8/26/10

Even though the motto in Tanzania is polepole, time flies! Jennie has already been here for over two weeks but it seems like she just got here yesterday. We have been spending some time doing team teaching with the kids at the center. We lesson plan the night before and divide the lessons between the two of us. I warned Jennie when we first started teaching the kids would look at you like they have no clue what is going on. They’re used to the kind of setting where there is no cooperative learning, no chances for kids to come up and write on the board, the teacher just writes everything down on the board makes the class repeat it a few times, and then they copy it into their work books. With that being said, I do my best to incorporate cooperative learning, and differentiated instruction, without it being too overwhelming for the kids. It is also VERY common for the children to be shamed during school for getting an answer wrong; as a result a lot of the students lack confidence even though they have the skills. I also told Jennie after they look at you like they don’t know what is going on you typically show them once what you want them to do and they pick it up extremely fast.

One of the skills we decided to work on with the students was spelling. The students do not have spelling tests in English or Kiswahili. We had a volunteer leave us with a spelling bingo game, so we decided to use words that are in the game to make a spelling test. We started with ten words and made each student a “spelling book”. The first day we gave them a pretest; Jennie announced the word and used it in a sentence just like we did when we had spelling tests. As any lesson you plan as a teacher, in the US or elsewhere, you never know how a lesson is going to work, and you always have to be prepared to make changes and adjustments according to the student’s reactions. With this lesson no changes were necessary. The kids picked up exactly what to do very fast. As Jennie was saying the words I was walking around the room making sure they understood what they had to do, as I was doing that they were all eager to show me how they spelled a word and would hold up their paper and say “teacher look”. They were very proud!

After their pretest we had them self check their pretests so they could see how to spell the word correctly and see what mistakes they made. Then we went right into a game of spelling bingo. We write the word on the board but leave out one letter, and if they have the letter that is missing they cover that with a bingo chip on their board. We have been trying to get them to yell out BINGO when they have a bingo, but they are so shy about it! I think it is because they are so used to not being able to speak out in class. The rules are very strict during class time, you don’t speak unless you are called on and they actually follow those rules  It’s hard to find the balance because when I teach I want the kids to have fun and smile and laugh, but they are not used to that kind of a classroom. School time in Tanzania is all work and no play, they save that for lunch time and after school. We’ll get there.

One of the projects that I have been wanting to do since I first go here was a literacy circle with the older kids(ages 10-12). Jennie and I went trough this storage unit full of books out at Kisongo and found seven books of the same kind. I was really excited because I knew we would be able to use it. The book is a simple read kind of like a “Dick and Jane” but “Dick and Dora” (British version). We started off in a circle everyone had their own copy of the book. I took the kids through the first chapter and we just looked at pictures to make predictions. I had each kid say what they thought would happen based on the pictures they saw. It worked out really well; the kids had great ideas and came up with a few things I wouldn’t have thought of! Then we read the first chapter, stopping after each page to as a question about what we just read. They seemed to really like it, and when Jennie and I saw them the next day they asked us when they were going to read again.

We have now finished the first section of the book Jennie and I are working on an art project for the kids to do that relates to the story, I will let you know how it goes!

Last week Jennie and I hung out with my friend Bariki who I met last time I was here through his girlfriend from California. Bariki, his brother Solomon(Solo), and his cousin Mohkey(who we call G) are all Masai, but definitely not your typical Masai. Bariki and Solo’s dad only has one wife and three kids (google Masai or read my blog about them to learn why that is not the norm), and decided to pursue his life as an artist and live in the city. Bariki now has his own safari company and does a lot of work with tourists and different volunteer groups around Arusha. Bariki and Solo just moved to a house pretty close to where we live, so we went over to their place for dinner one night and had the best salad we’ve had since we got here. It had fresh fruit; mangos, avocadoes, banana even watermelon and some good chicken which I haven’t had in a while! The power went out about three bites into our meal (TIA) and they were all concerned trying to figure out if they blew a fuse or if it was the government shutting of the electricity (which happens often), but Jennie and I weren’t fazed and continued to eat our food (mama didn’t raise no fool) put good food in front of two hungry girls and it will disappear fast.

Friday we tried to do a game day with the kids. We took them to a field with a football and some music and wanted to play around. They were extremely tired and not in the mood to do much. I ended up playing football with some of the boys from the village and one other boy from the centre (the rest are girls and did NOT want to play any field games). We also danced a little and played lost of music (aka Shikira “Waka Waka”, and now we have the kids hooked on Jason Derulo “Solo”, picture a bunch of little kids going s-o-l-o soooo cute). Game day didn’t last very long due to lack of enthusiasm but there is always next time.

