Youth Service!

WOAH. Super, mega, intense, crazy weekend. I survived though, bwana asifewe (praise the Lord).

So, let's just start with Saturday. I had stayed up late working on my sermon for Sunday, so I didn't wake up until about 9:30. About ten minutes after (I was still in my jamies) one of the teachers came over with a cord wanting to use power for the preschool graduation going on that morning. Also, keep in mind that since the school is ten feet from our house, there are tons of people milling around because of the ceremony, staring at the wazungu, and all the craziness. Christine was on her way to play ultimate frisbee, so I had to explain to him that we were down to our last electricity credits (seriously, I was quite scared that by the end of the day our power would be out). We can't buy credits ourselves since we don't have an account, we have to have the Pastor do it for us. He then offered to go buy us the credits himself if I gave him money, and as we were sorting that out, the translator for my sermon the next day showed up (I'm still in my jamies). He wanted to meet up with me at some point to discuss the sermon, which was still unwritten. Well, I was going to be going to town that afternoon and not returning until the next morning because Christine and I were babysitting for the missionaries that night, so we just kind of had to meet right then. While we met, the teacher returned to get the money, the pastor came over to enter the credits for the electricity, and the translator stayed for about forty five minutes. It was about 11 am when this all ended, and I hadn't started working on the sermon which was my plan for the morning/afternoon. Surprise!

When they all left, I did get to work, and it went well but took a lot longer than expected. This may surprise many of you who are familiar with my debate and speech career in high school, but when I give a speech, I need to have it written out. I am not good at just having an outline and speaking from that. I forget stuff, get off topic, etc. So, I had to write it out, especially because this was such a huge sermon because it was for the Youth Service. When the translator was over, we were talking about it, and I told him that I had been instructed to talk for at least twenty minutes on my part, twenty for the translation. He looked at me kind of funny, and said "Can't you go at least thirty?" I really just wanted to scream "NO! I really can't!" I grew up in a culture where 15 minutes is a sermon five minutes too long, and as a debater and philosophy major, you make your point and move on. Trying to talk for twenty was tortorous. I told him I would try for 25; I'm still not sure he realized that I was stretching it for that and that I was not making it longer.

I had planned to leave the house by 3 in the afternoon for town. That became 5. But on my jaunt to town, I had a revelation of sorts: culturally, I had truly advanced so far. Probably because I was running late and therefore rushing, my mind didn't have time to think about getting on the dala dala and where exactly in town I had to go, I just did it. No problems. Didn't get lost. I even made it to the missionaries' house without getting lost or calling for help. That afternoon, I had gotten lunch of chips mayai at the duka next door, and I was wearing my kitange; one of the shop owners commented that I looked African :) It's crazy to think where I was at a few months ago, and how far I've come. It was a boost I really needed to get through the next morning.

At the missionaries' house, we had about 12 kids, ranging from ages 2 to 12. We did crafts, made a chain link, they played pin the star on the tree, we watched Charlie Brown Christmas and Rudolph, (there was a slight theme). By the end, we had two asleep and all the others were nodding off, so I think we call that a babysitting success. After that, we went back to one of the missionaries houses. As payment in a sense, we got to spend the night with them. It was a mini vacation to the first world. I actually had a real hot shower and I slept with A/C! Sadly, neither one of those things excited me as much as I thought they would. Recently, Christine and I did figure out how to make bucket showers more tolerable. We have a hot pot, an electric kettle, and if we mix a pot of hot water with the rest of the bucket, it's just perfect. I'm to the point now where I don't mind if it's a running water night or not. Don't get me wrong though- the night was great, and even if they weren't as exciting as I had anticpated, they were still quite exciting.

The next morning, we were going to have some time to hang with the missionaries (who is a couple with three of the kids we took care) before going back to Kihonda for the church service. None of the other missionaries live in Kihonda. They all live on the other side of town, which is already a half hour dala dala ride away from us. It's the "richer" part of town; missionaries, researchers, and government officials pretty much occupy the area. We still figured we would have plenty of time because the service didn't start until 10. Surprises happen though. One of the missionaries (likely) got malaria (not as scary as Americans think, by the way. It's a common occurrence that as long as it's addressed quickly isn't very problematic, just not very fun). However, her husband didn't want to leave her with the three kids to take us back, so another missionary came over and took us to the dala dala stand right away. Everything worked out, just a hectic start to an already stressful day.

I was so nervous throughout the whole service. I kept reminding myself that I had already had the sermon written, the worst really was over. I had to sit up front for the whole service, as in the front of the church looking out at the congregation. The service wasn't excessively different from a normal church service except that the youth led everything. There were a number of Swahili songs, and the English song was "Awesome God." Since a few people are actually in the English choir, they sang the verses and everyone together sang the chorus since it's pretty easy to learn. I actually know how to play "Awesome God" on the piano, so I volunteered to accompany them. That was terrifying. I was trembling all over. I haven't taken piano lessons in over six years, meaning I haven't played in front a group or person for that matter in at least six years. Also, I've never accompanied anyone before; that's a bizarre feeling. This was defintely the largest group I had ever played in front of; it really did go ok though! Not perfect, but we never even practiced with the piano and the whole group until Friday, so considering we only had that one time, it went amazing.

Not too long before I gave my sermon, Upendo (the translator, also a youth) told me that the service was going long enough that I could shorten my message. I was kind of caught off guard because now that the whole thing was typed out, it all made sense together. I wasn't sure how to take out and still have the whole thing make sense. I tried to do my best as I went, but the pastor's daughter who was emceeing the service still passed a note up to us maybe only 2/3 of the way through saying "Please end it soon, people are getting tired." Oh well. I was so happy the whole ordeal was over! Everyone who said anything to me said it was good. I'm not convinced though that anyone here would tell me otherwise; I'm pretty sure that would not be appropriate at all. We ate our meal afterwards, and headed home. I happily crashed the entire afternoon.

