This week was another fast one but so many things happened. I am not for sure if I will be able to write about them all. This week was my second week teaching so I am starting to really get used to doing it. I have two Form II classes (which would be the equivalent to Freshman). One of the classes is really active and interested in what I have to teach and the other has half of the class that likes to learn and the other half doesn’t. This week I totally went off of the syllabus since it is so freaking vague. I taught the kids about blood and a little bit about how the nervous system works. I was only able to get thru about a fourth of my planned lesson since they kids had so many questions that related to what I was teaching. They asked me why blood was red, and how come the brain knows so quickly when we cut or finger etc. I have always heard teachers talk about the joy that they get from seeing kids eyes light up when they are interested in something or amazed by science. This week I had the great opportunity to see it first hand with many of my students. It is really amazing! The thing is that most of the teachers at my school do not have a degree in the subject the are teaching or a degree at all for that matter. They also are only paid every other year and then they have to do stupid stuff like proctor exams that they don’t get paid for. For this reason the teachers just barely teach what they have to teach so they can get paid (and because they don’t know that much more). Actually this next week will be my last week teaching and all of the teachers have decided that they are going to cut school short and stop teaching a month early. So they will stop teaching after we stop teaching their classes. I can understand how they feel but it sucks for the students that just barely learn the stuff they need for their national exams and nothing more. The relationship that the teachers here have with the students is very different than it is in the USA. They teachers still beat the students and so this really freightens the kids and I think makes it harder for them to learn. The first few days I taught I tried to learn all of the kids names and when I mispronounced one of them I would tell the kids sorry and ask them how to pronounce it. They took it as a criticism in that I was a teacher and better than them and did I the “master” teacher make a mistake. The students would most times not respond to my question and another student would have to pronounce the name for me. I think my students are a little bit more comfortable with me since we have shared stories and stuff.
This week for like 2 or 3 days we didn’t have running water or electricity. I guess I wouldn’t be a problem if I would have been used to not having it from the start but it really sucked because we would have it in the morning but when I got home we wouldn’t have it. I made ATOLE for my family this week. For those of you that are not familiar with it it is a Mexican drink that my family has ever year for xmas. It is made of oatmeal juice, milk and cinnamon. I had to make it when we didn’t have water, electricity and after a hard hot day of teaching so I was really worried about how it would turn out. My family was also a bit doubtful since they had never seen oatmeal before and I had to buy more refined sugar then they are used to and use it. I was blessed that it really turned out well! My family really liked it a lot and wanted me to make it again the next day but I told them I would make it later. I am going to try and make some guacalmole or something else for them.
I bought some MANGOS this week at the market. I have been waiting for them to be in season ever since I got here. They were only 10 cents a piece and they were so fresh! My mom said that they get cheaper and sweeter when the season for them officially arrives!
I think I have avoided describing the DalaDalas that I use all the time so I will explain them more now. Tanzania being a poorer country than the USA only has the opportunity to buy used cars from Japan and England etc since the people can’t afford new ones. They also only get the white models that are not popular. The government doesn’t provide any form of public transport so private individuals (I think) buy these old run down Toyota mini vans and take people around in them like buses. They have a little bit more head room since it is possible to stand up in them. I have seen them get as many as 30 people in them at a time! We normally are able to pack at least 20 in them! So if you can imagine 30 people crammed into one of these old beat up Japanese minivans then you can imagine the Dala Dala. They are only seats for about 10 or 15 people so the rest of the people are standing! They only cost 15 cents so they are well worth the price. We don’t have to travel long distances either to get to the city (only like 15 mins) so it’s not as bad as it sounds. Somebody has actually taken a picture of them!
http://www.kagera.org/photo/daladala.jpg
http://www.tampere.fi/ir/mwanza/raportit/072005/mwanza05.jpg
The only thing that sucks about them now is that if you sent all the way in the back then when you have to get off you have to climb over most of the bus to get off. LOL! They also try and get as many people in them as possible so they will stop to pick up more people even if they have 30 people already! When we first got here I didn’t think it was possible to fit that many people on them but I soon learned! This weekend we rode in one just to get down this long hill from the place that we come into town to train at. In order to save gas they didn’t even start the car but just left it in neutral to coast all the way down the hill! The dala dala we rode in that time was an old ambulance and it was missing all of the windows, and would just have these random wires hanging all over the place. I have gotten so used to them but they really are so hysterical to write about and I used to really crack a laugh when they first made us scramble in them when I first got there.