When will I actually teach?

Back to school today and back to not teaching. I have to go to Katesh tomorrow with Uma and her mkuu to meet some district officials (again – not sure if I’ll meet different ones) so maybe I’ll actually get to teach next week. I was able to write out most of the review notes I want to give my Form III’s to make sure the have some of the more crucial Form I and Form II material. In addition, I used the computer and internet today, which consoled me for not teaching J.

I asked my mkuu today where I can buy nice buckets to make my water filter and he said I could have some of the buckets the Form I’s are required to bring. Sweet!

“We don’t need no education…”

“Work” 2 days then have a day off? Not a bad schedule as a teacher. Since Zanzibar joined with Tanganyika in 1964 to form Tanzania, we had today off for the Zanzibar Revolution. Megan and I were going to visit the orphanage but she really didn’t have time. She did walk to my hours for a visit though and brought the charger for her netbook so maybe I can figure out what’s wrong with it. Kitty was rather scared of her even though he loves Uma. Not sure if it’s because Megan has a dog (which will eat cats) or because Uma fed him when I was gone. Nevertheless, Megan and I talked for awhile and I found out that Zach had a rat and bat problem here too so the bats kitty catches must be living in my house. Great. In NY, the little brown bat is the most common animal with rabies. Glad PC gave us rabies shots because who knows, I may end up with a rabid bat lol.

I needed some things from the village and happened to head out at the same time as my neighbor Emmy (Emericiana). Although I knew where to go to get the things I needed, she helped take me around to get them because I asked her where I could buy a shuka (think plaid fabric) in Gocho and I installed cartridges in a printer for her. Behind a non-descript door in Gocho (ok, they’re all non-descript) in a tiny room with a computer, printer, & copy machine – did not expect to see that in Gocho. I wasn’t able to get a shuka because the storekeeper wasn’t around but did get a large bag of charcoal for a really good price (2/3 what I paid for my current bag). Right now it is sitting by a shop that I think is owned by a family member (or someone else she knows). Emmy said we’ll send a student to bring our bags of charcoal to our houses, which means I don’t even have to worry about transporting it back.

I still wanted to make it to the orphanage since Megan and I had told Sr. Valentina on Monday that we would come today. She wasn’t there when I stopped by but Joseph the carpenter was (ironic that the carpenter for the Catholics is named Joseph lol). I ordered a table with a shelf underneath and 2 stools, which I paid approximately ½ in advance. I’m pretty sure that’s what I ordered but I’ll know for sure when he delivers it.

Gitting was my next stop and I ended up not only with my usual eggs, tomatoes, mangoes, and bananas but also a kitenges, blanket, and empty Konyagi bottle (liquor) to put my honey in after I boil it. The mama even gave it to me for free J. Uma met me in Gitting and came back to my place to charge her phone and ipod. It was a very social day.

A harbinger of things to come?

I happened to be awake (barely) at 01:30 this morning and I felt another earthquake!! Was it the 2^nd of 3 for the year? Or will we have a more active year and this is just a harbinger of things to come? Time will tell.

At the school, the students pretty much cleaned all day while the teachers figured out who was teaching what. I almost ended up having to teach Form 2 Physics until another teacher gets here but my secondmaster said something about the guy coming soon so I don’t have to teach it. Phew.

I know I have Form 1 Physics & Chemistry and Form 3 Chemistry so I started making my Scheme of Work for them. This is basically an outline of my planned teaching schedule that has topics, sub-topics, competencies, objectives, activities, teaching aids, reference books, and form of assessment on it. It’s a bit of a pain to divide the paper and draw the lines but good for planning topics and to look at for reminders when planning my lessons.

The typist (i.e. secretary) asked me for help today to make a year calendar with a picture at the top. “That should be pretty easy,” thinks I, “I’m sure one of the Microsoft programs on the computer has a calendar feature.” Somehow, this useful feature is not available in Word, Publisher, Excel, or PowerPoint. Must be a plot by the manufacturers of calendars to make sure people still buy them. In the end, I used Excel to make a table with the days and dates for each month. Then in Word, I put a picture at the top and made 3 columns for the rest of the document. By copying and pasting each month into the columns and messing w/ spacing a little, I was able to make a simple calendar on one page with a picture at the top. I kind of gave up trying to explain to the typist what I was doing as I figured it out but did try to show a little of my method. Naturally, I thought this was a calendar the mkuu wanted made. Nope, she had (crudely) scanned personal pictures onto the computer (I had fixed the scanner during school break) and was making the calendar for personal use. Gitting Secondary School lost a few hours of my time today while I figured it out. Now I want to print my own.

