse because as it turns out this guy said that he wanted to marry someone in bariadi. so all the teachers are laughing at him and mocking him and talking about him. however he actually meant to say that he wanted to see someone in bariadi. he started crying and buried his face in his hands. as it turns out, this guy doesn't really know swahili so the problem is language. the swahili word for to marry and to see are just slightly different so it was just a error in communication. he said ‘ you see the problem is language. i am a black african and i don't know swahili’. i so feel for him and it has to be even worse for him because at least no one expects me to know kiswahili.  his story was confusing and i don't know how much to believe but apparently he went to boarding school in senegal when his parents were in an accident here and died. so he returned and someone pretended to be his uncle until he stole everything he had. his english was excellent. he changed from swahili to english after the marrying incident. madame vesting said at one point ‘ah madame kassie is the only one that understands him’. and she was probably right. it was fast. it was correct. impressive. oh and he also said he speaks french, spanish, and portuguese. so anyways, he stopped by the police office and the regional education office and got permission to go to the schools to ask for some money to get back home know. it was so nice to see the teachers give, even if just a little. i was the 46th person to give so i think he will be in good shape. 

chapati has been on point the last few days at school. so good and not oily at all. i could have easily downed another today. 

there are so many teachers. today our teachers sharing chairs. we run out of chair, we rinse out and reuse cups. definitely cementing the frat house status today. 

loving the kiting today. ready for another dress. the fabric is noticeably softer and more flexible today. 

letters are going out to the parents about the meeting thursday. personalized letter. the teacher in charge of each class has to write each students name on the paper and stamp it with the headmasters stamp. well i wanted something to do so i was the stamp person today. anything to keep me busy! oh and letters > teaching. they were to busy to go to class today.  

bell range at 2 today. im good with that. so i went to parade where mahumi came out just to introduce me. he told the students he wasn't aware this morning that we have a technical director on our staff, so director (aka me) can you speak to the students to rectify my mistake this morning (about badminton and the table). so funny. 

rainy rainy afternoon. texted with mom. glad she was getting to go to lunch with trash and edna! read a good bit more of catching fire before knocking out dinner. we've been going to jonahs a little more often to take advantage of the beans and they have been a great addition. 

3/26/14 

woke up and rushed to try to get my internet working before mahumi called me. katie went to the doctor yesterday and i was hoping for some more baby pics! disappointed that i didn't have any pictures but i did get a email about camp and a message from mardi! all day though i was ready to get back and be able to check for an ultrasound update. long day 

it was a really pleasant morning for ‘madame duty’. the teachers absolutely loved me being on duty. the only problem was realizing i was hungry at 8:26. 

teachers have been slacking a little bit this week. they are showing up later. maybe they are already feeling the break. not blaming anyone… me too! 

serious talk about bride price this morning. one teacher was saying how he wanted to get rid of it but people are unwilling to change. he also said that it is the source of women beating because you are buying them. butttt other teachers completely disagreeing and saying that they should keep it because of tradition. this teacher was saying that it is expensive but if it is too expensive you can just find another woman or lower the price by getting her pregnant. 

battery on my nokia is low today. this battery lasts forever! so i never think about charging it. guess i wont be able to play my rapid roll game today…. rapid roll has taken the #1 spot over snake. 

so luchonga came back from class way early this morning. he said that the head student and tod found that the classroom in stream a had not been cleaned yet so the punishment was for the teacher to leave and say that he taught the period. he will not repeat the lesson so they will have to get the information from another stream. well i guess that may be better than 100 students getting the stick…? i dont know at this point. (spoiler alert: they all got punished later that day again. i think they were spared from the stick once again and only had to clean the environment because of the parents meeting and celebration. even the other streams in form 3 were hating on this stream. hmmm)

just talked to mahumi about the break. he was actually getting a little quick with me but i think it was just because he didn't know and thought i wasn't understanding him. oh well. i need to know the truth on this one. so heres the issue. we are supposed to return to school on the 15th. but holy thursday is the 17th. good friday is the 18th. easter the 20th. and easter monday is the 21st. so i think the schools MAY be open on the 15th and 16th but i don't even know how many students or teachers would come. so what I'm saying is that if i came back for a week of nothing in bariadi i would go crazy. and would obviously much rather be doing some traveling/ relaxing somewhere else. 

a students today say f*** you to another student in stream c. wayyyyy caught me off guard. 

huge free mason talk today. and lots of questions from moses (one of the newer teachers) about america and how we ended up so differently if were were both colonized in the beginning. he asked if it is true that we have no culture in america. and on and on. 

i was planning on going to a religion period today but then we had a meeting. here are some highlights. there will be 150 new teachers in the bariadi alban starting april 1st. thats about 5-9 per school but mahumi told us to expect up to 15 teachers at our school. most are teaching arts subjects. he said to expect to teach units not topics and that we will have to assign them something to do because they cannot stay here with nothing no do. then they started talking about the midterm break. mahumi was proposing that they move it back a week because the region did not consider the easter break when they made it. so he brought it up for the teachers to debate. besides interfering with the easter conferences, i think i big reason for the push back was to collect money from the parents. at the meeting the next day, they will be asking the parents to contrite 20,000 tsh for remediation and to pay for temporary teachers. and i didn't get invited to go to the function on saturday. hallelujah! hello weekend. this meeting started in english and quickly changed to swahili so i dont know how the break situation worked out. 

the meeting ended pretty late. mahumi called osama for me so i got a quick lift home. thank the lord. so hungry! and i finally got to see some pics of baby lafountain! 

