This is fun stuff! Kate brought us some cash when she came two weeks ago. So, we go to the bank to exchange some of it, only to find out that if the $100 bill has a small head of Benjamin Franklin, then it is not accepted. Only the big-headed Franklins are accepted. The banker tells us the “small heads” are too old. We find out the entire country will not accept small heads; a whole new twist on big-headedness don’t you think? A lawyer told us Saddam Hussein counterfeited the small heads very effectively, much to the Americans chagrin, and I guess the thinking is they are still floating around. Luckily, most of our bills are big headed!
This is the problem with cashing the $100 bills Kate brought us: money management made more difficult in a developing country by counterfeiting. Our initial plan was to use our ATM card since we knew most business was conducted in cash. So, cashing the maximum of $300 per day, which by the way is 45 minutes away, would not pay for our Christmas safari. Plan B was to open a bank account and have money wired to our new Tanzanian account. That has been 3 weeks in the making since our paper work was questioned twice. Our applications, which included eight pictures, our thumb prints, a letter from Faraja stating our purpose for being here and copies of our passports, still has not been accepted at the main office in Dar es Salaam. The burning question is: what does the E. stand for in Helen E? Hence, we still do not have an account.
Our clubs are going well. The children really like the extra- curricular activities, and we enjoy teaching. Zachayo loves playing card games. His devious little smile tells me he is thinking about his next move. It will be good when these kids know more games and are able to have cards in their dorm rooms so they can keep themselves occupied.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
We teach English class before the kids are allowed on the computer; a kind of work for rewards system. They have to do a typing lesson before they can play a game. “My fingers always go on home row” is my mantra. One of our English lessons was learning the names of our fingers so they can equate typing with their fingers. “Every key has a finger.” We are looking forward to setting up Internet for the students so they can have e-mail pen-pals in the states. This will hopefully start next semester for our 4th and 6th graders.
Farm club is seeing seedlings come up. Everyone, that is all Tanzanians, has a garden and an animal or two or hundreds. But, everyone uses lots of chemicals. Farmers of Adams County, help us! The chemical companies have a great market here. We are moving toward organic gardening; sorry Eddie. The other thing that needs to be taught is to grow forage. The animals cannot survive on leftover corn stalks for 2 – 3 months during the dry season. The animals cannot wait for the rains to come.
Our Sunday outing to our guards’ nyumba, or Maasai boma, was quite the experience. We were met by his six children, wife, uncle, sisters, nieces, nephews, bibis (grandmothers) and neighbors. We had chai twice during the hottest part of the day, a tradition for most visits. We also brought oil, rice and a futbol (soccer ball) to the kids. The huts made of cow dung, mud, and water are a dark grey color like an overcast winter sky in Gettysburg. Most of what we saw in the boma has not changed for hundreds of years. A fence for holding cattle is formed in a circle, made of acacia limbs with 3 inch-long thorns. The huts are round, smooth-walled, with steep thatched roofs. The rooms are very dark, windowless and small. We ducked our heads to enter a very different world. The walls are of the same dark grey material. The floors are a packed, smooth, hard sort of clay. In one room there was a newborn infant sleeping near a smoldering fire. Fires are simply a triangle of rocks on the ground. There is no vent for the fire. The men always proudly showed us their beds, covered in layers of scraped cow hides. Was this a confirmation of their virility? Women slept in a different bed with two or three watoto sleeping beside them.
We also wormed 25 goats and as many of the cows as we could catch. It was a Maasai rodeo! They chased a cow down and grabbed it by one front leg and hold on. Our Maasai friends are making jewelry for us. If you want anything like what you see in the photos, let me know and I’ll bring some home for you.
We also wormed 25 goats and as many of the cows as we could catch. It was a Maasai rodeo! They chased a cow down and grabbed it by one front leg and hold on. Our Maasai friends are making jewelry for us. If you want anything like what you see in the photos, let me know and I’ll bring some home for you.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Blog #4
Activities at Faraja:
Movie night or cinema night as the children called it, was a big success. Nell, Ann, and the girls watched Finding Nemo on Friday night and the boys got to see Cool Runnings on Saturday. We held it in their dorms on our laptop with the speakers we brought. As you can see, crowding ~40 children into their “living area” was tight.
Johari recounted the story of Nemo for me with quite the English, thus she understood most of what was going on. I thought, “What must they be thinking, a movie about fish?!” They learned where Sydney is and maybe a little about the ocean. They are asking about another movie night no doubt.
Basketballi is a huge hit! It has been a Friday and or Sunday afternoon happening. It is a little scary since it is played with reckless abandon; anything goes. Just get the ball through that hoop! Oh and don’t wipe out too badly on coffee beans, millet seeds or chafe, corn, or sticks. Our”court” wears many hats! Playing with just the children is one story, but when the adults enter watch out! The bigger they are the harder they hit, push, and grab. They smash you and then smile. We Matthews, being somewhat demure, are fairly aghast at this barbaric method of play. Yes, we are teaching them about passing, dribbling, and teamwork. The notion of fouling will come when we have a whistle. Hopefully committing fouls will rein them in a bit. They know about free shots in football (soccer).
