Don't be sad I'm not coming home for another month. I know that I am needed here and that I am really helping the kids. I love being in Africa and it has not been hard for me to adapt. I do not miss the food back home and while I would love a realy shower and I very happy with my bucket. I understand that it all seems a little strange and that maybe you might be worried about me staying longer, but I really love being here.
The kids have started calling me Mama Ema and coming to me whenever they need anything. I was not really a part of camp, I spent all of my time prepping for school to start, writing rules and working on the organization of the school. By Wednesday that week I had almost every boarder from school (about 10) come up to me and say how much they missed me and how sad they were that I wasn't a part of camp. I had to promise them that I would spend their lunches and dinners with them and that I would come and speak English with them. Fadhil said that he was very sad I had left him and that he wanted more English lessons. He felt like his English was getting worse without me there.
We have a new teacher. Here name is Lornah. She has been teaching for 28 years and she is amazing. She is really excited about getting the infrastructure of this school put together and making sure that the kids are getting the best education. I love working with her, she is incredibly committed. Two of our teachers are leaving at the end of August so we are also looking for replacements. The two teachers are going to University so they can't teach and go to school.
I love you all and am really happy that you are reading these posts. Your messages mean a lot to me.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Back at school
Things are great here. I am really happy to be staying longer. I am helping to create a budget at school for the boarders, teachers and for the genreal running of the school. I am spending the next three weeks doing remedial, remedial English (starting with the ABC's). It's going to be fun. Learning nouns, tenses, all the basics so that they kids can really start speaking. It is too hard teaching biology in English when they don't understand anything you are saying. So we're starting from the beginning.
I am getting much better at getting around town without help. I can ride the dalla dalla alone and I am even starting to pick up some Kiswahili. I am much better at understanding what is being said and very bad at saying anything, but the kids love when I speak with them.
I am getting much better at getting around town without help. I can ride the dalla dalla alone and I am even starting to pick up some Kiswahili. I am much better at understanding what is being said and very bad at saying anything, but the kids love when I speak with them.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
I have been in Africa for a month now and absolutely loving it. I moved yesterday into a guest house that is attached to the school. I don’t live in the dormitory with the students, which gives me a little more personal space and time away from the kids to plan lessons. I have a sitting room with a couch, a separate bedroom and a bathroom. It’s wonderful.
I have some exciting news. I will be staying in Africa another month. I was a little shocked to find this out. Rhoi changed my plane ticket and was planning to change it so I came back the first week in August, but she couldn’t get a seat on the plane until August 25th and without hesitating she put me on that plane. At first I couldn’t figure out what I was going to do. I had to go back and work and pay rent, but Mama Rhoi told the students and they were so happy that I couldn’t change the ticket back. And not only could I not change the ticket for the kids, but they had already given away my old seat and there was no way to get it back. So another month in Tanzania, this gives me the chance to work with the older students doing reading comprehension on “Is It Possible”, “Mine Boy” and “Things Fall Apart.” The students are very happy to have me here to teach them more English and the other teachers want my help planning lessons and preparing for the next term.
We are getting a new English teacher named Lorna. She is wonderful. She is from Kenya and has been in Tanzania teaching for around 20 years. She likes to make visual aids and sing songs to help teach the students. I think I will learn a lot from her. I am also hoping that we can work together and plant more vegetables behind school and also get the kids involved in community clean up. We are thinking of ways to make Boko more green and get the kids to start picking up and getting the community to clean up trash.
We are having CAMP this week at school. Camp is a time for underprivileged youth and youth who have lost their parents to AIDS to come together and play and learn. The kids are focusing on leadership and HIV/AIDS and how to be leaders in their community. There are about 35 kids here and this morning we all got up at 5:30 a.m. and went running. We are supposed to exercise together every morning. I am not actually a part of camp because I didn’t plan it and I don’t speak Swahili, so I can’t really join in the fun. I am planning to study Swahili, go to the internet café and maybe try to go into town a few times this week while the kids are in camp.
I have some exciting news. I will be staying in Africa another month. I was a little shocked to find this out. Rhoi changed my plane ticket and was planning to change it so I came back the first week in August, but she couldn’t get a seat on the plane until August 25th and without hesitating she put me on that plane. At first I couldn’t figure out what I was going to do. I had to go back and work and pay rent, but Mama Rhoi told the students and they were so happy that I couldn’t change the ticket back. And not only could I not change the ticket for the kids, but they had already given away my old seat and there was no way to get it back. So another month in Tanzania, this gives me the chance to work with the older students doing reading comprehension on “Is It Possible”, “Mine Boy” and “Things Fall Apart.” The students are very happy to have me here to teach them more English and the other teachers want my help planning lessons and preparing for the next term.
We are getting a new English teacher named Lorna. She is wonderful. She is from Kenya and has been in Tanzania teaching for around 20 years. She likes to make visual aids and sing songs to help teach the students. I think I will learn a lot from her. I am also hoping that we can work together and plant more vegetables behind school and also get the kids involved in community clean up. We are thinking of ways to make Boko more green and get the kids to start picking up and getting the community to clean up trash.
We are having CAMP this week at school. Camp is a time for underprivileged youth and youth who have lost their parents to AIDS to come together and play and learn. The kids are focusing on leadership and HIV/AIDS and how to be leaders in their community. There are about 35 kids here and this morning we all got up at 5:30 a.m. and went running. We are supposed to exercise together every morning. I am not actually a part of camp because I didn’t plan it and I don’t speak Swahili, so I can’t really join in the fun. I am planning to study Swahili, go to the internet café and maybe try to go into town a few times this week while the kids are in camp.
Thursday, July 05, 2007
Kitchen
I realized that I haven't explained the way that we cook here. We don't have a stove or burners. We put three rocks together and start a fire underneath them. The kids wash the plates in buckets and we only have 3 knives to do all our chopping. I have really been getting into cooking here. I love spending time with the kids and whenever I am there they will all try to speak in English. Even the kids that don't speak English in class. Last night when I was walking back from the village with the kids they all started telling me how much they love me. Neema, one of the girls who lives at the school, told me two days ago that she was so sad that I wasn't there cooking with her. She was so happy when I dropped by the kitchen. I am so happy that I get to brighten the kids lives and let them know that someone cares about them.
HIV/AIDS Training
Wendy Arnold came to Tumaini school this week. She started a peer education program for AIDS in Los Angeles in 1982 and has been teaching ever since. She is amazing. She is 60 or so and the most energetic woman I have ever met in my whole life. She never stops and she is so full of vibrance and energy that she lights up the room. I love being around her and she gets me jazzed to do this kind of work in my life. She has already asked me if I would want to go around the world with her teaching. I am so happy that I got to be in Boko while she is here.
We had the training for the students for the last two days and today we started the teacher training. The teacher training is exciting because this means that teachers all around the Dar es Salaam area will be able to teach their students about HIV/AIDS and have the real facts instead of the myths. You would be amazed at some of the questions the kids ask. They all are very unsure about condoms and constantly worried that condoms don't really work. They think they have holes or that the US sends Africa ones that don't work. They feel hopeless about AIDS and so many kids said that even though they know about AIDS they know their friends aren't using protection.
We had the training for the students for the last two days and today we started the teacher training. The teacher training is exciting because this means that teachers all around the Dar es Salaam area will be able to teach their students about HIV/AIDS and have the real facts instead of the myths. You would be amazed at some of the questions the kids ask. They all are very unsure about condoms and constantly worried that condoms don't really work. They think they have holes or that the US sends Africa ones that don't work. They feel hopeless about AIDS and so many kids said that even though they know about AIDS they know their friends aren't using protection.
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