So it’s been quite a long past few
months. I think it best to just pick up here, halfway through month
19 (seven more to go).
Things at school are absolutely
different from last year. Teaching English has been much more fun
than I ever imagined. I think part of my problem last year was
teaching something that I wasn’t so sure about – study skills is
not a class really taught in the States. English is different –
for one, I love love love grammar already, and two, I have some
really great books to reference, (as well as the occasional google
search), and a syllabus that takes me along an organized schedule.
The other English teachers have been fun to work with too; to share
ideas, resources. My teaching style is much different from theirs
which has provided me more time for creating supplementary exercises
and to move faster than the rest of them. I don’t know if this is a
good or bad thing yet, but it has made it nice to share some of my
ideas with the other teachers. They seem grateful for the extra help.
I teach two classrooms of Form I
students (freshmen) English, and one classroom Religion/Ethics. I
don’t know if these kids are just sweeter than our Form IIs that I
taught last year, or maybe I am a little better at the whole
classroom management thing, but I’m in love with them all. I’m
really trying to push them into wanting to beat their own scores
rather than beating each other. It is typical for schools in
Tanzania to post the results of each student for every exam in a
public place, complete with ranking them first to last. I know when
I was in high school, that would have horrified me, so I’m doing
things to avoid it. I don’t know if it’s working or not, but they
seem to appreciate how silly and secretive I am about their grades.
As far as my teaching colleagues, I
feel much more part of the team nowadays. I really enjoy sharing
ideas with the other teachers. Though we’re still all getting used
to each other, and we’re still figuring out how to work in a school
in which we have to start everything from scratch, I feel a definite
“team” mentality forming, which is wonderful.
Hmm.. we’re eating a lot of
mamung’unya (a type of squash), karanga (fresh peanuts and similar
nuts of a different variety), and different kind of maharagwe(beans).
Also in season are lots of different kinds of green leafy
vegetables, which are spinach like, but really not at all. One
that’s really in season now is pumpkin leaves, which are delicious
if prepared properly! (I say that because sometimes we try things out
without really knowing how to properly cook them.) We just finished
pear season, and I’m really missing them already! There aren’t
many crunchy fruits like apples or pears here. Apples are actually
quite expensive in Dodoma too because they are grown pretty far.
The cold season has also begun. Rains
are now sporadic 5 minute sprinkles, and the mornings and evenings
feel so cold! The cold season lasts until August. I’m going to
have to pull out my “winter” clothes again! The very early
mornings are especially freezing, which makes it really hard to get
out of bed for a run.
Oh yeah, did I ever mention that Hannah
and I run before school? Never in my life did I think I’d wake up
at 5am in the dark to run before work, but we do it! Mon, Weds, and
Fridays are usually our days for running a little less than 3 miles.
We have to go at 5:15am, because we catch the bus now at around
6:50am. That means a half hour for running, 15 minutes for a luke
warm bucket shower, and then the rest of the time for a cup of
instant coffee, oatmeal with peanut butter (if I’m lucky), and a
few minutes to properly wake myself up. If we have the time or aren’t
feeling lazy on the weekends (that’s usually me, not Hannah), we’ll
take a longer run around the big rock “mountain” that is a short
walk from our house. There’s a beautiful trail around it that is
just through trees and bush. We pass a few others who are also
exercising, but a lot of the time we’re alone. It’s really
beautiful, especially now while it’s still a green Dodoma.
