the best of Africa: in photographs.

i'm leaving on a jet plane today. i'm sure i'll be back again. my tanzanian adventures conclude today, and although they have been challenging they were more than worth it. here are a few more glimpses of life here.

banana tree.

packing the bus real tight at the Kenya border.

dirt roads.

Ela, a student with downs syndrome whom i had the privilege of working with.

giraffes on the side of the road.

my first and second grade class.

baobab trees. aka: 'the lion king' tree.

papayas.

savanna coffee lounge!

a hillside of slums in Kenya.

giraffe kisses.

cattle were regularly herded down our road.

weekly visits to the orphanage. i will miss their hugs.

thank you for sharing in my tanzanian adventures. they were plenty and beyond what pictures can capture.

rum pum pum pum.

we had our Christmas program last week. my students were the sheep and the shepherds - some complete with cowboy hats and cumber buns. i can't even calculate the number of times i had to remove shepherd staffs from their little hands in order to prevent an eye being poked out. i have no doubt they would be great at 'watching the flock by night'. by the end of the program we were all dripping in sweat. it made singing 'we wish you a Merry Christmas' seem completely out of place.

letters.

you can never be sure just how much impact you have on a child as a teacher. your presence, a smile, a hug, stars written all over their efforts. all of it goes remembered by their young age. i've recently received letters from my students whom i worked with in cedar falls for my first half of student teaching. i once taught them how to write friendly letters. the proper places for commas and necessary spacing. subject, predict, and all the components of a complete sentence. question marks. exclamation points. they always remind me why i'm doing what i am.
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December 5th, 2008

Dear Miss Conlee,
I miss you. How are you? When I smile I think of you. When I look at my papers it reminds me of you when you smiley faces and stars on my paper. When I wear something polka dot it reminds me of your jewelry and dress. I like to laugh but when I do it reminds me of you. You rock.
Sincerely yours,
Kailee
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December 5, 2008

Dear Miss Conlee,
How are you doing? I hope you are doing well. One of my dogs ran away. We already put up our Christmas tree. Have you already see a snake yet? How is your life over there? I bet it is fun. It is really cold over here. I for got when you were coming back.
When you come back, please bring the warm weather back, pretty please. Guess what, I got a brand new puppy. She is going to be 8 weeks old on Dec.10. She is really small. I miss those smiley faces that you put on our papers. What do you do on the weekends? How many subjects do you teach? What do the kids do for recess?

Sincerely,
Alex
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December 4, 2008

Dear Miss Conlee,
Hi, it’s me, James! Remember? I was the guy you worked with a couple of months ago. What have you been doing? I have been trying to build a weird vehicle: a bulldozer for my room. My room is like a junkyard and every junkyard needs a bulldozer. I have also been trying to see if I can perfect robots. I don’t know how I am going to perfect a robot, all I do know is that I am trying my best. I heard you are coming in a couple of weeks. I can talk Miss North into throwing another pizza party if you would like. Seriously, I can.

Sincerely,
James (and Miss Allan)

P.S. I hope this is your favorite color. P.S.S. I hope you like this font.

a kenya filled weekend.

i adventured with a few others to Nairobi, Kenya for our long holiday weekend. we ventured the city and managed to do several great things in a few days.

we went on a bit of a safari to Nairobi National park and saw several african animals.

we also went a giraffe center where you could hug, kiss, feed, and pet giraffes. i kissed lora. it was quite rough and wet.

one evening we ate at a restaurant called 'carnivore'. it doesn't sound appetizing, but it certainly was. my picky-self ate lamb, roast beef, chicken, crocodile, turkey, ostrich, and cucumber soup. each serving came around on a huge spear until you couldn't handle anymore.

didn't see it coming.

i wasn't prepared.
i haven't practiced.
i didn't see it coming.

perhaps because i haven't birthed my own children just yet.

but today was the day.

