Majengo and Ngoro

I know its been a long time since my last post, but its been a busy two weeks and after writing this blog several times and having it crash (welcome to African internet) I am trying to draw up the mental power to rewrite the entire thing. While overall it has been a great two weeks, it has had its ups and down and I have certainly learned a lot. I think I am finally adjusted to the way of life, and although many of the friends I have made in these past two weeks are leaving, I am happy to have more time to really understand the culture and make friends within the town.

After two weeks my one hour walk, about 3 miles, to Majengo is finally becoming normal, although this last week I have struggled a lot with my ankles and achilles tendons because of the unpaved and rocky roads. Paved, flat ground is a rarity in Tanzania, and it really is only in main city of Moshi. I walk from Soweto, through the police village, through Moshi, and enter into Majengo, and through all this only Moshi is paved. After the walk I begin the english lesson at 10am, with Val, my partner on the Majengo project. In the last two weeks we have worked on days of the week, numbers, colors, animals, "around the house" vocabulary, and writing in english. I have a new appreciation for elementary school teachers, because just keeping the children in their seats and behaved to even get the lesson has been a monumental task in and of itself. If Mama Leah, the teacher, steps out of the class, they soon begin to go a bit wild, much of this is due to the communication barrier however. I desperately wish I could work with the students more one on one, because most are very smart, but they all learn so differently and so having to give a blanket lesson to all of them seems to muddy the learning experience.

When we worked on the animals and the house vocabulary we bought them crayons and allowed them to color and at first they really didn't even know what to do with the crayons. After they would finish we would try to tell them they could continue coloring in their books, but that concept was just too new for them. We took a lot of pictures with them and their colorings, but that was a whole other ordeal in itself as well. We have been trying to teach them to hold their papers below their face, but again this concept confuses them. They assume you can see their face behind the paper.

Although we only work with them for about two hours: planning the lessons, controlling them, running and singing with them I am usually ready for it to end. We then walk the 30-40 minutes back into town, where I grab lunch and begin preparing for my adult english class. That class is about 15-20 minutes outside of Moshi, but so far it has been incredibly rewarding. The class is just beginning to get comfortable with speaking although some are still uneasy about opening their mouth. The passion that some of them have in regards to learning english is amazing. Before I came I thought that working with the children would be my favorite, and while they are beautiful, adorable, and fun, it is almost more rewarding to work with the adults because they are volunteering to work extra hard in order to better their lives and the lives of their children.

I'll try to update you sooner, rather than later this week because there is a lot happening that I want to explain and share with you all at home. In terms of pictures, the internet connection has been fussy so I have struggled to get pictures up, but I swear I will keep trying if you bare with me. For now I must sign off, but hope all is well on U.S. soil. xoxoxo