Week Six

Early Monday morning, the huge medical group left for a quick safari in the Serengeti. That left about 10 of us at the house, so we enjoyed a quiet day (and EGGS for breakfast!) While we were in Nairobi at the end of last week, almost every single member of the medical team came down with some sort of horrible stomach bug. For over 48 hours there were over 20 sick people lining the (few) couches and hallway of the mission house, so we did a lot of housekeeping and disinfecting on Monday! I continued with art class for class 3- all the kids finished up their self-portraits this week by writing little essays about themselves on the back.

There was also lots of playtime this week! Between playing games after school and chores and visiting the girl’s rooms for our “big sister” activities some nights, we were busy! Mary, Alice, and I also worked on painting the new school throughout the week. We are hoping to finish it up at the beginning of next week and start work on the new library.

Dau, Tenzi, Bhoke, and Sabina looking very excited for pictures

On Thursday I walked to an overlook in the village behind a local church. There are boulders strewn everywhere, and the view into the village is beautiful. I’m looking forward to going back there for sunrise or sunset one day this week! I could hear babies crying and goats and cows making noise, and see smoke coming from small huts scattered between trees and patches of farmland. It is so peaceful to look out across the valley and not hear a single car or airplane.

On Friday, we ventured back into the village with Mr. Ben, the “gatekeeper” of sorts at City of Hope. We visited an 80 year old woman named Nahire who hand weaves beautiful straw baskets. I visited Nahire about a month ago and placed an order for a basket- it usually takes her about a month to complete a large one. She sent word through Mr. Ben that my basket was ready, so on Friday we went to pick it up! Nahire speaks the local dialect, Kuria, so Mr. Ben acted as translator. Nahire was busy this month and had completed 3 baskets, so Alice was able to buy one as well. It was such an interesting experience, and I always enjoy getting a peak into village life.

Emmanuel John and Naomi showing off our new purchases

Hope everyone has a wonderful Sunday!

Nairobi!

Back home at City of Hope! I didn’t realize how much I missed these sweet kids until I had spent about 24 hours away from COH, and all of the hugs and smiles and little games and dancing were absent from my day. After a 9-hour bus ride across Kenya, the swarm of girls that descended upon us when we pulled up to the compound was a nice welcome. However, Nairobi was a great experience and we all had an amazing time. Some highlights:

[Sorry there are no pictures- there are security guards all over and they weren’t too pleased when I pulled out my camera. So just imagine or Google image things!]

1). THE FOOD. Oh boy. The food at City of Hope is really good- fresh kale, cabbage, lots of rice, beans, beef, potato soup, pineapples, mangoes, bananas… but since we have over 30 people here right now, it has been more of the rice and potato soup variety. I miss protein. Ntagacha doesn’t even have a market, only small stands on the side of the main road with a few bananas, avocados, or tomatoes. So we have to drive to Tarime, about an hour away, to stock up on food for the week. Living in such remote and rural conditions for 5 weeks meant that being in the biggest City in east Africa sent us into some major reverse culture shock.

Mary, Alice, and I were overwhelmed at restaurants with actual menus! Nairobi has some great places to eat. We recommend Java House, ArtCaffe, and the Phoenician. Maybe it is due to the repetitiveness of the food we have been eating for the past 5 weeks, but once we discovered we loved Java House we stuck to it! Might as well try breakfast, brunch, dinner, and dessert there! ArtCaffe, which reminded me of bakeries in Paris, had an amazing lunch selection and delicious homemade breads and desserts. On the last night we went to The Phoenician. It is a Lebanese/Japanese restaurant- for Charlotte people, it reminded me of Cowfish! We had a little bit of everything- including homemade hummus, sushi, and calamari.

2). City Market. This place is amazing. The shopping in east Africa is by far my favorite of any place I have been. Everything (well, 80% of things) is so authentic and unique, and I probably could’ve spent a solid day walking around to all of the stalls in City Market. I love knowing the history and culture behind things, and if you know what to look for there are some amazing deals and treasures to be found. However, as soon as a mzungu walks through the gates, you get mobbed by sellers.

