Safari Elfu Mbili na Kumi na Moja!

Officially past the half way point of training our calendar included a much anticipated “trainee directed activity.” The time is intended to allow the group to do whatever we please, but as with every group before us, we chose to go to a nearby national park on a safari! Initially I wasn’t sure what to expect. I was really hoping that the part wouldn’t be fenced or gated in anyway, which luckily it wasn’t. In fact, it was a lot like the wildlife refuge I grew up next to in that you can more or less just drive into the park area on a road that passes right through. There is, however, also an official entrance to the park with a small office that does charge admission, but it was only $20 USD and got us a lot closer to the wildlife. The rate was good for 24 hours so we chose to go both late in the evening, around sunset, and early the next morning when we were told the animals were most active. Even before entering that area of the park however, animals were visible from the road. I was the first on our bus to spot a group of impala. Then we saw warthogs, a giraffe and zebra. I couldn’t believe how easy it was to see all of the animals! There were so many! How I was seeing these animals was also hard to believe. These were free animals living as they naturally do. No cages. No “feeding times”. No souvenirs. It was amazing! Mikumi is actually one of the smaller national parks in Tanzania so it isn’t very tourist heavy and our group was one of very few in the park.

We spent a lot of our initial time in the park waiting to see a simba (lion) that was protecting a recently killed twiga (giraffe). The vantage point we had wasn’t great and the most we saw was her ears and tail once or twice. We had more luck the next morning on the opposite side of the deceased twiga. (see my photos on flickr!) We also saw hippos, crocodiles, baboons and elephants on the second day. I still can’t believe that seeing these animals is normal here. If the fact that I’m living in Africa hadn’t set in by this past weekend, it certainly did after the safari.

On another note –

Teaching has been going incredibly well. I love it. Last week I covered file types, naming files and photo editing/drawing software with my form one students. I took photos with each of my classes and loaded them onto the computers in the lab. Then, after doing an activity in which the students created and named their own files on note cards and filed them in the folders that I brought to class, I directed them to find the photo of their stream on the computer. I’ve noticed that every class I do is better as time goes on. I get to do the same lesson 3 times every week and I’m pretty sure my Thursday class always gets the best lesson. In fact, last week Kihonda didn’t have power, which meant no computers in class. I was slightly worried about how I would fill the time, but had back up plans in place. Surprisingly I think it might have been one of my best classes to date. We spent more time on the activity and I could SEE them getting it. Which felt amazing! I also got to cover how to open and save the files by drawing diagrams on the chalkboard. I know the students were a bit disappointed that they couldn’t use the computer (they asked if they could come in on Friday or Monday) but I know they still enjoyed the class and I really think they learned something.

Mwalimu Tyler

My first official day as an ICT mwalimu at Kihonda Secondary School didn’t start as smoothly as I would have hoped. My shangazi got a late start this morning and the hot water for my bucket-bath wasn’t ready until 15 minutes later than I was expecting. I’ve worked very hard to establish a predictable routine in the morning, almost down to the minute, but considering the Tanzanian concept of time and relative lack of clocks and reliable alarm systems the fact that I was ready for my maji moto every morning at 6:30 I’m afraid was lost on the extended family member I depend on every morning. I chose to take the water before it was ready in order to save as much time as I could and ended up making up the difference with some speed bathing.

The interruptions unfortunately didn’t end there. I’ve been lucky to not need my med kit for much since arriving in country, but have once or twice used the throat lozenges provided by the Peace Corps. I went again this morning to grab a few lozenges for my backpack and per usual, removed a few small ants along the way. However today the deeper I dug into the kit, it seemed, the more ants I needed to remove. I continued doing so until I found the source of the increased amount of the pests. Apparently a colony had decided to make the back right corner of my med kit its permanent residence and had not only moved in, but had begun laying eggs as well. I cursed, bit my lip and took the kit outside to really shake everything out. The time saved speed bathing with cold water was immediately lost but still didn’t put me too far behind. I was determined for today to be a good day. It was my first day teaching and I really couldn’t wait. I ate and drank chai quickly and left home only a few minutes behind schedule.

