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.