I’m alive! Sorry for the delay in posting, I have been
living a very technology free life here in Tanzania…and it has been great! I am
living in a small town called Usa River which is the half way point between
Arusha and Moshi. It is a nice, relatively quiet and is a great place to call
home for these three weeks.
Everything is going just swimmingly! We arrived a little
over a week ago and have been chugging along smoothly. My daily adventure
starts out with me waking up and running in the morning. Then eating a
breakfast (homemade sourdough bread, peanut butter, bananas, mangos, honey)
prepared by Joyness, they lady we are staying with. Then Kate and I walk 5K to
the local supermarket/restaurant called Rotterdam Garden where we are picked up
by our supervisors and brought to the Seeway Center.
Here’s what I did last week: (my main tasks included
assuming my role as a glorified camp counselor and helping the kids recall
their math facts and reading skills. Most of the kids were enjoying their last
week of holiday break and so our main goal was to help prepare them for the
upcoming school week.)
·
Monday-
learned the 10ish kids names by playing board and card games with them. Facilitating
and participating in soccer and tag games
·
Tuesday-
making individual math quizzes for each student and correcting them. Walking
the kids on their “path to school” to help jog their memory
·
Wednesday-
market with our supervisor in the morning. This was a totally awesome
experience because it was a traditional Tanzanianopen-air market where everyone
was yelling about, and selling their specific food. Kate and I were able to buy
all the fruits, veggies and beans that we needed for the whole week…AND we did
it all in Kiswahili. Go us! Once we got back to the center we walked with the
kids on their “path to school” again…but this time we walked on the correct
path—yesterday they lead us on the wrong one. Oops, good thing we reviewed it.
·
Thursday-
Attended a networking meeting with our supervisors and help construct their
constitution for their newly recognized NGO. (SO COOL!) This was really fun
because I have never been on the construction side of an NGO, so it was
interesting to get that new experience. Once we got back to the center I played
some music (keyboards, drums and guitars) with the kids and read out loud many
books (they love this).
·
Friday- Tanzania
celebrated their “Union Day” which is the unionizing of Tanganyika and
Zanzibar. We celebrated it at the center with the kids and also recognized some
of the kids birthdays. We ate cupcakes, sang happy birthday and played games.
Later, I assisted one of my advisors on a “field trip” with 5 of the 7-10 year
old girls. We went out to lunch and then went to the Cultural HeritageMuseum in
Arusha, which was a lot of fun. A tad bit overwhelming for the young girls
because there was so much artwork—but they took a special interest in the
sculpture chairs. It’s the little things that make you happy I suppose. We then
went to get ice cream. I have never seen kids eat ice cream so slowly—it took
them 30 minutes to finish one scoop of chocolate gelato. I guess it’s very much
true; East African’s do not like cold things!
·
Saturday-
Took a DollaDolla (small bus) into Arusha to meet up with our friend Chloe. We
navigated our way through Arusha to find this quaint little coffee shop where
we rested. We explored, wrote our papers which were due on Monday and talked
with the people that were staying at our hostel.
·
Sunday-
Ate breakfast at our favorite coffee shop, visited an internet café, went to
the open air market to get some fruit and then took a DollaDolla back to our
Usa River home
It has been a very fun and interesting week.
My low this week has been the roads. Due to the rainy season
the roads are absolutely horrible. I really mean horrible. I am someone who can
tolerate a lot of things, but these roads are just SO bumpy and rocky and
uneven it makes driving and running notpleasurable.
But my high for this week was getting acquainted with Usa River,
the Seeway Center and the kids and going into Arusha. I feel very comfortable
and confident in the area and am really enjoying my time.
My aspiration (ECIT SHOUTOUT) for next week is to practice
my Kiswahili more. In Tanzania they speak more Kiswahili and so by default I
have been speaking more Kiswahili here then I have throughout my entire
semester, but I would really like to solidify my skills these next two weeks.
Random facts:
·
Everything in Tanzania is INCREDIBLY CHEEP
·
I took a DollaDolla bus from Usa River to Arusha
(40 minutes) for 600 Tsh which is equal to about $.60 USD.
