This week we put together and started a reading program with children at the center and also the standard one kids at Kisongo. What we did was get together a bunch of books and seperate them into different reading levels. We have been getting different kids at the center to read with us books and then tracking which levels they are at. Once we get through seeing someone and know which level they fit into and where they should be we can spend more time with the ones that are struggling. I also made flashcards with one set bein simple words to start the reading process before books for some kids along with a set of sounds that appear a lot in words. It is so interesting because you may have two kids in the same class and one is a good reader and always one to pick up a book and then you have the other who has no reading ability at all. Its sad because the teachers never spend one-on-one time with them and children easily fall through the cracks here. For the pre-school aged kids at the center I made different sets of flascards for numbers, letters, shapes, etc. and two days a week during their morning class we are going to work with them one-on-one in about 8 different categories, hopefully finding the areas each needs more help.
The rest of the week consisted of teaching a few standard level 5 and 6 classes working on reading comprehension and descriptions as well as teaching the PE classes. Of course there was plenty of playtime (by the way I'm not so bad at soccer while in a skirt and thick flip-flops haha) and coloring. We also had a lot of good conversations this week with one of the ladies that works for LW who is from Canada. She has been here for over a year now and its nice to talk to Westerner who is also dealing with a lot of the difficulties we find when working with people in a non-Western mind set. This is a society that is 50 years behind the Western world so you can never assume people know things or that things are done a certain way.
Of course interesting things always happen here in Tanz so I do have a few stories to share with you this week...
-I have given up trying to have a good intake of meat here. This week for dinner we were served chicken which I got excited about until I found how hard it was to eat. The skin was very hard to get off and then the meat itself was so tough and while trying to bite the chicken leg it flung out of my mouth/hands across the table. I gave up. Then this weekend we went out for our once a week meal outside the house and I ordered a chicken burger at this cafe. Well the piece of meat that came on the bun was dark brown which was my first indicator that something was wrong. I bit into it and found it was not chicken but not sure what it was. The waitress told me it was a mix of chicken and burger. Pretty sure there were some veggies in there too so it was a flashback to my meal a few weeks ago. Oh yea, also at this cafe I ordered the blended fruit juice and the most distinctive taste I got was carrot- yea not a fruit!
- We were riding on a dalla into town from Kisongo Friday afternoon and there were a lot of young (5 or 6 years old maybe) school children on it. A lot of schools dont have proper school buses so children just take the public transportation even at that age by themselves. The conductor was very kind to walk each of the kids across the street when it came to their stop. It was soon found that one child was in the back of the bus and missed calling out her stop and got confused. The driver and conductor moved her upfront said they'd stop and get her some food in town and then drop her off on their way back to Kisongo later. Can you imagine? Back home parents would flip out if their child didnt come home on time but here there is no worries and they know they will make it home eventually. I know Africa must be where people got the saying 'it takes a village to raise a child' because everyone looks out for the kids and there is no harm brought to them.
- One day when we were walking home a group of little kids said hi to us which they normally do only this time it became more. The run up and two of them grabbed our hands. They walked with us and when we went to make the turn onto our short road we tried to let go and say good-bye. Well they were not having it! They continued to walk with us and follows us to our house. We went next door to the house where the older sons of the family we live with live since they were outside. Once we got inside the gate the children stayed outside and again wouldnt leave. One of the guys had to go out and chase them away! haha. I have a feeling they will follow us home every time they see us now.
- Every culture has their own wedding traditions. I have come to love one of the Tanzanian ones. When people get married they put ribbon from the hood of the car up to the roof and then bows around it as well. This car then drives down the road with the newlywed couple. In front of this car though is the best part. There is a pick-up truck with a band all dressed in matching outfits playing music. Normally drums, trumpets, trombones, etc. are the intrustments in use. I always love hearing them come down the road!
