NYOKA!!!

It’s hard to explain the feeling you get when your roommate screams SNAKE the moment she steps out of the front door. But let me tell you it’s not a good feeling…

“SNAKE…NYOKA…SNAKE…SH*T…SNAKE”

So you run outside, scared for you life, examine the ground, and don’t see anything…Is she crazy? Doubtful. I am blind? I don’t think so. So then where is it???

OHHHHH you mean that, right there…yep….ok. that’s not good. OH that’s really not good at all. It was camouflage green, two feet long, and in the rocks by our front step. If she hadn’t seen it, I would have certainly stepped right on it.

So the girls that were cutting our grass come running over, and upon seeing the snake, immediately start pelting it with giant stones. After several good blows, the snake was deemed dead, picked up via sickle, and tossed back into the bush.

Right. I still am in shock over this. And it has also been determined that it was most likely a very poisonous snake and probably very dangerous. Awesome.

Considering the night before we had an invasion of army ants in our courtyard that penetrated our back door, I look forward to the day when every creature I encounter is not highly dangerous. Luckily some closed toed shoes prevented instantaneously biting of the toes and some boiling water poured in the doorway stopped further penetration into our house. Yeesh. The things we deal with here in Muyenzi…

Christmas Time is Here

Traditionally, Christmas is celebrated on December 25, everyone knows that. For some, Christmas is in July…whether they missed the previous Christmas or are just eagerly anticipating the Christmas to follow it’s hard to say. But here in Muyenzi, Christmas was celebrated on Tuesday February 5….only 7 weeks after the rest of the world. Why? Because that is how long it took for any of the Christmas cards and packages to finally reach our humble abode.

            Thanks to my wonderful family, I received so many fun things in my two packages! Including, but not limited to: band-aids, ibuprofen, protein bars, beef jerky, nail polish, deodorant, dove chocolate, new flip flops and tshirts, and perhaps most exciting: GOLDFISH! Ahhhh. It doesn’t take much to make my day here, and Goldfish certainly make my whole week.

 

I almost forgot the pure, simple enjoyment of opening a package!

Yes, I got band-aids and ibuprofen for Christmas. And I'm so happy about it!

Better late than never, right?

Uji Time!

Today is an exciting day at Bukiriro Secondary School! Why? We are beginning to serve uji (porridge) to the students! My students walk up to 8km to school on an empty stomach, sit through classes all day, and walk home the same distance on an even emptier stomach. The new uji campaign will do wonders for the students, hopefully keeping them awake during afternoon lessons, improving performance in school, and giving them strength to complete all of the days activities. I am very excited to see the impact that one cup of uji has for these students, and to be part of this wonderful new thing!

Now, just in case you’re curious, what exactly does serving uji everyday at school entail. Well, let me illustrate this for you. First, you need a cook and a supplier for maize flour and sugar. Then, you need giant pots to cook the uji in, as well as firewood to cook over. You also need a shelter for the cook to work his magic, as well as enough water to cook the uji everyday. Lastly, you need to work out the budget, and determine that every student should pay 12 cents per day, or $25 per year for uji. Alright, that doesn’t sound too bad. And in reality, it wouldn’t be too bad, except that most of my students’ families cannot even afford the initial $25 for annual school fees, and with uji costs, that amount literally doubles. And without money to fund this project, how will you pay the cook or buy maize flour? How will you buy the pots, build the shelter, or get firewood? And with the closest water source being nearly 2km away, how will you ever fetch enough water in buckets to cook uji for 200 or 300 students daily???

Oh boy…this is going to be quite the project, isn’t it?!

Thankfully, enough students were able to pay the uji fee, which has allowed us to hire the cook, buy the pots, and buy the first few weeks worth of maize flour and sugar. As for the shelter, my students may not speak English or have the ability to solve a math problem, but ask them to chop down a tree and build a hut and they will be successful. We spent the afternoons on Thursday and Friday last week chopping down trees, securing the walls, and constructing the roof out of grasses found in the bush….

Step 1: Chop down the tree and carry it across the school grounds.

Step 2: Chop the leaves off the tree to secure long poles used to construct the frame.

Step 3: Build the frame of the hut.

Step 4: Stand on desks and chairs to finish the structure.

 Step 5: Go out into the bush to collect grasses for the roof.

Ingenious. And crazy, if you ask me. Would you hand a 16 year old boy in America an axe and tell him to chop down the tree? Or a hammer and tell him to stand on this chair that’s on top of this desk to nail this log to the roof of this shelter? NO! NEVER! You can’t even give the students in America a compass in math class for fear that they’ll stab each other…So anyways, I digress. We have successfully constructed our shelter, and there will be a picture of the finished product to come!

To continue, I said we need firewood to cook over. While you can purchase firewood and have it delivered, why not just collect it from the bush? So we just sent the students off, and they were successful yet again in finding the best logs for our fire.

Lastly, as for the water, for the time being, we will simply send several students with buckets to the nearest well. But this is where I am fortunate to have the ability to step in and help out. If we purchase a water tank, we can store water at school, and eliminate the need to send so many students miles away to fetch water. Hopefully this week I will be able to get the funds from America to purchase the new water tank to help expedite the uji making process! How exciting! Also, stay tuned for more details on this project and ways that you can help fund uji for these students.  While the school is initially going to have the money to serve porridge, I’m afraid that once the funds run dry, so will the students uji cups. Together we can help keep these students fed in school! 

