Last week of school

Every story has a beginning, middle, and end. I guess I've hit the penultimate chapter of this one. I'm still not sure how this hapened, but it has.

I did a whole lot of preaching this weekend. It's days like those that make me wonder if God's just laughing whenever I say I don't want to become a pastor. On Saturday, the Sunday school class that we're doing to get the kids ready for the Operation Christmas Child program met, and I was alone to lead it. Usually Lauren and I do it together, but she was in DAR getting the boxes! I'm so glad they arrived especially because it's been over two months since the seminar. So this weekend, I did it alone which was fine because one of my Class V students came and translated. The day was a bit of a challenge in that the power went out at 8 (before I even woke up) and came back on for only 40 minutes or so throughout the day. My computer died somewhere around 6 or 7 that night, so it was a strange night in the dark. That night I actually took a cold bucket shower in the dark, the water of which we collected from rain. I feel like I have achieved the true missionary stereotype.

Sunday was busy. I taught Sunday school of course, but this week I ended up with the little kids, not my usual bunch. There was some miscommunication which I still don't understand. It just happened, and suddenly I found myself talking to the little ones about respecting your parents! :) At least it all went well and there were two girls there translating. I then had to preach at the youth service which I did about using our spiritual gifts. This was my last youth service, which is why I had been asked to preach. It's strange that my lasts have started; Friday was also my last English class with the ladies. Then that evening we hosted the prayer service. This too was my last regular prayer service because the last one will be a Easter morning sunrise service.

Before I move onto what happened this week, I want to at least mention the exam results because I was overall quite please! Class V math especially was really great, I'm so proud of them! Science was ok in both V and VI. I had some really great moments when a math student of mine got what is considered a B (granted, B's here are defined as 60-80%) but considering I've struggled to improve his math scores and we suspect he has a attention disorder of some sort, the look on his face when he saw his test was pretty amazing! He even did better than some of the kids in his class known for top scores! In Class V science, the number three student in the class was one who characteristically does poorly. Everyone gasped when I read his name; I was so proud of him! The next day he told me that his parents were so proud of him that they're getting him a gift as a reward! Class VII took a mock exam last week, so they didn't take exams. We got the results back from that, but their test was written by the government. They didn't do as well, and in some ways, it's not their fault. It's so frustrating when the kids are smarter than the test they're taking. I'm not bothered by the small grammatical errors in the questions; it's when the questions are written in such a manner that they make no sense, the correct answer isn't an answer choice, or the wrong answer is marked as correct. Out of 50 questions on the test, I think at least 10 had serious problems like this. The kids kept asking me to change their tests, but a mock exam is prepared and administered through the government, so we have no control. It doesn't affect their national exams, but it's really hard to explain to them that they're just smarter than the test when that test will eventually determine so much for them. Poor kids.

So then came Monday. It was my last normal day of school, and it was just that, normal. It slippd by quickly, just a typical day. I'm really bummed that this is how our schedule worked out. Because we've had ten hard weeks of school with one day off, I'm burned out. I'm ready for a break; it just so happens that this break is my good bye. It seems to be beyond my understanding that this is the end. I know it, but I just can't fully grasp it. It's not for lack of reminders either. The schedule simply says "Farewell to KJ" for the last event of the week, and the kids don't what "farewell" means, so they come ask me. It's quite awkward to explain. I mentioned in Class V Monday afternoon how this was our last class together, and admist the wail of "No Madam!" two of the girls actually came up, got on their knees and asked me to stay!

 The Class V kids definitely took this harder. On Tuesday and Wednesday, in between exams, a large group of them were constantly hanging out with me. A few of them don't even like to let go of my hands! I've been able to have a lot more fun with them because of the weird exam schedule. On Tuesday, I set up games of Telephone with them to keep them quiet while others were testing. Wednesday I started singing with them. We sang songs where you have to shake hands with other people, high five them, "bump rumps," etc., songs about sharks and other silly cheers I learned at things like church camp and HOBY. I must really love my kids. One has a part that goes like this:
"Form a cow, form form a cow! Form a cow, form form a cow!" (You get down on your hands and knees)
"Tip the cow, tip tip the cow! Tip the cow, tip tip the cow!" (You roll onto your back, your hands and feet in the air)
"Have a cow, have have a cow! Have a cow, have have a cow!" (You wiggle your arms and legs in the air)