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Sunday, October 18, 2009
eye doctor, airport, info about kids
This week was pretty uneventful compared to last. I made some posters/teaching aids for teachers at Kisongo and felt like I was back in school again doing math and drawing things I didn’t know I could draw (example- a cross section view of the eye). At Ngulelo this week we did lot of coloring and reading. Both of which seem to be a favorites for the children. Coloring is always an event because once one child shows you their picture everyone wants to show you. Also they know we won’t give them a new page to color unless they finish the first so if they get ‘tired of it’ they will just scribble over all of it which drives me crazy! On the other hand, reading is one of my favorite things to do with them. They all seem to be so in love with it to. There are times when I will be reading to the younger kids and older kids to come by to listen to stories that are past their level but they don’t care. I have been trying to work with children individually to have them read to me since they do not get a lot of one-on-one time in the classroom. They always pick at least three books if not more!
I have gotten to take children off site a few times one of which being last week which I forgot to mention. Athuman (15 I think) has been having some trouble with his eyes so Trisha and I took him to the Mt. Meru Hospital to get them checked out. This was interesting because the hospital is a compound of a bunch of one story structures all connected by outside sidewalks. We went up to check in to see the eye doctor and it cost 3,000 Tsh which is about $2.30. They do the eye exam outside where everyone is waiting and therefore everyone is watching. Their eye chart is the capital letter E in all different directions and then you point to which direction it is facing. When you do go into see the doctor it is one large room and different doctors in different corners. I saw one doctor doing the test where they flip different lenses and say ‘better at one or two’ yet it was very old school and they had to manually switch the lenses into a pair of glasses that the child was wearing. This is one time I wish it was appropriate to take pictures as I know my grandfather would have appreciated seeing it.
Another outing I went on was on Friday when I sponsored the Standard VI students to go to the airport for a field trip. They learned about how the airport functions and how an airplane itself functions as well as talking with a meteorologist and learning about all the different weather machines and how it plays into the functioning of the airport. There were eleven children and two teachers that went and none of them had ever been on an airplane before. The teachers (both twenty-five years old) seemed just like students themselves asking questions and paying full attention, etc. etc. I was very impressed at how well behaved the children were (which happens a lot here- these kids behave better than kids in American on most occasions) as they were not talking or messing around with each other while someone was talking with us, they all paid perfect attention. I guess I have taken for granted the fact that I have been on numerous airplanes in my life and this is the first time any of them even sat on one. I did, however, learn a few new things myself that day.
Now that I have been here three weeks (I can’t believe it’s the middle of my stay here already!) I have a better understanding of why these kids are here and about some of their stories so I hope to better portray that to you. There are about 40 or so children that Living Water Children Center (i.e. the Kimaro family) has guardianship over. Living at the center in Ngulelo there are 25 children. These children either go to school at the center (baby class up to Standard II) or are sponsored to go to St. Jude’s School and all range in age from 2-17. The rest of the LW children go to school and board in Kisongo at Yakini Primary School. There are about 90 kids at school here and those that aren’t LW children pay for tuition and boarding. This school has all grades from baby class up to Standard VII. The children then go off site for secondary school (the first group of five will do so in January).
Unlike the children I worked with in Kenya most of these children are not orphans. It’s easiest to think of this situation as a group home like we have in the states. These children are better off here than at home for numerous reasons. Some families cannot afford to raise the children or do not have their life together enough to do so. Two of the oldest girls were arranged to be married at age 12 to men much older than and were brought to the center to escape that. Each child has a story and before I leave I will probably not know even half of the stories. I have met three different sets of family members to children at the home when they have come to visit them. One time was the mother and brother of one of the Josephs. The mother has a lot of issues and slept around a lot etc. and Joseph has been asked if he wants to return home after being here for some time and he refuses and prefers to live at the center. It was a very awkward visit because he clearly did not care to see his mother and did not even know his brother. Few words were exchanged which seemed to be the norm with the other two visits as well. Another girl, Unisis’s, older and younger sister came to visit and brought some snacks that she sat with them and ate and then went about her playing. The third visit was from Christopher’s father who apparently is an alcoholic and that’s one of the reasons he is at the center. The father was chopping firewood for the center which I saw as his way of trying to give something back to them. Christopher told me his father was there and clearly knew who he was. So sometimes it is a little hard to understand what is going on and why a child is there if they have parents etc. but I just bask in the fact that they are happy and seem to be better off here and at least I can love them for a few weeks!
Okay for my random Tanzanian things of the week…
-child getting onto a dalla-dalla holding what I thought was a doll then realized when it was very close to me that it was a live chicken!!
