The New Normal at 6 months in

Things I haven't seen/used in 6 months:

1. The UPS man
2. A dishwasher
3. Cooking spray
4. Curbside garbage pick-up
5. Recycling
6. Door to door mail delivery (or even having a street address)
7. Voice mail/answering machines
8. Netflix
9. Coupons
10. A debit card (or a credit card except for at 3 stores, which generally requires a lot of effort and is not usually successful.)
11. A scale
12. The furnace

Things I have seen in the past 6 months:

1. A 2 year old child riding on a piki piki (motorcycle) without a helmet
2. Clouds of blue smoke from overcrowded vehicles and buses with parts dragging on the road and sparking.
3. A fuel truck leaking gas which was being siphoned at a traffic light into plastic bags.
4. Highways suddenly ending with large concrete blocks in the road; traffic diverted on to dubious steep embankments.
5. Literal “gridlock” traffic – where both directions refuse to yield so no one moves. People getting impatient and choosing to make new lanes into oncoming traffic.
6. A flock of sheep stampeding past our house; mongooses racing around the hill.
7. Traffic stopped for cows in the middle of the road
8. Lots of bugs and creepy crawly things: mosquitoes, ticks, flies, beetles, flying termites, centipedes, millipedes, one snake (thankfully from a distance).
9. Tons of Barak Obama merchandise for sale (umbrellas, T-shirts, kangas, flashlights, etc. etc.) People here LOVE him and it's a guaranteed conversation piece once I say I'm from America.
10. Evidence of spiritual warfare
11. Something flowering all the time: bushes, plants, flowers, palm trees, mango trees, banana trees, etc.
12. Guys riding bicycles with 30 trays of eggs strapped onto the back.

Thank goodness it's Thursday ... and Friday (part 4 of a week in the computer lab)

If I were to compare my current work with my previous teaching career, M - W are much more intense than any other teaching assignment I've had. (Minus the publishing deadlines, have I mentioned I don't miss those?)

Thursday and Friday, on the other hand, are cake!

Thursday's schedule:
period 1 & 2: prep
period 3 & 4: study hall (also prep time)
period 5: prep
period 6: 1/2 of grade 7
period 7-8: ICT class

So that's 3 periods of the day teaching, and they are classes I've already talked about. This grade 7 class is usually a bit ahead of the other middle school classes I teach, so I get to try out new ideas on them and then refine the lessons for the next Tuesday. Bonus!

Friday's schedule:
period 1&2: ICT class (so we get end of the day Thursday and beginning of Friday each week together!)
period 3 & 4: prep
period 5 & 6: study hall
period 7 & 8: Advanced ICT

Again, 4 of my 8 periods are basically preperation time. This *should* keep me on target for my grading and lesson plans, and usually does. (with a good amount of weekend work and evenings of course). Study Hall time is a chance for me to grade or plan, with just a little supervision as well. This being high school, it can be challenging to convince students to use a Friday afternoon for study rather than goofing. And as usual, my "prep" time is almost always done in the computer lab, where students can come and get other work done. On Thursdays, I get a special treat, which is lunch duty. This gives me the excuse to leave the computer lab, lock it, and eat outside! yes!

Wacky Wednesdays (a week in the computer lab, part 3)

Whew! It's been a busy week. I thought I could hammer out the overall details of my days in just a short while, but this past week has been crazy – on par with the busiest (non-yearbook-deadline) weeks in the States. The kind of week where grading, lesson planning, and special events just pile up yet have important deadlines. Starting tomorrow is “Mock Exam Week,” where my secondary students take practice final exams. In my two classes, I have 5 exams to give. Now, we use past exams from the Cambridge curriculum, but I still needed to go through past exams, select the best ones and edit them for various reasons, PLUS prepare a heap of study and review materials, PLUS my other classes all have projects due. I will know I am an expert teacher when I can plan to stagger the workload from my different classes. It seems I always manage to make major projects due at the same time for everyone! Now, not only do I have grading but also planning the next project. Oops.


OK, teacher woes done. The original point here is that normally Wednesday is my busiest day of the week, and I should tell you the readers (ie, hi Mom) about it. It's Primary Day! The British terms I use most often and most naturally now are “Primary” and “Secondary” school, and “Grade 5” instead of “5^th Grade”.