This week was rather bizarre once more. The class teachers were still doing their end of the year reports, so on Monday, the head teacher came up to us and said "Ok, we three are going to entertain the students today." We did this everyday this week. I got bored! I mean, I only teach Class IV math and science, and since it's the end of the year, I just wanted to find a spot to stop for break and then pick up when we came back. I hit the end of two chapters on Monday, so we were kind of done then. We had Class IV write letters to God as a journal activity, we let them color, play with the math flashcards, read, etc. You could tell the kids were done. I was trying hard to keep them doing math practice, and they were just getting crabby with each other. There was definitely a lot more bickering and discipline issues. I had to assign my first lines to some students.

After three days of that though, Thursday was a good day. We knew it was the last day for the students, but not all of them knew that, so they were still sort of on task. I read a lot with a number of the students in the morning, which because of the unpredictable chedule I hadn't done much for two weeks. It was really nice to do that again. However, when you're only working with one student at a time, the rest of the class is left to create trouble, so I had to go into Class IV to do math, where I just had them doing review instead of moving on to something new. Just to make sure they would behave though, I promised them that if they got their work done and handed it in, they would get a surprise after break. Christine has a ton of Bill Nye the Science Guy episodes, so as a end of the year treat, I let them watch two of those. They were pretty happy. :) We had one last assembly that afternoon, and then the school year ended! The kids were very excited (not surprising at all), but afterwards a ton of them ran over to me and Christine and mauled us! There were hugs, handshakes, and they wanted to make sure that we would both be back next year. It was a really nice way to end the year!

Outside of school, this week has been pleasantly calm. I've been really tired, perhaps from all the excitement last week. I can't believe I have only two more days until I leave here and go to Europe for two weeks! I'm meeting my mom in France on Monday morning, Sunday night central time. Please keep both of us in your prayers for safe travel! We will be visiting France, Switzerland, and Italy, ending up in Rome for Christmas at the Vatican. It won't be the same as home, but it will be an adventure! I will have a blog up sometime while I'm there hopefully, if not one when I get back here.

I hope you all are having a blessed Christmas season thus far!

God bless,


Kjirstin

A Cultural Contention

I think I've learned that the best way to get material to write a blog is to wait long enough for stuff to happen, even if that means just about two weeks. I apologize for not posting anything (although, in my defense, there wasn't much last week). This week on the other hand.... oh boy. It's been psychotic. I am so ready for it to be over and for life to go back to normal for one week and then I'm off to Europe for Christmas with my mom.

Truly, last week was pretty normal, still learning how to teach Class IV and so far science is a lot harder than math. I got to experience my very first skype failure; I tried to talk to someone on skype and it just didn't work. The internet here can be very entertaining. Sometimes it works great, other times it's terrible. Sometimes your email will work, sometimes it won't, sometimes facebook is on byt skype is off, it's keep you on your toes. I always find this entertaining because at my missionary training we were asked to name one pet peeve, and I said slow internet to which the room groaned empathetically (I didn't quite realize the internet situation at the time). For the most part, it works. I've learned to be flexible and always have non internet activities ready. I've been waiting for this to happen with skype. So far, I've always gotten my skypes to eventually work some, but this one just didn't. However, I ended up later having a perfect skype with that friend and then later another perfect skype with a different friend, so that was wonderful!

This week was annual exams at the school; since our school year runs with the calendar year, the students have end-of-the-year exams, then we for some reason do one more week of class, and they have a month off for Christmas. I'm spending two of those week in Europe, the other two here. Anyway, although the school made sufficient effort to be organized and timely about the exams (they actually had a printed time table!) we got off by Tuesday because the printer didn't have a number of exams ready. We ended up having to do exams Thursday as well, and then Friday the class teachers spent the day compiling scores into yearly reports, all by hand. It really was a boring week in a sense too then. It was just an odd tension all around. Our whole job during test days was for all the teachers to sit in the empty classroom, the one I use math for, waiting for test times because they became very unpredictable in timing. Meanwhile, we were correcting, which went relatively fast, sometimes teaching Class IV who didn't have to test because they just took national exams, but mostly just not knowing what was going on. After a few days, it's very tiring. I did at least help with the marking (correcting) so I'll felt like I at least contributed. Interestingly, I corrected the Swahili exams; I even got a few right! :D

This Sunday is also the church's youth service. We've been preparing pretty much since I got here. I'm so ready for it to be over for a whole host of reasons. The biggest is I was asked to give the message, and I am utterly terrified. This isn't just any old sermon, this is the message for the Youth Service. This is like a mega service; usually our services are two hours long, this will be three to four. There will be tons of music, a drama, a meal, and my sermon. Please, everyone, pray for me. Multiple times a day, or hour or minute. I have been an orator, debater, tutor, teacher, but I really don't think I'm a preacher. Especially for a minimally twenty minutes speech. This may come as a shock to some people who know me, but I don't like to give long speeches. I'm a former philsophy major and debater; we were drilled with make your point, move on. Here the opposite is expected. There are many Sundays where we can tell that Sunday School is going long, which means the sermon is going long. I have seen some up to 45 or 50 minutes. Mine will have to be translated, so it will automatically double in time, but my portion alone needs to be twenty minutes. Thus far, I'm doing something very similar to what I've talked about before, 1 Timothy 4:12. I'm talking about the role God wants for youth in the church and how we can fulfil that. I'm really focusing on how we're Christians today, not of the future. Again, still no idea how culturally relevant this actually is. There will be a blog entry about this, so, stay tuned for next week's episode!

