Monday, March 28, 2011
Seven the Hard Way
Welp, there you have it ladies and gentlemen. Before my very eyes our seven month Tanziversary came and went. That means two big things: the blog title has been unveiled (thus meaning the contest is now to name the reference) and….I’M GOING HOME! (*Update: I’m going home to prep to be a member of the ACE crew in Mobile, AL where I’ll spend two years teaching middle school math and science at Most Pure Heart of Mary!) There’s such a flood of emotions that I should apologize right away if this blog post is incoherent. In a few hours I’ll be waking up and catching a ride with good old Br. Patrick to Mlilayoyo (halfway to Songea) to catch a bus to Iringa (halfway to Dar). There I’ll stay the day and night with a student who graduated from the seminary in October. On Wednesday I will catch a bus the rest of the way to Dar es Salaam. I will spend Thursday “resting” in Dar, meaning I will attempt to go to bookstores and get the textbooks from Phoenix Rising 2 ordered and paid for. In super exciting news, we’ve officially broken the $1500 mark, and, based on verbal commitments should be breaking the $2000 mark soon! How beautiful! Yet another huge thanks to all who have been supporting financially and/or spiritually! If textbook stuff goes well, I may treat myself to some time at Kipepeo (Butterfly) Beach in order to go out the way I came in. On Friday at approximately 4:55PM EAT I will be partaking in the miracle of human flight! No foolin’! Hizzah! Thanks to thriftiness, I will be reversing the exact path I came by, meaning stops in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Frankfurt, Germany; and Chicago before getting home. My scheduled arrival time is Saturday at 2:09PM CST! Unreal. Family, friends, and Final Four, here I come! I suppose anyone who’s been paying attention to this blog deserves one final update on how classes ended, so here goes: Trade School- Naturally, the last classes started absurdly late (the trade school is the one that I “taught” at last term without actually ever having a class meet in over a month’s time). We ended with some very spirited “Matches” (arithmetic races) on the chalkboard, and it was great to see a bunch of smiles and energy. St. B Boys’ Physics- We finished the unit we were on (Motion in a Straight Line) and even had enough time to make a short video in honor of SJU Ultimate Frisbee! St. B Girls’ Physics- I had one more class with the girls than I did with the boys, and we needed it in order to just finish that last unit. There was one small but hilarious (in my opinion) moment that really brightened the period. You see, the girls’ class has had the (un?)fortunate tendency to occur during rainstorms. With tin roofs, the sound of the rain is amplified about a billion times. (Data is not exact. What do I look like, a science teacher?). Anyway, the girls love that, because it means I have to scream just to convey information, and apparently physics is more exciting the louder it is. Anyway, today I noticed a girl giving the Tanzanian hand symbol for come her out the window, and I thought maybe we had a late student. I looked and, to my surprise, I saw no one. Then I realized she was beckoning the rain to try to get it to pick up so I’d have to yell…AND IT WORKED! This was extra surprising because every time I make the gesture to implore “Cut it out!” to the rain, it never obeys! Aye, Aye, Aye. Seminary- Well, it finally happened. We caught the elusive Ndizi Mwizi!!!! I was definitely wondering if we would! You see, I had intended for it to be the Rector of the school, but I learned on Thursday that he’d be out of town. The morning of the class, I was looking for a certain monk that the students would have loved to catch, but I couldn’t find him (ironic?). Anyway, ten minutes before class I got the Academic Head (a really goofy dude who also teaches them Civics) to agree to do it. Granted, he had no idea what I was talking about, but luckily Mike came to the rescue by meeting him with a basket of bananas and reminding him to come to my class. We used our newfound knowledge of percents and some information from an imaginary watchman to determine that the cafeteria and adjacent kitchen were the most likely places to find the thief, so all 70 of us trounced through those two rooms. Unfortunately, a ton of students were taking a test in the cafeteria, so we had to search silently. Then I noticed the thief was taking a while to sneak into our classroom (who would have thought we’d find him in our very own classroom?!), so I tried to stall and tell the students to check every window twice. After apologizing that I’d be leaving without us finding the thief, we entered the classroom and lo and behold, there was Mike and Mr. Luana with a basket of bananas! We got ‘em! Everyone got a banana, and, as they enjoyed, I tried to do a little role play with Luana (would have been easier if he spoke more English and/or understood what he was doing). Anyway, Mike asked him why he stole the bananas and he said, “I was using them for counting and realized it was better to put one in my pocket.”…Not the line I wrote for him, but it works I suppose. We ended class with a little tribute to Breakthrough Saint Paul for my sake and then one more class cheer for everyone’s sake. It was pretty good. We then learned that I had a golden opportunity to leave Hanga as I entered it: in sheer embarrassment on the soccer ground. Yep, just like our first weekend here, my last weekend here included a St. B students vs. staff soccer match! Luckily, the teachers wanted to win (we tied 2-2), so they only joked about putting me at goalie. Instead I got to be the only sub and never had to play! I just joked with students on the sidelines the whole time! There are eleven players on the field at a time, and they call the positions by numbers. Students kept asking what number I like, and I’d tell them I’m number 12 (sideline). It was in broken Swahili, but they seemed to appreciate it. On Saturday I also got to go over to my favorite teacher (fittingly named Dietrich- the name of a dear, late friend and one of the greatest people I’ve ever met). It was great to eat an egg and look at pictures of his family! On Sunday I did my last load of bucket laundry, and it was refreshing! Then we had our last day of basketball with the seminary, and they let Mike and I play on the same team. Let’s just say there was some definitely domination and some vicious dunks (one hoops is really short). Today after teaching I kind of tried to wander and say bye to as many people as possible (difficult between the village, the monastery, the trade school, the primary school, the secondary school, the seminary, and the other volunteers). After taking a break from packing to do some somersaults with village kids, I finished packing and ended up leaving a bunch of stuff here. Dinner was wonderful as a couple trade school students were there, as well as Br. Patrick, Br. Theodory (the money man), Fr. Gregory (the first Tanzanian monk here), the Abbot (the Abbot), Br. Jerome (head of guests), and Br. Augustine (our guestmaster and server of meals), as well as all the volunteers! There was all sorts of special food including cake, I got to make a speech, the Abbot made a speech, and I received a Masai blanket and a tailored feast shirt. It was just great to be surrounded by the wonderful people that helped make it such a wonderful 7 months (especially my fellow volunteers Mike, Catherine, Resa, Chiara, and Christa). Speaking of 7 months…gosh that’s a long time. Aside from being a reference to something near and dear to my heart, the title has a bit of meaning. First of all, it was hard to say goodbye to everyone and everything I’ve gotten to know here. Even more so, this was by far the most difficult seven month stretch of my life, but doing these seven months the hard way has been so fruitful for me and hopefully some others I’ve been working with here! In honor of this fruitfulness, here’s a little reflection on just a few of the many things I’ve learned here: Stuff I’ve Learned/Re-learned *You CAN re-gift chickens. *I love HOME. *There’s no place like home. *Also, there’s no place like Hanga (as far as I know). *The challenge of life is to be comfortable being uncomfortable. *Jim Valvano was very correct. “If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that’s a full day. That’s a heck of a day.” *Starting each day with a handstand when you get out of bed is great for many reasons. Sure it’s good practice and stretching, but it also gives you nice clarity and perspective on your new day. *After every night there’s a day. *Language plays a big role in communication. Smiles may play just as big a role. *A little Swahili slang goes a long way with students. *My favorite Swahili word is “kuota” because it means all of the following: “to dream, to grow, and to bask”. Beautiful. *If you mix all of the food on your plate, even if you don’t like any of the separate foods, you can eat it. *Ultimate Frisbee is a beautiful thing. *Prayer is wonderful! *It’s never a bad idea to get to know nuns. *Bill from the Peace Corps taught me early on that the following rule works: “In Tanzania, you can do anything until you’re told not to…twice.” *I really like playing sports the right way. *It is possible to read for fun! *Things that are supposed to happen are happening when they’re supposed to happen. *God is good!
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Having My Cake and Eating It Too!
Well, I officially turned 23 years of age today, and I suppose that marks a good time for reflection, and that means updates for you fine people!