"Miss Savannah, the girls on the playground keep saying santa clause is dead. is he?! no. he can't be. who will be in charge of Christmas?"

tis' the season.

these are a few of my favorite african things.

mhula and i have have been writing essays for the past three days. college entrance essays to be exact. the man is fluent in three languages, although writing and speaking come at various ability levels. mhula is desperate to attend a university in America or Canada this coming fall, and so the application process is in full swing. he has hashed out essays to universities splattered across an entire nation. days spent editing essays which teachers have told him are not adequate. and so i've been determined to help.

in two hours i took several essays mhula has been staring at since september and retyped them with correct grammatical ordering, wording, and the like. when mhula read through them he asked, 'how do you even think to use these words?' my simple reply: 'mhula, i only speak one language. and i've had 22 years of practice.'

thinking about the potential and desire mhula has to improve the life of his family and those living in his village in northern Tanzania, and how that could be altered or withheld by various grammatical errors in an essay. this has quickly become one of my favorite things.

there are others which have made the list.
like the faces of our gardener and house lady when i extend my hand with a cold bubbling bottle of coca-cola. and the laughter of the children at the orphanage when you swing them like monkeys.

these are a few of my favorite african things!

battle.

i'm coming to learn that 'love the sinner and hate the sin' is quite applicable to teaching.

just when you've made it through the next set of directions Jack is off in the corner continuing the establishment of his lego creation he started before school.

me: "Jack, it seems you're not doing what was asked. do you remember what the directions were?"
Jack: "no!"
me: "Jack, were you doing your best listening when i was giving the directions?"
Jack: "no! i don't know what to do"

and so i love the chubby cheeks and brown eyes of the child, but pieces of me shrivel at their continuous inattention and behavior.

similar to the circumstance today when Anna chose to bite Jerry and then spit on him. or when Cosi decided other boys could be on his team at recess if they paid him 10,000 shillings.

it's moments such as those.
when you have to separate the behavior from the child and refrain from taking it personally.

loving them is worth learning this battle.

an african glimpse.

i have attempted to take pictures of the town life and landscape here in tanzania. however, this comes at a great risk, as many Tanzanian people ask for money if you take a picture of them and will become aggressive if you take pictures without asking.

here are a few i've managed to collect yesterday while riding in a car.

many gathering for a football (soccer) tournament in the streets.

a view out onto the main road in town. a small street view of the market. landscape driving from moshi to arusha.

it's all quite lovely.

an African thanksgiving.

our African thanksgiving was quite complete.

many of us shared a large meal, all coming from different parts of the world.

due to a turkey costing nearly $150 U.S. dollars here in Tanzania, we opted for chicken rather than splurging for the sake of tradition.

i attempted a homemade apple pie with no recipe in mind for the contents or the crusts. considering the altitude factors and small camper sized gas ovens which cook all sorts of uneven, it turned out well.

due to the lack of turkey itself being had at this Thanksgiving, we opted to throw a hand-drawn turkey on the cake in honor of the holiday.

a grand dinner, far different from the usual rices and beans left all of us roommates feeling quite full and content.

although i miss gathering with my family in these days, thanksgiving was well celebrated in the tropical heat of Tanzania.

Happy Thanksgiving from Miss Conlee's class to you.

Happy Thanksgiving from a few of us in Miss Conlee's class!

having only a few students also from America, i introduced Thanksgiving as a brand new holiday to many.

we read about Clifford's Thanksgiving visit to his big red mom.

we sang songs about being thankful.

and we practiced cutting out shapes to make turkeys.

paper everywhere. glue in my hair. creations that look far from a turkey. we celebrated.

Happy Thanksgiving to you!

last day.

today was my last day with my P 3/4 class.

this is what i have come to learn about them all:

1. they all pick their noses.

2. they smell like turtles after recess.

3. they prefer to eat glue after it has dried.

4. their listening skills have not yet developed.

5. their awful cute.

here's to you P 3/4. you've been fun.

good morning.

i pass a young boys hostel on my walk to and from school each day.

generally in the mornings they are all being filed into line formation at the gate, dressed in white button up shirts, navy blue sewn trousers, and tennis shoes.

inspection is had by the adults over seeing the hostel. assuring their white shirts to be tucked in just so. standing up straight. shoes tied. eyes looking forward.

i seem to pass by every day at the same time. it has become routine that they look for me and i look for them, lined up in a row facing forward. each day, without being caught by the adult holding a whip, the boys near the front always mouth and sometimes whisper, 'good morning!' in my attempts to keep them out of trouble, i softly mouth back, 'good morning to you!' simple words. perhaps only the few they know in English, but upon exchanging greetings, these six and seven year old boys light up with smiles wide.

it has become my new favorite thing of the morning.

shanty town road.

i took a walk down a near by local road yesterday. it's incredible how just a walk away life looks completely different. people making their living by selling fruits and vegetables under a piece of tin held up by limbs.

