Here are some of the highlights since my last post
1. I successfully baked a birthday cake for my roommate for her birthday over the charcoal jicho
2. I made a whole bus of people stop so that I could get a package (selfish yes, necessary absolutely) thank you Myka
3. Sat for two hours in between two massive army men with guns on a car ride
4. Went to Malawi
5. Became obsessed with Malawi
6. Made my students write letters to my friends and family back home which turned out to be pure genius because the things they wrote are hilarious
7. Got observed teaching by my boss who then informed me that I was a ball buster in class, proving that some things never change
My time in Africa is flying by and I cant believe that I have already been here for 4 months, I feel like it was just yesterday I left home. We only have three real weeks left to our semester here and things have started to get intense. My students From II and Form III are both taking national and district exams so the preparation has been crazy. I am trying to prepare them as best as I can for their exams, knowing full well that the exams will be absolutely ridiculous and full of errors. That’s Tanzania for yah. I feel bad for the students because especially lately everyone in the community has been saying how dumb and not serious they are because of the results from the national mock examinations. Its really not fair to them because the do try hard but when the exams are written to where a native English speaker cant even understand them there is clearly a problem. It is a constant struggle everyday because I want to teach them proper English but I know at the same time the test will not be in proper English so I am stuck between a rock and a hard place. I feel like this is what teachers in America feel like always teaching to the standardized test we take, there really isn’t any freedom.
Enough of my ranting about NECTA and the ridic Tanzanian education system for now and let me give an update on life here in the village. This month it was my roommates birthday, knowing this the last time I went to Mbeya I was able to find some Betty Crocker dark chocolate cake mix because I had decided I was going to bake her a cake. It was easier said htan done. It looked all over the internet for tips on how to make your own homemade Dutch oven to bake things over charcoal. I got some really good tips and decided to go for it, it was either going to work or fail miserably. Things ended up turning out great he cake was awesome although I couldn’t find any frosting I was able to buy some Hershey’s chocolate syrup and I made a molten cake. It has given me the confidence to branch out and try to bake other things, my next project is going to be bread because you cant get bread anywhere around here.
Last weekend my friend Nicole and I decided we wanted to go to Malawi because we had a long weekend and the border is literally a quarter mile from her school. Saturday morning we had arranged a car and her second headmaster/our friend who I will refer to as Lu Dog was going to go with us to help us out. We had crossed the boarder before and had no problems and didn’t even need our passports so we really weren’t concerned. Little did we know that it was going to turn into a cluster. We spent a good hour in the immigration office in Isongole while they were trying to arrange for us to not have to pay for a visa because we were just going for the day. When things finally got figured out we were on our way. The town we went to was Chitipa which was the first major town across the boarder about 45 minutes from Isongole. We were cruising along great and then right before we got to Chitipa we get to a road block they check out or passports and tell us we must go to the immigration office. There we get our passports stamped and actually had to show our yellow fever cards, until this point no one had ever asked to see it, Lu Dog and our driver def didn’t have yellow fever cards and we were starting to get nervous but Malawians being the nice people they are let us go and even told us we could stay for up to five days because they liked us so much. When we actually got into Chitipa Lu Dog arranged for a sketchy transfer of our Shillings to Kwacha the currency they use in Malawi, then the guy who changed our money ended up being our tour guide and took us to a LEGIT, I repeat LEGIT grocery store. This may be where I fell in love with Malawi. Inside the grocery store they had a bakery, immediately when we walked in the door we were hit by the smell of fresh baked bread. Living in a place where I get bread once every 2 weeks I was in heaven. They also had rice Krispies, Glade products Lays sour cream and onion chips. We were so taken aback that this little gem of a town was so close yet no one had ever mentioned the treasures that could be found here. Another reason why I think I fell in love with Malawi was that everyone spoke English, even the gypsy street vendors. It is so weird that Malawi is one of the poorest countries yet they have a great universal health care system that many of my students have used before and they also have a fairly good school system that pushes English from a very young age. I will decimally be returning to Malawi, I really want to go to the capitol city because I hear they have some AMAZING chili peppers.
Recently I have been reviewing things that my students have allegedly already learned and need to know for their exams. One of the things that always shows up on the exams is a prompt about writing a letter. I decided what better time than now to have my students write letters to people in America. I spent time and wrote them all prompts about what they would say to the various people and what they should ask and talk about. Little did I know what would come of this. The students got really in to this project. They did rough drafts and second drafts and finally when they had written and decent letters I gave them a sheet of paper and some markers and they got to make their letter. The thigns they drew and wrote are hilarious. Some of the letters are cut and dry but other students took it to the extreme. I cant wait for my friends and family to get these letters because I know they will love them.
