After living here for 4 months, the surprise factor of most
things has diminished significantly. Things that once seemed crazy and surreal,
no longer faze me. Here’s a list of five things that are no longer surprising,
and actually seem to fit in the “normal” realm of life here:
1...Seeing everyone carry anything and everything on their
heads. When I say “everyone” and “everything” I mean these in the most literal
sense, as this includes women, men, children and students of all ages carrying
buckets of water, basins of food, huge bundles of sticks/logs, bags filled with
anything, bunches of bananas, chairs, tables, stacks of books, long hoes used
for tilling, sacks of beans, and anything else you can imagine.
2...Me enjoying a variety of foods that I would have never
imagined eating in America. For starters, eggplant stewed with tomatoes, onion,
and carrots and served with rice is my new favorite meal. I also enjoy curry,
okra, cooked bananas, boiled cabbage, and yes, even beans are good once in a
while. And who would have thought that twice a day, I have a delicious cup of
fresh hot milk straight from the cow? Normal.
3...Hoping on the back of a motorcycle driven by a complete
stranger to get anywhere is a fun, easy, cheap means of transportation.
4...Killing bugs is really no sweat. Remember the days when I
had to have my dad, brother, friend, or stranger kill a spider for me? Well,
now I barely flinch when I have to kill a bug. I can sit at our table after
dinner and smash insects with my bare hands even. However, if the size is larger
than a quarter, the potential danger relatively high, or the proximity to my
bed is too close, then there might be some hesitation, hyperventilation, and
extreme means taken, but I can usually get the job done.
5...Staying up late is 10:00pm and sleeping in means 8:00am. Why?
Because the sun sets at 6:45pm every night and rises at 6:45am every morning,
so we can only handle sitting in the dark for so long, and trying to sleep when
the sun is shining through the windows is nearly impossible.
However, there are still some days when everything just
seems so crazy! Wednesday December 5th was certainly one of those
days, so in continuing with theme of listing 5 things, I will tell you why:
1...At school, I was having a conversation with one
of my fellow teachers, when he asked me a very surprising question. “Obama is
the president over all of North and South America, right?” Apparently this is a
very common misconception, especially with lack of access to maps and
information on world politics. Luckily, we did have a globe in my office, so I
was able to explain the difference between the United States of America and
North/South America. He was very grateful for my insight, and I was happy to
clarify meaning of America for him, but I was still very surprised by the question.
2...On my way to school in the morning, I noticed
five or six tents set up in the bushes alongside the road. I was confused by
their presence, especially since there is nothing but a few mud houses and
herds of cattle that line the roads.
Then on my way home, I noticed they were still there, and a whole group
of people were sitting around a campfire waving to me! Exciting, but still
confusing. Camping is not a common
pastime or vacation here in Tanzania, but after conferring with Marisa, our
best guess is that they are a group of refugees from Burundi. Living within 20km of the border, this is a
very likely possibility, but so crazy that they are our new neighbors!
3...In marking my final exams, I noticed some
striking similarities in a few of the Form 3 tests. Upon closer inspection, 3
students had submitted nearly identical tests, and 2 other students also copied
answers from each other. I debated telling my headmaster initially, assuming
that their punishment would be a severe beating. I would have preferred to just
address the situation on my own, but seeing as I actually didn’t know who the
students were, it would have been nearly impossible to pull the students aside.
So, I told my headmaster, and surprisingly enough, their punishment was to fetch
a bucket of water and bring it to my office. Considering I’ve seen students get
sticks for being late, having dust on their shoes, and not cleaning behind
their ears, it was confusing that a bucket of water was the only punishment. An
interesting solution.
4...Also surprising during exam week, was not the
fact that several students scored 0 on mathematics, English, or geography
exams, but that many also scored 0 on Swahili exams. Considering that all of
the other exams are written in English, which many students have very limited
knowledge of, it’s understandable that scoring a 0 would be possible. If I were
to take an exam written in Swahili, scoring 0% would be quite likely, because
my vocabulary is very limited and I wouldn’t even be able to read the directions.
Considering my level of Swahili matches some of my students’ level of English,
it’s no surprise they score so low on exams written in English. However, if the
exam is actually written in their native language, it’s surprising to hear that
scoring a 0 was still unfortunately common among my students.
5...Also surprising on Wednesday afternoon was
witnessing rainfall in our house. Now, I’ve seen the puddles inside after a
heavy rainfall, but I’ve never seen it actually happen. Within 20 minutes of a
downpour, the entire floor in our main room had an inch of standing water after
the rain poured through the windows and down the walls. When I said I live on
Noah’s ark, I wasn’t exaggerating. Here’s a sneak peak into our home.
Gotta love Muyenzi! :)
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