It has been a long week at Nsumba. Supervising exams and most of all, grading. I put in a few 12-hour days this week getting all my papers graded, but they're done now, so I took off a little early today.
As I expected before I got here, many of my students struggle with math. Last year my Form III students took national exams and only 30% passed math (this put Nsumba among the top 20% in the region). It's kind of discouraging to think that it would take a miracle for me to get half of them to pass their exam next year. Their performance on the end of term test is not encouraging. I think part of the problem is a lack of effort because some of the problems were almost identical to examples we did in class, so if they studied they should have done alright. On the other hand, it's pretty tough that since they have no books, if they don't see something written on the board by me they don't see it at all. Under those conditions it's pretty hard to get what you need across in four hours a week. I'm still pretty new at teaching, so I know I could be better at it. Still I know it's not only my fault. Hopefully in the next year and a half all of us can do better.
One interesting and somewhat related point was a conversation I had with one of my students one day. He actually said that I was his best teacher, and knowing he wasn't exactly enthusiastic about math, I asked him why he thought that. Well, it turns out that it was because I hardly miss any periods. Of course I'd noticed that many teachers seldom leave the staff room and go teach something, but I guess I hadn't noticed the scope of the problem. Now some teachers are really good and always show up, but apparently this student didn't have many of those teachers. So I thought that it was interesting and kind of sad that I'm considered a really good teacher just because I show up.
So most of the hard work is over. It'll probably be hectic Monday and Tuesday next week, but soon I'm off for some time off and a chance to see all the PCVs I trained with. Hard to believe most of them I haven't seen for six months, which is hard after how closely we bonded in our shared trial of Peace Corps training. Until next time.
Friday, May 26, 2006
Monday, May 22, 2006
Term Winding Down
It's been a really eventful week, so here goes:
Last Monday I met Joshua Berman (a returned PCV from Nicaragua) and his wife Sutay (likewise an RPCV, but in the Gambia) came through Mwanza for a couple of days. They are in the midst of a very long trip you can read about on Joshua's site. They got in touch with me thanks to this blog and called me up when they got into town. Of course, all Peace Corps Volunteers love visitors, so I was excited to meet them and show them around town. The following day, before they left, they came out to my place for a little while. It was really interesting to talk to the two of them about their Peace Corps experiences, both to compare with my current experience, and also because I'm curious about what it's like when the service ends. I heard from them, as I have heard from others, that returning home after service is very difficult. That doesn't surprise me. I've often heard that "reverse culture shock" is worse than the original culture shock, and this was certainly true when I returned home from Scotland four years ago. Oh well, all that is a long way away. Anyway, Josh and Tay, thanks for stopping by and karibuni tena!
Also last week we finished up classes and this week we have end of term exams. The math exams will be given Wednesday, so after that I will be very busy because one other teacher and I will have to grade all of the school's math exams in just over a week. After that I'll be rushing off for Peace Corps training. It's hard to believe I've effectively finished a quarter of my Peace Corps service. It doesn't seem like almost half a year in Mwanza.
Saturday I went with my buddy Kassim and another teacher with about fifty students to Kinango Secondary School, about an hour and a half east of Mwanza, for our schools to compete in a debate, and sports (volleyball, basketball, and, of course, soccer). The school was in a pretty isolated place and the land there was absolutely beautiful. It was a lot of fun to go out there, and the students seemed pretty happy that I'd come along. It's nice for students to have diversions like this because I feel bad for them being stuck at a boarding school with nothing at all to do on the weekends. That's kind of a recipe for teenage boys to get into trouble. It also gave me a chance to see how luck I am to be at Nsumba. While Kinango is beautiful, it would be very, very hard to get to a town from there and of course there's no running water or electricity. Yeah, I'll take my Peace Corps Lite any day.
I may be able to post again before I leave for Morogoro on June 2, but I may not. If not, it may be three weeks or so until my next post, so don't be alarmed if that's the case.
My final word is I want to say a big congratulations to my brother Kenny "Special K" Clark for graduating with his Master's from Wake Forest a week ago. Also congrats to my best friend Woody Pike and his special lady Michelle, who will be getting married on Saturday. I hate be missing all this stuff, guys. Best wishes to all of you!
