Mastering the Choo

2012.07.16

Mastering the Choo

Or “Choo kiko wapi?”

The choo. The choo is a place to semi-relax. I say “semi” because one cannot really relax while in/on the choo. For many people, like myself, the choo may take some getting used to. But, as many people find out, it is quite a necessity and should be used every day.

What is this choo? “Is it something I want to know about?” you may ask. I would say, yes, it is something you want to know about, especially for when you visit me in Tanzania. You will learn to love the choo. The choo is what we call the toilet in Tanzania. But it is not a sit-down toilet. In some places, it looks like a western-style toilet that has been sunk into the ground, but in other place it is not much more than a hole in the ground. It reminds me of the public restrooms in the subway stations of Japan, where you turn around and squat to do your business. It’s pretty much the same here, but sometimes you need to aim a little. Target sizes vary from place to place. I have gotten very good after a month, but I do miss my longer sessions back home, where I could browse through an issue of Mechanical Engineering or Make: Magazine. I can’t even stay down for more than a few minutes here, which is probably a lot better for me. Oh, and be careful not to fall backward.

I have learned to fully embrace the choo. I have to admit, I was a little scared at first. I took full advantage of the western-style toilet at Msimbazi Center in Dar es Salaam during our first week in-country. Now I’m pretty impartial, since both have their advantages. I’m still very interested to see how the countryside might be where I’m placed in two weeks. I’ve heard stories of bathroom buddies, so I’m curious as far as stage-fright in front of say…a cockroach, rat, or even bats. We’ll see. Well, hopefully not, but I am super excited to see where I go. Less than two weeks until we find out! ^_^

Learning to Cook

2012.07.16

Learning to Cook

Today I taught my third class in country. I went over homework from two classes ago and gave students the chance to ask questions about plotting points. At the end, I had them plot points on the blackboard, after which I connected lines to draw an elephant. When they figured out what it was, they were pretty excited. But I don’t want to talk about class, even though it is pretty awesome to teach these kids. I want to talk about rice.

I don’t know about all of Tanzania, but here at my homestay, cooking rice is more than just cooking rice. It’s a process. We get the raw grain, called mchele, and sift through it to remove rocks, chaff, and other inedibles. Sifting, or kupepeta, includes picking out rocks as well as tossing the grain up into the air and catching it again in a special shallow basket. Then the grain is rinsed thoroughly while the fire (usually charcoal) is heating up. After rinsing, we heat up oil in a pot over the fire until it sizzles and then add the rice. The rice is basically stir-fried for a few minutes (I’m still not sure why) before water is added until it is just above the rice. We let this cook for a while, adding more water if necessary. After ten or 20 minutes, the rice is done.

I have personally never seen rice cooked this way before. My first thought was that maybe the oil is to keep the rice from sticking to the pot. This was definitely not the reason because: a) I asked, and b) it didn’t keep anything from sticking. My idea now is that maybe it tastes better…?

It has been really cool to see the different ways of doing things here. It’s not just the tools people have (such as charcoal fires instead of rice-cookers), but other things like frying the uncooked rice that are interesting to learn about. I had thought there was pretty much only one way to cook rice, but they have a saying here along the lines of: there is one kind of rice, but many ways to cook it. I’ll see if I can ask for the quote/proverb.

My First Math Class!

2012.7.12

My First Math Class!

Today was so awesome! I started the day teaching my first class of real students! It’s still only training, since we will only be teaching here for two weeks, but it was super fun! I know for sure that at least some of them understood what I was teaching. I’m still not sure if they understood it because I taught it well or if they already read through the material, but it was a really good feeling to know that at least 15 people in the class definitely know the material now. I’m planning on checking homework tomorrow that I assigned.

After our daily chai (tea time), we had the written part of our Language Proficiency Interview! It was actually really cool to be able see how much I know on paper! I felt really good about most of the test, even though there were a few words I didn’t know. I might have actually nailed all the grammar points!

After the written test, we (Hannah, Brian, Kyle, and Willie) had lunch and waited around for the exam interviewer to come to our school. I didn’t feel nervous at all while I was waiting, but I guess I was because I couldn’t stay still. For maybe two hours, I was walking around in circles inside the classroom where we study Swahili, waiting for the other four to take their turns with Loyce, the interviewer. I finally made my way in and was really surprised at how much I could understand!!! I think there was actually only one word during the entire interview that I didn’t understand! I was speaking really slowly, and got myself stuck at some points, but overall I think I did alright. What kept happening was that I would understand what Loyce asked me, then I would think of how I would answer in English, then try to translate (on the fly) into Swahili. This was EXTREMELY problematic since my English is much more developed than my Swahili. I kept wanting to say “If…, then…” statements and would/could statements, along with other things I haven’t learned yet. I’m pretty sure it turned out fine, but I kept laughing because I kept doing that throughout the whole interview. There was a point at which I wanted to say the word for milking cows (which I learned yesterday), but I could not remember it!!! After struggling for a while, I decided to go with “get milk from cows”, which still makes sense, but isn’t grammatically correct. At the very end of the interview, when Loyce asked me what I was doing later, I finally remembered and said that I was going to go home and learn how to milk the cow! I was so excited and I could see that Loyce was glad that I remembered it.

When I got home, Ema reminded me to ask Mama about milking the cows. I asked her if it was ok, which it was, and then if I could invite the other volunteers in my group. She said yes! They came over and got to meet my Mama and Baba and a few other people around the house. We had alozela juice, which is freaking awesome. It’s a sweet purple color, and is made by boiling a certain type of flower petal with nuts from a baobao tree. I definitely want to try to make a wine or beer or something out of it later when I get to site. Anyways! They all got to watch Mama and Ema milk one of the cows, but at one point we spooked it and it kicked over the bucket! We all moved out of the stable, then Hannah and Willie went back in, one at a time to watch and take more pictures. It was pretty awesome to have all of them over. I was so happy.

And it just continued through the whole night! I had so much fun cooking dinner with my Dada (host-sister), who is visiting right now from Arusha. We made spaghetti, the Tanzanian way, and talked the whole time, mostly in Swahili! At one point I realized that I was actually understanding most of it, and actually mentioned it to her and the rest of the family a few times. It was just an overall awesome night.

Now I’m finally feeling like I’m getting comfortable in this place. I’m so excited to get to my site in August, wherever it ends up being.