Mambo vipi,

Another exciting month. It started at the PEPFAR conference for the Deep South PCVs in Mtwara where both fish an internet access are abundant. Despite having to take 2-3 showers a day due to the heat and leaving with over 50 mosquito bites on each foot we were well fed and well informed about the opportunities PEPFAR provides. PEPFAR, for those who don't know, was started by our current administration and stands for the President's Emergency Plan For (HIV/)AIDS Relief. Peace Corps got funding for only prevention last year but now gets funding for both prevention and care for people living with HIV/AIDS. There is a lot of money available to devote to the cause and I'm currently brainstorming ideas with my counterpart. Have I mentioned counterparts before? I don't think I have. At site we choose a counterpart to work with for the majority of our 2 years here and they are able to come to certain PC workshops and conferences with us such as PEPFAR. I have chosen to work with a teacher named Geofrey Ntandu (yes, his name is spelled right, it's somehow phonetic just like Kiswahili) who teaches English and Geography. He is very forward thinking and was not shy to participate at the conference. He taught me how to cook rice and beans with coconut milk. It's rare that Tanzanian men cook but his father told him some day he would be a bachelor and have to cook for himself until he got married. He is an excellent cook. He has a fiance who is studying near Moshi, very far from here (near Kilimanjaro) and is taking 3 at-home college courses right now including philosophy. I feel very lucky to have such wonderful people around. He stays in a house with another teacher, Peter, who happens to be the head of the Math and science department. I'm over there a lot for good conversation and good food. But I'm jumping ahead.

After the conference it was back to Chidya. I returned on Saturday and the Country Director of Peace Corps Tanzania, Christine, was coming to my site Monday around lunch time. Would I treat her to a fancy restaurant? No, there are no restaurants or even food stands in Chidya (there are usually some in most villages). So I made mango juice, vegetable curry with rice, and chocolate chocolate chip cookies. The visit went well and Christine said I'm almost as rural as some environmental volunteers with the exception of running water and electricity. Then she took me into Masasi via Peace Corps car, driven by a Tanzanian named James who used to be a climbing guide at Mt. Kilimanjaro and drive safaris, where we met Josh, Michelle, and Erica for dinner and discovered they had had an interesting day.

Not only did Christine visit Monday, February 6th, so did the US Ambassador. He says Peace Corps is his favorite government organization and wanted to see volunteers in the field so Erica and Michelle volunteered to do a health seminar at a local primary school. The Ambassador arrived via private jet and had lunch (at the same hotel Steph, Mike, and myself stayed at during site drop-offs) which Josh arranged a week in advance. After Erica and Michelle finished teaching the former President of Tanzania (elections just finished in December), Mkapa, invited the Ambassador to his house in Masasi, he used to live near Chidya, and Erica and Michelle got to go and meet him! Josh also arranged for us to have dinner, at the same hotel they had lunch with the Ambassador at, with Christine-also, a week in advance. At dinner the waiter waited until 7pm, when dinner was supposed to be served, to tell us that they were out of calamari-that we ordered a week ago. We ordered prawns instead but when dinner was served all it was was rice and chips. But Josh said when the Ambassador was there for lunch there were no problems. Oh well. The next morning I was treated to another lift from James back to site where I finally got to start teaching my lesson plans.

