Wedding

November 16, 2014

Last weekend I went to the wedding of my headmaster's son. This was the first wedding I have been to in Tanzania and a really cool cultural experience that I had been hoping to have for a long time!

The wedding was, as many other teachers told me, not a typical wedding. It was very extravagant as weddings here go.

In the culture here it is common to take donations when you have a celebration. We had donations for the graduation ceremony, There were donations for religious graduation celebrations. Teachers often come around to gather donations for other weddings or celebrations. And this wedding was no different. Each guest was expected to make a donation of 15000 Tanzanian shillings (about $8.50). What in the US might be seen as a really tacky way to fund a wedding is very normal here. I made my donation about a month before the wedding after receiving a card inviting me to do so.

I arrived at the wedding a little late so I missed the church-y part, but I was just in time to hop into a bus and ride from the church to my headmaster's house where the party was starting. As we went, we drove very slowly at the back of a long caravan of other cars led by the bride and groom. Music was playing loudly from one car, and all the women in the bus I was in were singing wedding call and response type songs.

Here's a clip of one of the songs they sang (it's one of the few I could mostly understand since many of them were in tribal languages):

The setup at my headmaster's house.

At my headmaster's house I was fed until I couldn't eat anymore and then was invited by some other teachers to dance. By some miracle, I didn't vomit. We danced for a bit and there were some announcements and speeches given, and then it was off to a new venue!

The group of teachers from my school (and a few from neighboring schools)

We got into the bus again and headed off for a big hall. Loud music, speeches, tribal traditions, and lots of dancing ensued.

The tribal elder receiving the groom as a man of the tribe

The stage

Between every programmed event/speech the DJ put on music and people would jump out of their seats to dance for several minutes until the MC cut it off for the next event. Lots of dancing!

The teachers and I had pitched in for a kitchen set (plates, silverware, bowls...) as a wedding gift and when the time came to present our gift to the bride and groom we jumped up and danced our way up to the stage passing the box of dishes around over our heads. The energy was ridiculous but contagious!

The night wrapped up with more food. We were all pretty hungry after dancing and watching the festivities until about midnight. Then we hopped on our bus and headed home. In bed by 2:30 am. Luckily the next day was Sunday.

End of the year happenings

November 15, 2014

These days at school things are winding down. The Form IV students have finished taking their national exams and the rest of the students are in study mode making final preparations for their end of the year exams. For us teachers, it's a matter of guiding review and providing exercises to helps students get ready.

With my Form IV kids gone, and my Form II kids spending time studying and doing exercises, I have turned my energy and spare time towards improving my teaching techniques and getting ready for next year and in some ways getting ready to leave my school (as I will be doing in about 10 months time). A common complaint at my school is that there are no resources for teaching aids and science lab apparatus so I decided to prove the complainers wrong by making physics apparatus that nobody can ignore! I (as the head of the physics department) was given 9000 shillings (~$5.50) for the performance of the students on their practice national exams this year, and with that money a student teacher and I are making huge physics teaching aids which will be installments on school grounds.

This one is a fulcrum for a teeter totter to help teach about moments and equilibrium

This will serve as a stand to hold different apparatus for the topics related to springs and pulleys

There is currently construction going on at my school on the laboratory so all of the wood is coming from the old lab structure ($0), all of the cement (which is not much...) is coming from the new construction ($0), nails will be recycled ($0), weights will be made from used plastic water bottles ($0), the bar for the fulcrum was scrap from a carpenter ($0), and we have access to the tools of the construction crew so the labor is on us and a few helpful students ($0). I'm currently having a hard time finding somewhere to put my 9000 shillings...

Renovations on the old lab

Foundation of the new lab

Harvesting wood from old rafters

Mixing cement and sand (more bang for the buck)

Post-hole digging with a machete

We have a couple more ideas for teaching aids to install after these are finished: one for friction/inclined planes, and one for Archimedes' Principle/floatation/volume of irregular shapes. So we will keep at it. Can't wait to teach these topics next year! And maybe more importantly to make a point of them. Teaching aids are easy, cheap, necessary and FUN!

