Vipi Hali?

Last you heard I was at a conference in Moshi and promised to tell you about it. It was during the last week of August and was addressing the difficulty in teaching material in English when most students don't understand it. The conference was good-more teaching methodology than techniques to get around the language barrier but helpful.

There were 11 PCVs there-all from my training group. We stayed at a very nice YMCA-they had a full length swimming pool! With a diving board!! It was literally 3 or 4 wooden planks nailed together-a little slippery when wet. Unfortunately, we only swam one day. Moshi town is quite different than the south. For one, people know and talk to you in English because they assume you're a tourist-no one is mistaken for a tourist down south-who would just visit? Also, paved roads (plural). In Masasi we have our one main road running from the former president's house to Mtwara-that's it. And finally-restaurants with pizza, hamburgers, game meat and...a bakery. Wow. Also, the hotel just happened to look out on Mt. Kilimanjaro-check out the pictures.

After Moshi I took a week of work related leave to look for school books in Dar es Salaam. While there I used internet for the last time since...now. Thank you for all the emails. I found all the school books so I can start writing a grant to try and get them down here in Chidya. I also found a computer store that sells the most recent Apple computers and ate at a Subway while hanging out with Aaron from my training group.

Next I went to a small village named Kigwe in Dodoma to visit Anna for my one week school break. While there I met a lot of Mamas that Anna visits from time to time. Most of them help support their family selling food at local markets and some are the only support for their family. They love having guests and are very kind and generous and we had a fun time sitting and talking with them. We went to the local meat market but were too late to see cows and goats getting slaughtered. Every Tuesday and Thursday Anna has a lunch date with one of her students so I accompanied her. The first was to a boy who lives with other students-no adults. All the students' families live far away and so they rent out rooms. He cooks himself and served us ugali and tomato soup. He also had made an antenna, radio, battery (remember, no electricity in Anna's village unless they run a generator-and only a few houses benefit from this) and hooked up 3 speakers in his room. It was quite impressive. He told us his brother taught him about electronics. The other lunch date was to visit a girl far out in the village. She shares a small house with her mother and 5 other siblings. We talked to her about what she wants to do after finishing school-work in radio. It was interesting to learn about the students interests and see how they live. We also milked a cow one night. A big cow. Anna had done this several times before but for me it was a first. She showed me how to do it but warned me it would be difficult-and it was. It's not easy to get the milk to come out and I'd have to do it a few more times to get the hang of it.

After Kigwe I hopped on a bus to Dar to start my 3 day journey home. On the way a kid threw up on me. And that was on a paved road. Poor kid-this country doesn't have many paved roads. But the bus ride from Dar to Masasi was the best yet. I sat in the front surrounded by 5 Mamas and their babies. They were all real cute. We got to Masasi in just 12 hours-that's a record for me. The next day I got my canter back home and prepared for teaching. But one thing was missing-Peter, one of my closest friends here, has left to get a master's degree. He was helping me to start a garden, my church-going buddy, and a great, energetic guy. I'm really gonna miss him.

The first week teaching after break went well with one complication: my last topic in Form III is accounts and...there is nothing about accounting in the current books we have. I found one book from America but it includes topics such as taxes and stockholder's equity which really aren't applicable here. With the information I had I was able to write up one lesson and brought it into Form III A-the kids were very confused. After the lesson I saw Geofrey who asked how the lesson went: I told him poorly and explained to him why. He said he recalled seeing accounting books in the library. Really? Our library? I had only ever seen one small cabinet with books. We went in to a back room and I was stunned. We have hundreds of books-not in great condition and a lot are from other countries, hence not practical for Tanzania. But we did find two accounting books from India that are quite good. Seeing the library got me excited about getting it set up, which I hope to finish by mid-October. Also, seeing the condition of the books made me realize how much the school needs the books I'm writing the grant for. My next lesson in accounting went much better and then the weekend came for Form IV graduation...

Slaughtering the Cow

I just saw this-it's the weekend and we're having Four IV graduation today. I awoke at 5am to go help with slaughtering one of the cows for today's party. But no one was around. After 20 minutes of wandering around thinking I had not understood where the slaughtering would take place I found my second master, Mr. Chaula. People were just late. Around 6am 4 people were gathered including Mr. Chaula and myself. We called for 10 students to help us. It was kind of a fiasco-but I don't think anyone there had slaughtered a cow in a long time.

First we roped a cow's head and horns to a stake in the pen. Then we tried roping it's back legs but it trotted to the other side of the stake-which turned out to be better since it was more open. We got it's back legs roped together and tied tight. 3 students were holding the head and the rest of us pulled it's back legs...but it's head got free and it started bucking a little. We stopped pulling and it calmed down. We tightened our grip on the head, wrapped a rope around it's front legs and then tried again. But the rope around the front wasn't tight and it got free. This time it moved it's back legs near a post and we tied it up there then tied up the rope around its head to a post. Finally we got a good knot around the cow's front legs and were able to trip the cow onto it's side. It finally gave up fighting-succumbed to its fate. We tied all four legs tightly together and then dragged it out of the pen and onto some grass nearby.

The actual slaughtering of the cow was quite different then the one I witnessed last time which made me think maybe I didn't really see what I thought-we were far away and it happened quickly-or that they just do it differently here. The students put two wooden beams over the cow to hold it down and the 'executioner' began sawing at the cow's throat. It gave out several deep moans-the last one stifled by the cutting of its vocal chords. Afterwards the students and workers began skinning it in preparation for the days feast.

After graduation I rode my bike into Masasi for Steph's birthday party. I left Chidya around 5:15pm and didn't get into Masasi until dusk. It was a little scary riding on our one paved road with tons of people walking on it and car speeding by. But no accidents and I got see Mike, Josh, Steve, Emily, Jess, Shannon and we ate chocolate cake which makes any PCV happy.

I forgot to mention-the class of health volunteers that arrived in Dec 2004 is leaving in Nov. They moved up the arrival time for current health volunteers to August so before leaving for Moshi I got to meet the new health volunteers who will be living with current volunteers for a few weeks. The leaving class include Tony, Josh, Michelle, Erica, Danielle, and Lucy. Some have already left but most will be leaving the end of October. I have met 3 volunteers: Emily from Maine who will be replacing Josh in Masasi and be my closest site mate; Jess, a gymnast who can do a standing backflip, is replacing Michelle and will be Steph's closest site mate; and Shannon, who's already started teaching kids at her secondary school about health issues...in Kiswahili, is replacing Erica somewhere between Masasi and Newala. Also Steve, a volunteer from Marisa and Jen's training group, has switched sites from Moshi to the Deep South. It's quite different Steve-hang in there.

The week after Steph's birthday I was busy cleaning up the school library-check out pictures-but I haven't finished yet. Next month I hope to open the library, finish writing the grant for library books, and start a Life Skills group to teach local primary schools. Until then,

Justin