-a man having about 25 chicken all tied together by their feet in two bundles and having them placed under the back seat in a dalla (lots of clucking, again I was a bit surprised!) and then deciding not to take the dalla so they were returned to the side of the street
- a man in a bar/restaurant carrying around a basket with nail polish and such things and painting women’s feet for a fee while they ate or drank (I passed when me came by us before leaving)
- cops chasing a car down the street, kicking in the window, punching the guy, pulling him out of the car, punching him again, throwing him in the backside, another cop hijacking the car and then all driving off in it
- attending an outdoor market where they sold everything from goats to vegetables to kitchen dish sets to clothes and shoes
- I got my dress/skirt back from the fundi and even though there was a large language barrier when ordering them they turned out surprisingly amazing and fit so perfectly! Yay! Pretty sure she used no pattern either which amazes me.
-ordering chips (French fries) and being given a rolled up newspaper (which soaked up a lot of grease!) with chips and a little bit of cabbage on them too
- had many interesting dalla rides: being incredibly close to complete strangers, being asked to kiss one of the conductors (Trisha and I both declined), stood up for an extended period of time in the doorway, and at one point reached about 26 people in one van
- the power keeps going out most nights from about 6:00 PM until 11:00 PM which is prime time to use power so most of those nights I am asleep by 8:30 PM – wow!
I have gotten to take children off site a few times one of which being last week which I forgot to mention. Athuman (15 I think) has been having some trouble with his eyes so Trisha and I took him to the Mt. Meru Hospital to get them checked out. This was interesting because the hospital is a compound of a bunch of one story structures all connected by outside sidewalks. We went up to check in to see the eye doctor and it cost 3,000 Tsh which is about $2.30. They do the eye exam outside where everyone is waiting and therefore everyone is watching. Their eye chart is the capital letter E in all different directions and then you point to which direction it is facing. When you do go into see the doctor it is one large room and different doctors in different corners. I saw one doctor doing the test where they flip different lenses and say ‘better at one or two’ yet it was very old school and they had to manually switch the lenses into a pair of glasses that the child was wearing. This is one time I wish it was appropriate to take pictures as I know my grandfather would have appreciated seeing it.
Another outing I went on was on Friday when I sponsored the Standard VI students to go to the airport for a field trip. They learned about how the airport functions and how an airplane itself functions as well as talking with a meteorologist and learning about all the different weather machines and how it plays into the functioning of the airport. There were eleven children and two teachers that went and none of them had ever been on an airplane before. The teachers (both twenty-five years old) seemed just like students themselves asking questions and paying full attention, etc. etc. I was very impressed at how well behaved the children were (which happens a lot here- these kids behave better than kids in American on most occasions) as they were not talking or messing around with each other while someone was talking with us, they all paid perfect attention. I guess I have taken for granted the fact that I have been on numerous airplanes in my life and this is the first time any of them even sat on one. I did, however, learn a few new things myself that day.
Now that I have been here three weeks (I can’t believe it’s the middle of my stay here already!) I have a better understanding of why these kids are here and about some of their stories so I hope to better portray that to you. There are about 40 or so children that Living Water Children Center (i.e. the Kimaro family) has guardianship over. Living at the center in Ngulelo there are 25 children. These children either go to school at the center (baby class up to Standard II) or are sponsored to go to St. Jude’s School and all range in age from 2-17. The rest of the LW children go to school and board in Kisongo at Yakini Primary School. There are about 90 kids at school here and those that aren’t LW children pay for tuition and boarding. This school has all grades from baby class up to Standard VII. The children then go off site for secondary school (the first group of five will do so in January).
