Saturday, November 14, 2009
Computer problems
While I was typing the last two entries, the following problems occurred:
-the keyboard on my computer stopped working. I had to save the half-finished donkey entry and move to another computer.
-an internet cafe employee scanned a document using my computer (I had been moved to an employee computer when my keyboard broke)
-the electricity went out for a minute, then came back on. Or maybe the generator kicked in.
Ah, computers in Tanzania. Things will seem far too smooth and simple when I go home.
-the keyboard on my computer stopped working. I had to save the half-finished donkey entry and move to another computer.
-an internet cafe employee scanned a document using my computer (I had been moved to an employee computer when my keyboard broke)
-the electricity went out for a minute, then came back on. Or maybe the generator kicked in.
Ah, computers in Tanzania. Things will seem far too smooth and simple when I go home.
Biology scavenger hunt
This year, I set up the national exam practicals for biology. One month before the exam, I received the following advance instructions. (these are excerpts, the instructions also included chemicals and lab apparatus)
BIOLOGY PRACTICAL 2A
Specimens:
Each student must be provided with a liver fluke.
BIOLOGY PRACTICAL 2B
Specimens:
Each student must be provided with:
-a lizard (may be shared by several students)
-a centipede
-a hibiscus leaf
-a cypress branch
-a scapula bone
-radius and ulna bones
-a rib bone
I nearly panicked at these instructions. A liver fluke? What's a liver fluke? What's a cypress tree? How am I going to get enough scapula bones to put one on each table in the lab?
Tanzania has no biological supply houses. You can't just fill out an order for 15 liver flukes, 8 scapula bones, and 4 centipedes. You have to find everything yourself: in short, you go on a scavenger hunt. A scavenger hunt where the stakes are the students' exam scores and possibly their educational futures.
Okay, liver flukes. Liver flukes are parasites that live in livestock livers, specifically in the gall ducts. Apparently, the cows in my district are not infected with liver flukes. So, where to get them?
Try one: the headmaster's cow is being slaughtered for school graduation celebrations. I talk to the students doing the slaughtering and ask them to take a look at the liver. I also put an order in for ribs and scapula bones. I end up with two small, immature liver flukes and seven ribs covered with rotting meet (I received them three days after the celebrations, due to poorly timed travelling on my part). The scapulas were somehow lost. But I did get two from a goat that was slaughtered for another graduation party.
Try two: talk to friends. I have a friend in town, a biology and chemistry teacher who is super-enthusiastic about practicals. He runs the district branch of the Tanzanian science teachers' association, and has hosted several workshops training the local teachers to use the labs. He also has connections. I initially got two liver flukes from him, and got eight more later.
Try three: the mnaada. The mnaada is a monthly market and livestock auction. It also happens to be two days before the biology exam. I bike to the neighboring village on mnaada day, carrying a small container of formaldehyde tucked in an old powdered milk can. The cows being butchered have liver flukes--lots of them! The butchers initially want to charge me for taking parasitic worms off their hands, but fortunately the district meat inspector intervenes. I split up the liver flukes with some teachers from another secondary school, and end up with enough liver flukes to put out one per student. The mnaada also provides four scapula bones--not quite enough, but maybe the students can share.
As for the rest...I get radius and ulna bones by scavenging wing bones from chickens at lunch time. The lab contains a single dry lizard and a single centipede. There are a few cypress trees in town. Fortunately, hibiscuses grow at the school.
So the practicals went reasonably smoothly. There were some last minute preparations, some rushing around the lab to label things correctly, some quick additions of solutions to student tables. But the specimens were there, and it wasn't a disaster. And now I have 15 liver flukes preserved in formaldehyde for next year.
BIOLOGY PRACTICAL 2A
Specimens:
Each student must be provided with a liver fluke.
BIOLOGY PRACTICAL 2B
Specimens:
Each student must be provided with:
-a lizard (may be shared by several students)
-a centipede
-a hibiscus leaf
-a cypress branch
-a scapula bone
-radius and ulna bones
-a rib bone
I nearly panicked at these instructions. A liver fluke? What's a liver fluke? What's a cypress tree? How am I going to get enough scapula bones to put one on each table in the lab?
Tanzania has no biological supply houses. You can't just fill out an order for 15 liver flukes, 8 scapula bones, and 4 centipedes. You have to find everything yourself: in short, you go on a scavenger hunt. A scavenger hunt where the stakes are the students' exam scores and possibly their educational futures.
Okay, liver flukes. Liver flukes are parasites that live in livestock livers, specifically in the gall ducts. Apparently, the cows in my district are not infected with liver flukes. So, where to get them?
Try one: the headmaster's cow is being slaughtered for school graduation celebrations. I talk to the students doing the slaughtering and ask them to take a look at the liver. I also put an order in for ribs and scapula bones. I end up with two small, immature liver flukes and seven ribs covered with rotting meet (I received them three days after the celebrations, due to poorly timed travelling on my part). The scapulas were somehow lost. But I did get two from a goat that was slaughtered for another graduation party.
Try two: talk to friends. I have a friend in town, a biology and chemistry teacher who is super-enthusiastic about practicals. He runs the district branch of the Tanzanian science teachers' association, and has hosted several workshops training the local teachers to use the labs. He also has connections. I initially got two liver flukes from him, and got eight more later.
