- December 20, 2008
Reflections on our first year
Work and play has been a whirlwind since September. We are told by the volunteers who have just completed their 2 years of service that the 2nd and final year will go even faster.
For this BLOG entry, I am telling you the things we have been working on with all the different kinds of support from people at home and here.
SCIENCE TEACHING STRATIGIES
(many of these came from Saint Paul Public School Teachers!)
· The use of notebook organizational strategies in Form I. When we started revision for the annual exam, the students could see for themselves the topics covered and the pages in their notes that were helpful.
· Lots of designing little experiments together to develop problem solving skills. Once students got the idea of guessing and forming a hypothesis, they were more willing to talk in class, saying, “madame, I will try. I think...” It has been a revelation to students that the facts they must memorize for National Exams were discovered by the investigative process they were doing.
· Scavenger hunts to discover things in their environment pertaining to topics.
· With all the colored pencils donated by many of you folks, students were highly motivated to draw biology diagrams required in the notebooks.
· Teaching students how to write an essay on biology topics, then small group practice on writing different essays together.
· Form I prepared short lessons and short notes (by lab group) on Form I Biology topics and taught these to Form II for their revision of Form I topics before the regional exam.
· Preparing study guides for each new topic was very helpful to keep students working between classes, copying short notes, looking up and defining new vocabulary, drawing diagrams, and answering g summary questions. Also, sharing vocabulary words with the English teacher.
· Giving a pre-test before each topic which students completed in small groups in class proved to be highly motivating and useful to me and the students to know what they needed to learn and what they knew.
· Getting live or fresh specimens from the community for dissection was of high interest and allowed the school community to get involved with the teaching of students. The school cook got the fish, the night watchman went to the village to get the cow heart, lungs and trachea on the day we needed it so it would not spoil. The sisters got to eat it after! Eggs for osmosis were gotten from the school hens and many food supplies from the cook. The school tailor hemmed the rice bags to use for instructional posters.
· Having students work in small groups to take practice NECTA EXAMS allowed me to correct only 12 exams per class and let them pool their knowledge.
· Having small groups prepare lessons with requirements of visual aids and participation then rotate the small groups to teach another small group really facilitated more questions and discussions because they were small little classes with in a class. This also really helped the students struggling with English. They could talk in Kiswahili when needed for deeper understanding.
· Small groups constructing models of different kinds of cells out of play dough and scraps of material and things I saved from my house (foil from Nido cans, bottle caps, rope, cardboard, etc.). The challenge of seeing cells as 3-D is huge and this really helped.
· Doing a little Yoga and singing songs with students as a way to re-energize before class starts.
Some outcomes:
· Students at Kongei Secondary School have said to me, “I will always be able to say that I know these things because I was able to build the human body model, dissect the cow heart and see the anatomy movies. I can tell my family and my future children.” “Nobody has ever shown us these ways to protect ourselves from HIV.” “We have tried, really tried.”
· The Form II Biology students performed 57% higher on their regional exam than the last Form II class. Kongei students told me that one of my students earned the highest score in the district on the Biology Mock Exam.
· Form I Biology students all were able to write a good essay question answer on their annual exam and many were able to correctly answer questions about a scientific experiment and then analyze experimental data on their annual exam. The Form I overall exam scores demonstrated very good results.
· With the help of John Olson, St.Paul Public Schools, I have completed an inventory of the chemicals at Kongei and prepared a folder with Chemical Safety Data Sheets for every chemical after a science department meeting generated interest in having this safety resource.
· A science teacher from Gare Secondary School and I have been able to share lesson plans and teaching aids to teach biology and chemistry. We have agreed to work together again next year.
· The teacher from Gare and met with the headmaster at Gare and together wrote a proposal for a basic science lab.
· Katy Lee, PCV at Ubiri Secondary School and I worked together to teach 15 of her students how to conduct the experiments to test for food nutrients. These lab experiments are part of the Form II Biology syllabus and are part of the Form IV NECTA Exam. I met a student last week on the road and she asked if I could return next term to teach them more of the practical exam skills they will need.
SCIENCE CLUB
· The eight students that constructed a display for the library including a 3-D torso model and accompanying instructional poster received recognition at graduation. We had five groups of 15 students watch and discuss the collection of human anatomy DVD’s produced through the Body Worlds exhibit author.
MUSIC CLUB
With the help of my cousin, Dianna, donating Instruction books and music, the music club students have learned how to read music and performed the national anthem at graduation. Since graduation and the purchase of additional flutes, the club grew from 7 to 16 students. Form III drummers have started teaching Form I students how to play to replace them when they leave at the end of next year.
COMPUTER SKILLS
· A biology teacher at Kongei worked with me to enter his grades on an excel spread sheet to calculate the final grades for the year.
· A physics teacher used my computer to type his own annual exams. Next term he plans to use the new computers that have arrived at the school.
Permaculture/ Life Skills
· Student Peer leadership group had 5 Sunday seminars to learn about HIV/AIDS and develop life skills to have more choices and strategies to use in daily living. Next term they will be teaching their peers.
· Kongei Primary School garden is growing well. and they have added another 6 matutas of carrots and kunde. They have sold mchicha from their garden to the community. After completing the garden,
· The Kongei Primary second master reported that parents were coming to see the garden because their child had encouraged them to build a garden like it at their home. Also, he has a garden near the road going to the school that he and his son have constructed using the bio-intensive methods learned from the school garden.
· Our neighborhood shamba worker and night watchman participated in the two workshops with Peter and asked to go together to bring the composting methods, perma-culture and bio-intensive garden methods to two other primary schools in the area (Chumbageni and Mchizi). We have gone twice to Chumbageni primary school. The head teacher instructed the students to start a compost pile at home. We have been asked to return in January and help them construct a demonstration garden.
· When I returned to Chumbageni Primary to take the HIV/AIDS and Life Skills books, three teachers told me they needed a teacher seminar to learn more about HIV/AIDS and how to teach their students. The teachers came from Mchizi and Chumbageni Primary Schools. Kongei Primary and their teachers are also interested in a HIV/AIDS Teacher Seminar. We discussed the possibility to have a seminar in February hosted by Kongei Primary.
· I was invited by a primary student to help her and her friends to construct a garden next to her grandparents’ home where she lives. We completed one bed together with her friends and the second will be constructed with her uncle.
· I have started nursery beds at my site for “guild” plants that are hard to find here and seeds for popular vegetables (papaya, aloe, lemon grass, avocado, mchicha, Brandywine tomatoes, vitungu kitamu rangi ya carroti).
· My counterpart has expanded the garden by my house, adding beds of cabbage that he has transplanted to another area to raise for profit. He has requested to add more beds of his favorite vegetables. This has brought more local people into my garden to help, learning the techniques of bio-intensive gardening.
· In Lushoto two women’s groups developed a gardens at homes. In January, they have asked for help to develop a garden at the primary school in Lushoto where one is a teacher.
PCPP Funding for Teacher Housing at Kongei Primary School
Kongei Primary School has successfully written a Partnership Grant proposal for teacher housing. With ALL your donations and support, the funds have been raised and on December 3, 2008 we had a meeting with the leadership team to start the process to build teacher housing and septic tank. The school committee met on December 5th and has planned for the site preparation to begin in January.
Mathematics and Technology
John has been teaching Form III and IV Mathematics. Here is a brief summary of his work. Go to his BLOG for more details: johntanzania.blogspot.com
· The math students have made huge gains in their exam scores through his teaching (77% improvement). The Math scores in Tanzania in general are extremely low and so it is difficult to convince students that it is possible to succeed in math.
· Some of the strategies he is using are: spiraling homework assignments so students would have constant review, building math skills and confidence; approach new material from a problem-solving perspective; and having students’ working in groups to discover solutions and strategies.
· He has designed a one week Math Camp the week before January term begins for Form VI students that are struggling with Math.
· With 10 rebuilt computers that arrived from Demark, John hopes to make more progress in teaching computer skills to teachers and students. His efforts so far have been limited to one computer and one afternoon a week available to show teachers tools for calculating grades. He has also used his own computer as a visual aid in the classroom. The new computer resource can significantly change his ability to facilitate learning and enthusiasm for technology tools.
LANGUAGE
· John works diligently every night to practice Kiswahili. His vocabulary is huge, often impressing teachers because he knows words they have never heard before.
· He has been teaching English to different village folks that ask him.
Sharing English Story Books and other things with Neighborhood Children
· With all the different children’s’ books you have donated, neighborhood children, 3 years to 12 years old come weekly to “check out” a new book to read.
· The Banana Word tiles are very popular. Children come to our house and spend an hour or more making words and practice their English.
· The calendars you have sent are great, too. We have neighbors stop by to use our calendar! The MN scenes give us a chance to talk about home and comparisons to Tanzania weather and landscapes.
· Family pictures, especially of the grandchildren doing things in America are special to people here. The children love to see the school work that Kelsey and Kole have done!
Monday, December 22, 2008
Reflections on our first year
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Developing Gardens at Two Sites
On September 2, Peter Jensen, Katherine, another PCV, and I drove from Dar es Salaam to our house in Lushoto. Katherine and I had spent the weekend at Bagamoyo Beach Hotel, swimming, eating fresh fish, and celebrating the service of three year volunteers now returning to USA. Katherine and I spent Sunday and Monday at Peter’s house, having pizza while watching Frasier with his family, having breakfast and dinner conversations at the dining room table (and bare feet on carpeted floors) as the girls went off to school and Elise was getting ready for work. These family conversations, playing with the family dog and guinea pigs and helping with their garden was truly a time we both missed being home with our own families.
Peter Jensen has been working in Tanzania for 8 years, working with people all over Tanzania as well as training Peace Corps Volunteers about ways to grow more food in small spaces. His work with the Peace Corps is especially for People and families living with HIV/AIDS. The biointensive gardening and permaculture methods are a way for these folks to be able to have very productive gardens close to home and that take minimal energy to maintain. He was making his second visit to our area to develop a demonstration garden for our primary school , working with the students, teachers and community adults—learning by doing and working together to meld what Peter knows works and what the community knows works in their area with their cultural priorities and preferences for food and planting.
