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.
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Training!
Here's a couple blogs! Sorry for the complete lack of organization.
Today is Jumatatu! Aka Pill Day. We arrived in Dar on a Wednesday and we took our malaria pill right when we got there. Its a weekly pill, so forever after Wednesday will be called Pill Day. I haven't gotten any of the insomnia or weird dreams people talk about being associated with the malaria, which is cool I guess, though I was looking forward to some sweet dreams.
Since Sunday, I have....
- Gotten a haircut! I paid an I think not overcharged price of 2000Tsh ($1.25), hopefully because of the very limited Swahili I used with them
- Had my placement interview! After giving us a few weeks to get settled and really think about what characteristics we want for our site, we had our interviews with the people who decide where we get placed. My main thing was I want somewhere coldish. I'm sure I could get used to this heat, but I think I'd really like being in a colder place, maybe up in the mountains in the Kilimanjaro region or something. We shall see! I also said I'd prefer a boarding school. Kids are much more likely to attend school regularly and you can more easily organize after school activities. I said I'm happy with electricity and water, or not. I think most (but not all) teachers have electricity either at their home or at their schools. I also said more rural (up to 6ish hours to the nearest banking town) is fine, or not.
- Got rained on for the first time! It was excellent. The roads weren't dusty for once, it was cool, and rain is awesome. Its rained a few times before at like 4am, and I always get excited, and then by the time I get up its always stopped. But today is rained until mid day sometime. My mama made me bring an umbrella to school though, which was super not Pacific Northwest of me. Sorry.
Swahili is going well, if slowly. I've gotten good at saying "tena tafadali" (again please) and "sema pole pole" (speak slowly).
Just cause I should practice, here's some Swahili for ya. I'll talk about what I do on a daily basis, because that is basically all I know how to say...Plug it into google translate to see what I (hopefully) said.
Jumatatu mpaka Jumamosi, ninakwenda shuleni. Ninatembea kwenda CCT (Christian Center of Tanzania?? I'm not sure...) au Morogoro Secondary. Morogoro Secondary nitafundisha fizikia wiki kesho. Huamka saa kumi na mbili na nusu asubuhi. (This won't will translate to 12:30 in the morning. However, time in Swahili is weird - the day starts at 6am and ends at 6pm, so basically you need to add or subtract 6 hours to get from English time to Swahili time. Anyway, saa kumi na mbili na nusu asubuhi = 6:30am). Hukula chakula cha asubuhi (chai, ndizi, chibati na/au mayai). Na rifiki zangu, hukwenda shuleni kujifunza Kiswahili. Ninapokuja nyumbani, ninasema "Shikamoo Mama." Mama Hilda anasema "Marahaba."
Okay, I'm cutting that short. Basically, my days are busy. In three months we are learning a new language, learning to be teachers, learning how to stay alive in a very new environment, and learning how to operate in a different cultural climate. Not this weekend but the next we get a full two day weekend, and are planning for a super short safari are in the works! Apparently we should see a good number of the Big Five. Should be most excellent.
Oh I was watching the news on TV with my family today, and they translated some for me. Apparently many doctors are on strike in Tanzania hoping for better pay. When bus drivers go on strike, people are late getting places. When doctors strike, people die. Its a pretty nasty situation apparently. We'll see what happens.
Ah, something totally unrelated. A few days ago, we got to see some experienced PCV Education volunteers teach a class of Form 1 (9th grade) students. It was eye opening to see the level of English of the students, which is pretty low. Even in technical classes like math and physics, a lot of time will need to be spent on making sure students understand the English. Lots of repetition! We also learned how to speak "special English" as they call it. Special English is English meant to be easy for English learners to understand. Speak slowly, very e-nun-ci-ate, pronounce your T's strongly and since Tanzanian's are used to British English, spell and pronounce words like the Brits. A-lu-minium is my favourite meTal. Yeah. Its tricky and will take some getting used to. Sadly, speaking with a full on British accent is apparently not so useful. Maybe I'll do it anyway.
