More Pictures

Pendo from the Kili Kids orphanage, trying to steal my camera!
Happiness from Kili Kids coloring

Me and my student Gloria

Week Three

I had a week full of ups and downs this week. I decided to introduce both worksheets and the concept of reading comprehension into both of my classes, starting on Monday. The class has workbooks with stories in English in them. Usually their assignment is to copy the story line for line, and thats it. (in my fourth grade class the story was about buying groceries and in my third grade class the story was just a dialogue between two boys who point out birds, and students, and children, and dogs) I had them read the story together and then answer questions on the worksheet about the content of the story. It bombed, nobody understood a word they had just read in either class...so we we spent the rest of the week going line by line and working together to get the meaning of the story across. We've made some progress, but its still a challenge. I hope if I just keep doing a little reading comprehension everyday for the next two months, maybe at some point they will start to understand how to read and then answer questions about it. In both classes though, I have one or two students who want to learn so badly and are really excited about trying new things, so they keep me going when it gets tough.
Outside of school, I have had a lot more free time this week, which has been a wonderful treat because I got to visit two orphanages, as well as the United Nation's Rwanda Tribunal.

The first orphanage I visited is called the Upenda Orphanage and is only for very young children. During the rainy season (which is fastly approaching) the kids must spend all their time in a play room inside. This play room was disgusting and the floors, walls, chairs, and toys were all covered in urine and feces. So me and a few other volunteers spent several hours bleaching and disinfecting every inch of the room. The kids at this orphanage were so sweet, I really hope the disinfecting helps them have a healthier rainy season! The second orphanage was called Kili Kids, I had so much fun just playing and rough housing with all the kids there. They were wonderful and enjoyed getting a chance to play with adults, I am going back after school today to visit them again, and I hope to start going regularly. (I cant wait to put pictures up of them too, they are so cute and love to cheese it up for the camera)
The UN Rwanda Tribunal was a powerful experience. It made the genocides that happened in Rwanda seem much more real to me. I sat in on a trial of a man named Prosper Mungiya (I'm not sure of the spelling of the last name). Unfortunately, it was hard to follow a lot of what was going on (although my Model UN experience from high school helped a lot). What was clear though was that the UN is truly trying to bring a sense of justice to the war in Rwanda.

Tomorrow I am leaving for a Safari after school! Those of you who know me well might be surprised that I am choosing to spend three days among wild animals like lions, but after seeing how beatiful the nature in Africa is, I am really anxious to get out and spend time in the National Parks. Next week I will put up pictures of my adventure!

Picutres!

It takes about three minutes a picture to upload, so these are just a few of my favorites! Enjoy!! My students after I gave them popcicles. They love the camera, and all fight to get to the front of the picture!

Playing at recess in the school yard.

Me with a lizzard on a stick!

This is swimming in a waterfall with another volunteer.

This is in the market place

These are two of my favorite students! On the right is Fatuma and on the left is Debeakia (im not sure of that spelling!)

This is my class, they go crazy when I get my camera out!

Mt. Kili

It was a beautiful day out today, and I got my first really good picture of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Usually the snow covered top is above the clouds, so you cant see it, but today you could! Hope you enjoy!

Jogging

I went for a jog this morning, and it was by far the best experience I have had in Africa so far! As I was running down my small dirt road children walking home from church joined me! The further I went the more kids started following me, all in their Sunday clothes and barefoot. I must have had fifteen kids by the time I was ready to turn around and head home, all jogging along side me.
My favorite part was that I would take breathers every once in a while and walk for a minute, the first time I did this I said "one two three" before I started running again. So the next time I slowed down to walk, the kids all started shouting "one two three" because they wanted me to start running again.
Some of them followed me all the way home, and when I started nearing my house I missed the turn onto the small path that leads to our gate. The three girls who were still with me at this point stopped and started shouting "mzunga" (what children call white people) I was confused at what they were doing and kept running. I finally got to a landmark that made me realize I had gone too far, I turned around to find the girls still standing by the path, pointing me in the right direction! I'm sure they were discussing what a silly mzunga I was the whole time they waited patiently for me to return so they could make sure I found home okay! It was a wonderful way to start my Sunday.