Arriving Tuesday afternoon, we met with the school adults to lay out a logistic plan to rotate students during the week to work and learn from the garden. We also had to find out how to bring adults from the community into the work in a proper way. We looked over the school grounds and the school made a decision as to where to put the garden. The school had already brought many buckets of manure and water for the garden.
Wednesday morning started with Peter showing his new movie of Tanzanians from different climates using the gardening methods successfully. The movie also has tutorials and graphics showing the methods we would be using during the week to develop their garden. Excitement was in the air. Students (grades 5, 6, &7), community adults and teachers all watching the movie, (about 200).
The garden started first by sprucing up the guild we had built during the Girls Workshop and constructing the double dug planting beds (6 total in the end!). At 1:30pm we stopped to have a celebratory lunch together with the school leaders. Sister Shirema welcomed Peter into their school family as we began our week together. Another 1.5 hours working in the garden and then Peter and I went to Lushoto to visit Rose.
Rose is a member of a group of women in Lushoto living with HIV/AIDS. She and I met when Nice brought Rose to the Girls Leadership Workshop as a guest speaker. Nice is the program director for an NGO serving women, teaching them computer skills to enable them to find jobs to support their families. Rose participated in the Permaculture demonstration we did at the Girls Workshop and said to me then, “I and my group and the people that really need to know these methods!” At that very moment, Nice, Rose and I started planning how to work together to start making gardens at Rose’s house and teach all the people of the group that wanted to learn.
Rose was not home as she needed to travel to Moshi Health Clinic, but she left instructions with her children to welcome us and help choose a garden spot at their house. Nice, Peter and I visited her house. It is truly amazing to see a landscape through Peter’s eyes! I had visited Rose’s House a week before to look at garden spots, but through Peter’s eyes, I learned how to look for the information that the soil, erosion and plant life that is their can teach. We left with a plan and Rose’s daughter ready to do her part before we returned to build a garden on Saturday!
Thursday through Friday, the Kongei garden took shape and the community’s ability to teach their children through showing then stepping back and letting them do was awe inspiring. Peter was family as the week progressed, that was clear. Three guilds, three banana trees added, a fresh compost pile started and 6 beds of vegetables planted happened by Friday afternoon. A guild is a Papaya tree, matembele below (nutritious perennial), lemon grass, and aloe vera planted in a group. This is a power packed grouping that is of plants common to every house in Tanzania. The beds planted are 1 meter wide and 6 meters long. There are two beds of carrots, two of kunde (beans), two of an orange sweet potatoe together with a local greens that covers the soil and is harvested once the potatoes come up.
Another important feature of the garden is the holes and shallow trenches to control the flow of water, directing it into the beds and slowing it down as it runs down the mountain side. This garden is a beautiful from the shape, colors, food it will provide and the engineering of structures to maximize the water that flows naturally.
After all cleaned up and the garden site, too, we all gathered to watch the movie again. But, in Tanzanian style, the generator created a electrical surge and the projector became toast. So, the students sang a song they wrote for Peter and we handed out the books on nutrition and life skills in kid language and a carrot to eat. A factor we did not consider when we invited parents to come on Friday was Ramadan. One parent came to look at the garden and then he and the adults working in the garden watched the movie. (Since this day we have heard testimony from a variety of folks that kids have told their parents about the garden and parents have been, now, stopping by to see the garden and have said they want to try one at their house.)
Saturday, Peter and I headed to Lushoto. Rose’s garden began. There were 14 friends of Rose that joined her to make a garden. The Lushoto Community Development Director, the secretary of another local NGO for controlling AIDS, and three teachers from a secondary school came. Peace Corps has 5 new health volunteers in the area and all were there, too, along with another PCV teacher. Then, of course were the children that easily made up another 6 participants.
The garden took shape, the first bed done slowly teaching the methods and building a sense of family between us as we built a garden. After chai, bread and bananas in the welcoming warmth of Rose’s home, we all put to use our knowledge. The women eagerly started another bed. Peter took small groups to construct three guilds in spots where the water runs naturally. Then Peter’s eyes became ours as he showed us where to dig holes to stop the water and where to dig inclined trenches to move the water down each bed. By 1:30 Rose’s Garden was a fact and we walked together with Peter to see other possibilities along the path to the dala dala that took us to Lunch at the Tea Room in Lushoto. Jackie served us all a delicious lunch of greens, beans, rice and meat. NyaKoki, community Development director then lead us to a meeting room where Peter showed his movie, questions were discussed and books and directions on the methods taught, nutrition and life skills were provided. I headed back to my school early, as we had Parent Day going on, but I heard that Peter was able to visit another secondary school of a PCV in the area, seeing the guild they had built and the papaya seedlings begun before taking his rest that evening.
These events of this powerful week are alive. I continue to work in my garden with my neighbors that are teaching me as I teach them--, harvesting potatoes, transplanting leeks, thinning carrots; harvesting g sweet potatoes from my matembele I did not realize were growing. I have reworked two beds by adding my 4 month old compost to the top! It is true, we did not have to double dig again, and they are still deep and loose!
Nice and Rose have told me that we are going to develop a garden at each woman’s house in her group. It is the spirit of a quilting bee I think. The group came to Rose’s house and built a garden, now we will continue the rotation until each woman has a garden. I told them, “I will be there.” Ali and Twaha, two of the adults at the Kongei garden have asked me which day I am free for us to go to another primary school and develop their garden—a school where their neighbors children go and have heard of the Kongei garden. They also ask, “Will you garden like this when you return to America?”
Food. Water. This is one way I know I can participate in this struggle with my neighbors here. We share the knowledge, work, food and spirit of a family.
Monday, August 25, 2008
August Happenings in TZ
August has brought 5 new health Peace Corps Volunteers to our area. I welcome these folks, both to provide more resources for the communities and schools we are working with and also, because the volunteer community has been a relief and a pleasure to socialize with on weekends. It is very nice to be able to not only speak English but to speak to folks with life experiences in the western world.
This week we may have one of the new volunteers stay here as their site and house is not yet settled. Then next week Peter Jensen will stay with us while working on developing a demonstration garden at Kongei Primary school and then a Saturday workshop and demonstration garden in Lushoto with a group of People Living With HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). Both the Primary school and the Community Development Office in Lushoto have been very active in supporting this visit from Peter. They are providing lunch for the participants, meeting room space and teaching pamphlets to compliment the reading material Peace Corps provides these participants on nutrition and HIV/AIDS prevention and care. It is all happening without outside funds (other than Peter’s services and travel expensive). This is very heartwarming to me in that it shows me they are very serious about sustaining the work to be done in developing more productive gardens and to learn better nutrition habits, as well as pass their new knowledge on to others interested. We will probably never know the impacts after we leave, but we are told these are hopeful signs.
John and I have started working with another primary school that is a two hour walk from our site. They are a school that was started because Kongei primary is a two hour walk for their young children (pre school – Standard 6 (grade6). Our night watchman and school shamba workers’ children attend this school and they asked us to visit the school and share the permaculture, biointensive gardening and any other resources we can offer their needs. Last Tuesday we met with the faculty, head teachers and community leader to discuss what needs they have. The story is very similar to Kongei Primary. They are in the process of building teacher housing as many of the teachers walk from Lushoto town (2+ hours). They are now short 2 classrooms because they have added a grade level as the kids progress (they started with preschool – Standard 4). So, they want to build a new classroom. There are no government funds coming that they know of in the near future. Then I asked what else do they what to tell us that they have not. A teacher very eloquently explained that of course these building are a priority but it is much more complicated and difficult to say what is a priority when you as a teacher are teaching and your students have not eaten and cannot stay awake nor think clearly to learn. This is very difficult because the school shamba can grow only enough food to last a few weeks after harvest to feed them porridge mid-day, and we know the villagers do not grow enough food, either to feed their families nor to give to the school in the form of foods or money to help build.
I worked with the night watchman (Twaha) to demonstrate double digging garden beds and we planted matembele and lemon grass that I brought from my garden. I will return this week to co-teach composting methods to decrease the amount of fertilizers needed to purchase and to reduce the burning of corn and bean stalks after harvest. This time Twaha and Ali (shamba worker) both want to come to help teach.
At home, my garden is doing great. I now get help from Asha, a woman that has been watering our flowers and sweeping our yard and courtyard as well as mopping once a week. She has developed a beautiful flower garden around our house that is the talk of the neighborhood. It is called “Asha’s Garden”. Now she has started to work with me to double-dig some new beds as I need to thin my carrots and leeks as well as plant some new things. In the next few weeks we will harvest potatoes! I have already had fresh green beans from the seeds Barbara brought with her when she visited.
We still get called Mzungu (European) when we travel by bike from home to Lushoto and back, but slowly it is changing to Johnny and Mama Johnny. I tried to teach them my name “Randee” but “r” is very difficult in Kiswahili and “Johnny” is a very common name. So… I used the cultural pattern of a Mama being called by either one of her children’s’ names for example “Mama Anna” or by her husband’s first name. Now I hear “Mama Johnny” yelled from the top of the mountains when I pass through on the main road. I often cannot see the children, but if I wave or shout a greeting back there are great cheers. Also, now that we have been to another village area of the other primary school, I notice more people (thatI do not know by face) greet me and ask me how Kongei is doing. Slowly we are feeling more like neighbors in a wider circle from our house.
As far as teaching, I am just about finished with the syllabus for the year. It will be one more month to finish and then review for the national exams. It has been very helpful to create a study guide for each unit that includes; vocabulary and questions for them to look up and complete; a pre-test they work on as a lab group; and lab directions and notes to put in their books as I teach the unit. I am able to make one copy for each lab group of 4-6 people. This has really helped save time from writing all the notes on the blackboard and it gives them freedom to work at their own pace to get the notes and complete the independent study work.