3/27/14 

tod day 4! its thursday = parents meeting= week is basically over. so the students were very busy this morning with the  environment. it looks great. yesterday afternoon, they had to bring back stones to line the walkways with. and this morning they were painting them white. chai break came very early. around 9. bread and blue band (butter). the teachers were killing it. a cart with the tent arrived and the students helped to get that set up and then bring out chairs from the classroom. some girls played netball so i watched that for a while. then a van came with the sound system. the meeting that was supposed to start at 9 really started around 10:30. at that time about 150 parents were there. but more and more filled in. i guess thats good for a school of about 1,000. it was in the middle of the say with less than two days notice. the parents were all so happy when i introduced myself in swahili. they were clapping and laughing.

oh and i finally found out about the break today. lunching told me that they decided to not change it but for me to not worry and to continue with my plans. i just need to ask the headmaster for permission before i leave. he said that teachers may come one day but not the other only because they are there. thank you, thank you very much. that means travels will be from april 4th - april 20th/21st. thats one heck of a way to knock out a month. 

super super long meeting. got home about 4:30 and had a great night. i got to talk with mom for a while and amber and i had a girls night in since nick was caught up at his school for the form 4 graduation. we walked into somanda and each got an ear of roasted corn. and we got some beans from jonah. and ate to the hunger games since we are both rereading the series. we stayed up way late - like 10:00 - to talk about our travels. we are going to meet up in dar after our originally scheduled spring break plans. 

3/28/14 

slept great last night but wasn't ready for the alarm. but hey its friday. last day of tod and its even a half day! we started the invigilation of our midterm exams today. the room was very crowded, especially when you think about everyone having to have their own chair and desk when they normally share. it was wall to wall with students. a few students used another chair as a desk and some just had to write on their leg. there was less cheating that i expected. and just as much passing of the rulers, pens, erasers as i expected. they wrote their answers on blank computer paper that they called the answer sheet. when i ran out of that i had them use the back of extra exams that i had and that completely rocked their boat. so not happy with me.  i was giving the chemistry exam for form 3 and it was so hard. granted i didn't hardly learn anything in chemistry in high school but it was tough stuff. 

i got to walk home for the first time this week. yay! i got a much needed shower this afternoon before we headed to father kushoka’s for dinner. well that came with quite the adventure. we walked over there to only find a dark house. his watchman then told us that father kushoka was on a safari and that he would return tomorrow. it was already 7:45 so amber and i just went to get corn on the way home. well right after we got it, nick called and said that father kushoka was at our house and that food was prepared. okay… so we went over, visited, and ate some good food. back at home around 10:00 and straight to bed! 

3/29/14 

the typical saturday affair. did a module in the morning for the teacher quality program. typed a little of this blog. read, read, read. hash for dinner (so good) with a little more hunger games. 

3/17/14 - 3/23/14

3/17/14 

Mahumi had the early pick up going on this morning. had to grab my banana and run out the door. 

it was a rough first class this morning with stream a. and i actually had a rough class with stream c on friday and they are normally on top of things. i have been doing some review for the midterm next week and i am just really questioning how much they have learned/ how much i have taught them. they honestly seemed to have it down when we were on the topics but now seem to have extremely little recall of it. its pretty discouraging. oh well. yolito. just already preparing to be way disappointed in my midterm results. guess its a good - no great- thing that 30 is passing…. .

speaking of midterms, they were to be turned in to the academic office today. this means that teachers were busy today at school preparing them. but seriously, this is way on time for tanzanians. 

beatings were taking a toll on me today. masunga was using the cane to hit the tops of students hands. that just seemed worse than the palms to me. i have no clue what they did. on guy came in and i think it was because he brought the exercise books to him closed and not open to a certain page in each of the students’ books. he was pitiful. crying. trying to hide his hands between his legs and so instead masunga just starting hit his upper thighs, wrists, anything. 

luchonga is tod this week and i just saw him hit someone for the first time. the boy was whimpering, crumpled to the floor. and then the discipline master came in and went after him four more times on his butt and back. there were also two older guys sitting in the staff room after all of this. later i found out the whole story. These older guys (parents somehow) brought this boy to school to be punished because he has been ‘truant’ for many days. during this time of being absent, he has been telling his family he was at school when he really wasnt. his family was tired of him and so they brought him here to watch him as he got hit. 

and for some reason, the sticks have given way to the harder, thicker canes recently. 

on a different note, extremely loud and incredibly close is seriously such a weird book! 

and i also got some insight into a few of the common names. Madulu can either mean a herd of zebras or a crop here. they are small green lentil-like things. maduhu or mboje is actually a really sad name and even more so since it is the most common. so, if the first born dies, then the second one will be called this. shida literally means problem. so that could mean there was a problem during the birth or even a problem with the family at the time of the birth like a drought. 

i was able to convince mahumi to let me walk home today. i needed to clear my head after all the beatings and get some exercise in. it was a good walk and i even found some corn so that was solid. happiness came today so were all cleaned up and ready for the week. got to text with mom for a little and had beans a rice. overall a quick day = good day. 

3/18/14 

its a tuesday which amber and i like to think of as the last full day of the week. and really its kind of true. religion is on wednesday, debate sometimes on thursday, and sports on friday. 

driving through town this morning, i was just thinking about how much i will miss the drive/ cultural tour of the town every morning. i love seeing the students making their way to school, the clothes, the animals, the chores like sweeping the dirt or working in the field, the little babies tied on their mothers backs, the ladies making food, etc. it really is something special. 

so yesterday we saw the aftermath of a bad accident as we were driving to school. it was with an ambulance (a land rover with a red cross on it) and a tractor with a trailer. mahumi told me this morning that he went to greet the driver of the ambulance since he is our neighbor. he said that ‘there is no life for a street boy’ that was in the tractor but that everyone else was okay. the ambulance was going to pick up someone in another village and was driving very fast - over 100 km/h. apparently the tractor did not have reflects and there was another coming that he didn't want to hit head on so he swerved and hit the tractor. he was saved by the airbag. so that was the story i got from mahumi but then amber told me the next day that this driver was actually in jail now because he was driving drunk. 

teachers were rioting about there being no chai today even though madame eliza said it was because there was no water. some teachers bought some (aka sent students to get some) but eventually water came. no chapati though until i had chai. 

