Kuuliza si ujinga

(written October 9, 2007)

We’re approaching the mid-point of training, and it’s
starting to feel like I’ve been here a long time.
I’ve gained the ability to sleep through the roosters
crowing, to the point where I’m now worried about
waking up on time.  I have my morning routine more or
less down: brush teeth with boiled water, take a hot
bucket bath, eat a breakfast of chai thick with milk
and ginger, uji (a porridge of finger millet or corn
flour), and/or chapati, omelet, or the Tanzanian
version of French toast, in which the bread is first
toasted, then dipped in egg and cooked.  I think if I
have the ability to gain weight, I will probably do it
here.

One of my fellow trainees made a list called “You
know you’re in Peace Corps Tanzania when . . .”  It
includes:
-when you know the names of all the characters in the
dubbed Filipino soap operas "The Long Wait" and "It Might be You"—and you care what happens
to them
-when you add “i” to the end of every word (ex: juice
is “juisi”, a pencil is “pensili”.  And you say things like "Nitawin" to mean "I will win"
-when you know what PCTCCTPLWHA means (the Peace
Corps loves acronyms)
-when you think 10 people on a minibus is wasted
space

--
Some things I’ve learned how to do:

-grate coconut.  There’s a special apparatus for
grating called an mbuzi, which consists of a folding
stool with a saw-like blade attached to one end

-wash clothes by hand.  I’m not a fan of the part
where you use your wrist as a washboard . . . I think
I peel off as much of my skin as I remove stains from
the cloth.

-fold samosas (called sambusa here)

-light a kerosene lamp

We start our student teaching next week.  My topics:
combustion, rust, and fire extinguishers.  I’m a
little worried about the fire extinguisher part, given
that I don’t remember the four types of fire
extinguishers and they don’t seem to be in the
chemistry books the Peace Corps gave me.  I’m less
worried about teaching a class of 53 students.  From
what I’ve seen, the students here are incredibly
well-behaved.  In the one class I watched, the
students stood to answer questions, mostly took notes
quietly, and seemed to already know the syllabus by
heart.  Whether they understood the material is
another question, and it’s a question I can’t yet
answer.

There are several challenges to teaching chemistry in
Tanzania.  First, classes are in English, which is not
the students’ first language and which the Form I
students are only starting to learn well.  Second,
chemistry here is often theoretical: my internship
school has no chemistry equipment, and demonstrations
and labs are rare.  Finally, students must buy their
own books, and only one student in a class of 53
people had a book.  This means it’s crucial to write
neatly on the board, as students copy everything the
teacher writes and use their own notes as a book.  And
if you write something wrong on the board, you’ll
probably find that nearly every student will put that
same, wrong answer on the next test.

Last week we started microteaching, in which we
practice our lesson plans on fellow PCTs.  So far, the
hardest part for me has been remembering how few
resources there are.  You can’t assign homework that
requires a book, because few students have a book.  If
you’re unsure of the material, you can’t just go look
it up online: you have to go to an internet café in
town and use the very slow internet connection.  And
while there are printers and photocopiers, they’re few
and far between.  It’s going to be a challenge.  But
at least the students I’ve met so far are
enthusiastic, and I think they’ll be fun to teach.

# posted by Kristen @ 6:49 AM