Last day in Moshi

Well, it's my last full day in Moshi and I am a huge mix of emotions. I've had a great past few days but today and tomorrow are going to be pretty hard. I don't want to say good bye but at the same time I do because I know that means I get to see everyone back home. I think everyone should just hop on a plane to Tz and join me for a few days before I come back! I think that sounds like a super plan :)

This past weekend I had a BBQ at my house as part of my going-away...typical Tz style though...during my party the power went out! ha! But we had a good time anyway. Then Saturday Mhula's dad came to stay with us from his village a few hours away so we had a big family supper that night. It was nice but a little awkward considering only Mhula could speak their mother tongue language so it was a bit hard to talk with him. Then Sunday a few of us went to El Rancho (the Italian restaurant nearby haha) and had my last "hoorah" I guess you could say. Today I went on a field trip with the P5's and Marlaina and we went to 4 different places of worship. It was really interesting and almost an overload of information. I think the kids loved it though. Tomorrow is going to be my last day at ISM :( We are having a fun day though so that will be nice. In the morning the students are finishing up a totem pole painting project I did for an art lesson with them. Then we're watching the DVD of "Because of Winn Dixie" and then we're heading to the pool for a pool party. That will be fun but I have a feeling at the end of the day there will be some tears. Some of the girls in my class have been talking about how sad they are that I'm leaving for the past week. I'll try to be strong though but you all know I'm not very good when it comes to holding back the tears.

I have had such a great time here in Moshi and I'm so glad I had the opportunity to come. It's been challenging at times but challenging in a good way. I definitely miss everyone back home and I can't wait to eat some of my mom's home cookin' :) I'll reflect more on my time here once I'm back home but for now I'll just ask that you pray for me on my last day and that I have safe travels.

Love you all and I can't wait to see everyone.

Love,
Alissa in Africa (for one last day)

One week

Well, one week from today I'm going to be back in the states and back to reality! I can't wait to see everyone and show all my pictures...beware...it could take DAYS to see them all :)
I've done a lot of reflecting on my time here and maybe my next post I'll give you some insights as to things I've learned while being here. For now I just wanted to thank everyone for all the prayers and support you have given me during my time away and I want to ask that you pray for me in my last week here and my times that I'll be traveling. I am excited to come home but I'm going to be experiencing a lot of "lasts" and saying a lot of good byes and most of you know that itsn't always the easiest thing to do. I've made a lot of great friends here and I've learned so much from being here, it will be hard to go. Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers.
Love,
Alissa

Safari update...finally!

Hey all,
It’s been a long time since I last updated and I have A TON to talk about! I went on safari March 2-5 and I honestly have no words to describe how amazing it was to see all the beautiful animals and the landscapes. I’ll try to touch on a few of t he highlights but when I get home the stories with the pictures will be a better re-telling of my time out in the wild :)
I started off my journey leaving from Moshi and went to a nearby town and picked up two girls a little older than me who are from Holland, then we went to Arusha and picked up the two boys that I know from the Arusha campus who were also student teaching. From there we went to Lake Manyara. When we arrived we had a quick lunch and then went out on a drive. We saw a lot of what I had seen in Kenya but the change of scenery was still amazing! We saw lots of giraffe, baboons, elephants, different birds, zebra, and the new animal I hadn’t seen before was hippos! There was a whole hippo pool that we could get out of our car and watch (from a distance of course.) That night we got back to our tent site and had a dip in the pool that was nearby. Then unfortunately we discovered that the tent the two girls from Holland and I were staying in had a broken zipper…not such a great discovery when you’re going to be tenting in the middle of nowhere with lots of animals around. In the morning we hadn’t been attacked by any crazed animals so that’s always a good sign!
In the morning we took off for the Serengeti but on the way we stopped for a few pictures for a look at Ngorongoro Crater, but we only stopped for a bit because we’d get a close look later on. When we arrived at the Serengeti I had my heart set on seeing LIONS. Right away we saw hyena just hanging out by the road and man were they uuuugggglllyyyy!!!! Then we got to see two cheetah just hanging out under some trees and we got really close to them. If they would have wanted to they could have jumped on our car and been having a nice lunch of sun-fried Alissa in two seconds flat. It was indescribable!! But I was still on a mission for lions! In the Serengeti everything is brown and there are all these big termite mounds so when we were on a search for the lions we kept mistaking the termite mounds for lions. But, we just so happened to stop for a baboon crossing the road and I took a look in my binoculars at what I thought was another termite mound but this time the mound had…a face…and a mane!!!! I told all the people that I had spotted a lion and we were freaking out! Then, it got better…the lion got up and literally just walked right towards our safari jeep. It was really funny because the guys that went with were getting really scared going “uhhh driver, uhhh shouldn’t you turn on the car, ummm the lion is getting close…uhhh lets go!” I had a little experience with animals being close up so I just told them to be quiet and that we’d be fine. It was funny that I was the brave one and these two guys were the scaredy-cats. No pun intended.
That night we stayed overnight in the Serengeti and when we went to go set up our tent we were literally setting up under the fine supervision a lovely giraffe! I was a bit nervous that our zipper didn’t work after having seen a giraffe right by where we were tenting, but still that night we woke up safe and sound and nothing bothered us.
At 5am the next morning we were up and ready to go on an early morning game drive and I got to see a gorgeous sunrise on the Serengeti. That day we drove to the south end of the park to see the migration of Wildebeest and Zebra. Seriously for MILES all you saw was zebra, wildebeest, zebra, another zebra, wildebeest….everywhere! That day we also saw some more lions and we were able to see a leopard from a distance that was being lazy in a tree.