Unlike the children I worked with in Kenya most of these children are not orphans. It’s easiest to think of this situation as a group home like we have in the states. These children are better off here than at home for numerous reasons. Some families cannot afford to raise the children or do not have their life together enough to do so. Two of the oldest girls were arranged to be married at age 12 to men much older than and were brought to the center to escape that. Each child has a story and before I leave I will probably not know even half of the stories. I have met three different sets of family members to children at the home when they have come to visit them. One time was the mother and brother of one of the Josephs. The mother has a lot of issues and slept around a lot etc. and Joseph has been asked if he wants to return home after being here for some time and he refuses and prefers to live at the center. It was a very awkward visit because he clearly did not care to see his mother and did not even know his brother. Few words were exchanged which seemed to be the norm with the other two visits as well. Another girl, Unisis’s, older and younger sister came to visit and brought some snacks that she sat with them and ate and then went about her playing. The third visit was from Christopher’s father who apparently is an alcoholic and that’s one of the reasons he is at the center. The father was chopping firewood for the center which I saw as his way of trying to give something back to them. Christopher told me his father was there and clearly knew who he was. So sometimes it is a little hard to understand what is going on and why a child is there if they have parents etc. but I just bask in the fact that they are happy and seem to be better off here and at least I can love them for a few weeks!
Okay for my random Tanzanian things of the week…
-child getting onto a dalla-dalla holding what I thought was a doll then realized when it was very close to me that it was a live chicken!!
-a man having about 25 chicken all tied together by their feet in two bundles and having them placed under the back seat in a dalla (lots of clucking, again I was a bit surprised!) and then deciding not to take the dalla so they were returned to the side of the street
- a man in a bar/restaurant carrying around a basket with nail polish and such things and painting women’s feet for a fee while they ate or drank (I passed when me came by us before leaving)
- cops chasing a car down the street, kicking in the window, punching the guy, pulling him out of the car, punching him again, throwing him in the backside, another cop hijacking the car and then all driving off in it
- attending an outdoor market where they sold everything from goats to vegetables to kitchen dish sets to clothes and shoes
- I got my dress/skirt back from the fundi and even though there was a large language barrier when ordering them they turned out surprisingly amazing and fit so perfectly! Yay! Pretty sure she used no pattern either which amazes me.
-ordering chips (French fries) and being given a rolled up newspaper (which soaked up a lot of grease!) with chips and a little bit of cabbage on them too
- had many interesting dalla rides: being incredibly close to complete strangers, being asked to kiss one of the conductors (Trisha and I both declined), stood up for an extended period of time in the doorway, and at one point reached about 26 people in one van
- the power keeps going out most nights from about 6:00 PM until 11:00 PM which is prime time to use power so most of those nights I am asleep by 8:30 PM – wow!
Saturday, October 10, 2009
lots of randomness
I feel like there is a lot going on here in Arusha but I never know what to write about. Its like crazy stuff happens here but I am so use to it and expect it here that it doesnt phase me anymore. There are some funny stores that I will try to put into words for ya'll to understand and hopefully get some enjoyment out of but first I'll update you on my work here.
I taught a few PE classes this week and started off with basic motor skills. None of the kids new what a skip was and it wasnt that easy to teach them but we are working on it! I find that basic things we assume kids know, they dont here. Left vs right is a challenge, opposites is a word they dont know, etc. On Friday I was left in charge of a standard II class (equvilant to US grade 3). The teacher left something that she said would take over an hour but only took about 10 min so I had to think quick as to what else to do. I decided to work on their creative skills as they are never taught how to use them here and therefore never learn to use their imagination (again something I assumed all kids did). I read to them Where the Wild Things Are (remember finding it in the storage closet we cleared out the day before) and then gave them paper and crayons and asked them to draw their own wild thing. Out of 12 kids, one child did this. They weren't sure what to do and wanted to trace from the pictures in the book or trace something else entirely. When I gave them pages from coloring books to color one of the girls had a 'connect the dots' page and I realized she didnt know what to do (again something I never thought about teaching someone) and when I tried to teach her she could not grasp the idea. I asked the kids if they wanted to do their homework in the small time we had remaining before tea break and they said 'oh no homework is for home, classwork is for class. we cannot do homework now.' Its so often I find that things are done in such a strict way that they cant straw away from it even when you tell them its okay.
As for the kids... I often spend the afternoons when we are at Kisongo waiting for everyone to be ready to board the bus to go home playing soccer or something of that nature with the kids. It is a lot of fun and always interesting when I am in a dress or skirt. Teacher Trisha and I are always receiving notes or pictures from the kids at both the center and school and have started a collection on the wall in our room. There is one baby at the center named Zawadi (Kiswahili for 'gift') who is 2 years old and is so spunky and just loves life. She comes running at me when she sees me which of course makes me smile. The kids here are all so great and I wish I could tell you stories about all of them. Helena, Hawa, Lazaro, Witness, Joseph, Queenie, Namnyaki, ah... okay one of these days I will share a few of their stories as to why they are here but no time for that today.