“The hoe in the hand goes whack, whack, whack…”

School officially started today, teaching did not. We are supposed to have ~600 students but only about 1/10 showed up today. I can’t really blame them because even though they got to be around friends, they had to work all day. The students do all school cleaning. This meant the students were not only cleaning their classrooms, but also maintaining the grounds by doing things like weeding flower beds and “cutting” the grass (swinging a long, thin piece of metal bent at the end). Since I didn’t teach, I typed something up for the school and watched some TV in the teachers’ room with the other teachers. It’s still a bit unbelievable we have satellite TV and it was on all day, which I think will not be good for me; I thought I’d have no problem with my TV addiction (inability to turn away) in Africa.

Megan (PCV Health) came in the afternoon and my mkuu let me leave early to take her to the orphanage (it’s not like I was doing anything anyway). I introduced her to Sr. Valentina and we waited out the rain there. I tried to fix Megan’s computer but didn’t have any luck so I’ll hold onto it for a few days to see if I can get it working better. As we were leaving, Megan was able to meet some of the secondary students as they returned from school (Jorojik – where Uma teaches). On our way through the village we had a few little kids cheering us on. They kept chanting “Mzungu! Mzungu!” (literally means European or white person). Though we are commonly called this, these kids actually made it sound like a cheer.

When I returned to the school, I was able to get on the internet and view my sister’s engagement pictures. They came out great and I’m really glad she found a good photographer.

EARTHQUAKE!!!

I was kidnapped, I mean invited, by Rose to the rectory today after mass. We had breakfast with the priests and I kind of “hung out” with Rose for several hours. It had been muddy and my Chacos were dirty; I was pretty much told I was going to wash them. Now the straps look blue and pretty again, rather than brown. Rose showed me a little of the grounds behind the rectory and we went into the computer room where we didn’t really do much of anything but did stay dry during the rainstorm.

For the rest of the afternoon, we ate lunch and watched the rest of the (seemingly endless) installation of a new Archbishop for Mwanza (on Lake Victoria in Tanzania). It continued to storm off and on outside so when the place shook a little, I thought, “Thunder shouldn’t make the house move like that…” We had an earthquake!!! The priests told me that’s what it was and we ‘only’ get about 3 a year. To me, that’s a lot and frickin awesome! I now feel like I live in the African Rift. Sweet! J J

It was raining when I was finally able to leave (~16:30, 4:30pm) so I wasn’t allowed to walk and was given a lift home. With my new electric hotplate, I tried making some of the popcorn I bought but it just turned dark brown/black and didn’t pop. I’m hoping it’ll work with my charcoal jiko and isn’t a bad batch.

Tonight was my biweekly phone call with my parents. They have a subscription through Skype now and have 60 minutes a month. We used 40 tonight but I got to hear about my dad’s trip to the Pinstripe Bowl to watch the Syracuse football team win their first bowl game in several years. He went with his roommate Al from college and sat only a dozen or less rows behind the bench, among many former Syracuse athletes. They were also directly behind the press section, of which many are Syracuse grads (S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications). After the game, my dad said the players and some of the admin went into the stands. He told Daryl Gross, SU Athletics Director, he had one thing to say – pinstripe uniforms next season. We’ll see what they have next year (certainly can’t look worse than the past couple of styles).

Is it a federal crime in Tanzania to break into a post office?

Kristen and I parted ways this morning as she boarded a bus headed towards Dar and I boarded one back to Katesh. This time I had a seat so I was able to nod off a few times. My pack weighed several tens of pounds with not only the loot I bought in Singida, but also the package Kristen picked up at the post office (I had it so she didn’t have to carry it to MST & back). As soon as I disembarked in Katesh, I called Justin to see if he was home so I could meet him…and hopefully stash my pack for a few hours. Thankfully he was home so I did meet him and we chatted for awhile. Around 11:30, we went to the post office so I could pick up any mail I might have because I am waiting for a few large envelopes. The outer metal gate/door was locked but the wooden door directly behind it was open. By all appearances, the post office should be open but no one answered our call at the door – we assume the person went for chai. We did meet Steve, a missionary in Katesh who was also trying to get his mail. Steve, his wife Natalie, and their 3 kids just returned from ~8 months in the US. All but 3 of the current PCVS in Hanang District arrived after they left, which means they don’t really know any of us anymore. Regardless, they like to have PCVs over to their house for dinner some night. Steve mentioned the Super Bowl which sounded excellent at the time but I realized afterward that it will be early Monday morning here and we have school. Shucks. I am still thrilled he said we can have hamburgers.

