Monday, February 16, 2009
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Pictures of My Garden
Pumpkin (maboga), beans (maharage), and okra (bamia). Pumpkin and bean leaves are really tasty.
It took me a few hours to prepare the first two beds on the left (double digging and all) and then my neighbor came out and finished the rest Tanzanian style in about 30 minutes.
My rows of corn (mahindi)
Bananas! (ndizi)
The garden behind my house. You can see the corn and the pig sty that my neighbors have under the big mango tree.
My other corn rows.Pictures of Graduation at Songea Girls
me and one of my Form V physics students
The Form VI students dancing into the hall and waving their hankercheifs in rhythm.
Form V students watching attentively.
Form VI students chearing.
A traditional dance as part of the graduation ceremony.
A skit performed by Form VI students.School's Out...Already!
I’ve only been teaching for five weeks and now final examinations are already upon us at Songea Girls. After exams I’ll have over a month off from school. It’s a pretty sweet set up.
Form VI graduation two weeks ago was a lot of fun but also a bit frustrating. The ceremony was held on a Thursday. I kept asking other teachers what days of the week I was supposed to teach class, but they didn’t know. It turns out I only taught my Form VI class on Monday, but was able to teach Form V three days that week. I spent the other days ‘supervising’ cleaning projects, which felt more like just sitting around doing nothing because the girls had things well under control. The students at my school work really hard every day before and after classes to keep the school clean, but had to work extra hard leading up to graduation scrubbing every inch of the school. Every floor surface was mopped by hand with rags and every blade of grass was cut by hand with machetes.
The actual graduation ceremony lasted about 4 hours and was held in our big dining hall. Instead of filing into hall to the tune of Pomp and Circumstance, the students danced in waving white scarves to the beat of Tanzanian music. I think US graduation ceremonies would be a lot more fun if we adopted this practice. One aspect of the ceremony that didn’t make much sense to me was the seating arrangement. The students and guests were seated around the edges of the dining hall facing a space in the center that served as a stage. Along one side of the hall was a special table set up for the head mistress of our school along with a handful of other honored guests such as city leaders. Throughout the ceremony the students performed various songs, dances, skits and speeches. All these were performed facing the table of honored guests, which meant that throughout the 4 hour ceremony all of the students and families of the students saw only performers’ backs if they could see anything at all. Fortunately for me the teachers’ section was next to the table of honored guests, so I got a pretty good view of the ceremony. But I still had to peer through a screen of photographers. Since most Tanzanians don’t have their own cameras, many professional photographers come to special events to take pictures and then sell them. The photographers have no discretion. They got right up on the stage and took close-up pictures as the students were performing.
After the various performances, the graduates were called up one at a time to receive their certificates just like in an American graduation ceremony. The interesting thing is, however, their certificate does not mean they passed A-level. A student could fail every A-level test and still ‘graduate.’ The certificate’s only significance is to show that a student attended A-level for two years and paid school fees. So, rather than being called A-level graduates, Tanzanians who finished Form VI are called Form VI leavers. Further studies beyond A-level depend on national examination results.
That night after the graduation ceremony and a delicious banquet that our school somehow managed to scrape together despite the shortage of school food and money, we had a cow dance. The other teachers thought it was hilarious that I didn’t know what a ‘cow dance’ refers to. It’s a dance without the bulls, or in other words an all girls dance. Some of the girls sure got dolled up. It was the first time I had seen any of them wearing anything other than their school uniforms. I was the only disco chaperone there, besides another teacher who served as DJ, and I had intended just to watch, but by the end of the night the girls had me out on the dance floor. I’m pretty self-conscious when I dance anyway, and so being white and a good 6 inches taller than anyone else definitely didn’t help. But I had fun dancing with the cows. Then on Saturday we had another disco, but this time invited the some bulls from Songea Boys Secondary School. After dancing to mostly Tanzanian songs, the evening finale consisted of everyone freaking out to ‘Move Bitch’. I’m glad the Tanzanians have adopted such wholesome American music.