Form IV Physics Send-off

November 2, 2014

On Saturday I hosted all of my Form IV physics students at my house for a send-off party. Tomorrow (Monday) they will begin their national exams and I won't really be able to talk with them for fear of being accused of helping them cheat. Before that though, I wanted to say a few words and have a chance to see them one more time before they take the test and leave Itandula for good.

To help break down some gender stereotypes I told them that only boys were allowed in the kitchen. The boys started the fire, cooked and cleaned dishes at the end of the day and the girls were only allowed to instruct them.

These guys got in at 9:15 to get the fire started and sort peas.

I went to town the day before to buy the food but the students brought big pots, firewood, plates, spoons and water.

Boys cooking peas and heating water for rice.

Other students sorting through the rice.

Prepping fresh veggies.

As some were working on the food others were playing games. 

Checkers (or "drefti" as they call it)

Some played cards (an Uno-like game), and some played a version of mancala that I had not played before.

Cooking took the whole morning and we didn't eat til around 1:30 or so but it was worth the wait. We had rice, beef, peas in a tomato sauce, and soda!

Serving up the food!

Everyone with their food.

Eating... It was so fun to hear them making nerdy physics jokes just like I used to in high school and college (something would fall over and one would say "unstable equilibrium!")

After the food, I said a few words about how proud I was of all of the students and how much I had enjoyed being with them this past year. They are among a minority of Tanzanians who finish secondary school and a very small minority who study physics through Form IV. So I congratulated them on that and challenged them to continue on that track.

The students then wanted to say something so one of them (the one best at English) got up and thanked me for helping them. It was simple but very gratifying. Then they surprised me with a gift! They had me close my eyes as they brought it out and put it in front of me. It was a big plate/basket thing an a clay pot!

These kids are amazing. And they tried to apologize for not getting me something nicer... The plate/basket is used to sort through rice and beans for stones or leaves, and they tell me the pot will make cooked veggies and beans taste better!

After that, we took a few more group pictures.

The whole group

Physics lady-nerds

Physics man-nerds

And a few with various students...

This party was good closure for me. After the next week and a half of tests I don't know if I'll ever see some of these kids again. So it was a good way to end a great year and hopefully to energize them going into this testing period.

I have been teaching this group of students physics since day one at Itandula, and it has been amazing getting to know them and letting them get to know me. For better or for worse, I am as far from many Tanzanian teachers as I can get as far as discipline, teaching style, out-of-class availability, and in-class presence. Whether good or bad (probably a mix), my experience in Tanzania so far has certainly shown me how important new perspectives are. With creativity and new ideas often being so suppressed here, I hope that these students can see that they should not be limited by norms, learning doesn't have to be boring, and change isn't a bad thing.

I have learned so much about teaching, Tanzania, relationships and myself from these students and it's hard to see that my time with them is done. I know, though, that they are on a good path to a better life as doctors, teachers, nurses, and maybe even engineers! I have done all I can for them as a physics teacher and I only hope that some of them will stay in touch so I know where they all end up.

Student and food and hosting..

October 27, 2014

This past week a couple of students who I've come to know pretty well asked if they could come visit me for lunch on Saturday. They said they missed home cooked food - I can relate - so I invited them to come over. I went to town Friday, got some veggies and other ingredients, got back Saturday and they came by.

The students were really helpful and cleaned up my courtyard and started my charcoal cooker. I made a peanut sauce dish for them that I make often and they enjoyed it. We watched the Bourne Identity together on my laptop and talked a bit. Then they took off for their other weekend activities.

As I'm writing this I'm realizing how boring this post probably will be... Maybe I haven't thought about it enough but for some reason this meal was the highlight of my weekend. Maybe because I have been so accustomed to being by myself at home when other volunteers aren't around that I forgot that there are people all around me. I can't afford to be feeding every student of course but it was good to invite those who are bold enough and comfortable enough with me to ask.

