Update

Things are still going well in Arusha. My placement is great. Today we debated: "Should dowry and bride prices continue in our tradition?" I am learning so much this way. By the way, when Masha (one of the teachers) got married he had to give his wife's family 24 crates of soda. (usually this would be beer, but it is against his religion). He also technically owes them a cow. When my host mother was married her husband gave her parents 12 cows.

Masha recently made the comment, "I really like how the Maasai do circumcision...they do it themselves." I am still trying to figure out what that means. Unfortunately the conversation came to an end because I was at his house and his wife is Maasai.

I have bought several different Kanga's. I try to wear African dress every day. People are very excited about the fact that I have adopted their way of dress. A kanga is an inexpensive cloth that you wrap around yourself over another skirt or pants. I guess after years of wanting to look western they are excited to see that someone values their culture too.

I am being fed until I want to explode. This is really the greatest hardship that I have had to endure. But really.... Really way more food than anyone could want. Most of it is good though. I had a stew with meat and banana lately. Better than you would think...

I taught a lesson on prepositions this week and the students here did infinitely better than the ones at the shitty private school I was at before. No one got below a 65 on the test and I made it fairly hard.

Apolygamous?

I am still quite pleased with my placement. Things are going well in Arusha, despite a slight cold that I got from my roommate. I don't have much time, but here is an interesting story.

The class debate that we had on Friday was written on the board as, "Apolygamous is better than amonogamous". This is how our debate about polygamy and monogamy began. I secretly erased the unnecessary "a" when no one was looking only to have it rewritten as, "Polygamy life is better than monogamy life" - I guess this is at least a small success in that these are real words. The students suggest the daily topic and debate it to further their usage of English. So people will frequently take stances that they disagree with just to amuse themselves and controversial topics are taken to get a rise out of people so that there will be more argument. Masha, the head teacher, likes to play devil's advocate. When arguing in support of polygamy his logic was as follows: "There are more women in the world and they all want to be married. If we do not allow men to take more than one wife there will be many single women and this will result in widespread lesbianism which is a great sin." The end of this argument resulted in him asking me to write "lesbian", "gay", "homosexual", and "homophobic" on the board. He asked me to explain homophobia then he said, "homophobic, that is good". I said, "uh...well, that is one way to look at it..."

I have discovered more and more that the best way to get by in Africa is just to accept things as they come and not to argue at all because it is absolutely futile.
Later I will tell you about religion in Africa. This is really a very very different beast... By the way, Masha is Pentecostal.

Teaching English in Mwanama

My new program is amazing. I am incredibly happy with what I am doing now. I am teaching English at an adult school in a much more rural area of Arusha. The school teaches about 120 students English in hopes of furthering their proffesional lives. Without English advancement is hard and the school system in this country does not teach English effectively. My school offers the cheapest English language courses of any place in Arusha as well as classes in Italian and Spanish. My school is on the second floor of a rickety building. It contains 2 classrooms and an office and it is about the same size in its entirety as your average classroom for 20 students in America. It is very small and their resources are remarkably limited. The students are very eager to learn and they are very excited to have me. I am teaching with 3 other teachers - men from Tanzania and Kenya who are about my age. They are very nice. None of my fellow teachers have college degrees and they do very well with what education they have. This country is so poor. They need so much. One of them asked me if I could please take him to the internet cafe and show him how to use the internet. He has never used it before. I don't know if any of them have. I said I would try to teach him. The problem is that at $1.50/hour it is too expensive for most locals to use. They need books here...BADLY. Getting a spanish textbook in africa is apparently impossible. They have 2 books in spanish from the 1980's in very bad condition. They need English grammar books as well - most of those are British publications from the 1980's as well. If anyone can get ahold of some used books and is willing to send them these people would be incredibly grateful. I realize that shipping will be expensive though.

Mondays and Fridays we run class debates to teach students speaking skills. My first class was a debate about the best way to eradicate AIDS in Africa. I assisted in educating them further... They were only discussing using condoms, abstinence, and faithfulness. I brought in an excessive amount of facts about HIV and the importance of making your partner get tested. I think that I was quite helpful.