“Ohhhh sister come to me, I have beautiful things for you!”“Looking is free, sister, but come to my shop I just want to show you!”“Will you trade me your jacket for this beautiful Maasai knife, sister?”Uh, no.

They assume that all mzungus are clueless and willing to throw away money, so learning to bargain is essential. However, we had Greta there to show us the ropes and all of us got pretty good! We went to City Market Thursday afternoon to get a feel for things, and then again on Friday morning to make final purchases. All of us came back with some amazing treasures including paintings, handmade Maasai beads and knives, beaded shoes, and trade beads.  I ended up spending the most time at a seller who let me peacefully look through his collection of canvas paintings and handmade cards, and bought some great wall art for my room next year.

3). Amani ya Juu. By far my favorite place in Nairobi. I heard about Amani ya Juu through my church, Covenant Presbyterian, after my Dad and Uncle Mark came home with amazing purchases from their trip to Nairobi last October.

“Amani ya Juu means ‘higher peace’ in Swahili. Amani is a sewing and training program for marginalized women based in East Africa. Women from many African nations and cultures are leaning to work together through faith in God who provides a higher peace that transcends cultural and ethnic differences.Amani is committed to holistic development. Women gain experience in purchasing, bookkeeping, stitching, quality control, management, and design. As new women enter the program they are mentored in quality workmanship. Emphasis is placed on ethical business practices and harmonious relationships with people of different backgrounds”

The Amani compound is beautiful- an old house with large archways and open windows, each room filled with different beautiful merchandise. There is a small nook of handmade Christmas ornaments and advent calendars, a room of jewelry and bags, a clothing room, a room full of baby toys and pillows, and then beautiful home and kitchenware. Mary, Alice, and I wanted to buy absolutely everything. Such beautiful, unique products with an amazing story, made by amazing women. Each piece has a tag with the name of the women who made that particular item, and where she is from. Dad, I am looking forward to going back to Amani with you in a few weeks! Bring an extra suitcase, please.

www.amaniafrica.org

All in all, Nairobi was great. However, knowing what we were leaving behind at City of Hope made the trip hard. How easy it is for us to just pick up and hop a plane to explore Nairobi, while hundreds of thousands live in extreme poverty all around and within the biggest city in east Africa. It was a taste of what life will be like once we return to the U.S.- the materialism and fast paced culture is really something that is startling when you have been outside of it for so long. I’m not suggesting [or planning on] renouncing running water, electricity, a variety of food, shopping, going out to dinner, etc. We did all of that in Nairobi! It was just a reminder to try to be aware of and see the problems and struggles that people in your own backyard face everyday, whether your backyard right now is Tanzania, Charlotte, or somewhere else for the summer.

Week in Review

After the village school visit on Monday, I continued with creative arts class in the afternoon. The kids really seem to be enjoying the classes! Next week I am going to try tissue paper flowers with them, and the following week I am going to do some sort of project centered around The Very Hungry Caterpillar. I have only been teaching classes 3-6, but some of the nursery and pre-unit classes have asked for help as well, so who knows how many classes I will be signed up to teach when I get back from Nairobi!

Class 3 works hard on their portraits

On Tuesday, Mary, Alice, and I finished up a few small painting projects for the new school building. We are hoping to decorate some of the classrooms next week if we can find the supplies! Wednesday was a busy day- a government official was visiting! We had a little ceremony for him in the morning with all of the kids singing, and the kids had an Olympic day with races and a banana-eating contest! Mary Kate, I wish you had been there so we could’ve competed in the 3-legged race. We might’ve had some competition too- check out Musa’s stride.

girls at the field games

After lunch, Mary, Alice, Greta, Margarida, and I headed to the airstrip for our flight to Nairobi! Y’all, I cannot handle these little planes. We get to the airstrip (small dirt field) and someone goes “Oh look, they brought the big plane!”

