Pix!

Ok - pix might a bit of an overpromise - but with the slow speed of the internet connection, I could only get a few up.  These are pictures taken on Friday during "sports."  As you can see from the pictures, the kids are dressed in their exercise uniforms.  Sports actually amounts to running around in the gravel area in front of the school, playing tag or chasing a soccer ball.  On Friday, it mostly included chasing Teacher Kathryn.

The kids were super excited about the camera.  I am in most of the pictures because the kids all wanted to try their hand at photography.  To their credit, they did a pretty good job - I only ended up with a few shots of their hands.  We probably took pictures for a solid twenty minutes...they can't get enough of seeing pictures of themselves.

You may also have noticed that I placed a donate button at the top of my blog.  This is in response to the numerous thoughtful requests I have received to help send school supplies.  Unfortunately, the mail is notoriously unreliable and highly prized things like pencils and sharpeners usually get stolen en route.  I figured the easiest way for those who are interested to help would be by setting up a secure paypal account - I can use the donations to buy supplies here in Tanzania.  One of the initiatives I am working on particular is starting a library at the school.  The kids love to read - but simply don't have any books.  They read and reread their dog-eared textbooks for fun.  I think that a library would be a wonderful thing to leave behind to be enjoyed by countless children.

I thank you in advance if you choose to donate.  I will continue to update my blog with the status of the library initiative as well as the purchase of other standard supplies.  And there will be more pix!

Curriculum a la Tanzania

1. "My father likes to drink whiskey."
2. "The man got drunk at the wedding party."
3. "The boy drank poison in a cup."
4. "The fat man has an ass."

True or False: The sentences above are suitable for teaching young children how to read________.

Most Westerners would probably answer "False" for the age inappropriate content and language.  However, these are sample sentences actually taken from a beginner's English book here in Tanzania.  Imagine, reading with a 7 year old and helping him to correctly pronounce "ass" - like "'a' as apple" - when you discover this sentence following the innocuous example "the cat sat on the mat."

Overall, the material that is taught to kids here is very matter-of-fact.  The content simply isn't edited to create a sanitized kid version - probably because the kids are basically seen as little adults.  The information also conveys general safety and health precautions that can help keep them from getting sick or hurt rather than more abstract educational concepts.

For example, science class has focused heavily on body cleanliness.  The kids had several classes on how to bathe, including the various items used for proper hygiene.  It was all very true to Tanzania - the illustrations featured naked people squatting in front of a bucket and pouring water on themselves from a pitcher.  The course covered toothbrushes and toothpaste, but I doubt very many of the children actually know what these are since their teeth are brown and rotten.

Science class has also covered the importance of not drinking dirty water and the diseases that can be carried by mosquitoes and house flies.  This section was tastefully illustrated with paired images of a naked man urinating and defecating near water sources - which the students were admonished never to do.

The most serious topic that they have covered is the transmission of HIV.  Since HIV has decimated the Tanzanian population and left many of the children at the school with only one parent (if they're among the lucky ones), this class makes a lot sense.  It was still striking nonetheless to hear these kids reciting the ways you can catch and transmit the disease in their little singsong voices.

As to their personal safety, their science book warns them not to get too close to wild animals such as crocodiles.  To drive this point home, the illustration depicted a crocodile taking a huge, bloody bite out of a man.  I guess I wouldn't go near one after seeing that picture...but I thought, "geez, this book is for kids. Did it have to be so gory?"

The curriculum in Tanzania really drives home the differences between the kids' lives here and at home; here, kids are expected to be little adults, to help the family earn money, and not have a protected childhood per se; here, staying alive and healthy is still a basic concern, ahead of having fun and learning for learning's sake; here, it's still very much about surviving versus thriving.

Kids are Kids

No matter where in the world you are, people are people and kids are kids.  The kids may wear different clothes, speak a different language, and eat some strange stuff (eg, goat's blood), but they all laugh with joy and love being tickled and hugged. And they all cry and get angry when they are hurt.  Kids anywhere really are just kids everywhere.

There are 140 children who are lucky enough to be students at my school.  In spite of the educational standards I described before - lack of basic resources and a chaotic learning environment - the school is actually ranked 16 out of 14,000 schools in Tanzania.  This statistic is fantastic, but it doesn't tell you anything about what it is like to be a student in the school every day - the super smart kids who are going unchallenged or the slower learners who can't read and act out in class out of boredom and frustration or the kids who just need love.  Here are a few profiles of these kids. 

