Safari Njema

What a month November has turned out to be in Berega, and especially in Bishop Chitemo English School! 

Weighing on everyone's minds this month has been final exams, and especially Standard 4's first national exams. We have been preparing for this for such a long time, both in terms of getting the students all studied up and feeling confident, and in establishing a relationship with another local school (about an hour away) where our Standard 4 kids would take their national exams. (They couldn't take them here because we were not established as an official, governmentally-recognized school yet). Yesterday when we left our afternoon assembly (3:30pm), we all prayed for Standard 4's success on their national exams, and they were reminded to be at school at 6:30am to have breakfast before leaving for the other school. And then – SURPRISE! - at 6:30 last night, we received a call from the board of education, notifying us that we couldn't let our Standard 4 kids test an hour away, because it is in a different district, and woe to Tanzania if we tested our kids in another district. 

Proctoring Standard 1 Swahili at our house

 So we all went into “power mode” to figure out a solution. We decided that Standard 4 could feasibly take their test at our school site (apparently it didn't matter anymore that we are not yet official), but if they did so, Standards 1-3 could not take their Swahili finals at the school because Standard 4 needs an atmosphere of complete control, and our school building is way too open for that. So we decided to have Standards 1 and 2 test on our front porches (yes, at our homes), while Standard 3 tested in a separate classroom far away from the rest of the school building where Standard 4 would be taking their national exams. Confused yet? Suffice it to say that Mike and I were woken up at 7 this morning to help usher younger children from their breakfast site to their respective testing sites (our houses). We proctored their Swahili exams while the Swahili teacher floated to each of the 3 standards to answer any questions. Afterwards, the kids got their lunch from school, and then they got a surprise half-day off! Standard 4's exams last two full days, so the same thing will happen tomorrow. What craziness!! But, given how competent all of us teachers are, it went pretty smoothly and tomorrow should be a breeze.

Some highlights from the past month:

- We went to a town about two hours away called Pandambili with our Swahili teacher to visit her sister and get some clothes made by her tailor. We stayed at her sister's house for the day, shared breakfast and lunch, and really felt welcomed. And since it was her sister's birthday the day before, we even had a bit of cake and took celebratory photos of them feeding us cake (sounds weird, I know, but it's a thing here). It was a great day, and really helped us to feel a part of Tanzania.

- Mike planted a small garden in our yard. He didn't have many seeds, but he planted scallions, tomatoes, limes, garlic...that's all I can remember. Then, since we have chickens, cats, dogs, pigs, and cows roam into our yard most days, he covered his garden with thorny sticks with the help of our Maasai student (making it resemble a Maasai garden). There has already been quite a bit of growth, and hopefully we will get to see something from it soon!

- Berega decided to cut down one of its old, dead trees that was located near the Standard 4 classroom. No one knew that the tree was infested in bees' nests. So the bees all came out to attack, right by Standard 4's classroom, right by the hospital, and pretty much everyone in that central part of the town ran for cover. Inside of the Standard 4 class where Mike was teaching, 3 or 4 kids got stung and they all ran for the hills. They were displaced for the rest of the day!

Green yard!

- It has started raining!! Not every day, but we've definitely had some rain every week of November, and sometimes it rains quite hard! Berega has just greened right up, and our yard does not even resemble the one we had when we first moved in!

The end of term is officially on Friday. Now that we are one term down, we are really appreciating a lot of what goes on here. Although things are so hard sometimes, it's truly amazing to be a part of this NGO and see what difference we can make in this tiny community. We have so much respect for Hands4Africa and all the work they're doing in Berega. It can be so tough sometimes, because you get to the point (and you do very frequently) where you feel like you can't change much because we come from such a different culture, or because you don't want to step on the toes of Tanzanian culture, or sometimes because you DO want to, and you know that in order to change anything, you have to change hearts and mindsets, and that can feel impossible. But Hands4Africa just keeps striving toward their goals, although we've witnessed first-handedly how discouraging it can be. In spite of everything, they keep going, and they are making a huge difference in this community. Just like how, even though we get so discouraged at school sometimes, at the end of the day, we know we are making a huge difference in our students' lives. This education is more than they could dream of getting at the local government schools, and sometimes we have to remind ourselves that they are getting it, in part, because of us. It's easy to get discouraged, but when you stay focused on what you're doing and why you're doing it, it's a great combatant. 

