The last week of training..

Mambo all my lovelies!! Habari za Australia??? Ninapenda sana Tanzania na wiki hii ilikuwa nzuri lakini ngumu pia. This week has been good but hard too. We have been plodding on with training, practicing lots of teaching methods, getting to know the Tanzanians and eating tonnes of chocolate.

Last Wednesday we had teaching practice and we returned to the school we have taught at before but this time we were in pairs with a Tanzanian partner which made it all the more interesting. I had a great time and worked really well with my partner, Tuse, and we got some good feedback from SPW but other partners didn't have such an easy time. I think everyone finally realised how challenging teaching in another language is going to be especially with a partner who is fluent in the language and can take over the lesson (which is what happened to a lot of people). A lot of wazungu were feeling pretty useless and questioning why we are even here. International relations were strained the next morning when we had feedback from SPW but everything cleared up once we talked about a couple of issues. It was a trying day for everyone as the wazungu's got a wake up call about how important swahili is and the tanzanian's realised we will need their help and that we have to work together to be as effective as possible. We all have things to offer and its important that everyone acknowledges that we need eachother!

I have been a few expeditions with some of the Tanzanian girls - Peninah, Tupo and Happy - to visit their family (all the Tazanian's seem to have family in Iringa even if they are from a totally different part of Tanzania) and we end up going all over Iringa visiting family and friends and eating chocolate and ice cream and getting caught in rain storms and having to swim through flooded fields. It's been great getting to know the Tanzanian girls and I wish we had more time together.

It made it that much harder the last couple of days as we have had to put in our "nominations" for our placement partners. This has turned into SPW, The real world and I decided I don't like it at all. Having to choose 3 girls out of 11 that we want to work with and 1 person we couldnt work with and knowing that most of the wazunu have their eyes on the same 3 or 4 Tanzanian girls doesn't create a fun atmosphere! But it is done now and tomorrow we will find out our placement partners and districts. Everyone is dying to know but they are torturing us and saving the news until after dinner!!!

Only one week until placement, it has been such a massive build up and I have become so close with all the volunteers it is going to be like leaving my family all over again. I'm definitely ready to get into village though but i know its going to be a challenge. We have a lot of work cut out for us over the next 5 months.....bahati njema to us!!!

---

---