Adventures in Teaching

I started teaching my Form IIIs the syllabus. The first topic: relations. Teaching started off well with the kids enthusiastic and attentive. We have weekly tests on Tuesdays-two subjects at a time. At 2pm on that first Tuesday I learned Math and English were having tests at 3pm for Forms II through IV. Hmmm...I only had Form III A on Monday and Form I A and Alpha (if you remember, each form is divided into 2 streams and we call one A and the other Alpha) on Tuesday. So I still hadn't taught Form III Alpha anything from the syllabus. But I ran home, whipped up a test and gave it to the proctors of Form III while I went to proctor Form IV. The Form III Alphas did surprisingly well as did the III A's. As the month and topic continued on the Form III A's started to lose interest and I feel my lessons are boring them. The Form III Alphas still seem interested and ask great questions. I gave them a pop quiz the first week of teaching and they did real well. Form III A averaged 35% but about half of the students didn't attempt the quiz (hence scored 0%, of the students who did the quiz they averaged 82%) because the in-class tests or quizzes count for less than 5% of their overall grade. So I made a speech telling them I could just put up examples and give daily quizzes if they didn't want to attempt work. They are a lot better about showing me there work inside and outside of class now. The Form III Alphas averaged 75% with every student present turning in a quiz so they are doing real well. I finished my material with them early one day and asked for questions. One boy asked the difference between a from 2 topic, Solving Simultaneous Equations, and its difference between our current topic, Solving Multiple Inequalities Graphically. A real good question. Towards the end of the month I had a real tough day with the Form III A's; they weren't responding and didn't try to answer when I called on them so I talked to them about participation and learning. They told me they thought the material is boring so I said I'd try and make it more interesting but they needed to participate. I had a lot of trouble trying to make Domain and Range more exciting than they are so I came up with the idea of assigning problems at the beginning of class and then having students come to the board to answer them. This gets them engaged right away. When a student makes a mistake I let them but then before they can sit down I say, 'Oh! Wait!' which usually gets a little laugh and then try to steer them in the right direction to correct their mistake. When I do this, I keep a big smile and am encouraging and enthusiastic about their ability to fix the mistake. This usually gets a smile out of the student and I think it helps the class to be more willing to participate. The rest of class went very well. Form III Alpha asked a very good questions that I didn't have time to go over in class so I held an optional class on the last day of the month at 5pm (the benefits of working at a boarding school). All of the Form III Alphas showed up and even some A's. It was pretty awesome.

My Form I students are learning Baseline English still and are crammed into one class: about 62 students. I'm really having fun with those students. Some are so small their feet don't touch the ground when they sit in the chairs. I taught measurements and had students measure each other's height. I had 3 teams of 5 and the students measured themselves in pairs which left one student by themselves so I measured him and had him measure me. I stood on my tiptoes and got a good laugh. After we measured everyone I took down their ages to show correlation between height and age. We have students from ages 14-18 in the same Form. When I got to myself, I told the students I was 135 years old. They had another laugh. The next lesson I did conversions and for the conversion from years to months I asked the students if they remembered how old I was. One raised his hand and replied 135 years old. At the end of class I opened up time for questions and one student asked, 'Please sir, tell us what year you were born.' I told him it had been so long I had forgotten but that we could use subtraction to find out. I worked the problem on the board with help from the students and found out I was born in 1871, I used January 1st for the day to avoid confusion. One student insisted I meant 1971 but I told him, 'No, I am 135 years old.' He looked so confused. Hopefully one of the students explained to him I was joking. Also, I had a student fall asleep in my Form I class and I went over and shook him three times. Not a stir. I announced to the class, 'Analala fofofo,' which means 'He is sleeping deeply.' The kids got a good chuckle and teased him about it when I woke him up in a kind way. He didn't fall asleep again. I'm having a lot of fun teaching.

The Bicycle Diaries

I have been on two big bike trips this month. The first was to visit Steph in Ndwika...

I awoke at 5am to prepare for my trip down the mountain to Ndwika. I tighten all the lose screws on my bike; the terrain is so bumpy and harsh that something always comes lose when I ride, usually the seat (yikes) and the handlebars. My tires are refilled to the proper PSI and Norman, my guide for the journey, shows up to lead the way. We bike the path I have been taking everyday during my daily rides. It offers a beautiful view of the rising sun and long shadows across nearby farms and distant villages. We come to the end of my habitual rides and start our descent down the mountain. It soon becomes too steep to ride and we walk the trail over roots and streams. My guide keeps referring to the Mto Mwiti (Mwiti River) and we soon emerge from the forest to find a wide but shallow river in our path. We take some large rocks and build stepping stones across. The river offers a great view of the nearby Makonde Plateau. After we cross we ride through 6 different villages on fairly flat land coming once to an opening that reveals the entire Newala section of the Plateau and I'm even able to see the cell phone tower nearby Mike's site. We arrive at Steph's door 3 and a half hours later. Unfortunately I come down with a stomach virus while I'm there but Steph and I have fun hanging out and talking most of the weekend. The next morning Norman and I don't leave until 10:30am. The sun is out in full force and I'm especially slow since I was unable to keep food down the entire weekend, hence nothing but water in my belly. Our trek back up the mountain takes 5 hours but I begin to feel better that evening and sleep soundly from 8:30pm to 6am the next morning.