The marathon fundraiser is still very much a part of our lives, as we are still accepting donations, and we are going into Songea tomorrow to see the sisters and talk about which books exactly they want to order! This is extra exciting as one of the sisters has been to India and back since we saw them last (that means curry!!!!). *Post weekend update- They did have curry, and it was delicious! They were also very pumped about the money we’ve raised so far. Also, Songea gets “ESPN International”, so we got to watch about one half of one March Madness game before power went out (I almost cried tears of joy)!*
Speaking of running, I went for a little jog with Mike and another guest named Herold. Should have been simple enough…and then a man on a bicycle came. I decided that would be a good time to move over so he could pass, and my foot landed on a gravel-covered slope. Let’s just say gravity did its work from there and I found myself on the ground shortly thereafter. Mike was behind me when this all went down (pun intended), and he assures me the fall looked pretty cool. Anyway, it was one of those times when you feel that little sting on your leg and look down to see an intense mess of blood. After finishing the run (frightening the villagers a bit), I took a shower. Again, this is normally a simple task. Well, it took me three tries before I could force myself to actually let water continually hit my leg. However, we watched the movie 127 Hours tonight (Catherine brought it from the US!), and I feel a little silly for struggling so much with my little sting.
I suppose now is the time I should forego a segue and skip straight to my exciting news! (We really did have cake tonight, and I consider this news “eating it too”). *For those of you that know about my decision-making process that brought me here to Tanzania, some of this next part may make more sense.* Let’s just say that 2 days ago I received the e-mail that I waited 363 days for…I HAVE BEEN ACCEPTED INTO THE “ALLIANCE FOR CATHOLIC EDUCATION” (ACE) PROGRAM THROUGH NOTRE DAME!!!! This has been my dream program (volunteer/Master’s degree) since sophomore year, and I was pretty ecstatic to receive this news! When I read the e-mail, a bunch of glorious celebrations rushed through my mind, including but not limited to the Form 3’s rushing the field after beating the Form 4’s 2-1 in the championship of the Seminary soccer tournament earlier that day, Kobe Bryant’s clench-jawed/underbite subtle fist-pump, Rudy being carried off the field, Jim Valvano running around the court searching for someone to hug (my all-time favorite), and Michael Jordan flying through the air swinging his fist across his body after “the shot on Ehlo”. It was much like a celebration version of the wonderful YouTube video “40 Inspirational Speeches in 2 Minutes”. Anyway, it turns out I had a terrible cold that day and could barely feel my head. Internet was working fine, but it took 2.5 hours for my e-mail to work, which was fine, because the e-mail had only been sent about 20 minutes before I was able to check it anyway! What I’m trying to say is, even though I was celebrating inside, by that time of the night, all I could do was sit in thankful disbelief that it was, in fact, real life.
Part 2 of this exciting news is that fact that I need to be home for an orientation/retreat for ACE in April, so I am now in the process of booking a flight HOME in the first couple days of April! YES!
It’s a little weird/sad to think I only have one more week to teach here, but I’m pumped to go home. I broke the news to my classes today, and that was kind of tough…we’ll see what next Friday is like.
Now that I’m headed out of here soon, I have to work hard to get everything finished that I wanted to, but, before I get to work, I’ll throw you a few more classroom updates.
In physics we just finished talking about equilibrium, and we learned about stability. In other words, this was an exciting chance for students to push their teacher (that’s me) while he stood in different positions with varying stability. I was also going to have two students push against each other to prove a point, but one student pushed before I said to and the other kid wasn’t ready. No one was hurt in the making of this teachable moment. However, I let the kid that got pushed sit down and had the one that did the pushing stand in front of the class. I proceeded to sprint at him as if I was about to tackle him and stopped right before making contact. The class erupted, and luckily the student did exactly what I expected/hoped. He got low and braced himself (lower center of gravity=increased stability!- See class, I told you this stuff was relevant!).
This next story might be a “you had to be there” one, but it made my day today. Two girls that were especially engaged in class today (they’re not always big fans of speaking in class) just were not understanding the difference between “distance” and “displacement”. I explained the example they didn’t understand and then suggested we try a trickier example to see if they got it. I explained the new situation in which someone essentially walks in a 14m circle back to the point where they started. I said, “What is the displacement?”, and they responded, “0?”. I said, “YES!”, and they both got big grins and gave each other a low five under the desk. It was the most enthusiasm I’ve seen students exude when going from not understanding to understanding since I’ve been here!
Speaking of things that made my day, this morning when I walked through the guesthouse halls to go to Mass at the Seminary, two chickens meandered out of the storage room and just started roaming the halls (neither was Rambo for those wondering). They just strutted around, left a gift in the middle of the hall, and made their way out the door. Naturally.
As an added birthday bonus, I had a great afternoon in the village today. Every morning at the monastery Mass there is a wonderful elderly couple in the front row. After Mass I always great them with the most formal and respectful Kiswahili way, and the man with two canes always stops, says, “Asante, Asante, Asante sana.” (thank you, thank you, thank you very much), and shakes my hand. We used to call him AsanteMan (see last sentence), and he always said I should visit their house someday. Yesterday I told him I wouldn’t be in Hanga much longer and he said, “tomorrow afternoon you will arrive at our home” in Kiswahili. Okay.
So, this afternoon, I went to the place they described (neither speaks a lick of English), and there was a guy a little older than me waiting outside the house I thought I was shooting for. He said, “Kaboga?”, and I remembered this was some word the elderly man said was a nickname of his the other day and realized it apparently doubled as a code word, so I said yes and the young man led me into the house. I sat with Frances (Kaboga) and Martha and their son for about 1 hour, and we just talked. It was almost solely Kiswahili (I learned in the waning minutes that the son, did in fact have decent English). It was by no means an advanced conversation, especially since they spent most of the time thanking me for coming. Their little toddler granddaughter waddled in and greeted me with the aforementioned formal greeting and reached up to touch my hair (the accompanying action for little kids using this greeting). After allowing (embracing) this, I got her to give me a fist pound…then she fell asleep. Anyway, it was a wonderful experience, and they sent their greetings to my family back home and said they were happy to be my “African family”. Good times.
Finally, I should point out that the contest from last blog is still open and winner-less. It’s anyone’s game, and the next blog should be the 7 month Tanziversary blog, so the clock is ticking. The only hint I have is that the title will be based on the amount of months. I don’t what’s more suspenseful: finding out the blog title or finding out who the Ndizi Mwizi is…speaking of which, I should go order 70 bananas soon!
The marathon fundraiser is still very much a part of our lives, as we are still accepting donations, and we are going into Songea tomorrow to see the sisters and talk about which books exactly they want to order! This is extra exciting as one of the sisters has been to India and back since we saw them last (that means curry!!!!). *Post weekend update- They did have curry, and it was delicious! They were also very pumped about the money we’ve raised so far. Also, Songea gets “ESPN International”, so we got to watch about one half of one March Madness game before power went out (I almost cried tears of joy)!*
Speaking of running, I went for a little jog with Mike and another guest named Herold. Should have been simple enough…and then a man on a bicycle came. I decided that would be a good time to move over so he could pass, and my foot landed on a gravel-covered slope. Let’s just say gravity did its work from there and I found myself on the ground shortly thereafter. Mike was behind me when this all went down (pun intended), and he assures me the fall looked pretty cool. Anyway, it was one of those times when you feel that little sting on your leg and look down to see an intense mess of blood. After finishing the run (frightening the villagers a bit), I took a shower. Again, this is normally a simple task. Well, it took me three tries before I could force myself to actually let water continually hit my leg. However, we watched the movie 127 Hours tonight (Catherine brought it from the US!), and I feel a little silly for struggling so much with my little sting.
I suppose now is the time I should forego a segue and skip straight to my exciting news! (We really did have cake tonight, and I consider this news “eating it too”). *For those of you that know about my decision-making process that brought me here to Tanzania, some of this next part may make more sense.* Let’s just say that 2 days ago I received the e-mail that I waited 363 days for…I HAVE BEEN ACCEPTED INTO THE “ALLIANCE FOR CATHOLIC EDUCATION” (ACE) PROGRAM THROUGH NOTRE DAME!!!! This has been my dream program (volunteer/Master’s degree) since sophomore year, and I was pretty ecstatic to receive this news! When I read the e-mail, a bunch of glorious celebrations rushed through my mind, including but not limited to the Form 3’s rushing the field after beating the Form 4’s 2-1 in the championship of the Seminary soccer tournament earlier that day, Kobe Bryant’s clench-jawed/underbite subtle fist-pump, Rudy being carried off the field, Jim Valvano running around the court searching for someone to hug (my all-time favorite), and Michael Jordan flying through the air swinging his fist across his body after “the shot on Ehlo”. It was much like a celebration version of the wonderful YouTube video “40 Inspirational Speeches in 2 Minutes”. Anyway, it turns out I had a terrible cold that day and could barely feel my head. Internet was working fine, but it took 2.5 hours for my e-mail to work, which was fine, because the e-mail had only been sent about 20 minutes before I was able to check it anyway! What I’m trying to say is, even though I was celebrating inside, by that time of the night, all I could do was sit in thankful disbelief that it was, in fact, real life.