On Sunday a couple of Form I students came over. They know me from the boys conference we went to together back in May. They have been coming by the past few weeks to watch movies and play guitar. I've started thinking of it as a burden and that maybe they are just using me for my laptop (which I'm still sure they are...), but this time they played guitar for maybe half an hour and then told me they needed to clean my house a little. They started with the dishes, the drying rack, swept the floor, took out the trash, mopped the floor, tidied up the mass of junk I've acquired and even cleaned up my storage/guest room. They cleaned my entire house for about 2 hours completely voluntarily. I was impressed and extremely grateful. So I sent one of them with my bike and 200 Shillings to get some tomatoes in the village while I started up the charcoal and rice. Again, we ate together and watched Kill Bill Vol. 2 but this time they cut the movie short when they were done eating and finished up cleaning before going on.

I'm still processing all of this. I'm not sure why it's weird or why it's noteworthy, but it's something...

Science Teacher Training

October 18, 2014

A big part of Shika na Mikono is helping other volunteers to use simple and cheap teaching aids in the classroom, but when possible, we also try to reach out to the Tanzanian teacher community to help share our ideas with them and get them to think differently about science education. We were thrilled about a month ago when a teacher training college in Iringa town called Klerruu invited us to come and run a day-long training for the biology, physics, and chemistry teachers-to-be.

Four of the seven of us Shika members started planning for the event. We decided what activities to do, made a schedule for the day and got a materials list ready. We arrived the day before the training and went shopping, put together some teaching aids and finalized the schedule.

The next morning we showed up early and started getting set up. The school told us there would be approximately 100 students but there were closer to 160. We thought we would have a big hall to make an introduction and talk to everyone for a bit but there were only small class rooms and labs available in te morning. So we had to be flexible and work with the teachers to make everything work out.

We started off by introducing everyone to the Peace Corps, then to our roles here as education volunteers and then to Shika na Mikono. After a short introduction we broke them into subject groups and did an activity we call "Box of Fun." During this activity we gave the student teachers a box of various cheap items. Some were garbage like plastic bags and used plastic bottles. Some were just cheap supplies like rubber bands, Q-tips, toothpicks and clothes pins. Then we broke them into small groups and assigned them a topic from their subject's syllabus and told them to make a teaching aid that they can use to teach that topic.

Talking with one of the groups about their teaching aids for Newton's Laws

I was with the physics groups and had a great time checking out their teaching aids and helping them to think creatively (something that is not encouraged and often is actively discouraged here). At first their teaching aids were very simple and not always well thought through, so as I walked from group to group I challenged them to think about how they would use this tool to directly or metaphorically to teach their topic. Some teaching aids did not match well with the topic initially but after a few changes they could be used throughout a lesson to teach several points in the same topic.

After about half an hour of preparation the groups presented their teaching aids to the other physics groups. Many provided some theory first and then demonstrates how it worked in a practical sense with their teaching aid. It was really rewarding for me to see the teachers proving to themselves that readily available, cheap materials can be used to teach physics more effectively. Most teams did a really good job explaining their new apparatus and how it connects with the topic, but some had a little more trouble and I was more than happy to help them out when they struggled with some of the details.

One teacher showing off his group's teaching aid for the physics topic of pressure in fluids.

After showing their teaching aids to their respective groups of science teachers-to-be, one group from each subject was taken and showed their new teaching aid to the other subjects.

New physics teachers showing off their teaching aids to the whole group.

Graduation 2014

October 23, 2014

Here in Tanzania it is common to have graduation before the final exam for Form IV. The national exam does not start until November 3, but on October 9 we had graduation.

The concept is pretty much the same: a general celebration of the completion of secondary school, family and friends, a guest speaker, awards, leaving certificates... But there are a lot of differences too. The guest speaker is expected to make some donation or give a gift to the school. At this year's graduation even the parents were solicited for money. There is loud music whenever possible. There a lots of skits and performances by all of the classes throughout the ceremony. And there is a ton of food afterwards.

The guest speaker (a professor at a university in Iringa) was late this year so we had to cut out some things from the ceremony including a speech I had written. So much for being prepared this year... But the guest speaker did talk about some of the points I wanted to make. The main idea was to tell the parent how important their role in their children's education is. Maybe I can give the speech another time.

Last year the food was a big issue. The budget set aside for graduation was not big enough and a lot of people left hungry. This year we compensated. We killed a cow (which was stored in big pots in the room adjacent to the toilets...), we bought tons of rice and beans and veggies and there was plenty of food for all.

