We began staying with RPCVs in Dar es Salaam, and I spent the last few days with the head of malaria and TB and USAID. He had good stories from his volunteer days, mostly about collecting all sorts of rare artifacts and smuggling them out of Bolivia. His daughter works for the world wildlife fund on a short term contract.
Yesterday I went to the FEMA club office, and was given a lot of materials.
This morning I wanted to leave Dar es Salaam. But we couldn’t find a taxi early in the morning and we missed the bus by five minutes or so. I called someone who works for the company, and he told me to meet the bus in Temeke; so I chartered a taxi to temeke, but when we got there the bus was gone. Then they wanted to go to the next stop and the taxi driver wanted another thirty thousand schillings; I told him I only had three. We got to the stop and the bus was already gone, so I had to get more money from an ATM; the taxi driver is unhappy with his compensation but what I gave him – 23000 total – is more than fair. Anyway I’m stuck in Dar for another day, and am staying in a hotel with bev and steve.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
August 2, 2009
My final peace corps conference, a seminar about our close of service. We talk about wrapping up our Peace Corps service and returning to life back in the states. I know, because I already went through a similar conference when I first transferred to Tanzania; but when I did it then I was pretty sure I was going to remain in Africa and the conference felt somewhat irrelevant. The trip up here was uneventful, and our bus even had seatbelts(!) but I’m thankful I’m only making this trip once or twice more before I return home. Met several other volunteers for dinner yesterday.
I spent most of the bus ride, and most of the last few days, steaming about falling attendance in some of my classes. The real kicker was that the same students go to class if a Tanzanian happens to be teaching, and now that we have a practice math teacher from university I have seen students who I thought had transferred months ago. In physics class not more than 10 students arrived any day this week. Once I arrived in Dar I wrote an open letter to the physics students outlining a new policy, and threatening to screw with the test scores of any student who fails to report to every class between now and the end of term.
I spent most of the bus ride, and most of the last few days, steaming about falling attendance in some of my classes. The real kicker was that the same students go to class if a Tanzanian happens to be teaching, and now that we have a practice math teacher from university I have seen students who I thought had transferred months ago. In physics class not more than 10 students arrived any day this week. Once I arrived in Dar I wrote an open letter to the physics students outlining a new policy, and threatening to screw with the test scores of any student who fails to report to every class between now and the end of term.
April 24, 2009
I just started teaching this week. After a period of travel and a month of inaction the school year started without warning (classes supposedly began two weeks ago but the first day is pretty flexible). The school dropped all the math and physics classes on me, so I have more classes than any four other teachers combined. For the first time since I left America I feel like I’ve been working, waking up at 5:30 to prepare classes and standing in front of students for six hours a day. My situation has been immensely complicated by the erratic electricity (see below) – but we should get a mathematics teacher within the next few weeks, brining my courseload back to a normal level.
I find teaching material the second time around isn’t nearly as interesting, and I enjoy my form VI classes much more than my form V. Part of that are the students, the older students are more comfortable in the classroom, answer questions more readily… and there are a lot less of them. I’m not so impressed with the new ones, but we’ll give them some time.
I realize I haven’t update for over two months, ever since the marathon in Kilimanjaro. Mostly I’ve been busy, and when I have had free time the power was dead – for the last three weeks we’ve only had some six hours of electricity a day, mostly at night. I’ve spent a lot more time with my VSO friends across the street, partly because they have reliable electricity and food processors and lots of other goodies that I can’t usually get here.
Erina returned last week, but she plans on spending every weekend from here on out away from site – she likes traveling. My students are also gradually returning to school, if not to class.
I find teaching material the second time around isn’t nearly as interesting, and I enjoy my form VI classes much more than my form V. Part of that are the students, the older students are more comfortable in the classroom, answer questions more readily… and there are a lot less of them. I’m not so impressed with the new ones, but we’ll give them some time.