Today Jennie and I continued with our lessons in the morning and we had been promising the kids we would watch the movie “The Princess and the Frog” that I bought in town a few days ago. So in the afternoon Jennie made her first batch of bread which turned out very well. I went and got the kids from the centre brought them down to the house and we watched the move, ate peanut butter sandwiches, and drank some juice. The movie was very cute, Jennie and I had never seen it and both feel in love with the music, plus the message that the movie shares.

Tomorrow evening some volunteers that I meet when I first got here, Kathleen and Vicky are coming back to Arusha. I am sooooo excited to see them. They left Arusha, traveled all over East Africa and are coming back to Arusha to end their last week with the kids. I can’t wait to see them and hear about all their adventures. It is always hard to get close with volunteers and say goodbye not knowing when and if you will see them again. Knowing that two of them are coming back is awesome, and will be like a mini reunion of volunteers!

This is a random side note that must be shared-Esanjo(aka pocket man) our houseboy ate lunch with Jennie and I the other day. We were eating some veg and soup that we made for ourselves and he comes out with a plate of ugali(a local favorite, think paper mache) and chicken. However this chicken on his plate had a CLAW on it, nails attached and all, but it was cooked and seasoned. It was the most appalling thing I have ever seen, I do not get sick very easily but it all of a sudden hit me, picturing him eating this chicken claw, I got up quickly took my plates into the kitchen and left immediately before I go sick all over the table. He was cracking up and making this facial expression only he can make. I am not sure how long it will take me to get over that, chicken may not be on the menu for me for a while!

adding pictures pole pole (slowly, slowly)

Bonfire, teaching kids how to make smores

Making the best bread, with dada

Helena wearing my head lamp

making their own swings with jump ropes, and a metal pole

8/19/10

Last Wednesday my friend Jennie arrived from Michigan to stay in Arusha for a month. I love having a familiar face here, it’s really nice to be able to show someone all around town, and introduce to the kids that I have talked about so much. Before picking Jennie up from the airport David and I went out to this restaurant that I had heard about from a few different people. It’s called Zhans Chicken on the Bonnet. By day it is a car repair shop, by night it is a chicken BBQ place. I thought it was a little shady at first and asked David on our way there if I was going to get food poisoning, and he just laughed. As we pulled up we saw huge barbeques on the sidewalk with all kids of meat on it, and tables set outside along the sidewalk. The next thing I noticed was the tables were full of wazungus(white people)! Not something I was expecting, but it made me feel a little better that I wasn’t going to get sick from the food. The first thing you do is walk up to the cook and tell him what kind of meat you want, and how much, then you grab a plate and head to a table full with lots of different salads, potatoes, chips and sauces. You load your plate with whatever you want then go have a seat and they bring your chicken to you when it is ready. The chicken was soooooo good, we don’t get much meat here so it tasted that much better. I will defiantly be taking Jennie to eat there, it’s kind of like one of those great little taverns that has really good food when you would never expect it to, something everyone has to experience, and it definitely gives you some culture.

After eating we headed to the airport where David insisted I drive. I’ve driven a few times in Arusha, but was a little hesitant because the roads are so dark and it’s a long drive out to the airport. I decided it was better for me to drive because Tanzanians drive crazy, so I took the wheel and successfully made it to the airport even though there were a few close calls(just kidding….kinda). Waiting for Jennie in the airport was really exciting, the only times I have been to the airport is when I am coming or going, but I liked this better. Greeting Jennie as she walked out of the gates was really cool, it reminded me of the first time that I stepped foot in Tanzania, and taking in the smells, the people, the environment. On the way back David drove because I didn’t want to have to try and talk to Jennie and concentrate on driving at the same time. There was a lot to talk about so we chatted the whole way back.

Thursday during the day I took Jennie into town to show her around town, go to bank, use the internet etc. We went out to lunch and dinner that day, I made sure to let Jennie know that doesn’t usually happen so don’t get too used to it! Thursday night we went out to a bar in Tanzania with other volunteers, and a girl I met at a meeting named G from Boston. We sang karaoke in a Tanzanian club, it was very interesting (we sang Madonna, Bob Marley, and Toto just to name a few).

Over the weekend Jennie got to meet all the kids that stay at the centre. They were excited to finally meet her because I had been telling them she was coming. It doesn’t take long for the little kids to warm up to volunteers. Within minutes she had this little girl Deborah sitting on her lap, eating a peanut butter sandwich! The older ones take a little bit longer to warm up to strangers, but not nearly as long as kids in the US would take, I think they get used to the fact that they get new volunteers all the time.

