Hello from Monduli!
We are down in Monduli chini today (Lower Monduli) at the Teacher's College, and it is the only place to check email in town, for a $1 an hour. Aang Serian is great. The teacher's staff house is more than we expected (a shack with all teacher's living on one room with a toiletin the back!), but Haley and I share a room on a bunk bed and Mark, the other teacher here, has his own room as well. Mark, 30, is a professional English teacher, orginally from Britain, but was living in Italy before coming to Tz. He's very nice, very helpful and will be here till May. He teaches English and has helped me a LOT with lessons and such. Haley is teaching Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Math and is having a bit of trouble with the material, working with textbooks printed in 1980 and 1984. Vicky is our house cook and she is excellent. Because it takes a couple hours to make meals on a kerosene stove and a couple hours to hand-wash clothing, we would be lost without her! She makes great ugali (local form of rice), rice, chapati (pancakes in the morning), chips mayai(french fries with eggs) and great stews and beans. We also get GREAT bananas, tomatoes, mangos, potatoes, etc. We were being served dataa,which is basically shiner fish dried, peeled and stewed, but none of us could really stomach it, so we asked to nix it from the diet :).
The students are WONDERFUL! They are such a joy to be around. They all listen, don't interrupt and want to learn so badly. Laiser is a boy in Haley's classes and yesterday he came up to say that he wanted to take a math book home to study over the weekend, but we can't because we only have so many books for the students and if they take them home, we're not sure they will come back to us. So, we told him he couldn't and he understood, but said, "I need to study. I need math in my mind." When class is over, they don't leave. They sit in their chairs and keep copying notes or ask questions. This week, we were teaching body parts, and so we played some games of "Simon Says" to get them familiar with the names of the parts. I've never heard teenagers laugh so much, so hard or seen such big smiles! They couldn't control themselves with laughter when they were caught not doing what "Simon said!" Their English is pretty bad and we are pretty much starting from square one. We will be teaching about 10-15 periods a week and hope to get another teacher here soon to help withother subjects. Kutukaya is the head teacher here who is a Maasai and very smart and very proud of his culture. We hope he will be giving us lessons in Kiswahili- it will help tremendously with teaching,obviously. It is beautiful where we live- you can see Kili from the Primary school grounds, Ngorongoro Crater is just over a ridge about an hour's walk away, and the landscape is breathtaking! Just a 2 minute walk from the school and you are in a sea of bomas, children, donkeys, cattle and goats. However, you don't really have to walk far to see all that: herds of cattle come strolling in to the school grounds on a regular basis, followed, of course, by 6-8 year-old boys who walk miles a day to pasture-feed their animals.
Today, we walked about 45 minutes to Monduli juu (Upper Monduli) tocatch a dala dala (a 4x4) down to Monduli chini for 500 shillings ($0.50) and we are staying in a guest house (hotel) tonight for 2,500 shillings ($2.50) for the night.
We've been walking everyday (I went for a run this morning (you can really feel the altitude!)) through the bomas ofthe Maasai and they are incredible people. You can't walk more than a couple minutes without them coming up to you and saying hello ("Tequenya") and responding hello ("Iko"). The children smile so big you can see their white teeth from far away. The women don't believe that Haley and my hair is really real and that it can't be "thatl ong", which is what the warrior men do as a sign of superiority. The children are very independent, with children as young as 3 or 4 tending to herds of goats or donkeys. They come running up and are very shy, but if you slowly extend a hand and say "Supai" (hello, for children and men) they giggle and laugh. From far away, they all smile and will follow you the entire time you walk through the boma. However, some look at you like you're an alien and run away behind their mother's legs. The weather is perfect, warm and temperate, but with a slight breeze that makes it very nice- however, it is chilly at night (not that we care because we are inside with lanterns then anyway). It will get colder (in June) and wetter (from March-May). I've never seen so many stars in my life! Wait a couple minutes and you'll see a shooting star, guaranteed!
We are planning to head back to Dar next weekend to finish up ourpaperwork with the Ministry of Education on the following Monday.That's about all for now. We miss you all and love you all! Tangeze! ("Tomorrow" or "goodbye" in Maa)
The students are WONDERFUL! They are such a joy to be around. They all listen, don't interrupt and want to learn so badly. Laiser is a boy in Haley's classes and yesterday he came up to say that he wanted to take a math book home to study over the weekend, but we can't because we only have so many books for the students and if they take them home, we're not sure they will come back to us. So, we told him he couldn't and he understood, but said, "I need to study. I need math in my mind." When class is over, they don't leave. They sit in their chairs and keep copying notes or ask questions. This week, we were teaching body parts, and so we played some games of "Simon Says" to get them familiar with the names of the parts. I've never heard teenagers laugh so much, so hard or seen such big smiles! They couldn't control themselves with laughter when they were caught not doing what "Simon said!" Their English is pretty bad and we are pretty much starting from square one. We will be teaching about 10-15 periods a week and hope to get another teacher here soon to help withother subjects. Kutukaya is the head teacher here who is a Maasai and very smart and very proud of his culture. We hope he will be giving us lessons in Kiswahili- it will help tremendously with teaching,obviously. It is beautiful where we live- you can see Kili from the Primary school grounds, Ngorongoro Crater is just over a ridge about an hour's walk away, and the landscape is breathtaking! Just a 2 minute walk from the school and you are in a sea of bomas, children, donkeys, cattle and goats. However, you don't really have to walk far to see all that: herds of cattle come strolling in to the school grounds on a regular basis, followed, of course, by 6-8 year-old boys who walk miles a day to pasture-feed their animals.
Today, we walked about 45 minutes to Monduli juu (Upper Monduli) tocatch a dala dala (a 4x4) down to Monduli chini for 500 shillings ($0.50) and we are staying in a guest house (hotel) tonight for 2,500 shillings ($2.50) for the night.
We've been walking everyday (I went for a run this morning (you can really feel the altitude!)) through the bomas ofthe Maasai and they are incredible people. You can't walk more than a couple minutes without them coming up to you and saying hello ("Tequenya") and responding hello ("Iko"). The children smile so big you can see their white teeth from far away. The women don't believe that Haley and my hair is really real and that it can't be "thatl ong", which is what the warrior men do as a sign of superiority. The children are very independent, with children as young as 3 or 4 tending to herds of goats or donkeys. They come running up and are very shy, but if you slowly extend a hand and say "Supai" (hello, for children and men) they giggle and laugh. From far away, they all smile and will follow you the entire time you walk through the boma. However, some look at you like you're an alien and run away behind their mother's legs. The weather is perfect, warm and temperate, but with a slight breeze that makes it very nice- however, it is chilly at night (not that we care because we are inside with lanterns then anyway). It will get colder (in June) and wetter (from March-May). I've never seen so many stars in my life! Wait a couple minutes and you'll see a shooting star, guaranteed!
We are planning to head back to Dar next weekend to finish up ourpaperwork with the Ministry of Education on the following Monday.That's about all for now. We miss you all and love you all! Tangeze! ("Tomorrow" or "goodbye" in Maa)
posted by Ashley at 5:34 AM
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