Arusha

On Saturday, I travled with several other volunteer friends to the near by city of Arusha. It was about an hour and a half bus ride away, and quite an adventure. The people in Arusha were very eager to have English conversations with Americans, especially because George W. Bush is currently visiting Tanzania. My favorite converstion was with a man who told us his name was Happana Asante, he was surprised to learn we all know enough Swahili to know Happana Asante means No Thank You. While in town we visited a market place of arts and crafts made by the Messi, the native people of Kilimanjaro.
The best part of the trip came on the way home though. We took the last bus of the day from Arusha to Moshi, and it was a bus made for about 50 people, they was packed with more than 100 people!! As we drove down the road in between the two towns, the door to the bus stayed open and people jumped on and off the bus without it ever stopping! To put the cherry on top of the experience, because Bush is in the country right now, the radio played the Star Spangled Banner most of the way home! It was quite a funny scene as we made our way along the bumpy trail, all with tanzanian men sitting in our laps.
When we finally arrived back in Moshi, we still had a long walk back to our home. We learned quickly that it had rained all day in Moshi, because the road to our home was nothing but mud! By the time we finally reached the door I had lost a shoe in the mud, and had mud all the way up to my knees!! It sounds bad, but it was a great time, and we all laughed the whole way.

Visit to HIV Colony

In Tanzania, most people who test positive for HIV are excommunicated from their families and villages. Because of this many there are many villages on the outskirts of town set up for ostricized people with HIV. I went with some other volunteers a few days ago to visit one of these villages. The drive there was breathtaking, but when we arrived we saw a town that was very hard to take in.
The children there were so starved for attention from adults. Many of them are HIV positive and all of their parents are either living with HIV or dead, so there are not adults in their live with extra time and energy to play with them. We spent most of the time there just holding hands and wiping built up snot from their noses. It was very hard to leave because they clinged to us as we got in the van and then chased our van as we drove through the town on our way out.
We met one HIV patient who particuarly made an impression on me. She was a young girl who I guessed was about five or six when I met her, but after talking to her I learned she was 15, but her growth was severly stunted because she has had HIV since she was born. She was very smart and spoke good English and was a living miracle to still be alive after such a difficult life.
The HIV colony truly made me realize just how important HIV education is in Africa. It is important to help stop the spread of HIV as well as to encourage the people of Africa not to ostricize people with HIV, so that less people are afraid to get tested, and so that those who do test positive are not forced to live the rest of their lives on the fringes of society in isolated colonies.

My First Week at School

My first week at school went very well. I worked on comparison words with the third graders, such as too, also, more, less, ect. And I worked on pronouns with the fourth graders.
The best part of the week with the third graders was on friday when I read to them from an American children's book about dogs. I found the book on the shelves at our house and it had many words comparign the dogs. I think a good portion of the class were able to follow the book, and most of them had never seen a brightly colored children's book before, so they all loved it, and begged me to bring it back on Monday.
The fourth graders are a bit more challengining to work with, but I think they are ready to start adding possesive pronouns into the mix next week.
Reccess with the kids has been a very interesting experience. There is a big open field of dust and mud and rocks with no play equipment, where all 700 kids have reccess at the same time. There is no adult superivision, and the other teachers think I am absaloutly crazy for going to play with the kids at recess. I finally figured out a game that could be played that both broke the language barrier and didnt require any balls. I picked up a rock and had the kids around me guess which hand it was in. Then they all picked up rocks and played it with each other! It was very cute, I dont think they had seen that game before. I saw a lot of rope in the back of the lot, I might try next week to see if it will work as jump ropes. Another interesting part of recess is watching how fast the kids run. The girls have on skirts and are barefoot and they run across the field of rocks like lightening!
The kids always copy everything I write on the board into their excercise books, but appearently the teachers do not usually ever look at what the kids write. I went around at the end of class one day and wrote with a pink pen "good job" by all of their writing, and they loved it. They begged me to do it the next day, but its impossible to do everyday with more than 60 kids in a class, so I need to figure out a way to check their work without mass chaos. Although everything is mass chaos when you have six kids sitting a bench made for three kids!
One of the funniest parts of teaching is that the kids pronounce teacher, teachaah, with a sort of british accent, it makes me smile every time they say it!