At the same time as this other stuff, the church hosted a seminar for Tanzanian and Congolese pastors this week. A pastor from Florida came! It was really fun getting to discuss with someone else life here and working internationally with the chuch. He has a lot of great ideas, and is really enthusiastic about Tanzania and the people here. He introduced some really counter cultural ideas in the seminar such as financial transperancy and time management. I know those seem like overdone topics in America, but here they're not heard of. Time is a funny thing here. It exists but that's kind of far as it goes. Money in smaller amounts is also not as managed. Hopefully some of the things got through.

Ironically, this whole blog was supposed to be about this next issue for other reasons. Then, the Floridian pastor mentioned this to me, and we had a very long chat about it. It's not something new to me being here, but it's been on my mind a lot more recently. Last Sunday, the pastor's daughter was in Dar on Sunday, so I was more or less the head teacher for Sunday school. I had a ton of kids, and they don't speak as much English. I can't really yell at them then if need be or scold them or anything. I have to have one of them translate, and I don't even know their names. I really struggled controlling them that day, and I was visibly frustrated. These kids are at least 8 or 9 years old, they know better. In Tanzanian culture, children are taught to respect their elders. I am clearly older, and I'm a mzungu! I don't usually have so many problems with this. After the class, the girl who was translating for me (who is also a Class IV student and I know fairly well) looked at me and said,

"Madam, you need to hit them. Then they will listen to you."

I didn't realize that she didn't know I would never beat her. I just looked at her and said,

"Dear, we don't beat in the US. I will never hit you." And she was floored.

Now that I'm in a full teaching position, corporeral punishment has been on my mind a lot more. It's a pretty big thing here. I was at least warned by my coworkers this summer (many of whom are native Africans) that I would probably see it. The reality is some days I feel swarmed by it. Parents do it at home. Teachers walk into a classroom with sticks. I've actually reached the point where I can tell you just by the sound of a whack how much it actually hurt. Sometimes, when it's just the kid's bottom or even the arm, because the sticks are relatively thin, they don't hurt that much. However, getting hit to the back of the hand, calves, or the face always hurts. Depending on the teacher, they will use the stick for discipline, noise control, etc., but many will beat students for poor academic performance. There is one teacher in particular who students are terrified to make a peep in her classroom or do poorly (and sadly, it's one of our worst subjects).

 It took me a long time to learn how to stomach it, but I'm not here to tell these people that this is wrong. It's a cultural practice. They aren't trying to hurt the children for the sake of pain but for discipline. I rarely see them overdue it or do it for pleasure; it is purely about rearing children, and everyone (including people associated with the church) does it. I don't mean these as reasons to excuse the act. No matter what, I think it's wrong, but it helps me to understand why such an act seems reasonable. And everyone grew up with it. When they were in primary school, they were beat. Thus, as adults, they see that as the reasonable response when a child is misbehaving. Children then grow to expect it, and this is where the problem lies. Insert a teacher who refuses to pick up a stick but does need to discipline at some times, your options become an issue.

So far at school, I haven't had too many problems with this. We've come up with other options to avoid beating. Sometimes we assign lines, we'll make the students kneel beside their desks (which doesn't seem terribly awful, but they hate it!) or even running around the building a few times. If worst comes to worst, we can send them to the head teacher's office. I have threatened this a few times, but this almost an empty threat. If I do that, all he's going to do is yell at them, beat them, and send them back. I really didn't avoid the beating that way; I just made someone else do it.

As a missionary, I'm here to spread the word of God. The only standard I feel I can judge by is that of the bible; western culture is not something I'm here to promote. Obviously, hitting a child with a stick in American would consitute immediate termination in a school setting like mine, and probably lawsuits. Here, it's everyday life. These cultural differences are something that the visiting pastor and I ended up talking about; for him in the seminar, such topics as time management are really American minded. Those are not African concepts, but he presented them as good ideas in general, not because Americans say so. He really had a very loving and respectful attitude towards Tanzania, something I appreciated so much. Some missionaries aren't as conscientious of their attitudes sometimes (and I might be just as guilty, although I do make an honest effort to not do it).

He did say that the one Western concept that he does challenge Tanzanians on is corporeral punishment. The head teacher took him on a tour of the school, and somewhere in the process this came up. He was pretty honest with the teacher; some people in America would be upset and unwilling to support the school if they learned that this is something that happens. The head teacher was pretty shocked apparently, and they had a good discussion on it. As the American pastor pointed out, here they would never beat a teacher, there are other ways to punish that they recognize. Therefore, there should be other ways to discipline children that don't involve physical hurting a child.

I'm very glad this conversation happened. It's something I would love to say, but as the pastor and I talked about later, I don't have that opportunity. He so bluntly put it as "I'm only here for a few days, and quite frankly, I'm from a large church with a lot of money. I can say something. You have to stay here for months, you really can't." And he's right. This sadly isn't worth causing contention over because I alone can't change the attitude here. People would likely be more offended, and no more likely to change their minds. In the meantime, I'm doing my best to show alternatives and hope that my example will say something, even if only quietly.

Ok, that's enough for now, so much is going to happen in the next few weeks. In a way, I'm looking foward to January when the school year starts again and we have a few months of just school. Nothing crazy. I hope your Christmas season has started off joyously and continues to do so!

God bless,
Kjirstin

PS: My advance account got set up! If you feel like called to donate to me, here is the link:

https://www.umcmission.org/Give-to-Mission/Donate?type=1001&project=982465

Go to the drop down list of place to donate, find my name, and fill out the rest. Thank you so much!

Bagamoyo!