One of the most engaging English language lessons I did was giving my students the receipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies and Play dough. Since making them cookies and using homemade playdough for making cell models, they have been bugging me to give them recipes. When I finally did, even the most limited English speakers were coming up to ask questions about meaning and pronunciation of words. The students from the other Forms, now, are asking me for the receipes so they can make playdough for their brothers and sisters when they go home!
This week we may have one of the new volunteers stay here as their site and house is not yet settled. Then next week Peter Jensen will stay with us while working on developing a demonstration garden at Kongei Primary school and then a Saturday workshop and demonstration garden in Lushoto with a group of People Living With HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). Both the Primary school and the Community Development Office in Lushoto have been very active in supporting this visit from Peter. They are providing lunch for the participants, meeting room space and teaching pamphlets to compliment the reading material Peace Corps provides these participants on nutrition and HIV/AIDS prevention and care. It is all happening without outside funds (other than Peter’s services and travel expensive). This is very heartwarming to me in that it shows me they are very serious about sustaining the work to be done in developing more productive gardens and to learn better nutrition habits, as well as pass their new knowledge on to others interested. We will probably never know the impacts after we leave, but we are told these are hopeful signs.
John and I have started working with another primary school that is a two hour walk from our site. They are a school that was started because Kongei primary is a two hour walk for their young children (pre school – Standard 6 (grade6). Our night watchman and school shamba workers’ children attend this school and they asked us to visit the school and share the permaculture, biointensive gardening and any other resources we can offer their needs. Last Tuesday we met with the faculty, head teachers and community leader to discuss what needs they have. The story is very similar to Kongei Primary. They are in the process of building teacher housing as many of the teachers walk from Lushoto town (2+ hours). They are now short 2 classrooms because they have added a grade level as the kids progress (they started with preschool – Standard 4). So, they want to build a new classroom. There are no government funds coming that they know of in the near future. Then I asked what else do they what to tell us that they have not. A teacher very eloquently explained that of course these building are a priority but it is much more complicated and difficult to say what is a priority when you as a teacher are teaching and your students have not eaten and cannot stay awake nor think clearly to learn. This is very difficult because the school shamba can grow only enough food to last a few weeks after harvest to feed them porridge mid-day, and we know the villagers do not grow enough food, either to feed their families nor to give to the school in the form of foods or money to help build.
I worked with the night watchman (Twaha) to demonstrate double digging garden beds and we planted matembele and lemon grass that I brought from my garden. I will return this week to co-teach composting methods to decrease the amount of fertilizers needed to purchase and to reduce the burning of corn and bean stalks after harvest. This time Twaha and Ali (shamba worker) both want to come to help teach.
At home, my garden is doing great. I now get help from Asha, a woman that has been watering our flowers and sweeping our yard and courtyard as well as mopping once a week. She has developed a beautiful flower garden around our house that is the talk of the neighborhood. It is called “Asha’s Garden”. Now she has started to work with me to double-dig some new beds as I need to thin my carrots and leeks as well as plant some new things. In the next few weeks we will harvest potatoes! I have already had fresh green beans from the seeds Barbara brought with her when she visited.
We still get called Mzungu (European) when we travel by bike from home to Lushoto and back, but slowly it is changing to Johnny and Mama Johnny. I tried to teach them my name “Randee” but “r” is very difficult in Kiswahili and “Johnny” is a very common name. So… I used the cultural pattern of a Mama being called by either one of her children’s’ names for example “Mama Anna” or by her husband’s first name. Now I hear “Mama Johnny” yelled from the top of the mountains when I pass through on the main road. I often cannot see the children, but if I wave or shout a greeting back there are great cheers. Also, now that we have been to another village area of the other primary school, I notice more people (thatI do not know by face) greet me and ask me how Kongei is doing. Slowly we are feeling more like neighbors in a wider circle from our house.
As far as teaching, I am just about finished with the syllabus for the year. It will be one more month to finish and then review for the national exams. It has been very helpful to create a study guide for each unit that includes; vocabulary and questions for them to look up and complete; a pre-test they work on as a lab group; and lab directions and notes to put in their books as I teach the unit. I am able to make one copy for each lab group of 4-6 people. This has really helped save time from writing all the notes on the blackboard and it gives them freedom to work at their own pace to get the notes and complete the independent study work.
One of the most engaging English language lessons I did was giving my students the receipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies and Play dough. Since making them cookies and using homemade playdough for making cell models, they have been bugging me to give them recipes. When I finally did, even the most limited English speakers were coming up to ask questions about meaning and pronunciation of words. The students from the other Forms, now, are asking me for the receipes so they can make playdough for their brothers and sisters when they go home!
Starting this month, we have daily visits from the neighborhood children. They come to look at my bird books and read the children’s’ books of TZ animals that Barb and I got on our travels. Also, the life skills children’s magazines we get from Peace Corps Office are a big hit as these are in Kiswahili and have popular kids themes and characters. There are really good resources for communities from the TZ Peace Corps. The kids like to play ball and wrestle with us, too, of course. We saw a new bird species yesterday in my yard, a Green Wood-Hoopoe.
The music club is doing well, learning the National Anthem to play at graduation in October. They now can read and play 8 notes as well as "clap out" measures in 4/4 time. Mostly, we are having lots of fun!
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Dissecting Fish and Building Models
We had 4 fish to use with 100 students to dissect. It was a hit. I also got a cow heart, kidneys and lungs with trachea attached to do disection followed by individuals observing parts. The Science club finished their digestive system model and hung it in the library with an informative poster. Form I made plant and animal cells models from homemade playdough.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
July-August
-It is August!
Our Girls workshop was such a hit and we had some money left that we had another jam making workshop day to try making orange marmalade. It is Orange season here and so they are real cheap!
While the jam was cooking we had lunch and then demonstrated how to make a Papaya tree guild garden at Kongei Primary with matembele and lemon grass cuttings from my garden.
You can see pictures on my PICASA web page!
July teaching has been fun.
I was able to get 4 live fish from a villager to dissect with the Form II students. They are very excited to be in the lab and use the equipment and touch things.
Form I mounted onion cell slides and used the microscopes last week. They are also, so grateful. This is the fun part of the job, 50 kids grateful to use 6 microscopes or 4 fish then another 50 reuse the same fish!
The students are drawing diagrams of many biology structures and love the colored pencils my sister brought. I always the pencils back at the end of class, every one!
The music club is doing great. They has learned 5 notes as well as how to read 4/4 time, quarter and half notes and rests and name the lines and spaces. They want to play Simple Gifts for graduation and also their national anthem.
I am going to try making “playdough” again to use for cell models. I need cream of Tartar, so someone is going to bring it from Dar.
I made a lung model with a lantern globe, balloon and hose. It worked! Next week I am getting a cow heart and kidney to dissect from our night watchman’s village. In three weeks the dispensary head nurse is coming to show the students how a stethoscope and blood pressure cuff work and answer questions about blood types.
At home, I bought a round bottom clay pot to cook rice and soup. Twaha, our night watchman made a banana leaf ngata to hold the pot on the table or... to carry on my head.
I also made 120 chocolate chip cookies for my Form I students with the chips Barb brought in June. Baking on a lid inside a bigger pot on a charcoal stove!
(Pictures attached)
I will take a break at the end of August for a long week end. Bagamoyo is a town on the beach near Dar. I am going to celebrate a PCV returning to USA. I am looking forward to the beach and some R&R.
Peace,
Randee
Our Girls workshop was such a hit and we had some money left that we had another jam making workshop day to try making orange marmalade. It is Orange season here and so they are real cheap!
While the jam was cooking we had lunch and then demonstrated how to make a Papaya tree guild garden at Kongei Primary with matembele and lemon grass cuttings from my garden.
You can see pictures on my PICASA web page!
July teaching has been fun.
I was able to get 4 live fish from a villager to dissect with the Form II students. They are very excited to be in the lab and use the equipment and touch things.
Form I mounted onion cell slides and used the microscopes last week. They are also, so grateful. This is the fun part of the job, 50 kids grateful to use 6 microscopes or 4 fish then another 50 reuse the same fish!
The students are drawing diagrams of many biology structures and love the colored pencils my sister brought. I always the pencils back at the end of class, every one!
The music club is doing great. They has learned 5 notes as well as how to read 4/4 time, quarter and half notes and rests and name the lines and spaces. They want to play Simple Gifts for graduation and also their national anthem.
I am going to try making “playdough” again to use for cell models. I need cream of Tartar, so someone is going to bring it from Dar.
I made a lung model with a lantern globe, balloon and hose. It worked! Next week I am getting a cow heart and kidney to dissect from our night watchman’s village. In three weeks the dispensary head nurse is coming to show the students how a stethoscope and blood pressure cuff work and answer questions about blood types.
At home, I bought a round bottom clay pot to cook rice and soup. Twaha, our night watchman made a banana leaf ngata to hold the pot on the table or... to carry on my head.
I also made 120 chocolate chip cookies for my Form I students with the chips Barb brought in June. Baking on a lid inside a bigger pot on a charcoal stove!
(Pictures attached)
I will take a break at the end of August for a long week end. Bagamoyo is a town on the beach near Dar. I am going to celebrate a PCV returning to USA. I am looking forward to the beach and some R&R.
Peace,
Randee
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Kongei Teacher Housing Project
Hello from Tanzania!
I hope all is well and you are enjoying your summer in Minnesota! The weather here is actually what I would call cold, especially when I go further up the mountain to Lushoto. In the morning and evenings I can see my breath and at night I use two blankets or my sleeping bag. Still, the days are warm but I am wearing long sleeves and a shawl these days.
I am writing today to ask you to spread the word and encourage friends, family and colleagues to contribute money to my Peace Corps secondary project. Every volunteer is encouraged to discover a community need near our school and help facilitate a solution. The Peace Corps has different kinds of grants which we can submit proposals. After discovering that a pressing need at the elementary school in my village was teacher housing, I worked with the leaders to write a proposal for a partnership grant through the Peace Corps.