I realize I haven’t update for over two months, ever since the marathon in Kilimanjaro. Mostly I’ve been busy, and when I have had free time the power was dead – for the last three weeks we’ve only had some six hours of electricity a day, mostly at night. I’ve spent a lot more time with my VSO friends across the street, partly because they have reliable electricity and food processors and lots of other goodies that I can’t usually get here.
Erina returned last week, but she plans on spending every weekend from here on out away from site – she likes traveling. My students are also gradually returning to school, if not to class.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
February 27, 2009
Moshi – Arrived from Dar es Salaam today. Twenty Peace Corps volunteers are coming up to run the Kilimanjaro marathon, a big event. One volunteer booked rooms for all of us at a hotel, the YMCA, back in December; she also confirmed two weeks ago and again once this last week. Of course they had forgotten us and given up our rooms, so this volunteer (Leiha Costa) spent two hours arguing. The clerk smiled and didn’t help us, but eventually the manager showed up and like magic, extra beds appeared.
Arusha and Moshi are the two big tourist centers in Tanzania; the road between Dar es Salaam and these two northern cities is well paved, the bus lines are luxurious. The scenery is gorgeous, desert and scrubland interspersed with large sisal plantations and occasional rocky outcrops. The crowded, decrepit villages which mark the entirety of the Mtwara-Masasi area are mostly absent. Haven’t seen much of Moshi itself but so far it feels like Kisumu without bicycle taxis. Kilimanjaro is covered in clouds.
Moshi – Arrived from Dar es Salaam today. Twenty Peace Corps volunteers are coming up to run the Kilimanjaro marathon, a big event. One volunteer booked rooms for all of us at a hotel, the YMCA, back in December; she also confirmed two weeks ago and again once this last week. Of course they had forgotten us and given up our rooms, so this volunteer (Leiha Costa) spent two hours arguing. The clerk smiled and didn’t help us, but eventually the manager showed up and like magic, extra beds appeared.
Arusha and Moshi are the two big tourist centers in Tanzania; the road between Dar es Salaam and these two northern cities is well paved, the bus lines are luxurious. The scenery is gorgeous, desert and scrubland interspersed with large sisal plantations and occasional rocky outcrops. The crowded, decrepit villages which mark the entirety of the Mtwara-Masasi area are mostly absent. Haven’t seen much of Moshi itself but so far it feels like Kisumu without bicycle taxis. Kilimanjaro is covered in clouds.
April 24, 2009
I just started teaching this week. After a period of travel and a month of inaction the school year started without warning (classes supposedly began two weeks ago but the first day is pretty flexible). The school dropped all the math and physics classes on me, so I have more classes than any four other teachers combined. For the first time since I left America I feel like I’ve been working, waking up at 5:30 to prepare classes and standing in front of students for six hours a day. My situation has been immensely complicated by the erratic electricity (see below) – but we should get a mathematics teacher within the next few weeks, brining my courseload back to a normal level.
I find teaching material the second time around isn’t nearly as interesting, and I enjoy my form VI classes much more than my form V. Part of that are the students, the older students are more comfortable in the classroom, answer questions more readily… and there are a lot less of them. I’m not so impressed with the new ones, but we’ll give them some time.
I realize I haven’t update for over two months, ever since the marathon in Kilimanjaro. Mostly I’ve been busy, and when I have had free time the power was dead – for the last three weeks we’ve only had some six hours of electricity a day, mostly at night. I’ve spent a lot more time with my VSO friends across the street, partly because they have reliable electricity and food processors and lots of other goodies that I can’t usually get here.
Erina returned last week, but she plans on spending every weekend from here on out away from site – she likes traveling. My students are also gradually returning to school, if not to class.
I just started teaching this week. After a period of travel and a month of inaction the school year started without warning (classes supposedly began two weeks ago but the first day is pretty flexible). The school dropped all the math and physics classes on me, so I have more classes than any four other teachers combined. For the first time since I left America I feel like I’ve been working, waking up at 5:30 to prepare classes and standing in front of students for six hours a day. My situation has been immensely complicated by the erratic electricity (see below) – but we should get a mathematics teacher within the next few weeks, brining my courseload back to a normal level.
