Class VII Graduation!!

Friday was graduation for Class VII. Honestly, it was one of the happiest days of my life as a new teacher! Those who know me know that I'm not a crier, but I was definitely having to fight a bit to hold back the tears of joy and pride that I had for those kids during the ceremony.

The day started off normally enough, but the minute Kjirstin and I left home, things turned into a whole new cultural experience. When Kjiristin and arrived at school, we were asked to wrap the gifts that would be presented to the Class VII students when they received their certificates. The gifts from the school were: 5 exercise books, a ruler, and a new pencil for their secondary school studies. Here are a couple of pictures of us with the presents:

The contents: 5 exercise books, 1 ruler, 1 pencil

The results of our hard work! :D

After wrapping the gifts, we went in search of a new job to do. We were directed to the ladies who were preparing the food that would be served after the ceremony. With the ladies, we got to do a variety of cooking prep activities. We began with peeling garlic and then ginger root. Then we got to peel some cucumbers and carrots. We shredded the carrots and also got to chop onions. It was so much fun for me. Over the last 9 months I've become so familiar with the church/school community here and now that I know Swahili so much better, I feel more a part of things. It was so fun to get to talk and joke with the ladies in their own language! :D
Here are some pictures of our cooking prep:

After we were finished with the cooking prep, we had some down time. I got to rehearse with Class V a little bit and then I was pretty much hanging out with Kjirstin and Lauren until we began. I was told the service would begin at 12:30pm, but we didn't actually start until 1:30pm. Even then, there were very few parents there. They trickled in slowly throughout the ceremony and eventually, they all arrived. The service proceeded for about 3 hours. During that time, speeches were made, the history of the school was read, some students put on a play, others danced, and others sang. There were songs in English, Swahili, and French (all of the languages that the students are learning at Wesley). I taught the students of Class V "The Lord Bless You and Keep You". This song has a lot of meaning for me because I was a member of the Centenary College Choir for 3 years. At the end of every choir concert we would always encircle our audience and sing this song to them. It may not have the same level of meaning to them, but for me, it was enough to share the song with them and know what it meant to me. Below are some pictures of the ceremony.

Students from Classes IV, V, and VI waiting for the ceremony to start.

Members of the graduating class!! :D

The play that the students put on was about education. There were two families who wanted their children to get into secondary school. One of the fathers wanted his son to get good grades, but didn't want his daughter to go to school. Ironically, the son was skipping school to do drugs and the daughter passed her exams very well.

Me conducting Class V in "The Lord Bless You and Keep You"

After the ceremony, I served lunch (it was about 3:30pm by this time) to all of the graduates, family members, and students who participated in the ceremony. It was really meaningful for me to have the opportunity to serve food. It's really ironic, when you decide to become a missionary, you think you're only going to serve. But, when you arrive, you find that everyone is just as eager to serve you and make you comfortable. They're so happy that you're there and they want you to have the best they can offer. I was just happy to be able to also have the opportunity to serve. :D

Well, that's about all there is from the graduation ceremony. Altogether, it was one of the most wonderful and meaningful experiences I've had here so far. I'm really glad that I got to come back for this extra year so that I could be a part of wishing well to the students I've come to love so much.

May the Lord Bless You and Keep You,
~Christine

The New Living Quarters and Missionary!