That afternoon we drove out of the serengeti to Ngorongoro crater. That night we were having supper, watching an elephant eating some trees nearby, watching some buffalo graze beyond that and realizing that we'd be camping with the animals all night. Then we happened to overhear on of the other safari groups talking about how you should have NO food in your tent because there are a lot of animals where we were tenting on the top edge of the crater. So to be safe, I put some crackers that I had in my bag into our safari car. Knowing that our zipper didn't work I wanted to be extra careful. This is where the story gets good....

That night I went to sleep in my tent with my two new Dutch friends that I met on safari and in the middle of the night I feel something moving and I hear a kind of thud sound. I asked the girl next to me what that was and she thought it was the boys outside trying to scare us pretending to be an animal. So for a second I thought nothing of it but decided I should check to make sure my bag was where I left it....I felt for it with my foot...and didn't feel anything. I clicked on my flashlight to realize that my bag was no longer in the tent. After further observation we saw that our tent zipper was now completely broken off and I surprisingly found my bag about 2 feet outside of our tent. I was mugged....we think either by a hyena or a warthog!!! It's a pretty hilarious story when you think about it but let me tell you...that night I was so freaked out that something was going to come in our tent I didn't sleep a whole lot. We finally fell back to sleep for a bit but left our flashlights on all night.

The next morning we woke up early again and drove down into the crater. Our last day in the crater was my favorite day by far! Everything was beautiful and green and all the animals seemed to be more active. One of the first things we saw was a pack of lions and some cubs that had just gotten a Wildebeest and they were munching on it while we watched in amazement! Then later we saw some lions that were so close they litearlly ended up taking a nap in front of our safari vehicle. I can't wait to show you all pictures of this because it was amazing! We saw more cheetah in the crater and zebra and hippo etc. The new thing we hadn't seen yet that we spotted in the crater from a distance were a few Rhinos. It's so hard to begin to describe how great it felt to be in the midst of all of that beautiful creation.

I had an amazing time on safari and I hope that there is a next time and when I go again I want to take you all with me! We'd have a blast....and it may sound cliche but we'll have to sing every Lion King song we know. :) I had to try my hardest not to sing at the top of my lungs while my head was popped out of the safari vehicle and I was driving in what looked like a scene from the Lion King. I'm such a dork!



After my lovely trip you would think that I'd stay home and lay low for a few days...thats what I thought would happen, but less than 24 hours after I returned home from my trip I was in a car for 6 hours on my way to a town called Pangani which is just off the coast of the Indian Ocean. There I tented with a few friends in a place that was literally right off the beach. I zipped open my tent each morning to the beautiful sight of the Indian Ocean. I feasted on FRESH seafood every day and at night I went to sleep to the sound of the tide coming in. It was a relaxing few days. We had Monday off from school so we arrived back home again and back to reality around 7pm Monday.

Monday was a bit rough going at first since I had basically been away from school for over a week but I got back into the swing of things quickly. I've been doing a few more lessons in the afternoons but in the mornings I have been going to the other primary classrooms to observe what their typical day is like. It's been interesting to see how the different classrooms function and the different teaching methods of each teacher. This week I also had my last ASL club meeting. It was sad to tell my girls in my club this was our last time to meet because they had been doing a great job and were picking up on the signs really quickly!

