my first week in Tanzania

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Today is Friday, and i just completed my first week as a day care volunteer. To say the least, i have had just the most amazing week in one of the most beautiful countries with the friendliest people i have encountered so far. Tanzanians are dirt poor, but they have a heart so big and a smile that is infectious. Just wonderful. I am supervising, teaching, and playing with about 90 kids at my day care center and am assisting the 2 other teachers who also work as prison guards during the day or night shift (just depends). These two teachers have to prepare the mid-morning porridge snack for the kids over the open fire stove and attend to all of the kids in the meantime. Needless to say they need help, and i am glad to be able to at least give them a bit of a relief while i am here. since the teachers speak very little english, and i speak very little swahili, the communication is often filled with lot's of laughter, drawings, body language, demonstrating etc. I am getting a crash course in swahili when it comes to dealing with kids, i.e "why are you crying? who hit you? say you are sorry.. stand here.. sit down ...listen .... let's sing a song... look at the blackboard... how much is 2+2?, etc, you get the picture 😊. it is AWESOME. the smiles when my van drops me off in the morning, when the kids run along side and scream "mwalimu, mwalimu=teacher, it just is so adorable and i feel i am getting so much from them and hope that at the end of my time i will have left them with something new knowledge, some english songs etc as well. So far they are really good at "if you're happy, clap your hands" and the hokie pokie, maybe we'll get a few more done next week. I am trying to teach them as much english understanding as possible, since the other teachers just have them repeat words, but since there knowledge is very limited, the kids often can say words in english but have no idea what they mean. Anyhow, that is my biggest challenge, to make them understand what they are saying. Just as an fyi, in case you are wondering why the kids are learning english in day car... well, the education system in tanzania is such that primary school is conducted in Swahili, however, in 7th grade all subjects are taught in English... crazy, since in primary school english is only tought for about 30 min a day. It is therefore impossible for so many kids to pass the national exam after secondary school, and a lot of the kids drop out even after primary school, since they are not passing the english exams. It is really messed up, and so we are here to teach the kids as well as the teachers as much english as we can, so that the kids have a better chance for continued education.
Other contributing factors to the poor education of so many is that a well paid teacher earns about $ 150.00 a months and therefore the brightest teachers are not working as teachers, but are rather driving a taxi in New York City or working in some other capacity. it is really sad to see the kids without pencils, sharing flimsy notebooks, the teachers all sharing one eraser for the blackboard for 3-6 classes sometimes, and i could name so many more things that are sad to see around here. But i also want to share with you how amazingly nice everyone is, so welcoming, everyone makes you feel at home, the kids and teachers, the community and all people we have encountered are just wonderful and want to share with you the little bit they have.
i cannot wait to go to "school" on monday again and see my new friends and play with the kids. 😊

this weekend it's off to Masaai country for a weekend safari, so that will be most educational and interesting as well. more on that next week

cheers everyone SL

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