Well, this past weekend, I finally got to move into the house where the new missionary and I will be living together for the next 6 months!! It's not much, but it's got all the essentials and for me I've decided that it's like a palace! We have two bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, and a bathroom. It took me less than one hour for myself and a couple others to move everything (except for the big furniture like the bed, desk, shelves, etc.) to the new room. It reminds me of when I was in college and how much stuff I brought with me to college because I "needed" those things. But, now I've gotten used to living with so little and it seems so silly to think of all of the things we think we "need", but really we can live without. Even with what I have here, sometimes I feel that it's too much, and I could live with less. Seeing how people live in the village makes me so grateful for what I have in Morogoro, even if it would be considered pretty well "below standards" in America. On Wednesday, a student came to the house for a piano lesson. His friend had decided to stay and hung out while I was teaching him. When we went inside to get the piano and bring it out onto the porch, the friend made the comment "Wow! This house is so beautiful!" It totally caught me off guard because for me, the house feels pretty empty and, well, I wouldn't exactly describe it as beautiful. (I will post pictures soon and you can decide for yourselves) It made me think a lot about what kind of living situation he might have. In a way I felt a little bit guilty for having access to so much when so many around me just don't. I mean, the cost for the rent on this house is WAY cheaper than any rental in America, and yet it's so much more than many can afford. I'm not sure how I'm going to be able to reconcile this in my brain, or really, if that will ever happen.

In other news, the new missionary, Kjirstin, arrived in DAR on Tuesday. Pastor Umba and I left the house at the lovely hour of 5:30am to get to the bus station. We departed sometime around 6/6:30am-ish and I dozed in and out for most of the bus ride there. We arrived sometime around 9:30am and got breakfast at a hotel next to the bus stand (the same hotel we stayed at both times I flew into DAR). Then, we caught a cab to the airport and arrived sometime around 10:30am. Her flight was not scheduled to arrive until 1:30pm, so we had quite the wait. I mostly sat and read and when I was tired, I walked around to see the shops. There aren't too many there and the airport is tiny compared to the international airports in America. At about 1:40pm, Kjirstin walked out of the arrivals area and pastor and I greeted her and then we were on our way to catch a cab back to the bus stand. The bus ride back was terribly long because the bus stopped so many times. Kjirstin and I talked part of the time and I slept some of the time too. In the evening, we were still making more arrangements, including hanging curtains in her room and sweeping. Even now, there are still many more things that need to be added to the house to make it more functional for us "needy" Americans. We've decided to pool some personal money together to buy things like a hot plate for cooking, and a small shelf to go with the bathroom sink (which doesn't have anything of the sort currently). She also needs a fan, internet modem, phone, etc. which we won't be able to get until Saturday. So far things seem to be working out quite well between us and I have high hopes that we will be great housemates for the next six months!

Well, that's all I've got time for for now. Tomorrow is graduation for Class VII so this week has been really chaotic. I'm really looking forward to next week and being able to settle into the old routine!!

Hope you're all having a great week so far!
May the Lord Bless You and Keep You,
~Christine

And Life Continues On!

Well, Class VII is now taking their exams, so I've had yesterday and today off. I passed by the school yesterday morning on my way to go work out but I made sure not to even step a foot onto the school grounds. I was warned not to pass through the compound (which is what I usually do), and I don't want to do anything that could compromise the students' tests. Yesterday, I also washed clothes, and did a lot of other miscellaneous things. In the afternoon I headed to town to talk with a shopkeeper friend and mail some letters and last night I spent the night at the house of a friend who lives near town. It was a really nice time. We got dinner in town and pretty much sat around and chatted all evening before we went to bed at the very reasonable hour of 10:30pm. This morning she went to school early and I hung around the house reading and working on graduate school applications. Now, I'm back home hanging out for a bit before heading out to play volleyball.

The last couple of days, I've been trying to focus more on relaxing and just trusting God that everything that needs to get done will get done. I've found recently that I've been getting so stressed out by all my different ministries that I haven't been enjoying everything as much. Monday and Tuesday went well and as they are the last couple of days before the tests, I decided to let my Class VII students relax a bit. On Sunday I was able to get copies of 100 Bill Nye the Science Guy episodes that were downloaded by a friend here for me. I let Class VII watch at least four of them on Monday while I graded work. They absolutely LOVED it! They kept asking me to play more episodes and we pretty much went until my computer ran out of battery. I hope that they learned something, but how can you NOT learn something from Bill Nye the Science Guy??