Part 2 of this exciting news is that fact that I need to be home for an orientation/retreat for ACE in April, so I am now in the process of booking a flight HOME in the first couple days of April! YES!
It’s a little weird/sad to think I only have one more week to teach here, but I’m pumped to go home. I broke the news to my classes today, and that was kind of tough…we’ll see what next Friday is like.
Now that I’m headed out of here soon, I have to work hard to get everything finished that I wanted to, but, before I get to work, I’ll throw you a few more classroom updates.
In physics we just finished talking about equilibrium, and we learned about stability. In other words, this was an exciting chance for students to push their teacher (that’s me) while he stood in different positions with varying stability. I was also going to have two students push against each other to prove a point, but one student pushed before I said to and the other kid wasn’t ready. No one was hurt in the making of this teachable moment. However, I let the kid that got pushed sit down and had the one that did the pushing stand in front of the class. I proceeded to sprint at him as if I was about to tackle him and stopped right before making contact. The class erupted, and luckily the student did exactly what I expected/hoped. He got low and braced himself (lower center of gravity=increased stability!- See class, I told you this stuff was relevant!).
This next story might be a “you had to be there” one, but it made my day today. Two girls that were especially engaged in class today (they’re not always big fans of speaking in class) just were not understanding the difference between “distance” and “displacement”. I explained the example they didn’t understand and then suggested we try a trickier example to see if they got it. I explained the new situation in which someone essentially walks in a 14m circle back to the point where they started. I said, “What is the displacement?”, and they responded, “0?”. I said, “YES!”, and they both got big grins and gave each other a low five under the desk. It was the most enthusiasm I’ve seen students exude when going from not understanding to understanding since I’ve been here!
Speaking of things that made my day, this morning when I walked through the guesthouse halls to go to Mass at the Seminary, two chickens meandered out of the storage room and just started roaming the halls (neither was Rambo for those wondering). They just strutted around, left a gift in the middle of the hall, and made their way out the door. Naturally.
As an added birthday bonus, I had a great afternoon in the village today. Every morning at the monastery Mass there is a wonderful elderly couple in the front row. After Mass I always great them with the most formal and respectful Kiswahili way, and the man with two canes always stops, says, “Asante, Asante, Asante sana.” (thank you, thank you, thank you very much), and shakes my hand. We used to call him AsanteMan (see last sentence), and he always said I should visit their house someday. Yesterday I told him I wouldn’t be in Hanga much longer and he said, “tomorrow afternoon you will arrive at our home” in Kiswahili. Okay.
So, this afternoon, I went to the place they described (neither speaks a lick of English), and there was a guy a little older than me waiting outside the house I thought I was shooting for. He said, “Kaboga?”, and I remembered this was some word the elderly man said was a nickname of his the other day and realized it apparently doubled as a code word, so I said yes and the young man led me into the house. I sat with Frances (Kaboga) and Martha and their son for about 1 hour, and we just talked. It was almost solely Kiswahili (I learned in the waning minutes that the son, did in fact have decent English). It was by no means an advanced conversation, especially since they spent most of the time thanking me for coming. Their little toddler granddaughter waddled in and greeted me with the aforementioned formal greeting and reached up to touch my hair (the accompanying action for little kids using this greeting). After allowing (embracing) this, I got her to give me a fist pound…then she fell asleep. Anyway, it was a wonderful experience, and they sent their greetings to my family back home and said they were happy to be my “African family”. Good times.
Finally, I should point out that the contest from last blog is still open and winner-less. It’s anyone’s game, and the next blog should be the 7 month Tanziversary blog, so the clock is ticking. The only hint I have is that the title will be based on the amount of months. I don’t what’s more suspenseful: finding out the blog title or finding out who the Ndizi Mwizi is…speaking of which, I should go order 70 bananas soon!
Friday, March 11, 2011
What's Up?
I apologize for the mildly boring title, but please know that it is very much intended to be a shout out to the song “What’s Up? (What’s Goin’ On?)” by 4 Non-Blondes. Also, I feel it’s fitting, as this blog will be an attempt to simply summarize a little bit about what’s been going on here in our everyday lives in Hanga.
Speaking of titles, I think I mentioned long ago that I now seem to narrate my own life with blogs in my head and blog titles for experiences. While sometimes the titles are difficult to decide on (yes, I do put too much thought into this stuff, and yes, I do enjoy it thoroughly), there is one title I’ve had in mind since the first month. That is blog title is for our 7 month Tanziversary. So, because sometimes I feel like making this blog more like a magazine (remember the “Great American Influence” segment?), I’ve decided to create a little contest for any of you fine people who happen to be reading this. The winner will receive a prize I received from my marathon experience… The question?... What will this 7 month Tanziversay blog title be? (Note: If no one tries/guesses correctly before the blog, the question will be “What is the title a reference to?”) The first person with a correct answer relayed to me through any medium (e-mail, comment, Facebook, Skype, messenger dove, telegram, etc) will get to pick between 2 lovely prizes. *Offer good only at participating computers. Not redeemable for cash. Contest is open to all U.S. states except Alaska, and all countries other than Guam. There is no reason for that, I just felt like a contest should always be accompanied by gratuitous and mostly arbitrary fine print. I cannot be held responsible for any eye damage caused by the reading of this fine print.
Speaking of the MARATHON…we’re not done yet! We’re still hoping to keep pushing that total up so that we can get the sisters started with somewhere around 300 books if possible. Thus, the fundraiser will be continuing for a while, so any help you can offer in spreading the word is still greatly appreciated! On a non-fundraising note, I’d like to point out that some people say marathons are a great way to get into shape. I say it’s a great way to get a slap in the face telling you that you should get into shape- I’ve run three times since the big day, which is exponentially more than the first month after my last one! Hizzah!
Alright, now for the everyday life updates I promised. First of all, a small victory:
Last Friday was quite possibly my busiest day in Hanga (teaching nonstop from 8:50 until 2 while somehow opening the St. B. library for short stints in between/slightly during some classes, followed by some very important business in Songea. I actually came near managing to have a stressful day here. Anyway, after the Songea business was taken care of, I had to wait in a hotel entrance in Songea during a 10 minute downpour. In this time I spoke with the hotel attendant for the whole 10 minutes…IN KISWAHILI! Certainly the sentence structure was simple and the grammar was likely flawed, but we really talked! It felt so good. We mostly talked about languages (somewhat ironically), and it just felt really good to have a long-ish conversation that ended with me saying I had to go instead of me trying to explain that my Kiswahili knowledge had been exhausted.
That Saturday morning I returned to Hanga on the bus, and a teacher from the seminary rode up on his bike and asked if I was ready to head to the school picnic. Luckily, I talked him into giving me 15 minutes to get myself together, and then we were off. We bicycled to Nakagugu (that church/junior high about 8km into the bush I like to run to), and I realized it was the first time I biked that trail since very early on when Jack, my bike, decided he wanted to lay down and rest for a while (I hit a bump and fell off my bike). This time went much more smoothly, as the other teacher had a bike that doesn’t go up hills well (1 speed) and I had one that doesn’t go down hills well (no brakes). Thus, we took it slow. Anyway, it was great to spend a Saturday leisurely biking to a beautiful day of rest and picnicking. Most of the time at the picnic we just kind of sat around, but I did partake in a little keepaway with the students. Basically, there was a basketball, but no court or hoop. Luckily, the soccer field was made of hard rock ground, so we dribbled on there. I very much enjoyed running around like a goof as little students lunged for the ball not realizing the dribbling behind my back is possible and actually not so difficult. After the games we sat on the ground and ate the lamb that had just been roasted. It was pretty darn good!
As for classes, I’ve been very busy grading, since all of my classes had some sort of review or test while I was gone for the marathon. In physics we are now learning about equilibrium. You know what that means…that’s right, we’re talking about rotational movement and doors! We now know that, even if there are bricks holding a door open, a student can push it closed with just one finger if s/he pushes at the very far edge of the door (away from the hinge). However, if this student tries to use just one finger to push on the door right next to the hinge, the student will not be able to move the door and is very likely to pretend like his/her finger is hurt just like Aliki did when he demonstrated. (Please note, being called Aliki seems to have instilled a somewhat annoying habit of me speaking in the third person).