We've started doing "micro-teaching" which is just 10-15 minute mini presentations in front of other volunteers. I've done one's on distance vs displacement, equilibrium, and gravity. I think on Friday I'll switch over to math and do something on probability. They are pretty useful I think, and fun to prepare. Its nice to get to use the mathy side of my brain once in awhile with all this language clogging up the other side. In a week and a half things get real, and we'll start teaching a few periods a week at a secondary school. Woo! I'll be teaching either Form 1 or 3 (9th or 11th grade) I think. I think probably physics, but it could also be math. We'll see!
Today is finally Jumapili! (which means Sunday, but is also the name of one of the training directors, which is confusing)
After three weeks, the six-days-a-week schedule is starting to hit me pretty hard. It's nice being busy, and I feel like I'm learning a lot, but man you really don't have much free time. Today I just hung around the house with my host mama and sister. My host dad apparently works seven days a week, so who am I to be complaining about six days a week. We did some laundry and I caught up on Swahili homework with the help of my host sister.
Yesterday a friend showed me a slot on my computer that accepts SIM cards, so I thought I might be able to get internet without the annoying USB dongle that I use now. When I put it in though, it not only didn't work at all, it also got stuck in my the slot. I have no idea how to get it out. So if anyone happens to know how to get a SIM card out of an Asus netbook, I'm all ears. Now I'm using the SIM card from my cell phone. On the brighter side, I found a deal to get 24 hours of internet for 500Tsh, which is a steal.
At one point for some reason, my internet got super fast, so I opened up Google Earth to try and figure out exactly where I am. With the help of my host mom and sister we found the secondary school that I'll be teaching at which is only a couple kilometers away, but couldn't get oriented enough figure out where the house is. The satellite imagery is surprisingly good – you can make out individual houses.
So some friends wrote me a list of questions – I’m going to start trying to answer them.
Do they have pillows?
Yes, they have pillows.
Do they use pens?
Yes, they use pens. But seriously, THEY DON’T HAVE MECHANICAL PENCILS AND I AM GOING TO DIE IF I DON’T GET SOME SOON. Seriously. Send me mechanical pencils stat.
I haven’t seem ‘em. I did see a girl wearing a Mercer Island Half Marathon sweatshirt though. Cool.
Today is Jumatatu! Aka Pill Day. We arrived in Dar on a Wednesday and we took our malaria pill right when we got there. Its a weekly pill, so forever after Wednesday will be called Pill Day. I haven't gotten any of the insomnia or weird dreams people talk about being associated with the malaria, which is cool I guess, though I was looking forward to some sweet dreams.
Since Sunday, I have....
- Gotten a haircut! I paid an I think not overcharged price of 2000Tsh ($1.25), hopefully because of the very limited Swahili I used with them
- Had my placement interview! After giving us a few weeks to get settled and really think about what characteristics we want for our site, we had our interviews with the people who decide where we get placed. My main thing was I want somewhere coldish. I'm sure I could get used to this heat, but I think I'd really like being in a colder place, maybe up in the mountains in the Kilimanjaro region or something. We shall see! I also said I'd prefer a boarding school. Kids are much more likely to attend school regularly and you can more easily organize after school activities. I said I'm happy with electricity and water, or not. I think most (but not all) teachers have electricity either at their home or at their schools. I also said more rural (up to 6ish hours to the nearest banking town) is fine, or not.
- Got rained on for the first time! It was excellent. The roads weren't dusty for once, it was cool, and rain is awesome. Its rained a few times before at like 4am, and I always get excited, and then by the time I get up its always stopped. But today is rained until mid day sometime. My mama made me bring an umbrella to school though, which was super not Pacific Northwest of me. Sorry.
Swahili is going well, if slowly. I've gotten good at saying "tena tafadali" (again please) and "sema pole pole" (speak slowly).
Just cause I should practice, here's some Swahili for ya. I'll talk about what I do on a daily basis, because that is basically all I know how to say...Plug it into google translate to see what I (hopefully) said.
Jumatatu mpaka Jumamosi, ninakwenda shuleni. Ninatembea kwenda CCT (Christian Center of Tanzania?? I'm not sure...) au Morogoro Secondary. Morogoro Secondary nitafundisha fizikia wiki kesho. Huamka saa kumi na mbili na nusu asubuhi. (This won't will translate to 12:30 in the morning. However, time in Swahili is weird - the day starts at 6am and ends at 6pm, so basically you need to add or subtract 6 hours to get from English time to Swahili time. Anyway, saa kumi na mbili na nusu asubuhi = 6:30am). Hukula chakula cha asubuhi (chai, ndizi, chibati na/au mayai). Na rifiki zangu, hukwenda shuleni kujifunza Kiswahili. Ninapokuja nyumbani, ninasema "Shikamoo Mama." Mama Hilda anasema "Marahaba."
