I guess some of you noticed a severe lack of updating this blog from my part, my apologies for that. When I got to my usual routine of writing emails and a blog post on my laptop last week, in order to save time at the internet café, the power was unfortunately cut off... My laptop’s battery still had some life, but as you perhaps experienced, after some three years laptop batteries tend not to be as good as they were when you bought them. So I only got time to write my emails.
So yes, the power has definitely not always been there, which caused some trouble, as about all I had to do required it. I made a DVD about our school, and I had to work on a university report. My teacher thought it could be a little better still.
This week there was a seminary here at the Kihonda base. One part was about high quality leather processing, the other about small businesses, if I understood correctly. We had quite a few Maasai guests, which meant trouble for the one that had to take pictures, but also beef both at lunch and dinner. We don’t even have that in the Netherlands!
The seminary is now over though, and it has got rather quiet since. The DTS has a ten day “mini outreach”, so all the students and teachers are now even further in the middle of nowhere, teaching the gospel to a village there. One of the teachers told me it isn’t so hard to evangelise here, we concluded that it was actually much easier here than in Europe. People are actually curious, they actually want to know about the gospel. At the mere mention of the word Europeans would slam the door shut I’m sure...
So today we had dinner with five, two of which are guests for the seminary that stay for one more night, since they have to travel quite far. It was a flashlight dinner, actually, as there was no power. And there still isn’t at the moment of writing – right now I’m typing this under the light of a good old petroleum lantern.
It did rain a few times the last days. Or maybe one should say it tried to, as the showers only lasted for five minutes or so, and didn’t even get the ground wet. Still though, it gives hope for some more rain, and thus power.
Two weeks ago, actually (before I completely forget to tell about it), I joined a more homely birthday celebration, as opposed to the communal ones here at the base. Freddy, Niwaely’s husband, was the lucky one. Bebe was also invited, but she was in Dar Es Salaam at the time. I was glad to be able to be there and see it, though it wasn’t as traditional African as most I’m sure. We had a nice dinner, and cake, prayed for Freddy, sang happy birthday... It was very nice. At the communal celebration we actually sang happy birthday in Dutch. Well, I was anyway, while most did try they were probably very confused. But anyway, I enjoyed being at home with Freddy and Niwaely, it’s an experience I’m quite lacking here as I spend most of my time on the base.
And also, Sered and Sitini, the area leader, invited me to come to their son’s graduation on last Saturday. I was of course very thankful for that too! The graduation actually started with a “church” service, as it’s a Presbyterian school. It’s founded by Korean people actually, and there were quite a few there. The ceremony was from ten am up to four pm, though it was meant to end at about two thirty. Of course there was a guest of honour, speeches, songs, and even a martial arts presentation. The Koreans certainly did something there... After the official ceremony we had our own little celebration, with some eleven people, outside in the grass field. There was an MT too, and speeches and all that, and we enjoyed some cake and snacks and soda... Really, we had a great time.
Next week there’s actually another celebration: Timothy, the base leader and also my “room mate”, is actually getting married. The poor guy. Not because he’s getting married in itself, but here in Africa the husband to be has to arrange everything for the wedding – the his fiancé isn’t really allowed to do anything publically; after all, here in Africa the husband marries the wife only, not the other way around! He’s really incredibly busy, partly because due to some circumstances he only had one month to prepare instead of the usual three. And marriage really is a huge thing here. Next week there will be several kitchen parties, a send off, and of course the marriage itself. Nearly every day there is something... He does have a wedding committee though, fortunately, but the poor man still is really having it. Right now he’s off to his own parents for the final things there, so that’s another man missing. I’m really looking forward to the wedding though, I’d really like to see how that is. The Tanzanians are really celebrative – just sticking a ring on each other’s finger definitely won’t do. Plus, I’ll see some of my friends and ex-students from the English School again, which would be great. After that, Asheri and I will finally definitely go to Arusha.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Friday, October 9, 2009
Una kula wazungu?
So this week has indeed been somewhat chaotic, having no schedule... It caused me to unfortunately be a fair bit less helpful than otherwise. Still though, this week wasn’t without progress, and it wasn’t without challenges either.
The most notable one was that of the power failures. The electricity here is generated by a large dam nearby. And since it’s the dry season now, the electricity tends to dry out as well... If it wasn’t for YWAM’s generator, we would have been without any during the graduation, actually. But since it’s rather expensive they prefer not to use it. Last Sunday evening it was gone too, which actually yielded a very nice atmosphere in the dining hall, with gasoline lamps and flashlights. Afterwards I brought some documents to Sered and Sitini, who just started their own dinner. We ended up talking until half past ten around a few candles, it was very lovely being there. And the moon shone so brightly, there really wasn’t much of a need for flashlights outside.
Sitini told me the shipment of the computers takes longer than expected – about eleven months longer, at worst. So starting the computer school isn’t really possible very soon, most likely, at least not full scale. Of course that doesn’t mean we can’t do anything for it.
