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

Pre-Service Training (PST)

August 26, 2014

It's been over a year since I arrived in country and there is now a group of new education trainees who is in their PST just like we were last year at this time. Just as the class before me did for us, some volunteers from my class have been going and helping to train these new trainees for the past two months. Last week it was my turn. I went directly from MSC to Korogwe to put on some Shika na Mikono sessions with three other Shika members.

We started with a dramatic introduction which included handheld fireballs, smoke bombs and ended with us torching through some boring session outline flip charts and revealing a slow-burning "Shika na Mikono" sign.

After getting the trainees attention with some fire, we got going with the more practical sessions. We based our sessions on the sessions that we had at our training last year and made some improvements and changes where we saw they were needed. One change we made was putting more emphasis on the resources that we had. Instead of making teaching aids and showing them off, we provided some basic materials and had the trainees make the aids themselves.

The idea was to simulate the scenario they would be in when they get to their schools. "I need to teach X topic, what can I do to make it interesting?" So we gave them our manuals with activities sorted by topic and some basic materials and had them decide what activity/game/demo they would make to teach a given topic.

Here are some trainees showing the demo they developed for teaching about buoyancy.

We had another session about how to help students do well on the practical portion of their national exams. We did one of the simpler practicals in front of the whole group and then we split them up by subject and gave them a chance to attempt the practicals themselves.

Us showing the trainees the pendulum bob practical.

Shika na Mikono's ministry contact helping the trainees with a physics practical involving a glass rectangular prism.

Trainees attempting a practical involving mirrors.

Our last session with the trainees was to show them how Shika gets involved with promoting science outside of the classroom using science competitions. The group split up into smaller groups and competed in an egg drop. This was a good experience for me as I will be putting on a competition with some other volunteers in my region next month.

One group putting together their egg drop device.

Another group.

We got some really good feedback from the trainees. They seemed to really enjoy the hands-on sessions. I remember during my PST last year the Shika sessions were a much needed change of pace from the months of normal lectures.

Now I am back at site and tomorrow the trainees get their site announcement! Next week will be site visit week and I have been told that one of the five new Iringa education volunteers will be shadowing me. Tomorrow I'll find out who it is, and Saturday they will arrive! It's an exciting time for everyone. More on all that later.

Here's a picture of my kittens:

Mid Service Conference (MSC)

August 26, 2014

Between August 11th and the 15th everyone in my training class met up in Dar for our MSC. On the way, I stopped at another volunteer's house with a handful of others to help send him off. He will be finishing his service in about a week and a half. He has been a good friend and mentor for me and many of us in our first year here and he will be missed, so we were happy to stop in and help him finish all his leftover bucket wine and cook some kababs!

There was cake too.

Back to MSC though...

The first couple days were dedicated to medical stuff. After over a year in country they want to make sure we are all still alive and well. We all got tested for TB.

We all had dentist appointments for X-rays and cleanings. We all got our flu shots. We all had meetings with the doctors. Stuff like that.

Along with medical things, we all had a one on one meeting with staff to see how things are going, what we are up to, what challenges we're facing and how they can help more. Not a lot to report on that. My meeting was mostly about Shika stuff and how we can reach the biggest audience with the tools we are developing.

After all these appointments, we had a few days of more formal sessions. One of the more interesting ones was about development and foreign aid. We learned that of the entire federal budget of the USA, less than 1% is allocated to foreign aid. Of that, Peace Corps only accounts for a small percent. We learned that each volunteer only costs about $40,000 per year about 1/4 of the cost of the average aid worker. We also learned more about our roles here and how we fit into development as a whole. There are many organizations which help with development, but few (if any) have the kind of grass roots network that Peace Corps does. We live and work with rural village communities. We learn their culture and their language and integrate as much as we can. We can serve as the, often missing, connection between NGOs and the people they are trying to help. This session led easily into information on extension opportunities. Many volunteers extend with NGOs. The NGOs love us because we understand the culture and language better than most foreigners, and we volunteers love it because they often put us up in town in a nice house or apartment with electricity, running water, maybe a fridge...better phone/internet access. I can't say I'm convinced I'll be extending, but I think if the right opportunity arises, I would be open to the idea. We will see what happens.

Beyond that session, we had other sessions about safety (still no real threat of Ebola here, no al shabab outside of Kenya, just a big election year coming up to be slightly worried about depending on the region), resilience (staying sane for one more year), an RPCV (returned peace corps volunteer) panel, and our shift into what they like to call our "senior year" in country. There are four classes in country and we will soon be the ones who have been here the longest.

Finally there was a session they call "open space" where we choose topics that are relevant to us and we talk about things in smaller groups. You choose what groups you want to go to and you can bounce around to different ones throughout the time. I went to one about gathering relevant volunteer information (bus fares, good restaurants, maps of banking towns, friendly and cheap hotels...) into a database for the use of PCVs. Also I helped lead one about Shika na Mikono. We introduced new resources that we are developing and reintroduced old resources to volunteers in my class to remind them of what is available.

Other than that we had a lot of fun being back together for a week in Dar and re-energizing for the year ahead. That's MSC.