Aside from teaching and playing I spent some more time mending uniforms this week, cleaning out a storage closet, made some poster/drawings for classrooms, found a load of puzzle pieces and spent a night trying to see if any went together and actually made a puzzle (no luck so far). Trish and myself keep finding random tasks to do in the evening to keep ourselves busy and hopefully be productive.
On Friday it did take us over 2 hours to get from the center in Ngulelo to the school in Kisongo which should be about a 20 min drive. We were traveling by dalla which meant we took one, walked through town, took another. The second one we took stopped in Kisongo and our school is about 3km past it and the bus was suppose to be going to Monduli which is way far past it. The driver said he didnt have enough passengers to drive past Kisongo (there were 5 people on the bus) and kicked us off. This is the second time that has happened so I did some good natured yelling at the driver because he was suppose to go further but it didnt get us anymore. We ended up having to walk- in the hot heat and dusk- eh... story of my life in Africa. haha
Chicken on the Bonnet- This week one of the family members we live with, David, who is 25 and kinda the one in charge of volunteers took us out to this restaurant for dinner. It gets its name because 'bonnet' is what they call the hood of a car and during the day the place is a used car parts shop or something of that sort and at night they grill out on the street and turn the sidewalks into a restaurant. I was a bit skeptical but turned out to be great food and so much of it so I hope to go back before I leave here.
Usa- There is a town here called 'Usa' which when I saw it writen on dalla-dallas thought it was USA and said 'well heck they are gonna drive me back home!' Turns out there is a town called 'Usa' pronounced Oosa. Still makes me smile when I see it though.
I swear someone could write a book about experiences on dalla-dallas (or matatus) or have a picture book photos of all the misspelled words on signs here. As for dallas- I have been on them with chickens and goats. They are to seat about 15 people but usually around 25 people on them. Because of this I have gotten incredible close to complete stangers but it doesnt seem to phase me anymore. A guy hopped out the window one time because he was tired of waiting in the traffic. Oh I cant even think of all the crazy things that happen on them! As for spelling errors... There are def a lot more here than in Kenya and its understandable because English is not fluent here but they still use it and as for the westerners- it gives us something to chuckle at as we walk down the streets.
Beef Burger- Today we went out for lunch and since we never eat meat during the week we ordered beef burgers and what they brought us was not beef, pretty sure it was a veggie burger. We asked the lady and she said 'no, no this is beef we just put veggies with the beef, we dont sell veggie burgers.' Interesting concept but yea it was not beef! We couldnt stand to eat them and when she came back to take our plates she yelled at us for not finishing!! haha.
The Kiswahili vs. English is still something that makes everyday interesting. Whether it is people trying to talk to us on the street, the difficulty it took for us to get cold sodas the other day, the conversation to order a dress from a fundi (tailor) in town today (I am interested to see what it actualy comes out to be), or having the same conversation with someone three times. I am picking more of it up and find myself saying Kiswahili words in English conversations.
Well this may very well be the longest post so far so I will try to update more often so that doesnt happen again. Please let me know if there is something you want to hear more about or anything you want me to write as I dont know what is interesting to all of you. Much love to all and cannot wait to see most of you in December!
I taught a few PE classes this week and started off with basic motor skills. None of the kids new what a skip was and it wasnt that easy to teach them but we are working on it! I find that basic things we assume kids know, they dont here. Left vs right is a challenge, opposites is a word they dont know, etc. On Friday I was left in charge of a standard II class (equvilant to US grade 3). The teacher left something that she said would take over an hour but only took about 10 min so I had to think quick as to what else to do. I decided to work on their creative skills as they are never taught how to use them here and therefore never learn to use their imagination (again something I assumed all kids did). I read to them Where the Wild Things Are (remember finding it in the storage closet we cleared out the day before) and then gave them paper and crayons and asked them to draw their own wild thing. Out of 12 kids, one child did this. They weren't sure what to do and wanted to trace from the pictures in the book or trace something else entirely. When I gave them pages from coloring books to color one of the girls had a 'connect the dots' page and I realized she didnt know what to do (again something I never thought about teaching someone) and when I tried to teach her she could not grasp the idea. I asked the kids if they wanted to do their homework in the small time we had remaining before tea break and they said 'oh no homework is for home, classwork is for class. we cannot do homework now.' Its so often I find that things are done in such a strict way that they cant straw away from it even when you tell them its okay.
