Half-Way

February 4, 2014

It has been 5 months since I arrived here in Tanzania. Crazy to see how fast time has gone, but then again I remember how little I knew back in September. I’ve grown in knowledge of the culture and language. I have transitioned from seeing this as a trip to seeing this country as my home. God has done some amazing things these first 5 months. I have no doubt that he will continue to do so in the next 5 months.

School is back in full swing! Almost all of our students have returned (except for Form 3, nobody knows why they haven’t returned yet). I was surprised and so happy to see almost all of my students from Pre-Form returning to Kazovu for Form 1. All but two students from Pre-Form are here! From what it looked like in December, I would have been surprised to have 10 students return. God is giving me more time with them and I am so thankful.

When I returned to Kazovu I was cooking behind my house and saw three of my students running from the path to greet me. One of them, Michael, gave me the biggest hug. Oh, I just love these kids! There are even new students in Form 1 that didn’t come to Pre-Form. I now have 24 students in that class and over 30 in Form 2. The bigger classes are a little more difficult to teach but I would rather have more students in school than less, so I’ll take the challenge. I have noticed that it is very easy to start in as the English teacher for Form 1 because they know me and my teaching style, which is very upbeat. They know I require them to speak English a lot during class time. My first few weeks in Form 2 have been quite different. They are not used to my teaching style and more often than not I will be teaching and they will stare at me with looks that say, “What in the world is she doing?” I try to do many different games and exercises that are meant to help them practice speaking what they are learning on paper but they all seem to lack the motivation to really get into it. It is a daily struggle but I know after a while they will start to know my style of teaching. I know the way I teach is drastically different than how they have been taught in the past. I teach Form 1 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and Form 2 on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. I also do evening sessions with Form 2 on Wednesdays and Thursdays. At the end of this year Form 2 will be taking a National Exam. I want to help them out as much as possible to help prepare for the exam.

Our school now has chapel every Friday! Most all other VST schools have chapel and ours had not. When our new headmaster asked for suggestions about starting in the New Year, I fought for having chapel. I am so happy it worked out. I will be going to chapel with the students and sometimes teaching.

The new headmaster Kapange is wonderful and is already doing great things for the school. He is doing a great job making sure we have all the materials we need for teaching (mainly chalk, pens and paper). You would be surprised how often we didn’t have those in the previous months. He is making plans to fix our electricity, which is fabulous. Not that we really need the lights, but the ability to charge our electronics at our houses would be extremely nice.

The second day we were in Kazovu, Kapange and I went down to the lake to wash our clothes. We had a great conversation and he told me he had already started to pay the bride price for a woman in the village of Ninga (where he was before). I said, “Oh WOW! Very good!” He went to Sumbawanga that weekend to get some supplies for the school and when he returned he seemed different. Yeah…he got married! This is one of the cultural things so drastically different than American culture. It still baffles me. He didn’t tell anyone about it…he just came back with a wife after two days. Ohhhhkay! His wife is an adorable young woman. She doesn’t speak any English but she is full of life and laughter. She went swimming with me and Anne and we all had a blast together! She is my dada (sister) now.

I really have been blessed by the relationships here. The other teachers are wonderful and are my best friends. We now have inside jokes and it makes me laugh so much. Here are a couple examples:

Instead of saying, “the salt is finished” or “my bag fell off the chair” Anne & I say, “Oh, the salt has died” or “my bag has died a natural death.” I don’t know why we started doing this but for some reason or another it is one of the funniest things! Every night before we go to sleep she tells me, “Ok Emi, have a nice death. See you in the morning when death is over.” Now that I am writing it, it sounds morbid and awful, but we say it in a very funny and light-hearted way.

Jonathan and I have many inside jokes but one we share daily is our creative handshake and we try to communicate with each other using only motions and sounds, not words. It usually grows to be something really funny. He also likes American ‘slang’ so sometimes he will greet me with, “Yo, Emi man, what’s up chill sis?” In which I reply, “Cool bro!” On a more serious note, Jonathan and I have had some of the most amazing discussions about Christ and the Bible. We can talk for hours with our Bibles in front of us, digging into the Word. I know the Spirit is present every time we talk.

The chickens are still running around the house all the time. We chase them away but they still come in. Recently, Anne changed rooms. She liked the room where the chickens were sleeping at night better than the room she was in so she decided to transfer. This has confused the chickens’ tiny brains. We put boards in front of our rooms every night so they don’t enter our rooms and make themselves at home all over the house. We found one inside our bucket full of drinking water! HA! Every night we catch them and put them into the room they are supposed to sleep in.

It is the rainy, summer season here. Some days we will have a complete downpour and cold temperatures, and then other days it’s really hot! Sometimes it’s a mixture of both. When it’s raining we need a long sleeve shirt. When it’s hot we count down the minutes until we can go jump in the lake to stop the sweating! I’m still keeping up my tan, especially the awesome tan lines from my watch! In regards to food, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I like ugali now. I guess it just takes eating it every day to develop a liking for it. We usually have ugali in the afternoons after school and then rice at nighttime. We like to eat both rice and ugali with greens from our garden mixed with tomatoes. Sometimes we’ll have fish and I always enjoy it when that happens. Not only because they taste phenomenal, but because I really enjoy gutting and preparing them ☺. Anne always lets me do that part.

Every day we have new guests at our house - two adorable little girls from the village. They are both 4 years old and they come to visit us. They are younger sisters of some of our Form 2 students. We jump rope together and help us to cook too. Anne and I have been teaching them fun songs and they love to sing and dance too! Today they were here while we were cooking ugali and saw my deck of cards sitting on the table. I started to play a game with them that I honestly still don’t know how it works. They would just tell me when to play and I would put a random card down. Apparently I did well. HAHA! They would say, “Mzungu cheza sasa” which means, “European, play now.” They haven’t yet learned my name, so I’m still Mzungu. I enjoy them so much and when we escort them back towards their house they hold our hands.

The girls who were living at school have now moved to the village. I don’t know where their homes are yet but once school starts to flow better my plan is to spend a lot more time in the village with them. I miss seeing them every day after school and playing Go-go with them. I am actually excited for this change because it will put me in the village more often and among the people, hopefully every day. My ministry has just changed locations once the school day ends and I know God will use this for his glory!

Our God continues to move in every minute of every day. In every situation He is here and making himself known. In my quiet time a few days ago I was reading Psalm 116. After reading the first verse I started to sing a song I have been singing ever since:

I love you Lord

and I lift my voice

to worship you.

Oh my soul, rejoice.

Take joy my King,

in what you hear.

Let it be a sweet, sweet sound in your ear.

My heart and soul will continue to rejoice and worship the one true King all of my days. May God be glorified in all I say and do.

Emily