a little later in the afternoon, 2 girls brought in a boy. he had to kneel in front of a table with a lot of teachers sitting behind it. he was very upset and the teachers were all talking/ yelling at him. micese got up and walked to him, got in his face, and slapped him twice across the face. then he got up and ran away! it was an instant uproar! the teachers all got up, even madame difficult, and went after him. madame difficult quickly returned a blew her whistle from her bag. moodi pursued the chase along with some other students. i hate to say this because i know he will get in so so so much trouble but the whole drama of the chase and the teachers reactions were funny. i found out later that this boy was in trouble for writing a love letter to another girl and that is wayyyy not okay. i told them that in america, it is okay to have a boyfriend/ girlfriend at school and they couldn't believe it. they thought it was the craziest, funniest thing ever. i told them that holding hands was very common and of course they thought that was okay but i had to explain to them that in america that is a sign of being in a relationship. but i also told them that hugging and kissing happens. micese then came over and said, you know tanzanians our bodies are very warm and that they would only think about that school and nothing else. 

left school early today to go to the tuesday market- nada. done with classes… actually since 9:20 but i was ready to hit the road and do my own thing. of course i was just as much of a spectacle as i walked through many of the tents to look for kangas or kitanges. definitely lots of mzungu price but then i found one precious lady who was at the church that amber and i went to  on saturday. she was so sweet and i got an awesome kitange from her. it definitely tested my swahili at times but so very fun too. 

3/19/14 

the internet was going good this morning and i thought of the ‘happy’ song that katie was singing and dancing to when we talked on sunday. itunes cooperated and amber and i were loving it… though nothing can compare to my live performance. 

and today was my first piki piki ride! i can check that one of the bucket list. mahumi was not coming to school today because he had a meeting in la madi so yesterday he called Osama, the driver that catherine, the past volunteer, had used. so i called him this morning and it was awesome. he daughter was with him and we dropped her off at school on the way to work. he drove slowly and it was very enjoyable. 

sebastian asked me if i would allow him to cane a student with the student standing right there. i said you know i do not like it and i do not agree so i will not allow you but i also cannot stop you. point. set. match. 

mtokambali, the math department head, asked me to give him my camera. umm no thank you much. i asked him if i asked for everything that he has. good thing that he doesn't know kingereza (english). im getting sassy, or really just so tired of everyone asking for everything! 

then sebastian started talking about witches and all kinds of craziness. it started with the malaysian airplane that is missing. he asked why america is not using its technology to find it. then he said that they needed african technology, especially someone - maybe a witch- from bariadi because they are very powerful and they could find them. ay yi yi. and yes i said that as i was shaking my head. they love ay yi yi here. apparently witches can also make it rain and can remove you from your house, and even take you to your farm, without opening your door. so watch out! sebastian asked me if i wanted to be tested. he said seeing is believing because he didn't believe it until it happened to him. i asked him if the witches were satan and he didn't know what satan was. so i changed it to the devil and of course he know that. so to answer my questions, yes witches are the devilS. 

and speaking of devils, i saw 3 cases of the devils today. al female students. i guess two devils had already been fought off because they were just lying in the grass. but i saw the war with the third students. she screaming softly in a very raspy voice and twitching a little. there were a group of students all around here. hold her head, her arms up in the air, etc. we have two theories on these devil attacks. one theory is what i think saw today. i think the girl was seriously having a seizure but devils are the only thing that they know to attribute that to. kim said that this is seriously a big problem in another region where epilepsy is a big problem but all seizures are just devils. the other theory is ambers and that is that some of these attacks are just pains attacks. they have been conditioned to seeing these happen and if they get stressed or maybe if they have been on their period for a while or something they may start to freak out and this is how the have learned to show it. 

so in all of our free time, i will tell you that something i (and we) think about is what we are going to bring home and what we are going to leave here. i feel like i did a really good job of packing just what i would need. there is very little that i don't wear here - not much extra stuff. but i also don't want to bring much home and i need to make room for the souvenirs. ironically, there is only one dress that i would want to bring home (the black and white one) and it is the only dress that madame eva has asked for. 

sauntered on home around 1 today. madame joycea walked with me and that was very nice. her english is good. she's sweet. and maybe most importantly she walks at a good pace.

good afternoon and evening and a great shower (much needed, even if it was a bucket one). and just in case you were wondering peanut butter m&ms came out in 1991! i seriously hope im not the only one that thought these were a relatively new addition. 

3/20/14 

we’re in the 20s of march!! haha. i didn't hear from mahumi yesterday but i assumed he was back. well i assumed wrong so i got to have piki piki ride number 2 this morning. 2000 tsh. 

so i don't hold back when it comes to sebastian. he gets me is all of my sassy, feisty glory. but im sure you have probably noticed this by now… 

i got invited to daniella and kingi’s house this saturday. they were really sweet to ask about what i like to eat and drink and all of that. we, as volunteers, give tanzanians a bad representation of americans as vegetarians. even if you eat meat in america, chances are you wont eat it here. 

on a random note, teachers always lie about what time they get to school. i always write the actual time that i get to school and you can tell that the teachers get flustered if they get there after me and cant lie. 

the school called a parade during the middle of the day today to suspend the boy that wrote a love letter and then ran away. im not sure how long (2-3 weeks i think) but i took this opportunity to bounce on out of there. and i had a good walk. i met two older ladies on the road and we talked for a while. the swahili (although extremely limited) is indeed improving. i also stopped to buy a kanga from a shop that i always pass. again, i talked to a tailor there but also to someone with ‘sign language’. it was so neat. the last adventure on the way home was talking to two guys studying agriculture at a university. they were insistent that i give them my phone number and i probably rudely broke their heart. i told them that i would give them my email (kassieintanzania@gmail.com = i made it up just for this purpose) but not my phone number. when they asked why i told them that my email cant wake me up at night. they laughed and went on their merry way. 

and then i had an awesome awesome afternoon. i laid out in the courtyard for maybe 30 minutes until happiness came. so amber and i chilled in my room until we went outside to play basketball. well basketball never really happened but i did bring a frisbee that i had brought and that was a huge huge hit. lots of bariadi students were still around so we played with them and then some younger kids came out to play. alvin pretty much directed this game. julie and alvin absolutely stole my heart. played with alving, julie, steven, angel, luka, anastasia, and many more. we just had a great time. day = made! this is why I'm here. needless to say i will be going back. 

