Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Bloody Tuesday, The First Rain, and I made supper
This week has been more or less like any other week. We have a groove going. We get up, have a shower, have breakfast. We each teach a group of the nursery school children (class A and class B) for 2 hours. Then the children have a break for an hour, during which they have porridge, and then play time. We sit in the staff room with the other teachers for tea and chapati (think pita or pancake). We then tackle the youngest group, class C, together, with the help of Sister Agnes. It is not easy to control a class of 40 3-6 year olds, whose language you don't speak and who don't speak your language, either. They are always beating on each other, or sleeping, or crying, or running around the classroom. One even tried to bite Dad!
Tuesday started out fairly typically. It soon got dubbed "Bloody Tuesday". To start things off, Endeshi, a girl in class B (who Dad and I have nicknamed The Parrot), slit her tongue when the pencil that she was holding in her mouth got bumped. No worries. I got her to rinse her mouth out and the bleeding didn't last long. Next thing I know, Deus is running out of class. I yell after him, as the children are not supposed to leave the class without asking first. He stops short to spit, you guessed it, blood out of his mouth. He has just lost his second tooth. Of course. Got him cleaned up, and went back to class. As a side note, I don't think the Toothfairy knows her way to Tanzania. During break time, we were interupted several times by various tattling and/or crying children. More than usual. Last came Deus, with blood dripping out a cut in his head. Apparently, one of the other children slammed the gate on him, in retaliation for something he had done earlier. Dad and I had brought some latex gloves with us. We got those out and some bandages, fixed him up and got him on his way. He was an amazingly good clotter. Thus ended Bloody Tuesday.
The first rain of the season came on Wednesday. At 3:55 in the afternoon, just as I was finishing up class, the skies opened, and the rain began. I had noticed some dark and ominus clouds earlier in the afternoon. It lasted for 4 hours. The children had to walk home in the rain. Not one had come prepared. Some waited for the rain to quiet down. Others just stuck a plastic bag on their heads and made a break for it. One of the children, Yosefu, who can't walk, got a ride home from one of the older children who had gone home to get a car to pick up his friends. Dad and I weren't convinced that the young man was old enough to drive (it was confirmed later that he doesn't have his license) but it saved Yosefu from crawling in the mammoth muddle puddles, for at least one day. It hasn't rained since, but it is definitely cooler and cloudier than when we first arrived.
Yesterday (Saturday) we gave Maria, our cook, the day off. For lunch we went down to the near by hotel, the Top One Inn. Upon Amanzi's, one of our guards', suggestion, we tried the Banana Meat. It was quite enjoyable. The bananas were boiled (tastes more or less like potato) and mixed in a broth with meat and vegetables. It came with a side of warm cabbage and mixed veggetables salad. We then took pictures with the "local wild life", the plaster replicas of elephants and gorillas. We walked back home and played some checkers with Amanzi. For supper, we made chipsi mayai, a fried potato and egg pancake/omellette. We cooked on the charcoal stove. Turned out quite well. Not the same as Maria's but it hit the spot!
Tuesday started out fairly typically. It soon got dubbed "Bloody Tuesday". To start things off, Endeshi, a girl in class B (who Dad and I have nicknamed The Parrot), slit her tongue when the pencil that she was holding in her mouth got bumped. No worries. I got her to rinse her mouth out and the bleeding didn't last long. Next thing I know, Deus is running out of class. I yell after him, as the children are not supposed to leave the class without asking first. He stops short to spit, you guessed it, blood out of his mouth. He has just lost his second tooth. Of course. Got him cleaned up, and went back to class. As a side note, I don't think the Toothfairy knows her way to Tanzania. During break time, we were interupted several times by various tattling and/or crying children. More than usual. Last came Deus, with blood dripping out a cut in his head. Apparently, one of the other children slammed the gate on him, in retaliation for something he had done earlier. Dad and I had brought some latex gloves with us. We got those out and some bandages, fixed him up and got him on his way. He was an amazingly good clotter. Thus ended Bloody Tuesday.
The first rain of the season came on Wednesday. At 3:55 in the afternoon, just as I was finishing up class, the skies opened, and the rain began. I had noticed some dark and ominus clouds earlier in the afternoon. It lasted for 4 hours. The children had to walk home in the rain. Not one had come prepared. Some waited for the rain to quiet down. Others just stuck a plastic bag on their heads and made a break for it. One of the children, Yosefu, who can't walk, got a ride home from one of the older children who had gone home to get a car to pick up his friends. Dad and I weren't convinced that the young man was old enough to drive (it was confirmed later that he doesn't have his license) but it saved Yosefu from crawling in the mammoth muddle puddles, for at least one day. It hasn't rained since, but it is definitely cooler and cloudier than when we first arrived.
Yesterday (Saturday) we gave Maria, our cook, the day off. For lunch we went down to the near by hotel, the Top One Inn. Upon Amanzi's, one of our guards', suggestion, we tried the Banana Meat. It was quite enjoyable. The bananas were boiled (tastes more or less like potato) and mixed in a broth with meat and vegetables. It came with a side of warm cabbage and mixed veggetables salad. We then took pictures with the "local wild life", the plaster replicas of elephants and gorillas. We walked back home and played some checkers with Amanzi. For supper, we made chipsi mayai, a fried potato and egg pancake/omellette. We cooked on the charcoal stove. Turned out quite well. Not the same as Maria's but it hit the spot!
# posted by Chantal @ 10:17 a.m. 