Okay, I'm cutting that short. Basically, my days are busy. In three months we are learning a new language, learning to be teachers, learning how to stay alive in a very new environment, and learning how to operate in a different cultural climate. Not this weekend but the next we get a full two day weekend, and are planning for a super short safari are in the works! Apparently we should see a good number of the Big Five. Should be most excellent.
Oh I was watching the news on TV with my family today, and they translated some for me. Apparently many doctors are on strike in Tanzania hoping for better pay. When bus drivers go on strike, people are late getting places. When doctors strike, people die. Its a pretty nasty situation apparently. We'll see what happens.
Ah, something totally unrelated. A few days ago, we got to see some experienced PCV Education volunteers teach a class of Form 1 (9th grade) students. It was eye opening to see the level of English of the students, which is pretty low. Even in technical classes like math and physics, a lot of time will need to be spent on making sure students understand the English. Lots of repetition! We also learned how to speak "special English" as they call it. Special English is English meant to be easy for English learners to understand. Speak slowly, very e-nun-ci-ate, pronounce your T's strongly and since Tanzanian's are used to British English, spell and pronounce words like the Brits. A-lu-minium is my favourite meTal. Yeah. Its tricky and will take some getting used to. Sadly, speaking with a full on British accent is apparently not so useful. Maybe I'll do it anyway.
We've started doing "micro-teaching" which is just 10-15 minute mini presentations in front of other volunteers. I've done one's on distance vs displacement, equilibrium, and gravity. I think on Friday I'll switch over to math and do something on probability. They are pretty useful I think, and fun to prepare. Its nice to get to use the mathy side of my brain once in awhile with all this language clogging up the other side. In a week and a half things get real, and we'll start teaching a few periods a week at a secondary school. Woo! I'll be teaching either Form 1 or 3 (9th or 11th grade) I think. I think probably physics, but it could also be math. We'll see!
Today is finally Jumapili! (which means Sunday, but is also the name of one of the training directors, which is confusing)
After three weeks, the six-days-a-week schedule is starting to hit me pretty hard. It's nice being busy, and I feel like I'm learning a lot, but man you really don't have much free time. Today I just hung around the house with my host mama and sister. My host dad apparently works seven days a week, so who am I to be complaining about six days a week. We did some laundry and I caught up on Swahili homework with the help of my host sister.
Yesterday a friend showed me a slot on my computer that accepts SIM cards, so I thought I might be able to get internet without the annoying USB dongle that I use now. When I put it in though, it not only didn't work at all, it also got stuck in my the slot. I have no idea how to get it out. So if anyone happens to know how to get a SIM card out of an Asus netbook, I'm all ears. Now I'm using the SIM card from my cell phone. On the brighter side, I found a deal to get 24 hours of internet for 500Tsh, which is a steal.
At one point for some reason, my internet got super fast, so I opened up Google Earth to try and figure out exactly where I am. With the help of my host mom and sister we found the secondary school that I'll be teaching at which is only a couple kilometers away, but couldn't get oriented enough figure out where the house is. The satellite imagery is surprisingly good – you can make out individual houses.
So some friends wrote me a list of questions – I’m going to start trying to answer them.
Do they have pillows?
Yes, they have pillows.
Do they use pens?
Yes, they use pens. But seriously, THEY DON’T HAVE MECHANICAL PENCILS AND I AM GOING TO DIE IF I DON’T GET SOME SOON. Seriously. Send me mechanical pencils stat.
How much does stuff cost?
Stuff is pretty cheap compared to the dollar. I don’t know my economics terms very well but I think the dollar’s purchasing power here is about triple here than in the states. Beer at a bar costs anywhere from $1 to $1.75; a cooked meal costs between $1.50 and $7. A room at a super fancy hotel in Morogoro costs $30, a cheap hotel would probably be $5-10. You can probably pay a lot more for a hotel room in a bigger city like Dar though. It’s nice to think about stuff in USD, especially when you are getting ripped off, because in dollars everything is really really insanely cheap. But then you remember you make about $5 a day, so thinking in terms of dollars is just silly.