Last Monday I met Joshua Berman (a returned PCV from Nicaragua) and his wife Sutay (likewise an RPCV, but in the Gambia) came through Mwanza for a couple of days. They are in the midst of a very long trip you can read about on Joshua's site. They got in touch with me thanks to this blog and called me up when they got into town. Of course, all Peace Corps Volunteers love visitors, so I was excited to meet them and show them around town. The following day, before they left, they came out to my place for a little while. It was really interesting to talk to the two of them about their Peace Corps experiences, both to compare with my current experience, and also because I'm curious about what it's like when the service ends. I heard from them, as I have heard from others, that returning home after service is very difficult. That doesn't surprise me. I've often heard that "reverse culture shock" is worse than the original culture shock, and this was certainly true when I returned home from Scotland four years ago. Oh well, all that is a long way away. Anyway, Josh and Tay, thanks for stopping by and karibuni tena!
Also last week we finished up classes and this week we have end of term exams. The math exams will be given Wednesday, so after that I will be very busy because one other teacher and I will have to grade all of the school's math exams in just over a week. After that I'll be rushing off for Peace Corps training. It's hard to believe I've effectively finished a quarter of my Peace Corps service. It doesn't seem like almost half a year in Mwanza.
Saturday I went with my buddy Kassim and another teacher with about fifty students to Kinango Secondary School, about an hour and a half east of Mwanza, for our schools to compete in a debate, and sports (volleyball, basketball, and, of course, soccer). The school was in a pretty isolated place and the land there was absolutely beautiful. It was a lot of fun to go out there, and the students seemed pretty happy that I'd come along. It's nice for students to have diversions like this because I feel bad for them being stuck at a boarding school with nothing at all to do on the weekends. That's kind of a recipe for teenage boys to get into trouble. It also gave me a chance to see how luck I am to be at Nsumba. While Kinango is beautiful, it would be very, very hard to get to a town from there and of course there's no running water or electricity. Yeah, I'll take my Peace Corps Lite any day.
I may be able to post again before I leave for Morogoro on June 2, but I may not. If not, it may be three weeks or so until my next post, so don't be alarmed if that's the case.
My final word is I want to say a big congratulations to my brother Kenny "Special K" Clark for graduating with his Master's from Wake Forest a week ago. Also congrats to my best friend Woody Pike and his special lady Michelle, who will be getting married on Saturday. I hate be missing all this stuff, guys. Best wishes to all of you!
Saturday, May 13, 2006
Africa vs. the West
The other day I walked down to the dining hall around sunset and many of my students were out eating their usual dinner of ugali (boiled maize flour with the consistency of mashed potatoes) and beans. Some of them invited me to join them and we began talking. They all seemed to want to talk about history and current events, particularly Africa's relationship with Europe and America over the last couple of hundred years. It was a very illuminating conversation.
Many of my students are very passionate about how much harm slavery and colonialism did to them. I think they are completely right about that. There is still an attitude among so many people here that Africans just aren't as smart and capable as Europeans and Americans. This self doubt is certainly at least partly because of colonialism. However, many of them see it, and the globalization they call a new colonialism, as the only reason Africa is still poor. This I argued vigorously with them. Now, before I go into detail in this argument remember that I am very liberal and am in what some conservatives call the "blame America first" crowd. I'll plead guilty to this, but it is because I feel that to be a country, or even a good person, it is much more important to see what you can do better than what others can do better because you can actually do something about your faults. In the end you can criticize others, but they have to make the decision to improve themselves. So I say that it's fine to talk about the bad things other countries or people are doing, but first let's look at what we are doing.
Having said that, I did defend America from my students, or at least tried to pursuade them to look at the things Africa can do to help itself. One thing I point out to them is that globalization does hurt many people, there's no doubt about it, but it helps many as well. Resisting it to me seems rather useless because it's a fact of life, and quite frankly poor countries that embrace it, like India and China, are doing a a lot better than poor countries that reject it, like Zimbabwe and Bolivia. So good or bad, I feel like you have to play the game. Of course many policies of the West hurt developing countries, but I feel like screaming tp these countries to change isn't going to help the situation here.
The other thing I point out to them is that there is another very important reason Africa and the Middle East largely stays poor--the treatment of women. Women in Tanzania and much of Africa are for the most part just expected to have as many babies as possible and stay home and cook, clean, and watch the kids. I told my students that doing this means half of the working age population isn't contributing to the economy. Now I'm not saying being a stay-at-home mom is so horrible, my mom was when my brother and I were real young. However, if she were African, she would probably have had 8 or 9 kids and most likely would have been out of the work force for a good 30 years. I told my students to look at the countries in the world that are rich, be they in America, Europe, or Asia. These are very different countries with different cultures, but the common factor is that in all of them there are good opportunities for women. Even countries that are poor, but richer than Tanzania, like South Africa, have more equality for women. Of course, countries made rich by oil don't have to fit this mold, but oil definately changes the equation. Anyway, I'm generalizing, but I don't have time to write a thesis, though I think it'd make a good one.