Tuesdays and Wednesdays we go over grammar and vocabulary. Thursdays they take tests. Today I helped them with grammar and worked with the less advanced ones to go over vocabulary. Most of this entailed going through a list of opposites such as "here" and "there" and using them in context.

The owner of the school, Masha, (one of the teachers) has me over for lunch every day with his wife and baby. I don't quite know how to take this but at my first introduction to the wife she said, "She is pretty" and then handed me all of their wedding albums to go through. We proceeded to eat while watching a Gospel DVD of dancing gyrating and praising. The dancing is quite unlike anything that I have ever seen. The first meal we had I was fed Ugali. This is very similar to cement and because I was a guest they gave me alot. I can't explain the agonies of hospitality in situations like these, but let me just say that the conclusion was carried out most grotequely over a gaping stinking hole in the ground 2 hours later.

The men that I teach with are so capable but they cannot afford college. All they want to do is have access to better reading materials and go to school and they cannot afford it. Most of them didn't complete high school because their parents ran out of money. They just read up and passed their equivalent of the GED. One of them went in to the University and inquired about fees and the administrator said, "what do you do for a living?" He told her he was a teacher and she asked how much he made. After he told her about his earnings she said that that wouldn't even cover the first third of one school year so he went home. I am looking into scholarship programs for them here and abroad. Maybe the Rotary could do something.

If anyone has access to materials let me know. Also, if you know of any materials online that I could print off for them those would be very helpful as well.

Snake park and Maasai village...also my project is being changed

Snake Park
Today I rode a camel, wore a snake, and held a baby crocodile. The baby crocodile peed a little in my hand because I squeezed his brains too hard when he tried to bite. I asked if I could pet the black mamba and only received shocked stares. (I was actually kidding...but they did let me hold a crocodile...)

Another band playing out of the back of a pickup truck just drove by the internet cafe.

My project
My project is improving. I am being moved to a new post where I will teach English to adults. I will work alongside 3 other teachers. They are desperately understaffed and teach 120 students total. They teach from 8 am to 8pm and I will initially work from 8 until 4. I am very excited about the new position. The other teachers openly told me that they really need a native English speaker to help them and that they want to work to find better methods of teaching. I am happy that I might finally be put to work. If I really decide that I like teaching English then I might consider teaching English in Thailand. That would be exciting because it pays. I am also still contemplating PeaceCorp....

I was feeling bad about leaving Prime, but then I heard that two other girls were posted there last time and they felt useless too and hated the headmaster who is truly a bastard. The headmaster insists that each teacher only get 2 pens and when one stops working they can trade it in for a new one. I suspect that this thrifty sentiment explains why he keeps saying that they need volunteers despite the fact that they are better staffed than most African schools. Apparently the other girls also complained that students were beaten frequently for no reason. I never saw this, but I was there in between normal sessions.

Arusha
Living in Arusha is more expensive than I thought because you can't walk anywhere by yourself in the dark so you have to always take cabs. It gets dark at 6. I am worried about money and that is never fun. Apparently, everyone else here who is traveling and volunteering has money coming out of their assholes.

I finally met some more people here by going to a club Thursday night. I met several UN volunteers as well as a guy who works for the UN full time. Perhaps that will help me get a better idea of what I can do in Arusha. We also got a new group of volunteers in the program. This makes me happy because they are a lot closer to my age and some of them are staying until I leave. So things are improving here and I am happy about that. Arusha is not the ideal place to be, but if I can actually get some good work done I will be pleased with the project. I really like Africa, I just don't really like Arusha as a city. It is full of crime and violence and in the city center people pester you constantly about safari's and buying things or dating them. Arusha is known for this more than anything. Fortunately, my new job takes me further from the city center where it looks more like what you would expect from Africa. I am quite fond of wandering goats and chickens.

The more I travel, the more I want to travel. Next I want to go to Thailand or Nepal. The variable will be getting money to go or getting paid to stay...

Some new insights into life in Tanzania

Apparently, having a housekeeper, guards, and a driver is not so much a sign of incredible wealth here in Tanzania...it is a sign that they have a good job that pays for them to have those things instead of giving them more money. Sometimes they will pay for your house too. It is a sign of a respectable job, but they still don't necessarily make that much money. It is a common practice to pay employees this way. But positions like teaching and lower level jobs do not receive such amenities.