As for the kids... I often spend the afternoons when we are at Kisongo waiting for everyone to be ready to board the bus to go home playing soccer or something of that nature with the kids. It is a lot of fun and always interesting when I am in a dress or skirt. Teacher Trisha and I are always receiving notes or pictures from the kids at both the center and school and have started a collection on the wall in our room. There is one baby at the center named Zawadi (Kiswahili for 'gift') who is 2 years old and is so spunky and just loves life. She comes running at me when she sees me which of course makes me smile. The kids here are all so great and I wish I could tell you stories about all of them. Helena, Hawa, Lazaro, Witness, Joseph, Queenie, Namnyaki, ah... okay one of these days I will share a few of their stories as to why they are here but no time for that today.
Aside from teaching and playing I spent some more time mending uniforms this week, cleaning out a storage closet, made some poster/drawings for classrooms, found a load of puzzle pieces and spent a night trying to see if any went together and actually made a puzzle (no luck so far). Trish and myself keep finding random tasks to do in the evening to keep ourselves busy and hopefully be productive.
On Friday it did take us over 2 hours to get from the center in Ngulelo to the school in Kisongo which should be about a 20 min drive. We were traveling by dalla which meant we took one, walked through town, took another. The second one we took stopped in Kisongo and our school is about 3km past it and the bus was suppose to be going to Monduli which is way far past it. The driver said he didnt have enough passengers to drive past Kisongo (there were 5 people on the bus) and kicked us off. This is the second time that has happened so I did some good natured yelling at the driver because he was suppose to go further but it didnt get us anymore. We ended up having to walk- in the hot heat and dusk- eh... story of my life in Africa. haha
Chicken on the Bonnet- This week one of the family members we live with, David, who is 25 and kinda the one in charge of volunteers took us out to this restaurant for dinner. It gets its name because 'bonnet' is what they call the hood of a car and during the day the place is a used car parts shop or something of that sort and at night they grill out on the street and turn the sidewalks into a restaurant. I was a bit skeptical but turned out to be great food and so much of it so I hope to go back before I leave here.
Usa- There is a town here called 'Usa' which when I saw it writen on dalla-dallas thought it was USA and said 'well heck they are gonna drive me back home!' Turns out there is a town called 'Usa' pronounced Oosa. Still makes me smile when I see it though.
I swear someone could write a book about experiences on dalla-dallas (or matatus) or have a picture book photos of all the misspelled words on signs here. As for dallas- I have been on them with chickens and goats. They are to seat about 15 people but usually around 25 people on them. Because of this I have gotten incredible close to complete stangers but it doesnt seem to phase me anymore. A guy hopped out the window one time because he was tired of waiting in the traffic. Oh I cant even think of all the crazy things that happen on them! As for spelling errors... There are def a lot more here than in Kenya and its understandable because English is not fluent here but they still use it and as for the westerners- it gives us something to chuckle at as we walk down the streets.
Beef Burger- Today we went out for lunch and since we never eat meat during the week we ordered beef burgers and what they brought us was not beef, pretty sure it was a veggie burger. We asked the lady and she said 'no, no this is beef we just put veggies with the beef, we dont sell veggie burgers.' Interesting concept but yea it was not beef! We couldnt stand to eat them and when she came back to take our plates she yelled at us for not finishing!! haha.
The Kiswahili vs. English is still something that makes everyday interesting. Whether it is people trying to talk to us on the street, the difficulty it took for us to get cold sodas the other day, the conversation to order a dress from a fundi (tailor) in town today (I am interested to see what it actualy comes out to be), or having the same conversation with someone three times. I am picking more of it up and find myself saying Kiswahili words in English conversations.