I did this with them. In a skirt. On a very, very dirty floor. I don't even think half of them actually did it with me because they didn't want to get dirty! I also made some of them become very brave. There were some frogs jumping around, so I would pick them up and encourage them to hold the frog with me. It blows my mind that these kids are 11, 12, 13 and this was likely the first time they ever held a toad! To get them to do it, I had to say we were "doing it together" by holding the hand on top of mine and then placing the frog in it. Usually there was a shriek at first, but then all was calm. That is, until it started moving.

 Well, then Thursday arrived. It was so weird going to school knowing that it was my last day and that there was going to be a celebration that afternoon in my honor. Or, as I soon learned, two. There was one with the students AND then one with the teachers. At first things were ok because there were still a few exams to take, so I just had to go into classes and give exams, but I noticed Class VII had vanished. When I asked some other students, they pointed to the tree at the other end of the school field where they were all gathered. "Madam, they're practicing for the celebration." I'm sorry, but I can't seem to adequately describe the feeling of that moment. Just knowing that there is a Tanzanian celebration being prepared in your honor is... overwhelming is the closest I can get. I went back to the "safe place" my mind first resorted to when I arrived in Tanzania came back and I haven't needed to do that probably since my first few days here. I had no idea what would all be coming, and on top of that, I was trying to enjoy every moment because they were the last ones. Luckily, I think I was able to just be for the day which was the best position to be in.

Eventually the exams finished, and then they started getting the speakers ready so all the kids knew the time was coming. Again, many were clinging to me and both Christine and I started to get a little too overwhelmed, so during break we went home for 15 mintues to just breathe. This is the only the second time the school has said good bye to a missionary teacher, and for the Class V and VI kids, it's their first time with a missionary teacher who's actually taught them. I think that made this harder in some ways. We got back, and I was able to spend some more time with the kids before they started gathering them for the celebration. I won't be able to post pictures right now, but I will soon. I was (unintentionally) in a row of honor. All of the other teachers were sitting behind me, so I was pretty much there, front and center. The kids were then invited to do anything they had prepared. Surprisingly, a group of Class IV boys and a group of girls had prepared some small dances. Class V had one group go, and then a Class V boy and a Class VI boy did some intense, awesome dancing. I'm so happy, we have a video of it! A mixed group of Class V, VI and VII kids had a skit prepared and a song. I couldn't actually hear most of the skit, but the song was mixed Swahili and English saying good bye. Then Class VII went, and I was blown away. I really think every kid was involved. All of the boys were doing the drums while the girls did the singing and dancing. At first the girls were just in a circle singing a similar good bye song, but then they really started dancing. It got pretty African :) It's so hard to explain it, but we have three videos of it because it was probably 10 minutes long as a whole and there were distinctly three parts to it. I was pretty floored by the whole thing; it was so amazing! Then the head teacher danced which was entertaining because he's not a young guy, and I was asked to speak. I just thanked the students and told them how much they had given me. I promised them that I would never stop telling people in America how amazing they are, even if they got sick of it! (Everyone back home, be ready. This is 100% true.) That more or less ended the time with the students. I asked Class V to go back to the class so we could do a class picture in the classroom, although the ones outside of it are better. That's when the students really started realizing this was the end. A number started crying (myself included) and I was more or less in a perptual hugging state for about fifteen minutes. I kept telling them that we had to be glad we had our time together rather than be sad it was over because I was repeating that quote to myself the entire day. Finally though I just said good bye and walked back home.

I went home and had a little while to breathe. However, it had only been about twenty minutes when Christine knocked on my door and told me that some Class VII boys were there to greet me one last time. So I sat out on the porch for at least another hour as kids came and went and talked with me. Fourteen year old boys are the same in all cultures I've learned; I just teased them about girls for a long time. They like them now, so they didn't mind. A little after 3 we went back to the school for the teacher celebration which was much calmer. The teachers more or less thanked me, they gave me a very African style dress and an elephant with a stand that said "Wellcome back" (spelled exactly like that. Oh Tanzania!). We had a meal together, took a group picture, and then the day more or less ended.