After the ceremony we ate and I was recruited by a bunch of my students to pose for pictures. After a couple hours, the music started in our main hall and the students had a dance for a few hours. I joined in with a couple other teachers. It's really easy to dance like an idiot when there are four tipsy Tanzanian friends looking like idiots with you. When the students saw I was dancing some of them came over to teach me some of their moves. It was tons of fun but my legs tired quickly.

Last year graduation was the first big school event I attended when I got here and that made me think that this will almost certainly be my last graduation. Sometime between mid-August and mid-October I will be heading back to the states. Everything annual thing I am doing from here on out is likely the last one I will do here. It's a weird feeling... More on that in the 18 month Update in January.

After the dance all of us teachers had a big dinner in the staff room and said a few words about how everything went. Then I headed home and slept hard.

Girls Science Competition

September 30, 2014

Last weekend four Form II girls from my school came with me and another teacher from my school to Mafinga for a girls science competition and conference.

Form II girls from four different schools in the region attended. To qualify to go, the girls had preliminary competitions at their respective schools. At my school the week before the competition, the preliminary competitions were open to any group of four Form II girls. I had about 7 teams sign up from my school. They first were given two sudoku puzzles and a time limit and tried to solve as much of the puzzles as they could.

The next preliminary competition was an egg drop. The groups were given a bag with straws, plastic bags, toilet paper, rubber bands, paper clips and various other items and were to create a device that would save an egg from cracking after being dropped from a certain height.

Girls working on their egg drop device

The devices were then dropped from a height of one meter, 2 meters and 3 meters to find a winner.

Dropping from one meter

And from three meters

I scored the sudokus and combined the scores from that and the egg drop to choose the team which would represent our school in Mafinga. Our team was a group of local village girls, three of whom had never been to Mafinga before.

The students got to meet some other girls interested in science and math at the conference center. Over the course of four days they became friends and by the last night they were having slumber parties and staying up together. The students being able to broaden their world, even just a little, is a valuable side-effect of these conferences.

The competitions started with a biology relay (arranging organisms in trophic levels, separating plant/animal cells...). And even though our school's one biology teacher has to teach biology and chemistry to every form and every stream, he must have done a good job because we won! 200 points!

The second competition was one about math called 24-squares. The students were given sets of four numbers and they had to use operations to make 24. For example if the set says 7, 2, 5, and 5, the students could use multiplication and addition (5+5+7x2) to make 24. Some are more difficult with powers or required brackets. Having taught my Form II girls math last year and at the beginning of this year I was proud when they tied for 2nd place and got another 125 points!

Working on 24-squares!

The next competition was about physics. It's called Jenga Jengo (Build a Building). The students were provided with 25 pieces of paper, 15 straws and two meters of tape. They were not allowed to tape anything to the table and were to build a free standing building which was as tall as possible. From a physics and engineering standpoint, this task helps students understand not only structural concepts, but also resource constraints. Some groups ran out of tape too quickly and had to stop building. Some groups used many layers of paper rather than using just enough to make the building stand. As a real world example, gold and titanium are really useful for a lot of things but there is a reason we don't use them as much as plastic and iron. Taking the role of, future homemakers, many of the groups of girls focused on aesthetic and functional things like windows and doors, rather than the task at hand (height). I'm proud to say that my school's team came in second place with a tall AND beautiful house. 150 points!

Jenga Jengo!

The final product.

The fourth competition was another physics one that we call Raft Rally. The groups were given a set amount of aluminum foil and were to create a boat that would hold as large a load as possible when put in water. They were given 25 minutes to make it and them we tested them one by one in a bucket of water by adding nails one at a time.

My team working on their boat.

Again, they did very well and my school got second place for another 150 points!

The final competition was a relay which included a mix of previous competitions. There were four stations and they were not permitted to move from one to the next until they had completed the first one correctly. It started with a biology activity where they arranged a new set of organisms in their trophic levels.

Biology section of the final relay.