My next trip was into the main town of Masasi. I leave after school at 1pm with a fellow teacher, Julius, as my guide. His bike has no gears so we must walk a few inclines but the ride is mostly downhill and we make it in 2 hours 15 minutes, but I'm convinced I can do it in less than 2. My goal was to drop the bike off at Josh's (he's a health volunteer who lives in Masasi and my closest site mate in case I haven't mentioned that before) and for us to catch the last bus to Newala but we are too late. The next morning we go to Newala to celebrate Mike and Marisa's birthdays, both the past week, enjoy good company, and good food. On Sunday, Josh and I wake up early again, miss the first bus out and don't get into Masasi until 1pm. To make things worse when we arrive the ice cream shop is closed. Back at Josh's I rush to get ready to buy some food supplies so I can start my ride up the the mountain again. Unfortunately, I arrive at the BP store right after the clerk has left for lunch and wait another hour until he returns. By 3pm I'm packed and riding home. I fly down the tarmac road, downhill for 20 minutes even passing daladalas. I come to the familiar dirt road turn off and enter the village with cries of 'Mzungu!' (person of white skin, not derogatory), whistles, and kissing noises (a form of getting someone's attention in this culture). I come to the first shortcut, take it and soon find myself back on the tarmac road. 'Crap!' I think to myself in more vile terms. I know there is another road up ahead which meets the first road but is a longer way. I bike to it, it's evident because the power lines follow it, and enter meeting the road I was trying to follow earlier 20 minutes later. I come to the second short cut and use the power lines to guide me through the mazes of the village. I pop back onto the main road and begin my hour and a half uphill battle to Chidya. Soon I'm in the lowest gear, with small fires burning in my thighs, and my water bottle quickly drained. Pain becomes a normality and I know if I stop pedaling I will be walking the bike the remainder of the way up the mountain. Somehow I manage to ride on even when my handlebars come loose, slip from my grip, and I fix them while riding the bike. I come close to Chidya and attempt the third of four shortcuts. But I never get to try the fourth because I soon lose sight of the power lines and become lost again. I come to a wide, sandy path and am forced off my bike. Cattle soon surround me and I ask the cattle herder the quickest way to Chidya Secondary School and he points up the hill on the left. I push through the low trees and see the classrooms at the summit. I hear a football match in the distance. I have found civilization. I feel like a lost traveler who has found life after days of wandering. I return home quietly exhausted from the weekend travel. Geofrey is kind enough to let me accompany him for dinner so I do not have to cook tonight.

I find myself returning to Masasi the next weekend for the day to shop and hang out with Steph, Josh, and Michelle. I have a different escort this time, Peter, because I got lost last time. My bike is just a tad to small for me so I can't make sharp turns because it's top heavy. Soon we are flying down narrow, village paths and a sharp turn with lots of sand comes up. I try and take the turn but my bike slides out from under me and I manage to stay on my feet and run into the bush. The gears cut up my leg pretty good but nothing too serious. We make it into town in 2 hours and 15 minutes. I enjoy seeing my fellow PCVs but am soon headed back to site around 3pm by myself. This time I do not get lost and make the trip back uphill in just 2 hours. Almost as fast as the car since it makes so many stops. Awesome.

I spent the next week setting a routine for myself, a time to lesson plan, to cook, to ride my bike, and to visit fellow teachers and practice Kiswahili. So things are falling into place here. I rode into town today and met some missionaries kind enough to let me use internet at their home since Masasi still has none. As usual the website is updated, not too many pictures this month but I have a week off next month and plan to travel. Until then,

Justin