Like I said, I was really good about just being present for the whole thing. When I prayed last night, my mind was buzzing with everything that had happened. I ended up just saying "Well, God, today happened. I don't know what else to say." Good bye's are necessary in life. That doesn't make it easier, but they have to happen. Today, we took a 10.5 bus ride to Arusha because tomorrow we start a safari through Tarangire National Park, Serengeti National Park, and Ngorongoro crater. That was a good time to process everything. I think I made a mistake in focusing too much on getting to this few days that I didn't prepare myself for the total meaning. Whenever I realize that this was the end, and I don't get to see, teach, laugh with, talk to, sing with, encourage, etc. these kids anymore, I just start to lose it. Even as I'm typing this now a few tears are leaking out. I've said it before, and I will just have to say it again (and again, and again, and again): bwana asifewe, God gave me the most amazing children to teach. And in God's great, benevolent plan, this was the time we had together. I only hope I accomplished everything he wanted me to with them.

We'll be on safari this week, and then it's just one more week in Tanzania! Stay tuned, the end is near.

God bless,

Kjirstin

Mimi ni mwalimu kwa hesabu na sayansi

 

I feel like an accomplished math and science teacher after this week. I have done so many activities in the class, and quite frankly, I'd rather just show you all than write about it.

First off, in math V we started fractions, so as a  review, we used fraction circles and rectangles to build wholes. Each circle or line was broken down into 1/2's, 1/3's, 1/4's, etc.

 

I love this picture. These two tend to fight like cats and dogs, so to see them smiling and working together was a treat! :)

 

 

 



In class V science, we did a lab about wind resistance because we're doing a unit about experiments in general and this one's easy. Two pieces of paper, one normal, one crumpled up into a ball, drop them both. Which one falls first and why? I'm not so sure they cared, they just loved Madam actually telling them to get on their desks.

 

In Class VII, we did another unit on experiements which would be followed by a unit on plants, so I decided to combine the two. This picture is of me struggling to open juice, one of the options for putting in their cups of seeds. This, plain water, water with dish soap, and oily water were the other choices.

 

One student with her cup.

 

Pouring the juice into another student's cup.

 

 

 

 

A few weeks ago, I blogged about the disease unit with Class VII where I made them do presentations. These boys presented on cancer, while the girls below did chicken pox.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Something else from a awhile back, these are some pictures from Valentine's Day! These are all Class VI.

 

This actually says "I love Valentine's Day, but I hate the boys from Class six." The girls really weren't nice in class six.

 

Yep, Bad Boy and Mr. Good Boy. In some ways, they nailed it too.

 

 

 

And then these are a lot of pictures from just hanging out with my kids.

One of my Class V students

Perhaps the best photobomb ever.

 

My Class V boys acting just like my Class V boys. They also demanded that the mountains be in the background.

 

 

 

I think that about sums up my week. I don't have much new to say. The plan for next week is classes on Monday as usual, tests for Classes I-VI Tuesday-Thursday. Class VII took a mock exam, so a government issued practice exam for the national tests in September, this week. Because of that, they don't have to do midterm exams. I don't know how they did on it yet, but I'm excited to find out. Things got very real for me when I saw the exam schedule today. On Thursday, they have two exams in the morning, a break, sports time (PE), and then it's written "Farewell to KJ." Oh boy. One more week. It hasn't truly hit me yet, but if all else fails, I'm pretty sure a Tanzanian celebration will do the trick.

 

God bless,

 

Kjirstin

 

Mt. Kilimanjaro

Well, another weekend, another adventure! Christine and I made a short trip up to Moshi to see the famous Mt. Kilimanjaro this weekend. It was very different from our other travels thus far because this time we were travelling to a very touristy, mzungu populated area, and in many ways, it felt like we left Tanzania behind.