The Peace Corps Partnership Grant requires the community to contribute a minimum of 25% of the resources needed and then the American people are asked to contribute the remaining balance. Kongei Elementary School wants to build a teacher housing unit and a septic tank to support this unit. They are contributing 38% ($3,064.00) of the resources needed and are asking for the balance of 62% ($4,997.20).
Our proposal is very close to being approved by the Peace Corps Office in Dar es Salaam and they have asked me to start contacting people in America that can be useful in spreading the word and encouraging people to make contributions through the US Peace Corps website under our project title,
“Construction of Teacher Housing at Kongei Elementary School”.
Below is a summary of the project and background information about Kongei Elementary.
The website for contributions will be available in September 2008. We want to start the building process in December 2008. Your help will greatly assist us in accomplishing our goals. This project cannot go ahead without complete funding. Also, the project must be completed before I return to USA in November 2009.
Thank you for considering this opportunity to help me do my work and more important to help Kongei improve student educational performance through supporting teachers.
Peace,
Randee
I hope all is well and you are enjoying your summer in Minnesota! The weather here is actually what I would call cold, especially when I go further up the mountain to Lushoto. In the morning and evenings I can see my breath and at night I use two blankets or my sleeping bag. Still, the days are warm but I am wearing long sleeves and a shawl these days.
I am writing today to ask you to spread the word and encourage friends, family and colleagues to contribute money to my Peace Corps secondary project. Every volunteer is encouraged to discover a community need near our school and help facilitate a solution. The Peace Corps has different kinds of grants which we can submit proposals. After discovering that a pressing need at the elementary school in my village was teacher housing, I worked with the leaders to write a proposal for a partnership grant through the Peace Corps.
The Peace Corps Partnership Grant requires the community to contribute a minimum of 25% of the resources needed and then the American people are asked to contribute the remaining balance. Kongei Elementary School wants to build a teacher housing unit and a septic tank to support this unit. They are contributing 38% ($3,064.00) of the resources needed and are asking for the balance of 62% ($4,997.20).
Our proposal is very close to being approved by the Peace Corps Office in Dar es Salaam and they have asked me to start contacting people in America that can be useful in spreading the word and encouraging people to make contributions through the US Peace Corps website under our project title,
“Construction of Teacher Housing at Kongei Elementary School”.
Below is a summary of the project and background information about Kongei Elementary.
The website for contributions will be available in September 2008. We want to start the building process in December 2008. Your help will greatly assist us in accomplishing our goals. This project cannot go ahead without complete funding. Also, the project must be completed before I return to USA in November 2009.
Thank you for considering this opportunity to help me do my work and more important to help Kongei improve student educational performance through supporting teachers.
Peace,
Randee
Peace Corps Partnership Proposal
Randee Edmundson, Peace Corps Volunteer
Lushoto, Tanga Region
Tanzania
Community Contribution: $3,064.00 (38%)
The community contribution includes: bricks, stones, sand, hardcore, transportation of materials, skilled labor, and unskilled labor.
USA Partners Contribution: $4,997.20 (62%)
The partnership contribution includes materials for construction and finishing the housing and septic tank. (see attached itemized budget )
Construction of Teacher Housing at Kongei Elementary School
Project Summary
Kongei Elementary government school is very different than a typical American rural public school. The classrooms are very full and have only the very basic facilities, student desks and a blackboard. Learning basic math, science and English are some of the biggest challenges for students and retaining teachers that are able to have time and energy to teach these subjects is one of the reasons for their difficulties. The students and the teachers work very hard, but what they can accomplish is compromised by the fact that most teachers live far from the school, walking up to 2 hours to and from school every day. Attracting new needed teachers is also difficult when there is no teacher housing available near the school.
Discussing these challenges with the headmistress, second headmaster and teacher of math and sciences, and the school teacher/matron, they have explained to me that the most pressing need is to provide housing at the school site for teachers. Sr. Shirima, Headmistress, Rueben Masenga, Second Headmaster and their teachers know that they can teach more effectively, be more reliable and have more energy for teaching longer hours and teach to more diverse student needs if they could have a house provided near the school. Through this project, they hope to retain the excellent teachers they have and be able to attract new highly-qualified, committed teachers, resulting in a better education for their 1000 students.
What we would do is build a teacher housing unit that can support one teacher family or several single teachers. The unit would have a septic tank and toilet that can support the new housing unit plus an additional unit that can be added on at a later date. Currently there are two teacher housing units that are being completed (by September 2008) by the effort of the community. This housing was left undone when government funding ran out. Pictures at the end of this report show these teacher housing units that are in process now as well as the site for the new unit and septic tank to be built with these funds.
With three teacher housing units completed by May 2009, Kongei would be able to house several of their current teachers that are walking 7-8 kilometers to school and back home every day.
School Background
Kongei Elementary School is in a rural farming village of the Usambara Mountains. This area of Tanzania is the Tanga Region and is located 15 km from the town of Lushoto. I teach at Kongei secondary school that is in the same area but is a private school. The elementary school is a government school. The school opened many years ago as a girls middle school but changed to a primary school and has been growing rapidly ever since. This large growth is due to a change in government policy. Tanzanian elementary school education was not free until 2003. Starting in 2003, the government ruled that all children must attend elementary school and their elementary schooling would be free of charge.
The increase in student population has also meant an increase in need for teachers. Also, the school is not able to offer enough afternoon and evening tutoring for their growing number s of students because teachers need to walk home after day classes.
Currently there are 1000 students, 544 girls and 456 boys. The school has 14 teachers, 10 women and 4 men. As the headmistress has explained to me, in Tanzania the schools are expected to provide housing for teachers, yet, the school has no current housing for teachers.
Without teacher housing near the school, the current teachers can become exhausted from their long commute by foot and transfer to another school given the opportunity for a better housing situation. Also, it is hard to attract new needed teachers to their Kongei without sufficient housing.
Project Evaluation and Monitoring
The project goal is improve student achievement through enabling teachers at Kongei Elementary School to be more effective in their teaching, and enable the administration to be more effective in attracting and retaining highly qualified teachers. In addition, to have teachers available to teach evening tutoring classes to improve student performance.
Objectives:
· Teachers will be able to increase time spent and quality of lesson preparation including one or both of the following:
o develop more teaching aids
o include more diverse teaching strategies.
· The current teachers will not leave Kongei nor will additional teachers needed refuse an offer to be hired due to lack of housing.
· The teachers housed (6) in school housing will offer students additional time for tutoring during the week.
· The percent of students taking the leaving exam (allowing them to enter secondary school) and earning passing scores will stay the same or increase in 2009. (53% in 2008)
Specifically we will compare the following data using current information and data collected June-September 2009:
· The time spent on lesson preparation
· The quality of lesson preparation with regard to teaching aids and diverse teaching strategies
· The number of teachers retained and/or added with reasons related to housing.
· The amounts of time teachers housed spend on tutoring students before or after school hours.
· The percent of students taking the leaving exam and earning passing scores.
Community Change
Rueben Masenga, second headmaster, expressed the following change that he believes possible: People of the community will learn that when you put your minds and physical efforts together around a common goal and invite a broader community beyond your own village, that you can accomplish larger goals and most importantly, it will change the relationship with people across the world in positive ways. We hope that we can be together with people all over the world and one day we can be in one world.
To complete this project, there are community elders, the community leader, the school leadership committee, skilled workers, and professional teachers working together with the young people of the community. The young people will learn the skills of how to lead a community and to cooperate as a community to accomplish large tasks through pooling ideas and both human and natural resources. One outcome of this is growth in the capacity of leadership to define and meet the goals and objectives of the community in the future.
We will conduct a school committee meeting and community meeting after completing the project to gather feedback as to what was accomplished and how this project changed the people of the community. We will document comments which specifically express gains in community organization, knowledge of assets, opportunities to share skills and knowledge with young people, or the lack of these attributes.
Community Need and Beneficiaries
On my first visit to Kongei Elementary school, Sr. Shirima, headmistress and Sr. Alma, teacher and matron, graciously welcomed me, gave me a tour of the school and explained their priorities to improve the education of their 1000 students. Their list included such items as teacher housing, an additional classroom and building for school and community gatherings, and a water well to collect rain water to make getting clear water easier especially during the summer season. On future visits to explore ways to address these needs, teacher housing was always listed as the highest priority. The school committee representatives explained that they had the ability to manage with getting water and even the possibility of getting help from the government with building a classroom but, due to lack of teacher housing, they could not afford to lose their teachers or lose their ability to attract new teachers needed to improve the education and performance of their students.
Direct beneficiaries of this project are the 1000 students, the current and future teachers, and the community. The headmistress and second headmaster explained that the community will benefit because their children will cooperate with learning more because they will have more energized teachers, with more time to prepare lessons that can meet diverse student needs and increase student involvement in learning. Also, teacher housing at the school will increase the number of teachers that can teach afternoon and evening classes. In these ways the teachers are better able to help students pass their exams and continue on to secondary school.
Finishing the existing incomplete teacher housing unit and adding one more unit with these funds will allow housing for 6 teachers, 2 teacher spouses, and three children of teachers. The people directly impacted are these 11 people and the 1000 students at Kongei that will be able to have better lessons and more lessons in the afternoon and evenings.
Kongei Elementary school has shown improvement in student performance since 2003 when they had 30 students taking the leaving exams and only 8 students went on to secondary school. Since 2003, the number of students continuing to secondary school has increased (29 and 17 students in 2006 and 2007). In 2008, there will be 65 students taking the leaving exam (compared to 33 students in 2007) and these students have already shown good scores on their June 2008 terminal exams. In 2009, there are 99 students projected to take the leaving exam.
Kongei students have good performance on the leaving exams. Some, after passing, continue to government secondary schools and others sit for private school exams, doing very well and attending these schools for their secondary education.
