Hi!!
I hope everyone is doing well. It’s been over two weeks now and I feel so used to life around here already. I feel like a lot has happened since I last wrote, but I’m going to pick out some things from my journal….

SO.
School. I learned very quickly that my kids (my kindergarteners) are not as “advanced” as their textbook says they should be. After speaking with other volunteers, I’ve come to the conclusion that the curriculem for each grade has standards that are much too hard. I still can’t fathom the idea that my kids should be learning to subtract. Either way, I’m teaching words very slowly – pretty much a new word each day. By now, the kids have learned mother (mommy I put up a picture of you and me in class!), father, brother and sister. Each class I teach them the word, i come prepared with a display of a picture and then the english word on top. We review it and repeat it a lot so they get it, and then I hand pieces of computer paper that I cut out from our resource centre here at CCS. I give them each one of the markers that I brought, and it has become routine to go to the front before they open the markers, everyone raises their markers in the air, and then we count to three and open up the marker together. They seem to really enjoy this, since opening up (let alone using) a marker is a new concept for them. They really like my markers but I will have to get some new ones when I get home! I’m also helping one on one with math problems as much as possible. It truly is hard because all the other kids crowd around but I try my best. I try to work with the weaker ones on simple counting. As I mentioned, the age range is 4-7, but my teacher (Betty) told me that they just keep re-doing the year until they pass. I just don’t understand the point in that. My school, Mwmbao, is actually supported by a school in Germany. So in comparison to other classes, we are actually pretty lucky in terms of our supplies if you can believe it. We had a CD player which is a big deal here. For my sports/music class, I decided to introduce “dance freeze” to the kids. I had no idea how it would go. I explained to Betty so she could give the kids instructions, and another volunteer here had an African Cdthat he just got so he lent to me. WELL. The kids had an absolute BLAST. I don’t think I’ve laughed that hard in so long- they were so adorable and just really enjoyed it so I will defiintely be doing that again. Don’t worry- I took videos of them. (Kids here love when we take pictures- they will randomly run up to you and yell “picha! Picha!” because they love seeing the pictures after on our cameras.

I have only taught the standard 1 class a couple of times, but I made some flashcards and signs spelling out numbers in english and the teacher, Sylvera was so appreciative. I can’t remember if I wrote this last time- but teachers use sticks to hit children for discipline here. Both my teachers happen to not do it, but the majority does. It really bothers us and some people are planning on speaking with the teachers about it before we go. The kids don’t really know discipline which makes sense because if they are taught violence by their own teachers then of course they’ll think it’s okay to do with each other. I’m trying my best to be fun with them well using discipline, and I actually think I’m getting somewhere. Today I gave one of my favourite kids a time out hahahaha. He is such a mischevious little guy but such a charmer and so adorable so I have trouble gettting mad at him. Picking up swahili is definitely helping me get my messages across better!!! I’m certainly no good at it- but it gets me by which is all I need.

Some cultural activities that have stood out lately:
We had some guys come from the art centre 5 minutes down the road come to do teach us wood carving, beading and drumming. It was very cool- we did carving for so long and iwasn’t very good so I gave up after a bit. It really got me too appreciate how hard it is to make those things so perfect!!! I then made a bracelet with the incredible help of an extremely talented guy named Dixon who helped make the final prduct look awesome. I love it and I’m really excited about it!! We didn’t get a chance to drum because we ran out of time which I was kinda sad about, but I can always go to theart centre whenever I want to learn!!! The centre is amazing because they give free art, music, dancing lessons to children (mainly orphans) and the guys that run it sell their own art. The money they make goes straight to the art supplies. It’s pretty awesome so I’m definitely going to go back and buy some stuff.

I wanted to mention something about time. I forgot to last time. Here in Tanzania there is a word that bascially means “white person”- “mzungu”. Chldren love calling us that, and it’s supposed to be some type of praise. I really didn’t like it at first but I’m so used to it now! Anyhoo, there is “mzungu time” and “TFT- Tanzania Flexible Time”. SO, if you have a meeting at 3:00pm and you want to make sure that the person comes on time, you must say “3pm MZUNGU time”. Otherwise, they’ll likely come a couple hours late- TFT. It’s basically a play on the fact that Westernized culture is waaaaaay to uptight about it. It’s good for me. I need to learn that being late is okay (right dad?!) and I think I’m slowly progressing!!

Last week we went to visit a secondary school which was actually incredible. I was so interested and really impressed. Most of the secondary schools here are boarding schools. And while they are overcrowded, the standard of learning seems to be quite high and extremely impressive. The age range can go from 18-25, or even larger. It’s very expensive to attend which is why most don’t. It’s 83,000 shillings, which is just less than $83.00. Can you imagine!? There are 3 boys for every girl. Everyone seems very bright and motivated. We spoke to the head of the HIV/AIDS club at their school. All secondary schools here are supposed to be taught in english by the way. Not all are strict about this, but you can tell who went to secondary by how good their english is. Anyways, so we met the head of this club and it was just awesome to see these high school kids taking action and being role models for other kids around the school. The club is meant to educate others and help prevent HIV/AIDS but they also discuss other issues. We alll loved it so much that we went back tonight to watch the club’s meeting. They did a skit for us about Alcoholism and Drugs. They were so great. I definitely was not that mature in high school. I realized how often we are so focused on the main issues is developing countries such as AIDS, malaria,poverty – that we forget that there are also the same issues that teens face at home, like drugs and alcohol. While everything is so different from home, it’s things like this that remind me that the world isn’t as divided as we often believe.


Random fact: Most people don’t know what Jews are here. Ha! Actually, one of the main staff members here, (whom I absolutely love) named Didase told me a few days ago that when he met me he knew right away that I was Jewish. I laughed and asked him why. He said, “because you are so sensitive all the time”. Well, I’m not sure what being sensitive has to do with being Jewish but I had a good laugh anyway.

I’m writing way too much so I’ll write a little bit about my weekend in Zanzibar. The Island is stunning. It was a key location for slave trade transport because it served as a stop on the way to Asia and Europe. We stayed in an area called stone town, which has several old palaces (now museums) in it which date back to the time of the slave trade. We had to take a 2 hour ferry on some very bumpy waves to get there but we made it! Our hotel was so cool- very Aladdin-esque the way it decorated. The restaurants were nice and the beaches are as well. My highlight was definitely the Jozani forest. I read in my guidebook about this place and suggested we go there. I was nervous because my guidebook is a couple years old so I had no idea if the place was actually legit- but everyone had faith in me (there were 7 of us) and we got in a cab and went. It is a jungle that you can walk through and you are VERY upclose and personal with MONKEYS!!! They were like walking around us, jumping on each other and it was actually crazy. We had a very knwledgeable guide walk us through. I was a little nervous but it was really cool. We saw some other cool creatures and some beautiful scenery and that was it. We weren’t really wearing the appropriate clothing for a jungle but that’s ok! Everyone really enjoyed it.

OK.
I’ll stop there.
Missing you all and thinking of everyone.
Lots of hugs and kisses :)