Home Alone: Bush-Style

Being home alone takes on a whole new meaning when you live in the bush. Marisa left last week Thursday for a long weekend in Kigali to get some quality internet time, which meant for the first time in 171 days we were apart…Probably for the best at this point, but I still must say that I certainly appreciate company in this place. Literally being the only white person for miles, with no water, no electricity, no cell phone service, puts a new perspective on life… What is necessary to be happy in life? Not much. A bucket of water, a candle and a pile of potatoes seems to be enough for me. And minus the fact that my phone didn’t work for anyone to call and keep me company or the fact that the post office wasn’t open after I walked and hour and a half to get there, I mostly enjoyed having a weekend to myself.

And then Marisa returned home on Sunday afternoon, with a jar of olives, a loaf of bread, some fun-shaped pasta, and most importantly, POPCORN!…so life here is great, complete with freshly popped popcorn to accompany our movie night and this blogging. Could life here be any better? Doubtful….Just finding joy in the little things <3

A Tanzanian Dinner

Have you ever found yourself in a situation, and wondered how on earth, under any circumstances, did you manage to land yourself there? Right…ok. I was invited to a Tanzanian family's house for dinner last Saturday evening, so just picture this for a minute: I am in a small town in the mountains of northwest Tanzania, sitting in a dimly lit room, under a tin roof, next to a handmade wooden cabinet in the shape of an octagon. I am in the company of a 24 year old fellow volunteer from Washington, a recent graduate majoring in African studies; as well as a British woman the age of my parents, who has earned her PHD in Chemistry and has been a teacher for many years; accompanied by an 18 year old Tanzanian boy who finished his Form 4 studies last year and is hoping to go to Dar this summer to continue studying in the hope that he will one day be a doctor; and in the corner, a very quiet old man, the boy’s father, head of the household, and tailor by trade. It begins raining loudly on the tin roof, the electricity goes out, so the old man lights a kerosene lamp, and we are left to enjoy the quiet of each other’s company. This is when I begin to wonder how I ever managed to find myself in this place, with these people, at this particular moment in time.  So random, yet at the same time, so comfortable. At this point, the boy serenades us by singing simple melodies, as the father smiles on, and all is right in the world. That is, until Alex decides that we should also sing for them, and settles on the Sound of Music and musical disaster ensues…but really, what more do you need in life? Find joy in the little things, appreciate every moment, and take comfort in the company around you, whether strangers, old friends, or new acquaintances. I love the simplicity of life here, because I have learned that I can be completely happy without a light bulb, running water, regular phone service, or daily access to my email or facebook. None of which I thought would be possible to live without. All you really need is the presence of those around you, and the complete surrender to God that He will always provide all that you need.  When you take away the distractions of the modern world, you are left with God, His children, and the beauty of His creation. And for these amazing blessings, I am forever grateful.

Melt my Heart

On the first day of lessons in my form 2, 3 and 4 classes, I spent some time getting to know my students. I passed out a small piece of paper (which is highly coveted by all students here) and I told them they would have to answer 5 questions.  While I’m pretty sure they all expected to be taking a math exam on day 1, as I wrote the first question on the board, each class slowly started to breathe again and laughed when they saw: “1. What is your name?” Once we established that they were not to write “My name is Madam Elizabeth,” as I wrote on the board, we moved on to the next question: “2. How old are you?” Of course, everyone was then curious as to my age, but I assured them that I was old enough to be teaching them, and that one day I would tell them…(considering many of my form four students are 20 to 23 years old, I figure it’s best that we keep my age quiet for now). The next question got some giggles as well, “Are you male or female?” but in trying to learn their names, it’s quite helpful to know if they are a boy or girl. Number four: “What is your favorite subject in school?” had many responses of mathematics, and while I don’t like to toot my own horn, I think that mostly has to do with the teacher and not the material she is teaching. Finally, I asked them “What is your favorite sport to play?” at which point each class shouted out “FOOTBALL” very passionately. I assured them that Madam can not play football, but much prefers to play volleyball.

The last thing I had them do was turn over their piece of paper and write one question that they wanted to ask me. I said it could be about anything…America, my family, Mathematics, life in Muyenzi, my favorite food, etc…

And I certainly got some classic questions! Here are a few of my favorites:

From Form 2

Suwavis: What is matter?

Kwizera: Your parent they is safe?

Janine: You have husband and children?

Meckitrida: Where have you been this holiday?

Isack: In a certain experiment to determine apparent weight the following data were optained: weight of an object in air = 50N, weight of empty beaker = 10N, weight of body and displaced water = 25N. Determine the upthrust on the body.

…so I suppose I should brush up on my chemistry? Or maybe that’s physics. I’m not sure…

From Form 3

Egbeth: What is name of your school? And what you do in America?

Erick: do you know where clothers industry is in America? And is made by what?
Felician: Do you know any information about the results of national examination form 2? (it’s a month into the new year, and we still don’t know who passed form 2!)

Aderina: What about you?

Alfred: What is the main economic activities take place in America?

Selina: You are happy for life in Tanzania? Why?

Kwizera: Which reasons lead to the people of USA to selected Mr. Balaka Obama times two to be their president? What did he do to them? He had been president of America since when? (year)

From Form 4:

Thobias: In Tanzania the number of girls who are pregnanced are increased especially students. What about America?

Sospeter: Why European people that have a long hair?

Nyawenda: Why the girls of America teach the subject of Mathematics while in Tanzania there are few who passed that subject, What are the procedures to be followed and causes to be caused  some of girls to fail that subject especially in Tanzania.

Marco: Because you are Madam from out side of our country, what you are planning to do in our Secondary School at Bukiriro? (stay tuned…)

Kagabo: My Object is to complete all topcis of form four and review of exercise. You are already for that? (Yes Sir Kagabo, I am!)

Rehema: I want to ask you Madam, How old are you? Do you have a marriage? Can you stay in Tanzania all of your life? Can you give me your phone number? I prefer your subject very much.

Melts my heart. Can you see why I love my students, they are so crazy and wonderful and great.

<3