As for my weekend...Friday there was a variety show at school that I went to and I was shocked by some of the talent I saw there! Some of the students in my class came out doing things I had no idea they could do. One of the boys in my class who is very shy and always more or less keeps to himself walked out on stage and did this amazing break dance and all the girls were going crazy over this ten year old kid :) It was great! After the talent show my roomate Nicolas hosted a BBQ/party which I was nervous about at first but it ended up being pretty low key and so we had a nice night. Saturday Sarah and I went to town and got our final purchases in Moshi. She has only been here two weeks but she is leaving soon after me so we got gifts and things to bring back home for all you lovely people that I miss so much! Saturday night we went out to a new restaurant with some teachers.

Today Sarah and I met up with Catherine (our class TA) and she took us to the village where she grew up. We walked about an hour to get there and it was great to be immersed in the culture and see how Catherine grew up and meet some of her family. Everyone was so kind and I brought some goodies for the kids so everyone had a great time :) I think the kids had their fill of sugar for the month though! We probably ended up walking about 6 or 7 miles by the end of the day but it was great to go through the village and meet people and even the walk back to my house helped me put into perspective how far some children walk each day to school because Catherine was saying that she went even further to school every day when she was young. It seems unreal that people actually live like that each day. It was a great experience though.

Well, now that I've officially updated you on the highlights of my past few weeks I should get going. I am looking forward to coming home soon. I love it here and it is going to be a bitter sweet good-bye but I'm excited to get back to life back in the mid-west. I miss the ease of every day life, I miss knowing that when I go to an ATM I'll actually get the money I've been charged, I miss having a vehicle to get around in, I miss my mommy's home cookin, but most of all I miss all my friends and family. It'll be nice to be back.

See you all very soon!
Alissa

Magara Trip

Jambo!
Well I have a lot to talk about after going on camp with my class for three days! I had a blast but definitely was ready to sleep in a bed again after a long, hot and rainy at times trip.
We left Monday morning and the kids were pumped and ready for our trip. The students all got in this big thing we call the Lorry but it’s basically a big truck with seats on it and the sides are more or less open with bars keeping the students in. I don’t think we’d get by with that in the U.S. but there was a lot of stuff that happened on this trip that definitely wouldn’t fly in the U.S.
Anyway, we got going (a bit late) and headed to the Arusha campus to get those students. From there we left (a bit late) and headed on toward our destination…Magara. The trip went well for the most part except that the Lorry driver felt sick so we had to stop a few times and the kids were cold and dusty when we finally arrived at our destination. I was fortunate enough to be in a Land Cruiser with two of our other adults so I didn’t have to brave any harsh conditions like my students had to do.
Our first stop when we arrived was at a village and we met the Bariback (not sure if I spelled that right?) tribe. It was interesting to see how they lived and find out what they do. Basically we found out that tending to the cattle is the most important thing to them. Cattle is their life line and without them they would die. Even a little boy that looked no bigger than 4 years old was holding a stick and was herding so of the calves. When we asked them about play they said… “We don’t play.” They consider all of their day to be work however we found out that they do dance and sing and play drums but the word “play” just really isn’t in their vocabulary. We also got to see inside their house which was quite interesting. The houses were made of mud and sticks and inside there were beds made from sticks and tied with leather and there were hollowed out gourds for their water and food. Some of the houses had little rooms where they kept cows, goats and other animals in their house with them! There is one “main man” of the tribe and he has many wives. The wives all live in different houses and the man has his own house as well. The houses form a circle and on the inside of that circle they keep more animals. It almost seemed surreal to see that people actually live this way, I wished we would have had more time to talk and ask questions but since we got started late we had to head back to our camp site rather quickly after visiting the tribe.
When we arrived at our camping site I was blown away! It was a beautiful area with a waterfall that added to the beautiful landscape. We set up our tents and all of us headed straight for a nice refreshing dip in the waterfall. That night we sang a few songs, ate some supper and then headed to bed. Unfortunately just as we had gotten all our kids into tents it started to rain. We were nervous since the kids mostly set up their own tents and worried that in the middle of the night we’d have a lot of soggy students, but after some rains went through and morning came we only had one tent that flooded a little. I was impressed! But even though everyone managed to stay dry throughout the night, we still didn’t get away from the rain. As we were serving breakfast a HUGE downpour of rain came down and everyone got drenched! We loaded the kids into the vehicles they came in and for about an hour we stayed in our cars to keep out of the rain. Finally the sky cleared and we were able to re-group and decide how the rest of the day would turn out. Our original plan was to all climb up a part of a mountain to visit another tribe but since the rain delayed us we gave the kids the choice to either climb like normal but in a smaller group, or drive up in cars. I was brave and decided to climb and I was surprised at how difficult it was! Apparently the trail they’ve used in the past had grown in quite a bit and so for awhile we were trudging through long grass trying to hold on to anything we could to climb higher. It was hard going for a little bit, but the view from the top made it all worth it! We could see for miles of the African terrain and in the distance was Lake Manyara which was so blue it almost blended in with the sky. Life was good!
After everyone reached the top we met up with the people who drove. They had already interviewed the tribe at the top of the peak we climbed and so we just went to visit and see their house and talk a little to the people. This family was part of the Warweiq (again, spelling?) tribe and they spoke in a language that had a lot of clicking. They also had a house that was underground to keep cool and inside they showed us their beds that again were made of sticks, the rock that they used to grind flour and other things that were similar to the other tribe. What I really noticed about these people is that they were pretty nervous around all of us. As I thought about it though, I don’t think they see many people, much less white people! We climbed about 2 hours to get to their home so that means if they ever need anything they’d have to do the same climb we did, so I doubt they get out much. While we were there, there was one little boy who I really was drawn towards. I could just see the fear in his eyes because he wasn’t used to all these people. I went over to him and tried to hold his hand, and he just stared at me again with fear. He was so adorable but I felt so bad that I scared him so much. I would be scared too though if some crazy blue-eyed, blondish haired girl were trying to talk to me in a language I’d never heard before! Eventually we left him alone though and hopefully he recovered from the invasion of new-comers. Again, I wish we would have had more time to talk with the people, but the kids were hot and hungry so we headed back down to our campsite.
That afternoon we went back to the waterfall and I unsuccessfully tried to wash my hair, but I think I came out dirtier than I started! Oh well, that’s what camping is all about! Then the kids had a meal and a talent show and time for bed again, this time no rain thankfully!
In the morning we packed up and headed to a market where the kids were able to do a little bargaining and shopping. The kids also were lucky (haha) enough to see a cow being slaughtered in the market right when we drove up….there’s one of those times where I don’t think we’d let that happen in the U.S. At the market I bought a stick of sugar cane because it was everywhere and I wanted to know what was so great about it. It was pretty good, but annoying to eat. You have to rip off the outside parts first, then take a bit, suck out the sugar and spit out the rest. It was a little too much work for some sugar I think, but people here seem to like it. Later, we got back in the cars and headed home. We finally all arrived safe and sound around 5pm here.
It was a great trip and I think everyone had a great time. The rest of my week has been pretty relaxed which was good because I was tired after the trip! We had two days of class and we mainly reflected on the trip and did some writing about it. This Friday a new volunteer from PA came and she will be here for a month. I stayed home last night so I could greet her with a warm African hello and help her get settled. This morning we went into town and I showed her what I know…which still isn’t much…but it felt funny to be the “expert” and be able to answer her questions and what not. Now, I’m just getting things ready for the safari that I leave for on Monday! I’m really excited and can’t wait to tell you all about it.
See you all soon!
Alissa