3/21/14 

and were 3 weeks into march. mahumi is back to i got to take the eminem-mobile into school today. 

taught a good period with stream b, all review about polynomials. but their attention span literally and figuratively went out the window to watch moodi go to town on form 4 students. hard. hard. hard. and many per student. and for a long time. i don't have a clue what they did. 

daniella and eliza are rocking the zig zag braid and madame eva said that she wants to try to braid my hair. I'm game for that. she asked if i had a comb and i didn't so i guess that will have to happen later. 

so apparently some man (an uncle i think) came to school and said that he needed to take a form 1 student to get treatment for asthma. and today, her mom came to school to say that she had been missing. well she was seen earlier at crdb bank and was at school now. the mom was so mad and was yelling at the girl. she slapped her in the face and then the girl fainted. and thats all i know about that. 

so the teachers at my school are playing football against the teachers of another school (chenge) at bariadi today. they are so excited to have me there. they say i am going to be the goal keeper because i am tall. im trying to be the team photographer. there is also a netball game. so excited for a great start to the weekend. 

i bounced after school was over and walked home. i saw mr sana in front of our house and talked to him for a little. he gave me letters to get to the headmasters of biashara and kidinda and then he motioned to the box in front of our house. i was happy to see him because i had been expecting my exemption certificates for a visa, which we will have to have to travel. but i didn't have a clue what the box would be. Just imagine my excited when i saw ‘carey hunt’ and ‘vickery creek middle school’ on the box. mom sent me a surprise care package!! it was like christmas and thanksgiving and easter and halloween and flag day and presidents day and … I had everything all laid out nicely on the table and had to document the whole process. i was so so soooo happy! i ran and grabbed my computer and told mom to wake up because we had to face time! such a great talk and such a great surprise! 

so, i guess i could let you in on the back story here. when came for her site visit earlier this month, she brought me a little surprise of pictures and two cards from her. In one of the cards, she mentioned something about a care package which was news to me. so i found out that she had sent a package to kim in dar in early january and asked her to bring it to me if she could on our site visit. well, it was too big to bring so mom told kim to just enjoy it herself and share it with her friends. and so i thought that was the end of that. well, little did i know, there were other plans in the works. mr sana was visiting dar and kim had already told amber and i that she was going to give our exemption certificates to him (too important to trust in the mail). well kim was also giving that package mom sent to him to bring back to bariadi. and that package was on our front stoop friday afternoon! and the second backstory is that madame emba (aka amber) knew about this! kim told her when she was her on the site visit. and she was dying to tell me! sana has been back all week and didn't bring our stuff until friday. so amber had said once or twice this week that she was ready for sana to bring our exemption certificates/ disappointed that he didn't it bring it that day. well know i know why! 

and so that was a great start to the weekend. and it just kept getting better when i went outside around 3:30 for the staff football game. i brought my frisbee again and was throwing it with all the students. they were handing out in the shade. it was a constant echo of madame with everyone wanting me to throw it to them. you just cant put stuff that like into words. of course, they were all so worried about me being in the sun, and even worse playing in the sun. eventually, the teachers got on the field. i was actually quite impressed with the jerseys and it really was hilarious to see these teachers out there. i guess because i was throwing the frisbee or maybe its because i just didn't have a clue what was going, but either way i was able to get out of playing. alvin, one of my buddies from frisbee yesterday, found me and we were pretty much attached to the hip. some of the students asked if he spoke english and i said no. so they wanted to know how we talked, and i told them with the frisbee. it really is true though. we talk with the frisbee, with smiles and laughing, with our own sign language, with the little bit of swahili i know, and most importantly with happiness. so after the football game was over, everyone trekked over to the netball game. i played with the frisbee with alvin, julie, and anastasia from yesterday before the game started. but our girls were pretty legit. although they were shorter than the other team they dominated. it was so so so much fun. everyone would rush the field after every single score! there were chants/ singing going on. just a great atmosphere for quite an intense game. the boys were playing a football match after but amber and i headed back to get dinner going. 

3/22/14 

weekend time. this morning i was pretty productive. although i could have stayed in bed longer, i got up at 7:15 when i remembered that i needed to do teacher quality stuff. so i completed my lesson plan and then began typing the blog before amber and i headed out to meet two of my teachers at the house. we were meeting daniella and kingi who are not married but the are both renting rooms from the same house. daniella had prepared lunch for us and it was delicious. cooked bananas, mchicha, cabbage, rice, and bananas. she bought us both cold waters. she is so kind and thoughtful. she said she remembered that i like the cabbage on the night of the school get together so she prepared that for us. I got to meet her daughter, princess or gertrude, but she was absolutely terrified of us. she warmed up to us a tiny bit before we left but she literally hid the whole time and cried when someone tried to bring her close to us. daniella also had a surprise for us. she made us close our eyes and then she said open them and she put junior, her nephew, into my lap. he was one month old yesterday. so precious but also happy and alert. Kingi wanted to walk us out and when i told him that we were going to stop at a few places he of course wanted to stay with us. so we went and bought a few pairs of the tire sandals. i was also able to find a tanzanian track suit… aka sweat pants and a jacket. micese has one just like it and i knew i needed to get my hands on a pair of sweat pants so i was pretty excited. and just to reiterate the tanzanian v american sizing. i am pretty sure my pants are a size XXXL. haha yessssss. so we grabbed our goodies and headed on back for a nice saturday afternoon and evening. we got to try a flavorful, yummy indian sauce packet that raquel (the past volunteer that lived here) sent in a care package. how sweet! so that was fun. also, we started indiana jones last night so tonight we continued movie night. 