My Tanzanian friends are working hard on the other end of the American Tanzanian exchange. They are turning me into a Tanzanian one, recipe, crop, chore at a time. Last night I learned how to cook bananas and chipatis with my neighbor Faraja. Some of her nieces and nephews were visiting and one little boy burst out into tears and ran out of the room as soon as I came into the house. He was completely afraid of me because I am white. He eventually settled down a little bit, but would not look at me the rest of the night.
Last weekend I was doing some gardening out in front of my house. There was a little piece of land that I had previously cleared but not yet planted, and my neighbors were getting on my case to plant before it is too late in the rainy season. So I was out doing some double digging the way I had learned from the Peace Corps’ permaculture specialist. It is a lot of work and takes a long time, but the idea is that once you have double dug a bed, it is permanent and can support more crops per unit area than a traditional bed because the roots can extend deeply. It took me about 3 hours to double dig one bed (approx. 1m × 3m). Everyone who passed by thought I was crazy. Then Faraja comes out and convinces me, since I am running out of time, to cultivate the rest of the space the Tanzanian way. I was exhausted at this point, so I sat back and watched Faraja cultivate about 4 times as much space as I just had in the span of 30 minutes. We planted beans side by side in Tanzanian rows and also in my bed, so I will have a chance to compare the growth and see if double digging is worth it.
The maize I planted back in December is getting really tall and starting to sprout ears of corn. My beans have pods and my pumpkin plants are going crazy. It looks like there has been an eruption of pumpkin leaves all over my back garden. I also planted some okra, which I have come to love since arriving in Tanzania. Oh yah, and my banana trees are producing fruit! I can’t wait to harvest my first crop of bananas in a week or two.
The latest step in my transformation into Tanzaniahood was getting my hair braided in Tanzanian style corn rows. Last weekend one of my fellow teachers invited me to her house and set up a hair braiding appointment for me with her hair dresser. The woman did an excellent job. She braided my hair in small rows on top and hundreds of tiny braids in the back without using any hair ties. It’s been fun wearing my hair braided, but I probably won’t be getting it done very often because it took 4 hours while I sat on a hard concrete floor until my legs were numb.
The national examinations begin tomorrow for all the Form VI students in Tanzania. I have learned more about the national examinations in Tanzania and it is a complicated and grueling process. Each A-level student studies three primary subjects. My students study physics, chemistry, and biology. In the course of the next 3 weeks they will take 3 examinations in each subject (2 theoretical tests, 1 laboratory test) as well as examinations for general studies and basic math. Each of these 11 tests is about 2.5 hours long. Based on their performance they will receive a letter grade for each subject (A: >75%, B: 65-75%, C: 55-65%, D: 45-55%, E: 35-45%, S: 25-35%, F: <25%). And then each letter grade A through F is assigned points of 1 through 7 respectively. Thus, the best possible score on the national examination is a score of 3 (all As). I’ve been told that to go on to university in the sciences students must score lower than 16. So that’s about a D average. But to study any particular subject you have to score at least a C in that subject. It doesn’t sound so hard, but then I looked at the results from last year’s physics students. None of the 24 students scored higher than an E in physics. In fact, of the approximately 300 students at my school who took the A-level national exam 14 failed completely, and 7 of them where physics students. It looks like I have my work cut out for me.
I am eager to find out how this year’s Form VI physics students fare on the examinations. Some of them want to study at a university and I think they have a chance. But even if they don’t make it to college, Form VI leavers can still become O-level teachers and get technical training in various other professions. I am certainly thankful for the space that the coming break gives me to reevaluate my teaching goals and strategies. It looks like most of my students will not be studying physics again after the A-level. I am not yet sure how this insight should affect my teaching strategy. Do I make sure they understand physics concepts qualitatively, or should I focus on solving exam problems? Do I teach fewer subjects in depth, or try to cover the entire syllabus shallowly? These are some of the questions I need to ponder over the break.
