Yesterday was a big day! Thursday was the last day of official full time language training, so the first thing we did on Friday morning was the final written exam. It wasn't great, but it wasn't horrible - I think I passed, and that's what matters right!? The OPI, or Oral Proficiency Interview is in a week and a half and will be the real challenge.
After the exam was done, we got what everyone has been waiting for - site announcements! Peace Corps gave the event a little African flavor by hiring a bunch of dudes with drums for some pre and post announcement music. And we got Snickers bars. Which is what I was really most interested in.
Anyway, where am I going!?
My banking town (largest town nearby - the town with a bank) is Mbeya. Mbeya is a good sized town of 280,000 in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania. It mountainous and coolish, which is what I was looking for.
I don't really know much about the school I'm teaching at or place I'm living yet, but here's what I do know. I'll be teaching at a school called Rungwe Secondary School. Its an A-level only school, meaning students are all in forms 5 or 6. That corresponds basically to the last couple years of high school in the states. I believe its a boarding school, but not 100% sure on that yet. My house has electricity and running water and I think is on the school grounds. Its very typical for teachers to live in a "compound" attached to the school itself. I'll have my own house and everything though, so seems like a pretty good setup. Oh I guess there's a garden with the house, so maybe I'm going to become an expert gardener. Maybe. I am replacing someone, but because of scheduling issues it's been a year since the last Peace Corps person was there, so I'm not sure if any of his/her stuff is still there or if I'll be furnishing my own house. I guess they had a pet dog, but no one knows the status of it after a year...
Anyway, lots of questions to be answered this week as I go visit my site! I'm leaving tomorrow, shadowing a nearby volunteer for a few days and then hopefully spending some time at my site getting things figured out and meeting my future coworkers and such! I'll keep ya updated with pictures and such as I get them!
Saturday, July 28, 2012
Monday, July 23, 2012
Teaching, Swahili, Site Announcements and Hiking!
First, check the blog post below this. I think I (finally) got the pictures working. Pole sana! (very sorry!)
So I went on a Safari! A few weeks ago the whole training group got a full weekend off to go act like tourists for a weekend. We rented a couple buses and headed to Mikumi National Park, a few hours North (I think..?) of Morogoro. It's a fairly small park compared to the giants like the Serengeti, but it was pretty cool! We saw giraffes, hippos, zebras, baboons (right? I get my primates mixed up), gazelles, and elephants! It was pretty cool. Probably more than any of the animals we saw, it was nice to just be on our own for a weekend. Nothing against our great host families, but everyone feels a little like they're in high school again, so it felt good to be free!
What else? I started, and finished, internship teaching at Morogoro Secondary School. I taught physics to Form 1 students, which roughly corresponds to 8th graders, except they are in secondary (high) school. Its been exciting, rewarding, eye opening and a little frightening all at the same time.
I'm teaching two "streams" which basically means classes. In TZ, students all stay in the same room, and teachers move around. There are 60ish students in each class, which actually was less weird than I thought it would be since I'm used to larger college classes than smaller high school ones. It's a lot though. Teaching in English is challenging particularly to Form 1 students, as the language barrier is biggest. There is a really huge range in student's English ability. In both of my classes there were a few kids who I think were ready to answer every question I asked, in nearly perfect English. But, there were also kids who couldn't answer very basic yes or no questions I posed in English.
In general, students seem very motivated to learn and are well behaved (at least compared to American 8th graders!). Every day when I come in the classroom, all the kids stand up and say in unison "Good Morning Teacha" in their British/African accent. Its pretty cool.
What else? Swahili is going. Memorization is not my strong suit in any form, and it shows in my language acquisition. But, I'm definitely progressing. I'm understanding more and more from other's conversations and can get basic ideas across fairly well. I did good on the midterm written exam, and good enough on the oral one, so I feel okay, if not great on the language side. It's been more fun than I was expecting and it really is a pretty interesting language.
