Sunday, September 30, 2012

What a day...


Welcome to Saturday in Tanzania. We were told to be ready at 6:00am this morning outside of our house to travel to Ngara with all of the teachers for a district meeting with the DEO. So, Marisa and I set our alarms for 5:20, got ready in the dark, ate a banana and walked down our hill to the road at 5:58. None of our neighboring teachers were around, but we figured they would show up in time. As the sun started to come up, we took out our cameras for some picture taking to keep ourselves entertained. But come 6:30 decided to head back to our house and wait for the other teachers and the vehicle that was supposedly coming to pick us up. Twenty minutes later, a truck pulls up our hill, honking the horn like crazy, and stops in front of our house. Finally…so we head outside, and quickly observe the fact that it’s full, wondering how on earth the 8 Muyenzi teachers are going to fit. We were the first ones to the truck, and we were warmly greeted by the friendly faces of all the Bukiriro teachers, as well as teachers from another nearby school. However, they were solidly already packed in, so Marisa climbed in the front and I had the honor of sitting in the back with all of my teachers. The teachers from across the street hadn’t made an appearance all morning, but the second master from Muyenzi came running out of his house to catch a ride. Well…when there’s no room, there’s no room, and here that means you just drive away. We are still uncertain how any of the Muyenzi teachers actually made it to this meeting…
But now, let me try to explain how this journey worked exactly…The vehicle was like a large jeep/truck, and there was a row of seats in the front for the driver and passenger (where we fit 4 people). In the back, there were two rows of seats along the windows facing each other, where 6 people were sitting on each side, knocking knees in the middle. Now I had the honor of sitting in the middle of these two rows, on some sort of metal box, as all of our legs became a tangled mess and people had no where to rest their arms but on my lap. And as if the 17 people that were in the truck weren’t enough, we stopped to pick up another man along the way. He squeezed in one of the back rows, as a fellow teacher stood on the seat next to him and balanced over the top of my head. 18 people. The two questions I was asked at this moment were: “Do you know the song Hakunaga?” (which is about a man’s one true love, and yes I do know the song), and the other “How do you find Tanzanian transport?” (chizi sana). After 15 or 20 minutes, we stopped to drop off two people who could take another vehicle, so I was able to move to an actual seat. And while this seat was next to the back door and I was being smushed and covered in dirt simultaneously, it was a little better. That didn’t last long though, because we stopped to pick up another man, so back to the middle I went. I can’t decide if it was more or less awkward that I was sitting in such close proximity to men that I knew, but it is what it is.
So when we finally arrive in Ngara at 8:00 for this meeting, we walked around for a little while before taking our chairs at 8:30. This was the first meeting for all of the secondary schools in the district to come together, so I’m assuming that it was very significant for education in this area. It’s hard to say though, because even though they emphasized the need for English instruction, 95% of the meeting was in Swahili. We just sat politely, understanding random words here and there, but overall having no idea what was happening. At 11:30 we had a break for chai and a piece of bread. And then continued with speakers and questions and whatnot, until a break for food at 3:30. Now, sitting in one chair for 7 hours is quite a long time…now imagine that the medium of communication is foreign to you so you don’t understand a thing that’s happening for 6 and a half of those hours. Ahh. The food was pretty good though and it was nice to have another break, but we were quite wrong to think it was over at this point. A few more presenters and some final questions, and finally around 5:30 we were finished. Only a 9 hour meeting. We concurred that the 16 hours bus ride from Dar was actually slightly better. But in reality, although we might not have found today to be worthwhile for us, I think it did have a great impact on the teachers in our district. Ultimately, the greatest goal is for teachers here to promote education themselves, and I do think that was accomplished today. So it was a success all in all, even if it was the longest day of my life…

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Top 10!

Thursday September 27, 2012
Its that time of the week again…blogging and jamming out to some good American tunes. Tonight: One Direction. Nothing better in the village! Especially when our kerosene lamp is being temper mental yet again, and Marisa is taking it apart and reassembling it as we hope it comes through for us tonight.


I’ll begin with my 10 favorite random stories from this week:
1. I went for a run on Wednesday after school, and while everyone looked at me like I was crazy, I was fortunate enough to have two people join me along the way. One woman who was wrapped in a kanga and wearing sandals joined first, then a boy from Muyenzi ran all the way home with me. No big deal.

