3/3/14 - 3/7/14

3/3/14

today was my day of rest that mahumi gave me. it really was great. i got to type up some stuff for the blog. i did a baby baby workout. and then i even walked to my get-away place of the mountain. it was a great day that actually flew by. excited to get to school tomorrow. 

there are cows everywhere! 

3/4/14 

its so good to be back at school! teachers and students were definitely glad to see me. i got so many welcomes and sorries. but also lots of welcome to tanzania or africa. i guess getting sick is some kind of initiation :) 

I walked into stream b and their wow’s just make me laugh. they way the pronounce it, it is more like ‘waow’. i also had lots of students start making some crazy noises. some of them were familiar… noises i have made before. others…. not so much. it was pretty hiilarious. 

lots and lots of math to catch up on. i felt so bad missing out on a week of my time but yolito. the students were also very quiet today. i think they were having to get used to my english again. besides my thumbs up/down measure, i asked them once to day how they were feeling. i of course meant this in regards to the problem we were doing. i got a good many fine’s (their favorite word here it seems) but i also got a clear ‘i am hungry madame’. it really is so sad. but im glad the rest of the class thought it was funny too because there was no way i couldn't laugh at that. 

kim is coming for her sight visit tomorrow! so excited to see her! since she was already in mwanza to check on amber she just moved it up a week. she is coming to observe my class on wednesday. so…. that means i just wrote my 4th lesson plan since being here. i wrote my first 3 on the first day at biashara. guess you see how tanzanian i’ve become. 

it cracks me up when the teachers horse around in the staff room. they really are still little kids at heart. they’ll throw punches or kick at each other, all in good humor. sometimes they’ll act like they are going to hit someone with a stick. something like that. 

i think i may have written about it on the blog before, but hand holding is so common here, especially among the men/boys. i always see students walking holding hands or men in town holding hands. it is totally normal and means nothing more than friendship. in fact, homosexuality is a HUGE no-no here so it definitely does not send that message. 

i think my hunger has come back and then some. its wanting to make up for lost time. its a good thing for now though! 

not that anyone is going to care, but we had fancier, softer, thicker chalk today. its the little things. 

there are also 2-3 new teachers. what the heck! monday, 24 teachers had signed the attendance book so that makes 25 with me. only 11 or 12 can teach at any given time to give you perspective. i love that they’re into it though. it really is a great sign. many of them are temporary teachers though. a headmaster is never going to say no to extra help. 

i found a new chapati place yesterday when i was coming home from my walk. some ladies get very feisty when you ask for chapati later in the day so i didn't dar go back to the last lady i asked. i stopped at a few places until i found a shop that had it. and they were so nice there (not atypical since they are getting to talk to a mzungu) and the chapati was spot on. granted i was starving but it wasn't too oily yet it was still elastic-y. i guess when you eat one everyday, you start to learn the ins and outs and rights and wrongs. 

i had a long talk with samuel richards late this morning. here are the highlights… 

• the two biggest problems 
• african people are not trustworthy 
• misallocation of funds and resources 
• he showed me a paycheck. he makes 590,000 a month. from that, 29,000 is withdrawn for retirement, 63,000 for income tax, and 17,000 for national healthcare fund. that makes his salary about 475,000 tsh a month
• he was very unhappy with the income tax. apparently the teachers union has tried to lower it. there is no such thing as filing taxes like we do 
• he was also mad at the healthcare fund because it is a ‘source of swindling’. you pay even if you do not use it. 
• i got the entire rundown  of the history of tanzania president by president. got a little sleepy during this phase. but i know that the current president kukwete is not good because he increased segregation of religion. he made muslims profit the most. the president before him was good because he convinced parents to send children back to school. 
• i also know that the presidents terms are 5 years and they can be reelected once. 
• the influx of american clothing was very good for tanzania. because it comes in bundles (lots at a time) and it was and still is very cheap. before people were walking around naked but now there are different materials to wear. 
• just like everyone else, he doesn't like bariadi
• no change is going on because of ignorance 
• the whole reason this conversation started was because he wanted me to try some of his sweet potato that he had gotten. i don't know where from but it was great. it was peeled and boiled whole and then maybe pan roasted over charcoal. sweet potato = viazi vitamu 
• also there are 120 tribes in tanzania and the sukuma (what pretty much everyone is in this area) is known for animal keeping and agriculture. 

