The start of teaching

A view of the crater that is Chome

 And school begins. January 10^th. This past weekend probably should have consisted of me preparing lesson plans since as the only Physics teacher at Chalao, I am expected to teach all forms and all students at the school. I think all and all I will have about 400 students across all 4 forms. I did a few lesson plans but was kept rather in the dark as to what was going to happen on Monday, other than that I was expected to meet with the rest of the teachers in the staff room 7:30 to prepare for school to begin at 8. The schedule for last year was still posted, but since there was new teaching staff it was no longer correct, so I had no idea when and where I would be teaching…and whenever I asked, no one could really tell me anything either. Monday morning arrived, I woke up at like 6 because I needed time to boil some water for chai, and since its super cold in the morning here I would have frozen my face off with out at least luke warm water to bucket bathe in. I had a tasty left over rice and beans breakfast from my equally tasty rice and bean dinner the night before, and wandered out of my house onto school grounds. Since I have been in Chome for a little over a month now, I had stopped getting as many confused stares as I walked from place to place. I forgot, however, that very few of the students knew I was going to be teaching at the school, so it was rather amusing to see all the perplexed faces.

After getting into the teachers lounge I was hoping, just maybe, someone would be able to tell me what was going on. All I knew is that I was teaching Physics…oh I also found out the day before that I was the “teacher in charge” of Form 2B, but no one could tell me what that was either. But after getting in and greeting all the teachers, all I had found out is that everyone agreed that the school was extremely dirty, and the kids were to clean it until it was sufficiently sparkling. One of the students, I think he was called one of the “head prefects” but maybe I am just imagining that and pretending I was a part of something Harry Potter-esk, hit a stick on the flag pole and all the students arranged themselves in some mysterious order around him.

I assume the mkuu was meant to talk to them or make announcements, but since he was absent everyone just stood there looking at one another in silence for about 20 minutes. Then, all the students dispersed to their respective classrooms. I am not sure what happened in those 20 minutes, or how they knew when to disperse, I am partially convinced that there is some sort of conspiracy going on to confuse me as much as possible, but I’m gonna let it go for now. So all the students went to their classrooms (organized by Forms and Steams…like 2B for example being the one that I was assigned to be in charge of or something). I started walking back to the staff room when one of my friends, and another teacher at the school said that I was supposed to be talking to “my” classroom now. This I assumed meant talk to Form 2B, but I had no idea what I should be talking about…again another part of the confuse Colin conspiracy perhaps? Haha. After going into the classroom and trying to ask them what was going on…only to receive 100% blank stares, I went in search of another teacher. I was meant to take attendance and instruct them on which parts of the school they should be cleaning. So I botched maybe 40 of 45 names, and attempted to explain what part of the school to clean in Kiswahili…which most likely went terribly, but they did clean that particular classroom at least. After about 2 hours into cleaning time I asked another teacher if there would be any teaching today…again he kind of laughed and just said the school was sooo dirty. 6 hours later, the students took off. Day 1 down, no teaching yet, lots of confusing times for me haha.

A couple pictures of the school- the first one is where the mama’s cook lunch

Day 2 of teaching…game on. I thought maybe since there was more cleaning done yesterday than I had ever seen done anywhere, today I would get to spit out some equations and meet the kids I would be teaching the next two years. Up early again, made some noodles for breakfast…breakfast of champions…and meandered to the staff room. After all the greetings, I asked where and if I would teach today. My closest friend, Baraka, informed me that all the students who had not yet brought their school fees had been sent home to retrieve them before school was to begin. This seemed like it would not be too much of a problem, however after walking around the school it appeared of the 400 students at Chalao, only 3 remembered to bring their school fees. And although some of the students live very close to Chalao, many live an hour or two walk from school…so by lunchtime, only about half the school had returned. Lunch came and went, and I thought another day would go by without setting foot in a classroom yet again, but then at around 2 (school goes from 8 until 3 with a 15 minutes break at 10:30, and a 45 minutes break at 1 for lunch), completely unspoken, all the teachers cleared out of the staff room. Again, more proof of the confuse Colin conspiracy theory. I sort of wandered around a bit and noticed that they had all gone to teach, but in what seemed to be random classrooms. Since there was no formal schedule yet made up, my best guess was that they all just walked into open classrooms. I thought ok…I’ll just teach in some classroom…but all of them had a teacher in them. Conspiracy I tell you. Eventually 3 rolled around, and I asked Baraka how he knew where to teach. He told me it didn’t matter. Since there is no schedule yet, I should just wander around and if I find a classroom without a teacher, I should go and teach there. Hahaha glorious, just a free for all. I still am not ruling out the confuse Colin conspiracy, however. Day 2 of school done, 0-2 on teaching. Bring on day 3.