By the time I got to school (about a 10 minute walk when I’m really moving) any misfortune the morning had brought at home had completely been replaced by the adrenaline the prospect of teaching brought. I went to our normal room, grabbed my chalk and eraser and headed to the computer lab. Class was set to start at 7:40, and I had arrived at about 7:15. Students were already in the lab, but they were there to clean the floors and prepare the room for the day. I could tell they were avoiding other duties and probably shouldn’t be reading the newspaper or playing games, but I didn’t say anything. They eventually left the room to me and I began uncovering the computers, one at a time. I hadn’t had any time to explore what computers worked or what was on them, so I knew the coming lesson could really go either way. By 8:00 (20 minutes behind schedule, hamna shida, that’s Tanzania) the computer technician brought me a room full of Form 1 students.

I was so excited to start that I’m pretty sure I forgot to introduce myself, which was fine, because they would probably have just called me teacher anyways. I was worried about my ability to use “level appropriate” English, but I think I fell into it pretty easily, in fact, it almost felt natural. I was also somewhat worried about participation, specifically my ability to wait, remain patient and not panic while waiting for students to speak up. Luckily, standing in front of the classroom of 30 or more students felt incredibly comfortable, even as they stared blankly and quietly as I repeated myself multiple times. I even found myself using the charade like non-verbal reinforcements I had seen other current volunteers using.

My first activity to gauge their knowledge was more or less a failure. I asked each of them to raise their hands and show me:

1 if you know a little about computers
2 if you know some about computers
3 if you know a lot of about computers

Most hands that rose, if any, were half up at best - but there was some response. I saw a lot of one’s and two’s, which I was expecting. The next activity I was hoping would be a bit more specific and engaging. I asked them to help me make a list on the board of all the things they knew computers could do. I asked the question a few times and waited for a response. Things move slower here. It takes time for the students to translate and understand what you are asking, think of an answer and work up the courage to give the answer in front of the entire class. Eventually a girl in the class raised her hand and said, “It simplifies work.” A great answer! I was so thrilled I nearly skipped to the board to write it. (In retrospect, however, the answer was almost too textbook. I followed up with “HOW does it simplify work” which produced no response. We’ve been told that this is a common problem in Tanzania. Students very often will memorize terms and definitions verbatim from textbooks, memorizing the English rather than actually learning the information. I guess some volunteers have seen students memorize and write entire essays for their exams, only to use the essay for a question that in no way relates to the content they have memorized.) Either way, I was thrilled and it really got the ball rolling. After a few long minutes we had a relatively decent list of things a computer could do. (One student mentioned drawing, which was a great opportunity for me to tell them about how I was a graphic designer and created art on the computer for a living.)

Next, I asked the class to help me make a list of the things that they wanted to learn about computers. By this time, the ball was really rolling (in relative terms, things were still moving quite slowly. But they were participating!) Just as we were finishing our list and as I was moving on to definitions and describing the difference between hardware and software (my fellow CBT members helped me come up with a great analogy using the brain as hardware and ideas as software) a teacher walked into the room and said, “I want chairs.” I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. How rude! I was teaching. Students were learning. And you want chairs? I don’t care what you want. He didn’t even acknowledge that I was in the room; he spoke directly to the students as if I wasn’t even there. I only get four 80-minute sessions with each of these groups and we already started 20 minutes late. The last thing I need is another distraction. Regardless, with little to no hesitation the students got out of their chairs, picked them up and carried them away. I had no idea what to do and was completely powerless. Was my lesson over? Were they coming back? Were they planning on standing for the next 50 minutes?

Luckily one student remained in the room (he was the only one with a wooden rather than plastic chair). I looked at him, then out the door, then back at him. “Are they coming back?” I asked. “Yes,” he answered. “With chairs?” I asked. “Yes,” he repeated. “Good,” I concluded with bewildered relief.

About 10 minutes later the room had refilled with students. We moved through the lesson on hardware, which included more participation and drawing on the board, plus my new awesome brain analogy and moved on to what I’m sure the students were all looking forward too – the computers! Turning on the computers was a bit chaotic, as I knew it would be. Not all of the machines worked and some ran Ubuntu while others used Windows, which made it difficult to explain how things worked at first.