Each Primary class gets 45 minutes a week of computer class. Everyone except Grade 4 comes in on Wednesdays. I do have a few breaks in the day since Primary school and secondary school have different assembly times and break times. Also, I do get help with Primary. Juniors and seniors have campus service hours to fill, and some of them are assigned to come help me on Wednesdays. I can't imagine trying to handle the classes of 24-27 primary students by myself (though sometimes I have to when my helpers are sick or busy!)


The big trouble with Wednesdays is that our computer servers cannot handle this day. I seriously have only 1 awful day of computer troubleshooting a week, and it is always Wednesday. I cannot figure it out. The first few times the problem felt like Murphy's Law. But I've learned since that there is something about the software we use or just the volume of kids we try to handle that shuts things down. Today, the servers crashed I think 3 times each. (There are 2 servers). When a server crashes, ½ of the computers in the classroom freeze, and then restart. All work not saved is lost. The kids have nothing to do for at least 5 minutes during the reboot, and then they have to start all over. Even worse, the younger grades don't know how to log on to the computers, so I need to go to every computer and log it in, load the program we are using, and get it all set...24 times. Sometimes I get them all going, and then the server crashes again. Yeah, you might say it's frustrating.


In order to fit everything into the proper schedule, Grade 5 shows up right away in the mornings, at 7:35. Grade 5 and Grade 4 are focusing on presentations, Internet research, and note taking. Grade 5 is currently finishing up research on Tanzanian butterflies, which accompanied their class trip to a rain forest.


Grade 2 comes next. This is Charlotte's class, and I get a lot of love from Ci-Ci and all her friends. Grade 2 and 3 are working on a poem book. Using a nice multimedia program I purchased earlier this year, they can build pages filled with text, clip art/stickers/photos, and painting. I taught them a few simple poem styles (Acrostics, Cinquains and Haikus) and they've written and decorated pages. We're just finishing this up now.


After Grade 2, I get a bit of a breather. Some time to plan (I usually try to firm up plans for K & 1), plus our weekly school assembly, plus lunch break all in a row. (It strikes me that assembly could be a post in and of itself.) In the afternoon, I take on Grade 3 (more poem books).


I finish the day with Grade 1 and Kindergarten. Grade 1 and Kindergarten are interesting. Some of them are pretty good readers, and some of them are still learning their alphabets. For the most part, we spend our time playing educational games. Early in the year, I found a way to download web-based games (these are usually “locked” on a web site, but I found a few tricks.) Our Internet connection isn't fast enough to handle all the computer lab computers hitting web games at once (I tried that our first week...oops!) So, I created my own game site. It is just a bunch of simple web pages and Flash files I've been able to download and link all together. I'm rather proud of it, and I've built up over 50 activities. Most of them are painting games – kindergarteners and first graders LOVE to paint it turns out. I've also found some clever math, typing, science, and other games.


Other bits of Wednesday:
Assembly is from 10:00 – 10:45am. “Assembly” is our version of chapel. I'm not exactly sure why it isn't just “chapel.” We start each week singing the national anthem, as well as singing praise songs. We have a speaker (usually our chaplain) bring us the Word. The comparisons between EC chapel and HOPAC chapel are actually pretty interesting, worthy of more blogging.


Staff Meeting:
After school on Wednesdays is a weekly devotional, prayer time, and staff meeting for teachers. We sometimes get special snacks! And this is also usually when I get mail. We got 3 packages today, with another package late to arrive from the post office (for tomorrow). Plus, it's a chance to catch up with fellow teachers! (especially since I so rarely leave my room).


Pizza and football:
Wednesday nights are also pizza night, as a nonprofit group creates pizza dough for the teachers on Wednesdays. All we have to do is bring home the crusts and sauce, throw on some cheese, and dinner is ready. It is also community football (ie soccer) night. Now, my first week of this back in the fall went horribly wrong, as I ended up with a mild concussion while playing goal keeper for the first time in my life (in the dark). Once I did get back into the games, I've slowly improved, but still often got hurt. Recently I have been able to go for many weeks in a row without scraps and bruises! Unfortunately, tonight I decided I needed a break. My knee has been acting up and I think I've got some tendonitis.