I might be moved to a different school where I will teach adults English. I have read all of The Poisonwood Bible, Cats Cradle, and am now starting Dune at my current "job". I need to find an English language bookstore soon.

I taught a class Thursday...finally. It wasn't too bad. I am confused by what I see as the enforcement of discipline at this school. Apparently the primary discipline problem is girls styling their hair. Girls at this school are not permitted to have styled hair... if they do style it they will get harshly chastised and in this confrontation they will be told that they should be paying attention to their school work instead of their hair. Interesting that this is the focus instead of incessant absence or illiteracy. I am also unsure as to what constitutes "styled" since the last girl to receive this punishment looked so disheveled that she could have come straight from a sinking ship and all she wanted was to fix her goddamn hair.

My school has a computer lab with about 30-40 fairly nice computers. They all are equipped with a phone. Not sure why.

About my school

Well, I actually got to do some work today. I filled out report cards for the entire school. The results are kind of baffling. Here is what I have discerned so far: It is a 100 point system and the tests are alot like ours in the states. No one ever gets above a 80. Therefore, an A is approximately a 70 or higher. B = approximately a 60 - 70, C = 50-60, D = 30-50 and anything below that is an F. Although depending on who you ask a D is also failing. I would estimate that that includes about 80% of the private school. The highest grade I have seen is a 79. The kid is apparently like a rock star. I tend to think that something is wrong if the kid who is like a rock star is unable to get at least a 90. I think most of the teachers have given up. They are not interested in accomodating their students (and I can understand that to a degree). I thought that there was a bell curve...but apparently not. Instead of a bell curve there is just a really really big range of possible scores that constitute an A despite the fact that average is probably about a 30. Therefore, the average is failing. Rarely do the 2 primary exam grades equal 100 when added together.

This brings us to the question, so what happens when you fail an exam? Well....nothing really. You don't retake the course or the exam. You just REALLY won't get into university.

Do note though that I am teaching in a private school. I think governemnt schools are very different.

Tomorrow I get to teach my one class of reading aloud.

Moshi and back to Arusha

I went to Moshi for the weekend and it was fabulous. I took the bus in on Friday and wandered the city for awhile by myself until the other people staying in my hostel got back from their projects. Moshi is much safer than Arusha. I did however, collect quite an entourage of local men following me at one point - this happens often. On the way back to the hostel I chatted with a 14 year old boy who ended the conversation with, "I am so excited to have talked with a white woman teacher today! I will dream of it tonight!" Then he proceeded to ask for my phone number.

I stayed at Hostel Hoff which is a hostel just for volunteers. It feeds into several local orphanages and while in my opinion it could be run more efficiently it is an excellent way to do volunteer work without committing to a set period of time and you actually get to work in villages. It costs about 20-24$ a night which includes breakfast and dinner. I believe it could run off of 6-12$/night since they do not donate to the orphanages, but it is still a good idea and it provides a wealth of networking opportunities as I found out.

When I got back to the hostel on Friday I met with Amanda, an Aussie who helps run the hostel. She told me about her current project which is separate from the other projects in the hostel. She volunteers for an NGO that helps children in a village at the base of Kilimanjaro. Recently, she took an 8 year old girl to the hospital who had been badly burned carrying water in an accident that occurred 2 years ago. It was a 3rd degree burn and the skin never reformed. Apparently the medical bills came out to 100$. They also build houses for people who cannot afford them. The cost of building a house for a family is 300$. Most of the families there cannot even afford to leave their village. Their average income is about 5,000 Tanzanian Shillings a week for everyone in the family added together. This is about 5$. Amanda's job is to take the kids to the hospital and arrange for houses to be built. She does not get paid.

Saturday I went to Newlands village orphanage about 45 minutes from Moshi with the other volunteers from Hostel Hoff. It was actually a really nice place. The kids were not sick and they didn't beat on each other like they do at other orphanages. There were about 70 and only 3 had HIV. It was a beautiful little village - pretty much exactly what you would envision. It was complete with naked little boys playing in the stream while their mothers washed clothes. I'm sure the stream was full of parasites, but it was still quite picturesque. I was supposed to teach sex ed to the older girls, but the woman who runs the orphanage was stuck in a meeting with the pastor who is apparently a bastard so there was no program. We just played with the kids for about 6 hours. The girls promptly took a liking to my hair (all their heads are shaved) and began braiding it, which was good since I didn't quite know what to do with them without a program. Some of them seemed pretty smart. Not all of them attend school at the orphanage - most are in government schools which are sometimes very harsh and full of shitty teachers. One girl's hand was swollen up where she was beaten in school. Apparently this is a good orphanage because the woman who runs it actually took her to a doctor and also insisted to speak to the teacher who did it.