Kokoriko koo kokoriko

Well, you may be wondering what the heck Kokoriko koo kokoriko is....it is the Swahili way to do a rooster call, it was also the title of the work song I taught the girls in my class. We performed this in our assembly Friday and the girls did a great job! It wasn't easy and at times I think I wanted to pull all my hair out trying to motivate them to sing loud with enthusiasm and do the actions together but when the performance came it all pulled together nicely. I was proud of them! The boys did a lip sync to "Workin for the Man" with actions and then all together we did our own rendition of "Working in the Coal Mine" with actions as well. It was probably the best assembly of the whole term...but I could be biased...maybe :)

This past week at school was a little crazy because we were not only trying to organize this assembly, but we also were planning our trip that we leave for on Monday. Our class of P5/6 kids and the Arusha campus P5/6 class are going on a trip to Magara. Now don't ask me what to expect at Magara because as of now I have no idea really. All I know is that there are going to be about 70 kids and 10 adults and we'll be visiting three different tribes and interviewing them about their perpectives on work and play. We've been focusing on the work and play unit now for a few weeks so the students have created questions, tranlated them into Kiswahili, and interviewed people here with the same questions. When they return from the trip our goal is for them to see how the three tribes vary in their answers and then compare those answers to what we found in our own community. I think it will be very interesting. I'm so excited to learn more about some of the tribes in Africa and this will be just as educational for me as it will be for the students. Apparently the place we are going is BEAUTIFUL too. I've seen pictures from previous years and where we camp there is a big waterfall that we can swim in and we'll have an amazing view of the African land. I'll definitely tell you more when I get back.