Tuesday, Class VII was given the day off and the rest of us had a slightly shorter day. When I got home, I found a couple of my students sitting out on the porch doing more practice problems for the exams. They asked for Bill Nye and we watched at least 3 more episodes together. It was great! I think that in the future, when I let the students watch the show, I'm going to write out a list of questions for the students to answer. That way, they'll be a bit more active in their learning and they'll also have something the can look back to for reference. I know I'm not actually a science teacher, and really science was never one of my strongest subjects, but these students are struggling so much with it that I just have to do something!!

In English class, I've begun giving the student journals. The classes are required to write the same number of sentences at the number of years that they have been in school. So, class V must write 5 sentences, VI must write 6 sentences, and VII must write 7 sentences. I'm not sure why I decided to do that, but it made sense to me that those who have been taking English longer should be able to write more. The point of this activity is to give the students a chance to discuss ideas and express themselves using English. So often, it seems that the curriculum is so focused on grammar (which the students need for sure), but doesn't give them a chance to do writing activities. I think it's been a really good experience for them, though I think it's a bit of a challenge. Although it's terribly difficult for me to restrain myself, I'm trying not to grade them based on correctness of English. I don't want to journal to be stressful for them. The only time I mark a sentence as incorrect is if it couldn't pass for a complete sentence. One of my favorite moments so far with the journals has been when I gave the topic "Write About a Time You Were Most Happy". My piano student wrote about the time I asked him if he wanted to learn how to play the keyboard. He wrote all about how much he loved to play keyboard and about all the things that he has been learning. I was so overwhelmed by this. I had no idea how much of an impact I was having on this student just by teaching him how to play piano! I've decided to take on a couple more piano students. I'm really excited about this! I want to add more students as well, but I'll have to gauge how much time I have and decide what's reasonable. Maybe I can begin

Now that Class VII is done, I'm going to be taking over the English classes for Class IV in addition to keeping Classes V and VI. I'm also going to be teaching music once or twice a week to classes V and VI. The schedule has been a little bit off with the national exams and preparations for the graduation next Friday. I've agreed to teach a song to Classes V and VI to sing to Class VII and then also a song that Class VII can sing to the rest of the group. I've decided to teach them Madam Christine's one-part rendition of "The Lord Bless You and Keep You" that the Centenary College Choir sings at the end of every concert. Honestly, I think that it's such a wonderful good-bye song and I think that the students are enjoying learning and singing it. It's a song that holds a lot of meaning to me having been in the Centenary College Choir for 3 years in college. There's truly no other group like it in the world and it's kind of cool getting to share something that means so much to me with others.

Looking forward into the future, we have school tomorrow and then it's the weekend. Saturday I move into the new house. Monday, I've got school and then Tuesday I'm off to DAR with Pastor Umba to collect our new missionary. Next Friday we have the graduation ceremony for the Class VII students. I'm not sure why that is seeing as they won't have their scores back for quite some time. I'm not sure what will happen if they don't actually pass the exams. Will their "certificate of completion of Primary School" be made null? Will they return to Wesley and try again next year? This is our first year having a Class VII, so I guess we'll see what happens.

May the Lord Bless You and Keep You,
~Christine

Back to School and National Exams

School is back in full swing and I'm not sure who is more exhausted: the kids or me. Things are picking up now because class VII is going to be taking their national exams next Wednesday and Thursday (possibly Friday, too, if necessary). It's amazing to me all of the safety measures that are being taken for this in order to prevent cheating and whatnot. I mean, I'd go so far as to say that they are being even more cautious with this than the testing that takes place in the states. No teacher is allowed on the school compound during the testing. Police officers are the ones who will be giving the testing. They even had to change the room where they will be doing the testing because Class VII's room is "too far away" and "something could happen".