I made several friends at the hostel who might come by Arusha - this is good because I don't feel any great kinship with most of the others in my program. I also talked to a woman staying there who is starting up her own project in January.

I got back on the bus Sunday for Arusha and now here I am. Going to Moshi was very good. I would have just been bored to hell if I had stayed behind. But now I face the reality of my current project which so far has been a reality of boredom and meaninglessness. I am trying to be patient, but I have other things I can do if the school doesn't need me and when there are government schools that need teachers so badly it seems hard to justify my current post. After a week they have finally come up with something that I can do. I will assist with a 1 hour long class that is dedicated entirely to reading aloud and answering questions. That is fine...but it is not enough to justify my staying if I can be more useful elsewhere. It is frustrating. I also would still prefer to be in a village.

Nothing is worse than boring easy work. I will give it more time though. If it doesn't improve in the next few weeks I might see about heading off to Kenya or Uganda. Most people with our program feel unfulfilled too I think. Maybe I should have just sacked up and done PeaceCorp. I think about that sometimes. That and teaching in Thailand. I have heard that there are MA programs that you can do while in PeaceCorp - if anyone has more details on this, please share.

I am generally having a good time, I just have doubts about the program and I am not too terribly fond of Arusha. Anyway, I am sure it will work out. My next objective is to find more expats and PeaceCorp volunteers in Arusha.

A week into my program...

The rest of my volunteer group went on Safari so it is pretty much just me until Sunday so may go see Moshi if I can't find anyone here to play with. I would like to go on the Safari too, but the one that our fairly disorganized program touts is pretty expensive and I can't justify spending that much money this early in my trip. I think it comes out to $550 or $600 for a four day safari. I think that is probably average in Tanzania, but I know they can be cheaper in Kenya. Either way though, my goal was to work and adjust for awhile and then go when I am thinking of moving on. I have gotten to like some of the other volunteers more, but most of them are awfully young and they have very different objectives. I do wonder if perhaps, given my relatively hard core objective, I would have been more satisfied by joining the PeaceCorp.

I don't want to sit around, I want to work hard and go to bed tired. Today my workday was so completely ineffective that I finished my book and eventually left. I am told that I will begin teaching Monday (Friday is a holiday) but they can't exactly tell me what that will entail. I ask and ask, but I guess we are planning that Monday too. I will give it another week to pickup and create some direction before I see if I can change my work site. When I chose to go to Tanzania instead of Kenya I knew that it would be more disorganized, but this is more than I was expecting. The head of the program will be here in early September to work problems out. Sometimes things are frustrating but I remind myself that everything about being here is a learning experience. So far I have been learning a lot about patience, inefficiency, and poor organizational structure (not that I hadn't learned about that from Telefund already...). I am learning more interesting things too, especially from my host family which is fabulous.

My host mother was born in Kenya as one of 12 children to a man who worked on the railroad. He had only enough money for school fees and clothes and they harvested and grew their own food. She eventually went to University in Nairobi as well as the Netherlands and now she works in some capacity for the UN. She lost some very close friends in the embassy bombing 10 years ago today. I believe that my host family would be considered middle class or even upper middle class here. They have a house girl who cooks and cleans and a guard. There are bars on the windows to prevent break-ins. They have a stove, refrigerator, blender, toaster, radio, TV, cell phones, a flush toilet, hot water, a Bible, a car and another home that they rent out but have never lived in. They do not have a microwave, dishwasher, or air conditioning (or heat for that matter). They believe that the government of Tanzania squanders all of the country's wealth and keeps it for themselves rather than distributing it to the people and I think that this is true. Tanzania could probably be a very rich country, it is just poorly managed.