This weekend I enjoyed spending time with some friends I've made here. Friday I was at Glacier with a lot of ISM people and we listened to a band that plays there every weekend. They aren't very good, but we put up with it because its some of the best entertainment you can get in small town Moshi. Then on Saturday I went to town with a friend and we got a few things done. I needed to get money out while I was in town and that turned out to be a nightmare. The one thing that I REALLY MISS and the thing I could say I actually don't like about being here is the fact that money is a pain to deal with. Even at a bank its not always a guarantee you'll be able to get money out at the ATM and it tends to be a pain. Eventually I was able to get what I needed for the most part...so no worries I guess :) When I got back from town I just sat on my terrace and soaked up some sun and read a book. Then I went over to Marlaina's house (our part time teacher in our class) for supper and then we watched TV!!! They have one channel that gets American programs so we sat and watched America's Got Talent for 2 hours. The programs are really far behind from the US and what they do is just show a whole season of a show, then another etc. It was nice to have that small comfort of home for a night. It seems a bit silly but it was great!
Then today I went to church in the morning and packed for my trip. Later today a few of us are going on a walk and I'm going to try to get some good sunset pictures of Mt. Kili. One of the best things about being here is that the moment I walk out the gate from my house I look out to see a beautiful sight of Kili. It's great!

I'll try to post as soon as I get back so you can hear about the trip to Magara. I'll need to stay caught up these next few weeks because the following Monday I'm going on a 4 day safari and I'm sure I'll have a lot to tell about that as well.

I'm so thankful for all the great opportunities God has blessed me with while I've been here. This trip has been a wonderful experience and I've learned so much about the world and myself by being here. I still think that God has a bigger purpose for me while I'm here though. I'm not sure what it is yet and I might not figure it out until I'm back home but I'll keep praying that he guides me to where he wants me to be.

I hope everyone is doing well and staying safe and healthy!
I love you all and I'll be back soon :)
Alissa

Answers to questions

So two posts ago Chelsea asked some good questions and I tried to answer them in the comments part after her questions but it wouldn't let me...so I'll just answer them this way :)
You can refer to the comments she left if you need to know her questions.

Answers to your questions Chels...As far as being an American here I get treated the same while in school b/c its an international school and everybody comes from all sorts of different places. When I go out of school like down the street or into town its a bit different. I am more of a target for getting robbed just b/c I'm white and people think that therefore I'm rich...it sounds bad to say but its true. And another thing that happens is that when you go to buy food in the market or buy anything for that matter they always mark up the prices b/c I'm white. There's a muzungu price for everything and a Tanzanian price. You just deal with it...but sometimes you can barter with them and get the price down. It helps to know a little Swahili to do this though.
As for Valentines Day...most people here don't celebrate it but because there are so many people from America here at school we influence the holiday celebrations a bit. The kids handed out flowers but that was about the extent of it. Then supper was mostly western people that I know who got together just for fun, but yes....we were in Africa celebrating Valentines Day a little.
Sounds like you had a nice day w/ Jared :) Those meals never go as quickly as they claim but I'm proud of you for sticking w/ it after 30 min. was up ;) As for the pictures...I TRIED sooooo hard to upload at least one picture but it takes too long and I just can't seem to get even one up. Back on the first day here I got that one up of my room but since then I haven't been able to so you'll just have to wait till I get back. Pole Sana :( I tried to upload a picture of me at Salt Lick with elephants right behind me but no luck. So for now just imagine and soon you'll get to see proof of all the things I've been blogging about.

One more thing...

I thought of one more story you may or may not find interesting but I'll tell you anyway....

On Wednesday we had supper with a bunch of people at David and Narelle's duplex, then after we went to the Watering Hole which is an outdoor bar that all the white people hang out at :) I thought it was SO funny because that night they were showing a movie (Slumdog Millionaire) outside on a crummy projector and EVERY Muzungu in Moshi was there to watch it. People who've been here for awhile are pretty desperate for entertainment like this so I just found it funny that the place was packed. Granted...it was a really good movie, but not the best quality to watch it on. It was so full I ended up sitting on the ground along with many others but like I said...people are desperate for this kind of stuff.

Ok...now I'm seriously done....enjoy the rest of your Sunday!
Love,
Alissa

quick update

Hi all,

Not much new around here but I had some time so I thought I'd type a quick update about what's going on with me.

This past week has been pretty great. I was down one roomate and then my other roomate went on a school trip with some high school students so I thought rather than staying in my big house all alone I'd ask Rosi if I could stay with her. Rosi and I have had a great week together just cooking with each other, going on walks, and having good girl-time! She is from Fiji and her husband stayed in Fiji while her and her two sons came here so I think she misses out on girl time so we've definitely been chatting the nights away about stuff she never gets to talk about with her sons and stuff I never talk about with my roomates. It's been a nice change of pace. We've also been planning how we can visit one another's homes once I leave and once she's done with her contract in Africa...it's such a shame, but I guess I'm going to have to go to Fiji to see her some time :) It's a sacrifice I'm willing to make though. haha!