Project Timeline
Activity
Time
Proposed dates
Community Meeting
1 week
Weekend of Dec 5, 2008
Preparation of construction site
2 weeks
Jan. 15 – Jan. 30, 2009
Collecting of stones, bricks, and sand
1 week
Jan. 28 – Feb. 3, 2009
Purchase materials
1 week
Feb. 7 – Feb. 14, 2009
Construction of building
4 weeks
Feb. 17 – March 13, 2009
Plastering cement inside and outside
2 weeks
March 16 – March 20, 2009
Installing glass and ceiling board
1 week
March 23 – March 27, 2009
Painting inside and outside
1 week
March 30 – April 3, 2009
Construction of septic tank
2 weeks
April 6 – April 17, 2009
Installing plumbing and stool
3 days
April 21 – April 23, 2009
Plastering toilet and chambers
4 days
April 24 – April 29, 2009
Completion (Allowance for delays)
2 weeks
May 15, 2009
Total
18 weeks
Randee Edmundson, Peace Corps Volunteer
Lushoto, Tanga Region
Tanzania
Community Contribution: $3,064.00 (38%)
The community contribution includes: bricks, stones, sand, hardcore, transportation of materials, skilled labor, and unskilled labor.
USA Partners Contribution: $4,997.20 (62%)
The partnership contribution includes materials for construction and finishing the housing and septic tank. (see attached itemized budget )
Construction of Teacher Housing at Kongei Elementary School
Project Summary
Kongei Elementary government school is very different than a typical American rural public school. The classrooms are very full and have only the very basic facilities, student desks and a blackboard. Learning basic math, science and English are some of the biggest challenges for students and retaining teachers that are able to have time and energy to teach these subjects is one of the reasons for their difficulties. The students and the teachers work very hard, but what they can accomplish is compromised by the fact that most teachers live far from the school, walking up to 2 hours to and from school every day. Attracting new needed teachers is also difficult when there is no teacher housing available near the school.
Discussing these challenges with the headmistress, second headmaster and teacher of math and sciences, and the school teacher/matron, they have explained to me that the most pressing need is to provide housing at the school site for teachers. Sr. Shirima, Headmistress, Rueben Masenga, Second Headmaster and their teachers know that they can teach more effectively, be more reliable and have more energy for teaching longer hours and teach to more diverse student needs if they could have a house provided near the school. Through this project, they hope to retain the excellent teachers they have and be able to attract new highly-qualified, committed teachers, resulting in a better education for their 1000 students.
What we would do is build a teacher housing unit that can support one teacher family or several single teachers. The unit would have a septic tank and toilet that can support the new housing unit plus an additional unit that can be added on at a later date. Currently there are two teacher housing units that are being completed (by September 2008) by the effort of the community. This housing was left undone when government funding ran out. Pictures at the end of this report show these teacher housing units that are in process now as well as the site for the new unit and septic tank to be built with these funds.
With three teacher housing units completed by May 2009, Kongei would be able to house several of their current teachers that are walking 7-8 kilometers to school and back home every day.
School Background
Kongei Elementary School is in a rural farming village of the Usambara Mountains. This area of Tanzania is the Tanga Region and is located 15 km from the town of Lushoto. I teach at Kongei secondary school that is in the same area but is a private school. The elementary school is a government school. The school opened many years ago as a girls middle school but changed to a primary school and has been growing rapidly ever since. This large growth is due to a change in government policy. Tanzanian elementary school education was not free until 2003. Starting in 2003, the government ruled that all children must attend elementary school and their elementary schooling would be free of charge.
The increase in student population has also meant an increase in need for teachers. Also, the school is not able to offer enough afternoon and evening tutoring for their growing number s of students because teachers need to walk home after day classes.
Currently there are 1000 students, 544 girls and 456 boys. The school has 14 teachers, 10 women and 4 men. As the headmistress has explained to me, in Tanzania the schools are expected to provide housing for teachers, yet, the school has no current housing for teachers.
Without teacher housing near the school, the current teachers can become exhausted from their long commute by foot and transfer to another school given the opportunity for a better housing situation. Also, it is hard to attract new needed teachers to their Kongei without sufficient housing.
Project Evaluation and Monitoring
The project goal is improve student achievement through enabling teachers at Kongei Elementary School to be more effective in their teaching, and enable the administration to be more effective in attracting and retaining highly qualified teachers. In addition, to have teachers available to teach evening tutoring classes to improve student performance.
Objectives:
· Teachers will be able to increase time spent and quality of lesson preparation including one or both of the following:
o develop more teaching aids
o include more diverse teaching strategies.
· The current teachers will not leave Kongei nor will additional teachers needed refuse an offer to be hired due to lack of housing.
· The teachers housed (6) in school housing will offer students additional time for tutoring during the week.
· The percent of students taking the leaving exam (allowing them to enter secondary school) and earning passing scores will stay the same or increase in 2009. (53% in 2008)
Specifically we will compare the following data using current information and data collected June-September 2009:
· The time spent on lesson preparation
· The quality of lesson preparation with regard to teaching aids and diverse teaching strategies
· The number of teachers retained and/or added with reasons related to housing.
· The amounts of time teachers housed spend on tutoring students before or after school hours.
· The percent of students taking the leaving exam and earning passing scores.
Community Change
Rueben Masenga, second headmaster, expressed the following change that he believes possible: People of the community will learn that when you put your minds and physical efforts together around a common goal and invite a broader community beyond your own village, that you can accomplish larger goals and most importantly, it will change the relationship with people across the world in positive ways. We hope that we can be together with people all over the world and one day we can be in one world.
To complete this project, there are community elders, the community leader, the school leadership committee, skilled workers, and professional teachers working together with the young people of the community. The young people will learn the skills of how to lead a community and to cooperate as a community to accomplish large tasks through pooling ideas and both human and natural resources. One outcome of this is growth in the capacity of leadership to define and meet the goals and objectives of the community in the future.
We will conduct a school committee meeting and community meeting after completing the project to gather feedback as to what was accomplished and how this project changed the people of the community. We will document comments which specifically express gains in community organization, knowledge of assets, opportunities to share skills and knowledge with young people, or the lack of these attributes.
Community Need and Beneficiaries
On my first visit to Kongei Elementary school, Sr. Shirima, headmistress and Sr. Alma, teacher and matron, graciously welcomed me, gave me a tour of the school and explained their priorities to improve the education of their 1000 students. Their list included such items as teacher housing, an additional classroom and building for school and community gatherings, and a water well to collect rain water to make getting clear water easier especially during the summer season. On future visits to explore ways to address these needs, teacher housing was always listed as the highest priority. The school committee representatives explained that they had the ability to manage with getting water and even the possibility of getting help from the government with building a classroom but, due to lack of teacher housing, they could not afford to lose their teachers or lose their ability to attract new teachers needed to improve the education and performance of their students.
Direct beneficiaries of this project are the 1000 students, the current and future teachers, and the community. The headmistress and second headmaster explained that the community will benefit because their children will cooperate with learning more because they will have more energized teachers, with more time to prepare lessons that can meet diverse student needs and increase student involvement in learning. Also, teacher housing at the school will increase the number of teachers that can teach afternoon and evening classes. In these ways the teachers are better able to help students pass their exams and continue on to secondary school.
Finishing the existing incomplete teacher housing unit and adding one more unit with these funds will allow housing for 6 teachers, 2 teacher spouses, and three children of teachers. The people directly impacted are these 11 people and the 1000 students at Kongei that will be able to have better lessons and more lessons in the afternoon and evenings.
Kongei Elementary school has shown improvement in student performance since 2003 when they had 30 students taking the leaving exams and only 8 students went on to secondary school. Since 2003, the number of students continuing to secondary school has increased (29 and 17 students in 2006 and 2007). In 2008, there will be 65 students taking the leaving exam (compared to 33 students in 2007) and these students have already shown good scores on their June 2008 terminal exams. In 2009, there are 99 students projected to take the leaving exam.
Kongei students have good performance on the leaving exams. Some, after passing, continue to government secondary schools and others sit for private school exams, doing very well and attending these schools for their secondary education.
Project Timeline
Activity
Time
Proposed dates
Community Meeting
1 week
Weekend of Dec 5, 2008
Preparation of construction site
2 weeks
Jan. 15 – Jan. 30, 2009
Collecting of stones, bricks, and sand
1 week
Jan. 28 – Feb. 3, 2009
Purchase materials
1 week
Feb. 7 – Feb. 14, 2009
Construction of building
4 weeks
Feb. 17 – March 13, 2009
Plastering cement inside and outside
2 weeks
March 16 – March 20, 2009
Installing glass and ceiling board
1 week
March 23 – March 27, 2009
Painting inside and outside
1 week
March 30 – April 3, 2009
Construction of septic tank
2 weeks
April 6 – April 17, 2009
Installing plumbing and stool
3 days
April 21 – April 23, 2009
Plastering toilet and chambers
4 days
April 24 – April 29, 2009
Completion (Allowance for delays)
2 weeks
May 15, 2009
Total
18 weeks
Friday, July 25, 2008
July Girls Leadership Workshop
The first week of July John and I helped facilitate a week long Girls Leadership Workshop at a secondary school 10 km from our school. We had 5 secondary students and 10 elementary students participate in a variety of activities and lessons. These included: lessons on adolescence, What is Love?, early pregnancy, HIV/AIDS transmission and prevention, assertiveness and negotiating with boys, food preservation( papaya, apple and pear jam making), nutrition and permaculture gardens, computer skills, Banana tree art card making, and group initiative games for confidence and collaboration.
We had two guest speakers from the area. One was a 26 year old women who had gotten pregnant while in school, telling her personal story, consequences and how she has managed to go back to school at this age. The other was a woman living with HIV/AIDS. The third day we had a panel of all the teachers participating from the four schools (men and women) and the guest speakers. The students had over 25 questions in a question box from all the sessions that the panel addressed. It was a very rich time together. After answering the first set, the students asked us all to leave and compiled another group of questions for us!