I've been trying to keep the students motivated to get final preparations in, but especially Class VII seems to have run out of steam. One day this week, I entered their classroom to give them work and they began to complain, so I asked them "What did you expect? That I would just let you sit around and play when you have a test next week?" Their response was "YES!" I was floored at the response and I've been trying to see things through their eyes. They are the first Class VII at Wesley Primary School, so there is even greater pressure for them to do well because this test will "put Wesley on the map" so to speak. If they do well enough, even more students will be attracted to our school which will bring in money for the school from the school fees. They've heard it from every teacher and probably even their parents non-stop all year "you must do better. You must do better. It's not good enough. It's not good enough." It's common for the students to beat with a stick on the hand for not receiving the correct grades. It makes me sick because that's only creating fear in the students and not actually solving the underlying problem. I heard of one teacher who was giving the students beatings even the students even if they got 28/30 on a test. I just can't understand it, that was an amazing accomplishment for any student.

All of this has caused me to begin thinking about how words and actions have the power to build up or destroy others. We, the teachers and even I, have filled these young minds with these words and placed all of this pressure on them, and to what end? We've stressed them out and freaked them out, and honestly, when it comes down to it, what good is that going to do. It is known that a person under so much pressure and stress will not perform as well at a task as someone who is relaxed and focused. I hope that in spite of everything that stands against them, these students will succeed and be admitted into good secondary schools. I hope that as I continue forward, I will try to focus more on what is right and not always point out what is wrong. I want the students to know that I am proud of them and that I really believe that they've accomplished a lot over the past year.

In the rest of life, things are going well. Since I'm not taking the language classes any more, I've had a lot more free time in the evenings to relax and read a bit which has been nice. This weekend was good and I got a lot of things done that I had been putting off for a while. Things are also shaping up nicely for the arrival of the new missionary who will be landing in DAR next week on Tuesday. I'm really excited about that! I'll be moving into our new house this coming weekend so that things will be all set for her arrival.

Well, I hope that you all have a great week!

May the Lord Bless You and Keep You,
~Christine

Final Week of Language School and Back to Teaching

Well, this was my last week of language school. In the end, I'm so happy that I decided to do this! I've learned so much over the last 4 weeks and covered 40 1/2 chapters altogether! I kind of slowed down at the end there because I was feeling a bit less motivated as the end drew near. But, really the language learning will not end as long as I continue to live here. Now, the classroom becomes the world outside of my room. Already, I've made many mistakes talking to people, but that's the only way that you can improve. You have to learn what's wrong before you can be 100% confident in what's right. It's been so nice to be able to hold real conversations with people her in their native language.

This last weekend was super busy. Friday, I decided to take a half day at school because it was my last day. I was pretty bummed about it being my last day, but I realized that I'm still going to get to see most everyone again since they are living in Morogoro. I decided to celebrate my completion by going to Ricky's and getting a vanilla milkshake. I'm not going to lie, they're pretty AWESOME!! On my way there, I ran into a local girl that I had met in town before. She ended up walking with me all the way there. I figured that she would probably head on her way at that point, but when I went to sit down, she simply grabbed a chair at the same table. I had brought a book and had been planning to just sit by myself and read, but I guess God had other plans for me. It was a little bit awkward because I hardly knew this girl, but we got to talk a bit at the restaurant and she seems like a nice person. She's studying at a college here in Morogoro to be a business person. From the little I know about her and her personality, it seems like a really good fit for her. I hope that it works out for her. Friday evening was choir rehearsal and taking care of business at home.