Also over break I am looking forward to hanging out with Rachel Gross, who played volleyball with me at UPS. She is traveling around the world this year and trekking on a Watson fellowship and had planned to do some trekking in Tanzania even before I knew I would be living here. It works out just perfectly that she is coming as school is winding down. The plan is for her to visit me in Songea and then after exams are done we will head up north to do some trekking on Mount Meru. I am really excited see Rachel and to share a glimpse of my life in Tanzania with someone from home. Not to mention that I can’t wait to go trekking with her.
Sometimes I think I have got it too good here in Tanzania.
Form VI graduation two weeks ago was a lot of fun but also a bit frustrating. The ceremony was held on a Thursday. I kept asking other teachers what days of the week I was supposed to teach class, but they didn’t know. It turns out I only taught my Form VI class on Monday, but was able to teach Form V three days that week. I spent the other days ‘supervising’ cleaning projects, which felt more like just sitting around doing nothing because the girls had things well under control. The students at my school work really hard every day before and after classes to keep the school clean, but had to work extra hard leading up to graduation scrubbing every inch of the school. Every floor surface was mopped by hand with rags and every blade of grass was cut by hand with machetes.
The actual graduation ceremony lasted about 4 hours and was held in our big dining hall. Instead of filing into hall to the tune of Pomp and Circumstance, the students danced in waving white scarves to the beat of Tanzanian music. I think US graduation ceremonies would be a lot more fun if we adopted this practice. One aspect of the ceremony that didn’t make much sense to me was the seating arrangement. The students and guests were seated around the edges of the dining hall facing a space in the center that served as a stage. Along one side of the hall was a special table set up for the head mistress of our school along with a handful of other honored guests such as city leaders. Throughout the ceremony the students performed various songs, dances, skits and speeches. All these were performed facing the table of honored guests, which meant that throughout the 4 hour ceremony all of the students and families of the students saw only performers’ backs if they could see anything at all. Fortunately for me the teachers’ section was next to the table of honored guests, so I got a pretty good view of the ceremony. But I still had to peer through a screen of photographers. Since most Tanzanians don’t have their own cameras, many professional photographers come to special events to take pictures and then sell them. The photographers have no discretion. They got right up on the stage and took close-up pictures as the students were performing.
After the various performances, the graduates were called up one at a time to receive their certificates just like in an American graduation ceremony. The interesting thing is, however, their certificate does not mean they passed A-level. A student could fail every A-level test and still ‘graduate.’ The certificate’s only significance is to show that a student attended A-level for two years and paid school fees. So, rather than being called A-level graduates, Tanzanians who finished Form VI are called Form VI leavers. Further studies beyond A-level depend on national examination results.
That night after the graduation ceremony and a delicious banquet that our school somehow managed to scrape together despite the shortage of school food and money, we had a cow dance. The other teachers thought it was hilarious that I didn’t know what a ‘cow dance’ refers to. It’s a dance without the bulls, or in other words an all girls dance. Some of the girls sure got dolled up. It was the first time I had seen any of them wearing anything other than their school uniforms. I was the only disco chaperone there, besides another teacher who served as DJ, and I had intended just to watch, but by the end of the night the girls had me out on the dance floor. I’m pretty self-conscious when I dance anyway, and so being white and a good 6 inches taller than anyone else definitely didn’t help. But I had fun dancing with the cows. Then on Saturday we had another disco, but this time invited the some bulls from Songea Boys Secondary School. After dancing to mostly Tanzanian songs, the evening finale consisted of everyone freaking out to ‘Move Bitch’. I’m glad the Tanzanians have adopted such wholesome American music.
My Tanzanian friends are working hard on the other end of the American Tanzanian exchange. They are turning me into a Tanzanian one, recipe, crop, chore at a time. Last night I learned how to cook bananas and chipatis with my neighbor Faraja. Some of her nieces and nephews were visiting and one little boy burst out into tears and ran out of the room as soon as I came into the house. He was completely afraid of me because I am white. He eventually settled down a little bit, but would not look at me the rest of the night.
