The bus ride took almost an hour, and despite the smell of exhaust, wasn't unpleasant. We then walked about 20 minutes up a dirt road to get to school, only asking once for directions. It was nice to actually experience what school children experience every day; that is a long wait, followed by a long bus ride, followed by a long walk. Although it's more fun to be pampered by Hellen, it's much more real to get there this way.
Hellen wasn't yet at the clinic when we arrived, so we walked ourselves over to the school, and were scooped up within minutes by the substitute standard 6 teacher. (We think the regular teacher had her baby!) We taught 6A about the difference between a letter to a "penfriend" and a formal letter. It went well. We're getting many less blank stares these days!
Next, the standard 5 teacher found us and took us to the 5A class, whom we had not yet taught. So we repeated our standard 5 lesson from Thursday, which was about days, weeks, months and years. We were met with about 80% participation and a lot of enthusiasm which was awesome to see.
As we were leaving, a girl handed us a note, which we thought was just her "penfriend" letter left over from Friday, but it turns out that she wrote us to tell us that she's an orphan and needs a sponser to continue her education, which is quite expensive in Tanzania, even at the secondary level. We spoke to Hellen about her, and we're going to put her on the Life Project waiting list. It would be amazing if we were actually able to help her!
When we got back to Njia, we chatted with Stephan (Father Stephen's nephew) and ate PB&J while waiting for Hellen to arrive. We just got so sleepy that we had to lie down...and ended up taking a nap in the breezeway of the health center. Don't worry...it was completely socially appropriate! Even the receptionist joined us for a bit.
When Hellen arrived, we sat and chatted with her while she ate her lunch, then we piled in the car and drove to drop off our bags (which we had stored at the Health Center for the weekend) at the YMCA before going to the tailor. We all got fitted for dresses (we're using the material we bought on Friday), and they'll be ready on Wednesday! The fitting was quite an experience, as we first had to figure out what style we wanted, then had to be measured, then waited around for a long while for Hellen to negotiate the price for us...but it was yet another real glimpse into how things work here, so we were happy to have the experience.
Next, we accompanied Hellen to the wealthy section of Dar called Masaki, where we were getting an estimate on car repairs. Turns out that she knows the mechanic and his family through a priest at Alicia's church, and they welcomed us enthusiastically, then sat us down for tea.
On the way home, Hellen pointed out the embassies and all of the mansions of the wealthy government officials, and we talked again about the corruption that permeates Tanzanian politics. Apparently even a few weeks ago, there was a non-violent protest staged by impoverished Tanzanians, who lay down in front of the president's car and told him to run them over and kill them rather than make them suffer any longer. Apparently government officials have embezzled billions of dollars of aid money from the U.S. alone and hundreds of thousands of Tanzanians are suffering because they can't buy food, while their elected officials buy more excessively large houses in gated areas. When I asked Hellen if she thought the system could change, she said maybe in 15-20 years. It was a very sobering conversation, and it explains a lot about why things work (or don't work) they way they do here.
We were dropped off at the YMCA and ran to the grocery store, before coming back here for dinner. Now all we have standing between us and our mosquito-net protected beds is lesson plans for tomorrow! (And grading some more papers.)
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
2 comments:
Wow...your life sounds a lot like mine. Don't you love grading and lesson planning all night!
It's good to see you're enjoying such exotic foods like PB&J.
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