The regular morning ensued as normal, but I got to boil my own water this morning! It was nice to finally feel a sense of independence here. On one hand it’s great to have the extreme level of hospitality here, but on the other I feel bad as I'm a completely capable young adult that can do things for myself. It always makes me laugh when Paul doesn’t believe me that I can get back to the house by myself even though there’s only one way to get there and it’s a three minute walk at most. In other words, they baby us here and I understand why and am grateful for it but would also like to see what it's like to be more independent!
After getting ready, I didn’t wait for anybody to finish getting ready as I thought I needed to get up to the office as soon as possible to get my project ready. After all, today was a big day and I could finally test the project that’s been in the making for more than six months now! Class started at 9:00am and the project took a bit to set up so I wanted to be early. When I got to the office, I received some unfortunate news from Mr. Chesco. With school being over, the headmaster (similar to a principle) locked all of the Chromebooks (laptops) up that I needed the students to use. Without computers they can’t connect or do anything related to my project! I spent a lot of time preparing, but at the end of the day it just makes me understand the whole project better.
In order to pivot, Mr. Chesco asked if I could bring the projector in and play videos for the class. I of course agreed as it was just a matter of finding the right YouTube video, downloading it, and connecting my laptop to the projector for the whole class to see. I chose some English noun teaching videos as that’s what the students are covering right now. When Henry, Miraclin, Eli, and Mr. Chesco left to teach, Miraclin left Michael and I scones! I’m not sure what the definition of a scone is but it seemed to me like the “scone” was just really large bread. It was good nonetheless. Eli left with them today as he was going to teach one of the science experiments he’d been working on!
I get back to work before the regular tea time, before going back to work. My various projects consist of a lot of time on the computer! In the middle of me figuring out a feature for Google Classroom, a mass influx of chairs and desks carried by students were moved to the front room where I was working. I was promptly asked to leave to the back of the office so I could get out of the way for everything to be set up. At the moment I was confused about what was going on, but quickly remembered that VST is getting ready for a big seminar tomorrow!
There was a lot of stuff to bring to the back of the office and honestly I like doing work back here more; there are comfy couches! I got resettled and got back to work reviewing documents for their accuracy. I forgot how much content there is to learn math! This entire time Michael has been studying for his exam all day. I honestly can’t imagine taking a summer class as I’ve said before.
When everyone got back, it was time to eat lunch. If you guess rice and beans with a side of greens you’d be correct! While eating lunch, we constructed a makeshift see-saw with a truck’s tailgate and 2x4. It was a ton of fun! There are a lot of simple random joys in Tanzania! Life is slow out here and since nothing runs on a strict schedule it’s all very relaxing! What isn’t relaxing is when we’re back in the office and Michael, with his noise cancelling ear buds in, was finger drumming on the desk very loudly. I didn’t mind as it was like I was back in my noisy band classroom, but Eli was freaking out; very funny to see!
Eventually someone brought up the idea to play Cardi with Mr. Chesco and we ended up playing for almost three hours. The whole time Mr. Chesco was still making up and altering rules! That’s honestly the fun part of Cardi, you never know how the game will change! We played until it was dark and subsequently dinner time. Something was very different about this dinner as there were a ton of people here, almost 50 or so! They are all here for the seminar this week and come from all different parts of Tanzania. Dinner was regular and fulfilling as always.
With our tummies full, it was time for Michael to take his exam. From what I know he was supposed to take it at three different times today but his proctor kept recheduling! At this point it was 8:30pm, but this is when his proctor was finally ready. Since we’re all the way out in the middle of Tanzania, there are obviously no LaTourneau (that’s how you spell the college I learned, super weird) approved proctors so Michael had to convince his professor to let him have a member of the VST staff proctor him. Alfred was his name and from what I know, he’s pretty high up in terms of leadership in VST!
Seeing that I didn’t want to go back to the house alone and wanted to enjoy some more WiFi, I went with Michael to do his exam. I sat in the same room as him and quietly blogged while he slaved away on his test. He ended up feeling pretty good on it and to celebrate, Alfred started playing 50 Cent’s “In Da Club” as our walkout song. It never fails to crack me up when the most unexpected song is played out here. The three of us walked out as cool as we could as 50 Cent blasted from Alfred’s phone. We walked back to Paul’s house as another “Candy Shop” by 50 Cent began to play!
Once we got inside, Michael and I were met with quite the surprise; people sleeping everywhere! There were around 7 mattresses on the floor in the front room alone and many people tucked away in the individual rooms. Safe to say it was a packed house! With our room right by the bathroom, there’s always lots of noise coming from outside. Hopefully it won’t be too noisy but I’m a heavy sleeper regardless! Michael is still staying with me but is supposed to leave tomorrow. With the house so full that might mean I get an unknown guest to sleep with me, maybe they’ll get to meet Ratrick too! An overall great day here in Tanzania, I hit the hay hard!
Way to keep it moving! Sweet dreams!
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