2. This morning I woke up to find a very large spider on the ceiling above my door, most likely poisonous. I successfully killed it with a broom, although I think I died a little inside in the process.3. I also die a little bit every night at 7:08 precisely. Starting around 6:59, the bats that live in our ceiling come to life and nine minutes later plummet out of the side of our house in crazy waves of blackness. It’s quite the sight.

4. If I had 100 shillings for every time I heard “Mzungu” or “I love you” while riding down the rode on a piki-piki or walking through town, I could afford my own piki-piki.

5. The amount of dirt on my feet every night is absurd. What’s up multiple baby wipes. I don’t think they will ever be clean again…ever.

6. I’ve perfected the art of the bucket shower with only 6 cups of water, which happens twice a week.

7. We ventured to the orphanage in Rulenge on Sunday, and the little kids were so adorable! No surprise of course, but we plan on visiting every Sunday to play with the cute little kiddies J

8. Tuesday night, our kerosene lamp went out (a nightly occurance…). So Marisa went into her room for her headlamp, only to find a huge spider on her wall. Bravely, she tried to kill it with a flip flop, but this was one hearty spider and he definitely did not die, which caused both of us to scream. Within minutes, there was a knock at the door. One of the teachers that lives across the street heard us and just wanted to make sure we ok. Well, we invited him in to kill this spider for us, and he looked at it and laughed, saying “this little thing??” Right, I suppose size is relative. Thankfully, the spider did not live much longer.

9. I’ve come to love hot milk. We get fresh milk delivered to us every day, and we boil it and put chai and sugar in it. Nzuri sana! Also, we love the presence of avocados here, because guacamole is seriously so delicious. Tastes a little bit like America…

10. My Swahili skills are improving. But I tend to go through most of my life in a cloud of not understanding anything that’s happening. My Form 1 class falls to the floor laughing every time I say anything in Swahili. It’s hilarious.



Saturday, September 22, 2012

"The More the Merrier" takes on a whole new meaning...


I have SOOOOO many stories to share from our simple life in Rulenge. I will try to be a little more organized than last week’s post, but my life is still just as random and crazy. Topics for today’s post: First Weekend in Ngara, Gradation #1, Graduation #2, and Most Interesting Questions about America. This is a long one, but what else is there to do at night by light of my kerosene lamp but sit and write for hours in order to share with you the entirety of our life in Rulenge….

First Weekend in Ngara…
Last Saturday, we decided to travel to Ngara Town to visit two other volunteers and hit up the bigger market for some of the things we needed to buy. We were able to sleep in until 7:30 Saturday morning, before beginning our adventure. We first had to walk to Rulenge, so following the masses of people on their way to the village, we spent an hour and a half traipsing through the mountain side before making it to town. In town, we bought our vegetables for the week, as well as some hot pots for storing food and 8 tubs that I’m now using as storage for all of my belongings. We were hoping that we would be able to send the things we bought at the market back to our house with my piki-piki driver, but unfortunately his phone was off all morning. Plan B kicked into action shortly thereafter, when we found out that we would be able to spend the night in Ngara. Although we had no change of clothes or anything necessary for an overnight adventure, we figured we could make it work. So we went to find a taxi travelling to Ngara and piled in. For a mere 4,000 Tsh (approximately $2.50), we made the trip to Ngara in an hour…mind you, there were a total of 11 people in the car, Marisa and I shared the passenger seat, while two men shared the driver’s seat, Marisa’s hip switched the car into neutral on more than one occasion, one of the men in the driver’s seat (not actually driving) fell asleep on the driver, and there was at one point two people in the trunk. Welcome to Tanzania. But we made it safely with all of our belongings, no worries!

When we arrived, our fellow volunteers warmly welcomed us, and we were able to share stories from our crazy school adventures before heading off to the market in town. On our way, we were able to stop at an internet café and catch up on life, and then we went to the market to pick up a few more things like bread, pineapple, and white paper that are non-existent in Rulenge. After the market, Alex prepared a delicious dinner of eggplant stew with chapatti…it was seriously so good! I had no idea that I loved eggplant! So great! Then we lit the candles, as we waited for the electricity to be turned on so we could finally charge our phones, computers, and kindles. It was a very happy moment when I could charge my phone again. Here’s the best part of the night though: we stayed at the Director of Education (DOE)’s house. What? This is the man who runs the education system for the whole region. And he insisted we stay in his guest bedroom. So we went to his house, where he offered us soda, warm water to “bathe”, and a nice comfy bed to sleep in. Seriously crazy, but a very kind gesture. Albeit slightly awkward.