Warning: I had a fantastic weekend. I might get long winded in sharing. Be prepared.

As I mentioned in my last blog, we had a busy weekend ahead with a Thanksgiving celebration and a field trip with the kids. So, Friday started off pretty normally; there was definitely an excitement in the air about Bagamoyo though. Not all of the kids were going; only some of their parents could afford it, and some went last year, so I'm sure some parents figured it wasn't worth sending their kids twice, but they were pretty excited nonetheless. Then, during break, our student who was hit by a piki piki about a week after I got here returned to school suddenly! She hadn't been back yet, and oh my goodness, was there excitement! Everyone started cheering and chanting her name; the kids flocked to her and their enthusiasm was basically overflowing! Since she's a Class IV student, after break, she came to Class IV. This was the last class of the day, and I was supposed to teach science. Needless to say, that did not happen. I'm ok with it, they're already in the Class V book, and they weren't supposed to start that until January. We'll make it just fine without one day. The kids crowded around her, started singing praises to God, even said the Lord's prayer (I know I shouldn't laugh, but it was so funny because it was so random!), one was even crying she was so happy! It was just such a happy moment to be a part of.

After school was pretty normal for Friday. Christine and I had offered to go to town early and help some of the missionaries with cooking and preparations, but everything was taken care of, so we just hung out at the house. I did have to skip my English class, but we'll have more stuff to cover this week I guess. We made it there, and there were a ton of people! I had never met a number of these missionaries; they don't go to the prayer services. Honestly, because I ended up talking mostly to ones I knew, I'm not sure what they were exactly associated with in Morogoro. Most I know are with PBT, Pioneer Bible Translators. Something I've come to notice with a number of these missionaries is that they're linguists. They're nerds. I really had a nice night of fellowship with them just because I got to nerd out with a number of them, shoot the breeze with some about small towns in America, simple things that you miss thinking about in your daily life here. That being said, as far as Thanksgivings go, this was definitely not the same as being home. I've come to learn that it is really is the people you celebrate Thanksgiving with that make it special. I had some great food and great fellowship, but it can't replace a Thanksgiving at home or with close friends like I celebrated last year in England.

Apparently, we learned Friday morning at school, the teachers were going to cook the field trip lunch during the night before the field trip. As in, the original plan was to meet up at midnight, cook until 6 AM when the students would arrive, then leave. The plan changed to 6 PM, but that was during the Thanksgiving, so Christine and I didn't really help. However, since we literally live next to the school and the preschool building where they were cooking, I didn't sleep much that night. I think it was partly nerves and anxiety over the trip itself and the fact that all night I could hear laughter and cooking going on. We woke up early, and headed over to the school just before 6. Tons of students were there, but it took some time getting organized and for both buses to arrive, but somewhere between 6:30 and 7 am, we left. I was sitting on the little kid bus (we brought kids from Classes II, IV, V, and IV, I don't know how II got included). I was actually the first person seated because they wanted to make sure the mzungus had spots, so they put me way up in front on one bus and Christine up in front on the other. I was surrounded by Class II kids, which was a bit of a bummer. I don't have anything to do with them, so I didn't know them. They were also really shy around me, so they didn't want to say much. The buses were crammed! Ours was 4 or 5 seats wide, we put 6 or 7 kids in a row. Some of the teachers stood the entire ride, which was four hours one way.

The ride itself went quite smooth; cops are corrupt here and stop people randomly or near randomly to get money. Mzungus have particular problems with this. We only got stopped once on the way there. At first, I was quite awake even with the rough night because I was enthralled with everything I was seeing. I hadn't left Morogoro in two months, and I was excited about what I was getting to see. When I say front of the bus, I was in line with the driver, so I actually had the whole front window to look out. However, after an hour or so, I started nodding off and rested for a while. The road we were travelling on was a really nice road, even by American standards. Then we turned off that road onto a normal Tanzanian road, what would be considered a minimum maintence road in the US. We bumped, banged, weaved, and curved the rest of the way to Bagamoyo. Seriously, the road was so bad that I actually got carpet burn on the backs of my legs on the way back because I didn't pull my skirt down all the way down my knees. Around 11, 11:30, we pulled into Bagamoyo, and almost immediately you could see the Indian Ocean. I didn't know how to say ocean in Swahili, so I just pointed to it to the two kids sitting next to me, and they both broke out in to massive grins! :)

Bagamoyo is a very historic place. It was the last stop for slave trades, is the sight of the first Christian Church in Tanzania, and a whole host of other things. However, for a Christian school, we went to a mosque. The mosque was built in the 13th century, so the ruins were quite old. We got to see the mosque, the ruins of a number of graves, a well that still worked, and a 500 year old tree. Also, since it's right on the ocean, they showed us where the tide rises and falls. Apparently, the tide brings up these snails that people boil and eat (the kids were horrified! :D). We got to have some time to take pictures, hang out, and then left.

Next, we went to a spot along the ocean, and the kids got to change their "clothers" (for some reason, that is how they say clothes. It is a never ending war to change it). They were so excited to go swimming! I left my swimsuit in the US, so I didn't swim but I waded around with the kids. The water was really warm! We are at the end of their spring, but it was way warmer than I expected. I got a lot wetter than intended since I didn't have any extra clothes, but I didn't really mind. One of them found a bunch of little shells, and brought them to me, so the rest started doing that. By the end, we had quite the pile, and I had hoped to let each kid take one home with them as a souvenir. However, before we could do that, they got washed away. Oh well, they had a blast! It was extra special for me because in the last 18 months I have now been to the Indian Ocean (this), Atlantic Ocean (England last fall), and Pacific Ocean (California summer 2011). When did this become my life?!