HAH. I had a heart attack approximately every 2 minutes of the hour-long flight.  Every little buzzer, alarm, or sound caused the phrase “WE’RE GOING DOWN” to flash before my eyes. It didn’t help that I could see every single thing that the pilot was doing, and it is a little unsettling to watch all of the switches, dials, and knobs that have to be managed. Despite all of that, the view was incredible! Nairobi has been great- so much delicious food, time exploring the city, and lots of bargaining and shopping.  We wish Margarida wasn’t already back home in Portugal! Pictures to come soon of Nairobi!

IMPORTANT NOTICE: My most sincere apologies go out to all followers for the delay in post updates. Although not in Africa, I was away from internet. Sincerely, The Blog Uploader

Ntagacha Village School

On Monday a group of us walked up the road to Ntagacha Village Primary School, where 800 children from surrounding areas attend classes. The school at City of Hope is technically considered a private school, since children’s parents or guardians pay a small amount each month. The village school was quiet as we walked up the long dirt road to the U-shaped courtyard of buildings, and I thought school might be canceled for the day (something that I am discovering is very common around here).

However, a couple children spotted us from the windows, and groups of children began to quietly gather in the doorways.

As we talked to a group of teachers (the kids seemed to all be sitting in class while the teachers gathered outside in the courtyard- yet another aspect of the Tanzanian education system that I don’t understand) the kids crept closer and closer until suddenly all 800 were surrounding us. Imagine about 8 mzungus (Swahili for white person), each like this:

Alice and the kiddos 

The crowd around me, anxious to be in a picture!

I was afraid someone was going to get trampled, between the kids leaping and jumping to be in a picture and then nearly knocking each other down to see the small screen on my camera. The village school does not teach English, which is why so many parents try to get their kids into the school at City of Hope. I am hoping to go back to the village school in these next 2 weeks and try to teach a couple English classes. I have a few simple lesson plans that I came up with during my last trip to Tanzania, but if anyone has any ideas, send them my way! Last week I thought teaching creative arts to classes of 50 was intimidating-now I am thinking teaching English to 800 sounds a little more intense! We’ll see what next week brings!

Hello from Nairobi!

I'm writing from my new home in Nairobi. It is called Java House and it is like Starbucks but with a full menu. It is a magical magical place with chocolate milkshakes, burgers and fries, omelets, breakfast burritos, mochas and vanilla lattes, and giant slices of chocolate fudge cake. We know this because we have been here 4 times since Wednesday night and have ordered all of this... oops. Subsisting on potato soup and beans and rice for the past 5 weeks means that when Mary, Alice, and I walked into Java House on Wednesday night we made a little bit of a scene. Lets just say we have been experiencing a little bit of culture shock in Nairobi! 

We have been exploring, bargaining hard in the city market, and are headed to a baby elephant orphanage this afternoon. I have a few posts saved on my computer from last week's happenings at City of Hope, which I will post later today when we have better internet! 

And although the joy of experiencing restaurants and cake has been great, it has also been eye-opening to contrast city life with rural life in Ntagacha. The similarities and differences are numerous, and learning about life in the largest city in east Africa sheds a lot of light on how things work politically and economically in small rural villages. More info to come later!

Self Portrait Project: Week 1

[I wrote this on Thursday the 12^th, but the Tanzanian Internet decided not to cooperate until now! So here is a little recap of my experience in the school last week.]

Just finished up another day of school and I am exhausted. And very dirty. Cleaning up little pieces of tissue paper from dirt classroom floors means that what I thought was a strange tan line is actually a fine layer of red dirt! Good thing bucket showers really get you clean… oh wait. Despite the dirt and grime, I have loved the first few days of school! The 20 person medical team that arrived last Friday brought a young teacher along, so it has been incredibly helpful to work with her and learn from her in the classroom! While the medical team goes out into the community in the mornings and has class in the afternoons, we have been jumping into the classrooms whenever we can. Today was the 3^rd full day of class, and the schedule is still being worked out.