Sonia - pronounced "Sew-knee-a;" Sonia is sharp and speaks English very well.  She can read English easily.  She was out sick this morning but still got 100% on her classwork - how to use "ing" at the end of a verb.  This seems pretty easy - until you realize how many exceptions there are.  "Cut" becomes "cutting" with a double 't' while "snore" becomes "snoring" losing the 'e.'  She just knew these answers without having been in the lesson.  She likes Hannah Montana and her "sparkly" shoes.  She loves to learn vocabulary and is always asking for me to teach her new words.  She reads and rereads her tattered textbooks when she is done with her assignments in class.  She was the first student to understand how to play tic-tac-toe and usually beats the other students - and sometimes even me.  She likes to help me grade the papers and listens raptly to me as I talk.  I always try to give her extra questions to work on to keep her challenged.

Rehema - pronounced "Re-hee-ma;" Rehema is an adorable Muslim girl.  Some days she wears a headscarf and sometimes she doesn't.  Because of the Muslim population in Tanzania, women don't show their knees - so no shorts for tourists even on hot, hot days.  When "shorts" was a vocabularly word that I explained by showing where "short pants" go above the knee - and that women wear them, including me - her mouth dropped open in total surprise and then laughter.  When I first arrived, she was so shy I couldn't get her to answer any questions in class.  Today was a big day.  After I demonstrated the meaning of snoring by "snoring" loudly, I asked the class if they knew anyone who snored.  She was the first on her feet raising her hand and proudly proclaimed, "My father!"  It seems like a small thing, but for Rehema, these two words were a very big deal.  She was glowing with pride since she made the class laugh.

Franklin - pronounced just like it looks! (many of the children use English names); Franklin is 7 but looks about 5.  He barely talks.  He has an older sister in the next grade who looks almost exactly like him.  Both he and his sister live in the school's hostel.  What this means is that he and his sister don't have any parents or family who can support them, so they live at the school.  There are about 40 other orphans who live in the hostel and attend school for free as part of the school's charity program.  For these kids, the education is almost secondary.  It's attention that they need most.  As soon as I walk in the door in the morning, Franklin wraps his arms around my legs or gives me a hug and won't let go.  He loves to sit in my lap as I grade papers and sometimes just sit in my lap, with his arms around my neck, and his head on my chest.  The most important thing I can give him is comfort and love.

Bright - just like it looks (many of the children have unusual English words for names, such as Nice, Gift, and Innocent); Bright comes across as a troublemaker.  He sits in class chewing on a pencil with a vacant look on his face.  He turns in his papers at the end of class, usually half done.  He's often caught in the back of the room, rough housing with other boys instead of doing his work.  You might be tempted to think that Bright isn't bright - but I think he actually is.  He just can't read, and no one has tried to help him.  I realized this yesterday when I caught him trying to hide his workbook at the bottom of my grading pile.  I made him sit with me to read his work...and he simply couldn't.  Once he realized that I wasn't going to hit him (which is what happens to students who misbehave), he relaxed and worked on sounding out some words with me.  Later, he came by the desk and was playing with a book - he said 'yes' immediately when I asked if he wanted to try more reading.  As big a day as it was for Rehema, it was an even bigger day for Bright today.  I taught him the "s" sound in "sun," the "a" sound in "apple," and the "t" sound in "tongue" (all words they have learned in class), and he sounded out "sat" for himself.  The big grin on his face was priceless when I told him it was right.  Two hours later, he forgot the word, but still remembered the "s" sound and later read "pat."  I really hope that this is the beginning of his real education.



For each of these children, there are many more like them in my classes.  I wish I had the space to write about them all because they are all the sweetest kids who deserve to have their stories told.  When I leave the school at the end of the day, I feel a bit like the Pied Piper because there are so many children holding my hand and following me home.  I almost wish that I could take them all the way home to the US and away from this system.  They all have so much potential.  And some great, great laughs.

School Days

None of the prep work that I did at home before coming to Tanzania fully prepared me for the reality of the school system here.  I knew that there was a desperate need for teachers, but I didn't fully grasp the magnitude of the situation until I set foot in the classroom myself.  Of course, the very fact that these schools are willing to use temporary, untrained teachers to teach their students says a lot about the lack of educational resources in the country.