So, that's Wednesdays. By the time 2:30 rolls around, I am usually quite fried, especially on bad computer days. Let's just say my contributions to the staff meetings are usually pretty subdued.

Teaching Tuesdays in Tanzania

Tuesday is my second craziest day of the week. Out of the 8 periods of the day, I get 1 off (45 minutes). It's interesting, then, that Tuesday never seems particularly crazy or hectic as it is unfolding. At the end of the day though, there I am again, falling asleep before accomplishing anything at home.

Tuesday is Middle School day. Each grade (6,7,8) is split in half, so I only teach 12-14 students each period, and since periods are only 45 minutes long, it feels like I blink and a new group comes into the lab. I don't know if I have EVER gotten a class to leave on time on Tuesday. We just keep working until the next class arrives, and then I look at the clock and say "Oh, sorry guys, you are about 30 seconds from being late to your next class!"

So, we start the day with Grade 8, half of them during Period 1 and then the others Period 2. Grade 8 has really impressed me with their skill level on computers and their overall learning abilities as students. I don't know yet if this class is particularly good, or 8th graders in general are just awesome. Overall, all my middle school classes are much better behaved than I feared. I think dealing with only 1/2 a class comes in at a time.

Grade 7 is Period 3. Half of grade 7 comes on Thursdays, just because there wasn't enough time for all these classes in one day. Period 4 is Grade 6, part 1. After break, the other half of Grade 6 comes in. Of course, my break on Tuesday is usually filled with Grade 6 students either staying late to work extra, or coming in early. But since Grade 6 is Emily's class, this is a nice treat! My biggest problem is that I have to tell each person individually what we are doing that day, since they all come in at different times during break and want to get started right away.

Period 6 is my break time, and honestly I usually zone out for about half the time, and then try to get ready for the end of the day. Periods 7-8 is my Applied ICT class -- the "advanced class." Applied ICT has class on Fridays, Mondays and Tuesdays, so I usually try to plan my lessons so that Tuesday is a culmination of sorts...Test day, or a project deadline day.

Back to Middle School. Overall, the curricula for these classes is up to me to determine. Typing speed and accuracy are the first priority, though our lack of working software this year has meant that I spend less time on that than I want to. Secondly, we want to prepare them for the IGCSE curriculum, so introducing the Microsoft Office suite comes next. At the beginning of the year, we spent some time making presentations about Internet Safety topics.

My old NYC employer, Classroom, Inc., makes really good software for middle school students. They create "workplace simulations," giving students an idea about what types of problems people might face daily in different professions. Also, the software is integrated heavily with age-appropriate math problems and language art skills. Classroom, Inc. was kind enough to let me download their programs for free! So for the fall, Grade 6 got to explore being an editor of a magazine, Grade 7 was in charge of a performing arts center, and Grade 8 made decisions about a cable TV sports channel. Students enjoyed the simulations -- when they finish a project, they often want to go back and finish more episodes.

This "winter," I decided to teach Photoshop. Image editing and graphic design skills aren't covered in any of our high school classes, so I thought it was a good chance to teach (1) something I love (2) a useful skill and (3) an issue with moral consequences. Now that they can edit an image, when should they edit an image? And what has Photoshop done to our ideas about beauty and body shape? We are finishing our projects now: movie posters, magazine covers, and product advertisements.

After school on Tuesdays, Steph and I started a Board Game Club. We have about 12 students in grades 2 - 6 coming right now. Of course, any excuse to play board games is a good excuse, and it is fun to have our own kids have a chance to play with their friends. The older boys are playing Settlers, Small World, and Shadows Over Camelot, and loving it. I like this group, but I also hope it grows to even more students to play with!

So that's Tuesday.Wednesday really is "get over the hump" day as the end of my week is much easier than the beginning!

A Typical Week Teaching (and other activities) Part 1: Monday

I (Tim) am pretty bad a blogging. I think about it a lot, but rarely do it. Well, some time back someone (ie, my mom) wanted to hear more about my job. I am going to be trying to do some additional blogging about life, the universe, and everything to celebrate 6 months in Africa...soon. Hopefully. Now, however, some teaching details, organized by day of the week. I did write some of this up in a newsletter, but here I have more space. Also, feel free to ask questions!