This Saturday, we are having a 1 day workshop by popular request after the week workshop. There will be more people from our community who are living with HIV/AIDS, many of the same students bringing their friends, and more teachers that want to learn jam making and permaculture techniques. This time we will make orange marmalade because this is ORANGE SEASON! I will be teaching composting and planting a nutritious "guild" in an opportunistic area where the water naturally runs off the roof or from the water spigot. Our guild will be a papaya tree, lemon grass for tea, and matembele (a dark green plant rich in iron and other vitamins).
We had two guest speakers from the area. One was a 26 year old women who had gotten pregnant while in school, telling her personal story, consequences and how she has managed to go back to school at this age. The other was a woman living with HIV/AIDS. The third day we had a panel of all the teachers participating from the four schools (men and women) and the guest speakers. The students had over 25 questions in a question box from all the sessions that the panel addressed. It was a very rich time together. After answering the first set, the students asked us all to leave and compiled another group of questions for us!
This Saturday, we are having a 1 day workshop by popular request after the week workshop. There will be more people from our community who are living with HIV/AIDS, many of the same students bringing their friends, and more teachers that want to learn jam making and permaculture techniques. This time we will make orange marmalade because this is ORANGE SEASON! I will be teaching composting and planting a nutritious "guild" in an opportunistic area where the water naturally runs off the roof or from the water spigot. Our guild will be a papaya tree, lemon grass for tea, and matembele (a dark green plant rich in iron and other vitamins).
Monday, June 23, 2008
May -June In Tanzania
Habari za leo?
I know it has been a long time since an update. We have had busy days with writing exams, correcting exams, and writing end of term reports. In addition, we have had bad luck with electricity, such that the days we go to town there is no internet. The computer that we were able to get internet at school sometimes died.
Good to be back to writing a blog update!
Since I wrote last we had Peter Jensen the PC biointensive gardening consultant come to our site. He worked with students, teachers, and school shamba workers to look at the current gardening techniques, consider spots to construct a demonstration garden for the schools and to teach some basic techniques for composting and for planting in beds that are double-dug to allow more food to grow in a smaller area. The reason these are important at our site and for many Tanzanians is that the good soil is at the bottom of the mountain in the valleys but many people plant both the valley and the steep slopes. The steep slope planting further erodes the soil, so there is less food and also a great loss of trees. The idea is to get more food from the low lands and plant trees on the slopes that are better at holding the soil and creating habitat for wildlife, and good for the ecosystem as a whole.
Students built two compost piles by my garden, 1x1x1 meter using brown and green plant material and then cow manure and water. I have turned these piles once after three weeks and already it is starting to look like rich soil.
Peter sculptured four matutas (beds) with water meandering from my sink outlet then around the beds. So, even on the dry days, my garden gets watered. Two village farmers came one day to help me finish double digging these beds, add manure to the lower soil, and plant French beans, potatoes, leeks, carrots, and nasturtium. I added a few smaller matembele mounds around a papaya tree. Last week I had our local carpenter make a garden bench that will seat three-four. When he delivered the bench we all sat and had sodas, enjoying the comfort of the bench (with a back rest!).
Peter is returning in September to work again with the community to build a demonstration garden. The primary school next to the secondary school where we teach can use this garden for students to learn biointensive techniques and to grow more food for school lunches. We have been told by the headmaster that currently they do not grow enough food to feed the student’s lunch everyday and if the school does not feed students, many do not eat a good lunch because families do not have enough food either.
My sister visited our site in May-June. She helped me work with the primary school leaders to draft a proposal for a partnership grant to build teacher housing. I hope to submit this proposal and have it approved by January so that Americans can donate funds for teacher housing. Currently the school has 13 teachers, but many have to travel a long distance to teach and then return home every night. This has really hurt the students learning, as the teachers are stretched beyond reason both physically and mentally.
John and I finished our first school term May 30th. Form I and Form III students went home and will return July 12th. Form II and Form IV students remained at school for three additional weeks to attend classes for further tutoring. These two Forms take the national exams in October which determine if they will be able to continue their education. If they do not pass or pass with low scores, the Form II and IV students have to repeat or find another school. Of course often this means school fees that the family cannot afford. SO… continuing classes and studying during the school holidays is an assumed necessity. Many teachers are hired to continue teaching during holidays.
John and I went on holiday with my sister Barb! We first went to Morgoro to visit our Tanzania family that we lived with during training. This was wonderful as it did seem like returning home to see our family, without having to go to school! After four days we traveled by bus to a beach area by Pangani. We had four days of swimming, snorkeling to see a coral reef, and paddling a kayak up to see the mangrove forest. After 5 days back at site, meeting with two schools to design a girl’s workshop on life skills training, we went on Safari through Tarangire, Lake Manyara and Ngorngoro.
We feel very refreshed and I have a long list of new birds seen which I can boast about!
Got to go! More later….
Randee
I know it has been a long time since an update. We have had busy days with writing exams, correcting exams, and writing end of term reports. In addition, we have had bad luck with electricity, such that the days we go to town there is no internet. The computer that we were able to get internet at school sometimes died.
Good to be back to writing a blog update!
Since I wrote last we had Peter Jensen the PC biointensive gardening consultant come to our site. He worked with students, teachers, and school shamba workers to look at the current gardening techniques, consider spots to construct a demonstration garden for the schools and to teach some basic techniques for composting and for planting in beds that are double-dug to allow more food to grow in a smaller area. The reason these are important at our site and for many Tanzanians is that the good soil is at the bottom of the mountain in the valleys but many people plant both the valley and the steep slopes. The steep slope planting further erodes the soil, so there is less food and also a great loss of trees. The idea is to get more food from the low lands and plant trees on the slopes that are better at holding the soil and creating habitat for wildlife, and good for the ecosystem as a whole.
Students built two compost piles by my garden, 1x1x1 meter using brown and green plant material and then cow manure and water. I have turned these piles once after three weeks and already it is starting to look like rich soil.
Peter sculptured four matutas (beds) with water meandering from my sink outlet then around the beds. So, even on the dry days, my garden gets watered. Two village farmers came one day to help me finish double digging these beds, add manure to the lower soil, and plant French beans, potatoes, leeks, carrots, and nasturtium. I added a few smaller matembele mounds around a papaya tree. Last week I had our local carpenter make a garden bench that will seat three-four. When he delivered the bench we all sat and had sodas, enjoying the comfort of the bench (with a back rest!).
Peter is returning in September to work again with the community to build a demonstration garden. The primary school next to the secondary school where we teach can use this garden for students to learn biointensive techniques and to grow more food for school lunches. We have been told by the headmaster that currently they do not grow enough food to feed the student’s lunch everyday and if the school does not feed students, many do not eat a good lunch because families do not have enough food either.
My sister visited our site in May-June. She helped me work with the primary school leaders to draft a proposal for a partnership grant to build teacher housing. I hope to submit this proposal and have it approved by January so that Americans can donate funds for teacher housing. Currently the school has 13 teachers, but many have to travel a long distance to teach and then return home every night. This has really hurt the students learning, as the teachers are stretched beyond reason both physically and mentally.
John and I finished our first school term May 30th. Form I and Form III students went home and will return July 12th. Form II and Form IV students remained at school for three additional weeks to attend classes for further tutoring. These two Forms take the national exams in October which determine if they will be able to continue their education. If they do not pass or pass with low scores, the Form II and IV students have to repeat or find another school. Of course often this means school fees that the family cannot afford. SO… continuing classes and studying during the school holidays is an assumed necessity. Many teachers are hired to continue teaching during holidays.
John and I went on holiday with my sister Barb! We first went to Morgoro to visit our Tanzania family that we lived with during training. This was wonderful as it did seem like returning home to see our family, without having to go to school! After four days we traveled by bus to a beach area by Pangani. We had four days of swimming, snorkeling to see a coral reef, and paddling a kayak up to see the mangrove forest. After 5 days back at site, meeting with two schools to design a girl’s workshop on life skills training, we went on Safari through Tarangire, Lake Manyara and Ngorngoro.
We feel very refreshed and I have a long list of new birds seen which I can boast about!
Got to go! More later….
Randee
Monday, April 7, 2008
HIV/AIDS and Permaculture Training
We were at a workshop in Moshi on sustainable agriculture with our counterparts (teacher partners from our school). It was a fun day of working outside making a garden with permaculture features to capture and hold the water and then double digging beds for the vegetables you want to grow. John and I and our counterparts are planning weekly sessions at school to teach about HIV/AIDs, safe sex and good nutrition through sustainable farming strategies including permaculture, biointensive gardening through deep, rich beds, hexagon planting closely and companion planting. I love this part of the job. We hope to have the neighboring villages participate in a 2 day program where we show the demonstration site the students will develop and let folks try some of the techniques. We have lots of erosion at our site from the loss of trees and the methods of planting crops on steep hills without terracing or constructing permaculture techniques. The pictures I put on the blog show the people shoveling sand out of the river after a big rain storm. The sand is left behind and all the soil is washed away with the water. The water is so muddy with soil it cannot filtered for drinking as another problem. Lots of water and none to drink! The villagers like it when this happens because they can shovel the sand in pile along the road and sell it for construction such as making cement for buildings and for roads. It really makes me sad to see this when it rains, so I am glad to teach permaculture and biointensive gardening.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Tanzania in March
Hello Family and Friends:
It has been a long time since I have had time to write. Since school has started in January we have been as busy as teachers at home… but sometimes in different ways.
We just finished midterm exams and the students have gone home for Holiday break. Classes start the week after Easter again. The students take 2 ½ hour exams in every subject. It took 4 days to finish exams. For a student to pass on to the next Form, they must get a score of 30% or better for Form I and II, 20% or better for Form 3 & 4. Eighty percent of their grade is based the final exam. So, practicing taking huge exams is very important. It is also important to take exams to get used to reading and writing in English. Kiswahili is their national language but all secondary education is in English. Accomplishing a 30% score is not easy for this reason. For students here, education is not free and to fail means a lot of money to families and few options to continue your education.
As I have told you, I have three different subjects, Biology Form I, Biology Form II, and Chemistry Form I. The Form I students have two streams meaning 2 classes of 51 students. Form II has two streams of about 45 students. John teaches Form III Mathematics which has three streams of about 35 students.