Justin and I went to the usual rice & beans place but decided to try the pilau; definitely worth the extra 1000Tsh. We tried the post office again after eating but the person must have returned from chai break (tea) and decided it was time to close. We were only gone (at most) an hour. Although I waited on the daladala for the usual couple of hours before it left, it actually left being full. Usually it is packed to the brim but not today. The same thing happened when we left Endasak. Inconceivable! There were a couple of girls going to the hostel (school starts Monday) and the dala brought us to the entrance. Sure, a 30 min walk with my heavy pack would have bee good exercise but I certainly won’t complain about (essentially) front door service.

At home tonight, I noticed 2 cool beetles. One would make a squeaky sound when it felt threatened, like when kitty tried playing with it. I guess it’s a decent defense mechanism because he stopped and stared at it when it was making the noise. The other was a rhinoceros beetle! It is named such due to its proboscis that looks like a rhino horn. I’m pretty sure I learned about it from the TV show Kratt’s Creatures. On a completely unrelated note, at some point today, I saw a guy wearing a “Spartan Football Cayuga CC” shirt. I’m guessing it is from the same Cayuga Community College in NY, though I don’t know if they are the Spartans and have a football team. There are lots of random shirts here but it’s neat to see one from home-ish.

“I found the perfect man for you.”

Although I’d only been shown the shortcut on one trip to Endasak and back, I was able to remember all of the correct turns to Kristen’s house. She is headed to MST (mid-service training, aka medical check-up) and I needed to go to the bank. Since I hadn’t been to Singida before, it was the perfect opportunity to be shown around by someone who had.

We waited at the “stand” (a seemingly random place the busses will stop at), ate some mango bread, and at one point Kristen said, “I found the perfect guy for you.” I was a little confused until she followed it up with, “That guy has an ‘I love Amanda’ shirt on. He’s looking for you.” The shirt is probably from some teeny-bopper who made the shirt when s/he went to a Mandy Moore concert or some other similar thing, but it made its way to Africa where it entertained us.

Eventually, a bus came that we wanted to take and we paid the guy to get on. We did not pay for a seat. We were mashed in the aisle as tightly as they could pack us. Usually enough people will disembark in Katesh that some of the people standing can sit. This didn’t happen today and I spent the whole 4-4.5 hr trip standing and bracing myself – decent exercise. Unfortunately, Kristen wasn’t feeling so well and had to stop the bus to run off into the brush. Luckily she was feeling much better after we arrived in Singida and rested for a little bit. It was also when the rain had stopped to give us a break to catch a daladala.

Though it was raining when we got to the market, we had coats on and it didn’t last too long. Uma had been able to find Indian spices in powder form at the market but I had a heck of a time. Same thing with lentils. The spices were only in whole form and no one knew what lentils are (I was speaking Kiswahili too). They tried to help me out as much as they could regardless. I ended up with a couple of spices, choroko (green gram), and a mystery small, white, ball-shaped bean thing, At least I know it is supposed to be edible.

Luckily I found some of the spices at the safi stores so I’m only missing a few now. My biggest buy today was a single burner electric hotplate. I’m excited to be able to boil water without having to get my charcoal jiko going. It should also be useful for easy meals like oatmeal, rice, or soup. Moreover, I found the kind of notebook I like writing my letters in, it only took checking over a half dozen stores. At the last safi store, I really stocked up. I got .5L extra virgin olive oil, popcorn, oats, cheese wedges (you know, the processed kind that doesn’t have to be refrigerated), peanut butter, yeast, toilet paper, etc. I basically hit the motherload on this trip and filled my backpacking pack.

After our shopping, we had a little ice cream. Ok, actually, I had 2 because it was so good and we really didn’t have lunch anyway. I wonder how much real ice cream I’ll e able to eat after months of almost no ice cream (these little pre-packaged cones and such aren’t real ice cream). Kait, how do ice cream sundaes sound for a rehearsal “dinner”?

As it was getting dark, we went to a place for dinner where I had some chicken (leg?) with rice and a real ginger ale. All in all a pretty darn successful, if expensive, day.