After that, we ate lunch, which was fried chicken, chips (british chips, so thick french fries), watermelon, and boiled eggs, served in that order. Shady Beach would be proud of me; to make up for not cooking, I helped peel the eggs. I can still do it, and this was in the back of a bus nontheless! Eventaully, they had to stop me because we had enough, but I'm not gonna lie, I was having fun. Christine and I both commented on how such a meal would never happen in the US for a field trip. It probably wasn't the safest of conditions; the food was stored in buckets after being cooked. There was absolutely no temperature control, but hey, I'm not dead yet. I figure things are probably ok. After lunch, we climbed back on the bus and headed home. Swimming turned out to be a pretty good way to tire the little tykes out, and there were a lot of drooping heads on the way home. The little girl next to me was head bobbing pretty badly, to the point I'm sure she was hurting her neck, so I led her head to me knee and let her rest. Thankfully, I don't think it scared her to see my arm around her when she woke up. I noticed this a little on the way there, but I really noticed on the way back how fast our driver was going in addition to already being on a minimum maintence road. We whipped around curves, shot past villages and countryside, had to go through a few herds of cows, but I can safely say there was no livestock injured in this journey. We ended up beating the other bus by about 30 minutes. As we were getting off, I heard a number of teachers say "Thank you Jesus!" I'd have to agree. Things went just about as perfect as they really could have gone. It's not too often that happens in life.

I seem to have trouble with pictures lately, but here's a few from the trip.

 

 

The kids at the mosque.

 



Me with a few of my students

 

 

 

Our, at one point, seashell pile. Then the waves came up and swept it away.

 

 

 

Christine and I crashed that night, and we spent Sunday recovering. It was all so worth it though. As I was waiting for the other bus to arrive (Christine was on it with the housekeys), one of my students came up to me and we had this little exchange:

Madam, are you happy?
Why yes dear I am. Are you happy?
Yes Madam, I am!
Good. I'm glad.

And indeed, I am happy. God bless,

Kjirstin

PS: Please keep rain for us in your prayers! We haven't gotten any more in a week, and we still really need it!

Asante Sana Mungu

As you can probably tell, this is a little outdated. We were crazy busy this weekend, and when we weren't the internet wasn't great or it just wouldn't let me post. So, pole sana (I'm very sorry) but here it is, and I shall hopefully post again tomorrow maybe about this weekend, of which there are a lot of wonderful things to tell! :)

Last weekend was normal, pretty quiet which was nice. I’m not sure if I posted this yet (so if it’s old news, sorry!) but the pastor had talked to me about teaching some classes. I had heard that the decision was made that I would teach Class IV math, starting next year, so mid January. However, on Monday, the pastor came over and was talking to us, and informed me that the plan was for me to start teaching now, and that I would teach Class IV math AND science. So…. starting Tuesday, I taught Class IV math and science.

This sounds so much scarier reading it back than the reality. I think it really helped that I had the warning that I would be teaching soon, and I’ve been working with a lot of math with the kids. Also, Christine and I sit next to Class IV, so I’ve been getting to know those kids very well. I still can’t name them all, but I’m doing pretty good! Also, the teachers are encouraged that once a class finishes a book to bump them up to the next book, so if Class VI finishes the English VI book, start VII even if the year doesn’t change until January. Class IV, on the whole, is a very smart class. In all of their subjects, they perform well, and Christine bumped them up in English already. I found out from their previous teachers that they both just started the Math V and Science V books. The math book starts on review, so I’m getting to learn where they’re at and how they’re doing, absolutely perfect for what I need right now. Science isn’t as much of a review, but it’s starting on body systems. After all of my healthcare experience, I feel quite comfortable, although depending how far we get, I’m going to have brush up on some of my own science knowledge!

Math has been going fine with them. We have done LOTS of subtraction review; I’ve introduced the concept of “checking your work” since most mistakes are really just silly ones. It’s been interesting. They’ve never heard of it before, so it’s going slowly but surely. Science though, I’m really learning how to teach this. First off, science here is almost purely conceptual knowledge. I mean, our school doesn’t have electricity, and water is dependent on if it’s on or not. Now, try to think of a lab you can do with a bunch of fourth graders that involves no water, no electricity, and has the items available in a third world country. My creativity skills are going to evolve beautifully, but I’m trying to learn then how to teach these concepts to fourth graders. We’re doing the digestive system, so it’s at least something they can relate to; they all have one. But the other interesting thing is, probably because of the lack of lab work available, the concepts they’re learning are crazy for fourth graders! They’re learning about things I studied in Biology 151, a college level course I took my junior year of high school! I keep looking at their books going “What?!” To me, the book is written strangely, but it’s written for their eventual Class VII test. I looked at a mock science exam the other day, and I was blown away by what these kids are expected to know. I’ll be sure to update as things progress!

Other than those things, Monday and Tuesday were normal. Things are very quiet at the pastor’s house. Nathan, the pastor’s son who just finished Class VII is at “pre-form” which is a month long preparation for secondary school. He’ll be back sometime close to Christmas, then go off to secondary school, which is sad. We miss him! This week, the pastor and his wife are in Dodoma, so it’s just Lauren and the two house girls at the pastor’s house. Last night, one of Christine’s piano students volunteered to play at his church’s prayer service. Since it was the first time one of her students would be playing in public, we both wanted to go. However, we thought he meant playing during like a special music type time; he was the prelude, and we didn’t know that until afterwards. We actually didn’t stay then for the service; since he was one of the students that lived at the orphanage we visited, we went back with him. Right when we got there, they of course fed us; after a little while, I decided I needed to go to get some things done back home. I took my first dala dala ride from town to home, which was probably overdue, but it went fine. Tomorrow, we’re celebrating thanksgiving with the other missionaries in Morogoro; we’re eating turkey and everything! There’s going to be 13 families together for this! I’m so excited! On Saturday, we’re doing a field trip for Classes II, IV, and VI to Bagamoyo which is a beach by Dar es Salaam. It’s a historic site in Tanzania because it was involved with the slave trade. Also, it’s on the ocean so the kids will get to play in the water. It’s going to be a very long and interesting day since it’s a four hour drive there and then four hours home, but I’m happy because I’ll get to go to the Indian Ocean for the first time! I saw it flying in, but I haven’t actually gotten to go to it yet. It will actually be the first time I’ve left Morogoro since I’ve arrived (two months to the day!)