Of the teachers that I work with the science teacher is most demanding and has a very confusing sense of humor. The highest grade on his chemistry final was 68. He teaches all about diseases and microbes but he picks his nose with a ferocity that I cannot convey with words and he reserves this special activity for deep and thoughtful conversations.

People here laugh at the ineptitude of Europeans and Americans when it comes to simple tasks like washing clothes and cleaning shoes. Apparently, we are known for this. Tanzanians typically would never throw something away just because it got stained or went out of style. This includes my fairly well-off host family who weld their gate together with spare electrical wire and bottle caps.

How I dealt with a stalker and other exciting tales....

There are many friendly men here in Arusha, some of them want to sell things to you, some would like to marry you, and others would like to follow you home and take your bank card. I met one of the latter yesterday while Kate and I were on our way home from the city center. He was obviously trying to take advantage of us in some way and sometimes I play games. He kept asking where we lived and if we were married. I told him I was a lesbian on a mission from God and that my work schedule was arbitrary because I was training to be a nurse at a primary school far far away from where I work. He asked me what type of bank card I used and wanted to know if I could help him out to buy some porridge. I told him that I was a missionary who didn't have any money because the Catholic church hordes money. He persisted. If it were dark or we were in an isolated area he totally would have tried to steal my wallet. I turned around and screamed, "MY SON IS DYING OF CANCER AND I CAN'T TAKE THIS FROM YOU" and then he apologized and left. Why be rude when you can make assholes feel guilty?

Most men in Arusha are not like this by the way.

My teaching assignment has so far come down to grading papers, I will actually be teaching around August 11th because form 2 and 4 will be back in session. I am learning alot though. Did you know that exercise can prevent AIDS?

50% is passing here and they have a curve. This is also one of the better schools in Arusha because it is an International school and they have limited enrollment. I am not sure how much of this is due to teachers who not very good and how much is due to students who have too much going on in their lives to study...or if it is because English isn't their first language.

My host family, while far more European than I would initially have deemed ideal, is actually turning out to be quite good. They are really good people and because they speak fluent English and are very educated they are capable of answering my incredible arsenal of questions. They are very familiar with East Africa politics and intentionally or not, they are teaching me.

I shat in a hole today. It isn't as bad as you would think.

I have also discovered the most important thing about REI's quick dry pants...they repel water when you pee halfway down your leg.

August 4, 2008

Yesterday I went into town and on the way back I saw a wedding party with a band playing walking toward the roundabout fountain near our house. Then a pickup truck filled with another band in the back (totally unrelated to the wedding) began to circle the roundabout while playing. Then a cow walked by in the middle of traffic.

School, Monkeys, Titanic, and Jesus

August 2, 2008 11:30 am

I saw my project today. I am becoming much more optimistic. They changed my school from the orphanage school that Kate will work at to an international school closer to the city center. I will be teaching in their secondary school and at this school all instruction is in English. I think it is one of their nicest schools here, but they still need teachers badly. I am much happier with this than teaching 2-12 year olds who don't speak ANY english. This could be much more successful. I also hope to help build the community school that they are constructing and to generally work in orphanages in my spare time. They are going to try to arrange for me to get some Swahili instruction. If I like this placement maybe I will stay on longer and forgo my hole-toilet. But for me to stay I must not spend much money and I must feel useful. That is most important.

As far a my health goes, I feel pretty good. I am concerned that the Malarone makes me feel tired, but it might just be jet lag. If I am still for too long I start to feel tired - kind of like I had a long night of drinking, hangover tired.

I have had to give up on the vegetarianism while I am here. It is just too difficult when others are cooking for you. Our host family has also announced that their goal is to make us fat.

When I came home today a woman carrying water on her head escorted by 2 burros walked by on my street. Yesterday, I saw some guys in the back of a lumber truck with a baboon. There are not many baboons in the city though and this makes me sad.

Our host father is quite well-versed in politics and has degrees from Ottawa and Cambridge. He is teaching me about African politics by way of me asking him hundreds of questions per dinner session.

People are very excited about Obama here and in Kenya. If anyone has access, I would greatly appreciate a ton of Obama schwag...and some Kraft mac and cheese. These people want to know about a typical Texas diet and they do not have any McDonald's here so I thought I would make do with mac and cheese.