Monday
Gah, Monday morning. Wake up at 5:40am. Leave for school at about 6:55am. I try to get a head start on my walk before the kids leave. They ride their bikes (when the bikes are working), and we try to time it so that we all reach the gate at the same time. We enter through a special back gate that is always locked, but I have a key. We park our bikes in some bushes and lock them up with a chain around a pole.

I try to unlock the computer lab as soon as possible each morning, as students might storm in trying to print some homework. And just like in America, the more stressed and hurried they are, the more the computers misbehave and refuse to print. It's a universal law!

At 7:30 I head downstairs to the Grade 7 homeroom. I am one of 3 teachers for Grade 7, and I try to make it to homeroom at the beginning and ending of each day, but I can't always make it, depending on computer lab demand and if computers are working or not. In homeroom, we take prayer requests and pray. Sometimes we have enough time to read a Bible passage. Sometimes, we have announcements. Sometimes, the class is quiet enough to hear some of that. It's only 10 minutes.

I have my two "secondary school" classes in a row on Monday. It's a hard way to start the week. I sure enjoy prep time first thing instead of diving right into it. Ah well! First up is "Information and Communication Technology IGCSE Level." IGCSE Level is the "entry level" in the Cambridge curriculum. This is mostly Grade 9 students, but I have 8 juniors and 1 senior who wanted to officially learn the computer skills taught in this curriculum too. So we are learning the whole Microsoft Office suite: Word, Powerpoint, Excel, and Access, and also HTML. Plus, some general knowledge about computers, networks, and how they work. It turns out, it is a lot of material to cover. As of now, we really only have a few class periods left until our exams. Back in NJ, we tried to teach these same skills and I never had a real curriculum to work with. It's nice to have some guidance. On the other hand, I have never "taught to the test" before, and in this class, it is ALL about teaching to the test. Students will take 3 standardized exams in the spring (2 in April, 1 in May). The two April exams are "practical" on-computer tests. They'll be given instructions to create documents in all 5 skills and need to follow instructions and have a good understanding of the software to do well. In May, they'll have a theoretical exam which is written questions about the knowledge part of the class. I am not thrilled with my ability to teach this class this year -- I could have done a much better job! Maybe I took it for granted, as it was a class where I knew the material, and had the curriculum given to me. My other classes looked more challenging on paper. Well, we will see how we do when the tests come around!

Class #2 on Monday is "Applied ICT" which is the next level of the same curriculum. Here, students are asked to apply much more critical thinking to the knowledge and skills they gained from IGCSE. This class is made up of 9 seniors and 1 junior who wanted to try to get more "serious" about their computing skills. To me, the curriculum here is not the best. It goes for extreme detail in the features of the Office Suites that you just don't use very often. Now, the critical thinking is good -- students are not led step by step through the programs but have to problem-solve. I like that. I am a bit proud in my teaching of this class, because I have spent a lot of time preparing all sorts of lectures, materials, powerpoints, study guides, etc. for it...this is the first year that we've taught it at HOPAC. Sadly, I think I won't be reusing those materials, because I recommended we use a new curriculum next year! (I think we should switch over to computer science, learning hardware functionality, coding, and pre-engineering skills, which I will be thrilled to teach!)

Overall, I do love the material and organization the Cambridge curriculum give me, and I worry about the "teaching to the test" aspect of it. I do often think "Wow, I can take the ideas from these curricula back to the States with me and I could be a real IT teacher!" (Are you listening, EC?????)

These 2 classes are double periods, which is about the same length as a "Block Schedule" class...90 minutes. The time goes by remarkably fast and I never get as much done as I want to. After that, it's "Break" which means lunch. Break is 40 minutes long...a real treat compared to the EC schedule!

However, I spend almost every Break in the computer lab. At the beginning of the year, we had a computer lab employee who kept it all running, and would be the "on call" staff member to keep the room open. He left to study at University, which is great. It means I am now the Computer Lab worker. It's not a bad job, and gives me lots of chances to interact with students throughout the day. It also means I spend almost my entire day in air conditioning, and I think everyone hates me. (JK).