Each stream has their own classroom where all their classes are taught. So, the teachers move each period and the students stay put. It is nice in that they do not carry books and supplies around. Teachers need to transport books and supplies around but, the students willingly assist with carrying things. Their help is almost excessive from the perspective of this American teacher. The students insist on carrying everything for you where ever you go. For science experiments there is a laboratory that seats 48 students (12 lab groups). My Form I students exceed this number so they have lab groups of 5 students and some stand. I am known as the teacher that uses the lab and have even earned the privilege of carrying the lab key. The first month of classes I spent as much time hunting down the key as preparing the lab materials. The academic master had the key locked in his desk and I would have to find him to get the key to his desk to get the lab key.
This opens another conversation about school keys. All rooms and buildings have locks except for the toilets, although I have noticed that during holiday these have padlocks. What is most amazing is that the key to every room/building is available to anyone at any time, including students except for the laboratory, the headmaster’s office and any padlocks that teachers or students put on their personal trunks or desks. I was told that they used to leave the lab “open” but the national inspectors visited and said that the lab key had to be kept from students.
One day John set his watch down on his desk and left. When he returned it was gone. He searched his desk but could not find it. Finally he told another teacher. The teacher was so surprised. She told John that the students would never dream of taking anything from a teacher. She told him to look again in his desk. Sure enough, it was buried in the back of his desk. SO… we have learned that although everything is open it is safe with 400 students watching over us and our things. There have been cases where students take things from each other but teachers are different as we have learned.
Our school is built on the side of a small mountain. This means that every trip is either up to a class or an office …or down. My legs are getting a work out. Especially when I run to get forgotten supplies for a class or when we get electricity. It seems we have electricity about half the time. When there is umeme everyone runs to plug in their cell phones, the office madly makes copies needed and a few of us charge our computers and ipods.
A similar kind of mad-dashing around happens when it rains. I was astonished when my whole class jumped up and ran out the door the first time it rained hard during class. After the herd of students passed, puzzled, I asked a teacher standing under the eaves. She calmly stated that they needed to bring in their clothes so they wouldn’t get wet. The students hang their washed clothes and kangas (a large cloth used to wrap-up in the morning and evening to and from the shower and toilets) outside to dry during the day.
Well, this made sense. Then later in the day, I passed the student dorms. The dorm windows have bars on the outside and shuttered glass windows that close from the inside. I saw that the dorm windows had clothes stuffed between the bars and the glass. Socks and kangas were tied around the bars and shirts and panties were stuffed in-between. I thought a minute, then remembered that the dorms are locked during the day. The clothes were stuffed in the windows, under the eaves, to keep dry in the rain, of course!
The food at school is simple but nutritious. Students eat porridge in the morning (6am) porridge at tea time (10:45am), ugali or rice and beans and cabbage at lunch(1:15pm) and the same or mkande for dinner (6:30pm). Mkande is a thick stew made from cracked corn and beans. If available there will be onions and tomatoes added. Porridge can be made of many things but the school uses mostly corn. The school has a farm that grows corn, beans, sugar cane, cabbage, onions, bananas, and mango. The students get fruit that is in season from the farm and on very special occasions, meat or fish. The school has chickens, goose, turkeys and cows in moderate numbers. The school soil is good because of the manure and composting. Fish is easy and relatively cheap to get. It is dried so all the fish dishes are made from dried fish.
We can make just about all the African dishes because Mama Flora taught us. I had two of the school nuns over for lunch and made vegetable coconut soup and chapatti. They said that because I can cook African food and know how to wrap kangas like an African mama, they were going to give me an African name . It is really nice to have such fresh food. My garden has fresh greens, carrots and fruits such as some kind of apple with lots of seeds (sort of like pomegranate) and papaya. Our neighbors give us bananas for eating and cooking regularly. The local vegetable stand has tomatoes, onions, coconut, fish, and mango regularly. Other stuff we buy in Lushoto. We eat little meat because John doesn’t like fish and meat is hard to keep without refrigeration. We buy pork and goat meat to cook as a treat. When shopping in town, we usually have chicken at a restaurant.
African fashion varies but there are some rules that I have made for myself to help me know how to dress in a culturally appropriate manner and to “fit in”.
Rule I
A dress or skirt below the knee is a must. Longer is better.
Rule II
Wear outfits that have matching top and bottom as well as a matching head wrap. Beads that match and dress sandals are even better. This assures you look “smart”.
What to do if you do not have matching components… go to Rule III.
Rule III
If it doesn’t go with anything, it goes with everything.
Rule IV
If your skirt or shirt has a spot or you have a bad hair day, cover it with a kanga. If you can’t decide which kanga to choose… refer to Rule III.
Other news is that I walked in the Kilimanjaro ½ Marathon on March 3rd. We were in Moshi for a Peace Corps training on HIV/AIDS and permaculture the week before, so I decided to join some other PCV to do the ½ marathon. Most ran but a few of us walked. It was so fun to be with some amazing Tanzanian and Kenyan athletes as well as those just out to do it, just like us. Definitely years at the Birke ski race and coaching made me the loudest cheering fan. Because I was walking, I got to see everybody looping back and I had plenty of energy and breath to cheer. And, I have learned the African women’s celebration call to use, too! (This sound is made with a high pitch “who” while moving your tongue side-to-side, back and forth quickly, between your lips).
We had our first overnight guests. Two PCV’s that had come to run in the marathon followed us home to see the Lushoto area. One was from Iringa, TZ and one from Zambia. Both were environmental volunteers and we had fun learning about the things we could do here at Kongei to encourage the community to make environmental improvements.
It looks like my sister, and brother-in-law will be visiting in June. We have a break in June and start teaching the second week of July through November. Right now we are having BIG rains that come about one a day or every other day. I need my mud boots to get to school and I am learning all the Kiswahili words for mud, slipping, falling, dirty, BIG rains, and weeding the garden. (Last month I was learning to say “watering the garden”--- no more watering! June starts the dry season, so it looks like a two more months of rain.
Palm Sunday was a one hour hike up a steep mountain to the one church having a huge service with special music and of course, palms cut from the surrounding trees. It was worth the hike. On our return the rains made for deep mud and a wait under eaves of a goat barn until we were invited in by the children of the home to wait in warmth. I went with one of the school Sisters, and I was amazed to watch her climb through the mud trails and rain in her white habit. No problem she says.
We hope to get two of the non-working computers at school going and we finally got a modem to try to get internet at site. Don’t hold your breathe. This is Tanzania.
I enjoy just imagining spring in Minnesota. Your days are getting longer, spring green colors. We have the full moon but our days will stay the same.
Peace to all,
Randee
It has been a long time since I have had time to write. Since school has started in January we have been as busy as teachers at home… but sometimes in different ways.
We just finished midterm exams and the students have gone home for Holiday break. Classes start the week after Easter again. The students take 2 ½ hour exams in every subject. It took 4 days to finish exams. For a student to pass on to the next Form, they must get a score of 30% or better for Form I and II, 20% or better for Form 3 & 4. Eighty percent of their grade is based the final exam. So, practicing taking huge exams is very important. It is also important to take exams to get used to reading and writing in English. Kiswahili is their national language but all secondary education is in English. Accomplishing a 30% score is not easy for this reason. For students here, education is not free and to fail means a lot of money to families and few options to continue your education.
As I have told you, I have three different subjects, Biology Form I, Biology Form II, and Chemistry Form I. The Form I students have two streams meaning 2 classes of 51 students. Form II has two streams of about 45 students. John teaches Form III Mathematics which has three streams of about 35 students.
Each stream has their own classroom where all their classes are taught. So, the teachers move each period and the students stay put. It is nice in that they do not carry books and supplies around. Teachers need to transport books and supplies around but, the students willingly assist with carrying things. Their help is almost excessive from the perspective of this American teacher. The students insist on carrying everything for you where ever you go. For science experiments there is a laboratory that seats 48 students (12 lab groups). My Form I students exceed this number so they have lab groups of 5 students and some stand. I am known as the teacher that uses the lab and have even earned the privilege of carrying the lab key. The first month of classes I spent as much time hunting down the key as preparing the lab materials. The academic master had the key locked in his desk and I would have to find him to get the key to his desk to get the lab key.
This opens another conversation about school keys. All rooms and buildings have locks except for the toilets, although I have noticed that during holiday these have padlocks. What is most amazing is that the key to every room/building is available to anyone at any time, including students except for the laboratory, the headmaster’s office and any padlocks that teachers or students put on their personal trunks or desks. I was told that they used to leave the lab “open” but the national inspectors visited and said that the lab key had to be kept from students.
One day John set his watch down on his desk and left. When he returned it was gone. He searched his desk but could not find it. Finally he told another teacher. The teacher was so surprised. She told John that the students would never dream of taking anything from a teacher. She told him to look again in his desk. Sure enough, it was buried in the back of his desk. SO… we have learned that although everything is open it is safe with 400 students watching over us and our things. There have been cases where students take things from each other but teachers are different as we have learned.
Our school is built on the side of a small mountain. This means that every trip is either up to a class or an office …or down. My legs are getting a work out. Especially when I run to get forgotten supplies for a class or when we get electricity. It seems we have electricity about half the time. When there is umeme everyone runs to plug in their cell phones, the office madly makes copies needed and a few of us charge our computers and ipods.
A similar kind of mad-dashing around happens when it rains. I was astonished when my whole class jumped up and ran out the door the first time it rained hard during class. After the herd of students passed, puzzled, I asked a teacher standing under the eaves. She calmly stated that they needed to bring in their clothes so they wouldn’t get wet. The students hang their washed clothes and kangas (a large cloth used to wrap-up in the morning and evening to and from the shower and toilets) outside to dry during the day.