We have an avacado tree in our yard, a bible on the front room table, several pictures of Jesus, 4 calendars, and a poster of 2 kittens that says "Becoming number one is easier than remaining number one." Oh yeah, and two framed posters of the movie Titanic. There is also a stuffed bear on display that is still in the bag to protect it from dust.

If you don't have anything to do today I would like to highly recommend looking up the English dubbed Argentinian soap opera Lalola. I can't believe that I had to go to Africa to get good South American soaps, but there you go. They only get a few from South Africa...most seem to be from Peru and Argentina. I can't imagine why. But I have to say, the dubbing is hilarious.

More on Arrival

July 31, 2008 Arrival in Tanzania
I arrived in Tanzania yesterday by way of Akamba bus lines. The hostel took me to the bus station at 5:30 am and my bus left at 6:30 for Arusha. Namanga border crossing wasn't as bad as I had expected it to be, but it was good that I got my visa early because they gave a brit quite a bit of shit for getting it there. After going through the first stage of the crossing some locals asked me if I was going by Dar Express and I said "no, I am taking Akamba." They replied that I must hurry and took me to a currency shop and tried to tell me that by Tanzanian law I am required to have at least 2 Tanzanian shillings on me and I must change money there. I guess they expected me to believe this. I told them that I would not change money with them and they eventually left me alone.

I have discovered that you have to be constantly on guard here because people want you to impulsively spend money so that you forget what you are spending. That said, once you show them that you will not fall for their tricks they tend to leave you alone. The banter can be kind of fun too. I have discovered that it is best to laugh and smile and make jokes. Most of them really do not mean you any harm, they just want to make a few extra bucks off of you because you are white.

My bus arrived 3 hours earlier than the bus company told me it would so I called Mr. Tossy's number and was told that someone would come to get me soon. Aggry and Brenda picked me up and took me to my host family's house. I was really hoping to be placed in a village, but they put me in Arusha in a house with electricity, running water, and a typical flushing toilet. I was actually a bit disappointed. My host mother is very nice though. She went to University in the Netherlands and works for the UN. The husband works for the government. They have 2 children. One is 25 and studies in Albany, NY and the other is in boarding school in Dar es Salaam.

Aggry constantly re-itterated how dangerous Arusha is. We cannot be out alone after 6pm or really in groups after 8pm unless we take a taxi or go with the program. You cannot trust the taxis here unless they are the ones sponsored by the program because they will take you out and rob you. Theft is prevalent here. We are in a very secure house though and we have a gate keeper and a maid. The program seems to prioritize our safety and they send people to escort us around the city regularly to show us where we should and should not go.

I may only stay here for a month and ask to move to a village, by then perhaps my Swahili will be better - most people do not speak English in the villages. I hate to say it but I am quiet disappointed by the fact that I am in such an urban area. The villages are typically safer and the accommodations are more rustic.

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The constant flow of african radio here is delightful. I want it to play forever. However, there is this one song that plays over and over. The lyrics are "If you do me I'll do you" and that is pretty much it.....over and over. You should really look it up online. It is hysterical.

Today Kate (my 18 year old roommate from the UK and I) went in search of a cell phone charger. Before too much time went by we found ourselves escorted by 4 local men who wished to assist us in this matter. At first I was suspicious, but they didn't ask for payment or try to follow us home - they were just being friendly.

Our live-in maid/cook only speaks Swahili and is illiterate. Her mother died when she was young and she has not ever been to school. My host mother took her on a few weeks ago and plans to arrange for schooling for her. She is about 15. We have been here alone with her quite a bit and communication is an interesting challenge.

Everywhere you go in the streets you are stared at, but people are friendly and I don't think that their attention is necessarily negative - they are just curious. Every time I go out in Tanzania at least 10-20 people say hello. The children are totally mystified too. People constantly call out, "Mzungu, how are you?" "Jambo Mzungu!" This means, "hello white person". The children are especially fond of saying this.

The one thing that I did not expect here is cold weather. It is rainy and fairly cold because it is winter and we are in the mountains. On average highs are in the 70s so far and the low is probably about 50.

We have orientation for our project tomorrow. I hope it goes well. I would really like to find some people closer to my age who have similar objectives like the people that I met at the hostel in Nairobi.