Yesterday after school I went outside with the Kindergarten teacher to go over a soccer drill that I wanted to teach. Today, she explained it in Kiswahili to the Kindergarten class, and we had a blast dribbling back and forth in 5 lines with 5 balls. We then played a big game of monkey-in-the-middle before going inside to get back to class…
At recess, one of the kids (who presumably was watching us play out of the window) asked me for a ball. I gave it to him, and then another kid asked for one, and then another and another. Soon all of the balls were out on the field, and at least half of the school was playing on the field. I joined in the fun, choosing the game played by the oldest agegroup for fear of hurting the little guys. I haven’t seen that many kids out on the playing field during recess…..and the squeeling and laughter was fully contageous.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Internet Woes
I have purchased a modem for my phone that allows me to get wireless internet anywhere that Vodacom has service. My host father buys 500MB at a time, which lasts him about a month. I knew I would want to Skype and upload some pictures for my blog, so I bought a 2GB package, and was hoping it would go about a month and a half to two months.
1 week and 2 days after I purchased a 2GB data plan…..it ran out. My host father swore there was no possible way I could have used that much data, so I brought it back to the store to get “fixed.” When the vendor determined it had run out, (in the middle of working with 3 other people), he just added on 2GB more of data (without taking any money). At the same time I was asking another guy how I could have used so much data so quickly and what my best options were to avoid doing it in the future. He told me that my best bet was to buy either a one month or three month unlimited data plan. This was an obvious solution to my problem, so I told the man working on my modem that I wanted an unlimited 3 month plan for 162,000 TZ shillings instead of 2GBs worth that lasts me only 1 week for 94,000…..an obvious choice.
Unfortunately, the man at the counter (again without taking any money) had already put on 2GB and told me that I had to pay for it, use it, and then come back and buy the unlimited plan if I wanted it. Sorry, it was too late.
After about an hour of arguing with the people with my host-sister (in both English and Swahili) they finally caved in and gave me the unlimited plan I wanted. Apparently our femaleness and my whiteness was mistaken for stupidness…..but when I told them that I would walk out of the store and pay them nothing if they did not switch the plan, they conveniently remembered that they knew how to fix the problem.
On the plus side: I now have unlimited internet access and the ability to upload and download.
On the down side: This connection is significantly slower….
1 week and 2 days after I purchased a 2GB data plan…..it ran out. My host father swore there was no possible way I could have used that much data, so I brought it back to the store to get “fixed.” When the vendor determined it had run out, (in the middle of working with 3 other people), he just added on 2GB more of data (without taking any money). At the same time I was asking another guy how I could have used so much data so quickly and what my best options were to avoid doing it in the future. He told me that my best bet was to buy either a one month or three month unlimited data plan. This was an obvious solution to my problem, so I told the man working on my modem that I wanted an unlimited 3 month plan for 162,000 TZ shillings instead of 2GBs worth that lasts me only 1 week for 94,000…..an obvious choice.
Unfortunately, the man at the counter (again without taking any money) had already put on 2GB and told me that I had to pay for it, use it, and then come back and buy the unlimited plan if I wanted it. Sorry, it was too late.
After about an hour of arguing with the people with my host-sister (in both English and Swahili) they finally caved in and gave me the unlimited plan I wanted. Apparently our femaleness and my whiteness was mistaken for stupidness…..but when I told them that I would walk out of the store and pay them nothing if they did not switch the plan, they conveniently remembered that they knew how to fix the problem.
On the plus side: I now have unlimited internet access and the ability to upload and download.
On the down side: This connection is significantly slower….
Fruit for Thought
Mangoes here cost 50-100 Tanzanian shillings, depending on where you buy them. I have about 50 students in my class. If I bough each one of them a piece a fruit, it would cost me no more than $4. Almost every day a bicycle stops buy the school with a huge basket overflowing with mangoes and sells them at only 50 shillings….which would cost me less than $2. I asked Jacqueline today if it would be appropriate to give each child a mango…..so I think either tomorrow or next week we’ll be having a mango party in my class! (My real plan, of course, is to do this for every class here….wouldn’t want the other kids to feel left out!)