One last thing, happy thanksgiving! As you can probably guess, it’s not celebrated here, but it’s still wonderful to recognize it! We did some journals with Classes V and VI about what they were thankful for. This is one of the responses we got. The grammar’s imperfect, words are misspelled, but the sentiment is absolutely heartwarming. Enjoy!

 "1. Thanks God because he give me good health help me with my studies.
2. Thanks for help in Examination in September and October.
3. I thanks for these things because in Psalm 118 says "Give thanks to the Lord for he is God His love endures forever.
4. And I thanks Gof because he helped me when I was younger.
5. I pass in many troubles but he helped that is the thing that you may thanks God.
6. I love God He die for me. I LOVE GOD."
 

I can’t thank God enough for this opportunity. Some days, I’m so wrapped up in the intricacies and mundane matters of life and am thankful for them (running water, electricity being turn on, fast internet etc) that I forget to be thankful for the big things. I’m here, teaching these kids that God has blessed me with, getting to experience an entirely different life. God has blessed with the strength to do this, and really overall, do this gracefully. All I can say is, asante sana Mungu na bwana asifewe! (Thank you God, and praise the lord!)

God bless,

Kjirstin

Pictures!

Well, the internet is working, so here are some pictures from the last few weeks/some everyday life things here:

 

The Uluguru mountains, they're right behind Morogoro.

 

Bucket Shower. You can figure it out.

 

 

 Laundry!

 

 

The dirt I swept up from my room one day.

 

 

Making chapati! This is Lauren, the pastor's daughter rolling out the dough. After this, you fry it.

 

Tanzanian food of ugali, beans, spinach I think and beef. Yes, we ate this with our hands.

 

The bowl is ugali, it's a better picture. Basically, flour and water.

 

Playing four square at the orphanage!

In other news, if you all have been praying, thank you! We have gotten three rains in three days!! :D God is so good!

 

God bless,

Kjirstin

Five Day Weekend!

I've just realized that I haven't posted in over a week. I'm doing such an awful job of abiding by my mother's "two posts a week" rule. Please forgive me all.

So, as I mentioned last time, Class IV had their national exams Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday last week, which meant we could not be on the school grounds. Like, not at all; a soldier comes and administers the exams to the children. Only the head teacher and the secretary were there during the day, which led to our long weekend. Wednesday was a pretty calm day. I happily slept in, did school work during the day, and then went to prayer service. It was just a wonderfully relaxing day.

On Thursday, Christine and I went to town and had lunch with a missionary friend, and then went over to her house where she lives with two other missionaries and their kids. Their home is SO beautiful. They even have a pool so we got to go swimming. It was a really nice time, and while in town Christine and I got our weekly shopping done. When we got back that afternoon, we were both just kind of doing our own thing, I was doing schoolwork, etc., when we started hearing some shouts. There's a duka (shop) next door, and some ladies sell chapati, mandazi's and what not, and the shop actually sells chips mayai (french fries covered in eggs, it's actually really good) so people are eating, sometimes they get loud, it's just like the Alibi in Gary. Except this time, the shouting wasn't stopping. Eventually, I got really curious so I looked out the window and saw people running down the road and yelling, and they didn't stop coming. Christine joined me, and we were both kind of going "what in the world is going on?" The road has a turn off beside the church that contines along the East edge of the school yard, sort of far from the actual school building, and the crowd was turning that way. For some reason, they stopped midway, and we had no idea why. All we saw were a bunch of people, the Class IV kids running towards the huddle of people, and Pastor trying to round up all the kids. It was a lot more comical then because we didn't know why this was happening. We found out that night that there had been a theif. Someone caught him trying to go into a house, and they started chasing him. As did everyone else who figured out what was going on. Apparently, the acceptable response to a theif here is to chase, beat and possibly kill him/her, not calling the police. We've been extra vigilant since then about locking our door.

Friday was pretty calm again. Our house was very busy in the morning; Mama Vanessa came to clean in the morning, and two of Christine's piano students came over. I spent most of the morning working on stuff for my English class, which we had later that afternoon. I'm still getting used to time here. I stood outside the preschool classroom waiting for the ladies to come, thinking if none of them showed up by 4:20, I would just leave. I figured if they heard about the exams, they maybe thought they couldn't come on school grounds either. However, right at 4:20, they all came, so I went until 5:30. Otherwise, the day was pretty quiet.

Saturday morning, I did lots of laundry. It's funny to me; two years ago, when I was moving into college, it was this big deal to be doing laundry on your own. This is just a whole another dimension, actually hand scrubbing your clothes, rinsing them, and then line drying. I'm so glad I only do a little bit and Mama Vanessa does the rest. It's very time consuming! Later Saturday, Christine and I visited another orphanage, this one run by a German woman. This orphanage was way out of town. We took a dala dala for a little while, then walked two miles. I had thought we were getting a taxi after the dala dala, but there weren't any taxis. I was wearing flip flops. I have now permantently damaged or destoryed three pairs of shoes here. Anyway, back to the trip, it was kind of a bad choice of day to visit because it was so far. By the time we got there, it was already 2:30 in the afternoon, and we had to be back in Kihonda around 5:30. We never really had much of a chance of spending time with the kids. We did get to go to their youth service and then at least visit the orphanage, which was very nice. The orphanage is supported by a church in Germany, although the gal who runs it is a German who grew up here. There were two other girls there doing a "gap year," where they take a year off between high school and college. Most of the other missionaries around my age are doing this. Anyway, we talked to them for a little bit, and then headed back.