Speaking of which, I think we are all excited for our new term to begin in mid-January. I will be teaching 2 classes straight of just English to Standard 1, followed by two math classes to the same kids.  We noticed this year that the current Standard 1 is really lacking in comparison to their older counterparts, so we are trying to do without some of their other classes until their hold on English is a little stronger. I know it will be frustrating in the beginning when they can't understand me, but it will be pretty similar to how I taught my classes in Honduras, so I'm already expecting both frustration and absolute satisfaction when they start understanding me and really learn! Mike will be teaching two classes of Standard 2 English, Standard 2 Math, and Standard 4 English. He didn't get the chance to teach any English classes this past term, so he will really be honing his grammar skills while he teaches! He's excited to be in one class most of the day, which will be more similar to how typical primary classrooms are run, and therefore good training for him. Too bad we can't teach the Swahili classes – just kidding! We may have learned a lot, but we have a LONG way to go! 

Well, this is likely to be our last blog for quite a while. This weekend we will be leaving to begin our 7-week-long break from term (whoo hoo!!!), and we will be exploring quite a bit of this beautiful country! First we are going to Dar es Salaam, because our friend Hannah will be visiting for a couple of weeks. The next day, we'll catch the train to Zambia and make our way to Victoria Falls, Africa's biggest waterfall. We wanted to go during dry season so that we can take a hike to what's called Devil's Pool, which is a natural, shallow pool right at the edge of the falls that you can swim in and your photos will look like you are falling off of the falls! ;) We are thinking about checking out visa prices and going to Zimbabwe and Botswana, too. After we drop Hannah back off at the airport, we have many plans for Tanzania: day hikes around Kilimanjaro in Moshi, drum-making and batik-making classes in Arusha, a town called Lushoto with wonderful foods because of its altitude, a 4-day hike to a small village called Mtae where you trek over cliffs with a kilometer drop down (wake up in your guest lodge above the clouds!), Zanzibar for a bit of culture and sightseeing and street food.... the list goes on. It may cost a small fortune, but we did save up to come here, and we'll never get this chance again. We are so excited!

We'll try to do our best to journal throughout the trip so we can blog about the highlights. We'll also do our best to post pictures whenever we find wifi along the trip. But in case it doesn't happen, we are wishing everyone a wonderful Christmas, a fantastic New Year's, and in general, the best holiday season ever! 

Liko wapi... huh?

Hey everybody!  It’s been a while since we have blogged and we apologize.  Sometimes we don’t have the luxury to pick up the computer to write out our blog due to a lack of power.  Hands4Africa has a generator that works just fine, but we have to conserve our battery power on our computers.  Most of the time our power is out for about 8-10 hours but on other occasions, it is for longer.  Maybe next time we can write it out on paper ;).

Marin reading with Hassan, Standard 1

It has only been 3 full months since we arrived in Berega, and we are already preparing for the national examination for standard 4 which takes place at the end of November.  After that, the semester is done.  We have to give standard 4 credit - we are pushing them so hard, and they are being troopers about it.  The reality is we can’t expect them to know everything that will be on the national exam, but we can expect them to know most and that’s what we are focusing on.  This past week they went to King David (another school 45 minutes away) to take a mock examination and overall each one of them passed with an average over 40% which they need to go into standard 5.  I (Mike) was a little disappointed in their performance on the math section since I teach them math.  Most of it is teacher guilt but I know that we have hammered the topics that were on the math section.  Liz (school’s director) went over the test with them and pretty much told them they are better than those grades.  Which they are!  The first examination they took at King David a couple months ago, they scored better on.  So the action plan to get them more than ever ready for the test is to work on test taking strategies and more math review but not trying to pile it on them.  To help motivate standard 4, I told them in class that they aren’t perfect, and we aren’t mad. We just care and have high expectations.  All that matters here is that when they get knocked down, they need to get back up.  It seemed like they took it well.  

