The Full Village Tour: An Amazing Way to End The Week! (Friday 6/19)

Like clockwork, Paul woke me up to get ready for the day. I’m not sure where his kettle went, but I was instructed to boil my bucket bath water on the propane stove. The pot to boil water today was tiny which meant not a lot of water for a bucket bath! I had to make sure I added enough cold water to give me something to bathe with, but not too much to make the water cold. Being very conservative with my dispensing of water, I made it work perfectly! I subsequently got ready and went to the office.

Michael and Eli were already there so I got straight to work on getting things ready for class. I wanted to make sure everything about Kolibri ran perfectly so I set everything up in the office and got it working how I wanted. Right now I need a projector to see what the Pi is outputting which adds a layer of complexity to it all. The set up was a massive mess of cables so I’m hoping that as the weeks go on, I’m able to simplify everything! 

One of the cool things I was able to add to the server were Phet simulations which are computer simulations made by CU Boulder that demonstrate science concepts; I hope that the students find them cool. I also wanted to add a fun custom quiz for the students but I was having some odd technical difficulties and with the time crunch I had to scrap that whole plan. Tanzania is all about finding out to make things work! I worked up until it was time for tea where we had the regular and talked about life.

After tea, I stayed a little longer to add some finishing touches and packed up everything I needed for Kolibri and walked to the school. There was a ton to carry and I was quite worried about accidentally dropping something! I made it there safely and set up Kolibri once more in the classroom (same one as yesterday). Class had already begun and the students were already typing away. There was one more student than yesterday which brought my total up to 8 students to teach! 

When I finally got everything set up, I went through and taught Kolibri to the students. Just like yesterday, it was quite the struggle. The two most difficult things were getting them to put in the website address for the server and their usernames for Kolibri correctly. I basically ended up having to do both for each student as they weren’t making any progress! It turns out the action of pressing the ‘shift’ button and another key is very difficult. In the future, I need to streamline this process to make it as simple as possible so the program is actually feasible (so no uppercase and links that automatically open). 

Once we finally got inside of Kolibri, I walked through the basic functions of the program and had them take an easy English test to demonstrate to Mr. Chesco the viability of Kolibri and how it could save him hours upon hours of grading time. All of the students did a great job on the quiz! I then directed them to the fun simulations I added and they seemed to enjoy them. It was a slow start, but they eventually figured out how to click through the simulations. 

One thing that I’ve noticed is that the students seem to lack a sort of curiosity to explore and try new things. I would think with a computer in front of them they would be trying to find out as many things as possible, but they ended up being very reserved and only doing things when I told them. With some encouragement, they definitely felt more free to do what they liked! 

I learned from Mr. Chesco the reason for this behavior is because of negative experiences with teachers in primary school. Essentially if a student asked a teacher a question and the teacher didn’t know the answer, instead of admitting the lack of knowledge by the teacher, the student would be shamed for being disrespectful to ask such a question. I hope that with my teaching I can help mend this hurtful experience and get them to be just a little more inquisitive!

Once we ran out of time for class, we shut down the computers and packed up Kolibri. I had a great conversation about Kolibri with Mr. Chesco and he’s very excited to start using it. He specifically wants to use it for teaching geography (geography in Tanzania includes geology and other Earth science as well). 

I got back to the office to start reviewing materials! Eli wasn’t feeling well and was laying down in another room. That meant that his mandazi from tea time was sitting at our table untouched and begging to be eaten by Henry and I. To be funny I took some small, unnoticeable nibbles on the bottom of one. Eli ended up just letting us eat them so my tiny little prank was unsuccessful.

Before we could actually review anything, it was time for lunch. We had chicken, ugali, and beans which as always was great. Unfortunately Eli wasn't there as he went back to his house before lunch was called to grab all of the medicine the clinic gave him so he could review and check what he was taking (he had 6 or 7 medications, nothing that big, but possibly overkill)! 

Whilst eating, Henry talked about this wonderful pineapple mango drink, and Michael, being intrigued, went straight down to the shop after eating to buy some. When he got back to the office from the shop, the closest thing the shop had was a very weird tasting pineapple soda! 

With lunch being over, it was time to get to reviewing! We reviewed for a good chunk of time and made some good progress. We’re definitely getting quicker at making decisions and editing things to look better! We listened to party music the whole time which kept our mood up through the tedious work. 

Still a little hungry from lunch, we decided to go down to the shop and buy a small snack. The only problem with the money that we have is that everything is in too big of a denomination. The things we’re purchasing are always some small fraction of the 10,000 shilling bill and vendors often don’t have change. We figured that it would be easiest if we combined our orders to give back the least amount of change. This means that someone is paying for everyone else, but we figured that buying stuff for each other would be fine since it’s ultimately not our money and we’re mature people than can share! We got glucose crackers (sweet crackers like Belvita), Tunda (a brand of Embe juice) and pineapple Fanta. 

I think everything totaled up to be less than 4,000 shillings (less than $2 USD)! With our fuel, we did some more reviewing before taking another break and going outside to play hacky sack in the sun. Henry, Eli, and I have gotten pretty good! At one point the sack got hit into the back of a large truck so Henry and I decided it would be fun if we played inside of the back of the truck with Eli on the ground. The idea was certainly better in our heads, but it worked okay enough to be fun.