I find teaching material the second time around isn’t nearly as interesting, and I enjoy my form VI classes much more than my form V. Part of that are the students, the older students are more comfortable in the classroom, answer questions more readily… and there are a lot less of them. I’m not so impressed with the new ones, but we’ll give them some time.
I realize I haven’t update for over two months, ever since the marathon in Kilimanjaro. Mostly I’ve been busy, and when I have had free time the power was dead – for the last three weeks we’ve only had some six hours of electricity a day, mostly at night. I’ve spent a lot more time with my VSO friends across the street, partly because they have reliable electricity and food processors and lots of other goodies that I can’t usually get here.
Erina returned last week, but she plans on spending every weekend from here on out away from site – she likes traveling. My students are also gradually returning to school, if not to class.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
February 22nd
When I was away earlier a storm blew down my fence and the papaya tree in my backyard. I’ve given up gardening and was going to let it stay down, but my neighbor, mama Jessica, kept on pushing – I don’t think she likes it when my property is messy. She introduced me to this fundi (person who makes things), and the next day the laborer carried some logs to prop up the fence. He needed money for twine – I didn’t have any change, so I gave him ten thousand schillings (the total price for the job) while my neighbor’s husband was watching. He accepted the money touching his elbow, a sign of a respect for employers, and I knew he wasn’t planning on coming back.
On Thursday I came back from school and the fundi was there. Mama Jessica was yelling at him, talking really fast, and I gathered that she had searched around his village and forced him to come back to work; she was talking about calling the police and her own ten thousand and so forth. The fundi said he had a problem – they always have problems – but he showed us his back, scattered with big white blotches. I thought of Kaposi’s Sarcoma, a sure sign of HIV. The fundi fixed one section of the fence by digging ditches in the ground and tying the fence to stakes, then propping up weak sections with other pieces of logs. It started raining before he finished though and he said he would come back. He’s still missing, of course.
A couple lessons came out of this. First, never trust any laborers here with a single schilling. Most people are like that, they won’t pay back their debts to a richer man unless that man has some pressing problem, and in a sense money is (loosely) communal. This fundi was ripping me off completely though, charging double the going rate and then running away without doing any work. The Yamiseo’s had been getting on my nerves for a while, constantly borrowing things and yelling at me when any bit of the yard wasn’t clean; it’s good to know now that they’ll also look after me.
On Thursday I came back from school and the fundi was there. Mama Jessica was yelling at him, talking really fast, and I gathered that she had searched around his village and forced him to come back to work; she was talking about calling the police and her own ten thousand and so forth. The fundi said he had a problem – they always have problems – but he showed us his back, scattered with big white blotches. I thought of Kaposi’s Sarcoma, a sure sign of HIV. The fundi fixed one section of the fence by digging ditches in the ground and tying the fence to stakes, then propping up weak sections with other pieces of logs. It started raining before he finished though and he said he would come back. He’s still missing, of course.
A couple lessons came out of this. First, never trust any laborers here with a single schilling. Most people are like that, they won’t pay back their debts to a richer man unless that man has some pressing problem, and in a sense money is (loosely) communal. This fundi was ripping me off completely though, charging double the going rate and then running away without doing any work. The Yamiseo’s had been getting on my nerves for a while, constantly borrowing things and yelling at me when any bit of the yard wasn’t clean; it’s good to know now that they’ll also look after me.
Monday, January 26, 2009
January 25, 2009
Last Thursday we had our school’s graduation ceremony; exams don’t begin until February 9th, but the students go home (and never come back) as soon as they are finished with their tests, so all ceremonies need to be done beforehand. Wednesday there were no classes – the students cleaned up for the entire day. Previous meetings and celebrations had been pretty disorganized affairs, and I was expecting much of the same – most of the Form V’s haven’t even returned to the school yet, and the date for this ceremony was decided at almost the last possible moment. I was wrong, though. The school set up two tarps to protect people from the sun, hired a DJ, and invited several other schools as well as the local big shot. They set up various other decorations, flags made from torn t-shirts and entrance gates made out of long sticks braided with each other.
