Thankfully it was less cold than last night, so I slept a lot better (I think the extra layers and closing the window helped a ton)! I woke up late and found that my water was already being boiled on the stove by Paul, a very kind gesture. The pot of water was small, but there was just enough water for a good bucket bath!
After the bucket bath, I was going through my regular routine of getting ready and brushing my teeth when I heard the sound of Eli’s voice inside of the house. He came down to retrieve the WiFi router so he could work! I’m pretty sure there’s a second router in the office, but it’s not as good. I felt bad I took too long to get ready and bring it up to him. Ideally, I would like to keep it at the office permanently, but Paul ensures I come home every night with it (he calls it a gift that I bring to him).
random bug photo
Not having WiFi at night would make me feel more inclined to read and not just spend time on the internet. Since I was almost finished getting ready, Eli waited for me so we could walk up together to the office (Paul joined us as well). At the office, I settled in and worked by generating more materials for Math Club. We worked until it was time for tea when Michael arrived at the exact same time we left to go to the kitchen for tea! We had mandazi as normal and it was very filling.
After tea, Mr. Chesco delegated the four of us, Eli, Henry, and I, in his disorganized fashion, to the forms that we would be teaching today. Henry was assigned Form 4, Eli Form 3, and me Form 2 and 5. Of course it wasn’t that easy as he would say one thing, forget it immediately, and then assign someone to a completely different form! It’s hard to know when Mr. Chesco is joking or not as he is known to be quite the sarcastic jokester from time to time.
Originally Mr. Chesco wanted me to teach math but I thought it would make more sense for me to continue teaching computers to increase the digital literacy of the forms. He agreed and we all went up to the school to wrangle the students into their classes. The students are technically on vacation so the times that things happen right now are very fluid.
Eventually all the Form 2 students came into class along with one Form 5 student. The Form 5 student already went through one of my typing classes so he acted as my TA for the class. There ended up being a total of 6 computers for 21 students which meant groups of three and four. Groups this big are kind of inefficient when it comes to learning how to type, but it’s what we have to adapt to! I knew how to teach typing a little bit better since last class (thanks Mr. Chesco for setting a good example!), so I went through the importance of typing, the proper form of typing, and what keys belong to what fingers. The students seemed to enjoy it! After all, who doesn’t love being on a computer?
Every once in a while I would get the opportunity to show them how fast I could type and they all laughed and mimicked my fast moving fingers. I wanted to make the process of learning how to type more fun so I tried to suggest tiny competitions between students to see who could type out a simple exercise the fastest and with the highest accuracy. I remember back in Elementary school how much fun it was to race my friends typing and thought it would work well here too. However, when I stood up in front of the class and explained my idea, I was met with blank faces and ignored. I assume this reaction was a mix of respect and not understanding me well. Maybe next class I can get them to try!
Seeing that my plan didn’t work, I walked around the class and helped when it was needed. Overall, some kids got it well and some kids didn’t at all! It’s hard to give effective help when there’s a little bit of a language barrier to truly explain typing instructions. Class eventually came to an end and I walked back to the office with a student that carried my stuff. Mr. Chesco stayed behind to delegate to the students on what they would be doing next.
I’m not sure if I’ve explained why students are here during the summer, but it’s a pretty simple explanation. Mzee told us that the kids who stayed are the students that really struggle with school due to extenuating circumstances (family issues, not understanding content, ect). Typically the students who are “at the bottom” as Mzee says, are the most likely to never come back to school after vacation as it’s simply too hard to come back. After all, going through school here takes a lot of suffering and endurance. Since these students are already at the bottom, that also means that they can’t pay the school fee in full. Therefore, to help work off the debt they’re accruing, the students are given jobs around the school grounds and the Vinton home to earn money to go to school. The jobs include gardening, landscaping, and overall general upkeep of the surrounding area. This system gives the students purpose and allows them to stay in school which I think is amazing!
I got back to the office and continued the work I left from this morning, before I started reviewing with Henry and Miraclin. We got some decent progress done until Henry got upset at me and refused to work any further when I pulled out my phone for a quick moment to check a game that I play (Clash of Clans). I’m not sure what the problem was about me doing this, but it seemed to flip a switch and he left abruptly. I think there’s a lot going on that I don’t know about which has caused him to be in a mood lately; I’m praying that things start going better for him. Regardless, Henry leaving ruined the momentum of our entire day as he's an extremely vital member of our team that gives us very grounded and solid design choices during our review.
A detail that I’ve been leaving out the past couple of blogs is that Mr. Chesco also “works” with us but just sits on his phone the entire time. From what Miraclin told me, she’s been working very closely with him, he’s supposed to be planning and putting in quiz scores to see how students are doing. I assume he wants to be on summer vacation as well, but I can see how it can be frustrating for Miraclin whose work depends on Mr. Chesco doing his share.