The currency is the Tanzanian Shilling (Tsh), with a conversation rate of about 1600Tsh=1 USD. Basically, it’s awesome, because you can carry around 10,000 notes and feel like a badass.
How’s the beer?
I like it, but I don’t have high standards for beer. Its plentiful, cheap (at least in dollars, see above…), and has cool names like Safari and Kilimanjaro to remind me I am in Africa. Oh also they have these 3oz (or so) bags of hard alcohol you can buy for 500Tsh at bars. So that's like just over a quarter. Apparently they are TERRIBLE. Haven't had one yet, we shall see.
Do they have a movie theater?
Apparently there is a real one in Dar somewhere, but I didn’t see it. However, right down the road from my house there is a building that I think may be a movie theater of sorts. At first I thought it was a bar, but it has a screen and projector and a bunch of bootlegged DVD’s displayed outside. Will be investigating further.
What do you do at night without electricity?
Stuff is pretty cheap compared to the dollar. I don’t know my economics terms very well but I think the dollar’s purchasing power here is about triple here than in the states. Beer at a bar costs anywhere from $1 to $1.75; a cooked meal costs between $1.50 and $7. A room at a super fancy hotel in Morogoro costs $30, a cheap hotel would probably be $5-10. You can probably pay a lot more for a hotel room in a bigger city like Dar though. It’s nice to think about stuff in USD, especially when you are getting ripped off, because in dollars everything is really really insanely cheap. But then you remember you make about $5 a day, so thinking in terms of dollars is just silly.
The currency is the Tanzanian Shilling (Tsh), with a conversation rate of about 1600Tsh=1 USD. Basically, it’s awesome, because you can carry around 10,000 notes and feel like a badass.
How’s the beer?
I like it, but I don’t have high standards for beer. Its plentiful, cheap (at least in dollars, see above…), and has cool names like Safari and Kilimanjaro to remind me I am in Africa. Oh also they have these 3oz (or so) bags of hard alcohol you can buy for 500Tsh at bars. So that's like just over a quarter. Apparently they are TERRIBLE. Haven't had one yet, we shall see.
Do they have a movie theater?
Apparently there is a real one in Dar somewhere, but I didn’t see it. However, right down the road from my house there is a building that I think may be a movie theater of sorts. At first I thought it was a bar, but it has a screen and projector and a bunch of bootlegged DVD’s displayed outside. Will be investigating further.
What do you do at night without electricity?
I have had electricity all the time since I’ve been in Tanzania. It seems like about 80-90% of volunteers have host families with electricity. Apparently it goes out fairly regularly, but it hasn’t happened yet. We also have running water. Pretty often the water will stop for between a few seconds and a few hours. This morning it went out mid shower, which meant I had half a bucket bath. Oh, yeah, I still have a showerhead The water isn’t potable, but I got my homemade water filter up and running a couple days ago, so I have fresh clean water to drink without boiling or having to buy bottled water. Yay!
Anyway, there’s a pretty good chance as a teacher I’ll have access to electricity throughout my service. We’ll see. I’ll know where I’m placed in a month or so!
Anyway, there’s a pretty good chance as a teacher I’ll have access to electricity throughout my service. We’ll see. I’ll know where I’m placed in a month or so!
Toms shoes – are they there?
I haven’t seem ‘em. I did see a girl wearing a Mercer Island Half Marathon sweatshirt though. Cool.
Have they heard of Seattle?
Although they may be wearing Seattle area clothing, no, they definitely haven’t heard of Seattle.
Although they may be wearing Seattle area clothing, no, they definitely haven’t heard of Seattle.
Can you get Chinese food?
Yes! I went to a place that had a large selection of Chinese food last night. Got fried rice because it was cheap, even though I eat rice twice a day, every day. How silly. Anyway, yeah, it’s not common by a long shot, but yeah, you can get it in Morogoro. Indian food too!
