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!