Teaching this week went fine and I've stayed really busy getting lessons ready each day. I'm half way through already (wow time flies) but now that all the newness has faded I'm starting to see some gaps in how our classroom functions and some things are starting to frustrate me with teaching. I am finding it most difficult to deal with the lack of technology we have here. Yes, we have computers and the students get time to be on them but anything you want to do with the internet is almost a waste of time because it's so difficult to rely on it ever actually working. That's just one thing that is hard but it is still managable to teach without internet, I just don't like it :) There are other things too that I'm noticing about the function of the class...some things I'll try my best to improve other things I have to just let go because I know that my time here won't change everything and plus it's not my classroom. David does a great job as a teacher but there are things I would do differently just like I'm sure he would think the same if he came into my future classroom. Just a difference in opinion. I'm still enjoying school though even when I do find things a bit difficult. On Friday one of my students gave me a rose for being her teacher and so that was sweet. Things like that make you happy to be such a big part of your students' lives. I'm really getting to know who THEY are as people and it's great to be able to use what I know about them and work that into my lessons so I can engage them better in what we are learning.
There are also times though when I have to see the "not so good" side of my students. This week I was going through some of my students daily workbooks that they write all their work in and when I went to one girls tray I noticed on top a note...I proceeded to read it and it was a mean letter about another girl in the class using some pretty bad language about her. I gave it to David as I took the next lesson he dealt with the issue. Apparently these two girls have a bit of a history with this and actually got in a fist fight last year so he had to jump on this pretty hard. It was nice that he was able to talk to them while I had the class doing other things...a real classroom situation wouldn't allow this typically. Hopefully we disolve this problem before it gets any worse.
Ok, now on to the fun life beyond school....this weekend I have been at Rosi's like I said so we did some cooking and we also did some window shopping around town on Saturday. It was fun to just nose around and see what people had to offer. Then on Valentines day I organized some people to go out to eat at a local restaurant. I tried to keep myself busy so I wouldn't miss my valentine back home as much :) After supper we went to Glacier ( an outdoor bar) and listened to music and had a drink. I have to tell you about this place...maybe you have to be there to think this is funny but there are these guys singing raggae music (pretty poorly) and then they have a screen up behind them showing animal planet with no sound and then behind us they were having this fancy Valentines day supper...it just didn't seem to make sense. Then today Rosi and another teacher and I went on an early morning walk and saw a beautiful view of Mt. Kili!! Then we had some breakfast together and went to church. It was a good Sunday.

Ok, I've probably bored you to death with my random stories so I'll stop now. I hope all is well back home and I hope to hear about what's going on there. I can't believe it but in a little over a month I'll be back home telling you these stories in person. I miss you all!
Love,
Alissa