Big shots here are always late, and all of the little minnows depending on their favors are always waiting for them. I was already familiar with this particular big man, the District Commissioner who came during the food shortages and then again to inspect the school grounds a week later. In the first instance he was almost begging the students not to become violent; in the second instance he came without any warning and expected to be escorted around by our principal. I can’t pretend to be particularly impressed with this guy, and my experience in Kenya taught me not to trust any African with a microphone. In any case he arrived some three hours late. Before then students piga storied or sat around bullshitting. We talked about Barack Obama’s inauguration and about HIV education, and eventually the ceremonies started.
The headmaster, the head of the school board, and the politician all gave speeches, mostly concerning the problems with Ndanda (lack of food, teachers, books, and lab equipment) and also described what they believed to be the solutions to these problems. These speeches were broken up by various interludes – first a group of students rapped, in Kiswahili, about the perils of HIV/AIDS. Two other students copied a popular comedy routine; then some visiting students from a nearby O-level day school performed a traditional Makonde dance (ngonda). Six students performed acrobatics for some fifteen minutes, backflips and human pyramids and balancing acts. After all this was finished, “discipline” certificates were handed out to the hardest working students, and each one got a leaving certificate.
Afterwards the students began taking pictures. A man with an old camera was taking pictures, and every graduate wanted one; each one also wanted pictures with me and Erina, and we sat for maybe sixty or seventy different shots each. Finally the students ate lunch and had a party, a disco, while the teachers ate in their own room. The headmaster through our own party later that night.
Last Thursday we had our school’s graduation ceremony; exams don’t begin until February 9th, but the students go home (and never come back) as soon as they are finished with their tests, so all ceremonies need to be done beforehand. Wednesday there were no classes – the students cleaned up for the entire day. Previous meetings and celebrations had been pretty disorganized affairs, and I was expecting much of the same – most of the Form V’s haven’t even returned to the school yet, and the date for this ceremony was decided at almost the last possible moment. I was wrong, though. The school set up two tarps to protect people from the sun, hired a DJ, and invited several other schools as well as the local big shot. They set up various other decorations, flags made from torn t-shirts and entrance gates made out of long sticks braided with each other.
Big shots here are always late, and all of the little minnows depending on their favors are always waiting for them. I was already familiar with this particular big man, the District Commissioner who came during the food shortages and then again to inspect the school grounds a week later. In the first instance he was almost begging the students not to become violent; in the second instance he came without any warning and expected to be escorted around by our principal. I can’t pretend to be particularly impressed with this guy, and my experience in Kenya taught me not to trust any African with a microphone. In any case he arrived some three hours late. Before then students piga storied or sat around bullshitting. We talked about Barack Obama’s inauguration and about HIV education, and eventually the ceremonies started.
The headmaster, the head of the school board, and the politician all gave speeches, mostly concerning the problems with Ndanda (lack of food, teachers, books, and lab equipment) and also described what they believed to be the solutions to these problems. These speeches were broken up by various interludes – first a group of students rapped, in Kiswahili, about the perils of HIV/AIDS. Two other students copied a popular comedy routine; then some visiting students from a nearby O-level day school performed a traditional Makonde dance (ngonda). Six students performed acrobatics for some fifteen minutes, backflips and human pyramids and balancing acts. After all this was finished, “discipline” certificates were handed out to the hardest working students, and each one got a leaving certificate.
Afterwards the students began taking pictures. A man with an old camera was taking pictures, and every graduate wanted one; each one also wanted pictures with me and Erina, and we sat for maybe sixty or seventy different shots each. Finally the students ate lunch and had a party, a disco, while the teachers ate in their own room. The headmaster through our own party later that night.
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