Sunday was busy, as expected. There was church and Sunday school in the morning, which went well. One of our missionary friends actually came to church which was fun! We all three went over to the pastor's for lunch, and then we hosted prayer service that evening. It was so nice having people come to our house! :)

This week thus far has been.... normal. This is so weird. Just back to school, working with the kids, and trying to figure out how the rest of the year is going to go. We have about four weeks left of school before the winter break which is a month. It's so strange, when we come back we start a new year meaning that all of the classes will change. All of my class IV kids will be class V, class V will be class VI, etc. They're already trying to change how we talk about the classes. Really, I feel like the year is centered around the class VII exams. Once those exams are done, they start focusing on the next class VII (which is still class VI at this point). They've already done practice exams with them! I hope their brains last until next September.

Our weekend looks quiet, as does next week. I'll be sure to update sooner this next time!

God bless,
Kjirstin

A Trip to an Orphanage

Oh. My. Goodness. Be prepared for culture shock. I seriously suggest reading this blog once to get the info, then rereading it once more really fast because that's how it would sound if I was actually speaking this.

Just to cover the week part first since that was quite normal, Wednesday and Thursday were fine. Friday was busy. After school, Christine and I went to town to get groceries, and we now own a pan for our little jiko (which I think will almost be like a bunsen burner type thing, we don't yet have the oil to turn it on). Then we came back, I had my English class, and then we went over to the pastor's house early. There is a food here called chapati, and it's delicious! It's has a tortilla shape and texture, and is very similar to naan. For those of you who don't know what naan is, it's very similar to lefsa, only it's not sweet. Usually at least once a week, Christine and I get some for breakfast. We really wanted to learn how to make it, so Lauren (the pastor's daughter), and the two house girls showed us how to make it. I have some pictures, and I plan to put them up, but the internet isn't cooperating at the moment, so another day!

Anyway, on to the big adventure of the weekend, many of our students live in an Christian orphanage in town. One is one of Christine's piano students, and she had visited before, so the student asked us to come again. He even asked us to spend the night, and our plans worked out so we did. We had to take a dala dala to town and then walk about 10-15 minutes to the orphanage. I would guess that about 25 kids lived there, and they were super excited to see us- one rushed out to hug us! We knew just about all of them because they all go to Wesley and they're almost all in Classes IV, V or VI. At first, Christine and I talked with their grandmother and auntie, who are two women that help run the orphanage. It was harder with bibi (grandmother) because my swahili is still so limited, and she really didn't speak English. However, the auntie, who herself had grown up in a orphange through the same organization, is attending university in Morogoro and had good English.

Eventually, they fed us, and it was very Tanzanian, ugali. It looks like mashed potatoes, but it has a much stiffer consistency. It's basically flour and water, which is very cheap and very filling so it's more or less a staple here. It has no flavor whatsoever, so when I eat it, I have to mix it with beans, meat, or at least put some sort of sauce over it. Thankfully, we had all of that, but we did eat Tanzanian in that we ate with our hands. What blew me away was the kids took at least twice as much ugali and beans as Christine and I did, and they're tiny! I have no idea where they put it all! As we were eating, we watched the disney movie Tangled. The kids loved it! Then we made a four square court and taught them how to play four square. After that we watched Captain America and Mulan, during which we ate more food. This time, it was pilao which is spiced rice.

That night we took our showers and went to bed. This sounds a lot simpler than it actually was. First off, it was all bucket showers. I didn't actually have a towel either, but at least I was in the bathroom alone. I don't know, it felt a lot more awkward than it probably was simply because it wasn't my house, the bathroom didn't have a lock, etc. I slept in a room with the grandmother, at least seven girls, and Christine. There was only five beds, so Christine and I shared, but our bed was a double. Lots of the girls were sharing twins; I felt bad because likely we took their spots. So then, the idea was we would sleep. He. Hehehehehehehehe. Across the street from the orphanage is a mosque, and there had just been a wedding. In general here, whenever there's a celebration of sorts, they get loudspeakers and blast them. This was absolutely no exception, and the auntie warned us that they would likely be awake celebrating until three in the morning. They started at about 8 PM, and the music went until about 12:30 AM when it started raining. Now, this is not a complaint about rain. We need it right now, so the fact that it was raining was a huge blessing. However, when you're sleeping in a room with a tin roof, it was only marginally better than the music. And throughout the night, whenever the rain stopped, the music restarted. At 4:30 in the morning, bibi started waking up girls one by one to shower, get ready, etc. They woke us up at 6:30. The synopsis of this entire night: we didn't get much sleep. Interesting tidbit, the Muslims were celebrating still when we left the next day; the dancing had signficantly slowed down.

