I cannot believe it's over! I'm really excited to come home, but the last days at school were amazing. I feel like I took a million pictures of the students, but I know when I get home it won't seem like that many.
On Monday night, they threw us a little party in which the (new) headmaster made a speech about us (nice, but weird since he was only with us for like 2 weeks) and then the students did a bunch of entertainment stuff. Some choirs sang, some performed skits and we were asked to give a "short speech" to them. Emily went first, and so she covered most of the bases, and I thought I was in danger of tearing up so, all I managed to say was (in Swahili) "I don't have much to say, but I'm happy to see you all, and don't laugh at me if I cry later." At which point they all laughed.
This whole week, every chance we got was spent talking to students. My Form Is were full of questions about the US (I showed them pictures I took last December of the snow. They were shocked. "Teacher, if you go outside, will you die?") and my flight home, and when I would come back. I told them maybe I'd make it back when they were in Form IV, when they had all grown tall.
With our Form III students, it was all jokes as usual. I'm going to miss the Form IIIs and a few Form IVs the most because of that. We have more of a relationship outside of class probably just because we've been with them so long. It's hard to think that I once hated that class so much. (They were certainly dodgers right up to the end, but some of them got better). We just finally found our groove with them in our teaching this term (thanks to the boys wearing skirts essay in part), and that just made everything easier. I'm going to miss them so much.
But! I'm still happy to be coming home. I'm sure that education will forever be in my future in some capacity, so I'm excited to explore my potential locally as well. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you all soon!
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Morogoro
So our "Spring Break" of sorts we have spent in Morogoro, which has been a good change of scenery. We got to spend tons of time with Mario because in TZ Easter gets 3 public holidays, so he had Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday to just hang out. The only sort of exciting thing we did was visit a waterfall and climb on the huge rocks along it. We saw some boys swimming in the pool under part of the waterfall, and they were using the huge rockface as a waterslide, which both looked super cool and painful.
Otherwise we've just been bumming around. Morogoro is cooler now than it was in January, but it still feels like MN in July when the sun is out. The difference is that it actually cools off at night. Emily and I are going to welcome Magulilwa's cool, dry weather with open arms. Having to reapply sunscreen all the time is not only annoying, but just gross. We're greasy, sweaty, and dirty for most of the day, every day. I can hardly believe I got used to feeling this gross all the time when I lived in Dar.
So after we head back, we'll start teaching again for a week and a half, but we will leave Magulilwa on May 12 (to visit Mario again on our way to Dar), so not a lot will get done. The school calendar is pretty stupid that way, but oh well. Hopefully it'll be a good final period. See you all soon!
Otherwise we've just been bumming around. Morogoro is cooler now than it was in January, but it still feels like MN in July when the sun is out. The difference is that it actually cools off at night. Emily and I are going to welcome Magulilwa's cool, dry weather with open arms. Having to reapply sunscreen all the time is not only annoying, but just gross. We're greasy, sweaty, and dirty for most of the day, every day. I can hardly believe I got used to feeling this gross all the time when I lived in Dar.
So after we head back, we'll start teaching again for a week and a half, but we will leave Magulilwa on May 12 (to visit Mario again on our way to Dar), so not a lot will get done. The school calendar is pretty stupid that way, but oh well. Hopefully it'll be a good final period. See you all soon!
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Midterms
Well this week our students finished up midterms so now we're on a "spring break" of sorts. Supposedly they'll open the school next Wednesday, but Emily and I are banking on students not showing up until at least the weekend, which is when we'll head back.
We're going to spend the vacation in Morogoro with Mario again, which should be fun. It's getting into the "winter" again now, so hopefully it won't be so painfully hot (it's only 3 hours outside of Dar and barely cooler). This is the last time we'll leave Magulilwa until we leave for good! It's so crazy to think about.
On Wednesday (the last day of exams), we played a soccer game of boarding versus day students (I played with the boarders... we lost, but only got scored on AFTER I was out..). I asked Emily to bring my camera because I really hate taking pictures, but I love having them afterward, so she forced me to take a picture with all of them which was great. One of the notorious guys, George, encouraged everyone to strike a pose "kama Ulaya," like Europe. haha. I also got a couple good small group ones of some of those notorious players, including one of Crazy Charlie on the captain's shoulders. CC said I should sell the pictures in Minnesota. I expressed doubt that anyone would want to buy them ;)
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Leaving
Yesterday we told all of our students we were leaving. I explained to my Form I class that they all needed to come back from Easter break early because I'd be leaving a week after that (we all know they otherwise would wait two weeks to show up and maybe still will). They asked where I would be going, and when I said the U.S., they all gasped. One girl said in Swahili "We will all go!" It was the cutest thing.