Transportation
So most people just walk places. Kids walk to school, most adults walk to work, I walk everywhere. I'm probably walking 4-5 miles a day, which is a nice excuse to not exercise at all ever. Lots of people bike as well. People will carry impressive amounts of stuff on bike trailers. Charcoal for stoves is delivered by guys on bikes with giant trailers. Daladala's are either small buses or large vans that act basically like a bus system in bigger cities. They follow general routes, but aren't consistent and are private and not regulated at all. Each daladala is individually owned, so there isn't any sort of schedule. Since I live relatively close to town, I haven't ridden a daladala in Morogoro yet, but I rode one in Dar. I'll probably ride one fairly often once I'm at my site. Motorcyles taxis are also really common. They are super dangerous and Peace Corps explicitly forbids volunteers from riding them. Normal taxis are also common, though relatively expensive. In town, there's a fairly good number of private cars as well. Large buses are the main means of transportation between cities.
Coffee
The idea that Tanzanians grow good coffee for export and drink the bad stuff seems pretty accurate. Instant coffee that I think must be decaffeinated is ubiquitous, but I haven't seen real coffee being served anywhere. I'm sure its available at nice places though. Chai tea is super common though, and I am growing to accept it as a viable alternative to coffee. I think it has a decent amount of caffeine too!
What do they eat for breakfast?
Well the most important thing is that Tanzanian's actually eat breakfast twice. Its genius. One they call "chakula cha asubuhi," or "food for the morning" and the other they call "chai" or "tea." Maybe they are copying the Brits? Anyway, chai time is around 10am and the reason to stay awake during those early hours. Common breakfast foods include bananas (of which I have at least two every day), doughnut like fried bread, something somewhere between a tortilla and a pancake, bread with jam, chai, and these excellent potato ball things. Its basically like a mini chicken pot pie that has been fried. Its amazing.
Yes! I went to a place that had a large selection of Chinese food last night. Got fried rice because it was cheap, even though I eat rice twice a day, every day. How silly. Anyway, yeah, it’s not common by a long shot, but yeah, you can get it in Morogoro. Indian food too!
Transportation
So most people just walk places. Kids walk to school, most adults walk to work, I walk everywhere. I'm probably walking 4-5 miles a day, which is a nice excuse to not exercise at all ever. Lots of people bike as well. People will carry impressive amounts of stuff on bike trailers. Charcoal for stoves is delivered by guys on bikes with giant trailers. Daladala's are either small buses or large vans that act basically like a bus system in bigger cities. They follow general routes, but aren't consistent and are private and not regulated at all. Each daladala is individually owned, so there isn't any sort of schedule. Since I live relatively close to town, I haven't ridden a daladala in Morogoro yet, but I rode one in Dar. I'll probably ride one fairly often once I'm at my site. Motorcyles taxis are also really common. They are super dangerous and Peace Corps explicitly forbids volunteers from riding them. Normal taxis are also common, though relatively expensive. In town, there's a fairly good number of private cars as well. Large buses are the main means of transportation between cities.
Coffee
The idea that Tanzanians grow good coffee for export and drink the bad stuff seems pretty accurate. Instant coffee that I think must be decaffeinated is ubiquitous, but I haven't seen real coffee being served anywhere. I'm sure its available at nice places though. Chai tea is super common though, and I am growing to accept it as a viable alternative to coffee. I think it has a decent amount of caffeine too!
What do they eat for breakfast?
Well the most important thing is that Tanzanian's actually eat breakfast twice. Its genius. One they call "chakula cha asubuhi," or "food for the morning" and the other they call "chai" or "tea." Maybe they are copying the Brits? Anyway, chai time is around 10am and the reason to stay awake during those early hours. Common breakfast foods include bananas (of which I have at least two every day), doughnut like fried bread, something somewhere between a tortilla and a pancake, bread with jam, chai, and these excellent potato ball things. Its basically like a mini chicken pot pie that has been fried. Its amazing.
