My 80,000 EURO proposal has been downgraded to a 10,000 EURO proposal for a Washroom which is probably a good thing if you really think about it. If it goes through the school will have a proper Washroom built and my first lasting contribution to society will be a bathroom.
On Wednesday I didn’t do much out of the ordinary-well ordinary in my current life. We caught the bus and I worked on budget work–which I definitely feel is outside my pay grade. I do not think learning how to mix chemicals gave me any right to stare at spreadsheets and determine price work. At this point the grant was still for 80,000 EURO which added a whole new level of excitement to my life. Which as I’m sitting here writing this I realize that I came to Tanzania to hang out with kids and work on a farm and just get away from the academic side of my life but I suppose I can’t and I suppose writing this is helpful for them–as long as I don’t add any 0’s in the wrong spots. (Don’t worry I still get to do plenty of sitting and enjoying the weather and the birds-especially the chickens, and just existing in a semi-vegetative state.)
I finished this earlier than lunch and got to go to the baby class where I was immediately asked to teach them a game. Well I said I was a music teacher so we played a rhythm game which the kids really liked. We clapped out different short rhythms at first–I used half, quarter, and eighth notes although I counted everything as 1-2-3-4. The half notes I did by doing big wide claps. Then to get more energy out I added stomping and finally jumping which the kids really liked but kind of exhausted me. I think the kids had fun and I did too they are really quick on the uptake although I tried sixteenth notes momentarily and had to resort to just clap as fast as you can.
Before lunch the kids all sit with their eyes closed and shout out a prayer which is the cutest thing in the world to me-it goes simply, “thank you lord for the food!” We ate on the porch because of the rain and had Ugali which is one of my new favorite dishes. Ugali is made out of cornmeal and it has the consistency of playdough-I really don’t know how this is done but I have a great desire to learn-perhaps I will ask this weekend if I don’t get abducted. Anyways you eat it with a mixture of steamed greens and meat/beans depending on the budget. It’s traditional to eat it with your hands but as a Mzingu I am handed a spoon which makes it a little easier for me to not get the food everywhere.
After lunch we played hangman with the older kids in the attempt to teach them spelling of colors. This had mixed results. The kids guessed “O for orange” which was correct but couldn’t connect the dots that the word was orange they instead insisted on using letters such as Z, X, and V which in the English language are exceedingly common. The kids go down for a small nap and I got to sit with the teachers and wait for the parents to come. They found my Swahili practice sheet to be so much fun that now while we wait for pick up we practice my Swahili. The teachers both girls about my age do a lot of giggling as do I and it’s a really good time. I’m picking it up faster although still very pole pole. (At least I’m not singing in church tomorrow in Swahili-oh wait I am.) When I’ve exhausted my Swahili it’s their turn and I ask them to translate the Swahili into English. They are far better at this then I am-I’m going to have to get more creative.
Getting on the bus the bus driver reached out for a high five and I gave it to him out of habit-working with little kids will do that to you. He grabbed my hand very tightly and kissed it. I should have known he had ulterior motives. Honestly, catching the bus is just the worst part of my day. My helping with dinner consisted of grating tomatoes which I am getting to be very adept at. We ate dinner inside because it was raining so hard that you couldn’t even eat on the porch. This is probably going to leave me fluent in football Swahili.
On the way into work on Thursday before catching the bus we stopped at the Tanzanian equivalent of a drive through. Vegetable venders sit along the road and if you are interested you pull off shout what you want and they bring some for you to inspect. The lady selling us carrots was trying to get away with giving us some awful carrots but Lillian didn’t have any of it. Nothing horrible happened to me on the bus and I got to work in the classroom.
I made a kid cry.
How you ask? Well I was trying to help Maurice with writing the letter d and he kept writing a b–so I would erase it explain it again and give him the pencil. I got kicked off working with him after he spontaneously burst into tears. I suppose you can’t win them all. I am still the designated swinger and I’m getting better at dragging reluctant sharers off the swing. I also took a spin at the merry go round and the kids thought it would be the best thing ever if I road it and they pushed it. It was but Oseam told me it wasn’t built for my weight so that ended quickly. I do think that I learned that faster faster is “ari, ari” which as soon as I do the kids decide to stand up on the merry go round and I get yelled at so it might be a conspiracy.
After break I sat down with Oseam the autistic kid and went over fruits and vegetables with him. It is about the cutest thing on the planet for him to point emphatically at spinach and go “pinish.” We were moving on to animals when I once again got put in charge of the class to teach the group fruits and vegetables. I knew I was going to be a sucess when trying to teach blueberry I said “what color is this?” and the class as a whole said “Purple!” The kids didn’t have much success learning the berries and I didn’t even get to most of the vegetables. My one moment of pride was when no one could remember what a Cherry was so I called on Oseam who was in the back of the class room playing with a car and not paying any attention. He took one look at it and went “cherrs.” That earned him a round of applause from the class–which let me explain because it’s ridiculously cute. The class as a whole claps and goes, “Well Done! Well Done! You are a superstar Wow!” Oseam got so excited that he spun in a circle and jumped head first into the mattresses.
