Summer days off at KEMPS

The school holidays have begun.  After two busy weeks with graduation as well as writing and marking exams, we have a week off.  I will be spending the week on campus along with Zelva, the school secretary, Madam Peace, one of the dorm matrons and Sister Fraisca.  Today, Madam Peace taught me how to make matoke.  Matoke is the signature dish of Bukoba and it is made from (unsweetened) bananas.  Although not my favorite food, I felt that I could not live in Tanzania, and particularly in Bukoba, without learning to make matoke.  It became the topic of much discussion among the teachers who remained on campus.  Zelva and Sister Fraisca smiled and laughed declaring that once I knew how to peel Bukoba bananas I would be a real "mama".  Albogast declared that it was so easy and he couldn't believe I didn't know how to do it.

I discovered it is quite an easy dish to make.  Peeling the bananas, which was declared the most difficult part, is done just as you would peel a cucumber.  Add some cooked ground beef, onions and tomatoes, water and oil and leave to simmer until the bananas fall apart and look (and taste) a bit like mashed potatoes.  Voila!  I am now officially a Bukoba mama...

Although the amount that Madam Peace helped me make was supposed to be for my lunch (a very large serving), Zelva, Madam Peace, Sister Fraisca, myself and others set the table on my front porch, opened sodas, cut some watermelon, and ate sambusas (samosa's) and matoke for our lunch.  All declared that my matoke was "tamu sana" or delicious. 

Going Green

Since returning to Kemps in July, I have grown green fingers and begun planting a garden.  Teachers and pupils are astonished that I know how to use a hoe and that I would want to get my hands dirty if I didn't have to.  But they are excited to see things grow and the pupils particularly have started to help me plant seeds. Once or twice their enthusiasm to help resulted in the drowning of the seedlings - but they are learning! 

A small patch on one sunny side of my house, my garden currently includes, lettuce, eggplant, nyanya mshumaa, green pepper, mchiche (spinach), one zucchini plant and hopefully some green beans and peas if my seeds grow.  So far, I have harvested 6 eggplants, lettuce, one lovely looking pepper and many nyanya mshumaa (these are mini green eggplants - I don't know what they are called in English!).  Although a New Yorker who has never grown vegetables before, I must confess that there is nothing quite so satisfying as eating vegetables that you have grown yourself.

Nyanya mshumaa ready for harvesting.

Ma Esther, an older woman who helps around the house twice a week, has noticed my interest in gardening.  As we were watering some newly planted seeds Thursday, she announced that she thought I should dig up the patch of ground on the other side and the back of my house, and that she would help me plant beans and potatoes.  A very talkative woman, she then proceeded to tell me about past gardens at KEMPS by various teachers and many other related stories that got lost as I tried to understand her rapid Kiswahili.

Since I have begun planting, other teachers have also renewed their interest in gardening.  Sister Fraisca and I enjoying walking to examine each other's gardens, and she even has a lettuce plant of mine.  Teacher Joyce has also started a very large garden and is the source of my zucchini plant, and 3 tomato plants if the cuttings take root.  She even has strawberries.  Just thinking about them makes my mouth water!   Gardening has become a communal interest.

Along with the gardening have come some culinary adventures.  Sweet potato and onion quiche, fajitas with homemade tortillas, guacamole and mango salsa, lemon cake with lemon glaze, dahl and saag aloo, and pineapple upside down cake.  Yes, life in Tanzania is hard! 

Sitting down to a decadent meal of fajitas after a long afternoon walk.

A Year in Review

The second semester is now fully underway.  It has been wonderfully easy to return to the routine of life at KEMPS.  Teachers, students and matrons are all busy and I feel more a part of the community here than ever before.  Since returning from the United States for the June holiday, relationships with teachers and matrons have grown and blossomed, and living with the students is as engaging and busy as ever.  Not an evening goes by without knocks on my door as pupils ask "Please, Teacher, may I have a tennis (ball)?" or "May I have a rope?"  I have spent evenings jump roping with the kids, teaching Standard 7 girls how to make cakes, and evenings sitting on mats with teachers and matrons practicing my Kiswahili and enjoying the view of the Lake. 

In the classroom Standard 5 has been observing water samples from around Bukoba under the microscope and applying their knowledge of the carbon cycle to the current debate about global warming and the greenhouse effect. 

Standard 4 has moved on from one point perspective and is now learning about George Seurat and the patience required to do a drawing entirely in dots - I hope to get some of their work up as soon as they finish the project.

Standard 1 and 2 continue to be curious in French class.  We have been working on several simple phrases of which the most popular is "Je suis fatigé" because pupils get to stretch and do very exaggerated yawns.