So anyway, I'm glad that my students are so interested in the world, but sometimes I'm discouraged that they don't want to help themselves, but just make excuses. Some of them also have crazy conspiracy theories. One even asked if as a Peace Corps volunteer I have to write a report for the CIA. Overall though, I really enjoy hearing the students' points of view on these things. I'm just going to be careful they don't provoke me into a political debate while I should be teaching them math.
Many of my students are very passionate about how much harm slavery and colonialism did to them. I think they are completely right about that. There is still an attitude among so many people here that Africans just aren't as smart and capable as Europeans and Americans. This self doubt is certainly at least partly because of colonialism. However, many of them see it, and the globalization they call a new colonialism, as the only reason Africa is still poor. This I argued vigorously with them. Now, before I go into detail in this argument remember that I am very liberal and am in what some conservatives call the "blame America first" crowd. I'll plead guilty to this, but it is because I feel that to be a country, or even a good person, it is much more important to see what you can do better than what others can do better because you can actually do something about your faults. In the end you can criticize others, but they have to make the decision to improve themselves. So I say that it's fine to talk about the bad things other countries or people are doing, but first let's look at what we are doing.
Having said that, I did defend America from my students, or at least tried to pursuade them to look at the things Africa can do to help itself. One thing I point out to them is that globalization does hurt many people, there's no doubt about it, but it helps many as well. Resisting it to me seems rather useless because it's a fact of life, and quite frankly poor countries that embrace it, like India and China, are doing a a lot better than poor countries that reject it, like Zimbabwe and Bolivia. So good or bad, I feel like you have to play the game. Of course many policies of the West hurt developing countries, but I feel like screaming tp these countries to change isn't going to help the situation here.
The other thing I point out to them is that there is another very important reason Africa and the Middle East largely stays poor--the treatment of women. Women in Tanzania and much of Africa are for the most part just expected to have as many babies as possible and stay home and cook, clean, and watch the kids. I told my students that doing this means half of the working age population isn't contributing to the economy. Now I'm not saying being a stay-at-home mom is so horrible, my mom was when my brother and I were real young. However, if she were African, she would probably have had 8 or 9 kids and most likely would have been out of the work force for a good 30 years. I told my students to look at the countries in the world that are rich, be they in America, Europe, or Asia. These are very different countries with different cultures, but the common factor is that in all of them there are good opportunities for women. Even countries that are poor, but richer than Tanzania, like South Africa, have more equality for women. Of course, countries made rich by oil don't have to fit this mold, but oil definately changes the equation. Anyway, I'm generalizing, but I don't have time to write a thesis, though I think it'd make a good one.
So anyway, I'm glad that my students are so interested in the world, but sometimes I'm discouraged that they don't want to help themselves, but just make excuses. Some of them also have crazy conspiracy theories. One even asked if as a Peace Corps volunteer I have to write a report for the CIA. Overall though, I really enjoy hearing the students' points of view on these things. I'm just going to be careful they don't provoke me into a political debate while I should be teaching them math.
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Who's the Real Do-Gooder at Nsumba?
The kindness of some of teh people here really touches me sometimes. Take my friend, Kassim, another teacher at my school. For no real reason one day last week he invited Cha, the Korean volunteer at our school, and I to have chips (in the British sense) after school. There are several places by the road where they sell beer and soda and usually there's a guy who pan fries chips and grills beef shishkabobs call mshikaki. A popular thing to do with the chips is to add beaten eggs as he fries them. This comes out as sort of a french fry omlette, which sounds strange but is really good. It's called chipsi mayai--mayai being Swahili for eggs. So Kassim, who makes less money than I do and a lot less than Cha, insisted on paying. This is real normal for him. He often insists on paying for bus fare if we go somewhere and things like that. I've learned it's pointless to argue. I tried to make up for it a little this time by buying our sodas. So they guy made chipsi mayai and mshikaki one serving at a time since he only has one pan, and of course Kassim took his last. Everything up to then was nice enough, but what really touched me was when he saw a little boy walking home from primary school, called him over, and gave him half his food. By then it was 3 in the afternoon and that kid probably hadn't eaten since breakfast at 6. Needless to say, he was quite hungry and extremely grateful. I often think of the things I'm missing at home and lament my, by my old standards, spartan existence. Then there's Kassim, who's working as hard as I am but doesn't have a relatively luxurious life to look forward to after two years. I'm often amazed by how much people with so little can give.
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