Back at it

As frustrating as the school system is, I had a pretty good week. Batman was super excited to see me. He's turned into a little devil! He tears up the house, steals my underwear and socks, sleeps in my suitcase (which is my dresser still) once I am sound asleep, and gets so excited to see me and other people he knows that he jumps and squeals and scratches and bites (playfully of course, but it still can hurt). So we're working on training for that. Any tips? He's such a cutie, though, with his big bat ears which he hasn't grown into yet, even though he grew a lot while I was away for two weeks. He's a cuddler, too, and loves to jump on the couch (I try to get him to stay on the section where I put his sheet) and then curl up next to me, sometimes crawling into my lap. It's really adorable.

I have a student who's very helpful to me, too. She took care of Batman while I was away. And while I was quite miffed that she found a hidden key to the house (I gave her only the key to the courtyard), let herself in, ate some of my pasta, and gave my precious expensive powdered milk to the dog (though I specifically told her he didn't need any milk, only the dog food I had left in my courtyard kitchen for him), she also took good care of him, washed dishes and mopped my house for me when I returned, went with me to the village and helped me find eggs and potatoes and all sorts of things I can't usually find, and then brought me some pumpkins and corn from her family's farm. So how could I be angry with her? She's so nice and eager to learn and to talk to me and take me everywhere I need to go and then clean my house for me. So I guess I'll just deal with it.

We had mid-terms at school this week. Monday's tests were canceled because no one had copied out the tests for the students yet. No one thought to do that before the day tests were scheduled to start, of course. And then the school secretary copied a few tests, painstakingly slow even though 3 of us teachers were there helping, until tea break when she left again for the day. L-a-z-y. I love her little boys (about 3 and 1 years old- so cute! and they love to play with me), but she can be so hard to deal with. I just don't know what to say to her, because she doesn't work, she's always complaining about how strict/mean the headmaster is (I think he's great), and she doesn't really talk about anything else.

So anyway, we started supervising tests on Tuesday. But no one made copies of the tests for Wednesday, and then the "copy machine" broke. The "copy machine" is a hand crank piece of metal far older than I am, to which you must attach a specially typed paper attached to carbon paper and then add ink and crank a few times before you can put paper in. Now, a simple sautwering (how do you spell that?) gun would have easily fixed the problem, but of course there are none of those to be found. And even if there were, there would be no one to find it because no one thinks it's their job to do such a thing.

So we ended up writing the rest of the tests on the chalkboards. The poor teachers who had to write up my tests! My tests were super long compared to the others, even though they were only 2-3 pages long. And the students thought they were so hard! But I'm not ashamed. The hardest classes I've ever taken have usually been the ones that have taught me the most, not only about the material I was supposed to learn, but also about how to think critically, how to integrate ideas and make connections between them, how to apply my understanding to new situations, and how to synthesize new information given what I already know. And I’ve realized that’s what’s really lacking in these kids’ education. And that’s just what I plan (and hope) to teach them. Instead of being super frustrated with this system and angry at the kids for their lack of knowledge and critical thinking skills, I need to find ways to be patient and turn that anger/frustration into something productive, into a lesson. I have to meet the kids where they are and bring them up to par rather than continue to expect that they know things and can think for themselves and then get frustrated when they don’t/can’t. So that’s going to be a new goal of mine, both for myself and for my students.

But there’s also good news. We have 5 new teachers! That brings us up to 10 teachers, technically (not that they all actually teach, of course). The new ones are temporary (3-4 months probably), but that brings the student to teacher ratio down below 100:1! Sad that I think that’s wonderful. Then yesterday, my counterpart and I took my Frisbee out to the football field and we taught the students who were hanging around how to throw and catch. They loved it! Even though it poured twice, they just took the Frisbee inside a classroom and continued til the rain stopped. And they complained loudly when we left. I left my Frisbee with my counterpart today so they could play again this afternoon. Maybe I’ll teach them Ultimate this week and we can have competitions. Fun!

