Albi the Albatross

I’ve officially been in Tanzania for 1 month, and it makes me want to SHOUT…Shout Out…To Corey Friend for often calling me Albi.
Anyway, I once mentioned that I had to get a little creative with my room. You see, there are no shelves and I failed to bring tape. Thus, pictures of family and friends are held up by Frisbees I have leaning against my walls. I also have a wonderful picture of some albatrosses (one of my new favorite birds) from a National Geographic hanging up on my curtain. It turns out, all you really need to hang up a picture is a small hole in your curtain, a twist tie, and the proper angles of bending said twist tie. It’s pretty great, because whenever I look out my window, I see my albatross friends. When the sun hits it right, I can also see an albatross and its crazy wingspan soaring through the air from the other side of the page. Finally, I actually looked at the other side. This part of the article that I ripped talks about the struggle fledglings have when they first try to take off and fly. It turns out they often try to do too much too soon and take off doesn’t fly so well (terrible pun very much intended). Well, I guess these Tanzanians are looking after this fledgling, because it has taken almost exactly a month for me to teach my first class. I’m trusting that this long wait has helped prepare me and kept me from falling flat on my face.
However, I have, indeed, taken flight (aka taught)! That’s right, I taught Form 3 Mathematics at St. B’s Secondary yesterday and Form 3 Mathematics at the Seminary today! I’m not going to lie, I was pretty darn nervous. I hardly ever get too nervous for teaching, but a month of build up can really do a lot to psych a guy out. Don’t worry though, yesterday I made sure to really set the tone in the classroom (I donned the Mr. Rogers-esque cardigan I’ve grown so fond of). Yes I did sweat up a storm, and yes, it was totally worth it. I only get to meet with the St. B’s class once each week, and we cover topics they need review on. We didn’t have much chance to get very far after my introduction and discussion of classroom expectations. I don’t think most teachers do much for classroom expectations, but I believe it is very important, so I attempted to use my general rules of “Respect” and “Invest” (borrowed from an old youth minister), but the discussion definitely turned into “I’m asking you to be nice and try hard.” Oh language barrier/lack of experience with critical thinking…
The other kind of weird thing is that I teach the boys at St. B’s for 80 minutes and the girls for 40 minutes. I wish I could explain it, but I can’t. I guess I’ll just have to talk fast…
Teaching at the Seminary today was also great! It turned out the students already knew what I was told to teach them (don’t worry, I only spent a week thinking about this lesson, since that’s when I found out what I was “supposed to teach”). They were great about it though, and they really responded to my probing them to go further with parts of the problems, and they even seemed to appreciate some of my antics (I’m not going to say I didn’t through a shoe at the door…)
Of course, as is to be expected with my current set up, the unexpected happened. The teacher who I took over for told me that he decided he will actually teach the class. This has nothing to do with how I taught or what I taught, because he doesn’t even necessarily know that I showed up today. I’m not convinced he’ll actually show up in the future, so I might prep some lessons for them just in case I see them teacherless…
Also, my work with the Trade School is steadily increasing! I’ve been working the last couple of days on a newsletter with Br. Patrick that can be sent out to update people/solicit more donations for a boys dormitory they are trying to build. They definitely need it, as they currently have 8 to 10 guys sleeping in some pretty small, rundown old rooms. I’m loving the fact that it looks like I’ll get to play a sustained role in that side of the school, and one of the Trade School math teachers said he might let me do some of his teaching! If I could get in a little bit of English teaching I would have just about my ideal combo of work. I wouldn’t normally want to teach English, but I think they could really benefit from being taught by a native speaker. Plus, it could be a cool chance to encourage them to think critically, and I have some ideas in mind…
Right now, I have a great variety of work. Most days are currently split between teaching (including lesson planning and eventually paper grading), library organization, and Trade School work. I definitely can’t complain.
As I reflect on the fact that this is my month anniversary post and it is not yet as long as many of the others, I feel this is a fitting time for me to knock on wood and list some of the things I’m thankful have not happened:
-I have not gotten The Malaria.
-I have not gotten sick of the food yet.
-I have not said anything embarrassing in Kiswahili (that I know of). - I do have to be careful, because the word for “tomato” can also be “grandmother”.
-There has been no political unrest. (Don’t worry; there are no signs of any such thing. In fact, if you research Tanzania, you will find that it is famous for its stability).
-I have not made a complete mess out of my room.
-I have not run out of anything important yet (that I know of).
*Great American Influence: A guy wearing a Yancy Thigpen jersey. This was great, especially since it reminded me of how I used to intentionally call him Nancy Pigpen.
And since I forgot last time, here’s one more: There was definitely a kid wearing silver Kanye shutter shades. Sunglasses block the sun; shutter shades block the haters…
(Insert segue here) Finally, as far as teaching goes, I was remembering a conversation I had with another volunteer when I first arrived. She told me I would be fine as long as I “don’t expect anything from my students”. Sorry ma’am, but that’s not how I work. These kids are stuck in a pretty rough educational system, but they seem great, and I am excited and (hopefully) ready for doing my little part to help them get the most they can out of it.