After school each day there is an hour of some activity…it can be sports, school maintenance, English lessons, and I forget the other two. I think two of the days are sports maybe…anyways, after day 2 of school was sports day. And today it was a staff vs. student soccer game. They asked me to play again, even though they must be getting the message by now that I am literally the worst soccer player in the country of Tanzania. So school ended and all the teachers and I headed down to the pitch…well actually after school ended the students all stood together and were talked at by the mkuu for literally an hour without moving. I have no idea what was happening. Probably intricate details were being given out on how to continue to confuse me as much as possible. Yup, I am on to them now. Right…soccer game…first before I continue, a few weeks ago I was talking about sports with some of the guys I have become friends with in the village, we got to talking about soccer, which I really no nothing at all about. But as long as I smile/nod and just say Manchester United if anyone asks, its all good. So, talking about soccer with some guys and they ask what number I was…thinking they meant like what number do I wear on my jersey, I told them number 5. I dunno if these numbers are universal soccer lingo of what, but when I said this they were like number 5! Cool! I was like yea, 5, cool is right, that’s why I wear it, but naturally didn’t say any of that. The next day I am invited to play in a soccer game with some of the teachers. I reluctantly agree telling them my feet don’t do much more than prevent me from falling over, kicking and running around on them is dangerous territory for me, but they insisted I come play. When I get there my buddy says all right you are a number 5, right?...uh oh. Number 5 meant something in soccer, or at least in Tanzanian soccer. I soon found out that number 5 was like the sweeper or something. I was meant to be the “conductor” on the field. This was a problem for many reasons. For one, I am terrible at soccer. Also, and maybe more importantly, being a conductor of a soccer team, when nobody can understand the language you speak, is bad news bears. We ended up only losing 2-1 that game, but it was not pretty, that’s for sure. The teachers game went similarly…we did tie however, so whoop whoop for my feet.

Today I woke up same time as normal for day number 3 of school, hoping that today maybe I will get to kick off this teaching thing and actually get the ball rolling on some Physics …as usual up bright and early, dressed not in pajama pants because for some reason even though Tanzania is the dustiest place in all the land, Tanzanians manage to be the cleanest people of all times. It’s amazing because I cannot walk to the closest duka or friends house 100 yards away and not come back with red dirt stains on every part of my pants and shoes/uncovered part of my feet while wearing Chacos (I love Chacos, especially because they make me think of tacos, which makes me think of burritos…and burritos are the best)…anyway, compared to my pj pant wearing days in the states I am required at a bare minimum to wear non-wrinkled, non-track/sweat/comfortable pants, and a shirt that looks good, too. And when I teach it should have buttons and I am expected to wear a tie on most days. Crazy times I tell you, crazy times. So, off to school, day 3, potentially going to teach today…I get outside and as I am walking past the entrance to some of the others teachers’ houses, one comes out brushing his teeth wearing athletic shorts and a normal t shirt. Not a good sign. Like with the rest of the things I like to wear, adults do not wear shorts, unless they are playing in a soccer game. Seeing as there was no chance for a soccer game I gave him a weird look to which he responded by asking if I knew it was national holiday today. Haha, made sense now that there were no students around watching me. We laughed for a bit, and I headed back home…0-3 on teaching thus far but its gonna happen, I’m hoping for this week, but it seems that I potentially might not do much until Monday week 2. Only time will tell.

Oh…I did something awesome today though, as it is a national holiday and since I woke up at 6 assuming it was a normal school day…hmmm before I tell you what awesome thing I did, first you should know what I have to work with to make this awesome thing a reality. It involves cooking. My kitchen consists of 4 pots of different sizes, 3 spoons, 1 big spoon, 3 plates, a small bowl, a coffee mug, and a kerosene jiko. I know, I know, kerosene, fancy is right, I knew you were probably thinking that…no charcoal jiko for me, I’m a high roller. Anyway, the kerosene jiko is pretty simple, a little container at the bottom that you fill with kerosene (mafuta ya taa for those with any interest in learning some random words in Kiswahili). Strings travel from below to above absorbing the kerosene and you light them…shabaam, and we have a stove, well some metal cylinders with holes go on the top part to contain and direct the heat. Anyway…that’s my kitchen, and since I went to the market yesterday, I had all sorts of tasty things, well really just eggs, I had eggs so I decided to attempt to bread. Went with a banana bread recipe I was given, and constructed an oven from all my bowls. One big one directly on the heat…a few rocks in between the bottom of the big bowl and the small one containing the banana bread batter…then upside-down on top was the second biggest bowl since I only have one lid and its too small to cover big bottom bowl. It took about an hour and a half, but it worked. It was awesome. Probably not as awesome for you to read about, so I apologize for potentially getting your hopes out about the awesome thing that I did, but let me tell you, bread is not easy to come by, and banana bread, I don’t think I have seen any at all. So I feel like a hero, simple as that.