 At the second station they were given eight angles (made from paper clips) and they had to put them in their respective category: acute, obtuse, right, or straight. The third station had five math puzzles of which they needed to complete 3 before moving on. The final station required them to make a paper airplane (something they had apparently never done before this conference) that would reach a certain distance. 

Students working on their airplane at the final station.

One group finished relatively quickly, but most were held up at the math puzzle. Math is a really tough subject for most students here, probably because of the lack of creativity on the part of the teachers in making teaching aids and connecting the subject to the lives of the students. My school's team was the second to pass the math station and ended up in second place again.

The 150 points my students got from this final competition put them in a tie for first place so we had to do one final competition...

The tie breaker was decided to be one last 24-squares puzzle. Each team chose one girl to represent them and the first to complete the puzzle would be announced the winner. The two students finished within about 5 seconds of each other, but unfortunately the representative from my school finished second.

Nonetheless, I was extremely proud of the group of girls I brought. They are not necessarily considered to be the smartest Form II girls at my school but they represented us well and, most importantly, all of the girls showed themselves that science and math can be fun!

Along with the competition part of the conference, there were also a lot of life-skills sessions. One of my favorites was one that my counterpart and I put on about gender roles. We had the students show us, by moving to 'male' or 'female' signs, which activities they thought were for only men or only women. Like last time with the boys conference, the girls sucked up and told us that everything except birthing children is for both genders. But after the activities I asked them a few questions. They told us that cooking was for both genders, so I asked them who cooked at their homes. Of course the answer was 'mama' and maybe the girl children. So I asked them why. And then I challenged them to think about if it is a good thing that almost exclusively women cook. I asked similar questions about getting higher education, driving a car, and raising children. It's hard to tell with the language barrier but I hope that at least some of them will think about these things differently now. Cooking is not a woman's job, it is a job which anyone can and should do.

Another of my favorite sessions was one about self esteem. This was a session another volunteer and her counterpart put on. During the session the students did an activity where they taped a piece of paper to their backs and wrote good qualities about each other on them. It was towards the end of the conference so even the girls from different schools had good things to say about each other. It also tied in nicely to the science and math portion of the conference, since girls here are often told they aren't capable of studying math and science subjects.

Overall it was a really great conference and I think it helped to encourage all of the girls to continue with science subjects. Now especially, this is important, because at the end of this year, they will decide whether they will be continuing to study chemistry and physics or stop. 

My team and counterpart!

Final scoreboard.

Back home.

Jam Sesh

Septeber 13, 2014

Site visit week was during our midterm tests and the week immediately following that was our midterm break. I decided to take advantage of the time off from school to get my musical collaboration fix for the year (probably..) with a volunteer in Njombe, Darryl. He was in a band before leaving for Peace Corps also, so we both have been missing that.

I went down to his house and stayed a couple nights playing music and writing the simplest 'song' (if you would call it that) I have ever helped to create. It's mostly a combination of various sounds (musical and otherwise) put together in a jumble of different verses that vary from singing, to chanting, to a jazzy scatty closing verse. It's strange. 

We recorded fire, ambient night-time sounds, cups clinking, a drum, guitars, harmonica, whistling, a conversation, etc. to get the feel we were looking for.

It was a fun week trying out new things and getting to work on a short music project with someone besides myself.

Here's the final product!

Site Visit

September 13, 2014

Last week was site visit (shadow) week for the new education volunteers. They are at the end of their PST and will be swearing in as volunteers next week! In preparation for their service they all went to their respective sites to see their houses, schools, headmasters, students, banking towns, and most importantly (maybe) meet their neighboring volunteers! As the warden of Iringa region, I was put in charge of arranging some parts of their visit. Iringa got five new volunteers, so I found volunteers to help guide them around for the week as they got familiar with the area.

Since Iringa is the focal point for the southern highlands of Tanzania all new volunteers going to Iringa, Mbeya, Njombe, Ruvuma and Rukwa all stayed a night in Iringa town on the way to their respective regions. There were about 25 of them. After a fun night in Iringa, we split off and I took my shadow (Rashod) down to Makambako and then to my site. I had heard from teachers at my school that the Peace Corps house at Rashod's school was much nicer than mine. I think knowing his house was nicer helped to reduce his shock to my tiny and primitive house.