In the trade school, the first years are learning about “order of operations” (I learned this as either PERMDAS or “Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally”, but they learn it as BODMAS). Anyway, we talked about why following an order is important, and they really seemed to wake up when I put on my shoe and tried to put a sock on over it. The effect was basically, “Ha! That’s silly! Clearly the order is important! I get it.” This was, of course, nonverbal, as they only laughed and nodded yes with grins as if to say, “That wasn’t really necessary, but thanks for the entertainment.”
The second year trade school students are learning about profit and loss (very pertinent and also something they requested). Today I attempted to “take them to the market”, as they all received the name of the item they could sell and how much they had to pay to make/buy it. I tried to be simple, clear, and explicit, but they just were not understanding the directions of the activity, and the class period was a bit of a flop, although some students really got into it, and eventually they all participated. I personally had a great day at “the market”, as I went in with a lowly notebook to sell, made money on that, bought some chipsi mayai, and then sold that and made even more money! This worked out perfectly, because the girl I ripped off ended up with loss, so we had a good class example for both profit and loss (don’t worry, she took it well, and it was in the name of mathematics).
Lastly, there’s the seminary. They recently started “league play” during sports, meaning each form will get a chance to do battle with each form on the soccer field (and supposedly the basketball court, dance floor, and other places?). Anyway, Monday was the day to get the Form 4 vs. Form 1 match out of the way. If you asked anyone, including the Form 1’s, they’d just give a concerned raise of the eyes and tell you it was going to be rough. To frame this a bit, Form 4’s are studying topics fairly similar to those of our 10th graders, and are probably an average age of something like our high school upperclassmen (maybe 16-18). The Form 1’s are studying what is roughly equivalent to our 7th graders, and, while they range in age from probably 12 to 40, most of the soccer players were probably in the 12-13 range. In other words, this is somewhat analogous to a 8th grade vs. 11th grade match, which I think may be even more lopsided than a freshmen vs. senior game, because so many of these form 1’s just haven’t done any of their growing yet. Anyway, I digress. The point is, when they took that field, the Form 4’s towered over the Form 1’s. The game started, and something amazing happened. The ball was almost always near the goal the Form 1’s were protecting, but they just kept being able to kick it away. The Form 4’s kept charging, outrunning, and outmuscling, but the Form 1’s kept scrappily finding away to boot that ball out of bounds and make them start again. The goalie was on fire, and there was a particularly pint-sized littler baller that was able to weave his way through the big guys and advance the ball a handful of times (for soccer fans, picture a mini-Nasri). It was an inspired first half, and the score at halftime was still 0-0 (nil-nil for soccer folk), and the whole school (aside from Form 4’s) rushed to the Form 1 huddle to fan them with shirts. In the second half it rained somewhat heavily for a while and students on the sideline why I wasn’t running inside to take cover so that I don’t catch malaria. I attempted to explain that a) there was no way I was going to miss this epic half and b) you can’t “catch” malaria from the rain- malaria comes from mosquitoes and something we call a “cold” can be caused in part by standing in the rain. They looked at me like I was crazy. Perfect. Anyway, the second half progressed much like the first, with our Form 1 goalie making a couple of great saves, a few blown opportunities by the Form 4’s, and an injury (stalling?- they have to go in at 6 no matter what) to the goalie, the whistle was eventually blown and it was official, my little boys pulled off the unthinkable: A DRAW (tie)!!!!!! I fully expected to take part in a jubilant rushing of the field, but I got to witness something a lot more entertaining. The looks on the faces of the Form 1’s was, indeed, jubilant, but there was no field-rush. Instead, everyone joyfully sprinted into the school building! It was just a mob of shocked and excited little guys who wanted to run and be happy, but also knew it was time to go inside, so that’s where they ran. Probably more than that, it had a Derek Fischer-esque effect of “We need to get off this field now before they have a chance to take this away from us!- (If we do penalty kicks, we are in trouble!)” It was simultaneously exciting and hilarious, and this guy was pretty proud of all of them.
As for the seminary math class, we also had some excitement recently. We are wrapping up our unit on all things fractions, and today was a jam-packed day. First of all, it was their first day with their school uniforms- until today they’d been the 66 kids that wore whatever they had while they waited to join the rest of the school in wearing the uniform. They looked pretty spiffy. Also, last class, after a review test, I promised one visitor would join us on Tuesday (today). When class started today (Tuesday), I commented on their uniforms, and then I introduced Catherine, Mike’s wonderful girlfriend who just arrived and will be here for a couple months. (I should note here that it is wonderful to have her positiveness, her American-ness, and her CSB/SJU-ness here!...not to mention the American food and movies she brought!). Anyway, I after introducing her, I explained we would have yet another guest coming later…(insert suspense here). Of course, I had to congratulate them on the great match, and we did a celebratory “Wake Up” cheer, and it was definitely the loudest and most harmonious they’ve been yet! It was pretty cool.
About 40 minutes into class, as we were just beginning to discuss dividing fractions, I received a phone call on my cell phone which had mysteriously been switched to high volume (I never thought I would actually use the “Activate Fake Call” feature on this goofy Tanzanian phone…who knew?). Luckily, it was my “guest” who needed help finding the classroom, so I told my class I’d be back (apparently leaving Catherine to help the class solve the example I had just put on the board). I sprinted to the teachers’ room and they laughed at me as I put on my costume (I’m a little embarrassed to say that this is the first time I’ve used a costume in class here). (The following story will be an example of what some people believe is unnecessary in education. I believe that a little pizzazz in a lesson every once in a while is necessary, especially if it will help the students remember/understand something important.) I ran back to the classroom with no shoes, a t-shirt with the words “numerator” and “denominator” taped to the back, a pillow tied to my head, and sunglasses on the back of my head. I entered the classroom with my back facing the class and explained that Aliki (this time not third person) had to use the bathroom and that I was the promised visitor, Mr. Divisor…Mr. Fraction Divisor. Without turning to face the class, I continued to explain about “multiplying by a reciprocal”, and, when the time was right, I did a simple headstand in front of the class (falling into the blackboard on the first attempt, naturally). Anyway, doing the headstand (I was now facing the class, although upside down) revealed to the class that the front of my shirt, when upside down, read, “Original Denominator” over “Original Numerator”- I was now the reciprocal of my original self. After much more explaining and sweating (apparently pillow-hats are warm), class was ready to end, and we did one more “Wake Up”, with me standing on my head (that part was absolutely just for fun and not educational, I am well aware). Anyway, they did a very good job with our practice problems at the end of class in dividing fractions. Odds are they already knew how, but, hey, at least that means I didn’t leave them more confused than they started if that is the case. The teachers kept laughing and referring to my pillow as my “teaching aid”, but the Rector of the school called it my sleeping aid (unintentionally?...), which I thought was pretty funny.
Well, so much for a short update. Anyway, I am excited for the blessings of Lent to begin, and, as always, I am missing you all.
Speaking of titles, I think I mentioned long ago that I now seem to narrate my own life with blogs in my head and blog titles for experiences. While sometimes the titles are difficult to decide on (yes, I do put too much thought into this stuff, and yes, I do enjoy it thoroughly), there is one title I’ve had in mind since the first month. That is blog title is for our 7 month Tanziversary. So, because sometimes I feel like making this blog more like a magazine (remember the “Great American Influence” segment?), I’ve decided to create a little contest for any of you fine people who happen to be reading this. The winner will receive a prize I received from my marathon experience… The question?... What will this 7 month Tanziversay blog title be? (Note: If no one tries/guesses correctly before the blog, the question will be “What is the title a reference to?”) The first person with a correct answer relayed to me through any medium (e-mail, comment, Facebook, Skype, messenger dove, telegram, etc) will get to pick between 2 lovely prizes. *Offer good only at participating computers. Not redeemable for cash. Contest is open to all U.S. states except Alaska, and all countries other than Guam. There is no reason for that, I just felt like a contest should always be accompanied by gratuitous and mostly arbitrary fine print. I cannot be held responsible for any eye damage caused by the reading of this fine print.
Speaking of the MARATHON…we’re not done yet! We’re still hoping to keep pushing that total up so that we can get the sisters started with somewhere around 300 books if possible. Thus, the fundraiser will be continuing for a while, so any help you can offer in spreading the word is still greatly appreciated! On a non-fundraising note, I’d like to point out that some people say marathons are a great way to get into shape. I say it’s a great way to get a slap in the face telling you that you should get into shape- I’ve run three times since the big day, which is exponentially more than the first month after my last one! Hizzah!
