It wasn’t until I actually looked at my blog that I realized how sparse my posts have actually been. Now that I’ve been at site for more than a month things have started to calm down and I’m finally starting to feel settled in, so now seems like a good time to fill in some of the gaps.
Classes started a few weeks ago and I’m really glad they did. It’s nice to be back on a regular routine and actually have work to get done. Jeff, the PCV who served here before me, has a great system for teaching ICT that I plan on continuing once he leaves. Our school is lucky enough to be really well equipped as far as computers are concerned and the lab is set up in such a way that nearly every student has access to a computer. That being the case, Jeff has set up lessons to work as a local webpage on the computers that the students can access and navigate through an Internet browser. The lessons are broken down into units covering different programs like Word and Excel with about 15 lessons in each unit. Since I’ve been here, we’ve expanded the lessons and added a PowerPoint unit, which I plan to keep working on. I’m also planning to add a desktop publishing unit to supplement the PowerPoint lessons for my form three classes next year. I’m not exactly sure what I will eventually be doing with my form four classes, but I’m hoping to set up some type of cultural exchange with a class back in the States. I really think it would be a good way to move their concept of computers from something that needs to be learned in a class to a more practical application as a tool for exchanging ideas.
Jeff teaching a group of Form 1 students.
Me teaching the same group of Form 1 students.
More Form 1 students working on their lesson for the day.
One of the events that delayed the start of classes since my being here was our school’s graduation ceremony. The ceremony was especially exciting because our mgeni rasmi (guest of honor) was former President of Tanzania Benjamin Mkapa, who we were lucky enough to actually meet and get a photo with. While meeting the former president was definitely a highlight, my favorite part of the day had to be the entertainment provided by the students. Music and dancing seem to be a very common passion for many of the students here at Abbey and the graduation ceremony provided a rare audience for the students to showcase their talents. The entertainment covered all spectrums. There was tribal drumming with dancers, an original rap titled “Books In Our Heads” set to the music of Lil Wayne, “Bodyshaking” with music courtesy of Missy Elliot (essentially choreographed group dancing like that seen on America’s Best Dance Crew), a Michael Jackson impersonator and “comedy” that was really more just speeches than stand-up routines. My favorite performance though had to be the original song written by the graduates thanking their teachers, school and parents. The song was in Swahili, so I didn’t understand all of it, but it was catchy, and I still find myself humming it.
Myself, Jeff, Dylan and Mikey (All PCVs in the region) with Former President of Tanzania Benjamin Mkapa
The day and ceremony was incredibly long. The entertainment had actually followed a full catholic mass and a tour of the school for our guest of honor. After the entertainment the graduates received their diplomas, certificates of excellence (awarded to the best student in each subject, which I was lucky enough to design) and the Tanzanian equivalent of leis from their parents, which looked to be made out of old Christmas decorations. But the day still wasn’t over. The ceremony went on to recognize a long list of important donors to the school, a portion my fellow wazungu and I chose to skip. Dinner followed the ceremony, which was later followed by an after party in Ndanda with more food and the regular four drinks each guest was allotted (taken all at once for a reason I am still unsure). The after party started a bit slow but picked up as time went on and ended in a full Tanzanian dance party, which of course, I couldn’t help but participate in.
I’ve actually really enjoyed a lot of these types of cultural experiences I’ve had in country so far. Tanzania definitely likes to have a good time. But I’ve actually started to notice a few cultural components I haven’t been incredibly fond of. I think it’s funny that I choose to write it like that because I’m generally not a negative person, in fact, I’m really uncomfortable being negative at all and it’s obvious I am softening my language as much as possible. It actually took a fellow PCV friend telling me “It’s ok to not like something about someone’s culture,” for me to realize and admit that I’ve experienced things in this culture that I didn’t necessarily like.
The lack of productivity and punctiliousness (a new word I’ve learned since being in country) have to top my list of challenging cultural obstacles. Before I say more I want to note that these characteristics are naturally not true of every Tanzanian. Instead, they’re just a few observations I’ve made from my very short time here and from the stories I’ve been told by fellow PCVs.
During my first week at site our school’s driver offered to show me around the villages surrounding our school. We walked through the villages for four hours and everywhere we went I was surprised to see the amount of people just sitting. We even stopped near the end of my tour at a friend of the driver’s home, brought a few chairs into the front yard and sat, at times without a word exchanged for several minutes. Even at my school, amongst some of the best teachers in Tanzania the amount of time spent sitting under one of the mango trees on our school grounds surprises me.