This week also marked the time that my Field Director/boss Ashley was coming to do her site visit. She comes to evaluate our teaching and to also check out our house and how we are doing and coping with our living situation. She arrived Wednesday night and we immediately introduced her to what it was like to walk 45 minutes up and down the mountain to get things that we need. She had been here before when she was scoping out potential schools but had been driven in a car everywhere and really did not fully understand how rough our life is. Anyway she came to school to observe me teaching my From III kids, we were reviewing for a test we were going to have the next day. After the lesson she had a sheet with questions she had to answer and comments about my lesson. The first thing out of her mouth was Jeeze you are really a ball buster in class, you don’t take any crap from any of your students. Some things never change, but my students laugh at me everyday so I know they like me and we have a good time outside of class, which is what counts right?
This week the school has finally decided to give me some responsibility (big mistake) and made me teacher on duty. Basically what it means is I have to get to school super early and stay super late and when any of the students want to leave the must come ask me. Also I am in charge of all the discipline matters which means the beatings of the students. Which until this point I haven’t really talked about. IN Tanzania it is totes fine and expected for the teachers to hit the students with sticks and various other things they find. Girls normally get three swats on the palms while boys have to lay on the ground and get three swats on the lower back area. Students can get hit for any number of reasons and it never ceases to amaze me how the nicest of our teachers can suddenly turn on the students and start chasing them with sticks. Anyway I digress basically I told the other teachers that this week instead of hitting the kids they will do hard labor…We will see how that goes, I will let you know at the end of the week. For now this is a long enough post
Until next time..
Monday, October 24, 2011
Thursday, October 6, 2011
African Hospital Adventure
The adventure continues here in my little slice of the middle of nowhere. Last week the safari ended well with Iringa like I said in my last post becoming my new obsession due to all of the white people and the availability of things like milkshakes and lattes. We spent one night in Mbeya at a new hotel that for 40,000 Shillings a night (roughly 25 dollars ) we got a massive room with two couches and two massive African chairs a full size fridge and freezer and a connecting room with a king size bed and most importantly a TV that had American channels. I got to watch Teen Mom and Ellen as well as CNN, my roommate didn’t much care about that but I was once again in heaven. it’s the small things in life right?
Coming back from the safari and all the luxuries we had for the week was a little rough, and to make it worse this week at school all of the student teachers had left so now there are only 5 teachers for the close to 400 students . This week also happens to be form 4 testing, which is the two week long process where the form 4 take subject tests to determine if they can continue on to further education. I thought testing in America was intense little did I know. When I showed up to school Monday morning I was greeted by two army men in full fatigues with their semi automatic weapons loaded and hanging on their arms. They never leave the school or the tests for the next two weeks. They sleep in our headmasters office to make sure no one tries to “sabotage” the tests as my headmaster said. Needles to say everyone has been really busy this week and I have been left alone in the staff room all day with just my new rifiki the skeleton to keep me company.
Now to where the adventure starts yet again. When we were coming back from our safari I decided to stay with two of the other volunteers in Isongole, while my roommate went home. When I got home Sunday she was in BAADDD shape. Monday morning they took her down to our hospital in Isoko where she proceeded to know more than some of the doctors and was advising the doctors on what kind of tests she needed. Eventually they told her she had Dysentery (you might be wondering who actually gets Dysentery anymore, apparently our small piece of “paradise” is a breeding ground for the amebas, I have decided that my occasional intake of alcohol kills all the amebas…at least I hope) They gave her some medicine and we thought that would be the end of that. Little did we know how much worse it could get. Yesterday I was at school reading and trying tog et a tan because Wednesdays are pointless and I only teach for 40 minutes in the afternoon, when she called saying she needed me to come home because she was feeling really bad. I rushed home and when I saw her she looked like a hot mess, and we made the decision that we needed to go to Mbeya the “big city” to a real hospital to get checked out. Being in Africa and in our remote place getting anywhere was bound to be difficult. I called our boss in Dar, Ashley and had her work her connection while we tried to make something happen on our end. This all started at 9 A.M btw. Finally at 11:30 Ashley called to say that a car had left a village an hour and a half away and would be there as fast as they could. In the meantime our headmaster had come over and provided me with his version of why she was sick and what we should do. He informed me that she had gotten Dystenary from the change in climate he was sure of it and that when one of us is sick it is as though he is sick…he is a very philosophical man let me tell yah. He then informed us that we needed to go to the hospital in Isoko to wait for the ride, much against our protests.