After break, my prep time! My only class of the afternoon is at 1:15pm, so I get about 2 hours to get some planning and grading done. Of course, it's all prep in the computer lab, as it stays open for study hall students and the occasional secondary class that wants to do some computer research. This being a Monday, I already have plenty to do...if I am caught up in grading from the weekend (cough, right, cough) I can spend most of the time planning the week's lessons. But honestly, I do most of my planning at home, and most of my grading at school. But you teachers know how it goes...2 hours goes remarkably quick, by the time you organize all the stuff that happened in the morning, do some print outs and thinking about the week ahead, and make sure the room is ready for the next class...boom, it's time! But this is my biggest chunk of time from Monday - Wednesday, so I am quite happy to have it.

At 1:15, I get a treat: Grade 4 gets their weekly visit to the computer lab. This means Josh's class. Not only that, but most of the boys in Grade 4 were on my football team in the fall, and the others I know well, too. (I am still trying to get the know the girls as well!) So, this is a real highlight. I am trying to teach them proper typing technique while also mixing in interesting and fun technology lessons. They LOVED Powerpoint, and would be happy to make presentations all day long. So, I created a research project...first, they keyboard some notes into Word, to get their typing practice, and then they can research images and facts on the Internet, and create Powerpoint presentations (right now, we are almost finished with a project about weird plants...they are going to study "normal" type plants in science class soon.)

Grade 4 leaves at 2, and Homeroom wraps up the day at 2:20. But! I also teach an after school activity on programming from 2:30 - 4. We are learning Python, a programming language many former EC students told me I should learn and teach. They were right! I have 6-7 high schoolers stay after school on Mondays and we try to get some coding done. None of my former students will be surprised to hear that we are diving into Text Adventure games. I think we've had 4 weeks of the class so far...it's been a good time. I am struggling to use a new programming language and I keep making silly mistakes, relying on old habits. Plus, after that Monday schedule, I am a bit fried. Still, it is fun to teach "only the good stuff"--no homework or quizzes, just exploration and ideas.

At 4pm, I get to walk home. Charlotte is done swimming at the same time, so we head out together. Ever since I started the programming class, I am usually asleep in my chair by about 4:30 until dinner time!

OK, maybe that was too much detail. Well, most of my other classes are the same ideas as this but at different times, so they should go faster!

Six months

Six months ago today, we were frantically finishing the packing and weighing of our 10 suitcases, shoving all other worldly possessions in the attic, cleaning the house to get it ready for our new renters, and, in an act of questionable judgment, going to see “Planes” at the Hawthorne Theatre as a reward for the kids' great behavior in a time of chaos. We had a “last supper” of Chinese takeout with our friends – although no one had much of an appetite – and then headed for JFK Airport to start the 2-day journey to our new life in Dar es Salaam.

Although I can remember that day with perfect clarity like it was yesterday, it also feels like a lifetime ago. It seems like that day happened to a different person – and in many ways, I was a different person. I can't believe all the new experiences I've had and the steep learning curve I've managed.  There have been big highs and bigger lows, moments of feeling “home” and moments of questioning the decision to come. As with so much in life, we truly had no idea what we were getting into.

1. Nothing is easy. From getting food on the table, to keeping ourselves in utilities, everything requires a greater effort physically and mentally than we're used to. Things don't work, roads close, stores don't carry things or aren't open. It involves keeping a lot of cash on hand (no credit! ATMs don't always work!), doing mental calculations of US/Tanzanian currency and making constant conversions between Fahrenheit/Celsius, grams/ounces, liters/ounces. Every errand involves some degree of awkwardness and attempts to communicate. In an attempt to enter into the very relational Tanzanian culture, there is no true ability to conduct an anonymous transaction. It's exhausting.
2. I'm addicted to variety in my eating. For the most part, Tanzanians have a pretty basic diet of rice and beans and there are very few snacks.  This is a constant struggle for me – I can't “strive for 5” different fruits/veggies per day or have 10 different snack items in my pantry depending on what mood I'm in.  I don't have the ability to store lots of food, I simply can't make elaborate meals and I struggle to keep the kids' lunches packed every day.  I hope at some point I'll adapt a more "eat to live" mindset, but at the moment I just feel deprived and frustrated. 
3. I had to learn how to cook. Although I prided myself on my cooking and baking in the U.S., I heavily relied upon canned beans, canned tomatoes, and jarred pasta sauce. Here, convenience foods are crazy expensive or not available and so I've learned to truly cook from scratch. Besides making homemade pasta sauce (instead of paying $9 per jar) and cooking dry beans, I've also learned how to make homemade granola (instead of $13 per bag) and poultry seasoning. Up this weekend: attempting to make my own cream cheese for a Valentine's Day cheesecake.
4. I've got a lot of emotional baggage. There is a great article on living overseas that you can read here.  The first section of the article, which explains that all your quirks and insecurities are magnified by living cross-culturally, was really eye-opening.  I've found it much more challenging to be a parent and a wife here.  When I'm feeling anxious, it's hard to turn off that internal monologue of negative thoughts and defeatist attitudes in order to serve my family. It sometimes feels impossible to model the kind of behavior I want my kids to have or to summon the vast reservoir of patience that is necessary here.  
5. Learning Swahili is the key for me to succeed here. Nothing makes me happier than when I actually understand someone and they understand me.   But it's a long, slow, frustrating process. With maybe 125 hours of language instruction under my belt, I still can't understand more than 5 words my gardener says.  It's yet another opportunity to learn patience and to relinquish control.  As they say here, "Pole, pole!" (slowly!)    