We woke up early the next morning, sneaking out of his house quietly, and went back the other volunteer’s house. Around noon, we decided we should call our taxi driver to pick us up closer to their house so we didn’t have to walk the hour into town again with all of our belongings (from both markets now). But once again, his phone was also turned off, so we were out of luck. We began the journey to town with all of our things, and thankfully Sue and Alex joined us to help us carry everything. The best part of this story: we didn’t even make it to the taxi stand before a taxi stopped, waved out the window to us, and told us he would give us a ride to Rulenge. Apparently they knew us? Oh right…this is Tanzania and literally everyone within a three hour radius knows the two wazungu (white) teachers living at Muyenzi. Perfect. So we get in the taxi, which was comfortable at first with only 5 people in the car. Soon however, we filled up the car with 10 or 11 people, including a woman and young girl in the trunk with all of our belongings. Come to find out, the woman was drunk and I watched her go through all of our vegetables, picking up tomatoes, carrots, green peppers, and handing them to the girl before putting them back into different bags. It was crazy and there wasn’t much I could do. Luckily, she didn’t run off with any of them, so I guess it was alright. Once we finally made it to Rulenge, I was plastered with dirt along the right side of my body (especially my right ear), since the window had been open and the roads are a lovely red gravel. Marisa and I each had to ride a piki-piki back to our house since we had so many things from the market, but we made it. It was quite the epic weekend, but it makes for some good stories. Can’t wait to make this journey every weekend!

Graduation #1: Bukiriro Secondary School…
In Tanzania, it is typical to celebrate gradation of Form 4 before they finish classes and examinations. And this was the week to celebrate! My school held their graduation ceremony on Tuesday, and to say that it’s a big deal is an understatement. The craziest part about this though, is that I literally had no idea what was happening all day… but I suppose that’s part of the adventure we call life. So the students spent the morning preparing the grounds for the celebration. The few teachers that were actually present were supposed to be in charge of making sure the students accomplished everything (although more often than not, they were asking me questions about English words and life in America). Again, I had no idea what was supposed to be happening, so there was much I could do about it. As the morning progressed, students moved hundreds of desks, tables and chairs between classrooms in order to set up eating rooms for the guests of honor, parents, and students. They also built a makeshift “tent” out of large trees, sticks, rope and several tarps to provide shade for some students, parents, and guests. Also in this process was the DJ. This part is great. So the DJ is a big deal, as is the disco that occurs after the ceremony, but more on that to come. Let’s talk about the set up of the DJ first…it starts with a generator sitting on a chair to the side. Then a student who takes off his shoes and climbs a tree with no limbs just like a monkey proceeds to hang a giant speaker in the tree. Impressive. Once all of this is complete, the DJ starts to jam out to some great tunes, mostly Tanzanian hip hop, but not excluding s classic “It Wasn’t Me” by Shaggy. Awkward moment: one of the teachers asked me the meaning of the song, which is actually highly inappropriate. So I made something up and avoided the question. Haha.

Now, the ceremony was to begin at 10:30am…we were all finally seated and ready to go shortly after 1:00. Again, typical Tanzania. The form 4 students were all finally changed into their nice, clean, fresh white shirts and ties, and they all looked very smart! A few of the boys had some fancy embellishments on the collars, and some had sweet sunglasses for extra flair. One of these days I will do a post on the hot styles in Tanzania…it’ll be great! Anyways, back to graduation. Marisa and I were seated in the front with the guests of honor and other teachers, looking out on the students and parents. There was a very good turn out of people, which considering how far out in the middle of seemingly nowhere Bukiriro is, I was impressed. The ceremony itself consisted of an MC, some good DJ tunes, a series of introductions in which I didn’t even know I was being introduced until everyone was staring at me (fun fact…I don’t actually know Swahili yet), student performances of songs and plays, a few long speeches, and the presentation of the graduates. The last part was the most exciting, as students all put on several colorful lei’s and walk to the front to shake hands with the head master and a few of the guests of honor. I should mention the fact that there were several men paid to take pictures throughout the ceremony. Now, Marisa and I were sitting off to the side in the front…perfect opportunity for students to casually walk behind us and pose for a picture. What? The first few times I was unaware of what was happening, but as the trend caught on, we were the hotspot for pictures throughout the entire ceremony. Good times for sure! The whole ceremony lasted about 4 hours, and once it was over it was time to eat! Some of the matrons from the village spent the day preparing rice, beans, bananas, and meat, and cabbage for everyone. It was really good food, although eating rice and beans with your hands is messy business, I must admit. After dinner, the students have a disco which is apparently the highlight of the day. Unfortunately it was getting dark, so we had to leave before we could share that experience with them.

