So, there are definitely armed guards in front of the schools…Don’t worry though, that’s not related to the revolution I’m talking about. No, the sighting of the armed guards marks the beginning of National Examination time for students. Form 4 (the final year of secondary/minor seminary) begins three weeks of what sounds like intensive testing, and every school in the nation is will now be guarded by armed guards to make sure no one tries to take an early peek at the tests…no pressure.
I suppose I should explain this whole revolution thing. As I have mentioned, I thoroughly enjoy sports, but not particularly soccer (the overwhelming sport of choice here). I enjoy getting exercise and getting to know the students, but I figured there had to be a better way. So I said to myself, “Kyle,”… (that’s what I call myself*)… So I said, “Kyle, you have Frisbees with you, and you should start using them more.” It turns out that this was great advice. We are currently in phase one of Tanzania’s Ultimate Revolution, which means the people of Hanga are slowly getting exposed. I know that I mentioned earlier that I love to see the smiles of people trying to throw for the first time, and that definitely still holds true. In addition, I have been blown away by how quickly people are picking up on how to throw well. By people I am referring to 1) primary school students 2) secondary school students 3) fellow volunteers and 4) you guessed it, MONKS! It’s phenomenal!
An official Hanga team is already in the making, and I think our name does a good job of describing our toughness and our sentiments. We will be called “Hapana Pipi”, which translates to “No Candy”. You see, as a white personal, you get treated pretty special by the little village kids. They have seen many tourists come and go, and they have learned that white people 1) are white (they shout “mzungu”, white literally is like them calling out “white person!”) and 2) probably have candy. Unfortunately for them, we are volunteers and never have candy for them, so we have gotten a lot of practice replying, “Hapana pipi” to their shouts of “Mzungu pipi!”.
I know you are wondering and yes, I did search the nearest organized Ultimate Frisbee before I came here. It turns out it is in Nairobi, Kenya. It just so happens that our friend Fr. Francis (see “Once a Johnnie, Always a Johnnie”) has gone to work in Nairobi, and we were hoping to visit him over our holiday in December…It looks like a little e-mail challenge may need to be sent to some people in Nairobi…
Aside for the wonderful world of sports (I also had a pretty legitimate block in volleyball today and the Bears are doing well), my biggest news is that I am dangerously close to getting into some form of a set routine! That’s right, after one week of teaching that included my workload being changed every day, I think I have my schedule settled. I did, however, teach one day of a great class, only to find out that they changed their mind and don’t want me to teach it any more. However, I think I actually might have had a small lasting impression on the men of Seminary Form 3- in an attempt partially to help them remember and partially to test their willingness to actively participate, I told them that whenever I said, “Domain!” they had to shout whether it was X or Y (relations and functions in mathematics) and make the letter with their arms. The other day I walked into the class during their down time and asked if they knew what domain referred to, and they grinned and crossed their arms to make an X. Then the biggest kid in the class grinned again, looked like he was about to start the YMCA, and said “Range”. Beautiful.
At the risk of jinxing it, here’s what my schedule looks like right now:
Monday-Teach Form 3 Math at St. B’s Secondary to the boys for 80 minutes and the girls for 40 minutes (I think it’s something weird in the scheduling that gets cancelled out later in the week, but it’s definitely difficult to try to cover the same material in half the time).
Tuesday- Teach Form 1 Math at Seminary for 80 minutes
Wednesday- Random work!
Thursday- Teach Form 1 Math at Seminary for 80 minutes, then teach Year 4 Math at the trade school for 60 minutes
Friday- Teach Form 1 Math at Seminary for 80 minutes
It seems like a lot of down time, and I would definitely be game for teaching more classes, but it’s a nice start. Plus, I dare to say I might actually still stay pretty busy the rest of this term, because when I’m not teaching I still have lessons to plan, papers to grade, a Spirituality section of the library to organize, and resource to make for teachers and students to make the library resources more accessible, a trade school donation project to help organize and advertize, sports to play/kids to get to know, prayers to attend, and a language to learn! Hizzah!
In another exciting note, I will be working with the awesome Australian couple (Roger and Julie) on the trade school stuff, and we are almost done with my first real newsletter to be sent out!
In wonderful breaking news, Alicia Keys’ “No One” is currently blaring outside my window (from the village).
I apologize for the lack of flow and order to this blog, but the other exciting news is that I went to my first graduation. I caught a packed dolla dolla bus from Hanga to Nakagugu all by myself (it cost a whole 33 cents!) and went to the pre-seminary’s day long graduation/celebration! The food was phenomenal, and the celebration was pretty great (dancing, singing, skits, and speeches).
Great American Influence: The dolla dolla money collector was wearing a Burnsville Blaze hat, which is by far the closest to home I’ve seen thusfar!
*Note: I do not call myself Kyle. This is a quote from Boy Meets World.
No comments:
Post a Comment