Berega or Bust

This was one of the first pictures I took here.

A random house in the village

     Alright. Here it is. My first blog post from Tanzania. And yes, I realize how pathetic it is that I've been here over a month and this is my first time writing. I consider myself an exceptional procrastinator, but I just couldn't put it off any longer. (Or rather, I have a lot of dishes and laundry to do that I can justify putting off, but only if I'm doing something else that I don't really want to do. My mind works in mysterious ways.)

Some boys from school climbing on my clothesline.

     So here I am in Berega! Finally, after years of waiting and wishing. It's still a bit surreal, to be honest. Sometimes I'll be doing something and it hits me: I'm in Africa right now. Not that I really ever forget, it's just so far from anywhere I've ever been or anything I've ever experienced. I visited the Grand Canyon for the first time before I left America and the sense of awe and "is this real?" that I felt there I've been feeling a lot since I got here.

 

 

Playing with fire (don't worry, we took these away)

     Berega is beautiful. The people here are very friendly and welcoming. The people everywhere in Tanzania are, actually. Seriously, I have never felt more welcome anywhere. I had the opportunity to go to a Maasai wedding last week and another volunteer and I discussed how we were a little uncomfortable with the idea before we went, just because we felt like we'd be intruding. Like, six foreign people that you don't know show up in the middle of your wedding and start taking pictures of your party (well, okay, it wasn't that bad--they knew we were coming, but still). If that happened in America we'd be livid. But they were so happy that we were there, and they even encouraged us to join in on the dancing, which the boys did. I thought about it but chickened out in the end. Then they fed us some delicious beef (which was very tough like all the beef is here, but it tasted very good). It was a shame because, due to work and a huge rainstorm and car troubles, we got there about half-an-hour before dark and ended up only spending a couple hours there. They told us we were welcome to come again, though, so hopefully we'll get another opportunity. I'm here 'til December so I think I have a pretty good shot.

Me and a bunch of the kids. If I'm making a weird face (which I am) it's because they were all leaning on me and I was trying not to fall forward. But they're cute, so it's okay.

Standard 1 collecting their prizes on test day.

     I think I've settled into my day-to-day life pretty well. I'm still pretty terrible at cooking (and here, if you don't cook, you don't eat), but I've discovered that my baking is pretty good. I can make some great bread. But then, I have a good recipe. I also learned how to make some nice tomato sauce, which is good because tomatoes are one of the only constants here. I've been lucky enough that potatoes are in season right now and I can make mashed potatoes every so often. Time consuming, but worth it.

Waiting out the rainstorm while they fixed the car.

     But onto the whole reason I'm here--teaching! I've been teaching remedial classes mostly. I work with a few kids from Std. 1 and Std. 2 who are very behind in their English and math, and I recently started teaching English to Std. 4 (not remedial). Teaching is hard but fun. Yelling at kids all day is something I'm still getting used to, having never had any kids of my own or even any younger siblings. But I'm sure I'll get the teacher voice eventually and they'll start to listen without me yelling at them every two minutes. Charlene (the other teacher volunteer here, she's been here for 9 months) is the one they listen to when she yells, but she told me it was like this for her when she first arrived--Liz was the one they listened to and it took her a while to learn how to show them she meant business. So, y'know, I'm not really worried. Just kidding, I'm always worried. But I'm sure things will be fine.

 

This was my first time eating with the kids (which I do every once in a while). I was disappointed that it was makande and not ugali.

This is one of my favorites. I think I'll paint it someday.

      The kids at school are the best part of this whole thing, even though they can be frustrating sometimes. They're so happy and eager to learn. And when I say that, I mean it. These kids love school. That's about as foreign a concept as you can get from American children, and I love it. Yesterday I did adverb charades with Std. 4 (they had to pick a random verb + adverb out of two bowls and then act it out without talking) and it was great. They're not really to the level where we can do anything but basic words, but it was fun watching Samweli try to pollute slowly. ("Pollute" is what they call farting, and it always makes me laugh. I'm so mature. That's why I get along with the kids so well.)

We had a football (soccer) game versus a rival school recently. Here are the teams, ready to face off! (Our boys on the left.)

Some of the action.

     Remedial is slow going but I have been seeing some improvement. I think I finally succeeded in teaching one Std. 1 boy subtraction with borrowing after many failed attempts, and the worst reader in class is starting to recognize words and even sound a few out. I'm actually learning things, too--I was never very fast at my multiplication before I came here but now that I do flash cards with the kids every day I have it down better than I ever did. Of course, as soon as I leave I'll probably forget it all again, but hey, you win some you lose some.

Everyone went crazy when we scored. (We tied, by the way.)

The girls wanted a picture, too. I love how I caught them really laughing.

     It's Autumn in Tanzania right now, and it's one of the rainy seasons (there are two and this is the "less rainy, but still rainy" season). It's sort of nice because it reminds me of home when it rains, plus it's much cooler, but it's also crappy when you have to hang your clothes to dry and it keeps raining on them. Speaking of the heat, it's really hot--and I mean really hot--but I'm actually much better at dealing with it than I'd expected. I think my islander genes are paying off. I've also got a nice tan going, as I'm sure you'll see from pictures. The kids say by the time I go home I'll be as black as them. It would be nice--I wouldn't have to worry about burning anymore and they age much more gracefully than I think I will.

There's a graveyard right next to the football field, so guess where most people sat?

     Well, it's almost 10 pm so I think I'd better stop putting off my dishes and laundry now, while I still have power. It's been going out a lot lately. I think because of the weather, but people say it might also be because it's an election year and the Government is using the money they should be spending on electricity towards campaigning and other things. The big cities always have power, but we're just a small village so I guess they figure we can live without it for days at a time. Which is true, but frustrating. Anyway, I'm stalling and I still have pictures to upload so I'll leave you by saying: I'm sorry I haven't kept you all updated as much as I should, I'll try to be better. I've done some pretty awesome things already in the short time I've been here, like visiting a national park and being about 2 feet from a wild lion, having my first taste of ugali (a local staple made out of corn) delivered to me halfway up a mountain by a random little girl, and being persuaded into an impromptu and very unexpected performance in front of about 150 Tanzanians, but I'll save those stories for a later time.

Until then, I love you all,

Lisa

Yeah, I think I did alright.