18 August 2008

(Sorry, I'm a few days behind)
Hmm where to start. . . not a whole lot has been going on over here mostly taking classes and volunteering at the primary school.

Teaching at the Primary School
Last Friday when I arrived at the primary school the teacher was standing in front of the main offices texting on his cell phone. When he saw me walking up to the school he told me that he had to go help a student who fell and that I should go with him. About 5 meters away from the teacher was a little girl with a skinned knee who was trying hard not to cry as the teacher put away his cell phone. He started to assist the student and realized what time it was and told me to go teach th class and he will be right in. He didn't show up till about twenty minutes later told me that he had to go help another class so I would have to teach the rest of the class and that he would catch up with me later. Teaching was pretty good, I just wish that I knew more kiswahili because it is hard for the students to understand me. It is an English class , but since they are just starting to learn English it is hard for them to understand everything that I am saying. After class I looked for my teacher, but he was no where to be found. I have officially had my first teaching experience. I am kind of grateful to be thrown into it right away so that way I don't have time to get nervous or make mistakes. You just stay confident and go with it. I go back to the school on Wednesday with no clue what I am going to teach, since I haven't heard from my teacher. I'm hoping that he plans a lesson.
I am thankful that I am not in a class where the teacher still practices corporal punishment. There are a few teachers at the school who still hit the students on the wrist for something as little as spelling a word wrong. It is against the law here for a teacher to implement this discipline and only the head master is allowed too, but it still happens in schools all across Tanzania.

Yesterday Kate (another girl on the LCCT program and good friend) received a package in the mail!! This was very excited, but in order to pick up the package she had to go to the LINKS office on campus where foreign exchange students get their mail. She got a yellow slip at the LINKS office that she had to bring down town to the mail post office. So two dahladahla rides later we made it to the post office. Where we had to wait and push our way forwards to the counter and give them the yellow slip and pay 1,200 shillings ($1.00). After receiving her package from the holding area the package then had to go through customs to make sure there was nothing in it that was not allowed into the country. It was a very long process, but fun at the same time. Since, we were down town we took a tour around the city and saw the Prime Minister and two Star Generals escorted down the street. It was done in a similar fashion as the president of the United States with unmarked cars with blacked out windows. It was very exciting!!
The way back to campus was not exciting at all. It took us an hour an thirty minutes to travel about 10 miles and it wasn't even rush hour!! Talk about a traffic jam!! It was fun though to get off campus and see more of the city. Tomorrow we are going to the market with our swahili teachers and on Friday night our main teacher is having us over to her house for dinner and teach us how to cook some traditional Tanzanian dishes.