We left Saturday morning to get on an 8:30 bus to Moshi. This is by far the longest ride we’ve done, about eight hours one way. It was particularly hot ride too, which was really unexpected. Others had told us that this area was cooler, since we were going north and the altitude of the Moshi area is much higher because of the mountains. We each kept our eyes out for Mt. Kilimanjaro because we figured it would be obvious when we reached it. It’s the tallest mountain in Africa, and I believe it’s the tallest free standing mountain in the world because it’s not technically part of a mountain range. Really though, I think most of Tanzania is a continuous mountain range. The only part I’ve been to that hasn’t been mountainous is DAR. Oddly, we saw many mountains that weren’t very big (the Uluguru in Morogoro are much bigger), so none of them were right. It was really confusing.

We made it over to our hotel, and realized we had walked into a very different Tanzania, touristy Tanzania. There was a pool at the hotel, and I hadn’t seen so many white people that I didn’t already know! Usually if we see a few wazungu in town, there’s a decent chance we know them already. We actually looked out of place. Both Christine and I wore kitanges for the bus ride because they’re comfortable. They’re also incredibly African, so they looked very strange in comparison to all the westerners around us. We also were speaking Swahili with the receptionist and the other hotel staff, which we think surprised them. The room was very simple, but it did have a hot water tank for showering (!). That night the hotel had a buffet, and while we were, there we met a gal from America who was currently living in France. We ended up seeing her a lot the next day too so we got to know her pretty well. It was really fun getting to talk to someone else about our life here, and we could all share the experience of being a foreigner in another culture. We went to bed early that night because we had a super early morning the next day.

I don’t believe I’ve mentioned this before on the blog, but the reason that we were going up to Kilimanjaro was to participate in the Kilimanjaro Marathon. Christine is an avid runner so she was going to participate in the half marathon while I ran in the 5K. The race started early though to avoid the Tanzanian heat; we left the hotel at 5:45 am. We got to the stadium and we looked up to see this mountain that actually had snow on top and looked an awful lot like the pictures of Mt. Kilimanjaro. We were confused because the day before Christine had asked about getting to the national park for Kilimanjaro. There were a few wires crossed in the conversation because the impression we got from the conversation was Mt. Kilimanjaro was a few hours away and we wouldn’t even be able to see it. The next idea was then to use Sunday afternoon to see it, but that wasn’t very easy and it was expensive. Overall, this was terribly confusing. For it being the Mt. Kilimanjaro Marathon, it seemed very logical that it would have something to do with Mt. Kilimanjaro. We both also wanted to see it because there just aren’t many times you will find yourself in Eastern Africa and so close to it. However, the fact that we wouldn’t see Kilimanjaro was wrong; that’s exactly what it was, and we had a gorgeous view of it!

We got to see the full marathon runners start, and I watched the half marathon start. It was fun being in the stadium. It’s exciting to be around for the start of a race! I then had to leave the stadium to go to the start of the 5K. There was a large crowd doing the 5K which surprised me. At our hotel, we met lots of other people doing the half or full marathon. As far as I know, I was the only 5K runner. Many of the people around us were very clearly seasoned runners. The run itself was fine; I definitely felt the effects of the altitude. We also had lots of hills, so I didn’t run the whole thing. I actually walked most of the hills because they were quite steep. In all of the races, there was a large mix of Africans and wazungu. It made for some entertaining situations. Around kilometer 4, this group I had never seen before of 20 or 30 Africans came barreling down the street. They were actually doing chants and singing in the middle of the race, and clapping was involved as well. Some poor white guy got caught in the middle, but he made a valiant effort to follow along with them! There wasn’t an official timer, but I finished in good time. I was by no means the first, but I was definitely not the last.

The 5K was supported specifically by the phone company Vodacom, and they were passing out these tote bags with t-shirts in it after the race. I finished just a few minutes late to get one, but they weren’t acting like they ran out, just that they were getting more so we should all wait. I waited for quite some time and I hadn’t had any water to drink, so eventually I gave up and went to get something to drink. Because we came through a specific travel company, they had a tent in the stadium for us to go to after the race. It was only 9 in the morning or so by then, but it felt like noon. We had already done so much for it being that early in the day, and they were actually serving lunch. A little while after I got to the tent, Christine came and so did the gal we had met the night before. We all chatted and ate and then we went back to the hotel to shower. I slept for a while, and then we just relaxed for the afternoon. We had another supper with our friend, and it was off to bed early again. The next morning we had to leave early to take another 8 hour bus back to Morogoro.