Day 4…school was actually happening that day so my chances of teaching were largely increased from the day before. After failing to find a classroom to teach in for the 4 two hour periods of the day (normally this would not have been all that difficult, but Form 1 has yet to learn English, and so if I were to walk in and start blabbering about physics they would probably poop themselves…this is why From 1 students took a 6 week English crash course called baseline so that they have some basis of English to work in as all classes except for Kiswahili are taught in English in secondary school) I left chai break early and found a class of From 3 students. This was it, class number one. Finally success. After introducing myself and talking about why I was here yada yada, I started asking the kids a little bit about what they knew from Physics last year. This was pretty reasonable as different teachers go at different speeds and I needed to know what to go over from Form 2 that the kids had not yet covered. I had forgot one crucial detail in my investigation of classrooms though. All Form 1 and Form 2 students take Physics, but Form 3 and Form 4 have the option to choose a more science based schedule if they wish to continue with Physics and Chemistry. Also Tanzania students are extremely soft spoken, and so none of them thought it would be a good idea to tell me that I was not in fact teaching this class, they were the non-science Form 3 students. But for 80 minutes, we went over what they had learned in Physics last year. Dang. So 1 class taught, too bad I am not actually going to be their teacher ever hahah. The conspiracy continues.

Day 5…Boom…I taught. And not only did I teach, but I taught kids I would actually be teaching for the rest of the year, as opposed to the only class in the whole school I would not in fact be teaching…stupid Form 3B, just kidding I am sure they are all wonderful humans. Anyway, to start the day I hopped into a Form 2 class and taught a little bit about static electricity. Although I did get a very large number of blank stares for most of the 80 minutes, my strange noises to go along with rubbing plastic bags on my head to electrify them helped to keep the kids awake. I also taught the Form 4 science students which went much more smoothly. They were far more capable of understanding my strange American English accent, and since we were starting the year studying waves, it was much easy jumping into something more tangible in comparison to static electricity.

Curriculum wise, Tanzanian schools are not too different from high school courses in the states, with the exception of option for electives. The only real choice students have is to continue taking Physics and Chem or taking more courses focused on History and Language. Apart from the curriculum similarities, there are quite a few differences, however. One of the biggest differences is the large lack of resources. The school I am working it has by far the nicest labs I have yet to see in Tanz, but in comparison to those I used in high school they are far from the same.

Textbooks its one of the most noticeable missing resources over here. For the most part teachers are provided with the material they are to teach. And each subject has just four books, one for each form, based on what the students need to know to take the national exam. Almost all the books I have seen are about 100 pages, that are each about 8 by 5 inches. Not too much to work with. And the students have nothing more often than not, unless the school is very well off and has been giving funding from some outside source. This means that if students want to have notes to look at they have to copy my notes. Two students take my notebook first to copy the notes, and then from those two students four more can copy theirs, then 12 more can copy and so on. Basically this means that I have to write my own textbook in a notebook, as legibly as possible so the students can listen during class (and have notes if they do not understand me and want to learn in their own time). A little different than making 40 photo copies and passing out handouts during class haha.

The other huge difference I have seen is the very, very passive nature of the students. This is probably due to the rather intense hierarchy system here in Tanzania school systems. There is also a lot of corporal punishment that goes on throughout each day, which has and will continue to take a lot of getting used to. We were warned many times particularly about the beating of students, but witnessing it is rather intense nonetheless. And there is punishment for anything and everything, from being late, to not knocking on the non-existent staff room door before entering, to not coming promptly enough after being called by a staff member. I am not in any way saying that the teachers here are bad people, it is just the way things work and how they feel they need to act to keep order is different than I am accustomed to. Usually teachers are carrying around a stick they use to hit the wrists of students but I have seen some strange alternatives as well. Yesterday I saw a bunch of boys doing push-ups, and today I saw two lines of girls holding their arms in the air. At first I thought that it was not too bad in comparison to being hit, but when I returned almost 30 minutes later and they were still there with their arms in the air. I think I would have preferred the stick to the wrist. Some strong arms those girls musta had. So, the students are extremely passive, very courteous, and keep quite quiet, which is a little problematic in the classroom when I really would like to get some participation. Hopefully my unwillingness to hit students will not cause me to loose control of them, but I am pretty sure it will not be a problem.

       

Another interesting little tidbit is that every time a teacher enters a classroom, the class immediately stands…when I enter they say, “good morning teacher…how are you” to which I am to respond “I am fine, how are you”… and they say “we are fine” and then they will stand looking at me until I allow them to sit down. Since it makes me a little uncomfortable I have had different greetings for different classes. I think my favorite one thus far was with one of my 2 classes they said good morning teacher to which I responded “good morning…what up class” and told them to say back “just chillin”. Probably sounds really stupid reading this, but it was quite entertaining to hear the whole class say just chillin all together.