So the big news around here is the impending Site Announcements. It's happening this Friday, and everyone is VERY excited for it, including me. We're still in training, and haven't left Morogoro except to go to Mikumi since we left Dar. On Friday, we learn we're we'll be living for the next two years. Then the next day, we go there! We have a week long site visit, then head back here for a final week of training, then to Dar for a few days for swearing in, and we head to site for good! Site announcement means we know physically where we're going, what the climate will be like, what type of school we're at, if we'll have water and electricity, what other volunteer's we are near (and how far away from people we are). It also means we get to go on a trip and see some more of the country, wherever we are going! So yeah, its a pretty big deal.
There's lots of talk by the guys who make the site decision placements, by current volunteers, and by people who talk to those groups of people. So, there's lots of rumors going around. One I've heard is I'm heading to an A-level school, which means like upper high school (age 17-19ish), which would be pretty sweet. We'll see, I'm trying to not think about it until I know in 4 days!!
Oh I went hiking yesterday! It was sweet. We walked up a little mountain stream, got to see some amateur civil engineering proving water to a bunch of very basic houses on the side of the mountain. Also some really beautiful views of the town of Morogoro and just very Africany jungle.
K, I've got swahili to learn and undies to wash. Busy evening ahead! I suck and haven't posted pictures, but I promise I'm taking some, and stealing more from facebook, and I will post some within the week!
So I went on a Safari! A few weeks ago the whole training group got a full weekend off to go act like tourists for a weekend. We rented a couple buses and headed to Mikumi National Park, a few hours North (I think..?) of Morogoro. It's a fairly small park compared to the giants like the Serengeti, but it was pretty cool! We saw giraffes, hippos, zebras, baboons (right? I get my primates mixed up), gazelles, and elephants! It was pretty cool. Probably more than any of the animals we saw, it was nice to just be on our own for a weekend. Nothing against our great host families, but everyone feels a little like they're in high school again, so it felt good to be free!
What else? I started, and finished, internship teaching at Morogoro Secondary School. I taught physics to Form 1 students, which roughly corresponds to 8th graders, except they are in secondary (high) school. Its been exciting, rewarding, eye opening and a little frightening all at the same time.
I'm teaching two "streams" which basically means classes. In TZ, students all stay in the same room, and teachers move around. There are 60ish students in each class, which actually was less weird than I thought it would be since I'm used to larger college classes than smaller high school ones. It's a lot though. Teaching in English is challenging particularly to Form 1 students, as the language barrier is biggest. There is a really huge range in student's English ability. In both of my classes there were a few kids who I think were ready to answer every question I asked, in nearly perfect English. But, there were also kids who couldn't answer very basic yes or no questions I posed in English.
In general, students seem very motivated to learn and are well behaved (at least compared to American 8th graders!). Every day when I come in the classroom, all the kids stand up and say in unison "Good Morning Teacha" in their British/African accent. Its pretty cool.
What else? Swahili is going. Memorization is not my strong suit in any form, and it shows in my language acquisition. But, I'm definitely progressing. I'm understanding more and more from other's conversations and can get basic ideas across fairly well. I did good on the midterm written exam, and good enough on the oral one, so I feel okay, if not great on the language side. It's been more fun than I was expecting and it really is a pretty interesting language.
So the big news around here is the impending Site Announcements. It's happening this Friday, and everyone is VERY excited for it, including me. We're still in training, and haven't left Morogoro except to go to Mikumi since we left Dar. On Friday, we learn we're we'll be living for the next two years. Then the next day, we go there! We have a week long site visit, then head back here for a final week of training, then to Dar for a few days for swearing in, and we head to site for good! Site announcement means we know physically where we're going, what the climate will be like, what type of school we're at, if we'll have water and electricity, what other volunteer's we are near (and how far away from people we are). It also means we get to go on a trip and see some more of the country, wherever we are going! So yeah, its a pretty big deal.
There's lots of talk by the guys who make the site decision placements, by current volunteers, and by people who talk to those groups of people. So, there's lots of rumors going around. One I've heard is I'm heading to an A-level school, which means like upper high school (age 17-19ish), which would be pretty sweet. We'll see, I'm trying to not think about it until I know in 4 days!!