It is unbelievable that a year has come and gone since I first arrived at KEMPS to be greeted by these seemingly shy children.  This past year has truly been a most challenging and rewarding experience, and I have the pupils and the staff at KEMPS to thank.  I am looking forward to my next year here.

Cityscapes

Standard 4 has been looking at one point perspective, vanishing points and horizon lines in Vocational Skills.  By drawing a vanishing point on their paper and adding squares that they made 3D going back to the vanishing point, they built cities that were completely in one point perspective.  After outlining their buildings and street, they added their own details, naming the buildings after stores and banks that they see around town - Fido Dido is the only western supermarket in town.

By Anita

By Debora

By Godson

By Jordan

By Augustino

Thanks to  www.mrsbrownart.com for help with this lesson.

Buses, Airplanes and Subways, Oh My!

"Teacher, how many cars will you take to get to America?" was the question one of my Standard 5 pupils asked me as we sat together on the school bus going to town.  It was the week before I left to visit New York for the month long summer holiday beginning in June.  I thought for a moment answering "Well, I will have to take the bus to Kampala in Uganda, and then a taxi from Kampala to the airport.  From there I will take an airplane to Europe, and then another airplane to New York City."  She looked at me astonished. 

After digesting this information, she asked "And how will you get from the airport to your house?"  This question, so innocent, made me stop in my tracks.  How do you explain the huge differences between our countries?  How do you explain the subway to a child in a country where trains are barely used, and where the thought of something underground would, for some, seem like you were closer to hell. 

Finally I answered "I will take something called a subway, which is kind of like a train.  The difference is that this train runs under the ground."  Still puzzled she asked,  "How does it run under the ground?  Are there roads?" 

                "We dig tunnels, or holes underground that go exactly where a road would go above ground.  And the trains travel in these holes", I answered .

                "But teacher, how do you get down to the trains?" she asked.  (Most Tanzanian houses are built on one level, so there are no stairs.  The few that have a second floor do not have basements.)

                "We use stairs.  Just like we use stairs to go higher in a building, we can also use stairs to go down into the ground."

Hearing her questions, made me realize how traveling for 24hours can put you in a place so completely different from the one where you were living.  I was slightly nervous to return.  Would there be culture shock?  Would I be astonished by the changes in technology?  Or critical of our need to be constantly trading in a good piece of equipment for the newest model?

Despite these thoughts, it was wonderful to be home.  I will not deny that I enjoyed the many creature comforts to the fullest - hot showers, an abundance of cheeses and my favorite summer fruits.  As the weeks flew by, I began to wonder about going back to Tanzania again (it's amazing how quickly your mindset can change!) and whether it would be as easy to go back there as it had been to come back to New York.  And once again, despite my questions and worries, it has.  Both places feel like home.  A wise person once said, "You don't ever lose a home, you accumulate them."  Although sad to leave family and friends after a wonderful trip to the States, I am delighted to be back at KEMPS for my second semester. 

ABCs

The beginning of this school year saw many new students joining the KEMPS community with the addition of the Preschool class.  With no English and no school uniforms, they arrived at school speaking in Kihaya and Kiswahili and dressed in party dresses and pink princess skirts.  They would walk by my door and peer shyly and whisper an almost inaudible "Shikamoo" (a respectful Kiswahili greeting for someone older than yourself).  Since those first couple of weeks, they have blossomed into funny, rambunctious and determined pupils.  Their initial shyness has disappeared.  Several weeks ago a group came to my door after lunch, and in their spanking new English said, "Please Teacher, may I come in?".  Emboldened by this moment, I now have a whole new group of students who visit me almost every evening.  Arriving to knock on my door as soon as dinner is over, they spent this past week arranging my alphabet cards that I use for French class.  Beginning with "A", they placed each letter in order, stopping after each new addition to repeat the alphabet from the beginning.  Although they did very well with saying the alphabet (imagine saying the alphabet 26 times, once each time you added a new letter- lots of practice!),  they were still learning the shapes of the letters.  If you look closely at the picture you will notice that several are upside down.  

A mouthful of marbles

During an evening on my front porch these students posed in front of my "Tongue Twister of the Week" sign.  I have a new tongue twister every week (this one reads "Sam's sock shop stocks short spotted socks") and I love listening as students stop and practice the new twister.  Some will get it right away, others will give exclamations of surprise when their tongue doesn't do what they want it too, but all of them are laughing (particularly when they get to hear me try and say it - even I get stuck!)

On this particular evening we also had the marble works out and students crowded around to see which marble would make it first to the bottom.  There was much betting and cheering for their favorite colored marbles, and some non-too-subtle cheating as pupils pushed one marble out of the way or helped their own along.