Once that class went to bed after a lunch of rice and greens I went into the older classroom and we worked on spelling of colors. When I sounded out the word slowly the kids got it really fast and I’m very confident they can spell the word “red.” Then it was reading time. The kids children books are mostly from the 80s and 90s and all worse for the wear. Which made me more than a little sad. I wonder how much it would cost to ship books to Africa…
The bus ride home was a special one. I wasn’t accosted but the bus driver decided to do some exciting passing and nearly got hit by a garbage truck and then we nearly hit a motorcycle. This left the entire bus ecstatic! Then we got gas and when the bus went to leave the gas station the engine wouldn’t turn over. How did they fix this you ask? The money collector for the bus got out and pushed us down a hill to give us the moment to start. Problem solved? Not quite. We ended up in the middle of the road and the bus stalled out again. There was a thankful lack of traffic so we repeated the process of push starting the bus. What this did mean is at the rest of the bus stops instead of completely stopping the bus driver would slow the bus down and then lurch forward at a slow enough rate that you could infact get off the bus.
I didn’t make a fool out of myself at choir and everytime I do anything remotely acceptable the choir applauds which is good for my ego. The sopranos were very friendly and one in particular has taken me under her wing and has been teaching me. It was pouring rain so we practiced all huddled together under an eve and that is truly a bonding experience. I didn’t bring any water however and the choir thought it was very funny when I tried to sing high that I just collapsed into fits of coughing because my throat was dry. I am at the very least comic relief. The choir director is very energetic and he imitates instead of explains what we should and shouldn’t be doing. So for example if he wants us to be more lady like he stands all prim and proper and removes the nasally quality from his voice. If he wants the opposite he emphasizes the nasal quality, leans forward, and jumps up and down. It’s a good thing for me because I think if he was trying to explain it I wouldn’t have followed at all.
It was once again a rainy day but instead of football the discovery channel was on which is mostly just pretty pictures of Tanzanian animals so it’s very very wholesome.
Friday I was back to budget work. They’d discovered that there was only enough money for the washrooms and so I got to rewrite the proposal with a different focus and then re-go over the budget. I would have felt very professional if I hadn’t gotten distracted and excited every time a chicken walked passed the office door. Which was quite a bit. Abel and Lillian thought this was hilarious–and I would have felt bad if I’d been being paid by how easily distracted I am. All it takes is one chicken…
During lunch there was a spontaneous downpour and it was very entertaining the reactions of kids. Most of them shrieked and ran to the porch with their food. Oseam went and played on the swings. And then there were some kids like Samuel who just sat there in the pouring rain water dripping off their spoon and continued to eat rice. We came up with a new version of “Rain Rain Go Away,” which goes “Rain rain go away, little kids want to eat!” It didn’t work.
After lunch I went and sat in the room with Oseam and watched the kids sleep-everyone had nap time today. Every time she left the room the trouble makers Inomale, Saom, would jump up and run around screaming. I’m pretty sure they were doing their best to cause as much havoc as possible. They would post a look out and as soon as Oseam started to come back they would run and throw themselves head long onto the mattresses and pretend to be asleep. Well mostly pretend you could hear them giggling.
Oseam and I have moved on from favorite vegetables and fruits and today we talked about relationships. Oseam for the record is a beautiful, confident, kind, and funny young woman. Her story–the guy just left her for another woman. Which I don’t know who would do that. She said she cried on Valentines but now she is better. I had about the same story about getting left and crying on Valentines day and we laughed over it. It’s funny how some things for girls are just relatable everywhere.
I messed up terribly at choir when they asked me to sing a phrase by myself. It was one with like six long words that each had too many m’s in them and it was really awful to try and make me sing but ah well. They applauded the effort even though I tripped over the second syllable of the first word and just stopped.
Then that evening I asked a five year old to teach me to dance. He has been putting on the moves all week and it’s very very impressive. So he taught me the Macarena and two others that I don’t know the names of. I don’t know if I’m a better dancer for it but an attempt was made. On the bright side the village of Leganga now has a whole family that knows Cotton Eyed Joe. You are welcome Africa. We played Uno as well and I lost every single game. The boys when they start to win have a victory song they sing that goes-”I’m a winner oh yeah I’m a winner.” It has a dance too.
I did a lot of cool stuff today but I want to make that it’s own post and I’m hopeful to upload pictures so I’ll get to that soon enough. Before I finish though let me do a brief shout out to the bugs. The giant beetles that crawl out of the drain every night in the bathroom are one of life's great horrors. One of these days I’m going to step on one and it will be a sensation I never forget. The mosquitos aren’t great but even better there is a bug that when I slapped it, it stung me and my hand went numb for 30 minutes. Thank you Africa for that one.
Song of the Post: Macarena-Obviously
Quote of the Post: I teach you to dance on friday!
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