3/23/14 

today will be just about as productive as a weekend gets for me. i am going to finish my world teach teacher quality work for the month by wrapping up the module. nerd alert: i actually started reading the article yesterday and it was really interesting. its called balancing factual, procedural, and conceptual knowledge in math education. there are some interesting studies done showing that everyone is capable of learning at least the K-12 math. so enough with that. i am also going to get this blog put up. and do my laundry. im going to eat a special goodie from the care package. and start the hunger games trilogy again on ambers kindle. wish me luck as teacher on duty (tod) this week. See you next week! 

Spring Break Plans

Sooooo here are the rough spring break plans. still lots of planning for the specific activities but this will at least give you an idea at what I'm looking at. i will be going to victoria falls and then to cape town. so excited! 

April 4th - 15th 

April 3 - thur

bus from bariadi to mwanza 

April 4 - fri

mwanza

fly to livingstone

April 5 -sat

arrive in livingstone

April 6 - sun

sky diving/ flight over victoria falls 

livingstone island

sunset cruise

April 7 -mon

elephant back safari

lion encounter 

mosi - oa - tunya national park - walk or drive

walk to maramba markets 

April 8 - tue

river rafting 

walk to knife edge bridge and to boiling point

visit devils pool 

April 9 - wed

livingstone to cape town 13:10 - 20:55

April 10 - thur

shark cage diving

boulders beach 

cape point 

seal island 

April 11 - fri

hop on hop off bus

night tour 

canal cruise

cape town city walk.

April 12 - sat  

old biscuit mill saturday market 

hop on hop off bus

blue 

kirstenbosch botanical gardens 

constantia wine bus tour 

world of birds 

imizamo yethu township 

hout bay - see the seals 

red 

the clock tower - victoria and alfred waterfront 

castle of good hope

district six museum 

April 13 - sun 

table mountain - abseil africa +27 (0) 21 424 4760

hike up 

abseil 

green market square

April 14 

fly from cape town to johannesburg 

fly from johannesburg to dar 

April 15

fly from dar to mwanza

bus from mwanza to bariadi 

3/8/14 - 3/15/14

3/8/14

typical saturday. lots of quality time with the kindle and internet was having a good day so i got to research more of the fun stuff for my spring break trip. good internet also meant that i could facetime! so i got to talk to some peeps from home. kristi and wendy. patti and mia. jenn and courtney. time went by quickly and it was just a pretty great day. 

3/9/14 

chilled in the morning while feeding my hungry monster. a banana a pb and 2 chapati. i laid out in the sun for while. so hot yet relaxing…. on my rocky, unlevel, concrete courtyard. amber joined me and we were loving it. we had to jump in the pool (aka shower) to cool down occasionally. nick interrupted the party when he got home and told us that we probably wanted to put some clothes on since two of his friends from school were only a few minutes away. no need to add fuel to the fire. the mission of the day for them was slaughtering a chicken and cooking up a good meal. well, lets just say it was interesting. nick cut the head off, then they put it in hot water to get the feathers out, and then went to town cutting it up. with our very limited resources at the house, it was interesting. our weight lifting rock was the butchers block and dish-washing tub was used for the gutting and cutting ceremony. anyways, i didn't participate too much but i did steal a few pictures here and there. 

instead, i actually left the boys to do their thing for a while. i went out for some exercise. i had been toying with the possibility of running for a while so i had decided that today was the day. so for the first time, i wore my tennis shoes outside of the house. man o man, i was looking some kind of good. so, i was wearing my big georgia soccer t shirt, my capris with a skirt over them, and my tennis shoes. i walked to my secluded palm tree area and then lost the skirt and ran for 20-25 minutes in big circles. This spectator sport was successfully kept to a minimum as i think i only drew the attention of 2 kids. I let them watch for a lap before i yelled for them to go away. the knees were killing me. only walking has probably been very good for me. if i didn't have to watch every step for thorns, holes, or cow presents, it would have been a beautiful run. anyways, it felt good to run but i dont think its really worth it. i am already too much of a spectacle just walking. I explored a little more of the area behind our house and found a pretty wide river. lots of mothers and children in the area, washing clothes and taking baths. pretty neat. anyways, i eventually returned and knocked out mum pushups before joining everyone at the table. by then, the boys had finished the meal. fried chicken. ugali. and greens (kale i think). i wasn't going to eat their food that they had worked so hard on but the teachers wouldn't keep inviting me to eat. so i grabbed a lid to a pot and had some ugali and veggies. the chicken looked decent but very tough. 

after spending what i thought was enough time with them, i went back to the room and got to talk to katie for a long time. i got the tour of the nursery-to-be so i could visualize where everything was going. and we, of course, talked about our baby BOY!!! she said just yesterday she started to feel him kick/move around. so exciting!! I got off with her in time to take a quick shower before my next phone date with craig, kathy, and tanner. 

dinner was the mission for amber and i today. a new, different dinner! we decided to make a hash. so we cooked some potatoes, added some veggies, and then put some eggs on top. good and most importantly different. 