Try three: the mnaada. The mnaada is a monthly market and livestock auction. It also happens to be two days before the biology exam. I bike to the neighboring village on mnaada day, carrying a small container of formaldehyde tucked in an old powdered milk can. The cows being butchered have liver flukes--lots of them! The butchers initially want to charge me for taking parasitic worms off their hands, but fortunately the district meat inspector intervenes. I split up the liver flukes with some teachers from another secondary school, and end up with enough liver flukes to put out one per student. The mnaada also provides four scapula bones--not quite enough, but maybe the students can share.
As for the rest...I get radius and ulna bones by scavenging wing bones from chickens at lunch time. The lab contains a single dry lizard and a single centipede. There are a few cypress trees in town. Fortunately, hibiscuses grow at the school.
So the practicals went reasonably smoothly. There were some last minute preparations, some rushing around the lab to label things correctly, some quick additions of solutions to student tables. But the specimens were there, and it wasn't a disaster. And now I have 15 liver flukes preserved in formaldehyde for next year.
Still here
It's been a while since I've posted--a busy few months of national exams and the end of the term. I'll try to make up for it with a series of posts, of which this will be the first.
--
Donkeys
It was the last week of the dry season. My water supplies were running low, despite the presence of two 60-litre buckets, three 20-litre buckets, and three 10-litre buckets in my house. The water wasn't running during mid-day,only at 5 am and occasionally at night. So, around 9 pm, I went out to check on the faucet by my house.
A miracle: the water was running. Slowly, maybe two litres a minute, but it was running. I ran inside to grab my buckets before a student or neighbor heard the water and came to fetch as well. I put a twenty-litre bucket under the faucet, and sat down to wait.
The beautiful sound of water hitting a bucket. Stars filling the sky above. I really don't mind fetching water at night. The school is quiet and peaceful, and the sky is beautiful.
But then, footsteps. Shadows. Something large nearby. Something very large. Or somethings?
I look up to find four donkeys standing in front of me, staring at the water.
At the end of the dry season, farmers just let their livestock wander around the school ground. It's against the rules. They risk a five thousand shilling ($4) fine. But the well-watered school flower beds and teachers' gardens are one of the only sources of food at this time of year. And so, the school grounds fill with donkeys and pigs looking for food.
Apparently, nobody comes to give these donkeys water. The donkeys are staring very thirstily at my bucket.
Hmm. The donkeys are several times stronger than me. The donkeys have sharp hooves. The donkeys could easily kick me and steal my water.
One donkey nudges its companion. The companion takes a step forward.
I take a step forward and stomp my feet. The donkey backs off.
We stare at each other. A donkey steps forward. I stomp my feet; it backs off.
This goes on for several minutes. Donkeys are docile animals; they don't attack me and take the water. But neither do they go away. Finally I get tired of being stared at by donkeys, turn off the faucets, and move inside with my buckets. With no water coming out of the faucets, the donkeys lose interest and walk away. I return to fetch water a few minutes later, while the donkeys eat the school flowerbeds.
--
Rain
After months of the dry season--from May through the end of October--it's finally started raining again. Water is coming out of the faucet reliably. Grass is beginning to sprout. The air smells beautifully of rain. And the desperate feeling of the dry season, of suspended animation, of just getting by, is finally over.
I've never appreciated rain so much.
--
Donkeys
It was the last week of the dry season. My water supplies were running low, despite the presence of two 60-litre buckets, three 20-litre buckets, and three 10-litre buckets in my house. The water wasn't running during mid-day,only at 5 am and occasionally at night. So, around 9 pm, I went out to check on the faucet by my house.
A miracle: the water was running. Slowly, maybe two litres a minute, but it was running. I ran inside to grab my buckets before a student or neighbor heard the water and came to fetch as well. I put a twenty-litre bucket under the faucet, and sat down to wait.
The beautiful sound of water hitting a bucket. Stars filling the sky above. I really don't mind fetching water at night. The school is quiet and peaceful, and the sky is beautiful.
But then, footsteps. Shadows. Something large nearby. Something very large. Or somethings?
I look up to find four donkeys standing in front of me, staring at the water.
At the end of the dry season, farmers just let their livestock wander around the school ground. It's against the rules. They risk a five thousand shilling ($4) fine. But the well-watered school flower beds and teachers' gardens are one of the only sources of food at this time of year. And so, the school grounds fill with donkeys and pigs looking for food.
Apparently, nobody comes to give these donkeys water. The donkeys are staring very thirstily at my bucket.
Hmm. The donkeys are several times stronger than me. The donkeys have sharp hooves. The donkeys could easily kick me and steal my water.
One donkey nudges its companion. The companion takes a step forward.
I take a step forward and stomp my feet. The donkey backs off.
We stare at each other. A donkey steps forward. I stomp my feet; it backs off.
This goes on for several minutes. Donkeys are docile animals; they don't attack me and take the water. But neither do they go away. Finally I get tired of being stared at by donkeys, turn off the faucets, and move inside with my buckets. With no water coming out of the faucets, the donkeys lose interest and walk away. I return to fetch water a few minutes later, while the donkeys eat the school flowerbeds.
--
Rain
After months of the dry season--from May through the end of October--it's finally started raining again. Water is coming out of the faucet reliably. Grass is beginning to sprout. The air smells beautifully of rain. And the desperate feeling of the dry season, of suspended animation, of just getting by, is finally over.
I've never appreciated rain so much.
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