Well this may very well be the longest post so far so I will try to update more often so that doesnt happen again. Please let me know if there is something you want to hear more about or anything you want me to write as I dont know what is interesting to all of you. Much love to all and cannot wait to see most of you in December!
Sunday, October 4, 2009
teaching, sewing, church
Things have been going well here at my new placement. I am so much happier now! Its nice living in the middle of everything going on because it makes it so much easier to see the kids a lot. I have a roommate from England named Trisha and honestly dont know what I would do without her! This is her third time in Tanz and second time at Living Water so its nice to have her answer most questions I have. We get along very well too and are always laughing (usually at ourselves).
I have gotten into a bit of teaching here and learned that the education system is not so great here and has lots of flaws. A few times now I have been in classes where a task that should take 10 mintues tasks over a half hour. The kids have workbooks and then copy all things down from the blackboard as they do not have worksheets here. It seems so tedious. They dont have a lot of supplies so there is no creative learning and everything is done pretty much in one way and it doesnt help students that do not learn well from that one way. Also, they teach in English but English is not a first language for any of the teachers so often vocabulary is misused and grammar is not correct which drives me insane!! haha.
I did get to teach a little bit at both sites at the end of last week; math and english. I really enjoyed it. Spending time in the classrooms I did notice some things different about the children here. They are all eager to learn and want to be in school. They look out for each other and no one laughs or makes fun of another, always making sure no one gets behind the rest and don't care if they have to wait in order for that to happen. You also see this a lot at the center; the children take care of one another really well. The final thing about teaching I'll say is that when we were walking out of class one of the girls said to me "thank you for teaching us." It was so pleasant!
Trish and I spent most of the weekend sewing. We started off with just the tast of replacing buttons to some of the kids school uniforms and it turned into sewing up a lot of holes and rips on uniforms and everyday clothes. It would have been a fairly easy task if we had a sewing machine but no such luck; it was all done by hand. Mom would be so proud! :) We only did the children's stuff from Kisongo (the school off site from where we live) so this week we will do the clothes from the children at the center which just means more sewing fun!
Today we went with the children from the center to church. Just like in Kenya, church doesnt last less than 3 hours. Today reached about 5 hours but half hour of it was lunch that they provided for the children because its was children's Sunday or something of that nature. With it being children's Sunday the kids song songs, did a play, etc. I am glad to got to see them do that but I do not think we will be venturing back there anytime soon. Not only was there the kids part but there also two different sermons, singing, a baptism, and prayer for two different groups of people for something. Most of it was in Kiswahili of course so its just hard because we never know what is going on. There were two other mzungu there though so some things they did translate for us, just not everything which was odd.
Oh yes I must share with you two major pluses of my living situation now. One- not only do I have a shower, but its a hot shower!! yay! Two- I found out yesterday that there is a washing machine here!! Today I did a load of laundry and I could only do about half as much of a load you'd do at home and it took about 2.5 hours and stil have to wait for it to hang dry but hey, its still a washing machine!
I have gotten into a bit of teaching here and learned that the education system is not so great here and has lots of flaws. A few times now I have been in classes where a task that should take 10 mintues tasks over a half hour. The kids have workbooks and then copy all things down from the blackboard as they do not have worksheets here. It seems so tedious. They dont have a lot of supplies so there is no creative learning and everything is done pretty much in one way and it doesnt help students that do not learn well from that one way. Also, they teach in English but English is not a first language for any of the teachers so often vocabulary is misused and grammar is not correct which drives me insane!! haha.
I did get to teach a little bit at both sites at the end of last week; math and english. I really enjoyed it. Spending time in the classrooms I did notice some things different about the children here. They are all eager to learn and want to be in school. They look out for each other and no one laughs or makes fun of another, always making sure no one gets behind the rest and don't care if they have to wait in order for that to happen. You also see this a lot at the center; the children take care of one another really well. The final thing about teaching I'll say is that when we were walking out of class one of the girls said to me "thank you for teaching us." It was so pleasant!
Trish and I spent most of the weekend sewing. We started off with just the tast of replacing buttons to some of the kids school uniforms and it turned into sewing up a lot of holes and rips on uniforms and everyday clothes. It would have been a fairly easy task if we had a sewing machine but no such luck; it was all done by hand. Mom would be so proud! :) We only did the children's stuff from Kisongo (the school off site from where we live) so this week we will do the clothes from the children at the center which just means more sewing fun!
