No more Paul means I’m waking up to an alarm now (around 7:30am)! To be honest, I’m not used to a comfortable bed which actually made it harder to sleep. I laid in bed for a bit before getting up to get dressed and brush my teeth. With Kolibri in Joseph’s hands (he insisted on taking it), we walked to the office around 7:50 am. The schedule here is as follows: work starts at around 8:00am, tea is around 10:00am-10:30am, lunch is around 12:30pm-2:30pm, and work ends around 5:00pm. The tea time break acts as everyone’s breakfast and lunch is two hours as it takes a long time to cook meals out here! You’ll come to see that even though here in Bukimau things are a lot more structured than Madisi, schedules are extremely fluid!
We got to the office and Eli and Miraclin were already there looking at all of the examinations the department was producing. I looked through many of them and came to the consensus that school here is wildly harder than school back in America. In the States, we have four cores: math, English, science, and social studies while here they have nine cores: English, Kiswahili, mathematics, biology, chemistry, physics, civics, geography, and one of their choice. It’s a ton of information to learn on top of all of the things you need to do out here to merely survive. Lots of respect to each and every student!
After looking at the exams, I set up my things and try to get connected to the WiFi. I was able to connect for a short moment to get my blog saved, but could not do much else in terms of work. Unfortunately there is hard truth out here when it comes to the internet, it is horrible (Johnathan’s words)! In Madisi we get fantastic internet, but here due to many factors the connection is not that good. All that means is a lot of patience is needed to get work done! While waiting for some sort of connection to come back on, I spoke with Peter and Magaka for a bit about what Kolibiri is as they were very curious about the colorful box sitting beside me. I explained it to them the best I could and they seem excited to learn more about it later!
Eventually I was ushered out of the main office by one of the heads of the department for an important meeting they were going to have. I went outside and admired the beauty of the morning. The relentless wind blew the massive eucalyptus trees back and forth in a very mesmerizing way. Here I met Justin who is an extremely important head of VST and happens to be the younger brother of Godrey the main director. He was a very kind and warm man, but had to leave to go to the meeting he was directing (he assured me that it would be short). I continued to wait outside for a while until Eli came out to join me. It was nice and sunny at this point in the morning so we both went on a walk recommended by Johnathan (a short meeting can last 15 minutes or three hours, you never know!).
We walked around the school grounds and the houses scattered around the school. I first visited Eli’s house and room! His room was wonderfully lit and warmed up by the morning sun and seemed like a great place to relax. We then walked to my house and showed him around and inside my room. After that we wandered to the nearby boy hostel and looked into a well!
There a man stood and spoke to us in Swahili and we responded as best we could! Unlike Madisi, a lot of water is gathered by wells scattered around! I hope that I get a chance to try and fetch water some time!
Nearby the well, we smelt and saw a smoldering trash pit that was full of refuse. Even though the fumes aren’t pleasant, it’s better that the trash is burnt than scattered around everywhere. We continued to admire many other things in the area and had another conversation with a man in Swahili. Eli and I only really know how to greet so any conversation past saying hello, we’re very lost! We really need to learn how to say “I don’t speak Swahili” or “I don’t know”!
Throughout the walk we enjoyed the warm sun and talked about how this area reminds us of the midwest; lots of corn and trees! We walked a while longer into some corn fields that lead to the main dirt road before turning back to the school. Since the meeting was supposed to be short we figured we needed to get back to work yet when we arrived the meeting was still not over and it was past 11:00am!
When the meeting finally ended it was time to go to tea (a very late tea I will add). Miraclin, Eli, and I went with Roza to her house to eat white sweet potatoes and a delicious tea. The tea reminded me of sleepy time tea before I poured a couple spoonfuls of sugar in! We enjoyed breakfast and went back to the office to work. I got to work on organizing what I’m going to do for the three weeks I’m here! In the mornings I’m planning on recording guide videos on Kolibri and in the afternoon from 2:30pm to 4:30pm teach my small team the content from the videos. In order to get work done efficiently without WiFi, I took advantage of my local AI models to help me with creating lesson plans and video scripts!
I worked until Joseph came in and took me for lunch. When someone says it’s time to go, you do not finish up and make them wait, you just simply go (a hard concept for me)! We walked together to the back of Eli’s house and tested me on my Swahili that I’ve learned. I knew a lot more than I thought! It’s easy to learn a language when it’s the main thing you hear day in and day out. We went inside and there were two men hanging out. One is named Leonard and the other I do not know (for naming purposes, I’ll call him Skuma as that’s the tribe he is a part of. Skuma people are known for being very tall and strong!). Skuma was writing gospel music on his computer with a music writing software that I used in high school for band class; so cool!
