Mwalimu Leena (Teacher Leena) na Gonzaga shule (and Gonzaga school)

 Naitwa Mwalimu Leena. Nafundisha dara sala sita Mzcheza, dara sala nne Computers, na dara sala tatu Kiingereza.
(I am Teacher Leena. I teach Class 6 Sports, Class 4 Computers, and Class 3 English.)

I cannot believe how fast the last two weeks have gone since school started!

January 14^th was the first day at Gonzaga for teachers and students. It began at 7:30 am with assembly, where the students line up based on grade level, starting with Pre-Standard 1 (like kindergarten) all the way up to Standard 7, and they are given important news and reminders about school. Sr. Pascaline, the head teacher, welcomed everyone back to school and had all the teachers introduce themselves. I went last and introduced myself as Leena, which I am called by most Tanzanians (at school it is Teacher Leena), and told the students what classes I would be teaching. After that, they sang a short, wonderful song which simply goes, “We are happy to receive you, welcome, we are happy to receive you welcome, we are happy to receive you, we are happy to receive you, we are happy to receive you, welcome!” It was pretty great. Then they finished assembly with a prayer and the Tanzanian National Anthem, which is absolutely beautiful and I hope to learn all the words before my two years are over.

After assembly, the students returned to their homerooms for a two hour period of learning about school rules and procedures. For now, I am not a homeroom teacher. So, on the first day, I simply sat in one of the Standard 4 homerooms and listened to the rules/procedures so that I would know them too!

At ten o’clock it was time for tea and porridge. The students are given porridge and the teachers have a choice; I took porridge on the first day and haven’t looked back since. I really, really like it! Tea break is 30 minutes long so at 10:30 am, the fourth period of the day starts. On the first day, I did not have a timetable/schedule yet for my classes so I just shadowed one of the other teachers; she teaches mathematics to Standard 5, both classes A and B.

At 12:30 pm, it was time for lunch, which was rice, beans, and cabbage. This is lunch every single day; the best part is, it’s so good, I’ll never get sick of it! After lunch, at 1:20 pm, I sat in the staff room for a while but then one of the teacher suggested I go down to Standard 3A’s classroom because there was no teacher there. I was happy for this time with them since I will be with them every day, teaching English. I spent the rest of the day with them until the final bell rang at 4:00 pm.

The next day, the 15^th, I finally had a timetable/schedule and was able to go to all my classes. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, from 7:30-8:00 am, there is morning assembly and on Tuesdays and Thursdays, students spend that first thirty minutes with their homeroom teachers. There are a total of 10 periods in a day and each one is 40 minutes long.

On Mondays I teach the first two periods; the first one with Standard 3B English and the second with Standard 3A English; in the afternoon I teach another period of English with 3A and a double period (so, 80 minutes) with Standard 4A teaching Computers.

Tuesday is similar, but instead of two lessons with 3A, I have two lessons with 3B and teach a double period of Computers to 4B, instead of 4A. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I am also in charge of English Club. It’s just what it sounds like…an hour and twenty minutes of doing fun activities based around the English language (like playing Scrabble, watching cartoon movies, putting on skits, and reading books).

On Wednesdays, I teach one lesson of English to both 3A and 3B and have two double periods of Sports, one with Standard 6A right before lunch and one with Standard 6B right after lunch. At the end of the double period with 6B, I am one of the teachers in charge of sports competition…this is basically like an hour and twenty minutes of gym class at the end of the day. We take the students outside to play football and other fun games, like Red Rover and Tag.

Thursdays and Fridays are so easy compared to the earlier days of the week…I teach one lesson each to English 3A and 3B, and, again, English Club is on Thursday. This gives me a lot of time to mark class work and homework and write lesson plans, making my weekends relaxing and easy.

That’s just a general outline of how my week at school looks and I think it’s going to work out really well. It is really wonderful to be working and be a contributing member of society again! It’s been a long wait since graduation. Being in a classroom just feels so natural; this has been a great confidence booster and has kept me feeling comfortable in this new environment. The students really are wonderful and I can tell that they are eager to learn. I am still trying to figure out which classroom management techniques work and which ones don’t in this culture/context; turns out elementary school aged children are noisy and rowdy no matter where you are in the world. J Some of the strategies I learned in college don’t really transfer to this culture but I am eager to learn some new ways to keep my students engaged and well-behaved.

So many things happened in the last two weeks that I can’t possible write it all here now. But I hope that my next blog or two will include more stories about school and my students, as I get to know them better and become more comfortable at Gonzaga. Overall, everything has been overwhelming positive and I can’t wait to see what’s next for me here!

 

 

 

Happy New Year! or in Kiswahili: Mwaka Mpya Mwema!

And So, 2013 Begins!