So life’s pretty good lately. I’m dealing with frustrations and enjoying the beauty of my site and getting to know people better. I feel a little more a part of the community these days, though I’m still often confused and feel like a little kid who can’t do things correctly or handle situations at school, etc. Slowly, it’s coming along. And I’m hoping to plant my own garden, starting tomorrow. We’ll see how that goes!

In-Service Training

So now I’m in Njombe town south of Iringa for two weeks for in-service training. Half of my training group is here (the half that lives around here in the southern highlands) plus Tanzanian counterparts we each chose from our sites to come to training with us to help us do our volunteer stuff back at site. My counterpart, a neighbor and teacher at my school who’s become kind of a friend, is really awesome, and I think he will help a lot with implementing all these ideas when we get back. Already we’re planning to make a garden behind our houses (the thought of growing my own vegetables and herbs is so exciting!), and I think we will do a lot to minimize the use of corporal punishment in school, which has been a huge problem. I hate listening to kids being beat with a stick and then crying and whimpering and pleading for it to stop. Plus, it’s so ineffective. So I think my counterpart actually agrees now and will help support me in my convictions when we get back. Hopefully we can help each other be better teachers and help the other teachers be better, too. And hopefully we can implement some outside of school programs to teach the kids life skills and keep them busy and motivated to study as well as work in the community to improve villagers’ health and behavior, especially regarding our students (girls get chased out of school if they become pregnant, usually by a villager not in school). I have so many ideas and want to do so much, it’s overwhelming! How can I possibly do everything I want to do? I guess that’s why I have a counterpart.

So anyway, training has been good. This week we’ve focused on PEPFAR and HIV/AIDS education. We learned all about HIV/AIDS, the disease progression and symptoms as well as how it works molecularly. Sort of a refresher course for me, but it reminded me just how much I love the biochemistry of disease and how it relates to the individual and personal level as well as the epidemiological level. It got me thinking about grad school in immunology or epidemiology or public health with a specialty in one of these when I get back to the US. I think I’ll be ready to go back to school by then, and I’ll be all fired up about global health, too.

This weekend, it’s back home to school for me. I think I’m more excited to be back at site now. But it has been super frustrating so far. I have at least one really terrible day per week. And it’s very discouraging to be involved in this broken school system with so many hopeless characteristics. Can I really help do anything when I’m only one of 5 teachers at a school of 720, the kids don’t have teachers in their classes most of the time, the exams are pretty damn hard, everything is taught to the exams and regular school grades don’t matter, the kids are supposed to be taught in English at secondary school but don’t have any foundation in the language from their primary school during which they sat in the classroom every day without any teachers so now they don’t know any English at all, the teachers we do have spend more of their time drinking chai and punishing students than teaching their scheduled classes, and the chalkboards are so bad that you can hardly read what’s written on them. Those are just a few of the frustrations. Seriously, this country drives me nuts sometimes.
But I just have to keep telling myself that whatever I do, however little, can have an effect. That even if the kids don’t pass on to Advanced level secondary school, they can learn valuable life lessons in school, about health and nutrition and farming and how to interact with others and how important education is, so that they can live better lives and then help give the next generation a better life, however minimal the changes are. Eventually, after several generations, education might be valued, genders might be more equal (in a family planning debate the school had a couple weeks ago, one argument against family planning given by a Form 4 boy was that if women don’t have enough children, they will have more time on their hands, and thus they will be prostitutes- Oh My God!!!), people might be healthier, agricultural practices might be more efficient, etc. It’ll just take time…

So we’ll see how the next couple months go until our school break in June, during which I plan to lead a week long girls’ conference with 3 other volunteers (we’ll each bring about 10 girls with potential to learn about reproductive health and life skills like self-confidence and communication and encourage them to show those boys that they can be just as good students and leaders and they can go somewhere in their lives) and then do some traveling around the country. It’ll be a nice break, I’m sure.