then about 12:45 he decided he was leaving and going to the bariadi/kidinda market (nyada). when he found out i had never been her told me to go ask the headmaster for permission to go with him. mahumi, being the nicest guy ever as always, was weary because of my condition (illness) but he allowed. so we walked into town and to the bank with toga. then a chairperson of bariadi gave us a lift to the market. it was great. it was basically a huge open space with tons of cows all around. and goats too. i see these animals making their trek on the way to school each and every tuesday so it was cool to see where they were ending up. there were tents set up here and there selling food but we just walked around the open area with all the animals. samuel would ask how much the cows were. about 400,000 -600,000 for a big cow (using big loosely. it is a full grown cow but still skin and bones). about 200,000-300,000 for a small cow. these small cows are what are used for the bride groom price. another thing interesting about the cows is that it is basically another form of tanzanian currency. it is a sign of wealth and an investment. he said that if a child gets sick or something, the family will sell the cow to have money for treatment. after leaving the animal section of the market, we walked down the street for a while and stopped at a little place for a drink. still throws them off that i wont drink soda. some things never change. after we sat there for a while, we walked on some more to a different market. at this part, there were tons of the little stalls/ sticks with tarps set up. they were selling little jewelry and tanzanian local medicine, heaps of sardines, kangas, shoes, second hand clothing, etc. the local medicine was great. it was actually really colorful. powder. and the reasons for using it were great! even samuel said once, ‘madame let me make you laugh’. i made him laugh earlier about ‘mzungu price’. i told him there is ‘africa price’ and mzungu price and i always get mzungu price. anyways, we walked through the sardines and everyone (even the sardines it felt like) had their eyes on me. not that its any different than normal but i was definitely quite the sight. we went to one place where they were selling kangas and kitanges and i left with one of each. i also ran into happiness there. she is so sweet. then we walked back to bariadi town where he helped me buy some tire shoes!!! so pumped. they have been on the tz bucket list for so long. they are so not comfortable but also so awesome. they fit them to my feet (a little too tightly for one pair) but it was so neat to watch them do it all. one guy was going to work on my shoes, taking the nail out, cutting off some of the strap, nailing it back in. another guy was taking a knife and slowly stripping away the outside of a huge tractor trailer tire. i started the journey on home and mahumi rescued me about half of the way back. 

kim stopped by to visit us later that night. it really was so great to see her. a little dar reunion. she brought me a special present from the mother! i got some pictures and two cards. so stinking sweet. didn't get into the cards yet though. saving them for a special day. kim gave me a sheet for me to reflect on my teaching since she will be observing me tomorrow. tiny tiny tiny bit nervous just to have someone else in the classroom. but it holds absolutely no weight compared to my other observations. 

the internet is still not working….. i think my lucky internet bundle has just finally given up on me. oh well! it was great!!!! while it lasted. 

i really need to buy my plane tickets and book my hostels for spring break. it just needs to be crossed off the list. i am so so excited to get traveling again. just need march to get on outta here! ill throw up an itinerary soon for spring break 

3/5/14 

today was ash wednesday. it was really neat this morning on the way to school. tons of students from bariadi were waling on the road toward town and mahumi said it was for church. biashara did nothing like that but they did out the sports award this morning. the forms had been competing against each other for the past few weeks and the winner was form 4. so they got …. GOATS! it was so amusing. they were presented at morning parade. i have to give some credit though because they did also receive a trophy. the whole form was presented the goats and they will have a big celebration and eat them soon. but individual awards were also give. the male and female player with the most goals and the best player all good 5,000. the best goal keeper also got they money. by far, the best morning parade. the students were so cute when they got the award. a couple guys got the trophy and kissed it and help it up. and the goats were always there, struggling to get away and such. 

kims coming today and theres seriously been like no prep for her. yolito for sure. no grade, no cares. no need to impress, just be me. 

oh! so amber let me use her internet this morning since mine is still not working and i finally got to see more pictures of katies little one!! so so so great

on a random note, there is no concept of littering here. i still get hives sometimes. but since there is no trash can basically everywhere is a trash can. with that said, there are places along the roads that people bring their trash too. it is just trash all spread out in the general. that is a favorite place for dogs, birds of arabia, and chickens/roosters. and i dont want to go stereotypical on you, but i have seen people going through the trash but only two or three times. 

kims observation was fine but definitely not uneventful. right before the class, madame eva told me that as the head matron of the school she had decided and announced yesterday that there would be a meeting for all the girls of the school to discuss things like behavior, uniform, relationships (a definite no-no in school), and early pregnancy (which you get kicked out for). so that meant that all girls would be taken out of my class that kim was observing. we were both fine with it and thought that was the end of it. well we went to class and i introduced her to the students. then kingi walked in and told me that they were combining streams… for just this second. haha. basically, they wanted more students in the class when kim was there so maybe about 25-30 students started filing in my class. they were from stream a so at least they were in my classes. so just carrying a chair and no notebook or pen, they filled up the room. the class was good, but rusty, since that was the first time i had seen them in a while. kim said that my slow, very enunciated english was natural, which is difficult for many volunteers. we had a good talk after about a little bit of everything. 