The Kindergarten Teacher
I stayed late after school today to work with the Kindergarten teacher on English…..in the process I learned quite a lot…..I thought I’d share this biography with you, since I was quite surprised at her story:
The Kindergarten teacher’s name is Jaqueline. She is 22 years old and has a 3 year old boy and a 30 year old husband. She did not pass her pre-highschool examinations so she is sitting to take them again soon. (HS is 2 yrs here). She wants to go to a local university and learn tailoring so that she can work at a university and teach other people how to tailor.
Today she was wearing a beautiful dress, which I forgot to take a picture of. I asked her how long it took her to make it from start to finish, and she said less than 1 day. I asked her why she needs to go to tailoring school if she is already such an expert……and she told me she needs to learn how to use a sewing machine and other sewing tools.
The Kindergarten teacher’s name is Jaqueline. She is 22 years old and has a 3 year old boy and a 30 year old husband. She did not pass her pre-highschool examinations so she is sitting to take them again soon. (HS is 2 yrs here). She wants to go to a local university and learn tailoring so that she can work at a university and teach other people how to tailor.
Today she was wearing a beautiful dress, which I forgot to take a picture of. I asked her how long it took her to make it from start to finish, and she said less than 1 day. I asked her why she needs to go to tailoring school if she is already such an expert……and she told me she needs to learn how to use a sewing machine and other sewing tools.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
A Better Day
I woke up this morning and made a list. I thought I’d be direct about what I needed to get for myself (toilet paper, money, internet access, more time on my cell phone, do my laundry) and what I wanted to do (browse a supermarket for American food to share with my host family, shop in the markets for gifts upon returning home, visit the local library)….I needed a new day, and this was my approach to a fresh start.
Turns out that was a remarkably brilliant plan. I’m not always so direct about what I want to do, but it was well received by my host-mom and she has since suggested I make a list for every day.
Anyway…Here’s what I did today…in list order:
1)Shower
2)Eat Breakfast
3)Clean Room
4)Download TIME magazine onto my Kindle with a subscription fee of less than $2/mo. And it works perfectly!
5)Catch a daladala bus (public transportation….more details to follow) for less than 50 cents into town to go to the Vodacom store.
6)Go to the Vodacom store and argue for an hour before finally getting a 3 month unlimited internet plan for 162,000 tz shillings (~ $124…….my excuses for not uploading pics are dwindling….although the connection is now a lot slower than it was before I purchased an unlimited plan…..)
7)Go to the bank
8)Go to the supermarket and buy pancakes and syrup and mac and cheese!
9)Go to the post office to figure out that it costs 27,000 TZ shillings (about $20 bucks)to ship 1 kg back to the US and 7 – 10 business days…..
10)Went to the market to buy 4 lovely Kangas with 4 beautiful sayings on them….(more details to follow)
11)Skyped my parents with my sister and tried to convince them to come visit me over the next school break….
12)Made BOTH pancakes and mac and cheese for dinner with my sister
13)Shower
14)Blogging
15)Reading my Time Magazine
16)Lala Salama……good night……
Turns out that was a remarkably brilliant plan. I’m not always so direct about what I want to do, but it was well received by my host-mom and she has since suggested I make a list for every day.
Anyway…Here’s what I did today…in list order:
1)Shower
2)Eat Breakfast
3)Clean Room
4)Download TIME magazine onto my Kindle with a subscription fee of less than $2/mo. And it works perfectly!
5)Catch a daladala bus (public transportation….more details to follow) for less than 50 cents into town to go to the Vodacom store.
6)Go to the Vodacom store and argue for an hour before finally getting a 3 month unlimited internet plan for 162,000 tz shillings (~ $124…….my excuses for not uploading pics are dwindling….although the connection is now a lot slower than it was before I purchased an unlimited plan…..)
7)Go to the bank
8)Go to the supermarket and buy pancakes and syrup and mac and cheese!
9)Go to the post office to figure out that it costs 27,000 TZ shillings (about $20 bucks)to ship 1 kg back to the US and 7 – 10 business days…..
10)Went to the market to buy 4 lovely Kangas with 4 beautiful sayings on them….(more details to follow)
11)Skyped my parents with my sister and tried to convince them to come visit me over the next school break….
