Sunday, February 21, 2010

Showering in the rain

I had a full week of teaching this past week that was probably my best
week of teaching yet though thats not saying a ton. It was also the
first week that i taught my full load of courses now that form one is
under way. I think it should be a manageable load once i get a lesson
planning routine down. Like today, i wanted to do all my lessons for
the week, but i was invited to lunch at someones house. I had done
about 2 lessons n then i left for lunch around 1, thinking id be back
by 4 n could finish then. Well i didnt get back til after 6 so im
trying to do at least one more so ill be covered for tomorow n
tuesday. It was an awesome lunch though. It started raining right when
i got home, n when it rains here it really rains. Since my shower area
is outside, its a pain to go there when its raining so i just lathered
up in my courtyard, in the rain. It was pretty cold so i dont know
that ill do it agaim though. I came in though n put on these awesomely
warm socks my grandma mailed me, made some tea, n now im about to
finish my lessons n go to sleep. And also im all booked for the world
cup, flight with kenya air n camping at some hostel, so now i just
need the OK from peace corps, n ill send them my request next time i
go to town.

Monday, February 15, 2010

mobile updating test

I think im now able to update with my phone so i should be able to make more frequent though probably shorter posts because typing with a phone takes ages.

Friday, February 12, 2010

World Cup tickets

I got back from Moshi and our swine flu shots last sunday night. Moshi is an awesome town. It caters to tourists mainly so they have lots of killer food. I was there all day saturday and had two breakfasts, heaps of coffee, some killer indian at lunch, decent italian and wine for dinner and then went to a cool outdoor bar and sat around a bonfire for a bit. Unfortunately now I have no money, so until i get to a bank again, ill be living kinda meagerly.

Coming back from Moshi was a super long day. We had to catch an early coaster from Moshi to Arusha in order to get a bus that went all the way to Katesh. Unfortunatley we arrived a bit too late so could only get as ar as Babati, where we then got a daladala. Megan reallyy didnt want to take a dala, but this one seemed different: it had captains chair style seating and the roo poope up like a Westfalia, so we thought it wouldnt get too crowded. Of course, this being Tanzania, we couldn't hae been more wrong. The dala wasn't too crowded until about Dereda. it was also about here where it started to rain so the roo had to be closed so the people standing were now hovering around my face and pinning megan in a cornerr against a window with a little girl and an old man. I literally could only move my hands for most of the next two hours. And Dereda should only have been about an hour away but because o the rain we had to go slower. When we got to endasak some folks got out so it wasn't as crowded but then after driving for about 50meters, we brroke down. I don't know anything at all about cars, but to me it looked like a brroken axle. the sun was going down too, and theres nowhere to stay in Endasak, and endasak is a bit of a gnarly little place, so we were a bit woried and anxious to get another ride to Katesh. We tied to get this guy with a tuck to take us but as we were arguing to no avail with the owner a big rig drove by and offered to take us. The guy we were arguing with tied to dissuade them, but fortunately they took us. When we got to Katesh we wee greatl releived, ate 1 kilo and a half of pok between the two of us, had a couple beers to celebrate an ages long day of travel and then fell sound asleep.

That day, I also found out i got wold cup tickets, to the US Slovenia game and the US Algerria game. I'm super stoked, and as soon as I'm done typing here I'm going start shopping for airfare and lodging.

Thats all for now, cheers!

Soccer

4-2-2010

Today was our teachers versus students soccer game and it was quite the event. None of the women teachers wanted to play so in order to field an entire side, teachers from the neighboring secondary school and one or two primary schools came to play on the teachers side. We were a rag tag looking bunch, some people with no shows, some in their teaching clothes, some in boots. The students on the other hand, at least looked like a team in their brand new uniforms. A few had cleats even. Around the field was the rest of the students and they were quite into the game cheering and singing the entire time, but they were especially into it when the student team was on the attack. The field was super rough though. Most of it was covered in thick knee high weeds, US Open third cut-esq. In some of the deeper
spots the ball would be completely covered. It was super hard to run in and you had to really drill the ball in order to get it to go where you wanted. It was also full of those little thorny balls that get all over you and are impossible to get off. The only places where the grass wasn't like this was in the trenches that served as the lines, which really came out of nowhere and more than a couple times I thought I was going to break an ankle. To make it a bit more challenging, there was also a few little termite mounds at random spots, hidden by the grass, acting as yet another hazard.

The game:
Prior to today, I think it had been at least a year and half since I had played any soccer what so ever and that was just one game after a previous year or two drought. So needless to say, I'm not in any kind of soccer shape. I didn't do much in the game, especially the first half. The second half was a bit better as my legs started to come back to me and I managed to make some good tackles. What I didn't seem to have a problem with was falling down: on several occasions I tripped and fell just trying to run. Every time I fell the ref called a foul, which helped us out on defense. I also managed to get kicked in the face and the crouch, both by the same kid. The crouch shot was I think the second most direct and painful one in my life (5 hours later and I'm still hurting). In the end we ending up losing only 4-1, which I thought was respectable. Tomorrow I think I'll be quite sore, and a full day of busses I don't think will do anything to alleviate that.

School was good this week. We finally divided Form 1 into streams, so instead of teaching 1 class of close to 100 students, I now teach three of about thirty students. While this makes the school day much more busy, with virtually no down time, the classes I think are going better.

Thats all for now, I have a 5 am bus to catch so I'm gonna get to sleep.

Teaching is Tough

31/1/2010

School is well under way now, though I think probably about a third of the students have yet to show up. But almost all of the teachers are here and teaching is under way. I only have my form 3 physics class twice a week and then I've been teaching the form 1 orientation once or twice a day. I'm not the only one teaching that anymore, a schedule has been drawn up and I only get 1 or 2 periods a day. And I think only about half of the form ones have shown up so they haven't divided them into streams yet. While this means I only have to teach each lesson once, instead of three times, one to each stream, the class is quite large now, around 70 or 80 kids, which makes teaching quite tough. I think once the orientation is over and I'm teaching math and physics to smaller classes it will get a bit easier, but it will still be hard.

I finally started my garden last week too. I didn't do much of the work, instead 7 form one kids came over and did most of the work. At the end of the day students have to do chores around the school, and these kids were excited to get to help me garden instead. They cleared all my weeds and then tilled my garden. Then I tried to explain the perma-garden method we learned and together we sort-of have one bed of a permagarden. With the rest of my space they just planted seeds how they do in their fields at home. This group of kids are now like my enforcers in class, yelling at everyone to quiet down.

This coming thursday, we are having a staff vs students soccer game, which should be interesting. Aside from 2 or 3 teachers, most of the staff doesn't seem the soccer type. And I'm quite out of shape myself, but it should be fun. The next day though, I have to get up at 4 to try and make my way to moshi for a H1N1 (swine flu) vaccine the next day, provided by peace corps. The 3 buses I need to take could be even more uncomfortable than usual if I'm as sore from soccer as I think I'll be. But I'm excited to see moshi at least. Its a big touristy place so you can get all sort of western style food, so I plan to splurge and eat well while there and by a few goodies for my site too.

That's all for now, might do a bit of cleaning before bathing. Then its off to the neighbors to watch the African Cup of Nations final: Egypt Nigeria. Should be a good one. Watching this tournament has been making me excited for the World Cup, and I should find out this week if I got tickets so stay tuned.

Ciao!