6-19-13
Blog update... Well I'm sitting here,
on my mosquito-net covered bed, sipping a cup of lemon water and
snuffling with a winter cold. I was told now is 'winter' in Tanzania,
but didn't rightly believe it. Until the other day when I was
freezing cold with goose-bumps from swimming and the other morning
when I had to put a jacket on. For the first, Mr. Gale simply told me
I'd acclimatized and really it wasn't that cold. For the other I
figured that -well maybe it was just a little windy -er, so
something. But this snuffly, 'winter' cold has tipped the scales for
me... It really is winter in June.
Now I know places like Alaska and the
Iceland have winter with snow and such clear until July. Honestly I
did not believe that Africa countries ever had proper 'winter'. Folks
the truth is out and confirmed – Africa does have winter in the
months between June – August!
Some signs of winter in Tanzania:
1. Mothers will wrap their babies in
blankets and place warm, winter hats on their heads. It may be
sweating hot for a normal person... but never mind that babies must
keep warm for the winter months.
2. You may see a random young man
wearing shorts, an old T-shirt and a baby blue, knit hat which not
only warms the head but has flaps to keep the ears extra warm as
well. (Saw this earlier today).
3. The pikipiki drivers (taxi
motor-bikers) will wear large coats and jackets of all variations.
4. The dirt roads get even dirtier,
rather dustier.
5. Nasty winter colds start making
their rounds.
6. Someone might ask you, “How is
your winter going?”.
Now that you'll are a bit more educated
about Tanzanian seasons, expect a quiz from me in a couple months!
The Lord is good and sustaining the Dunlaps here in Tanzania. I am
continually grateful for each day and all that is being learned.
I can't post pictures of the students online
I have been keeping busy with spending
days in the school. The international school I have been volunteering
at is the best primary and secondary school in Mwanza. It follows the
British curriculum and as a result most of the teachers are from
England. The students come from all over the world. The Year 5 class,
I've been in the past month the students are from Tanzania, Yemen,
Oman, South Korea, Italy, America, Iran, India, Pakistan and maybe a
couple other African countries.
This school is not only the best in
Mwanza but is also better than most schools in the USA that I have
followed for my collegiate studies. The method of pedagogy which this
school follows is in alignment with the methods that I have learned
at Berea. The school focuses on hands-on learning with an emphasis on
real-life application, projects, creativity, critical thinking and
differentiating for the variety of levels within the class.
Unfortunately, although we have many resources in the United States
our public system of education has turned into teaching to a test and
making sure 'no child is left behind' (which actually means that no
child is allowed to go ahead). I should say that is my experience in
public schools in Kentucky. Many projects it is hard to get the
students to stop because they are so engaged in their learning. For
example, in my Year 5 class the children in groups wrote a story,
acted out six scenes and made a music video of the story. They were
so creative with one girl using her arm with a blanket wrapped around
it as a baby.
Also, this school allows children time
to be children. They are given three long breaks in the day along
with an hour lunch break. Often children will either run to play
football (soccer) or make-up games with their friends. Also, they
encourage the arts with football, rugby, swimming, music, art, dance
and so forth. The school took a whole day off for cross-country last
week. All the children from the kindergartners to the secondary
students raced according to age. I actually got to join the secondary
boys on a wicked 5K race that wound up and down Mwanza's hilly roads
in the hottest part of the day. The best part was beating a secondary
boy at the end who did not want to be beat by a girl, with 40
children chanting, “Miss Dunlap, Miss Dunlap”.
I realize that being able to spend time
to learn from this school is a blessing and very formative in my
understanding of teaching. As I could have easily ended up at a
rubbish school because the education system in Tanzania is
struggling. To try to describe schools in Tanzania in a nutshell I
would say that the government basically provides buildings and
requires all children to attend school. Most schools, both in the
village and city, easily have classes of 60-100 children. Until
recently, the government only provided about one book per subject per
grade per school. Sheila has seen school children that did not know
how to use a book, as in which side to open from or how to turn from
one page to another. These are called pre-reading skills.
There is also a shortage of teachers at
most government schools. For example, one school we have visited
several times has 9 teachers for a school of 750ish students.
Basically if any learning happens it is from rote learning from
verbal instruction. Many teachers are trying their best and do care
about the students but have many obstacles to face with large
classes, no resources and being underpaid. I know a teacher who gets
paid under a dollar a day.
Also many schools I have seen have no
running water or kitchen... People, young and old, still value
education. Many people will sacrifice much to attend school. We had
one such 13 year-old boy, Moses, stay with us, at my host family's
house, for a couple days. Moses turned up at the boys home on the
hill after being kicked out by a family he had been living with. He
had run away from home 2 years before when he was just 11 years old.
His family was too poor to afford sending him to school. He thought
that living on the streets with the chance of being able to attend
school was better than not being educated. He was from a rural
village and my host family decided sending him to his home would be
the best thing for him. Fortunately his family greeted him with tears
of joy and many hugs saying they gone to the city many times over the
past couple years looking for him. This is not a purely 'unique'
story or unusual.
On Mondays, I often get to join a lady
by the name of Sheila to visit village schools. She has been working
with village schools for six years trying to help provide books and
teacher training. It is very interesting and I have learned that it
seems those with the least are the most grateful and hospitable. I do
not think the children wearing thread-barren uniforms I see bask in
self-pity. They are like children all around the world living the
life they know full of curiosity, energy and wide smiles. I rightly
enjoy the village and Lord willing will get to spend a week in a
village later this summer.
In the evenings, I have been kept busy
with volunteering at an orphanage for babies which is in my
neighborhood, lesson planning, Bible study and such activities.
However my favorite, favorite part of the week is going home (to my
parents home) on the weekends. There is nothing more beautiful than
being able to spend time with them. We play music together, cook
together, talk, write, laugh...and get to wonder at this strange
culture together (For example, earlier today when shopping at the
market, a mouse popped up at me after I took a coconut from a
basket). Today we had the blessing of all going to a Sukuma museum
together with Capt. Nestor, Baraka, Mama Nestor and baby Abigail.
Here we learned all about the Sukuma people and their history.
(Mwanza is historically a Sukuma kingdom. Many people here are from
these people. Tanzania has 129 different tribes.) The most
interesting part being getting to hold a rock python...
This is my favorite picture! with Kat, Baraka and myself
Till Next time - Chow