When we made it back to the village, we had our piki-piki driver drop us off at the town center so we could visit our matron, Mama Kibibi. Embarrassing moment of the day: my flip flop got stuck on the back of the piki-piki as I was getting off, and I fell over on my back in front of everyone. Lovely. Seriously everyone was laughing and no doubt word spread quickly. Life happens. So we went and visited Mama Kibibi, who is a little crazy but we love her dearly. She was preparing the meat for Muyenzi’s graduation the following day, and insisted on feeding us. Now, eating meat here is something I generally avoid, but when it’s offered to you, it’s only polite to eat it. I believe we were eating cow, and although it wasn’t too bad, by the second helping it was a little much. After the meat, she boiled us up some peanuts. So delicious, but again, by the second plate they were a little much as well. At some point during all of this food, one of the teachers from Muyenzi stopped by to ask me how I felt, seeing as I fell off the piki-piki. Mind you, he was not present to witness, he had just heard about it…riiiiiiight. And of course he just happened to know we were sitting at Mama Kibibi’s house. This is the simple life. Finally, after such a long a day we headed home for a good night’s rest before hitting up Graduation #2!

Graduation #2: Muyenzi Secondary School…
Wednesday morning began with Mama Kibibi yelling outside our house for us to wake up. It was 6:59, and our alarms were set for 7:00. Apparently the conversation I had with my normal piki-piki driver in which I explained that I wasn’t going to Bukiriro for the day was not understood. Because he called one of his fellow drivers to come pick me up for school, which is why Mama Kibibi was yelling outside my window telling me to wake up. I was so confused. Actually, we were all really confused, but after some explanation, we were able to sort out that I was in fact staying at Muyenzi for the day so that I could attend their graduation. Oy vey. Graduation wasn’t scheduled to begin until 9:00am, so I had a few hours to get some things done around the house. Like wash my leggings that I ‘ve warn everyday for the past week and a half. They still aren’t clean, but it was a good effort. I also washed some dishes, and again, they really don’t get clean, but it’s better not to think about such things. So anyways, back to graduation…of course we arrived late and early simultaneously at 10:00. Late, because the ceremony should have started an hour earlier, but in reality early because we stood around waiting for an hour and half before it actually began.  The ceremony itself was very similar to Bukiriro’s graduation, although there were more student performances. Some were quite entertaining, like the three groups of boys who rapped for everyone. No worries, I have videos, so perhaps one day if you’re lucky you will also be able to witness the greatness of this experience! After all of the students performed their songs, raps and plays, the guests of honor gave their speeches, introductions were made, and the form 4 students were able to shake hands with the headmaster and get their photos taken.  Luckily, Marisa and I were not the center of the photo shoot during the ceremony like we were at Bukiriro.

After the four hour ceremony was complete, we made our way to the staff room for food and drinks. As the food made its way into the room, we noticed the hot pots from our house being carried in. Of course Mama Kabibi would ask for our house key only to steal our hot pots to use to serve the guests. No surprise. Actually, she asks Marisa for her key everyday and we come home to find our garbage burned, or fresh milk on the table, or hot water in our thermos, or charcoal in our jiko ready to be used. She’s wonderful, but sometimes we wonder…like with the hot pots. Anyways, we ate another lovely round of rice, beans, and bananas, along with no fewer than three sodas each. Lack of water in this area means that when soda or beer is available, you drink as much as you can. So when I only drank one soda, you can imagine the grief I got about not drinking more. It happens.

The fun began after dinner. Students began changing out of their uniforms and into their disco clothes, and let me tell you their sense of fashion is something else. In particular, guys tend to go all out with vibrant satin shirts with patterned collars and often a short colorful tie to top it all off. The outfits literally kill me sometimes. Good news is that we got pictures with almost all of the students, as we couldn’t go anywhere without being summoned to pose. I suppose this is a small glimpse into the life of a celebrity! After about 97 pictures, it was time for the disco to start. I should mention that both Marisa and I were asked at our respective schools to start the disco, which everyone thought was the best idea since sliced bread.....literally crazy. So although we didn’t actually start the party, we definitely joined in. the music was an awesome mix of Tanzanian hip hop, with at most 5 songs that were played on repeat. My new favorite is “Hakunaga,” which is something along the lines of “you are the only one for me.” I’m so glad this song played at least four times, with a different student singing to me each time. Also, I should mention that all of the other teachers were also dancing with the students, so it wasn’t out of the ordinary that we joined in this sherehe (party). And oh how the students enjoyed our presence. I just about died when some of my students from Bukiriro showed up and said “hello madam!” on the dance floor though. It was too much. We shared so many laughs and learned some really great new dance moves from the students. Good times…goooooood times. We were definitely partied out by the end of graduation day #2.