The next morning, we went to church with the, and I'm really glad we go to a different church. Being United Methodist missionaries, we are expected to go to the United Methodist church, and quite frankly, as it is a growing church with a still small congregation, I want to support it. However, it was very educational to go to a different church and see how different they can be. I assumed that most churchs in Tanzania were like ours- small congregations, pentecostal type worshipping, simple structures. The Calvary Assembly of God was incredibly different. The building was beautiful, large, the congregation had to be at least 250 people! There were stained glass windows even, a full praise band, working electronics, I mean there were screen with the song lyrics! I would have believed I was in the US. Interestingly, the entire service was in English and Swahili, which I'm not sure why. Christine and I were the only wazungu there. I know this because the pastor saw us and knew we were visitors simply because we are white; he then asked us to come to the front of the church to introduce ourselves. However, they even sang songs in English. The pastor (other than the on the spot intros) was fantastic. I have never seen such a charismatic and excited pastor; they have a part of their service which was more or less special music, but it was open special music. Anyone who had a song or something ready and wanted to share with the congregation could. When a group of teenage girls stood up to come sing a song, he was literally crying "WOOO! WOOOOO! WOOOOOO!" :D It was so entertaining, but it was great! His sermon too was so impassioned. What was especially interesting was the English interpreter. First off, the interpreter was almost as excited as the pastor, and secondly, sometimes the pastor would suddenly speak English. The interpreter would have to switch gears and speak Swahili, and he did it almost flawlessly!

I know this sounds like I think our church is deficient in comparison to this church, but I really don't! In all honesty, they were almost uncomparable, but a lot of that is probably related to congregation size. No matter where you are in the world, the congregation immensely affects the church. Besides, at the end, things started to get a little "un Methodist", shall we say? I didn't hear any tongues (at least, none that I know of) but I was prepared for it. And besides, I really missed my Sunday school kids, so I'm quite excited to go back to our church! :) Back to the orphanage, after all of that, we went back for lunch, which was beans. Thankfully, by this point they had given us spoons because those beans were steaming hot. I've never thought about this as much until we went here, but Tanzanian fingers must be so weathered. Between handwashing clothes and eating hot foods with their hands, I wonder if they can even feel anything. We played some more four square, and then at about 4:30 we went to the prayer service with the other missionaries. When we actually got back home, I was so relieved just to be back in Kihonda and at our house.

This was my first real experience with Tanzanian hospitality, and, as odd as this is to say, it's overwhelming and it made me feel awful. They fed us, gave us a place to sleep, gave us hot water for showers (when I say hot, it was just under boiling) which was my first remotely hot shower since I arrived, and then even offered us money to ride the dala dala home! In return, I sat on their couch watching movies, hung out with the kids, and went to church with them. I gave absolutely nothing in return. I understand this is the true meaning of hospitality, and in many ways, it's such a genuine Christian hospitality. I just wished I could have at least in some way earned my keep! First off, I'm sure funds are quite limited in the orphanage. Yet, they paid for four of our meals, meals that Christine and I didn't have to worry about, didn't have to prepare, and didn't have to spend our own money on, when we're the ones who truly have money to spend. I wished I could have helped with the dishes or cooking or something, but Tanzanian hospitality would strictly forbid that. I felt so guilty from about Saturday evening on. As a missionary, I'm here to give; people here are so quick to give back to me. Surely if they keep giving this much to me, what I give back in the end will not equal out. I've had some feelings like that before, but not so badly. Things are different at the Pastor's house because we go there everyday and pay for our food. We're more like these weird neighborly family members versus guests, and we're treated as such. But, not being able to give back when you want to and you're being given so much is such a distressing feeling.

Basically, this all culiminated about a step away from a meltdown from me. I think between the overwhelming hospitality, lack of sleep, and the fact that I had been immersed for 30+ hours in culture sans break all contributed. I have noticed here that as long as I get time to leave the public culture, go to my room and absorb what I've just expercienced in my own time, I'm usually ok. It's when I haven't had time to grasp everything that's happened around me I start to feel overwhelmed. 30 hours was just too much. On top of all of that, the weather was again rainy, autumnal, and the church felt Western. I had awful, intense homesickness and flashbacks to Clear Lake, Carleton, England, you name it, which again could have been heightened because of the exhaustion and whatnot. Sunday just was a really tough day for me. I avoided breaking down because we were still at the orphanage and then at the prayer service I could spend some time thinking about radically different Western things which I really needed. I have no idea yet what to think of this entire experience. Culture shock and bewilderment are a reality in a new culture. I try to take joy in the small blessings, like remembering to say "Poa!" without thinking when someone says "Mambo?" to me, improving my Swhili bit by bit, getting to people here better, etc. And I can't classify it as a 'bad' experience; it was just so much. In retrospect, spending the night was probably not a good idea for me. It was just pushing my experiences of Tanzanian culture too far too fast. In some ways, I'm glad it's behind me. This will not be my last experience with culture shock, in fact, it's probably just getting started, but I survived it. When it happens again, I know I can make it through.

In other news, please keep rain for us in your prayers. October is supposed to be a short rainy season, and we had maybe two tiny rains in October. We need more a lot of it, and we're already feeling the effects. We just went four days without water (I'm getting really good at bucket showers). It felt absolutely amazing today to have water all day yesterday! I took a real shower last night! Actually, yesterday I skyped a friend with video for over an hour, had water all day and the electricity did not go out. I felt so blessed! Class IV is taking their national exams today, Thursday, and Friday, which means we have a five day weekend since we can't be on school grounds while they're testing. Not really sure what I'll do yet other than school work; we were only informed yesterday about the long weekend. I'm ok with it, I plan on sleeping in and enjoying it. :)

I really do miss you all, think of you lots, and pray that all is well for you!

Love you lots, and God bless!

Kjirstin

PS: I feel I must comment on the election. I didn't actually vote because I didn't trust the Tanzanian postal system to work in time for an absentee ballot. Given how politically minded I've been my whole life, I thought it would bother me more that I ended up missing my first presidential election. I'm actually not upset at all. Besides, saying I missed it because I was serving my God is a pretty good reason. :)