3/10/14

busy, busy cleaning day for the students. mahumi called me last night and said that we were leaving at 07:00 am this morning because the district commissioner was visiting monday. so naturally, the students were doing some serious work. holes in the concrete in the staff room had been patched up the day before. someone was working on nailing the ceiling back up in the staff room when i got there. obviously, mahumi was pulling out all the stops to make a good impression. 

and then of course, i got to hear about the african incumbents all day from sebastian and the other teachers. they ended up never coming but that didn't stop them from talking. ‘they are here to treat us workers as slaves. they do not know where we live. they do not know what we eat. let us meet our rights in heaven. sebastian was talking about being fired and he said ‘me i am not afraid. i have nothing to lose.’ it really is so sad. part of it is the attitude. but the reality of being a teacher here is also so sad. so many problems. and just generally looked down on. 

lots of talk about caning students or using the stick today. i told them that i wanted to be hit and all the teachers found it hilarious. i told them that i have never been hit and i want to know what it feels like. they couldn't believe 1) that i had never been hit and 2) that i wanted to be hit. sebastian acted like he was going to hit me but then he refused to. he said he would do it before i leave. anyways, i do actually want to get hit. but it just kinda makes me mad that they refuse to hit me. they hit tons of students (and enjoy it) everyday. but yet they treat me so differently. i just want them to see students as people, too. 

they said you must use the stick/ cane because african people are not civilized. european people came over to civilize but found africa was rich in resources and they needed them so they left without civilizing them. they left them half way. 

sebastian is very thankful for caning. because he was a very poor student. he was very stubborn and would talk back to teachers. he would go to the market instead of school and lie about it. but he was canned and that is why he improved. (by the way this, and lots of other stuff  like the paragraph above, is just exactly what they say. i don't distinguish it too much but i surely hope you can tell the difference.) 

i asked about the laughing that i have seen students do around the beatings. they are either laughing at other students as they get hit or even after they get hit. none of the teachers knew what i was talking about. i thought it was so sad that they haven't even recognized that. sebastian said that they must not be getting hit by teachers that really knew how to hit. he gave example of people that know how to hit hard and cause pain so that they would not be laughing. however, i have still seen students laugh after getting hit by these people. my opinion is that the laughing is just a protective mechanism for their emotions that just get ripped out day after day after day. i know they are so used to it but i also know it hurts. so i think it is just a way to try to avoid what is really happening or hide what they are thinking. it may also be a way to show a teacher that they are on their side? 

luchonga (the newer english teacher that transferred from another school, sits by my in the staff room) said that the students would not take me serious if i did not hit them. to a certain extent i know that is definitely true. i am sure the students talk more to each other or while i am talking than in any other class. but i also know that if i let them know that that is not okay, with actions or word and without the stick, they will respect me enough not to talk. its about respecting me as a person and not just the stick in my hand. anyways, i am supposed to me TOD soon so we shall see. he said that students will show up late and not work hard because i am always smiling. not every going to change that. in fact, thats a compliment as i see it. but even this morning, while greeting a teacher, he said i see you are happy. your face is shinning. 

on sunday, i also researched a tiny bit about female circumcisions or female genital mutilation. i just needed to know a little since luchonga is having me read a book about it that they are reading in the form 3 english class. just gross. guess i am glad he is bringing up and discussing a relevant issue. he said it is not practice by the sukuma tribe and despite action by the government it is still practice in some areas, even musoma which is relatively close to us. 

walked home and it was the best walk home ever. every day i walk this one way, all these kids come running out toward me. well today i was prepared. i got my camera out and started videoing. two of them ran right to me and grabbed my hands. and we walked for a while and then there were about 8 kids that were all around me. they were rubbing my arms. playing with my watching. just so stinking adorable. anyways, i have so awesome video and some cute pictures to share. i also found an ear of corn. it is always hit or miss because the people that sell corn are constantly walking around with the bucket on their head. but there is no one place to go to get it. anyways, i had passed nick before i found one and asked him to keep his eyes out. well i ate my corn on the way home and he got home later with another ear for me. thought i was going to keep it for the next day but food security and availability hit me and i demolished both of them. happily. i ate some of the beans for dinner and called it a night. and i was actually full! thinking i had eaten was too much, i started thinking about what i had eaten. a banana with pb before school. 1 chapati at school. 2 ears of corn. some beans. hahaha ohhh how things have changed! again, its all relative. 

got to talk to both mom and dad later tonight. love using the handy dandy nokia to talk to dad. good to know it does something other than talk to mahumi or play snake. 

3/11/14 

still actually full from last night when i woke up but no worries i still ate my banana and was ready from chai break when that came around. 

had a good first period with steam b. doing a little review for the midterm exams. taught about polynomial operations for a while. then i got kicked out by simba at about 9. he said the students needed time to prepare for their ‘program’. i had no idea what that program was but i soon found out. we had visitors at the school that day. researchers that were sponsored by the world bank and they had exams that they were going to give to form 3. well then we were told that we needed to stay to talk to the researchers. that was supposed to be a 12. 3 came and we still hadn't been able to talk to anyone. i started walking around. after school let out at 2. i found a rock and kicked it around for a while. so bored. luckily, i did find/take a deck of cards from another teacher and played card games all day. waiting more than 6 hours to talk to someone you don't even know or why. long day. i played games by myself. i taught some teachers how to play blackjack. but the biggest hit was trying to teach them how to shuffle the cards. wow! mind blown. anyways, around 3:15 i started talking to someone. i tried to understand the purpose of these tests/ research but i cant tell you what they were trying to do. all i know is that the students have to take an incredibly long test and the researchers ask the headmaster and the english, kiswhaili, and mathematics teachers questions. today was the first day but they were trying to use an online survey system which was pretty advanced. we definitely had our issue but i admire them trying. i got through question 17 of 73 when edward told me that it was time to go. so after waiting all day, and after just sitting down with him, i just got up and left. yolito. 

maybe last friday, a student had come up to me on my way to class and asked me to go to church with him. i get these offers all the time so i kind of brushed him off and had totally forgotten about it. well he asked me again today and i am definitely going this saturday. and im so pumped. he is the sweetest thing ever. he said he has already paired all the money to arrange the car and the food, gotten us a special bible, and told the people at his church. he said madame catherine (the volunteer before me) went with him and just right there he opened up the front zipper of his book bag and whipped out a pristine picture of him and madame catherine and another student. he told me to convince my fellows to go to and that he would come with a car saturday morning at 2. 

i guess now would be a good time to mention swahili time. saa 2 = 8 am. basically you just add  6 hours. its a pretty cool and completely logical time system. since the seasons/ day dont change too much since we are so close to the equator it is basically based on the sun. the sun normally comes up around 6. so 6am is like saa 0. 1 = 7:00 am, saa 2 = 8:00 am etc. then you start over at 6pm. 

got another teacher today. ermalerd. so. many. teachers. mahumi said that make 25 but i think its more. 