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Host Family and Morogoro
So I'm writing this from the room in my host family's house in Morogoro. I spent a few days in Dar Es Salaam, 99% of the time being spent in the Mbazi Center, where we slept, ate, had info sessions, and got injected with every vaccination ever invented. I am now literally immortal. Which is good because I've learned from the medical sessions that almost every plant and animal in Africa can and probably will kill you. So far though I'm healthy minus a few strange bug bites here and there. We also had sessions on cultural adjustment (girls, don't be offended when people call you fat, its a compliment) and safety and security (U.S. Embassy official advice: don't ride local public transit called dala dalas. Peace Corps advice: yeahhh, we aren't paying you enough to ride taxis everywhere so get used to dala dalas). We did a quick walk around downtown Dar. It was about as expected - very crowded, dirty and busy. The streets are full of people selling all kinds of ware. Its easy to get a full meal along with some grocery and even clothes shopping, all while stuck in traffic (which, by the way, is virtually guaranteed to happen). It was cool to see all the hustle and bustle of a large city in the developing world. Our group stood out pretty obviously, and we got groups of street children running up to us shouting "wazungu!" (white people!) a couple times. We also visited the Peace Corps Tanzania headquarters, which is in Oyster Bay, a really nice part of the city. Lots of embassies and NGO headquarters are right around there, which were fun to see.
On Tuesday, we took a threeish hour bus ride to Morogoro, 200km east of Dar. It was really really great to get out of the city and into rural Tanzania. My host family's village (though urban in comparison to the site I'll be living at, probably) is a polar opposite of the city I left in Dar. My house is on a very long, very very very bumpy dirt road. The road becomes impassible by car about 20 meters past my house. The village I live in is what I think of when I think "Africa" - much more so than Dar was. Women dress quite conservatively and often wear a traditional colorful cloth, called a konga. People tend to walk slowly and have long, complex greetings with others they meet walking on the street. Tiny markets are available all over the place with people selling fresh food. Cars are seen only once in awhile - most people walk or get a ride on a "piki piki" or motorcycle taxi. I walk about half an hour to the Morogoro Secondary School, where I'm learning Swahili and eventually will be student teaching. Its a large school, with about 20 classrooms, each holding at least 50 students, often many more. Though the school is very dilapidated physically (broken windows, nasty pit toilets, etc.), the staff we met seemed very dedicated and the school has a good reputation. I will be spending most of my time at this school, either learning Swahili with a Tanzanian instructor and four other volunteers, or student teaching. We also meet up with the full class of Peace Corps Trainees about once a week. Training is pretty intense. We have full days of training (language or otherwise) 6 days a week, and then spend a lot of the 7th day on chores. Two weeks ago, a late night out was staying out til 4am. Last night I went to a bar and stayed out til it was dark. Didn't make it home until 9pm. It was a crazy night!
So that's basically what I've been up to. Here's some other stuff I thought of talking about...
Eating:
I've mostly been eating rice, beans, potatoes, and bananas. There are bananas growing all over the place, and its a strange day if I haven't had one with at least two meals. Rice (sometimes with curry), potatoes and beans are both super common. Ugali is also very common, though I've had it just once. Ugali basically looks like very very firm mashed potatoes, but its made from a corn meal type thing. Its filling, though has absolutely no flavor. Its often eaten with vegetables or meat. Speaking of meat, I've had chicken, beef, and goat. All meat, but chicken in particular, is quite a different experience here. I'm used to fat American chickens, often with all the bones removed. Here all chickens are way skinnier as they run around all day and are served with lotza bones. Its also common to get served a not so normal part of the chicken, for example, its face. Kinda gross. In general though I'm actually really enjoying the food. Its super carb heavy, which is how I eat in the states anyway, so its pretty awesome. A lot of stuff is totally cool to eat with your hand here, like ugali. Eating with your hand is pretty great, though it is taking me awhile to get used to, especially because I need to do it with my right hand (I'm left handed). Historically (and for many still today), toilet paper was nooot used, so the left hand was for dealing with that whole situation, and the right hand was for eating. Naturally, people give me a strange look if I start eating with my left hand.
Sleeping:
I sleep under a mosquito net, which is this big net that hangs over your bed and you tuck into the mattress to create a insect free zone. It also sorta feels like you are camping which is pretty great. Apparently all animals in Africa decide to wake up and make as much noise as possible from 1am-3am (and the roosters dont stop then), so sleeping through that is a bit challenging. My bed is super comfy though, and I'm generally exhausted and sleep very well every night. Staying up until 11pm tonight to finish this blog is a major major achievement for me. You are welcome.
