Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Christmas in Tanzania


Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We are just getting to know our neighbors and colleagues. Last Week we visited our nightwatchman's house. We met all the neighbors that we have been greeting along the road for three weeks as their houses are also along the side of the same Mountain. As you can imagine, we were humbled by their generosity of spirit and food. We were they only ones that were fed ( bananas, cucumbers, a donut type thing, juice and chai with milk. A nephew who spoke English was with us and helped when our Kiswalhili (and Kisamba) language fell short. He told us how important it was that we see their "environment" which I understood by the end included houses, shambas(farms), family structure and how to be a good neighbor. We were escorted to the houses and brought back home, but told that "now we know where they live and they expected us to visit -- and that we can expect visits as well!

School is empty. More teachers will arrive after Xmas. Now I am enjoying the older Sisters at our site, as they are my age and some speak a lot of English and have studied in USA. They are fun and seem to understand us foreigners a bit.
We spent Xmas eve with the Sisters, went to mass at our site church and spent Xmas with the other Peace Corps Volunteers in our region in a Lushoto Hotel with hot showers and the music and celebrating in town.
We are having a good time and looking forward to our work to start.
The Students arrive Jan. 6th and classes start Jan 14th. My Form 1 classes have only English and Math classes the first 8 weeks. I will teach English with Chemistry Themes and start Chemistry syllabus in March. Form 2 Biology will start in January. The syllabus is thematic, EX: Nutrition (plants and animals and Humans), Transport of materials, Environment, etc. Because we have a lab we will be doing "practicals" lab investigations regularly. I will have 45-50 students in my classes. I am glad we will have boarding students so we can work together after class aswell and have a science club to reach students on a more personal level.

I was able to get pictures loaded on this and the previous blog! Check them out!
Pictures of Our site , the school and our house are now on the previous blog.
These pictures are of End of Morogoro Training party , John's 60th Birthday Party, and Mikumi Park Lions.

More updates in January!
We both wish you ALL a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Peace and Good Health to ALL

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Our School Site near Lushoto, Tanzania


Onga!
(KiSamba for greetings)

We are now in Lushoto at our new home and school. This in in the Usamba Mts and the local people are Samba. It is very beautiful
and there are lots of fruit out our back door-- also a garden with vegetables to
tend to. Most nights there are folks drumming and singing us to sleep from somewhere across the valley from our house. I am practicing my native american flute in the
evenings, so I wonder what they think when they hear this. Because we are
separated by the valley and can only see each others lights, their
fire and our kerosene lantern.

There is a Kilimanjaro marathon coming up and some of the other Peace Corps Volunteers are participating. I am hoping to go watch and cheer from Marangu Hotel where I stayed two years ago to climb the mountain!

We start teaching in January-- Biology and Chemistry for me, John will teach Math. We have a school with a lot of growing success in national exams over the last 4 years. It is all girls boarding and so we will have time to socailize and have clubs arter the school days. We are told the staff likes to work together and that is
what we have seen so far. We are in paradise!
Our house had a pile of food and basic furniture when we arrived -- the community is very welcoming. I have been cooking ugali, beans, rice and more with all the fresh vegetables available. When it rains, I go out and dig up a little bit more space to plant a few more things we would like handy such as leeks and garlic, matembele and pumpkin.

We have 4 bedrooms and a living area then an open courtyard with a sink that separates this from the kitchen, storage area, toilet, and bathing area. We have water to the house but no electricity. We use kerosene for cooking and lights. We have charcoal stove as a back=up. The school has electricity (a km away) to charge our phone, ipod and computer. We have a solar cell. We visited a Benedictine Mission and one of the Brothers gave us a battery and a flouescent light that works great with our solar collector for light!

Yesterday we hiked to a view point that was incredible. There was a place that made cheese so we bought some for a treat at home. You would like it here. Lots of up and down and beatiful views (but hard on the knees). I rode my bike once.
Not hard to find mountain bike trails. That is all we have!