‘biashara was posted number 7 of 14 schools who did the form 4 examination last year.’ ‘anything can happen at anytime’. so the district commissioner , dc, was going to visit yesterday because he thought biashara was #14. he was misinformed so he changed his route. anyways, props to form 4. 

so back to the journey home. it continues. so edward, the academic master joined us on the way home. they stopped at crdb bank. mahumi handed me the key and told me to roll up the window if it started to rain. i joked and told them that i was going to drive away and leave them there. it was a good thing i had the key because it started to pour. it was also a good thing someone with corn walked by because i was starving!!! my banana and chapati was gone as it was 4:00. i chowed down and just chilled in the car for nearly an hour before we took edward home and then finally made it back. 

ate some pb when i got back. we had a (not so welcome) visit from john, a teacher at ambers school. and i cooked veggie stew for dinner. 

3/12/14 

its already been a month since moms birthday. wow! guess time may be going more quickly than i thought. that is one thing about being sick thought. it made a whole week fly by… or at least it was a blur. 

a cool, dreary day here. no sun at all. it think its a leftover from the rain yesterday but i think we may have hit the beginning of the rainy season. for now its a welcome change. the farmers really really needed it. 

oh! i just remember something from last week. i thought it was hilarious. so after coming back from being sick all the teachers would ask me how i was feeling. but madame eva would always ask me if i had a hangover. and each day i happily replied that i didn't have a hangover. haha 

similarly, i really do love all the greeting here. i shake hands and exchange long greeting with just about every one of the teachers at the school each morning. we ask each other about our homes, families/fellows, last night, etc. and i say good morning to every single student i pass. so get ‘prepared’ america, lots of greetings are heading your way. 

good walk home today. the sky cleared up. it was still relatively cool and not too sunny. great chat with mom in the afternoon before we fixed cabbage and mchicha for dinner. 

3/13/14

rainy, rainy, rainy morning. it was so loud on our tin roof that i almost didn't hear my alarm this morning. it was pretty nasty out but again, so good for the crops. mahumi picked me up at 7:40 and we definitely needed his ‘professional driving’ as we ‘danced’ on ‘our road’. also covertly got a video of it today. so, about the professional driving, i always tell him that he drives like a professional and he gets the biggest kick out of it. he also calls our rocky/ bumpy journey dancing sometimes. its great. so we made it to school at 8 to find 2!!! teachers there. only 2! seriously, everything just shuts down here when it rains. I didn't have a period (since i hardly ever do :) ) so i knew the students would be free. So, i asked mahumi if i could go teach or if the students would not be prepared. of course, as the headmaster, he told me not to teach, and that they probably would not be prepared. yall, seriously it is hilarious how much you are not expected to work here. mahumi, the second headmaster, and all the other teachers share the same philosophy. they apologize when you have to work. they commend me when i am relaxing/ doing crossword puzzles to pass time. oh what a pain it will be to be expected to work/ not encouraged to relax at work when i get back! haha  (in all actuality, i am excited to stay busy and not be bored!) 

anyways, luchonga made it to school in a little and he decided it would be okay to go. one problem though…. no chalk. its kept in the academic office and no one was there yet. luchonga, teaching english, said he could go to class without chalk but i couldn't since i teach math. so i decided i would go talk to the form 1s. but then ombeni started walking toward us and was yelling at them to get in the classroom so i quickly nixed that idea. i found a box of chalk back in the staff room and went to stream. we are definitely struggling in there. ombeni just walked in and stared into my class. didn't say anything and left. i assume he was looking for some reason to punish someone for something. who knows… anyways, there was practically a school-wide game of hide-and-seek/ manhunt the whole first period. i had some students come in a grab a desk by the door to seek shelter in my room. they were hiding from ombeni (so they didn't get hit for being late) and trying to work their way to their own classroom. 

so, i dont think i have mentioned this before, but students come up to me, like right in front of me, and mumble something right in the middle of class. half of the time i cant even hear/ understand what they are asking for. but my answer is always yes. if a student comes in the room, they will even be asking to make an announcement, give or get an exercise book, or ask for the duster (eraser). there is no such thing as raising your hand to ask…or waiting for a good time to ask. 

one time a student came in today and she asked for the duster (which we did not have… it was a paper kind of day). anyways, i thought she had asked for a desk. and i had my raincoat and chalk on the desk. so i took it and put it on the ground. obviously, that wasn't what she needed so the desk was still there when i started to try to teach again. the students, as always, were appalled when i put something on the ground. it is normally my books. but they seriously just cant handle it. they will always bring me a chair/ stool/ desk to put them on. today, i tried to tell them that it was okay and kept working on the problem that we were in the middle of. i could tell they were still all looking at my coat on the ground. when a students finally stood up and started walking toward the front of the room, i knew she was coming to pick my coat up so i turned around threw it back on the desk and kept going. all in life was good again. haha they are so sweet. 

super thick, not oily chapati today just in case you were wondering… 

i started reading extremely loud and incredibly close yesterday. quite the interesting book. disclaimer: my expectations of a ‘good’ book have been thrown out the window here. i have enjoyed every single book i have read. and every single one of them have been random free ones that i got for my kindle. anything and everything that passes the time and lets me escape for a little is good in my book (sorry for that)

luchonga asked me ‘madame kassie, am i present of am i absent? i feel as if i am absent. i feeling as if i want to quit.’ so he got his things together and left. lol. i have to give it to him though. he really is a hard worker and all of his periods were done for the day. 