Today we went with the children from the center to church. Just like in Kenya, church doesnt last less than 3 hours. Today reached about 5 hours but half hour of it was lunch that they provided for the children because its was children's Sunday or something of that nature. With it being children's Sunday the kids song songs, did a play, etc. I am glad to got to see them do that but I do not think we will be venturing back there anytime soon. Not only was there the kids part but there also two different sermons, singing, a baptism, and prayer for two different groups of people for something. Most of it was in Kiswahili of course so its just hard because we never know what is going on. There were two other mzungu there though so some things they did translate for us, just not everything which was odd.
Oh yes I must share with you two major pluses of my living situation now. One- not only do I have a shower, but its a hot shower!! yay! Two- I found out yesterday that there is a washing machine here!! Today I did a load of laundry and I could only do about half as much of a load you'd do at home and it took about 2.5 hours and stil have to wait for it to hang dry but hey, its still a washing machine!
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Change of Plans
I decided that I could not handle the orphanage in Moshi anymore. I was not happy and there were too many factors playing into that. They do not teach love there and therefore the kids do not understand that its not okay to hit me, spit on me, throw food at me, etc. It was hard being the only volunteer and being ignored by most people that worked there including the head Sister. A friend made a good point to me by saying "why volunteer for people who don't appreciate it?" So at the beginning of the week I made a change and come to Arusha which was my next placement. I am scheduled to be here 6 weeks and havent decided what I will do with the last 3 weeks of my trip (stay here or go back to Kenya) but that is a decision that doesn't need to be made now.
I am working with Living Water Children's Center. I live at the house of the family/directors with another volunteer from England. They have two projects. There is Living Water Children's center which is a 5 minute walk from the house and 25 kids live there. There is also part of a primary school there (baby, intermediate, and standard 1 and 2). The LWCC kids go to school there as well as some other children from the area that then go home at the end of the day. The second project just opened this past year and it is a full school in Kisongu which is right outside Arusha and about a 30 min trip away from the center. They have all levels of classes there (baby-standard 7) (standard 7 is equal to the end of middle school for the US) and do both day and boarding school (lots of boarding here in Africa. The LWCC children that are standard 3 and up board there along with kids from outside families. I hope this is all making sense!
I am not sure of my schedule here yet because some days are in the center and some are in Kisongu. I will be doing some teaching and assisting with that and evenings and weekends are just hanging out with the kids. All teaching is done in English so the kids are pretty fluent which is a big change and a big help. A few of them are helping me to work on my Kiswahili which is fun. These kids are also older (3-17) so its a change from Kenya.
I am happier here in Arusha and actually feel like I am being productive and making a difference which is what I was looking for! I cant believe it is October 1 and in exactly two months I will be home again. I am so thankful for this experience and cannot wait to share more with many of you when I get back stateside.
I am working with Living Water Children's Center. I live at the house of the family/directors with another volunteer from England. They have two projects. There is Living Water Children's center which is a 5 minute walk from the house and 25 kids live there. There is also part of a primary school there (baby, intermediate, and standard 1 and 2). The LWCC kids go to school there as well as some other children from the area that then go home at the end of the day. The second project just opened this past year and it is a full school in Kisongu which is right outside Arusha and about a 30 min trip away from the center. They have all levels of classes there (baby-standard 7) (standard 7 is equal to the end of middle school for the US) and do both day and boarding school (lots of boarding here in Africa. The LWCC children that are standard 3 and up board there along with kids from outside families. I hope this is all making sense!
I am not sure of my schedule here yet because some days are in the center and some are in Kisongu. I will be doing some teaching and assisting with that and evenings and weekends are just hanging out with the kids. All teaching is done in English so the kids are pretty fluent which is a big change and a big help. A few of them are helping me to work on my Kiswahili which is fun. These kids are also older (3-17) so its a change from Kenya.
I am happier here in Arusha and actually feel like I am being productive and making a difference which is what I was looking for! I cant believe it is October 1 and in exactly two months I will be home again. I am so thankful for this experience and cannot wait to share more with many of you when I get back stateside.
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