Last weekend I was doing some gardening out in front of my house. There was a little piece of land that I had previously cleared but not yet planted, and my neighbors were getting on my case to plant before it is too late in the rainy season. So I was out doing some double digging the way I had learned from the Peace Corps’ permaculture specialist. It is a lot of work and takes a long time, but the idea is that once you have double dug a bed, it is permanent and can support more crops per unit area than a traditional bed because the roots can extend deeply. It took me about 3 hours to double dig one bed (approx. 1m × 3m). Everyone who passed by thought I was crazy. Then Faraja comes out and convinces me, since I am running out of time, to cultivate the rest of the space the Tanzanian way. I was exhausted at this point, so I sat back and watched Faraja cultivate about 4 times as much space as I just had in the span of 30 minutes. We planted beans side by side in Tanzanian rows and also in my bed, so I will have a chance to compare the growth and see if double digging is worth it.
The maize I planted back in December is getting really tall and starting to sprout ears of corn. My beans have pods and my pumpkin plants are going crazy. It looks like there has been an eruption of pumpkin leaves all over my back garden. I also planted some okra, which I have come to love since arriving in Tanzania. Oh yah, and my banana trees are producing fruit! I can’t wait to harvest my first crop of bananas in a week or two.
The latest step in my transformation into Tanzaniahood was getting my hair braided in Tanzanian style corn rows. Last weekend one of my fellow teachers invited me to her house and set up a hair braiding appointment for me with her hair dresser. The woman did an excellent job. She braided my hair in small rows on top and hundreds of tiny braids in the back without using any hair ties. It’s been fun wearing my hair braided, but I probably won’t be getting it done very often because it took 4 hours while I sat on a hard concrete floor until my legs were numb.
The national examinations begin tomorrow for all the Form VI students in Tanzania. I have learned more about the national examinations in Tanzania and it is a complicated and grueling process. Each A-level student studies three primary subjects. My students study physics, chemistry, and biology. In the course of the next 3 weeks they will take 3 examinations in each subject (2 theoretical tests, 1 laboratory test) as well as examinations for general studies and basic math. Each of these 11 tests is about 2.5 hours long. Based on their performance they will receive a letter grade for each subject (A: >75%, B: 65-75%, C: 55-65%, D: 45-55%, E: 35-45%, S: 25-35%, F: <25%). And then each letter grade A through F is assigned points of 1 through 7 respectively. Thus, the best possible score on the national examination is a score of 3 (all As). I’ve been told that to go on to university in the sciences students must score lower than 16. So that’s about a D average. But to study any particular subject you have to score at least a C in that subject. It doesn’t sound so hard, but then I looked at the results from last year’s physics students. None of the 24 students scored higher than an E in physics. In fact, of the approximately 300 students at my school who took the A-level national exam 14 failed completely, and 7 of them where physics students. It looks like I have my work cut out for me.
I am eager to find out how this year’s Form VI physics students fare on the examinations. Some of them want to study at a university and I think they have a chance. But even if they don’t make it to college, Form VI leavers can still become O-level teachers and get technical training in various other professions. I am certainly thankful for the space that the coming break gives me to reevaluate my teaching goals and strategies. It looks like most of my students will not be studying physics again after the A-level. I am not yet sure how this insight should affect my teaching strategy. Do I make sure they understand physics concepts qualitatively, or should I focus on solving exam problems? Do I teach fewer subjects in depth, or try to cover the entire syllabus shallowly? These are some of the questions I need to ponder over the break.
Also over break I am looking forward to hanging out with Rachel Gross, who played volleyball with me at UPS. She is traveling around the world this year and trekking on a Watson fellowship and had planned to do some trekking in Tanzania even before I knew I would be living here. It works out just perfectly that she is coming as school is winding down. The plan is for her to visit me in Songea and then after exams are done we will head up north to do some trekking on Mount Meru. I am really excited see Rachel and to share a glimpse of my life in Tanzania with someone from home. Not to mention that I can’t wait to go trekking with her.
Sometimes I think I have got it too good here in Tanzania.
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