Besides this, Asheri and I will try to work on a little movie for YWAM’s 50th anniversary. We wanted to last Wednesday, but again the electricity had vanished. Word was that it would be gone from 9 am up to 11 pm, but it came back at 5. They plan to ration it until there is some rain.
I also moved to a new place, as the English school is now devoid of people. Now I’m staying at the room where Timothy, the base leader, sleeps. It’s actually much nicer since it doesn’t catch as much sun during the day, though the company of the students used to much more than made up for that.
As for the aforementioned progress, I can thank God that I finally formulated a solid research question. Yes, I have to do a small research of sorts. Luckily it doesn’t have to be anything huge, since I already did a lot of practical work. The plan is to interview some of the leaders here, to gather some information regarding the locals’ achieved level of education, their wishes and how much they use their education. I suppose it may be a little generic, but hopefully it’ll do. At least a gave some creative spin to it, which involves little paper people.
My Swahili also improved a lot. Before I wasn’t even allowed to speak it, since I had to talk English with the students. But while we had thirteen students at first, I now have about that many teachers, all willing to explain a few words during breakfast, lunch and dinner. Here’s a few things I learnt:
Lala salama – Sleep well
Na kunywa supu ja kuku – I drink chicken soup
Hakuna matata! – No problem!
The nice thing is that no one will blame you if you say stupid things, you can get away with anything.
Me: Na omba magi? (May I have some water?)
Giros: Hiya, karibu. (Ok, you’re welcome.)
Me: Asante. Na penda wewe. (Thank you. I love you.)
Giros: ... Asante... >_>; (... Thank you...)
Still though, I’m lacking far too many words to have any decent conversation. For now it’s just greetings and saying what you eat or drink, I do suppose thanks to the learning environment. Perhaps in a month or so though...
The most notable one was that of the power failures. The electricity here is generated by a large dam nearby. And since it’s the dry season now, the electricity tends to dry out as well... If it wasn’t for YWAM’s generator, we would have been without any during the graduation, actually. But since it’s rather expensive they prefer not to use it. Last Sunday evening it was gone too, which actually yielded a very nice atmosphere in the dining hall, with gasoline lamps and flashlights. Afterwards I brought some documents to Sered and Sitini, who just started their own dinner. We ended up talking until half past ten around a few candles, it was very lovely being there. And the moon shone so brightly, there really wasn’t much of a need for flashlights outside.
Sitini told me the shipment of the computers takes longer than expected – about eleven months longer, at worst. So starting the computer school isn’t really possible very soon, most likely, at least not full scale. Of course that doesn’t mean we can’t do anything for it.
Besides this, Asheri and I will try to work on a little movie for YWAM’s 50th anniversary. We wanted to last Wednesday, but again the electricity had vanished. Word was that it would be gone from 9 am up to 11 pm, but it came back at 5. They plan to ration it until there is some rain.
I also moved to a new place, as the English school is now devoid of people. Now I’m staying at the room where Timothy, the base leader, sleeps. It’s actually much nicer since it doesn’t catch as much sun during the day, though the company of the students used to much more than made up for that.
As for the aforementioned progress, I can thank God that I finally formulated a solid research question. Yes, I have to do a small research of sorts. Luckily it doesn’t have to be anything huge, since I already did a lot of practical work. The plan is to interview some of the leaders here, to gather some information regarding the locals’ achieved level of education, their wishes and how much they use their education. I suppose it may be a little generic, but hopefully it’ll do. At least a gave some creative spin to it, which involves little paper people.
My Swahili also improved a lot. Before I wasn’t even allowed to speak it, since I had to talk English with the students. But while we had thirteen students at first, I now have about that many teachers, all willing to explain a few words during breakfast, lunch and dinner. Here’s a few things I learnt:
Lala salama – Sleep well
Na kunywa supu ja kuku – I drink chicken soup
Hakuna matata! – No problem!
The nice thing is that no one will blame you if you say stupid things, you can get away with anything.
Me: Na omba magi? (May I have some water?)
Giros: Hiya, karibu. (Ok, you’re welcome.)
Me: Asante. Na penda wewe. (Thank you. I love you.)
Giros: ... Asante... >_>; (... Thank you...)
Still though, I’m lacking far too many words to have any decent conversation. For now it’s just greetings and saying what you eat or drink, I do suppose thanks to the learning environment. Perhaps in a month or so though...
Saturday, October 3, 2009
The school is over
I just came back from the graduation ceremony, this Friday. I’m happy to say that all eleven remaining students have completed the course successfully, the certificates are in their pockets and some of them have already gone home. The last week was certainly quite hectic, with the written exam on Monday and the oral the day after. After that, we hastily prepared for the graduation ceremony.
In the weeks prior to this one a few students showed amazing improvement, especially two of our Maasai and Rehema, our oldest student. She can keep on talking in English for hours now, it’s absolutely no problem. And for the eight and a half page written exam everyone did very well. In fact, everyone scored over 70%, truly a unique achievement. I have to add though, that the oral went slightly worse, but everyone passed that one too.