Then I had class with Form III, reviewing for their midterm. So once again we had to do "if clauses" and Normal Charlie (as opposed to Crazy Charlie) said "If Teacher Eliza was fat, she would look good."
Of course I said, "You mean I don't look good now, Charlie? That's not very nice." So he changed it to "she would look better." Hahaha. Then we told Form III and they were all sad, too. We took pictures with each of the Form III classes, and then some smaller group ones with the boys doing ridiculous poses. I'm going to miss them.
Then I had class with Form III, reviewing for their midterm. So once again we had to do "if clauses" and Normal Charlie (as opposed to Crazy Charlie) said "If Teacher Eliza was fat, she would look good."
Of course I said, "You mean I don't look good now, Charlie? That's not very nice." So he changed it to "she would look better." Hahaha. Then we told Form III and they were all sad, too. We took pictures with each of the Form III classes, and then some smaller group ones with the boys doing ridiculous poses. I'm going to miss them.
Friday, April 1, 2011
The White People
Well yesterday the white people came, and I guess they're only staying three days, but they did bring us chocolate! A ton of it!
Yesterday was hilarious for so many reasons. We weren't super excited about the WP coming because we didn't know them, but everyone expects us to show them around and stuff because we have this unspoken white people bond, or something. So, we didn't go out of our way to greet them. We had class with Form IIIA while they were touring around, and we would make comments to the kids like "Who are these white people?"
At one point, they looked like they were walking toward our classroom, and we said, more to each other than the kids, "Oh no, they're coming!" They all laughed at us, and asked if we were afraid. I just laughed. But later, one of the kids said "Madame, they are coming. They are in that class now." And when I looked confused, he said "I thought you were afraid." Hilarious! He was warning us in case we actually wanted to run away!
Then, we were reviewing "if" clauses, and one of the kids, Vicent, wrote "If the headmaster was tall, he would be crazy." Now, first of all I just laughed because it's a funny statement, but then I asked him why the headmaster would be crazy. Now, Vicent is a tiny kid. His voice hasn't changed and he's seriously I think 4'5" and really giggly. So, when I asked, he immediately starts laughing and says because tall people like Walter (a notorious Form IV) are crazy. So I asked him if all tall people, and by extension me, are crazy, and he between fits of laughter "Somewhat." I had fun the rest of the day telling other tall people what he said and they would all run after him.
Yesterday was hilarious for so many reasons. We weren't super excited about the WP coming because we didn't know them, but everyone expects us to show them around and stuff because we have this unspoken white people bond, or something. So, we didn't go out of our way to greet them. We had class with Form IIIA while they were touring around, and we would make comments to the kids like "Who are these white people?"
At one point, they looked like they were walking toward our classroom, and we said, more to each other than the kids, "Oh no, they're coming!" They all laughed at us, and asked if we were afraid. I just laughed. But later, one of the kids said "Madame, they are coming. They are in that class now." And when I looked confused, he said "I thought you were afraid." Hilarious! He was warning us in case we actually wanted to run away!
Then, we were reviewing "if" clauses, and one of the kids, Vicent, wrote "If the headmaster was tall, he would be crazy." Now, first of all I just laughed because it's a funny statement, but then I asked him why the headmaster would be crazy. Now, Vicent is a tiny kid. His voice hasn't changed and he's seriously I think 4'5" and really giggly. So, when I asked, he immediately starts laughing and says because tall people like Walter (a notorious Form IV) are crazy. So I asked him if all tall people, and by extension me, are crazy, and he between fits of laughter "Somewhat." I had fun the rest of the day telling other tall people what he said and they would all run after him.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
New guests
So this week, one of the teachers at our school named “Dany” is hosting his cousin. Dany told us his cousin, Reagan, is applying to university in the U.S. So we asked Reagan about it, and discovered that he’s applying to Augsburg, Luther, and St. Olaf. How weird! I don’t know what his chances are of getting in, but we’re going to help him with his application later today.
The only other fun news I have is that Mario is coming soon! Hopefully we’ll see him on Tuesday. He only has a week off for spring break (all the Iringa universities have 3 weeks… figures), so he’ll only be here a few days, but it will still be a welcome change. Emily and I are very excited.
In other news, 3 more Americans are coming this week. They’re supposed to leave today from the US, so they might show up in Magulilwa around the same time as Mario. We don’t really have solid information on who they are, what they’ll be doing, or how long they’ll be staying. Hopefully they won’t disrupt our life balance too much. At least they’re bringing us chocolate.