Eli showed up and we were invited to use the piano. The only song that we know is “Heart and Soul”! I played the low part and he played the high part! Leonard, Skuma, Joseph, and Eli’s host Jordan, were all very proud of us and didn’t want us to stop playing! As we continued to play we both noticed a fantastic smell coming from the kitchen for lunch, but I already knew what it was as I’ve smelt it many times at Paul's house…
Eli and I continue to play on the piano for another hour. It was a nice Yamaha keyboard that had a ton of groovy beats, songs, and piano sounds. We had a blast mixing the beats like a DJ and tried to make some cool songs. Another cool feature of the keyboard was the “chord selection mode”. Essentially a song would play and all you had to do was press a key to play a specific chord. I played the chords and Eli soloed over them! It brought me right back to my days of playing in the jazz band!
Lunch time came, and sure enough, they brought out small fish and ugali! The guess in my head was unfortunately right. Thankfully they also brought out a bowl of beans so I ate those instead! I also pretended to eat the fish to make it look like I liked them (they make me feel so ill). We all ate the ugali from one plate which is something very common out here. We all eat in “cooperation” as Joseph puts it which makes the meal more personal and connected! For some reason the main talking point of our lunch meal was bride price! Here in Tanzania it is very relevant and important. On average it costs 2,000,000 - 5,000,000 shillings ($1,000 - $2,000) or for some tribes 20 cows. A very interesting concept to me but one that is quite normal out here! Towards the end of the meal I was handed a cup of water to drink. I was thankful for the water and after I took a couple of sips the taste confirmed it wasn’t filtered so I hope I don’t get sick!
After the meal, it was time to go to Roza’s place for another lunch! I believe there was a slight miscommunication on who would feed us, but more food is always welcome! Eli did not eat lunch with me and instead ate with his host. He had a delicious meal of eggs and avocados and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little jealous! We got to Roza’s house and ate more ugali and greens all on one plate again. There was again more fish, but I did not eat any. The reason why lunch was so late at Roza’s place was because she was in another meeting that ran long. I have so much respect for the women here that work at the education department as they have all the responsibilities of work here and are expected to make a ton of meals and keep a home on top of everything. Rozadina is such an incredibly hardworking and kind person and always makes sure to extend my gratitude every chance I get. During the meal, we learned from Roza that the way she differentiates between Yona-Paul and Yona-Johnathan is calling them Yona-Black and Yona-Mzungo! I can’t say it isn’t an effective way to distinguish the two.
Towards the end of our meal, Miraclin wanted to drink some coffee and extended an invitation to share her stash with us. Coffee is uncommon here, but Susan gave her a tin of instant coffee on the fourth of July! I never drink coffee, but figured it would be a good end to the meal. Roza boiled us water and we prepared the coffee with some sugar!
With our meal done we went back to the office around 3:30pm! I was supposed to be there an hour earlier, and to my surprise, the members of my group were disappointed that I wasn’t there earlier. In my mind I had a completely reasonable excuse for why I was late, but I think their excitement to learn was greater than I had anticipated! I immediately set up the entire Kolibri project and had to do some finagling to get everything to work (there were not enough outlets at first or an extension cable). When I finally got everything set up, I taught the concept of Kolibri, why it’s helpful for VST, and demonstrated how it works. I had them connect to the server, act as a student, and see what Kolibri has to offer. The lesson seemed to be a success as they were all interested to learn more! My original sentiment going into teaching Kolibri after Madisi was that it’d be a painful and frustrating process. Of course I only felt that way as I was used to teaching students who didn’t understand English. The fact that these teachers understand English proficiently and know how to use a computer, made the learning process so much simpler and easier for everyone involved! With how well they learned, it gives me hope that Kolibri has a promising future. I only had a couple members of my group today (I imagine it’s because I was so late), so I’m looking forward to teaching more tomorrow how to use Kolibri Studio (the website we use to make the resources that go inside of the Kolibri server).
By the time I was finished, it was time to go play volleyball which seems to be more popular than football for the education department. They were thrilled to hear that I enjoy playing and I learned that Peter is the team captain of the volleyball team. I went back to my house to change and found Joseph sleeping! I changed into my shirt and shorts, and put my regular outfit back on top to be modest. Joseph heard me getting ready and sprung up to get changed as well for volleyball. He came out of his room with quite the bright and flashy outfit and I realized right there and then that I didn’t need to cover up to go to the field to play (it was too late to change). We walked over to the sports grounds and over to the volleyball court. The net was of decent quality and was hung up by two large wooden posts. The court was all dirt and seemed to be the right size! While I warmed up by playing volleyball while Joseph and Skuma ran at least a mile around the soccer field to warm up! Maybe if I’m feeling energetic I’ll run with them someday.
Players started to trickle in and we eventually had a full 6 on 6 game going! My team won several sets and the other team won several sets too. Eli was on the other team and he was quite fun to play against! We would do a good job at blocking each other and in general had a lot of fun. Eli hadn’t played a ton of volleyball back in the States so it was fun to see him do so well for not having a ton of experience! We played with most regular volleyball rules except the ones regarding the technicalities regarding net violations. Sometimes violations would be called, sometimes not! When it came to scoring, I honestly have no clue how it works and assume we play to 11 or 15 to win the game. The score would be said in English and Swahili by a “ref” monitoring the game!