I was walking through the schoolyard yesterday afternoon and heard, “Laceeee, Laceeee” coming from a doorway. 7 year old Jesicah waved me over to class 2, and dragged me to the front of the room and said, “TEACH!”  40 little faces looked up at me and echoed Jesicah. I had no books, no curriculum or syllabus, and no clue what subject the kids were supposed to be learning. We finally decided on a little math lesson, since all I had was a chalkboard and chalk. One of the girls opened up her notebook and showed me multiplication problems they had done earlier, so I judged the difficulty level from there and improvised! Today I had a 40-minute period to teach creative arts to class 4, and then another period in the afternoon for classes 5 and 6. I locked myself in the art room this morning and gathered supplies for the day- lots of cut up tissue paper, newspaper, crayons.  About half of the kids in classes 4, 5, and 6 understood or spoke a little English, so Richard, one of the teachers, translated for me at the beginning. The kids came up with some really interesting portraits- several of them drew flowers or houses, and had a hard time understanding that they were supposed to draw themselves. Several commented that they didn’t know what they looked like. I have noticed that individuality isn’t really valued here. The kids do not like to stand out, be different, or think that they are deserving or worthy of extra praise or attention. They often become very shy when you praise them, and it has taken some of them weeks to warm up to us.

Having my camera in the classroom would've only added to the chaos, but here are some before and after pictures!

Hope you had a happy weekend!

African Time

 For a detail-oriented, checklist kind of person, learning “African time” has been a pretty big adjustment. So Monday was supposed to be the first day of school- which meant for the past 3 weeks I have been trying to meet with the teachers and figure out how I could help in the classroom. My 3:30 meeting on Friday was actually at 3 on Monday- nothing like the (supposed) first day of school to finally make the teachers figure out who is teaching which classes! I sat in on the staff meeting, and listened to the teachers try to divide up the classes for the 400 children in the primary school. The new school building is in the final stages of completion, but the rooms are ready for use and the kids started classes yesterday. In addition to the 100 children who live at City of Hope, over 300 children from surrounding villages make the walk to the City of Hope primary school every morning. Parents want to send their kids to school here so they can learn how to speak English. Once kids get to secondary school, they are supposed to know English, yet English is not taught in most primary schools. A fundamental problem with the Tanzanian education system! The school ranges from “baby class” (3 year olds) to class 7. However, it is not uncommon for teenagers to be in lower classes, because many of them were not on grade level when they came to the school at the City of Hope.

 I left the staff meeting on Monday with a creative arts class to teach to about 150 children, as well as an assistant teaching job in an English 5 class! Trying to draw on my summer camp experiences to come up with some art projects that can be explained using minimal English to large groups of young children- send any ideas my way, please! I am going to start out with self- portrait collages tomorrow- there is tons of tissue paper and construction paper in the art room. Pictures to come! In addition to art and English classes, I am working on reorganizing the library and moving it from the old school building to the new one, and opening it for tutoring and reading time after school. Also working on teaching some of the youngest students to read! Mary, Alice, and I have started “big sister” activities with the girl’s dorms. Another lesson in African time- it took us about 3 weeks to get all the girls together and explain the whole big sister thing. The girls love it though- they made a whole list of things for us to do together, ranging from eating mandazi and sugar cane to dancing to coloring and making friendship bracelets. We are checking things off the list each day! 

Recap of the week!

I thought this week was going by slowly and then I realized it is Saturday! We have been busy this week preparing for the start of school on Monday, and the arrival of a 16 person medical team that got here late last night. The guesthouse isn’t really equipped to handle this new team plus the 9 of us, so things are going to be different for this next month! It was nice to have these first 3 weeks to get used to things, but I guess we have been living the “posh” African lifestyle so far.  We now have to say goodbye to luxuries such as honey, eggs, mangoes, cereal, and hot water… beans, rice, and cabbage for the next 4 weeks! Good thing we have a secret stash of peanut butter and hard-boiled eggs.