Alright, now for the everyday life updates I promised. First of all, a small victory:
Last Friday was quite possibly my busiest day in Hanga (teaching nonstop from 8:50 until 2 while somehow opening the St. B. library for short stints in between/slightly during some classes, followed by some very important business in Songea. I actually came near managing to have a stressful day here. Anyway, after the Songea business was taken care of, I had to wait in a hotel entrance in Songea during a 10 minute downpour. In this time I spoke with the hotel attendant for the whole 10 minutes…IN KISWAHILI! Certainly the sentence structure was simple and the grammar was likely flawed, but we really talked! It felt so good. We mostly talked about languages (somewhat ironically), and it just felt really good to have a long-ish conversation that ended with me saying I had to go instead of me trying to explain that my Kiswahili knowledge had been exhausted.
That Saturday morning I returned to Hanga on the bus, and a teacher from the seminary rode up on his bike and asked if I was ready to head to the school picnic. Luckily, I talked him into giving me 15 minutes to get myself together, and then we were off. We bicycled to Nakagugu (that church/junior high about 8km into the bush I like to run to), and I realized it was the first time I biked that trail since very early on when Jack, my bike, decided he wanted to lay down and rest for a while (I hit a bump and fell off my bike). This time went much more smoothly, as the other teacher had a bike that doesn’t go up hills well (1 speed) and I had one that doesn’t go down hills well (no brakes). Thus, we took it slow. Anyway, it was great to spend a Saturday leisurely biking to a beautiful day of rest and picnicking. Most of the time at the picnic we just kind of sat around, but I did partake in a little keepaway with the students. Basically, there was a basketball, but no court or hoop. Luckily, the soccer field was made of hard rock ground, so we dribbled on there. I very much enjoyed running around like a goof as little students lunged for the ball not realizing the dribbling behind my back is possible and actually not so difficult. After the games we sat on the ground and ate the lamb that had just been roasted. It was pretty darn good!
As for classes, I’ve been very busy grading, since all of my classes had some sort of review or test while I was gone for the marathon. In physics we are now learning about equilibrium. You know what that means…that’s right, we’re talking about rotational movement and doors! We now know that, even if there are bricks holding a door open, a student can push it closed with just one finger if s/he pushes at the very far edge of the door (away from the hinge). However, if this student tries to use just one finger to push on the door right next to the hinge, the student will not be able to move the door and is very likely to pretend like his/her finger is hurt just like Aliki did when he demonstrated. (Please note, being called Aliki seems to have instilled a somewhat annoying habit of me speaking in the third person).
In the trade school, the first years are learning about “order of operations” (I learned this as either PERMDAS or “Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally”, but they learn it as BODMAS). Anyway, we talked about why following an order is important, and they really seemed to wake up when I put on my shoe and tried to put a sock on over it. The effect was basically, “Ha! That’s silly! Clearly the order is important! I get it.” This was, of course, nonverbal, as they only laughed and nodded yes with grins as if to say, “That wasn’t really necessary, but thanks for the entertainment.”
The second year trade school students are learning about profit and loss (very pertinent and also something they requested). Today I attempted to “take them to the market”, as they all received the name of the item they could sell and how much they had to pay to make/buy it. I tried to be simple, clear, and explicit, but they just were not understanding the directions of the activity, and the class period was a bit of a flop, although some students really got into it, and eventually they all participated. I personally had a great day at “the market”, as I went in with a lowly notebook to sell, made money on that, bought some chipsi mayai, and then sold that and made even more money! This worked out perfectly, because the girl I ripped off ended up with loss, so we had a good class example for both profit and loss (don’t worry, she took it well, and it was in the name of mathematics).
Lastly, there’s the seminary. They recently started “league play” during sports, meaning each form will get a chance to do battle with each form on the soccer field (and supposedly the basketball court, dance floor, and other places?). Anyway, Monday was the day to get the Form 4 vs. Form 1 match out of the way. If you asked anyone, including the Form 1’s, they’d just give a concerned raise of the eyes and tell you it was going to be rough. To frame this a bit, Form 4’s are studying topics fairly similar to those of our 10th graders, and are probably an average age of something like our high school upperclassmen (maybe 16-18). The Form 1’s are studying what is roughly equivalent to our 7th graders, and, while they range in age from probably 12 to 40, most of the soccer players were probably in the 12-13 range. In other words, this is somewhat analogous to a 8th grade vs. 11th grade match, which I think may be even more lopsided than a freshmen vs. senior game, because so many of these form 1’s just haven’t done any of their growing yet. Anyway, I digress. The point is, when they took that field, the Form 4’s towered over the Form 1’s. The game started, and something amazing happened. The ball was almost always near the goal the Form 1’s were protecting, but they just kept being able to kick it away. The Form 4’s kept charging, outrunning, and outmuscling, but the Form 1’s kept scrappily finding away to boot that ball out of bounds and make them start again. The goalie was on fire, and there was a particularly pint-sized littler baller that was able to weave his way through the big guys and advance the ball a handful of times (for soccer fans, picture a mini-Nasri). It was an inspired first half, and the score at halftime was still 0-0 (nil-nil for soccer folk), and the whole school (aside from Form 4’s) rushed to the Form 1 huddle to fan them with shirts. In the second half it rained somewhat heavily for a while and students on the sideline why I wasn’t running inside to take cover so that I don’t catch malaria. I attempted to explain that a) there was no way I was going to miss this epic half and b) you can’t “catch” malaria from the rain- malaria comes from mosquitoes and something we call a “cold” can be caused in part by standing in the rain. They looked at me like I was crazy. Perfect. Anyway, the second half progressed much like the first, with our Form 1 goalie making a couple of great saves, a few blown opportunities by the Form 4’s, and an injury (stalling?- they have to go in at 6 no matter what) to the goalie, the whistle was eventually blown and it was official, my little boys pulled off the unthinkable: A DRAW (tie)!!!!!! I fully expected to take part in a jubilant rushing of the field, but I got to witness something a lot more entertaining. The looks on the faces of the Form 1’s was, indeed, jubilant, but there was no field-rush. Instead, everyone joyfully sprinted into the school building! It was just a mob of shocked and excited little guys who wanted to run and be happy, but also knew it was time to go inside, so that’s where they ran. Probably more than that, it had a Derek Fischer-esque effect of “We need to get off this field now before they have a chance to take this away from us!- (If we do penalty kicks, we are in trouble!)” It was simultaneously exciting and hilarious, and this guy was pretty proud of all of them.
As for the seminary math class, we also had some excitement recently. We are wrapping up our unit on all things fractions, and today was a jam-packed day. First of all, it was their first day with their school uniforms- until today they’d been the 66 kids that wore whatever they had while they waited to join the rest of the school in wearing the uniform. They looked pretty spiffy. Also, last class, after a review test, I promised one visitor would join us on Tuesday (today). When class started today (Tuesday), I commented on their uniforms, and then I introduced Catherine, Mike’s wonderful girlfriend who just arrived and will be here for a couple months. (I should note here that it is wonderful to have her positiveness, her American-ness, and her CSB/SJU-ness here!...not to mention the American food and movies she brought!). Anyway, I after introducing her, I explained we would have yet another guest coming later…(insert suspense here). Of course, I had to congratulate them on the great match, and we did a celebratory “Wake Up” cheer, and it was definitely the loudest and most harmonious they’ve been yet! It was pretty cool.