On one occasion, there were about 25 fans in the “stands”. It was an odd combination of farm workers who are currently picking corn by hand, animal caretakers, and wheelchair bound students; with some people who just walk up from “somewhere”? Every time the ball went in, the shouts, clapping and whooping was voluminous. Last Friday, the two matrons (dorm moms) and a cook played. The children really liked that. Quiet, shy Aurellia dressed in her skirt, shawl, and barefoot, actually made 3 baskets!
The computer lab is moving along. After loading Typing Instructor on 10 computers at Faraja, 5 for the children and 5 in the administration office, we are “teaching” typing; the first step. We also set up a schedule for one student to be on one computer at a time, instead of five students farting around with the mouse of one computer.
I am a computer wizard because my fingers fly across the keyboard at the lightning speed of 42 WPM! (Everyone hunts and pecks here). I am a computer wizard because I can control the mouse. I have magic because I can navigate through that screen, I know how to flip pictures that are sideways and I can somewhat post a blog. Wait until they see what the internet has to offer!
Rosina got on the computer the other day for the first time. She started her first lesson, a, s, l and ; when I saw that putting her hands on home row is impossible. She has no control over her hands. This does not deter this wonderful child. She somehow pressed the correct key for 95% accuracy, taking 20 minutes. Asanterabi is the same. He is spastic. But, somehow, he finished his first lesson with 98% accuracy. He has to steady his right hand by holding it with his left. He has great difficulty speaking. He also is obviously bright, cheerful, and the great humbler for us; what lessons these children teach. Sometimes we do not know the students’ disability until they sit at the computer and I see one hand does not work or one hand only has 3 fingers. So, if you have any suggestions to a non trained volunteer in physical disabilities, please let me know! Many of the children are moving right along on their computer lessons. We are implementing an incentive plan (Juicy Fruit and a pencil) for those who get lessons done versus playing those “fun, interactive, screen flashing, music playing games.
Last Sunday we took a walk and talk around Faraja before the basketballi game. One never knows what may happen with approx. 25 children in tow, some in wheelchairs, some using walkers, some running ahead, some walking slowly with the others who are taking off into unchartered territory. Taking a right into Faraja’s coffee fields was quite the adventure. They just follow us wherever; never asking where we’re going. We passed by the “rich” neighbor’s nyumba (house) and were told not to knock on their gate. I guess there is a Boo Radley house in every village.
We ended up at Faraja’s farm where we discovered another dead piglet. I quickly went home to get necropsy materials so we could have a little biology lesson. The children crowded around to see the heart, lungs, liver, intestines, esophagus, trachea, etc. with great curiosity. Course the highlight for some was when the farm dog Lady, absconded with the entire pig.
Our next stop was back up at Faraja where the garden is. Hugh got kids pulling weeds to feed “greens” in addition to the dry, brown corn stalks they are getting now. Obviously the major problem for the farm animals is poor nutrition.
Hugh has much work to do on the farm. It has great potential. So far, he has been gathering information using an interpreter whenever he can get one. Kundisay is knowledgeable about the animals and is a tremendous worker. But having no true manager, no feed, no plan, and no planning poses a bit of a problem…….good potential! His initial plan is to sell half of the goats and pigs. Bigger is not better. Having less animals will enable better care. I’m not sure what all these giant testiculated (sp?, yes, but word check changed it to gesticulated, but we overwrote it) bucks and boars are doing here. The farm will one day be awesome.
We went away this weekend to a small lodge with individual cabanas, a POOL, and beautiful gardens. The highlight of this jaunt was the interaction with some more exciting, interesting people. A German married to an English lady own the place. They met in Zimbabwe. A German girl works there for several months; goes home to earn money and then returns. Two Austrian couples who have worked in Tanzania as volunteers in a hospital for 15 years, 2 German doctors on their honeymoon, and a tour guide and her spouse rounded out the visitors. The conversations, their attitudes about people and travelling and learning new cultures; wow what a learning experience for all 3 of us. Ann IS getting an education here. And to top off the weekend we met a Belgian veterinarian and her Italian vet. husband who own a hospital in Arusha. This guy is fascinating; having worked in Afghanistan for 2 years, Zambia, and Uganda. He used the word “beautiful” a lot; which describes our opinion of him, Dr. Giuseppe Di Giulio. Hugh has found a German chef who will give a Christmas cooking class. So we WILL have a “Stolen” for Christmas with hopefully some cool Italian cuisine. Our Sunday outing to the polo match, Kenya vs. Tanzania was quite a dose of the leftover colonial influence.
Kate comes in a week. We are very excited. Now our blog will be much more imaginative, as well as grammatically correct. There seem to be many exciting challenges for her here.
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