Saturday, I woke up around 7am and did my longer yoga routine. As I was finishing, I was surprised to hear that my piano student had showed up! He hadn't come in a couple weeks, so I just assumed I wasn't going to see him until school started. I remembered that he had mentioned that he would be going out of town, but when he mentioned it, he didn't know exactly when it would happen. So, I guess that's why he missed. Well, I just went ahead and set everything up and taught him while I got started on my laundry. I would assign different sections of the piece, get him started and give him time to work out the bugs on his own. In addition to the piano lesson and getting most of my laundry done, I managed to also eat breakfast before leaving at 9:30am for town. I'm not going to lie, I felt pretty awesome getting so much done in such a short period of time!! After arriving in town, I walked 40 minutes to SUA where the other missionaries and I play frisbee and we played for over 2 hours. I was SUPER exhausted and pretty much felt useless that evening, but there was so much still to do! When I got home, I realized that one of my sheets had flown off of the drying rack and ended up in the mud... It took me somewhere around 20 very frustrating minutes to get them cleaned up again and I still had to finish the rest of the laundry. Then I had English choir practice before I finally got a chance to kick back in my room and have some real down time.

Sunday, I ran in the morning before church. It amazes me that I've had this habit for months now and the family still gets surprised that I'm leaving on a Sunday morning. This seems to happen with a lot of things. I mean, I've been able to greet people in Swahili since no later than early February and some of the teachers still freak out when I greet them in Swahili. When one of the teachers found out I had been taking language classes over the break, all he wanted to know was whether or not I could greet people correctly. I was so confused because I've been doing that for so long no. I'm wondering if this says something about the culture and what's important to them. I mean, I know that greeting people is a really important thing here. I'm wondering if it's something about the more community way of life here. It's still really funny to me that they would get so excited about something that I've been doing for so long already.
Sunday church was good, but it was a bit longer than usual, going for 2 1/2 hours instead of just 2. And then I went to the hour long youth service afterwards, as is my usual habit. By the time it was all over, I was completely exhausted from being in the heat and trying to rack my brain to translate as much Swahili on my own as I could. I ended up taking a nice nap in the afternoon before prayer service with the other missionaries.

Today was the first day back at school. Not only has the school schedule changed once again (now we're going from 7:30am-2:30pm with only one short break and NO LUNCH!!! O_o), I'm wondering if my students have forgotten everything I taught them over the past 4 week break. It was a bit of a rough day, but I'm sure that by Wednesday, we'll be back into our old routines. I'm really working to use a lot of the new resources that were donated to us. Already, I'm using all the chapter books in class. It's a great way to keep students quiet when they finish their work early!! Also, I had some curriculum stuff donated to me, so I'm trying to use exercises from that to supplement the materials that we have at the school already. I'm really hopeful that this is going to help the students a lot!! I've been trying so hard to expose these kids to as much material and teaching methods as I can before they leave me. I just wish some of the other teachers were as motivated...

Well, I guess I'm going to leave things off here because my computer battery is starting to die and we have not had electricity since sometime before I woke up this morning at 6am (it's almost 8pm now). I really hope that it comes back on before I go to bed so my computer can charge while I'm sleeping. Oh well, just part of life here in a 3rd world country. At least the water is back on!! :D

Hope you're having a great week so far! I'll leave you with some pictures of language school. I've decided that I want to start something new for my blog. If they would agree, I would like to start interviewing teachers at school and maybe even some members of our church and post about them here on my blog. It would give you all a chance to get to know some of the people I spend so much time with!! :D

May the Lord Bless You and Keep You,
~Christine

Shantelle with Rachel (my last Swahili teacher at language school). Rachel recently got accepted into law school and is going to be leaving sometime at the end of this month. I'm so happy for her!! :D

The group of Germans with Dorothea, my first Swahili teacher at language school.

I <3 this group!! I'm gonna' be pretty sad when they leave Morogoro in the spring.

