Shadowing

November 17, 2009

I am now in the village of Mpwapwa, Dodoma region.  I am at a Teachers' College using their nice computers in a nice cool room.  We are shadowing current Peace Corps Volunteers this week.  Maseeh (a young man from Albany, NY) and I were assigned to shadow at an A-level all boys boarding school in Bihawana, Dodoma region.  It rained and was quite cool both days that we were there, but as usual, it was another memorable experience. 

The volunteer that I was shadowing teaches chemistry, and he asked if I would teach a lesson.  Although I have taught for many years in the US, I appreciated the opportunity to practice my Tanzanian teaching, so I agreed.  I taught a short lesson on "factors that affect the rate of a chemical reaction." Things went well.  The students seemed to understand my special English, although I had some difficulty understanding theirs.  That afternoon my host asked me if I would teach again the next day but this time would I do a lab?  I was not really thrilled at the prospect, because labs require more time to prepare and I was not familiar with this school.  There are also very few lab manuals in Tanzania.  I told him that first I would have to see what materials were available and then I would write a simple lab.  I found some miralac tablets (CaCO3) in my bag and I bought some baking powder (NaHCO3) at the little duka (shop) across the road.  Aron, my host, had some battery acid that we diluted, and he also had some hydrogen peroxide.  In the laboratory, I found some MnO2 to use for a catalyst. 

The next morning we went to the laboratory and played around a bit to see if my procedures were feasible.  They were, so I wrote the procedures on the board while Aron called for some students to set up the lab (they were just sitting in class waiting for the teacher to come).  Lab equipment was scattered everywhere, so it took a while to organize.  Finally, everything was ready and Aron went to the classroom to call the students.  They started arriving and kept coming and coming and coming.  We had set up 24 lab stations!  I looked out over the room from the raised platform in front, and I saw dozens of faces staring at me intently.  There had to be at least 80, if not 90, students.  They were going to be using fire (kerosene stoves) and acid. To top it off, I had torn the edge on one of my contact lenses that morning and it was really irritating my eye, and I did not see Aron anywhere.  I was sure that this day was going to be a disaster.  However, I smiled and greeted the students properly, and then began explaining each procedure. 

The first part of the lab had to be a demonstration because I only had four CaCO3 tablets.  I asked for two students to come up to pour the acid into the test tubes, and you would have thought I had asked "who would like to be a millionaire?" because everyone wanted to help.  I chose two boys and we did the demonstration.  The test tubes were passed around for all to see.  After that, I told the students to begin working on the next three sections.  I walked around the room to assist and it seemed that everyone had questions.  I sent someone to find Aron and he came in to help. 

I had initially been dreading this day, but as I interacted with the students, my whole attitude began to change.  The boys were loving this!  Rarely do they get to do hands on activities.  Most lessons involve lecture and rote memorization.  Now they were lighting stoves, mixing chemicals, and making observations just like the chemists they had heard about.  I asked them about their results, and they eagerly described their observations. Then I asked them to explain why they had obtained those results, and there was a long pause.  But I gave them time to think, and soon they began making connections between what I had talked about in the classroom and what they were observing in the lab.  There was almost a look of astonishment on their faces as they began to see the light.  I think that maybe I will love teaching in Tanzania after all.

On another note, there are other stories that are more frustrating and heart wrenching.  I recently found out that Diana is not really the daughter of my homestay mother.  She is somehow related, but I have not yet pieced together the story.  I have been trying to talk to her about her schooling, but every time I mention it, she tells me that she has completed standard 7 (7th grade).  I asked a current Peace Corps
Volunteer what she thought about it, and she said that it is likely that Diana either did not pass the required exams to move on to O-level (secondary school) or does not have the money for the school fees.  Many do not, especially girls.  Like a wave passing over my head, I realized that Diana's formal education may be over at 14.  If it is, her opportunities are limited.  I really care about that little girl.  Wouldn't you feel close to someone who washes your feet? The other morning as she and Judi were walking me and Cheryl to the dala dala stop, the girls were whispering.  They said something but I did not understand, so we stopped and Judi wrote in the sand, "tutataka kukufuata kilimanjaro kufanya kazi".  They want to come to Kilimanjaro to be our housegirls.  We made light of it, but deep down I know that they were serious.  I talked to Cheryl about it later, and she reminded me that I cannot support all of Tanzania even if their problems do touch my heart.

So what am I doing in Mpwapwa?  Our shadow host brought us here to meet his friend and his two shadows.  Two other shadows joined us without their host.  We will have a full house tonight.  Monday we travel to Dar to Peace Corps Headquarters and then return to our homestay families in Morogoro on Wednesday.  We only have about a week left with them.  It is going to be very sad for my family when I
leave, especially Diana.  They have already invited me to return for either Christmas or Easter to do some dancing.  Oh, I had a dress made for our swearing in ceremony.  My family says that now I am a real "Mama Africa."