Host family:
I'm living with the Musiba's. Stay at home mom Hilda, dad Julius has a windshield repair shop in town, and 14 year old daughter Mary is just starting secondary school. They speak English very well, but are also excited to help me learn Swahili, so it seems like its been a good fit. Tomorrow they are going to show me how to wash clothes by hand. Excellent. I haven't been able to do much outside the house with my family yet, so hopefully tomorrow we can walk around the area or something.
Being a foreigner:
Though you definitely get a lot of stares, people are overwhelmingly happy to see us. I get a lot of "Karibu sana Tanzania!" (very much welcome to Tanzania!). People get excited when I manage to spit out a few basic greetings in Swahili. Its definitely an interesting experience being a minority really for the first time.
So that's all I can think of off the top of my head. Post you're questions, I'd love to answer!
Another post coming soon with pictures. In case that doesn't actually happen, check the facebook album at https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151031670774515.485414.510569514&type=1&l=ad2203db1b
So that's basically what I've been up to. Here's some other stuff I thought of talking about...
Eating:
I've mostly been eating rice, beans, potatoes, and bananas. There are bananas growing all over the place, and its a strange day if I haven't had one with at least two meals. Rice (sometimes with curry), potatoes and beans are both super common. Ugali is also very common, though I've had it just once. Ugali basically looks like very very firm mashed potatoes, but its made from a corn meal type thing. Its filling, though has absolutely no flavor. Its often eaten with vegetables or meat. Speaking of meat, I've had chicken, beef, and goat. All meat, but chicken in particular, is quite a different experience here. I'm used to fat American chickens, often with all the bones removed. Here all chickens are way skinnier as they run around all day and are served with lotza bones. Its also common to get served a not so normal part of the chicken, for example, its face. Kinda gross. In general though I'm actually really enjoying the food. Its super carb heavy, which is how I eat in the states anyway, so its pretty awesome. A lot of stuff is totally cool to eat with your hand here, like ugali. Eating with your hand is pretty great, though it is taking me awhile to get used to, especially because I need to do it with my right hand (I'm left handed). Historically (and for many still today), toilet paper was nooot used, so the left hand was for dealing with that whole situation, and the right hand was for eating. Naturally, people give me a strange look if I start eating with my left hand.
Sleeping:
I sleep under a mosquito net, which is this big net that hangs over your bed and you tuck into the mattress to create a insect free zone. It also sorta feels like you are camping which is pretty great. Apparently all animals in Africa decide to wake up and make as much noise as possible from 1am-3am (and the roosters dont stop then), so sleeping through that is a bit challenging. My bed is super comfy though, and I'm generally exhausted and sleep very well every night. Staying up until 11pm tonight to finish this blog is a major major achievement for me. You are welcome.
Host family:
I'm living with the Musiba's. Stay at home mom Hilda, dad Julius has a windshield repair shop in town, and 14 year old daughter Mary is just starting secondary school. They speak English very well, but are also excited to help me learn Swahili, so it seems like its been a good fit. Tomorrow they are going to show me how to wash clothes by hand. Excellent. I haven't been able to do much outside the house with my family yet, so hopefully tomorrow we can walk around the area or something.
Being a foreigner:
Though you definitely get a lot of stares, people are overwhelmingly happy to see us. I get a lot of "Karibu sana Tanzania!" (very much welcome to Tanzania!). People get excited when I manage to spit out a few basic greetings in Swahili. Its definitely an interesting experience being a minority really for the first time.
So that's all I can think of off the top of my head. Post you're questions, I'd love to answer!
Another post coming soon with pictures. In case that doesn't actually happen, check the facebook album at https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151031670774515.485414.510569514&type=1&l=ad2203db1b
Thursday, June 7, 2012
In Dar
I've arrived in Dar! I'll be here until Tuesday. The journey was long and I didn't sleep more than an hour or two for some very long amount of time (Monday at 4am to Wednesday night), but all is now well. We are in a hotel/conference center here. Its pretty big and relatively nice - we all have our own rooms with bathrooms and showers even! The showers are pretty basic without hot water, but compared to what I'll have in a few days, this is pretty nice. We aren't allowed to leave the compound for a few days since we don't really know any Swahili and haven't gone through basic security training yet. So, I haven't seen too much of the city. Just the ride from the airport was pretty interesting though. Anyway, once I've got some pictures I'll update again.
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