Well, this made sense. Then later in the day, I passed the student dorms. The dorm windows have bars on the outside and shuttered glass windows that close from the inside. I saw that the dorm windows had clothes stuffed between the bars and the glass. Socks and kangas were tied around the bars and shirts and panties were stuffed in-between. I thought a minute, then remembered that the dorms are locked during the day. The clothes were stuffed in the windows, under the eaves, to keep dry in the rain, of course!
The food at school is simple but nutritious. Students eat porridge in the morning (6am) porridge at tea time (10:45am), ugali or rice and beans and cabbage at lunch(1:15pm) and the same or mkande for dinner (6:30pm). Mkande is a thick stew made from cracked corn and beans. If available there will be onions and tomatoes added. Porridge can be made of many things but the school uses mostly corn. The school has a farm that grows corn, beans, sugar cane, cabbage, onions, bananas, and mango. The students get fruit that is in season from the farm and on very special occasions, meat or fish. The school has chickens, goose, turkeys and cows in moderate numbers. The school soil is good because of the manure and composting. Fish is easy and relatively cheap to get. It is dried so all the fish dishes are made from dried fish.
We can make just about all the African dishes because Mama Flora taught us. I had two of the school nuns over for lunch and made vegetable coconut soup and chapatti. They said that because I can cook African food and know how to wrap kangas like an African mama, they were going to give me an African name . It is really nice to have such fresh food. My garden has fresh greens, carrots and fruits such as some kind of apple with lots of seeds (sort of like pomegranate) and papaya. Our neighbors give us bananas for eating and cooking regularly. The local vegetable stand has tomatoes, onions, coconut, fish, and mango regularly. Other stuff we buy in Lushoto. We eat little meat because John doesn’t like fish and meat is hard to keep without refrigeration. We buy pork and goat meat to cook as a treat. When shopping in town, we usually have chicken at a restaurant.
African fashion varies but there are some rules that I have made for myself to help me know how to dress in a culturally appropriate manner and to “fit in”.
Rule I
A dress or skirt below the knee is a must. Longer is better.
Rule II
Wear outfits that have matching top and bottom as well as a matching head wrap. Beads that match and dress sandals are even better. This assures you look “smart”.
What to do if you do not have matching components… go to Rule III.
Rule III
If it doesn’t go with anything, it goes with everything.
Rule IV
If your skirt or shirt has a spot or you have a bad hair day, cover it with a kanga. If you can’t decide which kanga to choose… refer to Rule III.
Other news is that I walked in the Kilimanjaro ½ Marathon on March 3rd. We were in Moshi for a Peace Corps training on HIV/AIDS and permaculture the week before, so I decided to join some other PCV to do the ½ marathon. Most ran but a few of us walked. It was so fun to be with some amazing Tanzanian and Kenyan athletes as well as those just out to do it, just like us. Definitely years at the Birke ski race and coaching made me the loudest cheering fan. Because I was walking, I got to see everybody looping back and I had plenty of energy and breath to cheer. And, I have learned the African women’s celebration call to use, too! (This sound is made with a high pitch “who” while moving your tongue side-to-side, back and forth quickly, between your lips).
We had our first overnight guests. Two PCV’s that had come to run in the marathon followed us home to see the Lushoto area. One was from Iringa, TZ and one from Zambia. Both were environmental volunteers and we had fun learning about the things we could do here at Kongei to encourage the community to make environmental improvements.
It looks like my sister, and brother-in-law will be visiting in June. We have a break in June and start teaching the second week of July through November. Right now we are having BIG rains that come about one a day or every other day. I need my mud boots to get to school and I am learning all the Kiswahili words for mud, slipping, falling, dirty, BIG rains, and weeding the garden. (Last month I was learning to say “watering the garden”--- no more watering! June starts the dry season, so it looks like a two more months of rain.
Palm Sunday was a one hour hike up a steep mountain to the one church having a huge service with special music and of course, palms cut from the surrounding trees. It was worth the hike. On our return the rains made for deep mud and a wait under eaves of a goat barn until we were invited in by the children of the home to wait in warmth. I went with one of the school Sisters, and I was amazed to watch her climb through the mud trails and rain in her white habit. No problem she says.
We hope to get two of the non-working computers at school going and we finally got a modem to try to get internet at site. Don’t hold your breathe. This is Tanzania.
I enjoy just imagining spring in Minnesota. Your days are getting longer, spring green colors. We have the full moon but our days will stay the same.
Peace to all,
Randee
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Kongei School Life
School started mid January. All is going well. I teach Biology to Form I and II and Chemistry to Form I. John is teaching mathematics to Form III. Form I and II is similar to middle school grade students and Form III and IV like high school(9-10). For the first two months, Form I has Language Academy to improve their English. I am enjoying teaching language academy for the Form I as it reminds me of all the kinds of strategies we used for SPPS ELL learners. Also, it is what I went through to learn Kiswahili the last four months. Form I students and I are both “new” to the school so that helps us build a close relationship.
Students live at the school. The get up at 5:00 am and eat porrage and milk tea at 6am. The girls have cleaning jobs until 7:15am such as cleaning the ground and water channels of leaves, bathrooms, classroom floors and blackboards, ect. At 7:30 am all students gather in the main courtyard for Parade, which is a formal gathering for announcments, demontrations of student projects or writings, prayer, and inspection of uniforms. Classes start at 7:45am. There are 9 periods in a day with a 15 min break for tea at 10:45 and 45 min lunch at 1:15. Classes end at 3:30pm. Every Form has some days of 45 minute classes for each subject and some 90 minute classes. Math is always 90 min. after Form II. Every Year the students take Chem, Biology and Physics as well as Math, English, Kiswahili, Civics/History, Agriculture, and Religion. I teach one single period and one double period of Chemistry Form I, Biology Form I and Biology Form II every week. SO that is 18 periods a week of teaching. I also assist with Science Club, Music Club and Library after school.
I have already taught Saturday classes to catch-up on things we could not finish during the week for Form II. I like the option to teach evenings and Saturdays, it seems more relaxed and the students seem to like it too. Last Saturday, I coached my first Music Club session. There was not a plan to have a music club, but people heard me playing my Native American flute at night and when a group of students asked for a music club so that they could learn how to play the flutes in the school store, I was recruited. So, now I am discovering how to teach flute and it is a fun adventure so far!
I have found the resources I brought from my teaching and colleagues in America very valuable, both for teaching science to English Language Learners and for collaborating with my colleagues in creative lesson planning. These are simple things that can make a huge difference for the learner. These first months at site I have already had many opportunities to collaborate with fellow teachers on planning lessons and sharing ideas and resources. The Anatomy Coloring Book, a molecular model building kit, and the Bakken (Minnesota)curriculum for teaching static electricity by building your own equipment to generate static electricity without the use of current electricity have been a hit(Thanks Greg!). Also, the Atlas (vol 1&2) from AAAS has been useful to many of us in planning. The computer sent by MN friends and family has also helped gernerate reproducible documents that students can read and can show the video clips I brought from the SPPS Biology Curriculum on a flash drive. I am having students build life size human anatomy models using their own bodies as “forms” (taken from Ann Oubaha at Jackson ELementary.
In turn, the faculty of Tanzania has shown me how to get local supplies and how to engage fundis(carpenters, plumbers, masons, etc,) to build needed equipment. We have had fun scheming together to use the village people and landscape materials to create teaching tools.
Several Students have asked about wanting an American Pen Pal. Let me know if you know students in your class that are interested.
I have already experienced one of the frustrations of teaching children – anywhere in the world— a few students stealing from each other and bullying when adults are not watching. It has been very helpful to be part of this Tanzanian faculty and learn the way this is handled. The biggest contrast to my American school system experience is that the participation of ALL teaching staff members is required when the matter is discussed, when students come to be questioned and when students “fess-up” to their wrong doings. Although it was terribly sad to be missing teaching time, it was clear how important to the Tanzanian culture to have all the adults contribute to the problem solving equally and for the students to see that they are watched-over and concerned for by all adults. Obviously this can go awry depending on the integrity of the adults and leaders of a school, but for me, this was a positive experience even though frustrating from a teaching standpoint.
The biggest challenge at site is cooking in the dark. At first light I need to be walking to school to get there on time and more often than not, I return home just as it is starting to get dark. Without electricity, cooking by lantern light is a challenge, but it has made for some interesting meals. The month before school started, I had several people over for dinner, trying out all the different dishes that I learned in my host family home. I have had such a great time cooking and learning new dishes from neighbors and colleagues, I can do OK in the dark, but a few meals have ended up on the floor when I missed the jiko (stove).
One of the greatest joys has been expanding the garden outside my house. There is a papaya tree just outside my window where I planted the chaichai(lemon grass) cutting I brought from our CCT PEPFAR training in Morogoro. Then, I discovered the run-off from our roof could drain right to the papaya tree if I dug a little trench with my jembe. I then made two consecutive rings of plant beds around the papaya for planting matembele. This attracted the attention of the school shamba worker and the night watchman. They both offered to help water and this led to expanding the garden to include carrots, matenga, vitunguu, swiss chard, and herbs. After this, the school sisters offered to give me cuttings of flowers to put by our house. A few days later, a student was sent home with me, cuttings in hand, to plant flowers. Devota is still one of my favorite students to greet each day because we have the shared memory of planting flowers and talking together (in my “special Kiswahili “and her “special English”).
It has been fun and helpful to explore as much of the surrounding neighborhoods by riding bicycle. One day we were riding from school to town and met a man that was carrying a sack of corn kernels on his bike. The sack had fallen and corn kernels spilled on the road. He was patiently picking them up, one by one. I felt reverence for this culture to see that these golden kernels were so valued. It reminded me how dependent people are on the food that comes from their village land – especially with the decreasing rainfall. (In contrast, the value of a corn kernel in America is long ago lost due to subsidized farming and overproduction of this monocrop.) I stopped, to greet him and to help with the task at hand. We talked and laughed and enjoyed the time together. It started to rain and we worked a bit faster and eventually every corn kernel was retrieved. Because of this time together, he is another person I so enjoy seeing on the road when traveling to town.
Happy Valentines day!
Randee
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