then kim caught a piki piki or boda boda to town. she was going to stop for lunch and then go to her hotel before coming over for dinner. i walked and bought an ear of corn (mahendi) along the way. i stopped in and grabbed a bottle of water while we talked a little more. when i got back to the house, i cut the pineapple i had brought from mwanza and went to town on that. it was a little old/ sour but still good. oh i also stopped at shops until i found the airtel vouchers on the way home so i could experiment with my internet problem. i got it to work so now i just need to buy enough vouchers tomorrow to buy the bundle. i got to facetime mom for a couple minutes before i ditched her to talk to katie! :) it had been way too long since i talked to her so it was awesome. Skype was failing again so she could hear and see me but i could only see her - not hear her. so i just talked the whole time. she would type in questions every now and then when our charades wouldn't get us there. this whole situation is hilarious considering not talking is her personal nightmare and having to talk forever is mine! either way it was great to see her! 

dinner was veggie stew with kim was we debated (and criticized) the education system in tanzania. 

3/6/14

slept so solidly last night. woke up in time for curiosity to get the best of me and for me to get into one of the cards mom sent. so awesome

the first conversation of the morning was a good natured talk about me staying in tanzania and finding a husband here. it started with finding a husband in tanzania and then one at biashara. we all know where it was going from there. anyways, i told them that my husband is not in tanzania. 

did 2 sudoku puzzles this morning and just journalled my little heart away. no periods this morning so lots of down time. 

i even tried to take a free period this afternoon and another teacher had already stolen it. im telling you, they are on top of it! 

the mother of a headmaster in the district died so mahumi filled up his car with teachers and went off to greet them and escort the body. they were gone all morning and returned to be sitting on the ground on the porch of the administrative building doing a crossword puzzle. they all thought it was hilarious and couldn't understand why i didn't have a chair. it was a nice day, i was bored, and i just needed a change of scenery. i just told mahumi that i was relaxing and he loved it. how many times would you tell you boss at home that you were just chilling out, enjoying the day, not doing any work? and how many times would he praise you for it and tell you to keep doing it until the end of the day? 

mahumi came back out a little bit later and said that he was leaving early. so i caught a ride with him into town. i went to many different stores in town until i could find the airtel vouchers for the internet. and still wasn't successful finding big bottles of water. walked the rest of the way home and had some drama loading the time for the internet but i finally got it to work! i got to see all the latest nursery stuff and i LOVE it! 

i also got to buy the rest of my flights. i seriously hate buying flights because its so stressful but i got it all done so that was nice. after shelving the internet, i got a good sweaty workout in and then a magical shower. 

spaghetti was dinner with kim again and then it was bedtime. i slept beyond terribly. felt simultaneously tired and wide awake. good thing the weekend is here. 

3/7/14 

it was really just a crazy day at school today. just general excitement. there was going to be a party after school to welcome the form 1 students into scouts. so of course the students were busy slaughtering goats on the rock. now that was not an experience i was going to miss out on! so as covertly as possible, i snuck out of the staff room with my camera to go check it out! due to the absence of goat squeals i knew i had made it past the killing. i walked past the academic master to go out there and i told him i was going to go see. and he said ah those students are doing sin. s - i - n. as he drew it in the dirt with a stick. hahaha. they were all so proud. posing for the camera. grabbing the goats head or leg for me to take the picture. it was certainly not their first rodeo. they knew what they were doing, using the rock to sharpen the knife every now and then. 

it was also a different day in class. after spending 30 - 40 minutes on one problem (graphing a step function, domain and range, evaluating at different x values - definitely not easy), i knew my class was quite split. i had some students that had it together and some that were beyond clueless. i explained explained explained but then i told them that i needed a student to come up and explain it to the class - in swahili. it took much much long than i thought but i loved it. it is so interesting to see how they talk to each other. one student started then i guess he got overthrown and another student came up and started all over. he was so sweet and he was trying so hard. he would come to me (a student had brought me a chair to sit in at the front) and ask me questions real quietly. he would look over at me and i would give him little encouraging nods along the way. 

i still didn't get to see stream a all week! so now thats two weeks with math! ugh! i feel awful but i didn't have a period and couldn't get to them. 

they take titles here so so seriously. because of this, their approaches to many conversations or proposals are so formal. ‘madame eliza, as the teacher on duty this week, i was hoping you could give us teachers a message…’. they like chairperson, teacher on duty (tod), head matron, academic master, disciple master, department head, etc. 

speak of tod, samual called me over this afternoon and told me that i was going to be tod with him starting on the 24th - the week after need. mmmmmkay. i know i will probably disappoint but im still not going to use the stick. the tod is responsible for ensuring that students get to school on time, stay quiet during the day, they do the morning parade, students have to get excused from the tod to leave, complete the daily report for the headmaster, and i dont know what else. all i know is that samuel is going to have to do a lot of work! i also know that that sentence was a mess but dont really care. 

my last random note is that there are tons of funny t shirts here. and i would say that 97% of the time, the person wearing the shirt has no clue what the shirt says or means… which only makes it better.