The only other fun news I have is that Mario is coming soon! Hopefully we’ll see him on Tuesday. He only has a week off for spring break (all the Iringa universities have 3 weeks… figures), so he’ll only be here a few days, but it will still be a welcome change. Emily and I are very excited.
In other news, 3 more Americans are coming this week. They’re supposed to leave today from the US, so they might show up in Magulilwa around the same time as Mario. We don’t really have solid information on who they are, what they’ll be doing, or how long they’ll be staying. Hopefully they won’t disrupt our life balance too much. At least they’re bringing us chocolate.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Game Day
Form IIIA was 2 periods ahead of Form IIIB because of stupid schedule problems, so on Friday last week and Monday this week, Form IIIA had the pleasure of Game Day and an American English class while IIIB was catching up.
Game Day included 3-legged races, Simon Says, and the human knot. 3-legged races kind of failed, but Simon Says was a hit. We used it to practice action verbs and prepositions, and it was great to have the “but Simon didn’t say!” caveat thrown in to make them think. Emily and I acted quite juvenile when people did things wrong, pointing at them and yelling “OHH!!” so that the rest of the class would see them doing whatever it was wrong, and laughing at us and each other helped them get into the game actually. We’d never get away with that in a U.S. classroom, but here it works out.
The human knot went really well too. It has little to do with English, but it works on logic, something that sometimes is lacking from this education system. Groups stand in a circle, and grab the hands of two other people across the circle from them. Then they have to maneuver themselves so that they are untangled. That’s the best I can explain. But they did it really well, infinitely better than my Form I class did the first week of school. The best part was when a normally very quiet girl was totally taking charge of her group and telling them what to do (and rocking it), and then when they had finished she went around to other groups to help them.
Our American English class was completely hilarious. We taught things like “What’s up?” (which, as one of our students pointed out, makes absolutely no sense), and “How’s it going?” We also taught them to pronounce things in a more American way. Instead of saying “good morning,” we say something more like “guhmornin.” But by far the most hilarious part was explaining all the different ways to say “yes,” “no,” and “I don’t know.”
Yes. Yep. Yup. Yeah. Uh-huh. Mhmm.
No. Nope. Nah. Nu-uh. Uh-uh. Mm-mm.
I don’t know. I dunno. Idno. (and then the sound we make similar uh-uh, and the one similar to mm-mm, accompanied by a shoulder shrug).
We had them repeat all of them, and then all of the similar sounds (i.e. all the mm ones) in succession. A lot of them thought it was hilarious, especially “yep” and “yeah,” and now whenever we ask them at the end of class if they have understood, someone always answers with one of those. It’s pretty funny that now we sort of have a bunch of inside jokes with that class. Anyway, that’s all that I have for today.
Game Day included 3-legged races, Simon Says, and the human knot. 3-legged races kind of failed, but Simon Says was a hit. We used it to practice action verbs and prepositions, and it was great to have the “but Simon didn’t say!” caveat thrown in to make them think. Emily and I acted quite juvenile when people did things wrong, pointing at them and yelling “OHH!!” so that the rest of the class would see them doing whatever it was wrong, and laughing at us and each other helped them get into the game actually. We’d never get away with that in a U.S. classroom, but here it works out.
The human knot went really well too. It has little to do with English, but it works on logic, something that sometimes is lacking from this education system. Groups stand in a circle, and grab the hands of two other people across the circle from them. Then they have to maneuver themselves so that they are untangled. That’s the best I can explain. But they did it really well, infinitely better than my Form I class did the first week of school. The best part was when a normally very quiet girl was totally taking charge of her group and telling them what to do (and rocking it), and then when they had finished she went around to other groups to help them.
Our American English class was completely hilarious. We taught things like “What’s up?” (which, as one of our students pointed out, makes absolutely no sense), and “How’s it going?” We also taught them to pronounce things in a more American way. Instead of saying “good morning,” we say something more like “guhmornin.” But by far the most hilarious part was explaining all the different ways to say “yes,” “no,” and “I don’t know.”
Yes. Yep. Yup. Yeah. Uh-huh. Mhmm.
No. Nope. Nah. Nu-uh. Uh-uh. Mm-mm.
I don’t know. I dunno. Idno. (and then the sound we make similar uh-uh, and the one similar to mm-mm, accompanied by a shoulder shrug).
We had them repeat all of them, and then all of the similar sounds (i.e. all the mm ones) in succession. A lot of them thought it was hilarious, especially “yep” and “yeah,” and now whenever we ask them at the end of class if they have understood, someone always answers with one of those. It’s pretty funny that now we sort of have a bunch of inside jokes with that class. Anyway, that’s all that I have for today.
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