Part of me, naturally, finds this surprising purely because of my own cultural background. I’ve been wired in such a way that I need to always be doing something, even if that something is just as pointless and wasteful as sitting under a tree for a few hours. It reminds me of the amount of television I used to watch back home, especially when I would watch even if there was nothing I wanted to see. It is interesting how access to things like television alter our culture. If every teacher sitting under that tree had a TV or a computer with the Internet, would they still be sitting there? I don’t think one is better or worse than the other. It’s just different.
Aside from the way we spend our free time, I have noticed a lack of drive and pride here in Tanzania. I have heard many Tanzanians talk of the need for their country to develop, but I’ve heard just as many tell me how they have a culture of laziness. Even more disheartening is the sense of pride I think some Tanzanians have. I remember a conversation with a man in which I asked, “But Tanzania is a great African nation, other countries look up to the progress Tanzania has made,” to which he responded with his eyes to the ground shaking his head, “No, Kenya is better.” Again, I’m sure this isn’t the attitude of every Tanzanian, but it still surprised me to hear.
It makes me wonder what “development” really means to the people here.
The punctilious nature of Tanzania has also been a bit frustrating and something I don’t think I realized until I was introduced to the word. To be punctilious is to show great attention to detail or correct behavior. Now, it could easily be argued, (by my former newspaper staff I’m sure) that I myself have some punctilious qualities, but not in the way Tanzanians do. The word was originally explained to me as showing great attention to details of the trivial or useless, a far more fitting definition to the type of behavior I’ve seen in country. For instance, I have seen the best handwriting I have ever witnessed in the notebooks of students I’ve encountered, with measured indentations and vocabulary words underlined with a straight-edge. However, if you were to ask them to summarize the contents of what they have written, many would struggle.
I’ve noticed this attention to trivial detail in other parts of the culture as well. At every ceremony or celebration I’ve attended every person of note down to the mzungu sitting with his home-stay family on the bride’s side of the reception hall is asked to stand and be introduced to all in attendance, a process that had to have taken a least an hour I’m sure. I also noticed it at my first staff meeting in which all of the minutes kept from the previous meeting weeks before were read before the meeting was allowed to continue, a painstaking process that added more time to the already painfully long meeting.
It’s frustrating because the time isn’t being used efficiently, the form has become more important than the content, and nothing productive seems to come from any of it.
I think in a perfect Tanzania this type of activity would be replaced with something I’ve found noticeably lacking since I’ve been here – creativity. To be fair, I have noticed more as I spend more time here, but I’ve had to look really hard to find it. The region I’m in is actually known for their carvings, done by the Makonde tribe. The carvings exist, but seem in limited quantity and not widely practiced. I’ve also seen it briefly in my students, once in two students drawing in impressive perspective using Microsoft Paint, and again in a group of students filming their dancing and asking to have music added. (Two interests I plan to foster in the coursework I’m planning.) What I find especially concerning is that I don’t think they realize they’re being creative, or how important creativity is to growth and development, not only in artistic endeavors but in academic ones as well.
A few days into my time at Abbey a student came in to use our Encyclopedia program to work on an article he was writing for our school newsletter. I sat quietly watching him work for a while and eventually approached him to ask what his article was about. He was writing about education and had the Encarta page opened to that very topic. The “article” he’d been writing was copied almost word for word from the screen. “Do you know how to cite your sources?” I asked. “No,” he answered worried and confused. “Do you know what plagiarism is?” I followed up. “No sir,” he responded.
The lack of originality is evident in other parts of the culture here as well. I’m very lucky to be included with a small group of people at my school to have all of my meals prepared for me. Every meal, everyday. In fact, it is often the exact same thing, for every meal, everyday: bread or mandazi for breakfast, and ugali or rice with mchicha and mchuzi with meat for lunch and dinner. The food is delicious; it’s just always the same.
There’s a lot more to share, but this is far too long already, and I have ugali waiting. (Turns out it was actually rice, good day!) I’ll try to update again soon but in the meantime I wanted to put out a call for thoughts and questions. It sounds like a lot more people than I ever anticipated are actually reading my blog so I’d like to keep it interesting, relevant and interactive. If you have any questions or topics you’d like to hear about from my corner of Tanzania I would love to share my perspective. Just leave them in the comments below any of my posts.
Future topics I hope to discuss:
- Access to ICT in Tanzania – (Thanks to Prof. Bruning for this one)
- The story of my first traveling disaster – (In progress)
- Corporal punishment
- Foreign Aid
A few more photos -
This is Pude, one of the dadas that cooks our meals at Abbey.
A large catholic mission is responsible for much of the development near Ndanda, including my school, a former leper colony.
One of the homes in Mwena, the village between Abbey and Ndanda. The entire area is covered with palm trees with large wedges cut out to making climbing for coconuts easier.
