July is so cold!

Back to school, back to school to prove to students that they are not fools. Most of my students at Kayuki Secondary carry the attitude of that I observed in many of my fellow college students: questioning is bothersome. And that includes answering the teacher’s questions. Anybody, anybody… With this being the first week back from our month long break, I hope that I can start fresh and get these girls using their inner skeptic. It is a real challenge to get any participation at all except from the most outspoken students. First I thought that the main problem was lack of confidence in using English. That’s fine. But since the beginning of the school year in January, I’ve been teaching primarily in Swahili. Notes on the board come out as English but my explanations of diagrams and physical phenomena are in a mish-mash of two languages. There are simply no good words in Swahili for “refraction.” I can do my level-best with “kupinda njia ya mwanga.” But since the students are required to complete grueling exams in English, I should make more of an effort to help them improve.
Note to the Tanzanian Ministry of Education and Peace Corps: send English teachers. We should be assigning teachers to elementary schools to teach English and to teach students that asking questions is a sign of intelligence (especially the kind that is exercisable). Change in education must come from the bottom up. It is unlikely that people change their behavior later in life, therefore, instill the kind of critical thinking skills that are desirable for higher learning when students are young before other behaviors take precedence. Blah blah blah.

In other news, I’m unofficially the official health guru for villagers and school staff. I suppose this development began last February when I bandaged up S. Karapa’s split-open finger and sent her to get stitches at the hospital. In reality, she just went to the nearest dispensary and the smeared her with gentian violent and plaster. I saw her almost a week later with the same damn bandage on looking like it had gone through the digestive system of a ruminant. “Ok,” I said “but you need to change the bandage.” Unfortunately, she was afraid to unwrap the thing because of the pain it would cause. I told her that if she didn’t keep it clean it would cause worse pain that she thought possible. Three house calls later, I was satisfied with the dryness of the wound and stopped seeing her often (it’s a trek into the valley). Since then, there’s been a trickle of people who come specifically to Kayuki Secondary to see me. One such occasion Mama Siri, my house help, brought the son of the local plumber to the school with a small puncture on his left knee. Upon examination, I found that whatever he had landed on had pierced clear through the dermis and there was a small cavity between his skin and patella. Poor little guy, I aspirated with my mono-ject syringe (you know the one you get after your wisdom teeth are removed, I knew there was a reason I brought it) and filtered-boiled water. Unfortunately, butterfly bandages wouldn’t hold because someone had smeared his leg with honey. I can’t decide if this was ingenious on their part or just a pain in the butt. Clean cotton and an ace bandage—which will impress any Tanzanian btw—did the trick nicely although I haven’t done a follow-up.

It starts getting a little more “real” when people start asking you to give them injections. My own personal aspirations aside, it is not at all wise to go about handing out injections for every little annoyance. Therefore I told my TZian twin (he calls me that) that I would get some crystal penicillin but that we should keep it on hand for a real emergency. The fact that his right inguinal lymph node was swollen to high-hell seemed to me a good sign—that the hot compresses were stirring things up and getting fluids moving up to the trunk again. Things are always more complicated with elephantitus don’t ya know. Anyway he’s got to get other things in his life sorted out, especially the drinking.

In other news, I’ve become somewhat apprehensive about a media program at Kayuki. Until students become more proficient at using computers and we do some general upgrades of hardware, running video editing software would present more problems than anything else. Also, I’ve stepped up the course-work form my Physics students and hence increased my own work-load. No worries. Villagers from Bujela, Itura and Ngujubwaje all are interested in learning about permaculture gardening and there is a plan in the works for weekly sessions at a demonstration/research plot out in the boonies. It’ll be hard especially since most people know a lot about farming already. What seems to surprise them is the methods for fertilizing the soil that they are not taking advantage. Kumbe! Actually, I didn’t know that 1 part urine mixed with 5 parts water was somehow as good as commercial urea either.

Well that’s the news from Tukuyu. Say hello to the country for me.

A piece o cake

Well, we wrapped up(sort of) the first term at Kayuki Secondary. After grading the physics exams and writing my end of term report for peace corps, the nearby and wonderful PCVs: Amber and Kavisa came to Kayuki, and together, we facilitated the first Girls Empowerment/HIV,AIDS awareness confrence at site. We also received tremendous support from each of our counterparts Lukasa, Elizabeth and Gloria. Many thanks to them who ran excellent sessions and were absolutely essential players in a successful event.

What surprised (and delighted) us was the level of enthusiasm that the girls maintained almost constantly for the duration of the three days of sessions and which culminated in an extraordinary presentation of peer education skills planned and rehearsed by our confrence participants. about 150 Kayuki students attended the show and learned about good decision making skills, safe behavior models, and how to use condoms via all student skits and demonstrations.

