Summa Time

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..