So, here’s the thing, I hate New Years…especially when I have an exceptionally good year like I did this year: I fell in love, grew closer to the friends from college that I hope to have for life, graduated from college, went to Guyana with Scranton’s International Service Program (which included one of my amazingly awesome friends, Katie), spent the summer traveling with and to see some of my favorite people in so many different places including New York City, Philly, Scranton, Atlantic City, Chicago, Madison, and Milwaukee, celebrated my Pop’s 90^th birthday, and began my greatest adventure yet here in Tanzania. There sure is plenty to be thankful for; I have been blessed with all of the good things in life. It is crazy, yet cool, to think that (God willing) my entire 2013 year will be spent in this country that I’m am slowly but surely falling in love with.

To celebrate New Year’s we invited over some of the Jesuits and a few friends from our neighborhood. We spent most of the night playing games and talking about things like the similarities and differences between American and East African norms, culture, and daily life. The really cool thing is that none of the Jesuits are from Tanzania; they are from places like Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, South Sudan (the newest country in the world…so cool!), and there’s even one American, Michael. This seemingly random group of people allowed for so many cross-cultural lessons, stories, and experiences. It is incredibly beautiful to be in a roomful of people from such differing backgrounds that can laugh and talk with such ease. (Luckily, there was the advantage of them all knowing English pretty well…and they helped me a bit with my slowly growing knowledge of Kiswahili.) We rang in the New Year by greeting our neighbors at midnight and listening to popular Tanzanian music.

Living a Life of Simplicity

Welcome to the rainy season! Well, last night it poured much harder than I have experienced so far in this country. I had to clear my desk of all papers, pictures, my journal, etc because the rain was coming so far into the room. I had a nice little puddle under my bed…but no worries, it was dry no more than an hour after the rain stopped. Minus the small, unavoidable puddles, the rain was such nice, cooling relief after the incredibly hot days we’ve had since the New Year.

Today, Katie, Beth, and I took the dala dala (public bus) to Mlimani City, which is home to the westernized mall. It was so strange to be in a big, air conditioned building full of stores with innumerable amounts of clothing, electronic gadgets, a movie theater, and a large grocery store. I was absolutely overwhelmed by the choice in the grocery store, which wasn’t even that great compared to what we have in the US…but it seemed like a lot because there is little variety in the food options in our neighborhood. The fruits, vegetables, and beans/rice/chapatti that we buy each day to make our meals are more or less always the same but they are also so good; not to mention that there are countless different ways to prepare everything, making cooking a lot of fun. It was hard to believe some of the things that were available in this mall, just a short distance from our home.

Anyway, the real point here is that the mall in Mlimani City is an experience I am glad to have had; it makes me appreciate the way we live as volunteers, and more specifically, as Jesuit Volunteers, which focuses one of its four main pillars on the idea of ‘simple living.’ I have quickly learned that I don’t need the expensive, brand name things that I am used to in the United States in order to survive. Of course those things are always a nice treat (so Mom, don’t think twice about sending that package J) BUT to know that I will do just fine (AND be happy!) without all of my old luxuries is a great feeling.  I prefer the way we live in Mabibo, which is still very comfortable despite the stark differences between here and home in America.

As I reflect on this idea of simply living more, I realize that we live simply in comparison to our lives back in the States…but here is Tanzania, I don’t know that we would be classified as ‘living simply.’ Our house is huge for only four people, in which we each have our own room, we always have food to put on the table, we each have more than one or two pairs of shoes to put on our feet, and we have free, easy access to the internet at the Jesuit Residence. This is very comfortable living compared to at least some of our friends and neighbors. One of my goals this year is to be aware of the ways I can intentionally make me life simpler.

Other random and wonderful things that have happened recently:

-I am now known as “Leena” to Tanzanians because having a Cait, Katie, and Kathleen in our community is confusing. They are all considered the same name to Tanzanians so being “Leena” makes things easier for everyone.

-Katie (the other 1^st year) and I made dinner all on our own last night without the help of our 2^nd years…including successfully buying flour and eggs by myself from the duka (store) across the way from our house

-One of our neighbors, Mama Amos, taught us to cook wonderful foods like coconut peas, mchicha (it’s like spinach), ugali (a tasteless, starch filler made basically from flour cooked in boiling water), and ndizi (it’s a banana that isn’t sweet, it tastes more like a potato than anything)

-Amos and Donny (Mama Amos’ children, roughly ages 9 and 4) both called me “Auntie Leena” when I was walking by their house the other day. It was a great feeling…one, that they remembered my name, and two, that they called me, “auntie,” indicating some kind of comfort with me.

-I have successfully done my laundry on my own by hand, if “successful” is not determined by the number of hours it sat out in the rain after I hung it up…but that’s okay! That just means my clothes got an extra rinse, making them ever softer than they would have been.

-We went to the National Museum in the city and had a picnic along the water.