Lunch came to release the tension and we had rice, beans, and greens; all very good! Eli and I talked the whole time and joked around about me getting fat (I’m not, or at least I hope not)! We poke a lot of fun at each other which always lightens the mood and adds some laughs to our day. Once we finished eating, we “worked” some more until the power went out! No power meant it was the perfect time to go play some hacky sack outside! Michael joined us as well and it was a great time as always.
Our hacky sack conversation today was about the relationships we have with our siblings! Both Henry and Michael are the youngest out of their families, so it was cool to hear about their perspectives compared to mine being the oldest. Next to our hacky sack playing, a bunch of guys are fixing a large truck and have it mostly disassembled. It’s fascinating to see them work and make progress on what looks like an extremely daunting job!
Sooner or later, we ended our game of hacky sack and went back inside for a couple more hours. Both Henry and Michael ended up leaving early as they didn’t have much to do in the office and wanted to go back home. The power finally came back on and I continued my work and periodically researching stuff about my laptop. The screen is starting to fail (the little pixels are showing colors they’re not supposed to) which is very upsetting to me; this laptop cost a lot! However, I am very glad I extended the warranty a week ago that should cover this!
I should note that even if half my screen was broken and the laptop was falling apart, I would still be very grateful to have this laptop. Seeing the joy the students get operating just barely functioning Chromebooks has made me realize the gratitude I should feel for the things I already have. In other words, being content and satisfied with the things I already have and realizing that at the end of the day, relationships are what matter! I feel like I’ve made computers an idol when in reality they’re just a helpful tool that we use a lot. Even though it’s been very difficult, the transition to be less materialistic out here has been one that I’ve been taking to heart. To me, wearing the same four outfits every week has made me see that I don’t need a fancy new outfit every day to feel good or impress others at all. I just need clothes that do their job and that’s all that matters! Tanzania is shaping how I think the more and more I spend time here, a change I welcome each and every day.
Eli, Miraclin, and I found ourselves hungry so we went to the nearby shop to buy some crackers and an orange drink! The drink tasted like a Fanta, but with a deeper, richer orange taste!
When we got back, Eli and I wanted to enjoy the fresh air outside, but it was quite chilly so we stayed inside to play Camio. We both won a round and in between each hand we cleaned up the office bit by bit as it was looking pretty rough! By the time our game was over, the office was looking nice again and we transitioned outside to play hacky sack in the dark. Eli and I talked about the food we miss and it just made us feel even hungrier!
We also came to the realization that Kolibri might be too large of a jump in digital literacy. I should’ve begun development of a digital literacy class to pave the way for Kolibri. At least right now, I’m feeling kind of defeated with my project as it feels like the skills needed to work Kolibri effectively, even in a small implementation, is out of reach to actually work well. Perhaps, I’m not giving credit where credit is due and being pessimistic, but I think I might just need to accept that all I did was lay the foundation and give the project to the next person who will be able to grow it to a larger scale! It was getting late at this point, yet no one came to close the office or pick us up so we packed up our things, talked a little more, and then went off on our way.
While walking to Paul’s house a random guy followed me home (no creepy connotation here, I just don’t know his name) and signaled to me to go to Peter's house. Paul and John were nowhere to be found when I dropped off my stuff in my room. I had brought the router down as usual but seeing that it would be doing nothing if I left it in my room, I brought it with me to Peter’s house so I could send messages. When I arrived at Peter’s home, I was immediately invited to eat dinner with him, his wife, and son! It was some good rice and beans! I also played with Arusha which was fun. After, I watched the World Cup game that was on, Argentina vs. Austria. It was not a close game as Argentina was clearly the better team and I fell asleep during the match.
For halftime, we watched a weird English dubbed Chinese movie that consisted of lots of karate fighting and nothing else. John ended up showing up to take the router from me so he and Paul could listen to music. The game went on for what felt like forever and was almost finished when John came to pick me up to go back to the house to eat dinner. To my dismay, fish was for dinner. I of course tried it, but seriously could not eat it. I felt bad, but I lied by claiming the same fish allergy as I did before for the small fish. I would fake like the fish to be a good guest, but it genuinely makes me ill to eat it.
Obviously, Paul felt very bad that he was unable to provide a sufficient dinner for me, which was further exacerbated by the fact he’d been drinking. I tried to console him, but nothing could really make him feel better. Paul gave me avocados and made me tea to make up for the lack of dinner (he didn't understand that I technically did eat a little bit at Peter’s house). To mend my bad guest tendency, I went and gave him a 5,000 shilling bill to go towards meat tomorrow so we could have a fantastic dinner. That seemed to bring up his mood.
I retired to my room while he and John partied for a couple more hours: loud music, screaming, and laughing. Now I know I’m really getting ready for the fall! I relaxed, blogged, and went to bed (I’m glad I’m a heavy sleeper)!
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