I knew that I or Eli were being talked about when we heard the word mzungo combined with a bunch of other Swahili. I assume, and hope, that it’s nothing bad but it always catches your attention! We played until it was dark (we could barely even see the ball) and unfortunately lost the last game which is the only game you don’t want to lose. The losing team has the responsibility of taking down the net! It’s not hard, but it is quite high! I think we play at the men’s height or perhaps a little higher!
I thought that when we took down the net, we would simply go back to our respective homes. To my surprise, we had an end of game brief that was very serious. I was under the impression that we were playing volleyball for pure fun, but no! There is an A team and a B team along with a team captain position (all very official). Peter is the team captain and led the meeting. We went over what went well today and how we can get better. It was a great time for reflection and it was interesting to see everyone get so serious when only moments ago we were all taunting each other and having a great time. In general, I thought that we all played well and enjoyed ourselves!
Joseph and I went back to the house and asked me if I would take a cold shower or if I wanted warm water. If we had just got done playing soccer, I would’ve liked a cold shower but at this point I was quite cold from the after game debrief and the fact that volleyball doesn’t get you that tired. Joseph ended up showering with cold water first and then went to Roza’s place to get my warm water. It was unclear if I was going to Roza’s or taking a shower at Joseph’s house so I had all of my clothes, towel, and soap in my hand waiting in the front room. When Joseph came in with the bucket of water, I felt pretty stupid but followed Joseph into his room where he happened to have his own bathroom (I never knew!). The bathroom was the largest I’ve seen and had a ton of space. The only problem is that it didn’t have a light so you needed to prop up your phone’s flashlight on a window’s ledge to see! I’m not sure why, but I thought I would bathe and then change in the bathroom. The problem with that was there were no places to put any of my clothes or my towel without placing them on the wet floor! The next time that I shower, I’ll make sure to keep my change of clothes in my room.
The bucket bath was normal except for the fact that the water had an interesting smoky scent! I’m used to all of my water coming from a kettle that might have some tea residue, not ashes. I had a lot of lukewarm water to bathe with and went on as normal. Afterwards, I got dressed and it was time to go on another adventure. I would’ve been dropped off at Roza’s for dinner, but it was not ready yet so we went to Eli’s house once more. Eli’s house is definitely the bachelor pad or at least where all of the men in the education department hang out (some are married, but do not have their wives here for whatever reason). When we arrived, Skuma and Leonard were rearranging all of the furniture so I was ushered to sit down in front of Leonard’s computer and watch gospel music videos. Eli showed up shortly after and joined me in watching them! We entertained ourselves (and the others there) by matching the dance moves in the videos. Skuma put a charcoal stove underneath the table by our feet which felt wonderful!
When Leonard was finished arranging things, he sat down with us and showed us the gospel videos he’s made and the ones that his friends are in. There was one with Skuma and his wife and another one with Joseph playing the piano (his name was listed as Joel Peter). Dinner was ready and Eli and I went to Roza’s house. On the way we passed a very fragrant, smoldering trash pit and an in-house shop that I’ll be going to someday soon. For dinner we ate spaghetti, beans, and watermelon together on one plate. In addition to the reasons I listed earlier for the joy we get eating on one plate, it also creates a lot less dishes to hand wash! It was a very fun meal and ended with Roza beginning to pluck kernels of dried maize from the mountain of cobs she has. We wanted to join in so Miraclin, Eli, and I all started to shuck all of the kernels off the cobs.
It’s not too difficult, but can be tedious work. The funny thing to me is that we just let the kernels fall onto the floor and our feet and sweep them up into a big pile. Once there’s enough kernels, they are taken outside to dry in the sun before being ground down into flour! Eli’s host Jordan came over to pick Eli up, but ended up joining in as well. Obviously Jordan was fantastic at it and could pick clean three cobs in the time it took us to do one! His method was to take an already picked cob and use it as a tool to shear the kernels off. It took me a bit to get the hang of it and it was way more efficient than using my fingers! In fact, I was using my right thumb so much I ended up getting quite the blister on it (American’s have soft hands, we don’t work!).
When Joseph came to pick me up to go to bed, he thought it was hilarious that my thumb was blistered (we are comedic relief out here)! We went to the house and went immediately to bed. I would say the biggest difference between Joseph and I’s relationship compared to Paul’s relationship is that Joseph doesn’t see me as entertainment the way that Paul did. Joseph knows that I’m tired and want to go to bed so we part ways immediately when getting inside the house. Paul would want me to stay up with him and listen to music and he was tired. Sure I miss the camaraderie, but it is nice to have some alone time here and there. I get ready for bed, blog and call it a night! I’m not sure how I’ll manage without any WiFi here ;) (kidding)!
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