Most Interesting Questions about America…
Come Thursday, it was time for class again. Hopefully next week I can talk a little bit more about class structure, timing, activities, participation, attendance, and what not. But for now, I would like to make a few comments on perceptions of America. I ended my form 4 class about ten minutes early on Thursday, and gave the students a chance to ask questions. Naturally, the first question was “What is the history of America?” Right, we could spend the next year talking about that, but let me give you a brief two minute history starting with Christopher Columbus. Then they generally asked me to share stories from America. I figured telling them about snow days was the best option, and they sure enjoyed it! Then one very smart boy, the leader of the class, asked how long it took to get from America to Tanzania. So I explained it took two days to travel. As a follow up, he asked specifically, “Which mode of transportation did you use?” I was amused by the idea that the obvious answer of airplane was not assumed. Interesting. I taught Form 1 that afternoon, and at the end of class they also asked me to share a story from America. Once again, I went down the route of snow days and I thought they were going to die of laughter. The conversation then turned to me learning Swahili. We then spent the next 20 minutes (mind you, this is 20 minutes into their next period in which the teacher never came) discussing what I know how to say in Swahili. I said a few simple phrases and words that I know, and I thought some were going to hit the floor they were laughing so hard. Then one boy asked if I know bananas. How could I not know bananas, seeing as this region literally has millions of bananas. “Do you have bananas in America?” “How about tomatoes?” “Avocados?” I’m not sure what they think we eat, but I assured them that we do in fact have fruits and vegetables. So many questions, but both classes were very enjoyable. I actually love teaching here, anyone surprised? Good, me either.

A few questions that I’ve gotten from other teachers have been really interesting as well. One teacher assumed that no students in America drop-out because everyone is wealthy. Both are very unfortunate misconceptions, although he didn’t seem to believe me when I tried to explain the reality of it. Another teacher asked if we had tribal languages like they do here, and it was relatively difficult to explain the concept of different languages resulting from immigration rather than tribal life. I’ve also had very interesting conversations on behavior, respect and punishment. I have tried to assure teachers that students here are wonderfully behaved and very respectful compared to some students in America, yet they cannot fully grasp what I actually mean. It is simply so different here, that no one can even fathom talking back to a teacher, not listening to directions, or having a classroom be in a state of complete chaos. While I am facing other challenges in the classroom, it is such a relief that behavior and respect are not included.  The Tanzanian culture places so much emphasis on proper greetings and respecting your elders that disrespect and poor behavior are simply not issues. It’s a really wonderful way of life.

And with that, I think I’ve told way to many stories with way to many details for one week. But this is our life, and I hope you enjoy reading about it. I’m sure that without two graduation ceremonies next week, the excitement will be more contained and my post will be a more manageable read. Until then, I’ll leave you one last story. We broke out the paper and highlighters last night to decorate our walls with our quote of the year: “At one point, this was EXACTLY what we wanted.”

also...check out marisa's blog for some pictures :) www.tanzania365.com

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Simple Life Rulenge


This is it. Here we are. This is seriously so insane. I literally don’t even know where to begin. So if this post is a little random, keep in mind that I really don’t even know what my life is right now. Ha.

So I suppose I can start with the fact that it’s 8:00pm on Wednesday as I’m writing this by light of a kerosene lantern. The sun sets around 6:45, and after that we just hang out in the dark, eat our dinner, share some good stories, and see how long we make it before it’s naturally just bedtime…which is usually 8:30. No big deal. I guess I’ll mention that our house has an abundance of bats as well. They live above our ceiling in the rafters, and are seriously so loud all the time. Maybe I’ll eventually think of it as a lovely serenade for my dreams. Either that, or our ceiling tiles will just fall down because of the weight of the po-po poop that seems to drop through the cracks all too often. Again, no big deal.

So on the topic of our house, it’s actually really nice for the area! We have a main room with our dining room table and six red plastic deck chairs. There are three bedrooms as well, two bedrooms and one for a storage room. Luckily, we both have beds with new (quite hard) mattresses, although that’s the extent of any furniture in the whole house. Which means storage for anything, like dishes, food, clothes, medicine, books, shoes, etc, is literally the floor. It’s an unfortunate reality, because unpacking/making this feel like home is nearly impossible. And considering our location, it will be nearly impossible to obtain any sort of shelving or tables, unless perhaps we take up woodworking in our free time…hmmm….