We finished up and went back inside where we found ourselves craving bananas. This sparked an idea from Henry to go into the village and buy some bananas! We all decided to go, even Mr. Chesco who ended up buying our guide and native tongue for the entire adventure. The walk to the village is enjoyable apart from one big hill to get over. 

We all enjoyed each other’s company and said hi to those we walked past. Here in the village, a common way to say hi is “kamwene” which is actually from the local language! Our first stop was Michael’s hosts’ shop for Michael to say hi and for us to buy some things. I bought two bottles of Embe for 2400 shillings, which comes out to $0.50 USD for each bottle. We’ve been told that things are cheaper in the village than the shop nearby the office, but it seems like it’s actually more expensive! Who knows, I don’t have the experience to gauge prices out here! Michael ended up buying an entire box of glucose crackers to have snacks on hand for a little under 10,000 shillings; a good deal for 48 packages of crackers! We all realized that the crackers and my Embe were made by the same company “azam” which happens to be a massive company here in Tanzania. From owning an entire soccer club to everything you see on TV here, azam has their fingers in everything! 

The adventure continued and we went walking down the main village some more until we got a vendor that sold bananas. I got six bananas for 500 shillings and Michael once more balled out and bought 16 for 1000. Eli also purchased some bananas.  (banana pic)

Henry and Miraclin didn’t buy anything as Miraclin didn’t have her money on her and Henry, well, that’s just Henry for you. Since we had all of this stuff to carry, we stopped by another shop to get a box. We didn’t know at first, but the shop we went to was Mr. Chesco’s wife's shop! It was nice to say hi before heading back towards home. On the way, Michael fell down in a ditch which was hilarious! Before making a turn out of the village, Michael wanted to show me the plethora of spiders outside of his room. I thought he was exaggerating at first as he hates spiders, but no! There were so many it was insane! 

After the spiders, it was time to head to Henry’s hosts’ house next as it was on the way. Michael and I were given some cooked peas by someone he knew which were wonderful! When we first arrived at the hosts’ house, the student that Henry bonded the most with was not there so we went down to the soccer field” past the house. I put quotations around “field” as there was not a speck of grass in sight on the field. In fact, it looked like a patch of Mars was slapped right in the middle of Tanzania. What made this spot so cool was its location. The field was perched on a cliff and had a great view of the surrounding hills. Obviously sitting on a cliff meant that when the kids inevitably kicked the ball off it, some poor fellow had to scale the face to retrieve the ball! We got to see this happen and I was impressed with how quick the kid was. 

When we went back up to the host house, the student Isaac was there and invited us in to play some Uno. We were served avocados with salt which just might be one of the best things I’ve had here! The seven of us played two rounds where Miraclin won the first and Isaac won the second. His deck had the special “Swap hands” wild card which meant that I was the one to give my win away. It seemed like a fun thing to do! When we walked out the sun was setting and it was beautiful! 

After all of our stops, we finally got back to our mission of walking back to the office. I spoke with Eli the entire time about the things we missed back home and how he’s not having the most enjoyable experience back at his house. There seems to be a small infestation of cockroaches which Eli understandably doesn’t love to be around… The entire time Henry and Michael were walking way faster than everyone else and would always leave us behind then wait for us to catch up! Personally I enjoy taking things slower out here! 

Back at the office, we played some chess! I lost of course, but I’m starting to understand the game more and more. We all packed up and while walking out the door, Michael off hand invited me to watch the America vs. Australia World Cup game at Michael's house. I was excited to go as his host is seemingly very wealthy and has very nice accommodations! I heard that his host even has a washing machine!

I first went back to Paul’s house to drop off my stuff and wait until the game started. Paul nor John were there, but some random person I didn’t know who was cooking in the dark. I went to my room to start blogging as I knew that I would get back late from the game and not have the energy to do it. When I heard a bunch of loud talking I knew that Paul and John were back which meant it was time for dinner. I was served ugali and beef by the unknown cook and it was AMAZING! Arguably one of the best meals I’ve had here. I’m not sure if it was just because I was super hungry! I ate in Paul’s room and listened to music. The meal was over sooner than I liked it to be and it was time to go watch the game!

The walk to Michael's house was very dark, but fun to say the least! I know there’s nothing out there to get me, but I always feel like there’s something in the forest out to get me. I arrive at the house in no time, but am a little late at the start of the game! 

Turns out both Michael and Henry stood up and sang the national anthem at the beginning and I just missed it! Mr. Chesco was there as well and we all had a good time. It was very warm in the living room and it was the first time I felt hot inside of a building here! They had two large pots full of glowing red charcoal that heated up the space very effectively to the point we needed to open up a window. Now when you open a window here, there’s a small chance a bit of nature is going to come flying in. To Michael’s dismay, a large bug shot its way in and scared him half to death. We were eventually able to catch it and release it back into the wild soon enough! The game was good, but like any soccer game it has its boring moments so it was fun to play with the host’s toddler! 

Eventually the game came to an end and America won 2-0! Mr. Chesco left early so Henry and I walked back together for the first portion of the walk until he got to his house. The rest of the walk was fun and admittedly a little scary! I made it back to Paul’s safe and sound and briefly blogged before going to bed!