This week has been normal other than missing school Monday. I’m now less than a month away from leaving Tanzania! I feel like I’m thinking in countdowns 90% of the time now; for instance, as of today (March 8) I have 9 school days left, 5 normal school days, 3 long bus rides, 3 normal Sunday’s, 27 total days, probably two more times to hand wash, etc. That looks quite negative, but it really isn’t like that! Some of these things I’m excited to be done with, and as a whole I’m getting excited to be home again soon. But some of these things I’m dreading. I have only 9 days left with my kids, 9! I have officially informed and talked to all of my classes about it. Class V had a particularly interesting reaction: “But Madam, who will give us stickers?” “Guys, we have over 2000 stickers at our house, we will give them to the next teacher.” We can all see what they love me for. Their next reaction was at least “Madam, please don’t go!” followed by about six or seven of them hugging me. It’s so hard to explain to that I have to go, and I have to stay in the US for a while. They’re actually ok with the idea of me leaving for a while, but they always want to know how soon I’m coming back. Even when I explain “But guys, I have to go back so I can take my exams for university.” “But you can come back after your exams, right Madam?” Why are they so smart?

I found myself this week questioning again why God asked me to do this. I don’t feel so much like I’ve done no good like I have in the past; someone had to teach these kids, and I got to be lucky enough to do it. I pray I did some good for them, and at the very least, I was one person who openly loved them in their lives. I was an influence in their lives, and I hope for the better. I was a teacher who didn’t beat them, which we’ve now seen that they noticed and appreciated. A long time ago though, at the beginning of this experience when I was frustrated by being called here and overwhelmed by the lack of an impact I was going to have, I was informed of the viewpoint of a former missionary. “Missions like this are never for the people you serve; they are God’s way of changing you.” At the time I found this to be quite harsh. I do want to believe I did some good because I came here with no intentions of doing this for myself. This was for the people here. I don’t doubt AT ALL that I have changed though. I know I have. I also know this will somehow affect me in the future. In my first few weeks here, I kept comparing the world around me to anything somewhat similar to what I had experienced before. I was regularly thinking of six or seven past experiences, things like living abroad in England, visiting Brazil a few years ago, even things like working at the daycare and church camps. No one experience could encapsulate this world as a whole, but the familiar traces helped me piece this together and gracefully adapt. I learned very clearly that God was preparing me for this long before I could have ever imagined this is where I would be and this is what I would be doing. I have faith. He’ll do the same thing with this. The next step he’s got I’m sure involves having already done this, and I’m getting ready for whatever it is.

One last thing, please please please please please please please please please pray for us! We’re having a very peculiar water situation at the moment. A few weeks ago our water started getting a funky smell, which wasn’t so weird. It had never been this bad before; it smelled like noxious, rotten eggs. However, there were enough times when it smelled normal that we would just fill the buckets with good water and carry on. It was a nuisance and nothing more. That changed Tuesday morning. The water started coming out smelling like sewage and it turned brown on us. We haven’t had a change yet, and it’s now Friday afternoon. We’ve only managed to get by without water because it’s rained a few days this week and we’ve rushed the buckets outside to collect rain water. It’s really frustrating. At least when we had no water, the minute we got anything, it was ok to use for bathing, washing the dishes, clothes or the house, etc., but we can’t use this water. We have drinking water (bwana asifewe!), but we’re really running low on anything else. Please pray for a resolution soon! It’s truly a blessing that God has sent rain for us, otherwise we would have run out a few days ago. But that’s not a long term solution to this problem. We know it’s being caused by a defect in a pipe somewhere, and it’s being worked on, but we don’t know how long that’s going to take. Really, any and all prayers would be appreciated.

I pray you all have a wonderful and God filled day!

God bless,

Kjirstin