...I say, simply wonderful. Now that the confrence is over and I'm finished filling out those nasty student report cards (my signature actually started failing toward the end because of the yips) I get to enjoy some vacation. Well, not yet, but having arrived in Dar es Salaam, the seat of urbanity in East Africa I feel like vacation has already started despite the fact that I'll technically be in PSDN (Peer Support and Diversity Network) training for the next three days. Badaa ya hapo lakini, I'm going to Zanzibar to enjoy Stonetown, Jovani forest, and hopefully a beach stroll and a dip in the ocean.

Post your shout out to Zanzibar now and I'll be sure to deliver the message when I arrive there.

Something Good

Something Good

The beginning of last post may have painted a bleak picture of my experiences in the past month of service. This post is about something good. Food! One of the best things about food in Tanzania is that a much high percentage of the produce is grown and consumed locally. So along with this thought, here's another mini-lesson in swahili (refer to the pics). "Ya kinyeji," which translates as "locally made" has become my mantra while shopping in the local markets. The difference is most apparent in the eggs that are available. For 150 shillings you can buy a yai la kisasa, or "modern egg." Laid by kuku wa kizungu (foreign chickens) fed mostly pumba (corn meal). OR, for 200 shillings a difference of about 5 cents in USD, you can get a "yai la kinyeji". Chickens that forage for insects and seeds and wander far from their coops. The difference is like that described in Omnivores dilemma.

1UP

A new chapter starts as we continue with the school year at Kayuki Secondary. In attempts to improve the future examination outcomes of our form II and form IV students, members of the school staff have been requested to put in extra teaching and conference hours. Between my extra “remedial” courses for form IIs and the continuing computer lab schedule life is as busy as ever. One new development should prove to be very helpful to preparing students for the national examinations (NECTA) that is having received numerous past papers in digital format from fellow PCVs. I hope to categorize the questions based on their topic outline in the syllabus so that teachers wishing to write tests can draw upon a NECTA type question bank.

Unfortunately with increased discipline among students and staff, corporal punishment has also increased to keep stride. Today, May 1, “May day” is supposed to be a day of rest for the world’s workers and about 30 students seemed to think that day of rest also applied to them. However, on my way to the offices, there they were in two rows straining in frozen pushups supported by there clenched fists and knuckles against the ground. When their strength would give out, down onto their knees they’d go and hold up their hands to receive the kiboko. All around the school, other students were busied with cutting grass or cleaning classrooms and dormitories. No holiday for Kayuki girls.

Yesterday we had a sport day where we invited the teachers of Lutengano Secondary (Amber’s site) to compete in basketball and volleyball here at Kayuki. They showed up in force with something like 15 competitors. We only had enough for a team of 5 with 2 substitutions. So, what happens when you take 9 competitive Tanzanians and get them playing a game that hardly any of them know? A lot of holding, shoving and just plain dirty ball. Since David Mwaipopo and I have actually played together a bit we pretty much dominated. The other team got possession of the ball enough, but no one could score worth a damn. Every time we scored a point, hell broke loose. The 500 or so Kayuki students who had been slowly accumulating at the edges of the court would go into fits of soccer-fan elation. Each time we got a basket, they’d flood the court and scream, as though it were the winning point of a playoff game. Of course I thought it was inappropriate behavior, but Amber told me it was the same whenever they had a soccer match at Lutengano. By the end of the match and volleyball, I was worn out mostly by the energy the students were radiating. Although I was a little overwhelmed by all the excitement, I can see how it would be a really big deal for Kayuki girls to whip Lutengano. First off, Kayuki is an all-girl’s government school. Lutengano is a private, co-ed institution about twice the size. Kayuki has had abysmal results on the Form IV certificate examination in the past years; Lutengano’s have been middle of the road. I suppose that school pride is one thing that gives students motivation to work hard and study for the NECTAs. We teachers were practically carried out of the arena like champions. It’d be nice to see the girl’s compete as well, and our student b-ball side is really quite good, considering. Maybe that’s the next step, after teachers break the seal, students will push for matches for themselves.

Community Development Studies in Njombe

"It's comin' right for us" IST is here and we're chilling in Njombe. We had fierce but enlightening debates about how to approach secondary projects and work within our communities here in the Southern Highlands of TZ. During the course of the session on grant writing I had some odd epiphanies and heretical thoughts.

So here we are in Africa me an a whole slew of other PCVs and we're working directly or indirectly on lending a hand to the educational, economical, and social development of the peoples here. I must emphasize that we all pretty much share a desire to work toward sustainability and have community change come from within rather than from a know-nothing foreigner. This is why we generally approach our projects as mere facilitators who can help spark the desire to find out what sorts of activities will help a given community raise it's standard of living (warning, heavy philosophical argument approaching).

Of course, first it is critical to identify and even agree on what changes in people's lives actually lead to a "higher" quality of living. For example is it a car, enough food, education, a large family, the right to have several wives and children in and out of wed-lock? These are fundamental questions that anyone anywhere in the world should tackle before beginning the discussion on development.