As background, to attend school, students need to pay.  The cost usually runs several hundred dollars a year.  This cost covers their books and school uniforms.  The obvious problem with this system is the widespread unemployment - I've read that it is as high as 70%.  Many parents simply can't pay for their children to attend school; moreover, they actually need their children to stay home and help earn money and do chores, such as trek great distances for drinking water.  There is a system of government and private schools, but one of the most prevalent forms of schooling is the orphanage system.  Due to the devastation of HIV/AIDS, numerous children are orphans.  Many are lucky enough to sleep at relatives' homes at night, but during the day, are housed, fed, and educated in orphanages rather than at traditional schools.

I was placed at the Jue Pre and Primary school for children 3-13 years old.  It is a private school that conducts all classes in English.  When I learned that this was my placement, I was initially worried that a private school, staffed with actual teachers wouldn't have any need for me.  Sadly, I discovered that they do.  What I am about to describe passes as top caliber teaching in Tanzania.

Students are grouped into classes by age, from pre-school to Class 7.  There are approximately 25 children in each classroom.  They sit four students to each wooden bench/desk, making cheating off each other a common problem.  There are no levels to distinguish between children with great academic aptitude and struggling learners.  All students are taught the exact same material.

A typical class for 7-8 year olds begins with the teacher asking students to name a few things that were covered in the prior lesson.  This lasts approximately 5 minutes.  The teacher then spends 10-15 minutes writing sentences or drawing pictures on the board while the students stare at the ceiling and poke each other with pencils.  Next, the teacher asks the students to copy the work off the board and when complete to drop it off at the front of the room.

When the writing begins, the noise level rises noticeably.  Some is idle chatter, but a lot is caused by the fact that most of the pencils no longer have erasers and the kids have to find someone who has one to use.  Similarly, pencil sharpeners don't exist - the kids share a communal razor that they use at the front of the class to - I am not kidding - carve their pencils to a point.  Countless arguments break out over who has an eraser or who grabbed someone's eraser and who has the razor or who took the razor, etc.  This absurd situation is normal to the kids - countless educational minutes are lost due to the lack of basic classroom tools.  When the students turn in their copied work, the teacher marks it and the kids recopy the exact exercise for homework.  The teacher doesn't provide feedback on the work, and the students receive no individual attention. The entire class lesson takes no more than 45 minutes.  But the class periods are 120 minutes.  The remaining time is filled with rough housing for the kids who are done; the slower children try to continue to work in the chaos.  As a result of this methodology, the kids can parrot back phrases and copy what's on the board, but they don't understand much of anything they are supposed to have learned. 

Caught up in this system are some amazingly brilliant children.  And some children in desperate need of individual attention.  There are children who can speak English very well and read fluently.  And there are children who barely speak and don't know how to read - at all, even in Swahili, their native language.  These children are in the same class with neither group receiving tailored assignments. 

In future blogs, I'll talk more about some of the individual students, the curriculum, and how I've been trying to change things for the better.

Masai Mania

Nothing speaks more strongly to the divide between ancient and modern Tanzania than the Masai people.  Picture this: a Masai man wearing Masai robes and a fleece while chatting on a cell phone and standing in the cow dung that litters the ground in his village.  On the one hand: Masai robes, cow dung, and village; on the other hand: a cell phone and a fleece.  Quite a surprising contrast.

On my first weekend, a group of volunteers visited a Masai village approximately 3.5hrs from Arusha.  The drive started out rather nicely, with just the standard speed bumps and traffic, and beautiful views of Mt.Meru (the 4th highest mountain in Africa) and Mt. Kilimanjaro.  It wasn't too long, however, before we ran out of paved road and began driving on what could best be called a dirt track.  We were driving in a van that was not really suited for what was essentially off-roading.  We kicked up so much dust as we went that it billowed into our open windows, making it hard to breathe.   We were also transporting a goat, who went about his normal business, creating a flash flood of urine in the passenger area.   Rather unpleasant, but definitely TIA.

Along the way, between bumps and jolts and choking dust, we sighted distant giraffes, a herd of zebra, and....a cluster of, yes, cell phone towers.  As we got close to the village, we found ourselves surrounded by several herds of cows with their Masai shepherds.