Great news, good news, and a little bad news

Well, this past week has been quite eventful. I have some great news to tell you, some good news and a little bit of bad news.
Since everyone always wants to hear the bad news first I’ll start with that. One bit of bad news came to me on Thursday. I had the class to myself while David was in Arusha and so life was a little crazy as it was…then I went into the staff room and Nicholas asked me if I’d talked to Mhula. Well it just so happened I was at Rosi’s house the night before for supper and stayed really late so I never got home to talk to the boys. Nicolas proceeded to tell me that Mhula would be moving out this weekend. I was sooooo bummed. The rest of the day was a little harder to get through after that news. So I went home later and Mhula gave me the info as to why he was leaving. Mhula was asked to be a boarding parent at one of our houses on campus. Our school has grown a lot in the past year, but our staff has not. Some issues with this have come up so to improve, they’re hiring more boarding parents…Mhula being one of them. I don’t blame the guy for doing it. He gets free food now and a little extra cash, but I know that the house will be lonely without him, plus I lose my cooking partner. He promised he’d come visit often though so that will be good.
Ok, last bit of bad news….I got really sick in Kenay this weekend, but good news, it was only for a short time. I woke up in the middle of the night on Saturday and proceeded to “toss my cookies” as you might say. It was no fun but I think it was let on by a combination of possibly eating something bad, and also over eating times a million! The food there was great and I definitely ate a lot of it. Could have been part of my problem... :S
Ok now on to the good stuff….my great news is that I was in Kenya this weekend and besides the being sick part it was FANTASTIC!! The night we arrived there was a huge herd of buffalo that had come to the watering hole near the lodge and so I was able to watch them as they got a good drink. Then as we sat down for supper a huge herd of elephants came in and drank too. We were so close to the elephants it was unreal! Basically this lodge is set up so that you can see these animals in the wild, but they can get pretty close to you without it being a danger. Our rooms were up on pillars and then there are decks all around the buildings. There are two large watering holes that the animals come to and one of them is very close to a deck. From there you can watch them drink, spray themselves to cool off etc. The first night I was there before I went to bed I decided to take a look out my window and just a few minutes later a huge elephant walked right under my window and below my room. It was crazy!!!! We also went out on a lot of game drives while we were there. David and Narelle have a pop up roof for Safaris so we got out searching for animals a lot during our stay. I saw TONS of animals! I got to see giraffe, zebra, elephant, buffalo, civets, impala, water buck, lots of different African birds, and best of all….we spotted a cheetah!! As we were driving we saw something in the distance, got out our binoculars and saw it was a big cheetah. We think she may have been pregnant because she was so fat! She got a little closer so we stayed to watch her for awhile. It was great! It was also really fun on the drives to get so close to the elephants out there on the paths. One time we had an elephant walk right behind our vehicle. I was pretty freaked out, but I’m here to tell about it so that’s good :)The only disappointing thing was that we weren’t able to find any lions. We went out early on Saturday morning and went on a night Safari with some guides but no such luck. We were able to see a lot of animals though…so I guess I’ll just have to save seeing the lions for another time. I’m trying to plan another safari during a long weekend we have in March.
The good news is that we also got to and back from Kenya with only a little bit of trouble. The way to Kenya was pretty easy. Just a few signed papers, a little money and get the car through…done. Then the extremely bumpy roads from Kenya to the lodge and we were there. The way back was a bit more difficult because they were being picky about some of our paperwork with the car and asked us to pay them for “overtime” so our driver wasn’t exactly happy about that…but eventually we got through.
Other good news…teaching is still going well. I had a pretty good two days when I was on my own and David was away. Thursday was rough at times because the kids weren’t as good of listeners as I had hoped they would be, but that afternoon we had a talk about our day and Friday seemed to be better. On Friday I did a really fun art lesson with the kids and they seemed to love it. It really tied into our unit well too so I liked it for that reason :) As for teaching today…it was hard to get back at it after being so relaxed all weekend, but we managed. I did some multiplication stuff with my small group in the morning and we are doing some guided reading, spelling stuff and a little grammar. I have some of the more struggling readers so we’re doing a lot of the basics and then going from there. I hope they’re learning because sometimes I feel like I’m not doing everything as well as I could, but I’m trying to learn from my mistakes and do better each day.
I better get going soon because I REALLY need a shower and I’m going to Rosi’s house later for supper and a chat with her. She’s a great talker and a good person to hang out with. I’ve started running and training for the Kili marathon that happens in March. I won’t actually be doing the marathon because I’m definitely not in that good of shape, but they have a 5K on the same day so I’m running with some kids and other teachers on Mondays to train for that and I’ve been doing a bit on my own as well. So, I’m off now to get a few things done. I hope everyone had a great and relaxing weekend. I hear its warming up a little so I’m sure that’s nice! I also know that my little nephew had a good 1st b-day party from the pictures that were sent to me. Let me know all the other news from back home. I like to stay in the loop :)
Love you,
Alissa

Jambo! I feel guilty about not posting more these past couple weeks so here’s a new post in case anyone is itching to hear more about TZ. I’m definitely glad it’s Friday because my teaching load had increased a lot this week and I stayed pretty busy. Like I said before, I did half days of teaching this week so most of my nights were spent cooking something for supper, eating, then planning and then snoozing!!! I did get a bit of a break (not sure if it was a break though) yesterday. David and I went to the Arusha campus of our school to do some planning with the P5/6 teachers there. We weren’t able to do planning earlier because one teacher was still on holiday but now that everyone is back we have to get some of our units going. Our unit we will be focusing on is “Work and Play.” School here is formatted a bit differently like I’ve also said before but the way they teach is in a PYP format. (the big picture idea that gets narrowed down) So for this unit we will be having discussions about what is work and what is play? How do different communities divide their time for work and play? Is all work worth the same? How does our choice of work influence our play? etc. So some heavy questions that kids are encouraged to debate about. With this unit we will be going on a field trip. We are going to Magara, which to my understanding so far is basically a remote village a few hours away where we’ll be able to do a bit of climbing, but also we will be talking with the tribe people there and asking them about what they do for work and play. How will that compare to us? I’m not sure but I’ll let you know in a few weeks. :)

