Week 6 & 7

Sunday I went to Saba Saba Market with my family to prepare for my Mama’s best friend’s daughter’s wedding. This was the first time I sat in the passenger seat of a daladala. My mom’s friend Theresia insisted I sit with her. I can’t say that I liked the view and the stress of so many near-accidents. I have been to Saba Saba before, but Sunday is about 10 times crazier than usual. There was an auction area for kitchen items. As the auction was going on, a flat bed truck pulled up with four scandalous women. They were shaking it like I’ve never seen it shook before. My dad laughed when I asked him if they were prostitutes…apparently they were just promoting something? I saw a cage of rats being poisoned to prove that the poison being sold really worked. Pretty much everywhere I walked someone was staring or beckoning for me to come over. Bibi (about 4 foot 6) took my hand and led me through the crowd and cursed at the nasty men making comments about me. Anyway, the “piles” at the market are basically all the leftover clothes from thrift stores. I bought a shirt and a skirt for a total of 2,000Tsh (about $1.25). We piled onto the daladala with our 3 huge bags of gifts and clothes.

When we got home, we slaughtered another chicken. My brother was searching for someone to kill it for him. My Baba explained to me that because of their Muslim background, they must never kill the meat themselves, or else it is unholy to eat.

Monday I got my hair braided. It was a horrible experience. It took an hour. There was a pile of my hair that got pulled out. My scalp hurt. But as soon as I went home my Mama and Bibi started jumping up and down because they were so excited. I do have to say I was surprised at the quality of work since my hair is quite different from theirs. Finally on Wednesday I got sunburned on my scalp so I had a reason to take it out. Three of the kids gathered around and yanked out the braids. Then Safina said, “It is pink”. Well yes, it IS pink because that is what a sunburn is. I don’t think they really got the concept of what sunburn was. Then Ema was taking pictures of my crazy “angel hair” (another quote from Hamisa) fro when Catherine peed on me. Thankfully that meant I got to bathe sooner and rinse my hair!

Wednesday Gretchen, who has been teaching English for 17 years, observed me. She did two rounds in the Peace Corps and has lived outside the US since then. I have been teaching “Expressing Opinions” and my students still don’t really get it. Some things that I thought they would know, they didn’t. So I need to work on preparing explanations ahead of time. I was just go caught off-guard by “what is an abortion?” that I just said, “When you kill a baby”, which is completely misleading. Other than explaining better, Gretchen said my style of teaching, order of activities, mannerisms, speech, etc were all great.

Sunday I received my first package and I got to Skype with a lot of people! It was a fun “American” day. My host family loves Skittles.

This weekend I wasn’t feeling too well, so I took a lot of naps and we had a movie night at Michelle’s. We ate some Oreos that her mom sent her. It was nice to just relax and not have to worry about anything for a while. I also cut my own hair on Sunday. I have wanted to get it cut and for some reason I just decided it was a good idea to do it myself. The kids collected my hair when I was done and piled it on their heads. I actually think it looks all right.

Yesterday I went on a long bike ride with my siblings. I’ve just been feeling drained and I decided it is from lack of exercise. I do some stretches before bed and walk about 2 miles every day, but that is it. If I’m standing for more than 30 seconds someone brings me a chair and forces me to sit down. The women are so physically active just doing everyday chores that they don’t understand why someone would want to stand or want to walk. A lot of people stared at us on our bike ride. First it was just me on the bike with 3 kids running behind me. Then Patrick sat on the back as the other 2 ran. Then Ema “the fat one” couldn’t keep up, so he went home to get Catherine. Then Hamisa sat on the back as Patrick chased me. Then Hamisa and Patrick both sat on the back. Then Ema and Safina and Catherine appeared. Then Catherine and Safina sat on the back as everyone else ran alongside.

Today my lesson was delayed by about 20 minutes because the morning assembly ran over because the kids were being beaten. I really hate that corporal punishment is used here. It really isn’t effective. Also, I found a posting of the grades the students got on their mock exams. There were 2 B’s in the entire school. Most of the grades were C’s, D’s, and F’s. Their grading scale is more lenient too, with a 29-0=F, 30-50=D, 50-65=C, 65-80=B, 80-100=A (approximately-I forget the real scores but it is close).

Friday we find out where we will be placed! I can’t wait to find out! Then next week we get to go stay at our sites and meet everyone we need to meet. My one request was to replace someone, so hopefully that comes true!