We also spent some time searching for the movie Lion King. Ever since coming to Tanzania the first time, I’ve wanted to watch Lion King but never got a chance to. About two weeks ago I found it on a disc in town. When you buy movies here you get one disk with about 10 different movies on it. I bought the one with Lion King and we went to watch it with the kids it stopped working halfway through. So I found it again at another shop and we successfully watched the whole movie with the kids on Sunday. It is so cute watching the kids reactions to movies, especially this one because they throw in a little bit of Swahilli in the movie.

Monday all the volunteers went out to Kisongo to see the kids at Yakini Primary School. Right now the kids are on holiday so there are only about 30 kids staying at the school. For the first hour we each worked individually and read with the kids. I sat with two girls and we read a fantasy book collection. We read Snow White, Goldilocks and the Three Little Bears, Pinocchio and some poems. The two girls I was reading with each took turns to read different paragraphs. They were very strong readers, the teacher in me kept quizzing them on what we were reading, and asking for summaries, the girls answered with much detail!

After reading Jennie, Chelsea(another volunteer) and I found some water balloons and started filling them up for a water balloon fight. We filled up two buckets worth, then got all the students, volunteers and teachers together, and we explained to them that the object was to get everyone as wet as possible but to not hit anyone in the face. We showed them the boundaries that they had to stay in, and everyone spread out and when we said go it was a free for all! It was really fun I nailed a few students good and even got some students to team up against teacher Peter, he was soaked by the end!

Monday night we had a bon fire with the kids at the centre. We just built a mini fire in the driveway, played some music and taught them how to make smores. The chocolate Jennie and I bough turned out to be too hard so we were trying to melt it in the kitchen then put it on a cracker. The chocolate turned hard very fast but the kids didn’t complain at all(even though they tasted so nasty I couldn’t eat mine), as they were all feeling a sugar high after eating at least three smores each(quite a bit for kids who don’t normally eat any sweets). They were all running around like crazy singing and dancing. They LOVE the song “Waka Waka” by Shikira, it was one of the theme songs for the World Cup. They literally ask to hear it over and over again, and they always dance to it, it is so cute! We did lots of dancing; they also loved this other song called “Yes”, by LMFAO. I’d never heard of it but a volunteer had it on her ipod and all the kids were in a circle every time they said “yes” in the song, we got some video of it, hopefully I will be able to post that soon although I’m not quite sure I will be able to figure it out J

The next night was the last night for the group of six from Montana. We had a huge cookout with the kids from the centre. We helped the dadas cook the food, my job was to slice the potatoes to make chips(French fries), I was struggling quite a bit then the houseboy Esanjo showed me his cutting style and it worked much better! Everyone had a different task to help with. In the end we had pumpkin soup, chips, guacamole, chipati(kind of like a crepe but thicker), salad, watermelon, banana, rice, and beans. It was a very good feast, espically for the kids because they usually get one thing for dinner. After dinner we had another dance party, and made more smores, this time with good chocolate!

Wednesday morning Jennie and I took some of the new LWCC kids to the hospital. They all have to be tested for HIV and if they are positive they have to go to a orphanage specifically for children with HIV. Once we got there we had to wait only a few minutes and then we took the kids one by one to get their finger pricked. They were so good none of them were scared(they didn’t know what they were getting tested for), and after the last one the doctor said that we just had to wait 30 minutes for the results. I had a slight panic attack in my mind because I had no idea that I would be the one who got the results. I figured it would take a few days and Anza or Dora would have to call to get the tests back. A million things ran tough my head as we were waiting, the most obvious thing, what the hell were we going to do if one of them was positive. Jennie and I did our best to just hang with the kids and not let them see how worried. Soon the doctor came out and handed me their slips, which all came back negative THANKFULLY….I still don’t know what I would’ve done or how I would have reacted if the results turned out positive. After that we waited for 1 ½ hours to be picked up TIA! I went and bought the kids some juice boxes and muffins at a little shop right outside of the hospital. I felt bad for them because we were waiting so long, plus they were very good patients and thought they deserved a little treat.

Pictures 2

I bought some flour to make bread with, and some peanut butter to make the kids peanut sandwiches, here they are eating them!













Miss. Helena with her pink lips from candy!














homemade hairstyle














Class party on the last day of school before the holiday.

8/4/10

This past weekend was very eventful!Saturday during the day a few volunteers and I went to the Masai Craft Market.Masai is a local tribe here in Arusha they are nomads who believe all the cows belong to them, and the more wives, cows, and kids the men have, the more wealthy they are considered.The Masai Market has many homemade goods made by the tribe.When you pull up to the market the women are sitting outside in the front making beaded bowls, necklaces, bracelets, etc.Its fun going to the market, but only for a short time, each shop you walk by the owner welcomes you to come in, and if you don’t they literally beg you to come in, it can get old very fast.