Karonga, Malawi

This past week we had to make a visa run, and it was an adventure! ;)  Just let us tell you that wherever we go after our time in Tanzania is up, we feel that we will be able to go anywhere and to do anything.  It was tough but we got through it.  We understand it is chaotic and also it wouldn’t have been an adventure if all of what happened didn’t happen.  When you are traveling through the country and making stops, and asking for directions, and trying to grasp the whole visa thing, it wears you down.  Some ways it did was with the language barrier.  We are certain that it would’ve been a lot easier if we knew a lot more swahili.  Another natural annoyance is everybody trying to rip you off for taxi rides, food, souvenirs, etc.  Over time we have grown thick skin and have learned enough Swahili to send the message to them that we know enough to not get ripped off.  We aren’t trying to sound negative here.  We are very confident that the next time we make a visa run, it will be a breeze.  Second nature.  

Karonga, Malawi

On the long trek to Malawi

Let us share with you the great things about the visa run.  Tanzania is BEAUTIFUL.  Once we were on the buses and staring out the windows for hours, the mountains and everything else were absolutely breathtaking. The route started from Morogoro, cut through Mikumi National park, through Iringa, then finishes in Kyela or the border town. While we were ascending up the Udzungwa Mountains, we saw a troop of yellow baboons, which was great. There is even a section of southern Tanzania with beautiful tall evergreens which reminds us of the States.  Believe it or not, some parts of Tanzania are very chilly.  People who have never been to Africa assume that it’s swelteringly hot, but in a lot of places it isn’t.  So even though we had somewhat of a hard introduction into our first visa run, it was balanced out with beautiful scenery and a good story to tell. :)

Looks like the deciduous forest back in the US!

So like we said, it has been about three months since we have been here in Berega.  We can honestly say that we are molding to the ways of life here.  Meaning, not taking showers everyday because we don’t need to, learning how to ration 1000 liters of water a week, cooking lunch and dinner everyday, and filling our down time with things like reading, cleaning, and even relaxing.  Berega vs. Tampa, Florida (where we are from), is like saying bush village vs. metropolitan city, so there is a bit of adapting that needs to take place over time which is happening.  The hardest struggle for me (Mike) is learning how to slow my brain down mentally.  In the U.S. it is go, go, go, go!  While there you don’t realize it but when you move to a place like Berega, it is a challenge.  But now we wake up every morning, make tea, sit on the porch and have our morning chats, and then head to school.  After school, we are either preparing dinner, taking walks, or just nothing.  Which is great.  Don’t get us wrong, there are down days, but they are petty down days.  And we expect problems to arise, but 9/10 times they will be problems that we would rather have than other problems out there.  

Well, we feel like this blog turned out great and we hope you enjoyed it.  Sometimes it is difficult to figure out what to write about being in Berega because it is all becoming second nature.  Nothing sticks out anymore.  Guess that is a good thing ;)

Take care all,

M&M

Tunafunza (We are learning)

How time flies! One month ago we had just landed in Dar es Salaam and hadn’t even seen Berega yet. We’ve had so many experiences this month that it feels almost as if we have seen it all; although we know that’s not true. 