The kids were busy enjoying their last week of “break” before school starting on Monday. Their schedule over these past few weeks has been work in the morning from 6 am to lunch, and then free time and an occasional class in the afternoon. On Monday, a music group from Kenya was here to film a video with the kids. Apparently they have been to City of Hope a few times before, and the kids love their music and listen to it during their Friday night dancing time. So Monday was a little chaotic, as the kids practiced their dance moves and we painted faces.  The kids had a great time being in the video and taking a day off work.

"music video" in progress

Tuesday we finished up a few projects around the compound and just enjoyed spending time with the kids. We took some long walks through the village, and are starting to get to know the village children better. Robin and I finished up some murals at the new medical center up the road, and a baby girl was born there on Monday night! The mother, Agata, walked home a few hours after her delivery later that night. On Wednesday, Robin and I went with Dr. Dennis to visit Agata and her new baby girl.  It took at least 30 minutes to get there, and half of the walk was through cornfields and brush. I couldn’t believe Agata had made this trek alone in the middle of the night, hours after a very complicated delivery.  We stayed with her for over 2 hours, holding the 2-day-old baby, meeting her 5 other children, and talking with her (Dr. Dennis speaks decent English, so he translated!). Agata was so hospitable and welcoming, and kindly offered us drinks and a bag of beans to take back to City of Hope. The interns had a discussion the other morning about how those who have the least give the most, and that is something we are finding to be true almost every day. We brought a few baby clothes and a little beanie baby lion for the kids, and the kids were absolutely terrified of the lion! They had never seen a stuffed animal before, and all ran screaming from the room! It took several minutes of me cuddling the lion to show the kids that it wasn’t real and it wouldn’t hurt them. Robin and I both agreed that the afternoon was one of the best so far, and I am looking forward to going back to visit Agata in the coming weeks. 

Agata and her family

In addition to visiting Agata on Wednesday, we had a mini 4^th of July celebration! Marion made homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast, some of the girls made mandazi for an after lunch treat, and we had mac and cheese for dinner! It was a good last American-ish meal before the big team came yesterday. Sadly we can no longer turn on the oven with this many people here, so we are going to have to wait until our trip to Nairobi for some big meals!

Today we are trying to finish up last minute details on the new school building, so it will be ready for the 400 kids that will be streaming through the gates Monday morning! Things are about to be crazy around here!

Lake Victoria

This Saturday we took a 2-hour road trip to Lake Victoria-it covers part of Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, so it basically looked like the ocean! We went to the town of Musoma, which looked a lot Tarime. A big open market, people pointing and yelling “white girl!” (mzungu in Swahili), and a lot of different sights and sounds. Lake Victoria is one of 2 places in the world where tilapia live naturally, so we visited the fish market down by the water.  We thought there might be more tourists in Musoma, but we only saw one. So once again we stood out just a little bit! I got a few pictures without being yelled at by angry old women demanding money- wish I could’ve gotten more! 

After visiting the fish market, we drove over to Tempo Beach to eat lunch at a small hotel.  After a small flat tire incident, we made it to the beach and got to soak our feet in the water. It was absolutely beautiful- no crowds, no media or technology, no giant buildings clouding the skyline. Just the water and sand and trees. We had fresh tilapia for lunch and just enjoyed the quiet.

After lunch we visited the main market in Musoma. Like Tarime, this market doesn’t cater to the tourist crowd, but we found more beautiful fabrics and Mary and I picked up some handmade woven straw bowls for about a dollar. We are going to get creative in our down time next weekend and see if we can paint them! My favorite part of the market is the food- everything is so fresh and colorful. We stocked up on mangoes, avocados, and pineapples again this week- I think we are averaging about 5 mangoes a day over here. The U.S. diet is going to be quite a shock after a summer of rice, beans, fruits, and vegetables!