The village itself was a group of cow dung huts surrounding a central area where the cows are kept at night.  This area was a minefield of cow patties - word to the wise - don't wear flip flops or sandals on a Masai village excursion.  Inside, the huts were pitch black and filled with smoke from the fire.  The only window was a few inches high by a few inches wide.  They sleep in niches covered in cow hide.  These residences made me deeply appreciate even my rickety bunk bed and mosquito net at the volunteer house.

Our special treat was a goat feast.  The not-special-treat was watching the goat get killed (not actually the one we gave them from our van).  Personally, I didn't watch and covered my ears.  Those who watched told me its throat was slit...I will spare you the details.  The super-special-treat was drinking the blood.  I will spare you those details too - gross - but the Masai children love it.  You've seen just about everything when you have seen little kids with blood mustaches and bloody smiling teeth.  Afterwards, the men butchered the goat and cooked it on stakes around a fire.  Then, they cut off pieces that they handed to us until the goat was gone.  The liver was definitely the worst.  There aren't words to describe it.  The rest was edible, but I wouldn't recommend it.  But we ate it with smiles.

The villagers were very nice and saw us off with a traditional dance.  They made us join in, jumping up and down, and up and down, and up and down until we were exhausted.  I even managed to fall asleep on the bumpy, dusty, hot ride back to Arusha.

To cap off the Masai experience and the study in contrasts, back in Arusha we went to a nightclub where scantily clad African women danced with men in Masai robes to house music.  Two worlds colliding.

The classroom experience is quite the culture shock as well.  Teaching in the next installment.

First Impressions

The first thing that I noticed when I arrived in Tanzania is that it is very dark at night.  There are almost no artificial lights, so the sky is jet black and full of stars.  Driving is slow because the highway to Arusha is strangely peppered with speed bumps and randomly interspersed paved and unpaved sections.  The air often smells of smoke from burning garbage.

The first new phrase that I learned in Africa is "TIA" - This is Africa.  This phrase is something that you say when dealing with a strange situation that is completely normal by African standards.  For example, it is strange by Western standards for the power to go out every night at 7:30 for 30 minutes.  It is strange to simply run out of water at the end of the day.  Both are normal in Tanzania.  I learned "TIA" when I arrived at the volunteer house, tired and dirty from over 24 hrs of international travel.  I went to turn on the faucet and was told, "TIA, no water tonight."  Aack!  I was quickly introduced to the concept of the bucket shower and bucket toilet flush.  The water runs out so often, that a barrel of water and a corresponding bucket are kept in each bathroom just for these occasions.  Thankfully, when there is water, it is possible to get a hot shower...as long as you remember to turn on the water heater 20 minutes beforehand! 

This is the first time that I have ever slept on a top bunk, shrouded in a mosquito net.  I haven't actually been bitten yet, knock wood, even though I forgot to put the net down one night.  I'm in a room with 7 other women - 2 Kiwis, 3 Canadians, 1 Brit, and 1 Norwegian.  I'm by far the oldest - double the age of some - but everyone is very nice and very committed to helping as much as possible while they are here.  The house has about 20 people total, only three men....hmmmmm....wonder why?

This could be the first time in my life that I don't have trouble waking up early in the morning....not only do the neighborhood roosters and dogs starting praising the rising sun while it's still dark, but there is a local mosque that calls for prayer at 5:30am.  The voice is melodic, but it must wake everyone for miles because it is LOUD.  It will probably surprise most everyone, but I am not drinking coffee anymore to make up for my sleep deficit....the instant stuff tastes like mud, so I've switched to tea.  Without cream or sugar even.

My first dala dala ride was probably the first time that I have ever had a stranger basically sit on my lap.  Arusha doesn't have buses.  Instead, there are dala dalas - mini vans that try to hold the same number of passengers as full-sized buses.  They look more like clown cars than public transportation.  In you go, with someone on your lap and sometimes people hanging out the door and someone else's bag or baby on your lap.  The experience is uncomfortable and fragant...ode to human.  I'm glad that I don't have to take the dala dala to my school....I get to walk!  Walking isn't all that easy though...the roads are dirt and full of potholes, and trash, and random stumps.  If you don't walk staring at your feet, you risk tripping and falling into one of the open sewers that run along the side of the road.  I walk quite carefully needless to say.

Overall, Tanzania is a study in contrasts...people who live in shacks who smile and wave when you go by, shouting "mzungu" (white person), dirt roads and Mercedes, and Masai warriors and cell phones.  More on the Masai in my next post.