After the other volunteers arrived in Berega, we divvied up class schedules to everyone’s liking. Mike and I each have full schedules, with him teaching math, science and geography/history/civics to Standards 2, 3, and 4; and me teaching English, science, and reading/remedial reading to Standards 1 and 2. The kids have never had reading classes before; they have been taught how to read, but haven’t had classes where the aim was to think about their reading/reading comprehension, like we do in U.S., so it’s a bit of a stretch for them. I’m mostly teaching things like making predictions and using context clues, etc. in Standard 2, and in Standard 1, I’m just trying to get them to talk about their reading at all. (Most of the kids in Standard 1 have pretty weak English, so it’s difficult to get them to talk about anything at all in English, let alone a story they have been read to in English.) The kids are definitely getting used to us, and (from a teacher’s point of view) Mike has surprisingly good management skills for a first year teacher. Way better than I remember having.

Outside of school, things are going great with the kids, as well. Everyone knows where everyone lives in Berega (it’s TINY), so we have frequent visitors, especially from those kids who live nearby. We have definitely bonded with a lot of our kids, and it’s kind of the best. They are super helpful in teaching us about town, showing us where to buy things we need (or if Berega even has what we need!), and just coming over for laughs while they climb our trees. These kids are great kids, and they’re so happy with what they have, it’s hard not to admire them. 

A couple of weeks ago, we took a bus an hour away from the village to a town called Mkongeni, which has a big Maasai market every Saturday. We brought one of the Standard 4 kids with us, who is Maasai but not from that village, because he said he wanted to go (also a great asset for communicating). It was cool! We got to walk around all the different stands of people selling Maasai khangas (the rectangular-cut fabrics everyone seems to wear in a million different ways here), some jewelry, wood cuttings, weapons, and, of course, all the cattle they could wrangle up to sell. We had some tea and chapatti, as is custom in the mornings, and Mike was happy to get a machete and some kind of club. 

Just a week or so later, the same student invited all of us to a wedding celebration in his village. It was to take place last Monday, and we were all pretty psyched to go. Our head teacher made it a half day for us and arranged transport to bring us there and back. Then a half hour before we were supposed to leave, we found out that it had been postponed until Wednesday. Funny how often that kind of thing happens. Anyway, we left in a pickup truck, drove for about an hour, then hiked the rest of the way to the village because the roads (roads?) were too bad. We didn’t see any kind of celebration, really, but we were introduced to a lot of people from that village, as well as many who were visiting for the wedding, just like us.  We were told that Maasai weddings are generally a three-day long celebration, so it may have been that we missed the ceremony, that it hadn’t happened yet, or that their ceremonies just aren’t anything like ours and we didn’t recognize it as such. But we got to spend several hours there, and it was a really cool experience, even if a little confusing! 

Last weekend we were invited to go to the local church in the village by a couple of the British men who were here volunteering; it was their last Sunday before returning to the U.K. We were happy for the invitation (it is a little daunting going to church when you speak and understand so little of a language! - especially because we had been told we would have to introduce ourselves in front of the congregation). It was a great service, and there was even another pastor (our neighbor) translating for all of us wazungu (white people). It was great! So outside of the translation, we understood certain words, like “our Father”, “love”, and “Jesus Christ”, but we were super grateful to be able to understand the message with the translation. Anyway, the Brits are gone now, but we felt super welcomed at the church and will definitely try to make it regularly.

To help matters (both in that regard and just in living here), we started taking Swahili lessons from one of the local teachers. We have only had two lessons so far, but we will be taking them twice a week. It has been helpful, for sure, but we really need to practice, and that takes time. We’re great with our numbers and general market talk, which is necessary if you want to eat around here, but we still need to step it up. I guess I shouldn’t be complaining; a month ago, we knew no Swahili whatsoever, and right now we can get by ok in buying things at the market, restaurant, or duka. I am excited to see how much we know in another month! 