·
We stayed in a hostel for $9 USD…granted it was
a little sketchy…it did the job!
·
Math is called Maths…I think it’s the way the
British call it too?
·
At the center we feed the kids “pipi” (which
means candy in Kiswahili) which is essentially a snack time. Because a majority
of the kids come from poor and dysfunctional situations, they are malnourished
and are very underweight so we give them a “fattening” snack every day around
3:30 pm. One day we gave the kids a cracker with a layer of butter on it and a
layer of peanut butter on top of that. I’ll leave you to decide you’re feelings
about that…(ewwww!)
·
Every morning, while Kate and I wait to get
picked up, we see a bus that passes by us that has FACEBOOK written across the
entire bus in huge letters.
·
We had to switch our phones to Tanzanian numbers
and to get a new SIM cardcosted $2 USD
·
One day last week we stopped at an internet café
called the “Mzungu Café” (that means white person)
·
I cannot walk down the streets without being cat
called, whistled at, hissed at or taunted by the local young boys/men (I won’t
miss this)
·
Kate, Chloe and I received a bill for our lunch
that read 420,000 tsh. This was equal to about $25 USD. WHAT?! How is this even
possible?
·
We are forbidden to walk on the streets at night
because there are no street lights and the bridge we would have to cross supposedly
is the “most dangerous bridge in the area” because people hide under it and
grab your ankles
·
Kate and I learned how to make a delicious beans
and vegetable mix. This has been our diet for the past week. I suppose it is a
good source of protein?
·
Our house has a guard dog who weighs as much as
me…but actually, not kidding.
·
I saw a chameleon change from green, to grey, to
brown to blue as it fell from the tree onto the gravel then was picked up by my
supervisor who was wearing a blue shirt. HOW COOL!
·
I think I am going turn into a Mango or a
Banana.
·
Most Tanzanians smell better then most Kenyans
·
A pikipiki (motorcycle) has so many more uses in
Tanzania then it does in America. (Here it carries 3 people, acts as a taxi, can
carry stacks of boxes or egg crates, huge bundles of grass for cows and long
planks of wood!)
So that last post is about last
week…here’swhat’s been happening this week! Sorry for the sporadic, unorganized
posting…doing what I can.
Monday- went to the center and observed the nursery school (3-7
years old). My class was the “most advanced class” which simply meant that my
kids could speak the most English…and it was very limited at that. It was very
interesting to observe the teaching techniques of “Teacher Elisa”. She was very
stern and strict but devoted. She made frequent barks at her students to “sit
up straight” “look at the blackboard” but contradictorily was very excited when
teaching and fed off of the students enthusiasm when they got a word correct. I
very much enjoyed this observation and got me very excited to pursue teaching?!
After lunch Kate and I were assigned to make wall hangings for the “baby
class”. We spent the next 3 hours writing bubble letter cards for the alphabet,
for example:A with a picture of an apple…K, Key, U Umbrella and so on. Because both Kate and I enjoy menial
and particular tasks like this, it was right up our ally. (Als, you would have
gotten a kick out of this) We still haven’t finished so are very eager to get
back and finish!
Tuesday- Instead of going to the center we went into town (Arusha)
with our supervisors to sell their 300 ish eggs. At Seeway there are 600+
chickens that they then collect the eggs from to sell. They make good money off
of them because they have “yellow yolks” which, compared to the unhealthily fed,“white
yolks” is a delicacy…and more expensive. We spent the morning driving around
Arusha dropping eggs off. During the afternoon we were set free in Arusha to do
what we wanted. Kate and I went out to lunch at this hole in the wall place, McMoody’s
then explored around a bit more. Around 4:00 pm we took a DollaDolla (bus) into
Usa River and walked home!
I am hoping to observe the nursery
school a little bit more because it was a great time—they kids are so much fun!
I’ll keep you posted…when I have the opportunity!
Hope everyone is doing well! SLU
kids—good luck on that work, get it doneeeeeee…you’re almost there!