In my eyes, having the necessities such as food, shelter, and at least bit of a community are sufficient underpinnings for a perfectly happy life--that is unless you've seen how the "other half" (in this case 10%) lives. The thing about it is ignorance really may be bliss. Although I advocate an active, questioning mentality, I have gleaned certain truths from various faiths and spiritual practices that seem to have a much more significant effect on overall happiness than material things. HOWEVER, from a conversation and from the grit on every TZian relationship I've heard about the measure of "good life" among young people in Tanzania is material wealth. Of course the conversations I've had lean to my vocalizing a skeptical nature and reviewing what truly makes for a good life. Is it spiritual happiness or is it the number of offspring you sire/bear? Indeed, Tanzanians are very developed in terms of participation in organized religion and through association, commercial spirituality. Yet most see their lives rife with want. It is neither surprising nor unreasonable for them to feel this way. A Radiolab program on public radio in the last 6 months described a study where three groups of chimpanzees were given different environments (cages) to interact with. On the low end were plain wire cages and chimps who were more isolated from each other. In the middle, more chimps shared a much more safi cage with plant materials to forage for, toys to engage them etc. Finally there was a real Ritzy cage where the chimps could spend time in large groups and they had even more natural and artificial materials to interact with. The study found that the chimps in the meso-developed cage had 30-40% "bushier neurons" compared to chimps on the low end of accommodation. That is to say that the brain cells of the middle-class chimps were highly networked, communicating about and responding to a varied environment. The chimps were more engaged in their surroundings and according to Jad, "more alive." This has raised an interesting question in my mind. First off, were the chimps in the low or middle end accommodations made aware of their brethren enjoying or loathing significantly different circumstances? If they weren't, what would be the effect of adding this component to the experiment? I should mention that the study also found almost no difference in the dendritic arbors of middle-class chimps and upper-class ones. That is, the study suggested that there was a threshold level of material wealth that made the chimps more bright-eyed and "bushy-brained." Beyond that threshold, chimps' brains showed no statistical difference.

As I am increasingly, convinced of my own "need" for many material goods in order to live a happy, productive life. I can understand what the common human tendency and desire leads us to do. We acquire more things, and we feel better for it...up to a point. So where is that point, and if you see other human beings enjoying a much higher material standard, does it actually change the bushiness of your dendritic arbors? If watching people with much more material wealth enjoy what they have makes you actually less content with what you have may it be beyond the happiness threshold or not, then what are we to do as creatures attempting to manage our resources and live "sustainable lives?

Meanwhile, I am living happily in Tanzania, learning cultural nuances and a new method of communication. I do care deeply for the people I've come to know on a personal level, and their welfare has become intertwined with my own. On an emotional level, I am bouncing back and forth between two worlds, that of the haves and have-nots. But a large percentage of the have-nots in my area are quite well fed and clothed by international standards. They are also living beside the owners of land rovers and chai estate proprietors, not to mention teachers who dress in their Sunday best everyday of the week. I am much poorly attired in fact. Nearly every Tanzanian man I've met who is above the age of 25 has a much spiffier cell phone though they haven't a clue how to use it.

The point I'm trying to make is development is happening in Tanzania. And it's happening fast! There was something like 8% economic growth in the last period and it shows no signs of slowing (barring a global recession). But, as a biologist I wonder about the future of humanity on the blue planet. Is development the answer to our resource crunch? Is it good management to bring up the (material) living standard of everyone in the world? According to my emotional-ethical brain it is. But, if we are concerned about the future generations of humankind, then where is our management strategy for the development of Africa? Have I missed the train of big-wigs who purposely engineer policy to slow the development of a people in order to buffer gaia from the ills of man? Slow it to a near standstill...for centuries. That's how it feels living in Africa, except that now the stoppers are coming out and the maji is rolling. Don't misunderstand, I am not a proponent of a colonial-era, parental attitude toward any other culture, but I am interested in the biological-ecological factors that humankind has significant impact on. I also would like us to make it a considerable while longer as a living species. Why? Well, I'm an altruist stupid!

Please, you must comment on this and tell me what your views on this discussion are.

Mabadiliko and things

I met a really interesting woman today in Mbeya. Her name is Liz, late 40s early 50s she has her own organization called EveryChildEveryVillage. Their main goal is to reduce primary schools' dependence on books. She sees that books are a great asset, but it isn't working to rely on the rest of the world supplying them to schools in Africa. So she goes into classrooms and paints all over the walls, turns them into blackboards at eye level to the little pupils. It's a totally interactive class setting where you get a student working and learning at one station and then move diagonally across the room to another station at the wall. She says that it's been showing amazing results, even though she was an RN and doesn't have formal education, in well Education. In stories, I mentioned that I had been a film major and wanted to get a media project going at Kayuki Girls. She may be our first "job" First I need to train the students how to use a digital camera, tripod and, finally how to cut slide shows on the computers we have at school. It seems like such an awesome project. I only wish I had more time to do these things rather than be mostly a Physics teacher *YAWN* ya know. I'm trying to make it interesting so maybe I can just work it in to my physics club. Hey I just had an epiphany...