After the market we meet up with one of the teachers at the school we work at, and he showed us his nursery school that he owns, and talked with us about his plans to open up his own school.When we asked him how soon he wanted to open up his school he said that he hopes within five years!He is still collection money to start the building.The building process can take a long time to complete.Most people here pay as they go, so a building can sit for six months without making progress if the person building it hasn’t got money to pay.Pole pole is the motto here, it means slowly, slowly, and it applies to just about everything…no hurry in Africa.

After meeting with teacher Peter, my roommate Anna, and another volunteer Lisa from Germany went to this volunteer network meeting in downtown Arusha.I had met the leader of the group through a friend a couple of weeks ago. It is basically a way for volunteers to meet other volunteers, and learn about other places that people volunteer at. I actually knew someone who Erin and I met on our first trip to Tanzania. His name is Stu, he is from Australia and volunteers at a secondary school in town. He also started his own group for single mothers in Arusha, which I will blog about later, it’s a great group I just meet all the ladies yesterday. The meeting mostly consisted of people from Australia, there was another girl from the US, who is from Nashville, but goes to school in Boston. It was nice to meet other volunteers and learn about other places around the town, and always fun meeting people from different countries…..I learned that the Queen has her pictures on Australian money…who knew(we consistently end up talking about the Queen...the one from England not Oprah :)!?

Saturday night was my roommates birthday, so all the volunteers went out to a local club.It’s always fun where locals and volunteers go and dance to a mix of local music and the same music you would hear from a club at home. A good time was had by all. Sunday morning was a very early morning for me I was invited by Diane, (not sure if I have mentioned her yet, she works for the family I stay with, but is originally from Canada, and now lives and is married to a Tanzanian) to go to her husband’s(Malik) village. I was excited for two reasons, one I hadn’t yet met Malik, two I was excited to go to a village outside of Arusha. The name of the village is Maruvango. We left around 8:30 and didn’t get to the village until about 10:30. Half of the ride is on a paved road, and the second half is on a horrible dirt road, where you have to go pole, pole. The weather was pretty chilly and misting all day, but the village was so pretty. The trees are and small plants are a very deep green there are many Acacia trees, and some of them have green trunks to them. Scattered throughout the green leaves are beautiful bright tropical flowers. The first thing we did was go to Malik mother’s house. Malik built his mom a nice brick house and his also in the process of building his own house not to far from his mothers. We sat in his house where we were offered coffee, and hard boiled eggs(which tasted amazing)! After meeting family members and neighbors we went to the church where the village was having a ceremony for a couple joining the congregation. It was a nice ceremony, which I understood nothing of because it was all in Swhalli. Diane explained a few things that went on, my favorite part is the music. They sing and dance around the church and the music sounds so beautiful. There is also a part where the couple joining the church brings a goat in to present to the church as a gift. The goat is later auctioned off in a auction ran by the church, where people bring eggs, beans, corn, fruits to donate and the church has an auction to make money. After the auction the whole village is invited to the couples house where a meal and been prepared for lunch. We had a brown rice with cooked goat, white rice, veggies, fruit, cooked banana(traditionally cooked in most Tanzanian meals and sooooo good), and roasted goat. Everything was good except for some of the goat. I pretended in my head that I was on survivor so I could eat it, I literally swallowed chunks whole it was not as good as the last goat I had, and you can’t leave any food on your plate, everyone joins the clean plate club! Overall the day was an amazing day, the people in the village were so friendly and very excited to talk to the Wazungus(white people).

This week is the first week of holiday for the kids. I have really been enjoying it because I get to plan my own lessons with the kids. Monday I did reading assessments with the new kids.I assessed the kids when I was here in February but there are 12 new kids since I was here last. I like doing the assessments because I get to work one on one with the kids and it’s a good way to get to know them. Yesterday I worked with the younger ones, I brought up different colored balloons and we learned colors, and played different games to learn the colors. I also played some music from The Lion King and the kids tapped the balloons through the air making sure it didn’t hit the ground. After that we worked on alphabet sounds, which are a little tricky because they pronounce some of the letters a little differently then we do here, but we managed! While I was working with the younger kids another volunteer who arrived over the weekend, was working on math with the older kids. This afternoon we had a party for the kids. We went to the market in the morning to buy fruits and veggies, and had a big cookout at the center where the kids live. It was a fun afternoon of playing games, eating good food, shaving some kid’s heads and having a dance party!

Early this morning my roommate for the past 3 ½ weeks left with her traveling friend Tom. They are going on a 40 day safari all over East and South Africa. It was sad to say goodbye and it is very weird to have a room all to myself. Although we all have plans to come back to Tanzania and climb Mountain Kilimanjaro!A new group of volunteers arrived last night, they are Americans who grew up together but now live in various cities.Two of the girls have been here and stayed with the family before, the rest are new to LWCC.