At my house we played with the kittens, cooked some food, checked out the village, and watched some TV. We also went to the school. It wasn't the most interesting time to be shadowing since we were just proctoring midterm exams, but he introduced himself to some of the teachers and got a feel for the school atmosphere and how testing goes.

On tuesday, another volunteer, Jodi, an her shadow, Ryan, came to stay the night at my house as well. We took advantage of the extra hands and made a nice dinner with meat from the village and attempted to make a chocolate cake which somehow turned out to have the texture of lasagna...weird.

We also broke into my new batch of wine (papaya) which is still a little young, but ok.

The next day I went to school and proctored a morning exam and then the four of us took off. I went with Rashod to Makambako and the others went to Ryan's site. Rashod and I met his new headmaster in town and then wandered around a little to get him familiar with the area. Later we met up with a couple other shadows from Njombe. I helped show them around and we went out that night to check out the street food and a local bar. It was a fun night and really nice to have some new people to hang out with!

After Makambako, Rashod hopped on a bus and met his headmaster on the way out to his school where he stayed the night. I went back to my site and proctored one more exam, stayed te night and headed up to meet the shadows again up in Iringa. Everyone arrived safely and after another night in town we sent them on their way back to Korogwe!

It was really cool to meet the people who will be living down here with us now and we're all excited for them to swear in and get to site! They swear in on the 17th and will be leaving for site the next day.

So the cycle continues.

Update: 15 Months

September 13, 2014

Late again. Like usual... This is a milestone though. One year ago, yesterday, I swore in as a volunteer officially after my PST, which mean that one year from now my two years of service will be over and I will be coming home (if I don't choose to extend)! So that's that. Here's another.

"My Job"

My official job hasn't changed much since three months ago, but as warden I took on some responsibility for the trainees who will be swearing in and joining us in Iringa in about a week now. Now, just as my training class was one year ago, they will be coming in fresh to our area and we will be the experienced ones helping them adjust to their new lives.

My 'real' job, teaching, has been on pause for a few weeks now between shadow week (when the trainees came on their site visits), exams, and our midterm break. It is quite clear to me now that second semester is not about teaching or covering the syllabus, at least not for us Form II and Form IV teachers. This semester is all about preparation for the coming national exams. We have been doing some prep in physics for the practical section of their exam and we will continue with that and review for the theory portion for the rest of the year.

"Life"

Life is good these days. Since the last update I have been to MSC for my class, PST for the new class, we had two weeks of testing, shadow week and a week-long midterm break, so I haven't had much time in the classroom. And as much as I feel guilty about being away from my students, the trainings and breaks do give me essential time to re-energize for the home stretch for this school year. I've made some new friends in the new education class, wrote and recorded a song with another volunteer, refreshed my mind, got our one-year-down-one-to-go pep talk at MSC and am now feeling ready to do some hard core review with my students!

Besides my mental state, I also have some new members of my family at site. My cat had four kittens about a month ago and all of them survived (knock on wood)! They are just about big enough to be taken to their new homes with some villagers and other volunteers nearby, but in the mean time I'm having fun playing with them...maybe I'll have to keep one...

One thing that stuck with me from MSC (for whatever reason) was something a returned PCV (RPCV) said during a panel. She said that when she hit the one year mark, she started seeing every day as the last September 13th (or whatever the date may be) in country. She used it as a motivational process where if this is the last September 13th in country, how can if make the most of it? So I think I'll try this out and see how it works for me.

"Back Home"

Back home... Back home things are good I think. I am content for now with the news I get from home and have accepted that there is no way to keep up to date with everything and everyone from this far away. I've had a few friends return from volunteer stints abroad now and from what I've heard, the reverse culture shock is not easy to cope with at first, so I have that to look forward to a year from now. But it is nice to have them be home when I get back since they'll probably have advice when I'm going through what they are.

As much as I am looking forward to returning though, I have plenty on my plate here and will keep busy enough in the coming year to make time fly by.

2 Biggest Challenges Right Now

- how best to prep my students for their tests

- what to prioritize for my last year in country