Yesterday, to top off our weekend, we went on a hiking trip up one of the mountains that we can see so clearly from the village. It was about a 20-minute piki-piki trip, and then an excruciating 2-hour hike to the top. Some of it wasn’t so bad; some of it was like vertical paths where you had to use your hands to pull you up. Man, I sucked. I want to think I really love hiking, but I think I’m secretly the world’s worst hiker. Mike was great and helped me a ton, but even coming down from the mountain was brutal. The kids from the neighboring village where the mountain is just took off their sandals and slid down all the dirt paths barefoot, but I’m not there yet. Nor anywhere close. It was a tiring trek, but I’m glad we did it (and I’m glad it’s over). But since I would love to eventually hike Kilimanjaro…looks like I have a lot of work cut out for me. :/

This weekend we are planning another trip to Morogoro, the small city that is about two hours away. It’s not as nice as Berega, not so calm, but it’s necessary to go there sometimes for supplies and cash. (Otherwise I think we’d both do without it.) But it does have pizza, and really good Indian food, and a lot of things we need around the house that we can’t buy in the village.  

That’s all for now. We are sorely missing home and all of its niceties, and all of you. Keep us in your prayers, think about us often, and don’t forget to reach out every once in a while! We probably won’t have electricity when you do, but it is wonderful to read messages from home (it gets pretty lonely around here sometimes). We love you all! 

Karibusana Tanzania!

We made it to Berega, Tanzania after many long flights and another long car journey. When we finally landed in Dar es Salaam and experienced how the airport works (visas, baggage -- wow -- and customs), we were greeted warmly by our driver (Abdullah) from school holding a sign with our names on it. He took us to a very nice hotel, where we slept for about 15 hours. The next morning, he picked us up and took us to the grocery store. We discovered that is actually very challenging to shop for things when you don't know what is in your house, and when you don't know the names/prices of anything, and when you don't know when the next time is that you will see any of this stuff. Also add to that that the first ATM we went to had no shilling, the next only let you take out $100USD at a time. Anyway, we survived that trip, made it to the market with fresh fruits and vegetables in Morogoro 4 hours later, and then even survived the extra 2 hours it took to get to Berega.

In spite of the incredible amount of sleep we had gotten, by the time we got to our house, we were pretty beat again. We unpacked, met another volunteer, and fell right back asleep. The next day, we took a walk around the village with the other volunteer, and she talked to us a lot about Berega and where we could find certain things we'll need. She introduced us to a couple of the students at the school, two of whom escorted us on our walk. We saw things like the orphanage in town, school, the hospital, the street where the market lines up, the Hands4Africa farms, and some beautiful places where you can go to get a great view of the mountains. We even checked out the grounds where they will be building the new school building. It was a great walk and helped us to feel a little less like strangers.

We went to what is affectionately known as Monday Market to Berega's English speakers and found that is extremely difficult to ask for or buy anything in a language you know nothing of. Since then, we have learned how to ask "how much does it cost?", "do you have ___?", "change", and our numbers, more or less, up to the thousands. (Tanzanian shillings start at 50, most things cost around 1-2,000, and the highest bill is 10,000.)

We went to school on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, to get a feel for it and meet some of the kids. The only grade currently in session is Standard 4; all of the younger kids start up again on the 17th. It's kind of nice, because we've been able to take this time to kind of get to know these kids on a deeper level than we would have if they all came back at the same time. Even though neither of us has a lot of experience with older kids, these ones are pretty sweet and straightforward. They're very helpful and have been practicing our basic Swahili (mostly greetings and numbers, at this point) with us, which is great. One of the boys is from a Maasai village and it takes him a couple of hours to walk home, so he stays at the school boarding. From what we've been told, other kids from Morogoro and even as far as Dar es Salaam board at the school because of its good reputation. I guess having native English speakers for teachers is a pretty big perk.

Teaching in Tanzania is also super different than what we had expected. It's nothing like in the States, but the kids still seem to learn and retain quite a lot. In the village, school really does seem to be a huge privilege for kids, and is certainly not an obligation, with most kids in the village not going at all. I guess it goes to show that kids will learn - it's inherit in their nature - when they want to, no matter what strategies or resources are available to them.