When we got to the hospital in Isoko after waiting 45 minutes for a car to come up the mountain, they proceeded to tell Gretchen that (this is slightly vulgar but they said this in all seriousness keep it in mind) that her diarrhea was her body crying, just from another end. I could not contain myself at this comment and had to excuse myself.. Also I forgot to mention there is a white German doctor who is currently working at the hospital. Before you get the wrong picture in your mind like I did, let me tell you he is an old creepy dude who kind of reminds me of that creepy uncle in movies. I was hoping for the young cute doctors without boarders type, but of course this is what I get. Anyway he also comes in to check on her and proceeds to tell us his life story and about the “predicament” he is in with his 30 year old African lover that he cant take back to Germany because the people there just wouldn’t understand. The entire time he is telling me this I am confused as to what it has to do with anything, but that has become a typical thought. Finally after 4 hours of being held hostage at this hospital while the doctor was writing a letter to the doctors at the hospital in Mbeya we are allowed to leave. It is now 4 and we are off to Mbeya in the sweet African style ambulance (a land cruiser with a bull horn siren on top and a flashing red light, which we got to ride with on the entire time) Little did we know that we had some stops to make on the way to Mbeya.
One stop left us talking to the district education officer, a LARGE woman who we met the first day we came down here, who we also thought hated us, after yesterday I will never think that again. One of the first things she said to me was Sara (she thinks its my name, I don’t correct her because I am semi scared of her because of her size) you have very nice legs. It was a creepy comment yes, but hey it was a compliment none the less. During this time she is trying to force feed my roommate uji, which is a porridge like liquid. The education officer then gets even creepier by sitting and staring at me and repeatedly telling me that I am beautiful and being at Kafule has made me even more beautiful and she wished she could have a picture of me to keep. At that I was sufficiently creeped out and ready to get away from her. At this point it is 6:30 and we were still not at the hospital and my poor roommate was not doing so well. After this stop we picked up 10 people who got to cram in the back of the ambulance with me and we were off for the final leg of the trip to the hospital. Finally at 10 pm we arrived at the legit hospital outside of Mbeya city. We were told that she would be staying in a VIP room and had no idea what that meant. When we walked in we found out, this room is massive, pretty much the size of our house. I even got my own bed and didn’t have to sleep on a couch or chair like I was picturing. All of it only costs 30,000 shillings a day. Speaking of costs there was a chart in one of the doctors rooms that we talked to and at this hospital you can get a tooth pulled for three dollars, have a minor surgery for ten dollars and get an amputation for 25 dollars. Would I ever have any of those things done here…absolutely not but it was funny to see the prices for these things. So we are still sitting ehre waiting to find out the results of all of her tests. This morning we have been greeted by so many people who want to know how Gretchen is doing. It is nice to know that everyone is so concerned and making sure we are well taken care of, that’s one thing you have to love about the Tanzanian people. That’s all for now who knows how long we will be here, but so far I cant complain. We have electricity, running water and I have an extremely comfortable bed. I hope that i enver have a real emergency here in Tanzania because I for sure would not be able to make it
Coming back from the safari and all the luxuries we had for the week was a little rough, and to make it worse this week at school all of the student teachers had left so now there are only 5 teachers for the close to 400 students . This week also happens to be form 4 testing, which is the two week long process where the form 4 take subject tests to determine if they can continue on to further education. I thought testing in America was intense little did I know. When I showed up to school Monday morning I was greeted by two army men in full fatigues with their semi automatic weapons loaded and hanging on their arms. They never leave the school or the tests for the next two weeks. They sleep in our headmasters office to make sure no one tries to “sabotage” the tests as my headmaster said. Needles to say everyone has been really busy this week and I have been left alone in the staff room all day with just my new rifiki the skeleton to keep me company.