Oh I went hiking yesterday! It was sweet. We walked up a little mountain stream, got to see some amateur civil engineering proving water to a bunch of very basic houses on the side of the mountain. Also some really beautiful views of the town of Morogoro and just very Africany jungle.
K, I've got swahili to learn and undies to wash. Busy evening ahead! I suck and haven't posted pictures, but I promise I'm taking some, and stealing more from facebook, and I will post some within the week!
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Saba Saba
So most of us Peace Corpsers live in families with running water. Which really, is great. Except, you start to rely on it and then it goes away. The water shuts off from time to time - for a few seconds, a few minutes, a few hours, or a few days. I'm starting to figure out some of the tricks (i.e. unexpectedly a lot of rain means you'll lose water for quite awhile - hours or days) but I'm still mostly unaware. Theoretically, these shut off's shouldn't be a big deal, because you keep stores of water in buckets for when this happens. You should keep stores of water, that is, but sometimes you don't because you are a dumb American.
Let me back up. Taking a cold shower goes something like this: You wake up and think "holy hell I don't want to get up, and I really don't want to get up and take a cold shower." So you trick yourself by getting up to pee then just freakin' turn the knob while you're in the bathroom, suppress a scream as the water hits you, and try to get completely wet as quickly as possible so you can turn the water off. Then you soap up, and do a rinse. Except sometimes the water shuts off while you're sudsing up. This has happened a few times, but I've had water at the ready so it wasn't a big deal. Yesterday I got cocky and decided I didn't need to have extra water. Of course, the water shut off.
It isn't until you realize you are standing naked in the bathroom, completely covered in soap and shampoo, with no way of rinsing off, that you know you are truly out of your element.
Anyway, I now have a bucket of water in my bathroom. I will always have a bucket of water in my bathroom.
What else is new? We had half a day off on Saturday to play sports. We all met up at some school and just played games for like four hours. It was really really great. With the combination of weird cultural issues, a busy schedule and my general laziness, I hadn't done any form of exercise at all, except walking because that's my only means of transportation, since I arrived in country. Being active was awesome. We played ultimate (with you're disc Matt, thanks!), soccer, kickball and random relays. My small group won the piggyback race despite the fact that I collapsed during my leg. Got a sweet battle wound.
Today I did lotsa laundry with the help of the family. Except I have to wash my own erm, delicates, so I did that while my family was at church this morning. They leave the house at 6am and today didn't get back until 10am, intense. I had the house to myself so I just washed underwear and rocked out to Katy Perry. It was excellent. Oh that reminds me, the radio here plays an interesting combo of what I think is traditionalish Tanzanian music, weird new Tanzanian rap music, and American dance club music. Anyway, I often end up laughing quietly to myself (LQTM, its the new LOL) while I eat dinner with my host family with some Black Eyes Peas song blasting in the background.
So later we went to the market to get some clothes and just check it out. I ended up just getting one thing, but its a pretty sweet Zanzibar soccer jersey. I paid Tsh 9000 which is like $5.75. Probably the foreigners price, but we (okay, 95% my host mom, 5% me) got it reduced from 12,000 so whatever, I'll take it. We got it at a big street market that just runs on Sundays. It was super crowded and apparently a hotbed of pickpocketers. I was hyper aware of my surroundings and was continually checking my pockets and such, but I was actually surprised how little attention I got as the white dude. The market is called "Saba Saba" which means "Seven Seven." Though no one seemed to know why it was called that, I guess Tanzania (or Swahili speaking countries in general..?) have mini holidays when the date and month are the same. So next Saturday is "Saba Saba," since its the 7th of July. Maybe its connected. Who knows.
In Swahili, people refer to pork as "kiti moto" which literally translates to "hot seat." Everyone seems confused as to why we would think this is weird and can give no explanation for it. I don't understand.
K, picture time.
view from just a couple minute walk up the mountain from my house. Oh yeah, I live on a mountain.