About 40 minutes into class, as we were just beginning to discuss dividing fractions, I received a phone call on my cell phone which had mysteriously been switched to high volume (I never thought I would actually use the “Activate Fake Call” feature on this goofy Tanzanian phone…who knew?). Luckily, it was my “guest” who needed help finding the classroom, so I told my class I’d be back (apparently leaving Catherine to help the class solve the example I had just put on the board). I sprinted to the teachers’ room and they laughed at me as I put on my costume (I’m a little embarrassed to say that this is the first time I’ve used a costume in class here). (The following story will be an example of what some people believe is unnecessary in education. I believe that a little pizzazz in a lesson every once in a while is necessary, especially if it will help the students remember/understand something important.) I ran back to the classroom with no shoes, a t-shirt with the words “numerator” and “denominator” taped to the back, a pillow tied to my head, and sunglasses on the back of my head. I entered the classroom with my back facing the class and explained that Aliki (this time not third person) had to use the bathroom and that I was the promised visitor, Mr. Divisor…Mr. Fraction Divisor. Without turning to face the class, I continued to explain about “multiplying by a reciprocal”, and, when the time was right, I did a simple headstand in front of the class (falling into the blackboard on the first attempt, naturally). Anyway, doing the headstand (I was now facing the class, although upside down) revealed to the class that the front of my shirt, when upside down, read, “Original Denominator” over “Original Numerator”- I was now the reciprocal of my original self. After much more explaining and sweating (apparently pillow-hats are warm), class was ready to end, and we did one more “Wake Up”, with me standing on my head (that part was absolutely just for fun and not educational, I am well aware). Anyway, they did a very good job with our practice problems at the end of class in dividing fractions. Odds are they already knew how, but, hey, at least that means I didn’t leave them more confused than they started if that is the case. The teachers kept laughing and referring to my pillow as my “teaching aid”, but the Rector of the school called it my sleeping aid (unintentionally?...), which I thought was pretty funny.
Well, so much for a short update. Anyway, I am excited for the blessings of Lent to begin, and, as always, I am missing you all.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Angels in the Mountains
Well, it is official. I can now add “ran a marathon in Africa at Mt. Kilimanjaro” to the list of things I’ve done in those beautiful things we call Zubaz! Hizzah!
Because of my lack of internet use for the last week, I am going to attempt to give the full(ish) rundown as best I can in this one blog in somewhat chronological order.
Thursday: Leave Hanga at 4:45am and begin the journey to Morogoro. I made sure to bring Minnesota along with me in the form of Zubaz, socks (sent by the Carlsons), and highlighter (sent by the Hansens) that wrote on my t-shirt better than a Sharpie (who knew?). We arrived around 4:30 and got picked up by a monk friend who took us to the beautiful seminary he is studying at. After some food and prayer, we were quite ready for bed!
Friday: Leave Morogoro at around 8am and begin the journey to Moshi. Luckily, our seats on the bus were right behind two American friends from our region in the Peace Corps! We arrived at the YMCA (yep, as in the song) in Moshi around 4:30 and got settled in. That night we just kind of wandered around Moshi, got some food, and went to bed early.
Saturday: This was registration day. When we registered for the Minneapolis Marathon there was all sorts of hoopla. People were selling things, people were excited about what was about to happen. In Moshi, I got to the place of registration and was asked “42 or 21?” (kilometers). I then filled out a form, paid my Tanzanian residents’ registration fee (a pretty good deal), and was on my way, complete with ridiculous complimentary foam visor.
For lunch I enjoyed some powered banana baby food that I still had from Kenya (nutritious, but not as delicious as Gerber). After just kind of hanging out poolside at the Y, we headed with a big group of Peace Corps Volunteers to a rooftop Italian restaurant for some delicious (in general, not just in terms of Tanzanian food) and cheap spaghetti (hello carbo-loading!).
Sunday: At 5:30am I consumed the breakfast of champions- two pieces of white bread, crust not included. Last marathon a plain blueberry Eggo waffle did the trick, and I figured this was as close as I could get to that… After breakfast, I went with Angels 1 and 2 (Marshall and Amanda from the Peace Corps) to the start of the marathon. However, we got turned around trying to follow some serious-looking Kenyans and ended up having to jog to the stadium where the race started to make it on time. Nothing like running to a run!
After some entertaining announcements about getting out of the way if you were not running the marathon (an announcement I’d later wish was made throughout the city), a gun was fired and we were off.
It was nice and early and cloudy, so the temperature was cool. I decided (against my earlier decision) that I would run with Amanda and Marshall as long as possible. You see, they had, how do you say, properly trained? They were hoping for a 4 hour marathon. While I did run more in preparation for this marathon than the last, I still think I was actually not in as good of shape (last one I had Frisbee going for me too), and I was in no way going to run a 4 hour marathon. However, Marshall and Amanda are just jolly folks, and I was having too much fun just shooting the breeze and goofing around with them. Seriously, the first 25ish kilometers (mostly through the city of Moshi) flew by, as we were basically laughing the whole time.
Unfortunately, the powers that be in the Ninth Annual Kilimanjaro Marathon decided that their claim on the website of a “relatively flat” course meant that the third quarter of the race would be ALL UPHILL! Yep, about 10km (after having run 21km more rapidly than planned) were uphill, with small plateaus as the closest thing to a break! Jeepers it was tough! Marshall and Amanda did their thing (they did great!), and I was left wondering what the heck I had done.
As I “trained”, I thought of an inordinate amount of analogies between long distance running and my stay here in Tanzania. Granted, I have many friends in other programs staying places a lot longer and doing sweet things (and I think about how impressive this is often), but, let’s be real, going to college an hour from home was hard for me! Naturally, I thought the analogies would flow on my way up the Hill o’ Doom (my name for it, not official). However, that was not the case. Other than anger toward the exhaustion (the sun came out and it was now a steamy late-morning), all I could think about was you wonderful Angels at home! The morning before leaving Hanga, I received word of some more great donations (today I learned we have hit over $700, meaning with Zubaz’s generosity we will cross the $1,000 mark for sure! (even cooler when you realize we’ll be over 1 million Tanzanian Schillings!)- Again, I cannot say thanks enough for the support through vibes, prays, and dollars!) While I most definitely had to slow to a walk more than once, I felt like I owed each kilometer to each one of you wonderful people (sorry for the cheesiness- it’s true though).
Also, there has never been a doubt in my mind that I really enjoy the company of great people, and it turns out that marathons are no exception to this rule. Who knew? Those first kilometers with Marshall and Amanda were great, and my solitary kilometers were spent channeling my running buddies from home. Up that hill, my steps (walking ones and running ones) were accompanied by all those that donated/will donate, all those that prayed and sent vibes, all those I’ve run with before, all those wearing Zubaz in honor of the task at hand, my running-buddy sister, and my marathon-buddy Emily. I must say to you all, it was a pleasure to run/struggle to walk up that hill with you!
In the Minneapolis Marathon, the streets were lined with people cheering and encouraging…here the streets were lined with people laughing either a) because you decided to run for fun or b) because you looked like you were struggling. Luckily, the good old U.S. of A. provided me with a couple more Angels!
First was Captain America, our “rabbit”. As real, hardcore runners, Marshall and I were well aware that we would need a rabbit- someone to follow the whole run who would run at a pace that would challenge us but allow us to keep up. For us, that man was a man we deemed “Captain America”. He was at least into his 60’s, had an Ironman Wisconsin tattoo on his rather large calf, wore a tight white shirt about as short as a 1980’s football practice jersey, and short American flag shorts. Well, we accidentally caught up to and passed Captain America, and he soon caught back up with us. We struck up quite the little conversation with this man. After he gave us way to much detail about the struggles he was having with this marathon, he went on to mention that he was also from Minneapolis! How great is that! He asked if I ever ran the Twin Cities Marathon and proceeded to inform me that he only ran 28 in a row before his wife insisted they move to Sarasota for warmer weather…Really? And here he was, questioning if he could do this marathon. Needless to say, it was inspiring and entertaining to see this goofy guy on his way down the hill, far ahead of me, much later in the day.
Also, there was a couple from the U.S. that rode a motorcycle up and down the course cheering us on! It was a great taste of home, and they even gave me some delicious and probably helpful hydration gummies! Also, they had the good sense to remind me as I struggled up the hill that the mountain was absolutely gorgeous and I was lucky to just be there!
Speaking of hydration gummies, I think this would be a good time to touch on my during-race nutrition. I had water at every water stop, and I had one energy gel that I received with registration (I used 2 last marathon). I milked that one gel from about kilometer 21 to kilometer 30. Also, they had Coke at a lot of the water stops, and, as crazy as it seems, I tried a cup at the top of the hill. Aside from a few burps, it actually worked out alright.
Another during-race Angel was a man in his 60’s named Dave. Dave is a retired teacher from Wisconsin, and he apparently doubles as a saint. He came up behind me with a few kilometers let up the hill, and I noticed his American flag shoes and Midwestern accent. He was incredibly friendly and positive, and he all but said, “Hey man, let’s do finish this thing out strong.” Right when I was struggling to take my mind off the exhaustion, he came up as a great friendly distraction/sage. We ran together until there were about 2 kilometers left (he had more of a kick left than I did). Needless to say, his company came in very clutch!