Now to where the adventure starts yet again. When we were coming back from our safari I decided to stay with two of the other volunteers in Isongole, while my roommate went home. When I got home Sunday she was in BAADDD shape. Monday morning they took her down to our hospital in Isoko where she proceeded to know more than some of the doctors and was advising the doctors on what kind of tests she needed. Eventually they told her she had Dysentery (you might be wondering who actually gets Dysentery anymore, apparently our small piece of “paradise” is a breeding ground for the amebas, I have decided that my occasional intake of alcohol kills all the amebas…at least I hope) They gave her some medicine and we thought that would be the end of that. Little did we know how much worse it could get. Yesterday I was at school reading and trying tog et a tan because Wednesdays are pointless and I only teach for 40 minutes in the afternoon, when she called saying she needed me to come home because she was feeling really bad. I rushed home and when I saw her she looked like a hot mess, and we made the decision that we needed to go to Mbeya the “big city” to a real hospital to get checked out. Being in Africa and in our remote place getting anywhere was bound to be difficult. I called our boss in Dar, Ashley and had her work her connection while we tried to make something happen on our end. This all started at 9 A.M btw. Finally at 11:30 Ashley called to say that a car had left a village an hour and a half away and would be there as fast as they could. In the meantime our headmaster had come over and provided me with his version of why she was sick and what we should do. He informed me that she had gotten Dystenary from the change in climate he was sure of it and that when one of us is sick it is as though he is sick…he is a very philosophical man let me tell yah. He then informed us that we needed to go to the hospital in Isoko to wait for the ride, much against our protests.
When we got to the hospital in Isoko after waiting 45 minutes for a car to come up the mountain, they proceeded to tell Gretchen that (this is slightly vulgar but they said this in all seriousness keep it in mind) that her diarrhea was her body crying, just from another end. I could not contain myself at this comment and had to excuse myself.. Also I forgot to mention there is a white German doctor who is currently working at the hospital. Before you get the wrong picture in your mind like I did, let me tell you he is an old creepy dude who kind of reminds me of that creepy uncle in movies. I was hoping for the young cute doctors without boarders type, but of course this is what I get. Anyway he also comes in to check on her and proceeds to tell us his life story and about the “predicament” he is in with his 30 year old African lover that he cant take back to Germany because the people there just wouldn’t understand. The entire time he is telling me this I am confused as to what it has to do with anything, but that has become a typical thought. Finally after 4 hours of being held hostage at this hospital while the doctor was writing a letter to the doctors at the hospital in Mbeya we are allowed to leave. It is now 4 and we are off to Mbeya in the sweet African style ambulance (a land cruiser with a bull horn siren on top and a flashing red light, which we got to ride with on the entire time) Little did we know that we had some stops to make on the way to Mbeya.
One stop left us talking to the district education officer, a LARGE woman who we met the first day we came down here, who we also thought hated us, after yesterday I will never think that again. One of the first things she said to me was Sara (she thinks its my name, I don’t correct her because I am semi scared of her because of her size) you have very nice legs. It was a creepy comment yes, but hey it was a compliment none the less. During this time she is trying to force feed my roommate uji, which is a porridge like liquid. The education officer then gets even creepier by sitting and staring at me and repeatedly telling me that I am beautiful and being at Kafule has made me even more beautiful and she wished she could have a picture of me to keep. At that I was sufficiently creeped out and ready to get away from her. At this point it is 6:30 and we were still not at the hospital and my poor roommate was not doing so well. After this stop we picked up 10 people who got to cram in the back of the ambulance with me and we were off for the final leg of the trip to the hospital. Finally at 10 pm we arrived at the legit hospital outside of Mbeya city. We were told that she would be staying in a VIP room and had no idea what that meant. When we walked in we found out, this room is massive, pretty much the size of our house. I even got my own bed and didn’t have to sleep on a couch or chair like I was picturing. All of it only costs 30,000 shillings a day. Speaking of costs there was a chart in one of the doctors rooms that we talked to and at this hospital you can get a tooth pulled for three dollars, have a minor surgery for ten dollars and get an amputation for 25 dollars. Would I ever have any of those things done here…absolutely not but it was funny to see the prices for these things. So we are still sitting ehre waiting to find out the results of all of her tests. This morning we have been greeted by so many people who want to know how Gretchen is doing. It is nice to know that everyone is so concerned and making sure we are well taken care of, that’s one thing you have to love about the Tanzanian people. That’s all for now who knows how long we will be here, but so far I cant complain. We have electricity, running water and I have an extremely comfortable bed. I hope that i enver have a real emergency here in Tanzania because I for sure would not be able to make it
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