here are two pics of the attendance register. you can check out the names of some of my students 

3/14/14

another rainy morning. i got a call from mahumi at 8 and he was asking me if i had any periods today. he was asking me if i was okay. i am pretty sure he wanted me to ask/ agree with him to stay home today. well i didn't and i told him i had a class the first two periods (class that started at 8). so anyways he said that he needed to leave at 10. so he picked me up and thankfully i got teach some more. again, hardly any teachers were there. we picked up 5 students who were getting shelter from the rain on the way to school and stuffed them in the back of his car. i made it to class where i talked about the mean, median, and mode. then we got into some old form 3 exam questions. one of them led us to using the quadratic equation. of course, i whipped out my song for it and their day = made. they seriously made me sing it 6-8 times. it was awesome. another thing that was awesome is that when i walked in there was this drawing on the board. a quite impressive drawing, if i do say so myself. well, then i asked what it was for and i couldn't contain the laughter. it was for the free masons! i wanted to hear the students view of the free masons but one girl so no madame we cannot talk about that. but i did find out that some of them think that the scouts at the school are free masons. oh the life. so i went back and told mahumi that i could be done for the day (even though i had another period later) and he said that we would wait to take tea and then we would leave. so thats what we did. around 10:45 i was back home and done for the day. started typing up the blog. and i don't even know what else. i do know that we had lentils for dinner and i was great as always. but even better was the sunset that night. it was beautiful. i decided to go out naked (aka shorts and no skirt). amber followed me in her even more naked shorter shorts. we cut through the trees behind the house because it just kept getting better. of course we ran into some tanzanians. amber was trying to hide in the bushes and it was pretty hilarious. of course when the camera came out, the tanzanians had to get their picture taken. then i finally got them to leave and got on with my picture taking. overall, it was just a beautiful, fun little excursion. 

3/15/14 

its the 50% weekend!!! cant believe it but am also so excited that we are 50% done. and still have 50% to go! 

so the plan was to go to church this morning with a student from my school. hes in form 4. cilas adidas, i think. so he told me he would be there at 8 (well he said 2 but i explained that earlier). well, since we are pretty much locals now, we were almost positive he wouldn't be there at 8. he got there with his driver at 10 to pick us (me and amber) and take us to his church. its saturday so that should give you a little clue as to what church we were going to - seventh day adventist. it was just an incredibly neat experience. he stopped along the way to get a bible for us and then chairs for us. the church is very close to my school. we drove up when the sunday ( saturday?) school classes were meeting. it was just so cool. everyone brings their chairs to church and the classes were just groups of people all sitting in a circle all over the place. so many people. you had the different ages with teens, adults, etc. but you also had the little kids meeting. just precious. cilas’ group was very nice. another one of my students was in the group and they were doing it in english. i was quite impressed. they were talking jesus being a teacher and a trainer and about the holy spirit. madame difficult came up to me pretty much as soon as i got there. she was dressed in this fancy uniform. she told me this week that she had a lot going on because she was preaching this week. so i was going to get to see her preach. but we were only with his small group for maybe 5-10 minutes before it was time to go inside. so everyone picked up their chairs and made their way into the building. one of the women in the group asked me if i remembered her. i asked where i met her and she said somewhere that i didn't know of. then i realized she thought i was catherine. we laughed about us and she said ah to us black people, it is hard to tell white people apart. cilas and amber were long gone by then. good thing amber was pretty easy to pick out. so the three of us sat together. it was so much to take in. so many cute children in their nicest clothes. started with a long period of announcements. luckily there were a good many visitors today. students from a school. a pastor from kenya (who was also taking pictures and videos so that gave me an excuse to). they made the groups stand up and then everyone waved. then madame difficult came up to the mic and i knew it was our turn. she made us come to the front of the whole church and introduce ourselves because ‘they want to hear your voices’. so introduce ourselves we did. lots of fun singing. lots of praying and saying ‘amena’. read a few verses out of genesis and ‘luka’. the message was about the creation story which lead to the sabbath and essentially how important it is to observe the sabbath. the world is ending soon and the young generation is bad because they are not observing the sabbath. a little more singing and praying. and then we were out. there was also an afternoon service but we told cilas we thought it was better to not attend the afternoon service. outside, we met and talked to so many people. were mobbed by children. and then the driver took us to cilas’ home. such a great lunch/ afternoon. cilas’ grandmother (maybe??) also came with us. so we walked through his home and waited for some lunch to come. he brought out his laptop to play some music and then put on crazy stupid love. i talked as good as i could with the grandmother. she was too precious. very animated. very happy. i understood maybe 20% of the conversation that we were having but i was giving her the responses she was wanting and so we just kept talking and talking. i loved it. cilas brought out the lunch. rice, beans, chapati, watermelon, and bananas. he told us about his life story and it was simultaneously heart breaking and heart warming. he was abandoned and left in a drain when he was 2 months old. so his family now is the one that found him and decided to take him in. he works very, very hard in school. he said all the teachers know and love him. he is studying to be a news broadcaster like on bbc. his favorite subjects are history, english, and kiswhailli. and he really does work very hard. is so sweet to his mom. he always helps his sisters with the ‘chores’. overall, he is just someone with a huge heart and a great work ethic. he recognizes that education is his way out and is astutely aware of many of the world/ life/ africa problems. so after we finished lunch, we said goodbye to his grandma and the other ladies that were at the house and he walked us somewhere to get a soda. i just didn't want him to spend any more money on us so we politely (or as politely as we could deny food/ drink here) declined. he did want us to go back to church but we promised we would come another time. so the driver finally found us and carried us back to the house. such  great day with someone who is such a great example of gods love. 

the rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing and working out. did stir fried rice for dinner. was actually really hyper tonight. amber’s blaming it on the full moon. but i think we were just excited that we hit the 50% mark. i crawled under the net and read another free book until late in the night.