The famed last kilometer of the race was actually 1.2 kilometers (should have thought of that before deciding to speed up for it). The whole race we got to play a game where we tried to avoid getting hit by trucks, busses, and groups of kids, as none of the course was actually blocked off (it was fun trying to time breathing so you didn’t inhale ALL of the black smoke from trucks). The end was no exception. As I entered the university campus and approached the stadium, and I had to dodge cars and people, and finally made it into the stadium. That’s where I saw my final during-race angels: the Peace Corps/Hanga crew was there near the finish to cheer me on/snap some photos of those classy pants that carried me through (other than a little extra heat, they felt really great…just saying, if you need a pair…). I made one less-than-epic attempt at a sprint and passed an older lady that had passed me and crossed the finish line. I’d tell you my time, but, this being a weird marathon, they never actually told you a time or had an official clock we could see. I’m pretty sure it was somewhere around 4 hrs and 50mins. Slower than last time, but also much tougher.
After dancing to some American hip-hop while lying on the ground post-race, taking some photos, drinking copious amounts of water, and eating an ice cream cone purchased by Angel Mike, we were ready to walk back to the Y….I thought. We got into the street and I froze- my left foot cramped like I’ve never experienced before. Shortly thereafter, I decided it was best to lay down on the side of the rode and stretch it out…but it got worse. A kind man from the street came and decided he should help Mike stretch it out. I’ve seen Tanzanians help fellow soccer players stretch cramps before, so I had high hopes. The guy did well for about 5 seconds and then proceed to stretch the toe that was the worst the wrong way! Let’s just say there was a fun scene of a white guy writhing in pain and biting his participation t-shirt on the side of the road…Good times.
A doctor came and said they had to take me to the medical tent. It was then that I saw the stretcher that had been placed next to me. I sat up, laughed, and said, “No.” They weren’t really listening as they placed me on the stretch, lifted me, began to carry, and said, “Just sleep” (aka “Lay down you!”
As I was brought into the tent, the head doctor took a picture. Nice. Then I realized another patient had sat up in his stretcher and was also taking a picture. Fantastic.
We got to the tent, and a nurse was about to give me something when a doctor stopped her and asked me what was wrong. I said I cramped. He asked if it still hurt. I said no (it didn’t). He sent the nurse away and left me. Great.
Eventually more doctors and nurses came and went, and I ended up getting a muscle-relaxer cream on my foot and some ice. When it was still bad when I tried to walk again, they gave me a hydration drink (super-water I guess…it was gross). Then they wrapped it (overkill? I think yes.). Then a nurse asked me to answer questions for a form. They only question she marked without asking? Gender. Her answer? F. Really? Yes, I did correct her, and she just looked surprised…
After downing more water per the urging of Doctor Mike, we finally made another go at it. As I got up, a doctor (who got his own foot rub from a nurse for no apparent reason during some downtime) saw the dirt on the back of my shirt (from laying in the road), said it’s too bad I feel before I got to finish (my medal was in my pocket). I clarified that I made it through the whole marathon no problem- it was the walking home that got me.
Well, we walked back to the Y, accompanied by and older Tanzanian that wanted to chat all day (I personally didn’t want to stand all day).
After showering and resting, Mike and I walked into town to meet Marshall and Amanda for some much needed food. On our way we were stopped by none other than…Marshall and Amanda. It seems that on their way for pizza, they stopped for cheeseburgers (Moshi is a magical place in this regard). As any good Americans would, we had cheeseburgers and fries, then walked a few blocks to have pizza and milkshakes. I don’t regret one calorie of that decision. We made the wise choice of taking a taxi back and then napping. Indeed, I’d call it a full day.
Monday and Tuesday: We caught our bus back to Morogoro on Monday and stayed with Br. Dominic again. On Tuesday we caught our bus to Songea and got a ride back to Hanga after, you guessed it, more greasy food! In total, we were on busses for only about 35 hours (going to Morogoro saved us a lot of bus time), and only 50% of the bus rides included people tossing their lunches on or around me. Not bad I guess. Also, we were in the back seats of the last bus we took. This is where we learned a little physics lesson- Even with a seatbelt, Alec can bounce well over a foot off his seat on the right speed bump if taken quickly enough (our favorite company, Super Feo, definitely takes them quickly enough). Also, we learned Alec’s bus-buddy, Resa, could probably also bounce over a foot if there wasn’t a storage compartment above here head…oops…
Wednesday: I went to Mass, taught, and worked in the St. B library, and I even went for a run to my favorite spot where I can see the village and the beautiful hills! No sign of soreness or foot cramps! Hizzah again!
Anyway, the moral of the story is that I had a blast seeing the sites, meeting the people, and running the race. Moshi is a beautiful town, Kili is a beautiful mountain that really looks like the pictures, and the people I was with were wonderful. Running is a great activity, and 42.2 km is a long distance. I’m very excited to see what kind of total we end up with for the de Paul school textbook fund over the next month or so, and I’m getting very excited for this last month or two of downhill running here in Tanzania with all you beautiful angels taking each step with me!
Because of my lack of internet use for the last week, I am going to attempt to give the full(ish) rundown as best I can in this one blog in somewhat chronological order.
Thursday: Leave Hanga at 4:45am and begin the journey to Morogoro. I made sure to bring Minnesota along with me in the form of Zubaz, socks (sent by the Carlsons), and highlighter (sent by the Hansens) that wrote on my t-shirt better than a Sharpie (who knew?). We arrived around 4:30 and got picked up by a monk friend who took us to the beautiful seminary he is studying at. After some food and prayer, we were quite ready for bed!
Friday: Leave Morogoro at around 8am and begin the journey to Moshi. Luckily, our seats on the bus were right behind two American friends from our region in the Peace Corps! We arrived at the YMCA (yep, as in the song) in Moshi around 4:30 and got settled in. That night we just kind of wandered around Moshi, got some food, and went to bed early.
Saturday: This was registration day. When we registered for the Minneapolis Marathon there was all sorts of hoopla. People were selling things, people were excited about what was about to happen. In Moshi, I got to the place of registration and was asked “42 or 21?” (kilometers). I then filled out a form, paid my Tanzanian residents’ registration fee (a pretty good deal), and was on my way, complete with ridiculous complimentary foam visor.
For lunch I enjoyed some powered banana baby food that I still had from Kenya (nutritious, but not as delicious as Gerber). After just kind of hanging out poolside at the Y, we headed with a big group of Peace Corps Volunteers to a rooftop Italian restaurant for some delicious (in general, not just in terms of Tanzanian food) and cheap spaghetti (hello carbo-loading!).
Sunday: At 5:30am I consumed the breakfast of champions- two pieces of white bread, crust not included. Last marathon a plain blueberry Eggo waffle did the trick, and I figured this was as close as I could get to that… After breakfast, I went with Angels 1 and 2 (Marshall and Amanda from the Peace Corps) to the start of the marathon. However, we got turned around trying to follow some serious-looking Kenyans and ended up having to jog to the stadium where the race started to make it on time. Nothing like running to a run!
After some entertaining announcements about getting out of the way if you were not running the marathon (an announcement I’d later wish was made throughout the city), a gun was fired and we were off.
It was nice and early and cloudy, so the temperature was cool. I decided (against my earlier decision) that I would run with Amanda and Marshall as long as possible. You see, they had, how do you say, properly trained? They were hoping for a 4 hour marathon. While I did run more in preparation for this marathon than the last, I still think I was actually not in as good of shape (last one I had Frisbee going for me too), and I was in no way going to run a 4 hour marathon. However, Marshall and Amanda are just jolly folks, and I was having too much fun just shooting the breeze and goofing around with them. Seriously, the first 25ish kilometers (mostly through the city of Moshi) flew by, as we were basically laughing the whole time.
Unfortunately, the powers that be in the Ninth Annual Kilimanjaro Marathon decided that their claim on the website of a “relatively flat” course meant that the third quarter of the race would be ALL UPHILL! Yep, about 10km (after having run 21km more rapidly than planned) were uphill, with small plateaus as the closest thing to a break! Jeepers it was tough! Marshall and Amanda did their thing (they did great!), and I was left wondering what the heck I had done.
