Arusha Market

I've posted pictures more than once before of our local market in Monduli, but for even better selection, we sometimes go to the big fruit and vegetable market in downtown Arusha.  They have broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, limes, leeks and a variety of other things that aren't available in Monduli.  Michela is by now a good market shopper; she knows what good prices are and how to bargain.  

The setup feels a bit chaotic; there are narrow aisles with people pushing past and stopping to bargain, and the stalls start at about shoulder level and go up, so we have to yell up to the proprietor perched high above. It's an important part of Tanzanian life, though, and worth it for the good food!

Tanzania Christian Clinic

Just down the hill from the school is the Tanzania Christian Clinic, which is under the oversight of Tanzania Christian Services, the non-profit founded by Drs. Danny and Nancy Smelser, as is the school.  Fortunately, I've only been a patient once so far, in October when I was sick.  I love the view down the driveway; a small mountain in the distance is perfectly framed.   There's a website for the clinic, if you're interested in the work they do there or reading past newsletters: Tanzania Christian Clinic. 

You can see the school buildings behind the clinic.

Wednesday Afternoon in Class

Welcome to Wednesday afternoon in my classroom!  I took a few photos while my students were busy with a group activity.  While the classrooms upstairs have normal layout with rows of desks, these downstairs have levels to provide something like stadium seating.  It has its pros and cons--it is easier for everyone to see the board clearly, but it's hard to rearrange the desks for groupwork.  The desks have metal legs, which make an awful racket on the tile floors, and they're quite heavy to lift up and down the steps. We make it work pretty well, though! 

Nevil, Peter and Daniel...also known as The Ones that Never Stop Talking

Lowasa, Athuman, Olotai and Gabriel

Rebecca has been attending my class; she's fairly close in age to these students and has been making friends.

Chemistry Practicals at AOCSS

On Wednesday afternoon, I went down to the science lab.  The form three students and teacher Ilampa were hard at work on their chemistry practicals.  Alpha Omega has a focus on the sciences, so the students really value their time in the lab.  Many students hope to be doctors or engineers (and also pilots, for some reason; I guess it sounds cool), so they need a good base in biology, chemistry and physics.  

Teacher Ilampa explaining the procedures of the experiment.

Wilson is very excited about his results (or cheesing for the camera...probably that.)

Rehema is hard at work.

Students listening to Ilampa explain the lesson.

Looking back up from the lab building to the classroom building.  It's a beautiful afternoon on campus.

Kickball with Preform

One of the great things about teaching preform is that I have the time to do more hands-on activities.  We had a unit in Civics/Life Skills about physical fitness, which had led to a discussion of sports and games.  The most popular sport by far here is soccer, but the students also enjoy volleyball, netball (a basketball-like game mostly played by girls), and there's a ping pong table.  They have a basic familiarity with basketball, although it's not a sport they play much or generally have facilities for.  

On a beautiful November morning (a bit too beautiful; I'm not sure why it didn't occur to me to wear sunscreen--I had a very red neck for several days after), I took them out to the soccer field to teach them to play kickball.  They caught on pretty well, although they tended towards chasing people with the ball to tag them out instead of relying on the bases.  While I don't think it's destined to become the next big Tanzanian sport, we had fun and it's always good to get out of the classroom for a bit.

Here are a few pictures of our game! 

Birthday Fun

 On November 3rd, we celebrated D's tenth birthday.  Please don't tell her I'm posting pictures...

First, we went swimming; I didn't get pictures of that part.  Then, we had lunch at her favorite restaurant in Arusha, formerly known as the Fish and Chicken Restaurant.  It has a new name, but it hasn't caught on with us yet.  We had a pretty good crowd; the Shorts, Beth and her kids, Elipendo, Margaret from Karatu, and two friends from our neighborhood, Deo and Mary. 

We then went over to AIM mall, where the kids played at the arcade and we had cake that Michela had made and presents in the food court.  It was a good day of friends, family and cake! 

In Tanzania, the birthday person cuts the cake and serves it to their guests. 