At the 6-month mark, the words of a familiar hymn are running through my head: 

“We've come this far by faith, leaning on the Lord. Trusting in His holy word, he's never failed us yet. Oh! We can't turn back, we've come this far by faith."  AMEN.   

Super Bowl, Africa-style!

One of our traditions back in the States was to host a Super Bowl party every year.  Especially since the game was actually held in our home state this year (yeah, NJ!), we felt a desire to continue this tradition.  We had a great turnout of 26 people and although the game itself was fairly painful, the party was fun.  As with everything in Africa, things were a bit different this year....

Last year:  We walked over to our TV at 6:00 p.m. and turned on the switch to watch the Super Bowl.
This year:  The kickoff was at 2:30 a.m. our time so we avoided the internet all day and started downloading the broadcast at about 1:00 p.m. for our 6:00 p.m. party.  The original plan was to use HOPAC's high speed internet...however, it was not working.  Our home internet speed here is so bad that it was estimating 17 hours to complete the job.  After a lot of stress and trying several different things, we arranged to get the broadcast that a friend DVR'd...but when Tim went to pick it up from their house, their guard wouldn't let him in! He finally walked through our door with the DVR with only 16 minutes till the party was supposed to start.  So much drama, even before the coin toss!

Last year:  We watched all the commercials as part of the broadcast.
This year:  There weren't any commercials; Tim separately downloaded the top 10 ads for us to watch. Sorry, Madison Ave, we didn't see all your $4 million gems (of course, I hardly think that missionaries in Africa are their target audience).

Our make-shift "big screen TV" - we turned our armoire around and projected the game from the computer on to the back.

Last year:  We served up chili.
This year:  We also served up chili, but the African version.  This involves cooking beans and making tomato sauce from scratch.  It's delicious, but it takes a long time.  I miss canned beans and Ragu (although I'm sure this is healthier for us).  We also had lots of contributions from our guests, including brand-name Pringles, hot dogs, pizza, popcorn, cookies and chocolate ice cream.  Drinks of choice included filtered water, sodas in glass bottles (some familiar in the U.S.: Coke and Sprite; others not: Stoney Tangawizi, Novida, Pineapple Fanta.) There was even some Cherry Coke brought to the party – a rare novelty item I haven't seen since the U.S!  And I also used a precious package of Kool-Aid mix shipped from America.

Last year:  Activities at the party included watching the game and talking.
This year:   There were about 30 ticks killed during the party.  We've been having an infestation for a couple of weeks but thought we had it under control.  Then our dog, Moshi, tore through the house about 3 times when guests arrived and ...voila - an interactive party game was created.  Which guest can find and kill the most ticks?  How many ticks crawled up each person's leg during the game?  Good times.

Last year:  After guests left, we loaded up the dishwasher and went to bed.
This year:  I had to borrow bowls from two friends and hand wash them in between the chili and ice cream courses.  Then we had a huge pile of washing up to do afterwards!  I miss my dishwasher so much.  It certainly makes entertaining just that much more overwhelming here.

A different experience, to be sure, but a fun one nonetheless.  Next year, I'd like to see the Giants...and a closer game!