We were a little late in preparing for the graduation... We really had to work for it on Wednesday and Thursday. Especially the ladies. I thought women in Europe were very conscious about their looks, but here I think it’s worse. Everyone has to have their hair done, preferably as close to the graduation as possible. Josephine, fellow teacher and leader of the school, asked us to sponsor her for it, but I thought her hair was fine as it was.
The various things the students wanted to do at the graduation added to the pressure, of course. They prepared testimonies, a play, songs to sing... Eventually, through all our hard work we didn’t even have enough time at the ceremony itself, a few things had to be skipped. I suppose in African style we began a little late, which contributed to that. But in spite of all this it was a great success anyway. The people enjoyed the testimonies, the play, I think most of what we did.
Unfortunately, besides the students, we had to say goodbye to two staff members too... Namely Bebe and Niwael, my other two fellow teachers. It’s the official goodbye, they will stay here for a few days more. Niwa is going to study in Dar Es Salaam, while Bebe wants to go back to Rwanda, though she might want to get her drivers’ licence first. I was thanked wholeheartedly by the students and the staff, received gifts and hugs, and the other teachers did too of course. We can be very proud of our students, I think all achieved their goals and are quite able to have a talk with you.
Finally and very importantly, we had some good food. The students had insisted on bringing chicken, and since staff already got beef and pork, we had all three now. Unfortunately I think I got an artery for pork, which tasted very strange, and what I got from the chicken I couldn’t even identify. It was actually hard to imagine that a chicken even had that part... But the beef was fine. Afterwards I had to continue my job of being a photographer, realising their time was almost over everyone wanted me to take a picture. I filled my 1Gb card to the brim and had to print dozens today. At least I have plenty of pictures of everyone there myself now.
It will be very quiet at the base now... And where it isn’t, the noise will probably be in Swahili. Since we were only allowed to speak English amongst the students, my Swahili vocabulary is very limited. At first half of the words I knew came from the movie “The Lion King” (what language did you think “Hakuna Matata” came from?), though now I know some more. Which is still only about fifteen words... They promised me I’d learn very quickly though, maybe in three weeks or so I can actually get somewhere.
I really don’t know what’s in store for me, there’s not much of a strict planning anymore, which feels rather strange. I don’t really know where I’ll sleep either, the whole school building will be very quiet now. Hopefully plans will shape along the way.
In the weeks prior to this one a few students showed amazing improvement, especially two of our Maasai and Rehema, our oldest student. She can keep on talking in English for hours now, it’s absolutely no problem. And for the eight and a half page written exam everyone did very well. In fact, everyone scored over 70%, truly a unique achievement. I have to add though, that the oral went slightly worse, but everyone passed that one too.
We were a little late in preparing for the graduation... We really had to work for it on Wednesday and Thursday. Especially the ladies. I thought women in Europe were very conscious about their looks, but here I think it’s worse. Everyone has to have their hair done, preferably as close to the graduation as possible. Josephine, fellow teacher and leader of the school, asked us to sponsor her for it, but I thought her hair was fine as it was.
The various things the students wanted to do at the graduation added to the pressure, of course. They prepared testimonies, a play, songs to sing... Eventually, through all our hard work we didn’t even have enough time at the ceremony itself, a few things had to be skipped. I suppose in African style we began a little late, which contributed to that. But in spite of all this it was a great success anyway. The people enjoyed the testimonies, the play, I think most of what we did.
Unfortunately, besides the students, we had to say goodbye to two staff members too... Namely Bebe and Niwael, my other two fellow teachers. It’s the official goodbye, they will stay here for a few days more. Niwa is going to study in Dar Es Salaam, while Bebe wants to go back to Rwanda, though she might want to get her drivers’ licence first. I was thanked wholeheartedly by the students and the staff, received gifts and hugs, and the other teachers did too of course. We can be very proud of our students, I think all achieved their goals and are quite able to have a talk with you.
Finally and very importantly, we had some good food. The students had insisted on bringing chicken, and since staff already got beef and pork, we had all three now. Unfortunately I think I got an artery for pork, which tasted very strange, and what I got from the chicken I couldn’t even identify. It was actually hard to imagine that a chicken even had that part... But the beef was fine. Afterwards I had to continue my job of being a photographer, realising their time was almost over everyone wanted me to take a picture. I filled my 1Gb card to the brim and had to print dozens today. At least I have plenty of pictures of everyone there myself now.
It will be very quiet at the base now... And where it isn’t, the noise will probably be in Swahili. Since we were only allowed to speak English amongst the students, my Swahili vocabulary is very limited. At first half of the words I knew came from the movie “The Lion King” (what language did you think “Hakuna Matata” came from?), though now I know some more. Which is still only about fifteen words... They promised me I’d learn very quickly though, maybe in three weeks or so I can actually get somewhere.
I really don’t know what’s in store for me, there’s not much of a strict planning anymore, which feels rather strange. I don’t really know where I’ll sleep either, the whole school building will be very quiet now. Hopefully plans will shape along the way.
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