This is at Morogoro Secondary School, where I have class about half the time, and where starting next week (eek!) I'll be teaching very part time. They've had a super popular traveling preacher chilling there for the last week.
Studying it up at CCT, the other place I go to class.
More of CCT
View from my front door. See, I live on a mountain.
Yeah, I do laundry.
Charcoal and kerosene stoves. We have electricity, but no electric stove.
Saba Saba market. Probably dumb to have brought my camera, but here ya go.
Kids playing soccer near my house.
View from near my house.
My new Zanzibar jersey. Noice.
Let me back up. Taking a cold shower goes something like this: You wake up and think "holy hell I don't want to get up, and I really don't want to get up and take a cold shower." So you trick yourself by getting up to pee then just freakin' turn the knob while you're in the bathroom, suppress a scream as the water hits you, and try to get completely wet as quickly as possible so you can turn the water off. Then you soap up, and do a rinse. Except sometimes the water shuts off while you're sudsing up. This has happened a few times, but I've had water at the ready so it wasn't a big deal. Yesterday I got cocky and decided I didn't need to have extra water. Of course, the water shut off.
It isn't until you realize you are standing naked in the bathroom, completely covered in soap and shampoo, with no way of rinsing off, that you know you are truly out of your element.
Anyway, I now have a bucket of water in my bathroom. I will always have a bucket of water in my bathroom.
What else is new? We had half a day off on Saturday to play sports. We all met up at some school and just played games for like four hours. It was really really great. With the combination of weird cultural issues, a busy schedule and my general laziness, I hadn't done any form of exercise at all, except walking because that's my only means of transportation, since I arrived in country. Being active was awesome. We played ultimate (with you're disc Matt, thanks!), soccer, kickball and random relays. My small group won the piggyback race despite the fact that I collapsed during my leg. Got a sweet battle wound.
Today I did lotsa laundry with the help of the family. Except I have to wash my own erm, delicates, so I did that while my family was at church this morning. They leave the house at 6am and today didn't get back until 10am, intense. I had the house to myself so I just washed underwear and rocked out to Katy Perry. It was excellent. Oh that reminds me, the radio here plays an interesting combo of what I think is traditionalish Tanzanian music, weird new Tanzanian rap music, and American dance club music. Anyway, I often end up laughing quietly to myself (LQTM, its the new LOL) while I eat dinner with my host family with some Black Eyes Peas song blasting in the background.
So later we went to the market to get some clothes and just check it out. I ended up just getting one thing, but its a pretty sweet Zanzibar soccer jersey. I paid Tsh 9000 which is like $5.75. Probably the foreigners price, but we (okay, 95% my host mom, 5% me) got it reduced from 12,000 so whatever, I'll take it. We got it at a big street market that just runs on Sundays. It was super crowded and apparently a hotbed of pickpocketers. I was hyper aware of my surroundings and was continually checking my pockets and such, but I was actually surprised how little attention I got as the white dude. The market is called "Saba Saba" which means "Seven Seven." Though no one seemed to know why it was called that, I guess Tanzania (or Swahili speaking countries in general..?) have mini holidays when the date and month are the same. So next Saturday is "Saba Saba," since its the 7th of July. Maybe its connected. Who knows.
In Swahili, people refer to pork as "kiti moto" which literally translates to "hot seat." Everyone seems confused as to why we would think this is weird and can give no explanation for it. I don't understand.
K, picture time.
view from just a couple minute walk up the mountain from my house. Oh yeah, I live on a mountain.
This is at Morogoro Secondary School, where I have class about half the time, and where starting next week (eek!) I'll be teaching very part time. They've had a super popular traveling preacher chilling there for the last week.
Studying it up at CCT, the other place I go to class.
More of CCT
View from my front door. See, I live on a mountain.
Yeah, I do laundry.
Charcoal and kerosene stoves. We have electricity, but no electric stove.
Saba Saba market. Probably dumb to have brought my camera, but here ya go.
Kids playing soccer near my house.
View from near my house.
My new Zanzibar jersey. Noice.
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