12)Made BOTH pancakes and mac and cheese for dinner with my sister
13)Shower
14)Blogging
15)Reading my Time Magazine
16)Lala Salama……good night……
Mt. Kilimanjaro
Unfortunately the mountain was entirely covered in clouds this weekend and I was not able to catch a glimpse of the summit. I might be coming back through the region if I am able to go to one of the national parks, so there is still hope yet!
Chelsea Iko Wapi?
I met my oldest sister, Pamela this weekend. She has a 2 year old boy named Presely who everybody calls “P.” He wouldn’t talk for the first hour that I met him, and just sat and stared at me. When I finally brought out a soccer ball, he lit up and came to play with me. After that, there was no getting rid of him. If I left his side, he would say, “Che-shee, mjo!” (which means, come here!). Or if he wanted to go somewhere with me, he’d say “twende!” which means something like let’s go!
The funniest part however, was this game he would play, that I like to call “Iko Wapi,” which means, “where is .” He would pick any object or person in the house (like Che-shee, mpira (ball), uncle james…) And when he found it he would say “Apa!” which means “Here!”. By far his favorite, was of course, “Che-shee iko wapi?” which became quite a popular story for all 300 some people this weekend to talk about. I guess at least they all know my name now!
The funniest part however, was this game he would play, that I like to call “Iko Wapi,” which means, “where is .” He would pick any object or person in the house (like Che-shee, mpira (ball), uncle james…) And when he found it he would say “Apa!” which means “Here!”. By far his favorite, was of course, “Che-shee iko wapi?” which became quite a popular story for all 300 some people this weekend to talk about. I guess at least they all know my name now!
Food Tensions
Having a stomach bug here has been difficult to deal with, not because of the frequently clogging toilets and perpetual lack of toilet paper….but because not eating huge portions at meal times is very flustering to my host family. I have been trying to rest my stomach, and stick to rice, bananas, and water, but I am under constant watch and pressure to eat more and expand my palate. Explaining my problem allows some room for compromise, but I almost always end up overdoing it in the name of keeping the peace. After one meal of sticking to my guns and eating about a half a cup of rice, one banana, and a glass of water, they told me they were concerned I might waste away, and will take me to the hospital if I keep eating like this. The problem is, the more I eat, the longer I stay sick, the longer the food tensions persist. Not quite sure how this one is going to work out….
Dangerous Driving
I learned a lot about why the guidebooks make such a big deal about the dangers of driving in Tanzania. The highways in this country have a total of two lanes (only sometimes separated by a line). There is one lane for you, and one for the oncoming traffic. There are also some nonexistant lanes for bikes and pedestrians, but they seem to use the highway just as well. If they stray too far into the lane or are taking up too much room they get honked at by the cars wizzing by.
On the way there I had a chance to learn about how the driving worked with a relatively competent driver (my older brother). I learned that if there is oncoming traffic, you are supposed to turn on your innermost blinker. I thought that people do this to tell the oncoming night traffic exactly where the edge of your car is as they pass you close enough for a high-five. After asking about it, however, I learned that blinkers are used to tell the cars behind you that there is oncoming traffic and it is not safe to attempt to pass you. It also gives the oncoming traffic the confidence of knowing that the car behind you isn’t about to jump out and try and pass you (at least in theory).
The way back, however, was at insanely high speeds and 100% blinkerless. While I was far too stressed out to do the conversion in my head, I had a pretty good sense from the shaking of the car and the dial around 3 o’clock on the spedometer that 140 km/hr was probably too fast for these small highways against oncoming traffic and avoiding bikers on the sides. However, it took us getting up to crusing speeds of 160km/hr before I finally spoke up and informed everyone in the car that we were going too fast and that our speed was unsafe. I figured that if I was right, and they listened, I could be saving my own life. If I was wrong, and we were only going 40 miles per hour…..and I was both paranoid and mathematically challenged, then I would just have looked silly to them, and nothing more.
To preserve my sanity, although it was running thin for the entire 6 hour drive, I refused to actually calculate our speed in mph. However, I have since determined that our average crusing speed was around 87 mph with a max of 100 mph and a min of 75 mph. And even though I threw up this morning from this ongoing bug I seem to be having, I spent the entire ride sucking on candies and eating chips as a way to manage my stress in between informing the driver that he needed to slow down.
