The School – Orkeeswa Secondary School is where we are working. The school is currently three main classroom buildings designed in a horseshoe shape. Each building has two classrooms in it with teachers' offices between. There is also a cook building (we eat lunch outside), a garden, chicken coop, pit latrines. Unfortunately, all the chickens were all killed this week by, no doubt, a vicious and terrible creature! This was really sad because the chickens are actually managed by a student group called the microfinance club. No worries though, they had already made plans to buy more!
Monduli – After months of speculation and trepidation, we finally arrived in Monduli, Tanzania. The greater Monduli area is a town of around 2000 people. However, as I am learning in all of Tanzania civilization, a town really consists of smaller villages interconnected with dirt roads. For instance "Monduli" is really Monduli Juu (upper), Monduli Chini (lower), Mlimani (means Mountain), etc… By the way, we actually live in Mlimani which means we walk about 1 mile every time we want to go down to where the shops, etc. are located.
The Students – There are three groups of students – pre form, form 1 and form 2. Forms are equivalent to grades in the States. Right now, the form 2 students are working towards their big government-issued standardized tests. If they pass, they can go on for more education. If not…well that's unclear to me right now. Our students are primarily from the Maasai tribe. They are split pretty evenly between boys and girls. I am surprised at how much we have already learned about their personalities. I don't know what I was expecting! In general most have come up and greeted us. We shake hands regularly. They say "you are welcome" to our school. They also ask some very challenging questions. I quickly realized that part of what I'm experiencing is foreign to me because of cultural differences and language barriers. However, quite a lot of what I see is also just teenagers interacting with other teenagers coping with typical teenage issues. Boys want to be manly and girls want to be beautiful (gross generalization I know). Some are shy, some are bold. Some are intellectual and some are just looking for fun. I have been shocked by many things here in Tanzania, but this time I think it was just how similar teenagers really can be.
The Teachers - Our teachers are diverse! We have four from the US, one from Australia, one from Ireland and four from Tanzania. We are pretty well split male to female. Most have taught in schools other than their homeland. I am also pleased to announce that most of them like coffee…so we get along just fine! Obviously we have only been here for one week. However, here are some generalities I can find. We live together, eat together, work together, ride together in the same dusty landrover over bumpy roads, get covered in dust together and struggle with the same issues of scarcity. I've found them to be supportive, open and very passionate about what they are doing here.
The House – We live in the "Polepole (meaning 'slow') Palace." We have hot water showers, two flush toilets, a refrigerator and gas stove top. There is a gate and security guard. By any standards, this is a nice house! All of us here feel really fortunate…especially to have the hot showers! There are four of us living here and three in the other volunteer house. The houses are in Monduli town, about 4 miles from Orkeeswa. We did run out of water twice. Once was because there just wasn't water being supplied this far up the hill and it lasted two days. The second time was just because we used too much water and the holding tank had not had time to recharge. Obviously water will be a factor here. Nevertheless, it is so nice to be able to turn on a faucet and have water!
The Housemates – Lisa and I are so spoiled! Ben (Australia math/chem teacher) and Jane (Ireland English teacher) are wonderful cooks and both hilariously funny! By wonderful cooks, I mean they create things from their head that include food items Lisa and I have never even heard of! For example, we were sitting around on Thursday night and Ben said, "I think I'll make prawns in a garlic sauce." What the heck! Who does that! Further, given the fact that it gets dark at 7:00 PM, everyone goes to bed by 9:30. So, this past week Lisa and I have been better fed and better rested than possibly ever before! Lisa and I are, however, more than a little nervous because we have no idea how to cook like this. So, if anyone has a good recipe, please send it our way so we can contribute!
The Pig Feast – Friday night we dined on pork and drinks after work. By pork, I mean the place barbecued 8 kilos ( I have no idea how many pounds that is) of pork meat and we just dug into the pile of meat and ate it with our hands! It was cool to be sitting around swapping stories, learning Swahili and watching the personalities of our new comrades unfold.
Next Week - Things have a tendency to change from day to day. However, at this time it's looking like I will teach a two week course in chemistry to form 1 on fuels and two weeks of animal science to form 2. Lisa will start working with the pre form students on speaking English (helping Jane) in the mornings and then working in the office in the afternoons helping with getting an Academic Office started for the school and getting some fundraising materials ready for our Director's upcoming fundraising tour in the States. Please continue to pray for our students, our teachers and us as we move forward!
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