August 27th - marriage, my students, and upcoming independant travel

Marriage:

No, no, I am not getting married. Ha! I've had offers, and amusing as they are, that particular topic has both a humorous and a rather serious side. Today in Kiswahili, we discussed how to conjugate verbs to put them in the passive tense. This brought up a subject that we have touched on, but did not go too terribly in depth on - the verb 'oa.' 'Oa' means for a man to marry a woman. In order to talk about a woman's marriage, you must say that she is 'being married' or 'getting married.' This is not the case for the man - he is the one doing the marrying.

Now, I don't want people to get all up in arms and start getting frustrated with how this whole Tanzanian society must be so discriminatory towards women through and through. This is not the case. But things are different here. The difference in the verbs is not malicious or cruel - it is the language, and, as our teacher, Pendo, reminds us quite often, 'Kiswahili is a young language.'

My students:

I have a standard 6 class of boys and girls at the local Mlimani Primary School, who are delightful. The more time i spend with them, he better my kiswahili gets, and the better thier English (or their boldness in class) gets. I'm glad. I don't mind if they chatter a bit as they do the lessons that I set for them - Their punctuation is getting better and better. I don't really mind if they giggle when I call on them to answer - at least they are answering, and answering in English. I don't mind at all that my teacher never comes to the room while I am teaching - she is of the opinion that since I don't smack the kids, I must not be doing an effective teaching job.

She came up to me the second day that I was teaching, and wanted to know if I would be smacking the children. I responded with a very firm, 'No,' and she did not look surprised. She then told me that hitting the children is the only way to control a class of 60, and that hitting thier wrists when they get answers wrong on their excersies helps them to study harder the next time. She offered me her 'stick' (for lack of a better term) which set back down on her desk and assured her that her students were so well behaved that I would certianly never need the use it. She looked skeptical. [By the way, I refer to her as 'she' or 'my teacher' because the only name that she has given me to call her was 'Madam,' and it is slightly odd to be writting that, leet alone trying to call her that.] Since that day, she has occasionally stuck her head into the class, but mostly she just sits in the teachers room with the other 'Madams.' I'm pretty ok with it, though, as the students seem to be much more willing to try answering questions when she is not walking around wacking them.

Upcoming travel:

At the end of this week, when out Kiswahili class ends, the whole LCCT group is spiliting off and traveling around Tanzania for about twelve days. Chris, Bryanna and I are heading to the northeast, to Mwanza, Ngara, Kibondo, and Kigoma before catching a train and returning to Dar but the 12th of September. We have out International Student Orientation on the 13th and 14th, and then classes were supposed to start then, but they have been pushed back until the 29th (my birthday, yay!). After the orientation, we will be heading north again, the whole group this time, to stay at Mama Macha's home in Moshi. She is a wonderful family friend of Chris's when he and his family used to live here in Dar. She lives on the side of Kilimanjaro, and has a beautiful veiw of both Kili and Mt Meru as the sun rises and sets....so that is going to be an amazing trip.


Lots of thoughts, I know. Sorry for the somewhat jumbled nature of it all...I will probably be coming back and revising it later, but this will be the last long post until about the 16th.