Tanzanian Teaching

I can't believe that I've been here for two and a half weeks already,
and at the same time I can't believe I've ONLY been here for 2.5
weeks! Even though time is flying by it feels like I've know many of
these people for much longer. I've grown attached and I already know
it's going to be devestating to leave.

The rains have finally come, but mainly it rains at night which is
nice for sleeping. The mornings are usually fairly cool (read
comfortably warm) and the afternoons are sweltering. But at night
around 7:30pm the rains come and it pours and pours. The road are
getting muddier - the afternoon sun can't keep up with the midnight
deluge.

On one hand all this rain is good. They have been in drought here. The
rains didn't come in November and they were late coming now - they
should have been here a month ago! So the rain is good bc this is a
place where if there is no rain people starve. Period.

On the other hand, when it rains there are much fewer students in
class. Today there were just 6 nursery school kids (out of 9), 8
secondary kids (out of 17), and only 2 of my women from the sewing
class. The mud just makes it incredibly difficult if not impossible
for them to get to school from their remote villages. It can be
frustrating that attendance is so sporadic, but at the same time it's
nice to be able to work one on one with them. The comprehension level
is much higher that way.

Comprehension is a big issue here. It seems so much of "learning" here
is rote memorization. Which you can imagine if you were taught up to
8th grade in one language and then they switched it on you for high
school and they only taught you in your second language that you
barely passed to begin with. So many times you will think that your
students understand something (and even if they don't they will say
"yes teacher, I understand), but when you ask the question in another
way they have no clue.

Also, unlike in the states where when you learn a new concept or
vocabulary word you would make notes and write down the definition or
exanation, these students don't understand how or why to do that. So a
couple of days later when you refer back to something you taught,
instead of looking in their notes for the answer they will give you a
blank stare! I think I've broken my sewing girls of that, but it's
still a process.

Something else interesting is that kids here are never taught to use
their imagination or to think creatively. It you were to ask them what
super power they would have or even to write a story they can't
imagine why you would do that. When we talk about their afternoon and
weekend activites the top three responses are 1) went to church 2)
washed my clothes 3) cooked food. and these are teenagers! Their lives
don't involve alot of imagination. This is something we're working on,
but it's not just my school. I was reading an article about how there
are essentially no Tanzanian authors. It is just not how they are
trained to think!

Alright, enough for today. I promise to post again soon with safari
pictures. They are awesome!!