Cake time! 

Monduli Traffic

This is the worst traffic jam I've ever seen in Monduli!  Eleven cows and TWO cars! :D  It's a beautiful first day of November, though!  

Downtown Arusha

 A crowd had gathered to see what was going on as there had been a minor car accident.

On a Tuesday afternoon, October 30th, I went to Arusha with Beth to pick up new glasses for the students that had been ordered from the optometrist, go to the bookstore, and run other errands downtown.  Here are a few pictures from around town. 

View from the balcony outside of the optometrist's shop. 

The clocktower is a major landmark in Arusha.  It is supposedly the halfway point between Cairo and Capetown, although that has been proven multiple times not to be true, as the actual midpoint is in the Congo.  

Mud.

You can tell by looking at the cars that it's been raining. 

Happy Birthday Vivian and Prisca!

I had the chance to meet one of my future students before classes even started when the Shorts and I were invited for dinner at the home of a family they know well, who are members of the Kisongo church (a nearby town that we pass through on the way to Arusha frequently, and where the preaching school is located).  Augustine and Fillness have recently built a new house, so were happy to have friends over to see it now that they’ve moved in. They have four children; the oldest is already a student at the school, and the second, Prisca, would be starting the next week in preform.

It happened that the first three of their four children all have birthdays within a couple of days of each other; I think Vivian and Prisca’s might even be the exact same day, three years apart.  To celebrate, their parents brought up cake, decorated like a unicorn, for all of the students (so at least 150 people) on Friday night.

Unfortunately, I was late because I was teaching a remedial class for some of students, so I didn’t see the pre-cut cake, but I did see the aftermath--both Vivian and Prisca had been smeared with calke cake and had it in their hair.  :) At least they weren't soaking wet; the usual tradition here is to throw buckets of water on the birthday person.

Students sitting out watching their classmates play soccer after the party

Rainy Season, day 3

Well, it appears that rainy season has come early; usually, it doesn't start until November.  However, in mid-October we started having afternoon thunderstorms come down off the mountain, which is a sign that it's coming. Fortunately, I finally got around to buying rainboots on Sunday, and I wore them for the first time today.

It rained lightly on Monday, but then it was cloudy both Tuesday and Wednesday but only sprinkled. Today it's raining steadily.

Lewis called and said he and Babadeo (Albert) were going into town for supplies for the school duka (store) and could pick me up on the way back to go to the school for my afternoon classes. I would be quite early, but my students needed a substitute for an earlier class time, so I could help with that (spoiler alert: that didn't happen). So Rebecca and I hopped in.

It's a long story, but the culvert between the school driveway and the, well, not paved, but hard-packed road running by the school has been out since before I moved here.  The local department of transportation were the ones who dug it up last time they were repairing the roads (at the end of the last rainy season, so around June), and they refuse to fix it back, saying that the school should pay to fix it (even thought they messed it up).  Anyhow.  We've gotten around the issue thus far by driving up the cow path that runs between the road and the school fence; there's a place without a ditch around the corner that we can turn onto it.  This has been a bit bumpy and involves the occasional traffic jam of cows (it is actually their road, after all), but has been workable all through dry season.

It will not work so well in rainy season.  We were in the big four-wheel-drive landrover, which is built for bad roads, so we gave it a try.  We made it about halfway around, sliding a bit (the mud here is like driving on ice) before we finally got stuck.  We managed to back up a bit and try a few running starts, but the mud was deep everywhere, and finally we ended up wedged at an awkward angle up against a very large jute plant.

Rebecca and I stayed in the car and observed the proceedings while Lewis and Albert tried various things to no avail.  Finally Albert walked up to the school and got the work crew who are building the new administration building to come down and help.  The group of men managed to rock the car enough that Lewis could get it unwedged from the rut by the jute plant, and then he managed to back us all the way back out to the road.

We finally managed to park at the clinic; from there we can walk through their back garden to a little gate that opens onto school grounds back behind the classroom building.

We're three days in.  Is rainy season over yet?