At first glance, life in Berega is kind of bittersweet: we have lost power every day for 4 days (sometimes it comes back on, but in the middle of the night); we have lost water on a couple of occasions; we took our first bucket showers yesterday after getting sick of waiting for electricity for warm water, and then losing water altogether; and the pikipiki (motorcycle) drivers are unforgiving and kick up dust and dirt that irritate your eyes like nothing in the world. However, the town is very welcoming (apparently the common thing to say in Swahili is "Karibu" - "Welcome" - or "Karibusana" - "Very welcome", so even when you talk to anyone in English, you hear nothing but, "You are very welcome!"); it's quiet and peaceful and slow-paced; and the kids are just fantastic. They're quick to come up and hold your hand, quick to give you hugs, quick to tell you they love you. They're so grateful to have us here and love spending all day (and a lot of the evening, too, at after school or just showing up at our house) talking to us or playing games with us.


This weekend, we are planning to go to Morogoro to do some shopping with the added bonus that Saturday is a national holiday called Nane Nane (literally 8 8, for August 8th, to celebrate farmers) and it is supposed to be pretty nice in the city. So we'll blog again soon, assuming we have power ;)

Around the Corner

A lot has happened in the last few days.

1. We got married! (OK, this wasn't in the last few days, but it was still exciting.) June 21, 2015 :)


2. We got our official itinerary (meaning knowing WHEN we are leaving this fine country and can now answer the question "When are you leaving?" with confidence) and plane tickets. We will be flying out of Tampa on July 29, in the evening, and staying overnight in Washington D.C. The next day, we leave for Ethiopia, on a 13-hour flight. It's going to stink. Then on the 31st, we'll take a three-hour flight to Tanzania, and stay the night in Dar es Salaam. Thankfully, someone will be there to pick us up at the airport and take us grocery shopping, to the bank, etc. On the first day of August, we'll arrive in Berega, where we'll be spending a year teaching kiddos.

3. We have packed. (and repacked. And repacked. And repacked.) Now each of our checked luggage maxes out at 50 pounds. It took a lot of work. You should be proud. For those of you who don't know why this is such an accomplishment, we were donated a TON of books and school supplies to pass along to Bishop Chitemo Anglican School, thanks to Marin's coworkers at Bayshore Elementary. Like, 200 pounds of supplies. Marin was so thrilled with herself when she came home and managed to fit everything into one suitcase - yay! We still can pack three suitcases of personal items! However, that suitcase would not have been accepted by any airline due to its weight. After repacking at least a dozen times, we are bringing the majority of the donations with us, and relying on someone from the Florida area to visit us with the rest of the donations sometime this year. (Hint, hint.)

4. We got Tanzanian Shillings! Only $20 worth, because apparently Tanzania is a high-risk country financially (don't worry, only financially) right now, and so no one is carrying the shilling and ordering them is even pretty difficult. But they're cute! With elephants and giraffes on them. Marin is over the moon about them.

5. We have started saying goodbye. To things, to people. It's all very sad. Goodbye, Jets Pizza. Goodbye, Moe's. oodbye, Tandoor Indian Restaurant. Unfortunately, it gets worse. Goodbye, friends. Goodbye, family. It stinks. Thankfully, it's only for a year, but right now, that's not a whole lot of consolation. It's been really nice for each of us to live so close to family for the past couple of years, and it's hard to leave that safety net. We are grateful for the support we have had, not just through this journey, but also in the more mundane things that have gone on in the last couple of years.

Even though it's hard to leave now, we know that we are going to have the adventure of a lifetime. We are both confident that we are going to fall in love with Berega and its people quickly. We're excited to do something that can make a big difference in a small village. We're really grateful to have been given this opportunity by Hands4Africa and are excited to work for them. And hey, we want to give a big THANK YOU!! to everyone who has donated on our GoFundMe page. We keep saying this, but we want you to know that we aren't asking for money for ourselves; the donations go to the NGO - for educational, medical, and agricultural supplies - to make Berega a better and more self-sustainable village.

Lots and lots and lots of love!

Mike & Marin