Maybe I’m just in a really weird mood because this is such a different situation- I live far away from other Americans and rarely see them, much less get to town for internet and such, so I’m really in my own little world. I’ve now been on my own longer than I was in training with these friends, so it’s kind of weird to see these friends after being away from them all for so long and we didn’t even know each other for 3 months to begin with. Plus, it’s a social explosion to go from some Tanzanian semi-friends that take such effort to communicate with and be culturally appropriate with to suddenly being around 16 other friends from training who have all had their own lives for the past 3 months (and while we text and even call each other on occasion, we really don’t know what’s going on in each others’ lives). But I can relax around them and just be myself, speak quickly and with an American slur and slang thrown in, wear pants and sit in a chair however I want and drink beer and just act like an American without worrying about what others think of me (I hate that I have to worry about that, but it’s what you gotta do in a different country like this).

And then this weekend, I’ll go back to being on my own at site, rarely seeing any of these friends, struggling to cook and clean and teach and implement all my great ideas in my community, though at least with the help of a counterpart. Crazy. But I get to see Batman! And one friend pointed out that the next 6 months will probably be way easier than the last 6 months because now we know what we’re up against, we’ve struggled through some of the initial problems, and our Swahili is improving along with our relationships at site, etc. So that’s a nice thought! J

I hope my mood stabilizes and I can just enjoy being here, living and working with the Tanzanians without too many frustrations. I’ve learned a lot to deal with the issues of teachers who beat students, students who don’t understand any English, students who won’t try and won’t study or do homework, etc. Hopefully I’m now ready to tackle and conquer these frustrations so that the joys of working with students, hanging out with the teachers, etc. can be more joyful and make life good rather than simply bearable.

$3 Puppy

The day came when I decided I needed a puppy, mostly for the company,from a small furry bundle of energy with whom I don’t have to worryabout communication (once trained, anyway). So I asked everyone I metthat day to help me find a puppy. And one guy listened and arranged ameeting the following day with a man who owned a puppy. After waitingfor 2 hours after the set meeting time (remember, this is Africa), wemet with the man in his living room lit by the soft light of akerosene lantern. My new friend and the puppy-owner discussed thematter for awhile as I struggled to understand everything. They wantedto make sure I would take good care of the pup and find a place for itwhen I leave Tanzania- a bit ironic considering the fact that fewTanzanians take good care of dogs.After some young entrepreneurial boys agreed on a price of about $3 inTanzanian shillingi, I paid and then we left and they brought the pupout and gave him to one of my students who was going to escort me homein the dark. So I didn’t really get a good look at him til I got homeand put him in a broken wide mouth bucket with a sheet.

He’s a typical Tanzanian mutt: skinny, short-haired, mostly light brown. His legs and belly are white with a few tan speckles, his tail is black with a white tip, and he has some black markings on his neck, snout, and the tips of his ears. And his ears are HUGE! He’s got a serious wingspan with those things, probably about as wide as he is tall (~a foot). Hence, his ears have christened him with the name Batman. Never thought I’d name my dog that, but it fits him and Batman is my favorite superhero, so it works.

I had him for three weeks, potty training him, trying to get him to sit and to come (come is a very difficult command for most dogs- they come running when they feel like it, but now and then they look at you with mischief in their eyes, turn and bolt the opposite way). One of the first few days I had him, he managed to sneak into my room (the door is usually closed to keep him out of trouble), jump up onto my bed and get under the mosquito net, then squirt puppy diarrhea all over. I discovered theis when I sat down on the edge of my bed that night, exhausted and smelled something rank. Ewww! So I had to sleep on the couch that night without a mosquito net, tossing and turning and being bit by mosquitos all night. But he made up for it by curling up with me and cuddling happily all night. He just hates the fact that he has to sleep next to my bed and not in my bed with me every night.

So then I came to Njombe town south of Iringa for two weeks of Peace Corps in-service training. He was pretty well potty trained by then, and my next door neighbor (also a teacher) was starting to train him to “Nipe tano” (Give me five). It was super cute. I’ve been missing him now for a couple weeks and hoping that my student is taking good care of him and he’s not too mad at me for leaving him alone. Can’t wait to see him again and hear his cute little whimpering puppy noises when I come home and he gets overwhelmingly excited to see me!