trash can be found lying in the middle of the road and is eventually raked to the side where it is burned. this is only one large pile i found in passing.
there were many local shops. saloons. dukas. all keeping the town alive.

and on my way back a rainbow stretched in the sky. perhaps a promise and a hope for abundant life over the people in this place.

living simply.
making me once again thankful for the simplicity i'm learning here.
wearing mosquito repellent as frequently as deodorant.
laying my head down at night on a pillow case filled with my dirty clothes.
using a towel for a blanket.

living with little and finding i have enough.
it is well.

science.

we've been conducting science experiments of sorts. learning the steps to the scientific process and the various states of matter. today we had a science exhibition where students displayed their practiced experiments for their parents.

it was grand chaos.
mwoleka even managed to vomit in the midst of it all. due to my teacher's weak stomach at such a sight, i had the pleasure of conquering the clean up!

before all was said and done, we had an experiment for the parents to complete: who could build the tallest tower of bubbles using three different types of soaps and the utensils they were given. they found it quite comical and competitive.

fun was had by all.

laughter.

i was walking home from school yesterday afternoon when a group of seven Tanzanian children ran up behind me and huddled around. they were so hovering i couldn't walk any farther. dressed in hand sewn purple uniforms, all seven of these children were shouting at me in swahili while staring at me with their big brown eyes and gigantic smiles. they began tugging on my arms. all of them repeating the same phrase which seemed to ring as a question.

if only i could have understood what they were saying.

in an unexpected moment, all of my learned swahili seemed to be far off. i managed to spill out a phrase in swahili translating to, 'i don't speak swahili". at that exact moment all of the children stopped and simultaneously errupted in laughter. they pointed at me and made comments to one another. i began laughing with them. having no idea what was being said, and most likely aimed at my unknowing American self, but apparently it was funny.

and so we laughed.

they walked me to my gate. i nearly thought they were going to follow me inside. we said goodbye and off they went. bookbags dragging on the ground and laughter still being shared.

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today was a rather long day of school. i was ready to breathe when the bell rang at 1:05. i rushed to the bathroom shortly after before heading to lunch.

on my way to the duka where i buy my lunch, one of my students approached me in search of her mother. while walking with her, a woman ran up to me. she sputtered off a few sentences to me in German, speaking in a rather frantic state. i was unsure if she thought i was kidnapping the child or what she perceived. thank heavens for hand motions and sign language. after several moments of misunderstanding, i finally gathered from this woman that my skirt was all sorts of tucked into my underoos.

across language barriers we laughed while i secured my skirt and i'm sure turned red in the midst of a courtyard filled with students and adults.

laughter.
it's good for the soul.

a random list of slightly funny happenings.

1. it has rained here the past couple of days. it's almost instantaneous when it rains that the air becomes flooded with moth/mosquito looking dragon flies. i attempted to ask my Tanzanian roommate what they were called. he couldn't think of their name but he said, "OH! those are SO good. we look forward to the rain season because we catch a bunch of them and fry them up for a meal. their a really great source of protein, but just hard to catch!" he's holding out for another rain before i leave so he can force me to try them. gross.

2. i spent half of my sunday afternoon snapping green beans i bartered for at the market yesterday. i cooked a few carrots with a few string beans and called it a meal. delicious.

3. i have taken up a pet lizard. he likes to play hide and seek underneath my bathroom sink. lizards generally cover my walls and any crevice on the floor. he's quite friendly, but a bit shy.

4. this is the staff room where our tea time occurs. daily.

5. i had two cockroaches bigger than the palm of my hand taking up residence in my bathtub. i decided it was time to rid of them. i did so without any assistance. i was proud of myself but it was gross.

6. this is a flower i picked up on the sidewalk today. it was soft and smelled a lot like lemon. the kind people wear behind their ears in hawaii. quite lovely i must say.

7. my friend mika is having a difficult time fighting off the neighborhood monkeys. they like to catapult themselves from a nearby tree and jump onto her tin roof. as you can imagine the noise, the monkeys do a great job of waking her up at early hours. in attempts to save her garden from becoming rubbish and get some sleep, she chased after them, only to find that they chased after her!

8. i gave in. i got a cell phone. i didn't want one. i have enjoyed not having one. but with everything being a walk away - you can often walk to meet someone and in the time it took you to get there they have moved. it happens often. so now i have a british phone. i've somehow managed to finagle it to the english mode. my phone number is 078 5659 926 if you'd like to call. (hahaha!)