Agnes (the shorter one in white a black) was my Swahili teacher my third week at language school! And of course Stephanie and Shantelle are in the picture as well!! :D

Progress

Things are progressing well here. Language school was honestly one of the best things I could have done with this break time. I'm overwhelmed by the amount of progress that I've made over the last 3 weeks concerning both language and culture. Language school has offered a safe place for me to learn Swahili and practice. A lot of times I find that people are not quite so patient outside of language school or don't really know how to teach their language and customs. But, the teachers at the school are used to working with us foreigners and know how to teach and explain the material in a way that makes sense. Some things that I've learned culturally is that it's really bad to point fingers at people. If you do, it means that you are wishing bad things to happen to them. Also, if you are beckoning to a person, you should only do so with the palm down. If you turn your palm up, it indicates that you think the other person is a dog. Additionally, it is most appropriate to shake another person's hand with both of your hands, as opposed to just using one hand.

Also, I'm continuing to meet people from all over the world through this language learning experience. There is a group of German high school graduates who are doing a month of language school before they continue onto their different assignments. It amazes me how young they are. I mean, I'm pretty young, too, but I've at least had some experience living out on my own through college. I can't imagine this being my first "real world" experience. Also, my normal lunch group at school consists of another American, a South Korean, a German, one or two of the Tanzania teachers, and of course myself. Only the South Korean struggles with English, so we all try to converse in Swahili so that everyone will understand. It really amazes me how we are forced (in a sense) to speak in what is a second language for most of us because that is the common language in the group. I can feel my confidence growing and I have noticed a significant change when I'm out and about. Before I would zone out when people were speaking Swahili around me because I simply couldn't understand any of it, but I'm trying to change that now. I try to listen in on people's conversations to see if I can really understand what they're saying. Also, I'm trying to talk to people more and it's actually working. I had quite a lengthy conversation with an older woman on one of my daladala rides home after school. The mere fact that these words no longer sound like jibberish, but actually have meaning to me now is SUPER exciting! It's like a whole new world has opened up to me!

Another great benefit of dedicating this time to learning Swahili is that I will now be able to teach English better. Now that I'm getting a grasp on Swahili grammar and the way Swahili flows, I can better understand why my students make certain mistakes. Also, may of them have funny ways of expressing themselves, but I now understand why they write things like "You have how many years?" or "Your favorite kind of food is which?" or "The children they are playing." I already feel that I'm going to be a much more effective teacher because of this and I'm really excited about it!

In addition to language school, I've been trying to continue my other normal activities. It's been hard through because I'm very exhausted in the evenings after so much language learning. On the weekends, I'm mostly doing work and getting prepared for the coming week so that I won't be so stressed out. Also, the other missionaries have re-instated our game of Ultimate Frisbee on Saturdays. We weren't meeting for a while because so many people were out of town for various reasons; such is life. But, we've been having quite a crowd the last couple times and I don't think anyone is going to be doing any major traveling soon.

I guess that's all that's new for now! I would like to mention that after talking to others, I have decided to add the costs of language school to the total of how much I need to fundraise. As I have mentioned previously, I want everyone to know that I'm trying very hard to make sure that 100% of your funds are going to expenses that I deem necessary to my life here as a missionary. If I'm going out to eat with friends, or if I decide to do any traveling in Tanzania, that will be 100% my cost. Knowing the local language is rather essential to me being an effective missionary here, so I've decided that I should add it to my missionary expenses. Altogether added up, the four weeks of school costs about $600. In addition, because I'm there all day, I've had to pay for lunches there, which adds another $65 or so to the cost. Therefore, I will need to raise an additional $665 in addition to the previously mentioned $2,526. Therefore, I will need to raise $3,181. If you want to know how you can donate, please click on the page above. There you will find the instructions of how to donate through The Advance website. Know that 100% of your donation will go directly to me and that it is tax deductible.

May the Lord Bless You and Keep You,
~Christine

Well, I forgot that my dad's old iphone that I've been using as a ipod here has a camera with it. So, I went ahead and took some pictures of some more places in Morogoro for you!! Enjoy!! :D

The volleyball court at the International School where I play on Tuesdays and Thursdays!!

The little sitting areas where students sit with their teachers to learn Swahili!

This is the building where I get to have morning chai as well as lunch with other students and the teachers!!