As I “trained”, I thought of an inordinate amount of analogies between long distance running and my stay here in Tanzania. Granted, I have many friends in other programs staying places a lot longer and doing sweet things (and I think about how impressive this is often), but, let’s be real, going to college an hour from home was hard for me! Naturally, I thought the analogies would flow on my way up the Hill o’ Doom (my name for it, not official). However, that was not the case. Other than anger toward the exhaustion (the sun came out and it was now a steamy late-morning), all I could think about was you wonderful Angels at home! The morning before leaving Hanga, I received word of some more great donations (today I learned we have hit over $700, meaning with Zubaz’s generosity we will cross the $1,000 mark for sure! (even cooler when you realize we’ll be over 1 million Tanzanian Schillings!)- Again, I cannot say thanks enough for the support through vibes, prays, and dollars!) While I most definitely had to slow to a walk more than once, I felt like I owed each kilometer to each one of you wonderful people (sorry for the cheesiness- it’s true though).
Also, there has never been a doubt in my mind that I really enjoy the company of great people, and it turns out that marathons are no exception to this rule. Who knew? Those first kilometers with Marshall and Amanda were great, and my solitary kilometers were spent channeling my running buddies from home. Up that hill, my steps (walking ones and running ones) were accompanied by all those that donated/will donate, all those that prayed and sent vibes, all those I’ve run with before, all those wearing Zubaz in honor of the task at hand, my running-buddy sister, and my marathon-buddy Emily. I must say to you all, it was a pleasure to run/struggle to walk up that hill with you!
In the Minneapolis Marathon, the streets were lined with people cheering and encouraging…here the streets were lined with people laughing either a) because you decided to run for fun or b) because you looked like you were struggling. Luckily, the good old U.S. of A. provided me with a couple more Angels!
First was Captain America, our “rabbit”. As real, hardcore runners, Marshall and I were well aware that we would need a rabbit- someone to follow the whole run who would run at a pace that would challenge us but allow us to keep up. For us, that man was a man we deemed “Captain America”. He was at least into his 60’s, had an Ironman Wisconsin tattoo on his rather large calf, wore a tight white shirt about as short as a 1980’s football practice jersey, and short American flag shorts. Well, we accidentally caught up to and passed Captain America, and he soon caught back up with us. We struck up quite the little conversation with this man. After he gave us way to much detail about the struggles he was having with this marathon, he went on to mention that he was also from Minneapolis! How great is that! He asked if I ever ran the Twin Cities Marathon and proceeded to inform me that he only ran 28 in a row before his wife insisted they move to Sarasota for warmer weather…Really? And here he was, questioning if he could do this marathon. Needless to say, it was inspiring and entertaining to see this goofy guy on his way down the hill, far ahead of me, much later in the day.
Also, there was a couple from the U.S. that rode a motorcycle up and down the course cheering us on! It was a great taste of home, and they even gave me some delicious and probably helpful hydration gummies! Also, they had the good sense to remind me as I struggled up the hill that the mountain was absolutely gorgeous and I was lucky to just be there!
Speaking of hydration gummies, I think this would be a good time to touch on my during-race nutrition. I had water at every water stop, and I had one energy gel that I received with registration (I used 2 last marathon). I milked that one gel from about kilometer 21 to kilometer 30. Also, they had Coke at a lot of the water stops, and, as crazy as it seems, I tried a cup at the top of the hill. Aside from a few burps, it actually worked out alright.
Another during-race Angel was a man in his 60’s named Dave. Dave is a retired teacher from Wisconsin, and he apparently doubles as a saint. He came up behind me with a few kilometers let up the hill, and I noticed his American flag shoes and Midwestern accent. He was incredibly friendly and positive, and he all but said, “Hey man, let’s do finish this thing out strong.” Right when I was struggling to take my mind off the exhaustion, he came up as a great friendly distraction/sage. We ran together until there were about 2 kilometers left (he had more of a kick left than I did). Needless to say, his company came in very clutch!
The famed last kilometer of the race was actually 1.2 kilometers (should have thought of that before deciding to speed up for it). The whole race we got to play a game where we tried to avoid getting hit by trucks, busses, and groups of kids, as none of the course was actually blocked off (it was fun trying to time breathing so you didn’t inhale ALL of the black smoke from trucks). The end was no exception. As I entered the university campus and approached the stadium, and I had to dodge cars and people, and finally made it into the stadium. That’s where I saw my final during-race angels: the Peace Corps/Hanga crew was there near the finish to cheer me on/snap some photos of those classy pants that carried me through (other than a little extra heat, they felt really great…just saying, if you need a pair…). I made one less-than-epic attempt at a sprint and passed an older lady that had passed me and crossed the finish line. I’d tell you my time, but, this being a weird marathon, they never actually told you a time or had an official clock we could see. I’m pretty sure it was somewhere around 4 hrs and 50mins. Slower than last time, but also much tougher.
After dancing to some American hip-hop while lying on the ground post-race, taking some photos, drinking copious amounts of water, and eating an ice cream cone purchased by Angel Mike, we were ready to walk back to the Y….I thought. We got into the street and I froze- my left foot cramped like I’ve never experienced before. Shortly thereafter, I decided it was best to lay down on the side of the rode and stretch it out…but it got worse. A kind man from the street came and decided he should help Mike stretch it out. I’ve seen Tanzanians help fellow soccer players stretch cramps before, so I had high hopes. The guy did well for about 5 seconds and then proceed to stretch the toe that was the worst the wrong way! Let’s just say there was a fun scene of a white guy writhing in pain and biting his participation t-shirt on the side of the road…Good times.
A doctor came and said they had to take me to the medical tent. It was then that I saw the stretcher that had been placed next to me. I sat up, laughed, and said, “No.” They weren’t really listening as they placed me on the stretch, lifted me, began to carry, and said, “Just sleep” (aka “Lay down you!”
As I was brought into the tent, the head doctor took a picture. Nice. Then I realized another patient had sat up in his stretcher and was also taking a picture. Fantastic.
We got to the tent, and a nurse was about to give me something when a doctor stopped her and asked me what was wrong. I said I cramped. He asked if it still hurt. I said no (it didn’t). He sent the nurse away and left me. Great.
Eventually more doctors and nurses came and went, and I ended up getting a muscle-relaxer cream on my foot and some ice. When it was still bad when I tried to walk again, they gave me a hydration drink (super-water I guess…it was gross). Then they wrapped it (overkill? I think yes.). Then a nurse asked me to answer questions for a form. They only question she marked without asking? Gender. Her answer? F. Really? Yes, I did correct her, and she just looked surprised…
After downing more water per the urging of Doctor Mike, we finally made another go at it. As I got up, a doctor (who got his own foot rub from a nurse for no apparent reason during some downtime) saw the dirt on the back of my shirt (from laying in the road), said it’s too bad I feel before I got to finish (my medal was in my pocket). I clarified that I made it through the whole marathon no problem- it was the walking home that got me.
Well, we walked back to the Y, accompanied by and older Tanzanian that wanted to chat all day (I personally didn’t want to stand all day).
After showering and resting, Mike and I walked into town to meet Marshall and Amanda for some much needed food. On our way we were stopped by none other than…Marshall and Amanda. It seems that on their way for pizza, they stopped for cheeseburgers (Moshi is a magical place in this regard). As any good Americans would, we had cheeseburgers and fries, then walked a few blocks to have pizza and milkshakes. I don’t regret one calorie of that decision. We made the wise choice of taking a taxi back and then napping. Indeed, I’d call it a full day.
Monday and Tuesday: We caught our bus back to Morogoro on Monday and stayed with Br. Dominic again. On Tuesday we caught our bus to Songea and got a ride back to Hanga after, you guessed it, more greasy food! In total, we were on busses for only about 35 hours (going to Morogoro saved us a lot of bus time), and only 50% of the bus rides included people tossing their lunches on or around me. Not bad I guess. Also, we were in the back seats of the last bus we took. This is where we learned a little physics lesson- Even with a seatbelt, Alec can bounce well over a foot off his seat on the right speed bump if taken quickly enough (our favorite company, Super Feo, definitely takes them quickly enough). Also, we learned Alec’s bus-buddy, Resa, could probably also bounce over a foot if there wasn’t a storage compartment above here head…oops…
Wednesday: I went to Mass, taught, and worked in the St. B library, and I even went for a run to my favorite spot where I can see the village and the beautiful hills! No sign of soreness or foot cramps! Hizzah again!
Anyway, the moral of the story is that I had a blast seeing the sites, meeting the people, and running the race. Moshi is a beautiful town, Kili is a beautiful mountain that really looks like the pictures, and the people I was with were wonderful. Running is a great activity, and 42.2 km is a long distance. I’m very excited to see what kind of total we end up with for the de Paul school textbook fund over the next month or so, and I’m getting very excited for this last month or two of downhill running here in Tanzania with all you beautiful angels taking each step with me!
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