In short, I temporarily am retiring from visiting other parts of this country…..at least by car. I would say a big bus would be a good alternative, except that the whole reason we went to the Moshi/Arusha region this weekend was to pray at their family church and give thanks for my host-father having surivied a major bus accident a few months ago that he is still recovering from.
On the way there I had a chance to learn about how the driving worked with a relatively competent driver (my older brother). I learned that if there is oncoming traffic, you are supposed to turn on your innermost blinker. I thought that people do this to tell the oncoming night traffic exactly where the edge of your car is as they pass you close enough for a high-five. After asking about it, however, I learned that blinkers are used to tell the cars behind you that there is oncoming traffic and it is not safe to attempt to pass you. It also gives the oncoming traffic the confidence of knowing that the car behind you isn’t about to jump out and try and pass you (at least in theory).
The way back, however, was at insanely high speeds and 100% blinkerless. While I was far too stressed out to do the conversion in my head, I had a pretty good sense from the shaking of the car and the dial around 3 o’clock on the spedometer that 140 km/hr was probably too fast for these small highways against oncoming traffic and avoiding bikers on the sides. However, it took us getting up to crusing speeds of 160km/hr before I finally spoke up and informed everyone in the car that we were going too fast and that our speed was unsafe. I figured that if I was right, and they listened, I could be saving my own life. If I was wrong, and we were only going 40 miles per hour…..and I was both paranoid and mathematically challenged, then I would just have looked silly to them, and nothing more.
To preserve my sanity, although it was running thin for the entire 6 hour drive, I refused to actually calculate our speed in mph. However, I have since determined that our average crusing speed was around 87 mph with a max of 100 mph and a min of 75 mph. And even though I threw up this morning from this ongoing bug I seem to be having, I spent the entire ride sucking on candies and eating chips as a way to manage my stress in between informing the driver that he needed to slow down.
In short, I temporarily am retiring from visiting other parts of this country…..at least by car. I would say a big bus would be a good alternative, except that the whole reason we went to the Moshi/Arusha region this weekend was to pray at their family church and give thanks for my host-father having surivied a major bus accident a few months ago that he is still recovering from.
Nail Salon
My sister Susan wanted to get her hair done when we were in town this weekend. She asked if I wanted to go with her and get my toenails painted at the same time. I haven’t spent too much time with her, so I agreed to go. The hair place was too busy so we went and sat down outside some stores. After some very fast Swahili speaking, a man with a pastic basket filled with nailpolishes came up and started painting my nails. So right there in the middle of a strip of stores I am getting my toenails painted. I didn’t really have any interest in getting it done in the first place….but what the heck? Why not have some 20 year old guy squatting down in front of you to paint your toenails while the world passes by? How uncomfortable!
Church
My host father got in a major car accident when his bus blew out a wheel and ran into a smaller bus, killing about 20 people and injuring almost 100. He sustained signifcant leg injuries himself, we he initiallly didn’t realized while trying to help pull people out of the wreck, and is still suffering from some health issues post-accident.
Now that he is on his feet, albeit with a significant limp, we headed to Moshi to go to the families Church and give thanks that he survived. While the service was entirely in Swahili, it was a very interesting ceremony in a beautiful building with beautiful music. While I don’t know much about Church practices in general, there were several rounds of monetary and food donations during the mass, followed by an auction of the donated food outside following church services. Overall it was a little too much to explain, but all eyes in the community were certainly on me….this made trying to take cues from my host-mom even more stressful, but I think I performed decently, concidering.
Now that he is on his feet, albeit with a significant limp, we headed to Moshi to go to the families Church and give thanks that he survived. While the service was entirely in Swahili, it was a very interesting ceremony in a beautiful building with beautiful music. While I don’t know much about Church practices in general, there were several rounds of monetary and food donations during the mass, followed by an auction of the donated food outside following church services. Overall it was a little too much to explain, but all eyes in the community were certainly on me….this made trying to take cues from my host-mom even more stressful, but I think I performed decently, concidering.
Sun and Bugs
Moshi is supposed to have less bugs and be a much colder, milder climate than Tanga. Unfortunately, I came back with my first sunburn and more bugbites than I have had since I arrived in TZ.
Disclaimer
I appologize for the largely negative tone of this weekend’s posts. The whole experience was a little overwhelming for me, but still definitely worth sharing….more positive posts to follow as I settle back into my routine here in Tanga!
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