Chicken Pecking and Upside-Down Rescues (Thursday 6/18)

I woke up today feeling pretty under the weather with a cold. A relentless runny nose and a deep cough. You don’t realize how nice it is to have Kleenex boxes everywhere until your nose is pouring and all you have is your sleeve. I think I finally got what Paul has had all week. I often hear him coughing during the night and in the mornings and it sounds very unpleasant. I’m praying that I don’t have it as bad as him! 

There was no electricity this morning, or at least that’s what I was told, so Paul was boiling me water with the propane stove so I could have a bucket bath. He was playing music on his speaker so perhaps there was electricity, I guess I’ll never know! Paul boiled me a very large pot of water which meant plenty of hot water for a nice bucket bath. It was difficult to pick up the pot as the entire thing was obviously scorching hot. Thankfully, there was a bent piece of metal that helped me take it off! After the bucket bath, I got ready and went up to the office.

Michael and Eli were already there when I arrived! I got straight to work when Mr. Chesco came in and asked me if I could teach “computers” today and specifically how to type. Of course the issue with that request is the fact that there are way more students than computers and no internet there at the school to run most typing programs. Seeing that I would be teaching in less than an hour I had to get my act together and start problem solving fast. I found an offline typing program that was decent and came up with a way to make groups of students rotate after a certain level was passed on the typing program. I did this until tea time where I had my delicious mandazi and egg. 

To my delight while I was eating, Mr. Chesco informed me that I would be working with the Form 4 and Form 5 students. This means there are only seven of them instead of a class of 40+. As a reminder we only have five working Chromebooks! With only 7 students, I could give a good in depth lesson where everyone can actually get their hands typing!

After tea time, I went back to the office to grab the laptops and everything else I needed to teach. On the way to the school, one of the students grabbed the heavy computer bag I was carrying and brought it all the way to the office classroom for me (same place I did all of the dancing). I’m not sure if I’ve already mentioned this, but it’s very important in Tanzanian culture that elders or anyone in a respected position, like a teacher, does not hold anything. It surprised me to have my bag taken away, but I was very grateful to not have to carry it!

I got set up in the classroom and the kids began to filter into class. Even though these students are Form 4 and Form 5 (11th and 12th grade), they look like they’re in middle school! I started class and began teaching. To be honest, I was a little unprepared to teach the basics of a computer, especially without the aid of something like a projector. I felt like a chicken with its head cut off walking around the classroom trying to show the students where and how the small buttons on the keyboard worked. It’s hard to know if any of the kids actually understand anything that I’m saying as it’s classroom culture to have an emotionless face. I’m used to teaching back in America where students will at least nod or grin if they’re listening or understanding the things I’m saying! Nevertheless, it was difficult to teach the basics and Mr. Chesco had to help by translating things into Swahili. 

We slowly got through the easy things and turned our attention to typing. It’s been so long since I’ve been taught how to type and frankly I forgot how to get the basics started. The program I’m using has different levels of difficulty, each level adds in a couple more keys. I assumed that starting with the home row (asdfg hjkl;) would be fine, but that ended up going terribly. The biggest thing you want to avoid when learning how to type is “chicken pecking” (typing with index fingers and tapping each letter one at a time). Chicken pecking is easier in the beginning, but in the long run is worlds slower than regular typing. 

(speaking of chickens... here is a random chicken in a bag!)

When I started the students on the home row they innately went to chicken pecking as it was too far of a jump to actually try with the correct form. I immediately changed all of their levels to 0 and started with ‘f’ and ‘j’ keys! They seemed to pick it up way faster starting at this level. If the student clearly got the level quickly and were using the correct form, I would bump them up one level. Some students got bumped up several levels throughout the duration of the class while a couple didn’t even get past the first one. I hope that with a couple more days of typing they start to get it! I learned a lot about teaching here in Tanzania and how to be patient, compassionate, and always willing to adapt. Even though it was hard, it was a ton of fun and I enjoyed myself!

The class came to an end and I went back to the office to work. After arriving, Mr. Chesco and I talked about the plan for tomorrow (organization, I like this!). The students know how to sort of use a computer now so it’s now time to show them how to use Kolibri! Finally! I get to put my project into action at a small scale to see how it works. I’m hoping the students find it easy to use and enjoy doing school on a computer instead of paper and a chalkboard. I honestly have no clue if things will work how I intended them too, but that’s the excitement of trying something new!

When I finished speaking with Mr. Chesco I was straight to reviewing Math Club materials as a team. As I’ve said before, the work is tedious and requires a careful eye for the tiny mistakes that are every present. I will say it’s easier to stay focused and on task when you’re with a group as we all keep each other accountable. We did this until lunch where we ate rice, beans, and cabbage; very good! As usual we all ate and talked together about random things.

Arriving back at the office, Eli and I noticed how beautiful it was outside. The sun felt so good and since it’s often cloudy here, we tried to soak up as much as we could. We set up a small table out front of the office and played Cambio. I even had a bottle of Embe to enjoy while playing! The game lasted way longer than usual and I came super close to beating him. The entire time Henry was waiting for us to finish our game to get back to reviewing, but it just wouldn’t end!

Soon enough it was time to get back to work reviewing where we got some decent progress! Our whole squad is everyone besides Michael as he needed to work on his homework. After a couple of hours, we needed another break and went outside to play hacky sack (Eli, Henry, Mr. Chesco, and I). It was tons of fun and we had a lot of great “plays” and passes. At one point, Mr.  Chesco wanted to play with a ball and went to the school to grab a volleyball to kick around. The ball was pumped full of air making it completely uncontrollable. Seeing as I had the least amount of football (soccer) experience, I ended up punting it some 50ft in the air and getting the ball stuck in a tree. I had to climb upside down to hit the ball out of the branches while dangling above the bed of a truck! Safe to say that we got back to using a hacky sack once I got down. 

If it hasn’t been obvious, the weather here is wonderful. It feels like a perpetual Colorado spring where every day is either the perfect temperature or just a little chilly. If it is ever chilly, standing in the sun will solve all your problems! It makes me laugh that I’m here in Africa and missing out on a hot summer back home, you’d assume quite the opposite! I’m thankful that God has blessed us with such enjoyable conditions!

After sacking, we went back inside and relaxed! We all honestly just played on our computers until our hosts came to pick us up. Paul eventually arrived and we were on our way. Since Paul was in charge of closing down the office, we had to drop off the keys to another house (near Mr. Chesco’s home). On the walk to and from, I had the router on me which meant that I could play music. Paul’s request, Sacrifice by Elton John! It’s such a random song to sing out here in Tanzania, but fun nonetheless. 

When we got back, I just relaxed in my room while Paul did work in his room. Time flew by and it was 10:30pm when it was time for a tiny dinner of hard boiled eggs. It wasn’t much but I was glad I got to go to bed with more food in my stomach than none! Paul, John, and I chowed down on the eggs quickly and I was back in my room before I knew it. 

I must say that the cold I have is no fun and I don’t enjoy being congested out here. I’m praying that it’ll pass soon! I also want to note that being around so much WiFi, namely having the router in the house, has started to bring back bad internet habits (spending a lot of time on my phone)! I read so much when there was nothing else to do and I want to restart that habit again! 

I blogged a little more before falling asleep, sweet dreams in Tanzania!