My original plan was to have each of the groups around a computer report back to me the programs that they found on each computer. However the trill of having the machine working in front of them was too much for them to sit and simply look at what it could do, they wanted to use them! I quickly abandoned the plan and decided to move right to the end of the lesson I had planned. (I also really felt like I had reached teacher mode by this point. I’m not sure where it came from but after a few failed attempts at “hands up if you can hear me” and “quiet please” - “eyes on me” with an incredibly fluent and seemingly practiced gesture mimicking the command rang from my voice like I’d said it a million times before, with authority no less! I’m not sure how or why, but it definitely felt natural, totally fit the situation and completely commanded the attention of the room. It was perfect. I was teaching.)

I explained to each group how to open a word processor. (Word for Windows and Open Office for Ubuntu) and introduced the sentence:

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

I asked the class if they knew what was special about this sentence. They had no idea, so I explained the fact that this sentence contains every letter in the English alphabet. I started to go through the letters and to my very pleasant surprise they all joined in!

I then explained that we would now be playing a game. Each computer would race to see who could type the sentence the fastest and raise their hands when they were finished. They loved the idea and jumped right in. The groups finished at a staggered pace and I finally had an opportunity to walk around and see where they were having problems. Many of them didn’t know how to add spaces, move the cursor or delete mistakes. Some even had problems using the mouse. The activity turned out to be really useful because not only were they thrilled to be using the computer but they were practicing the basic computer skills they would need to effectively use a computer. It also gave me some great ideas for things to cover in the future.

By the end of my time with the group they didn’t want to leave. And neither did I! Some of the slower groups tried to stay behind in order to finish typing the sentence and show me what they had done. (I didn’t have a prize for completing the task, so I went to each computer that was finished and gave high fives, which they LOVED!)

Teaching the class was a completely new kind of high for me. It was a complete adrenaline rush the entire time and I left the class beaming with excitement. It left me in such a good mood that I actually didn’t mind our Kiswahili session today, which I very regularly dread. I can only hope that every day will be half of what today was.

Hiking Uluguru Mountain/First Days at Kihonda Secondary

(Above: Mount Uluguru)

For our second day off here in TZ a large group of us decided to hire a few guides and hike the small mountain range that overlooks the Morogoro region. (More photos on my Flickr) The hike was short, only about 2.5 hours one way, but ended at a much anticipated waterfall. We relaxed by the falls for awhile and then split into smaller groups on the way back. My return group somehow ended up without a guide and found ourselves taking a different route back to the city but the roads were well populated most of the way down, so we asked for directions along the way.

On the route back we found ourselves in what a fellow trainee called the "Beverly Hills" of Morogoro. The houses were larger than any we'd seen and very ornate. As we got closer to the city we walked past a very well maintained golf course with mostly muzungus playing. Apparently there isn't much business done in Morogoro and it really doesn't strike me as a tourist destination, so I've yet to figure out where all of the money and muzungus came from.

The hike was tiring, but it felt good to really get out and do something physical. We have spent most of our time sitting, learning and listening the past few weeks.

Even more exciting was that this was our first week at our internship schools! Walking into the school the first time with students in their uniforms and teachers chatting and roaming the courtyard was a completely new type of rush for me. I am so excited to get in front of a classroom! (Which I never thought I'd say...) I'm nervous as well however, but it's mostly because of the unknown. I have no idea what these students know about computers.

I will be teaching 3 streams of form 1 students. Form 1 is essentially like being a Freshman in high school, however it seems to be based less on age and more on the amount of education accomplished to date. They have to pass a national exam in order to get into secondary school, and many students start their education late for one reason or another. (Mostly because parents keep them at home to do chores/farm work until they have more help from younger siblings etc.)

Kihonda Secondary is the 2nd largest Secondary school in Morogoro, so the classes are large. Because they are so large they are broken into streams, in my case there will be 3. (A, B and C) For this reason, I will only actually see each stream once every week, which means I will only have 4 classes with each stream. (We only internship teach for 4 weeks.) Luckily they will be for double sections, or 80 minutes each. I'm a little worried about filling the time, but I'm sure it will go by much faster than I'm expecting.