We also have a really nice courtyard in the back of our house, with rooms for showering, toilet, cooking, and storing water. I have not actually attempted the bucket shower yet, washing my hair one night was an experience enough for me. As for our toilet, minus the lizards and occasional frogs that make an appearance at night, it’s not too bad for a hole in the ground. The “kitchen” has been a lovely area for storing our food and charcoal jiko. Everyone laughs when we say we have charcoal, but kerosene is so expensive here! So, we will be patient and light our charcoal to cook dinner and boil our water. Thankfully, our water is delivered to us by students from the school, and it comes from a well, so once its purified it tastes just fine. Yay hydration! Sometimes though, we just collect rain water and use that instead for washing. What? No big deal.

So what else do you want to know? OH. How about how I take a piki-piki to school every day? For those of you not well versed in Swahili, that’s a motorcycle. It’s a common mode of transportation here actually, and every morning at 7am sharp, one of the teachers from Muyenzi Secondary (where we live) drives me to Bukiriro Secondary. It’s about a 9km drive, which is definitely too far to walk or ride a bicycle, so piki-piki it is! I must say that I actually really enjoy it, we are in some of the most beautiful mountains I have ever seen and the ride is breathtaking! Except if its raining, then it’s a little intense and potentially really wet, but it happens. No big deal.

When I rode up to the school for the first time on Monday morning, you might have thought an alien was approaching. Students were cleaning the environment and clearing the road, and they all stopped what they were doing to stand to the side, stare, mouths open and eyes popping. I suppose they didn’t expect to see a new teacher, nonetheless a woman from America. A few details about Bukiriro: I’m the first WorldTeach volunteer at the school (so most likely the first foreign teacher ever), and I’m the only math teacher, and I’m also the first female teacher the school has ever had. So many shocking things for the students! No wonder the mzungu riding the piki-piki up to the school was such a sight to see! The headmaster has introduced me as the “matron” of the school multiple times…what does that even mean? No big deal.

Monday was a pretty relaxed day at school, the students cleaned and we met as a staff. The headmaster is wonderful! He has been so welcoming and even conducted the staff meeting in English because I was there. The rest of the staff is also very welcoming and easy to talk to, even with some language barriers. There are nine staff members total, including the headmaster, second master, academic master, discipline master, four teachers, and myself. With such a small staff, the class sizes are very large. As the only math teacher, I am teaching all four forms. The forms are not broken down into smaller streams, because so few teachers and a lack of classrooms would make that very difficult. Instead, Form 1 has 92 students, Form 2 has about 70, Form 3 has 85, and Form 4 has about 50. The classrooms are so tight with kids sitting in rows with 12 or 13 desks across that I can’t even walk around to see every student’s work. Also, I have NO idea how on earth I am going to learn names. I teach every student in the school! What! And English is a huge problem for the students, they have such a hard time understanding and speaking. So even when I ask them their names, I can’t understand them…and so thinking I’m clever, I started having students write their names. Fail. First, their names are so long and foreign to me; second, they whisper so quietly that I can’t understand their pronunciation; third, it’s really hard to read their handwriting so I can’t even sound out their names; forth, they just laugh when I try. AH. I’m still working out how I’m going to get a system in place to learn names, check for understanding, and accomplish grading. Challenges for sure. I’ll keep you posted on how this goes for us.

Oh. Here’s another thought for you. Clearly we have no electricity. So what do you do when your cell phone dies? Well this was our reality on Sunday, so we decided to walk to Rulenge to charge our phones. An hour and a half later we made it there, found the charging station, and then needed to kill two hours while we waited for them. Now, Rulenge is small village to a tee, so we wandered until we found a man who sold warm sodas and sat on an empty stoop and had some lovely conversations with people walking by. We made some friends with little kids and a few old men, and the time passed quickly enough. Once our phones were ready, we were not about to walk all the way back through the mountains to Muyenzi village, so we shared another lovely piki-piki ride. What is our life? It was totally worth it though, because a few phone calls home to familiar voices was quite refreshing that evening!

Now, I think I’ve rambled long enough. And I think I’ve covered nearly every aspect of my life currently. I still can’t really wrap my mind around all of it, but perhaps it will become more natural as time goes on. Until next time, please enjoy your microwaves, washing machines, and sinks for me. Asante sana! :)