My job placement

I am teaching 8-10 year olds at Mawenzi Primary school in Karanga. Today was my first day in front of the classroom by myself, and it wasn't perfect, but I think it was a good start.
Schools in Tanzania are very different than in the states. To begin with, I am teaching two different classes English, one class has 60 students and the other has almost 80. Becasue there are so many students to one teacher they are not taught anything ever. Rather, the teachers says something and they all repeat it over and over. However, they dont really udnerstand what they are saying. Needless to say my approach was very different than what the kids are used to.
I got into a little trouble from the head master today becasue I taught the kids Simon Says, in order to work on body parts vocabulary. The head master thought we were having too much fun, and in Tanzania the classroom is not an appropriate place for fun. I am not going to give up though on my lesson plans, which all involve fun =)
Unfortunatly, they use sticks in order to discipline the children at my school. Becasue I am not willing to beat the kids, I am afraid discipline will be a problem becasuse they already have realized I didnt carry a stick into the classroom.
Overall, the kids are just adorable, and I am so excited for the oppurtunity to introduce them to a different style of education!
Perhaps the best part of my day came at the end. I was done with my four hours of teachign two classes and went into teh teacher's office to work on my stuff for the rest of the week. One of the teachers asked me my religion, when I said Christian she asked if I knew any Christian songs to teach the children in English! I was so excited, so tomorrow after my second class I am going to the Bible Class to teach songs!! I think I will start with Jesus Love Me and work my way up from there...

A note on Religion: In Tanzania everybody is very religious, however there is across the board religious tolerence. At my school there are Christian children and Muslim children and when it comes time for religion class they simply split up and then come back together. Christians and Muslims marry all the time, and there is no problem at all. I respect this so much!! It is my favorite part of Tanzania so far.

More to come soon, and hopefully some pictures soon too!!!

Arriving in Kili

When I stepped off the plane in Kilimanjaro, (onto the runway) I could not believe the view. The mountain was straight in front of me, it is indescribably beautiful and magestic. The air is amazingly clean which adds to the country's beauty.
However, the extreme poverty blew away any of my expectations. The people in my community (Karanga) are so kind and spirited, but they lead hard lives. The drive to my house is a dirt road with pot holes and dirt mounds that make it seem more like a hiking trail. The road is filled with people walking to market (women carrying baskets on their heads) and children playing with the dirt.
My first day that I went for a walk through the area, I was attacked by dozens of children who just wanted to touch my skin and my hair and get a hug. There is one little boy who I have gotten the pleasure of recieving surprise attacks hugs from multiple time, and he loves to dig in my bag. He discovered my chapstick, and I had to give it to him because I have never seen a child more fascinated with anything in my whole life.
In addition to the adorable children, there are also monkeys on my street! There are wild monkeys as well as pet monkeys who go for walks on leashes! I also saw a lizzard that's tail was green, body yellow, and head purple. When I saw this, I knew I was truly in Africa!
From the upstairs of my house you can see Kili every morning, the peak of the mountain still takes my breath away every time I look at it.
I have been practicing my Swahili, and am getting better everyday. The most helpful practice I have recieved thus far was a conversation with a toddler on the street. She talked slow enough for me to understand!
The food is surprisingly good, I never knew bannanas could be cooked in so many ways! And I have yet to get sick from it, knock on wood.
One of my big fears that has arisen since I arrived is malaria. Although I am taking malaria pills, they only help prevent it, and many volunteers have been ill with maleria in the past few weeks, so pray for the mosquitos to stay away from me!

Ethiopia

On my way to Kili, I missed a connecting flight in Addis Abba, Ehtiopia and unexpectedly had to spend the night in the city! At first I was in tears because the prospect of staying alone in a hotel in Ethiopia scared me to death, but God provided. There was another girl from my flight who was also stranded and so we set out to experience Addis Abba together. (she happened to be from Boca!)
Our first task was to exchange money. We asked around the town and quickly learned that all the banks were closed, however, we did find a hotel that would switch out our money and in the process we discovered that Ethiopians are very friendly and helpful. Next we found a place to eat, I decided I wasnt up for trying Ethiopian cuisine so I ordered a cheeseburger. When the cheeseburger came out it was raw meat! (I didnt eat it)
After this we walked to the center of town, it was incredilbe. The building were five stories tall, but not like they are in the states, it was more like five different one story building all stacked on top of each other.
The hardest part of being in Ethiopia was not the hose for a shower, or the smelly hotel room, it was the children on the street. The kids were all wrapped in blankets and surrounded us wherever we went asking for water and food. It was very hard to watch.