The students are very curious about our group. We've spent this week learning Kiswahili in a small storage room with one window. Most of the students stop what they're doing and stare as we walk by until we greet them, which always makes them smile. I can't wait to really get to know them!

I've been impressed by their attitude towards learning as well, although all I really know of it has been my observation from afar. Most of the students seem to sit in the classroom with friends and study on their own, without a teacher, for most of the day. We haven't quite figured out why there are no teachers teaching yet, but we think it might have to do with the fact that this is their first week back from a long break. (The student's first day back was spent "mowing" the lawn with machetes, sweeping the grounds and washing the sidewalks.)

Hopefully there will be more teachers around next week. I know 5 that will be there for sure!

Photos!

Finally had a chance to put some photos up. Check out my photostream on Flikr! (Link on the left.)

More to come soon!

This post not suitable for vegetarians

I came home this evening to most of the household outside sweeping and cleaning the yard in front of our house. Apparently we will be having a celebration tomorrow. What exactly we are celebrating I’m not sure yet. From what I have gathered so far it sounds like a family reunion.

As I’m watching my dadas and kakas sweep and rake the front yard, one of my kakas, Zakaria, approached me and said with a bit of condescending doubt in his voice, “Tyler, this physical labor. Can you do?” He smiled. Apparently my look of utter helplessness when it comes to any type of physical labor is universal. I said, “Of course I can! What do you want me to do?” He went on to show me how he was using a gardening hoe to remove the grass and weeds scattered throughout the rocky, sandy ground that is our front yard. (Ironically as much as we in the US try to grow grass for our yards, they do all they can to get rid of it.) I took the hoe from him and started attempting to remove the weeds as he had done, but was afraid of exactly how deep I should dig into the ground and so went about it a bit timidly. “Is it too hard for you?” He asked, “You can’t do?” “Well, yes, I can,” I tried to explain, “But I don’t completely understand. I don’t want to dig holes in the ground. Should I?” His English wasn’t really good enough to keep up with my barrage of frustrated and helpless questions. He took the hoe and showed me again before giving it back to me. This time I took no prisoners and dug deep into every blade of grass that dared to cross my gaze. “Fantastic!” He exclaimed. “Nzuri, nzuri. I go to see my friend now.” He quickly mentioned before leaving me with the hoe and half of a yard to finish. I didn’t mind however, I was really just happy to be able to participate.

Cleaning the yard wasn’t the only chore in need of doing to prepare for the party tomorrow. (Which I have now learned is just a family party. Thanks to Gracie, who is now sitting next to me. UPDATE: Turns out this gathering was the actually celebrate Grace's birthday. How she didn't know or why she didn't want to tell me I do not know.) With any good party there is of course, good food. And in this case, we will be having goat. And where does one get a good cut of goat in Tanzania? Our backyard of course! Apparently the pride a father feels in Tanzania for his grilling skills are less about actual cooking and more about the slaughtering and butchering of the animal to be cooked. My baba was more than enthusiastic to share the experience and made sure I knew he was an “expert” when it came to butchering. He seemed to really enjoy doing it as well, the fun parts at least. He left some of the more tedious jobs to our houseboy Joram. No one in my family was actually responsible for killing the animal. Instead, the man who brought the goat took the responsibility for cutting the goats throat and eventually its entire head off. (I told you this was not vegetarian-friendly, wait until you see the photos!) Brie, a fellow trainee who lives just down the road from me and who’s mama is apparently good friends with my mama (and also a vegetarian) came just in time to see the goat take some of his last gasps. She missed the more gruesome action, but saw the result all the same. Apparently they are invited to the celebration tomorrow. She, of course, will not be sharing in this particular part of the feast. It did make for a great discussion about the experience however. I’m not sure I can really put into words what it felt like to watch my food actually become my food. It was a thrilling experience I will keep with me forever, and I’m glad I got to share in it with my family here in Tanzania.

Even more exciting is that we get to eat it tomorrow! I’m not sure yet exactly how we will be preparing it, but I do think they were putting some of the parts in the same pots they use to boil my morning bucket bath. Tomorrow morning might be cold…

Photos! Note - These photos are a bit graphic in nature. Proceed at your own discretion.