Other good news…we have another teacher to help out in our class. We’re getting another student on Monday so that brings our numbers to 30 kids!! I don’t technically count as a teacher so when you look at their student to teacher ratio it’s pretty bad. So we have a teacher who is coming in to help in the mornings Mon. through Thurs. We already have some big plans for when the three of us will be in class. We changed the whole setup of our room so that there are three groups of students based on the level they are at. I am going to have the kids that struggle the most and so hopefully I'll be able to work on some of the basics with them and get them up to speed with the rest of the class. I think this is going to be a great opportunity for the kids and for us three teachers. We are really utilizing our resources by doing this.

I have a pretty relaxing weekend, just getting some lesson plans done and going to the markets with a friend. I want to try and pick up a few things to bring back home to all my wonderful family and friends back home :) Next weekend I'm going to Kenya to a place called Salt Lick (google it) apparently its amazing and the animals come up to the place you stay and drink from a water hole and you just sit there eating your breakfast and watch them right in front of you. I'm VERY excited for that!!

Hope all is well back home. I've been able to Skype with some people today so I feel in the loop about what's going on in the home land. Have a great weekend everyone!
Love,
Alissa

The cliffer hanger continues

Sorry to keep you all waiting so long for a new post. I'm sure most of you have had many sleepless nights because of the cliff hanger I left you with last time. Unfortunately I don't have anything terribly exciting to tell you...not cliff hanger worthy but I'll do my best to catch up.
I know some of you have been asking about my students so I'll touch on that first. My students are literally from all over the world. There are kids who were born and raised her in Tz but the majority come from all over. I have students from S. Africa, Zanzibar and other places in Africa I'm not going to attempt to spell. There are a few kids from the US, some from Wales, Holland, Egypt, India...seriously any place you can imagine--it's probably represented in my class somehow. We are a boarding school too so about 1/2 to 3/4 of my kids live at school. That can be both a good and bad thing I guess. I know having students who live here definitely changes the dynamic between some of the students. I think I've mentioned this before but one thing that is really hard in this class is that the levels of the students vary tremendously! It's like having a whole class that's ESL students and trying to teach them everything in English. I can see why school can be hard for some of them! I would find I would find it hard too if I were learning everything in a different language. So I definitely think that the language barrier holds some kids back. I think another factor is that these students come from all different backgrounds. Schools in other countries are much different and focus on different subjects so some kids are GREAT at math and then struggle a lot in reading. The thing I think I find most interesting though is how well they all get along. There is never a word said about someone not liking someone else because they’re different. Everyone is different and comes from different backgrounds so it’s the way of life here. I wish it were the same in schools back home. The kids here definitely are lucky in that sense.
Some quick stories about a few of my students—maybe rather than stories I should say tragedies…so last week a girl in our class was playing soccer, went to kick the ball and got mostly tree instead. She ended up breaking her leg pretty badly and will be out of school for a week because she’s having surgery! So that was bad news…but wait…it gets worse! Then two days ago two of our boys were getting a drink after Rugby Club and somehow collided heads and one boy’s teeth broke off in the other kids head!!! I guess it was quite a scene and very unfortunate to say the least. So now the student with the broken teeth is flying to S. Africa (where he’s from) so that he can get his teeth fixed so he’ll be gone for a week too! The other boy was fine and just has a bandage on his head. So some crazy news from P5/6! Let’s hope the injuries stop though.
In other news, I was able to get to MajiMoto (hot springs) this past weekend with some other teachers. It was a great experience because to get there we went through some villages. The kids in the villages were so excited to see white people you could read on their lips MUZUNGU! Which means white person. Then they’d wave and run after our car. It was very cute, sad, interesting, …hard to explain in a blog. Then when we got to the hot spring it was beautiful! Plus I was able to see some monkeys and fish and a huge iguana. We had a great relaxing Sunday.
This past week has been good with teaching and such. Monday was a long day because a few students were giving us a little trouble but Tuesday and today went well. I’ve started teaching almost half the day and now I’m teaching to the full class rather than just the P5 kids. I taught a lesson on nouns and pronouns Tuesday, Wednesday was verbs and adverbs and tomorrow it will be adjectives. David has given me some feedback but nothing too big to worry about so that’s good! I feel pretty comfortable teaching but I have some challenges considering there’s almost 30 kids!
Today I also had the chance to go visit an orphanage here in Moshi. It was called the Light in Africa and again, it’s too hard to explain in words. It was hard for me not to cry when I saw the kids there. An overwhelming sense of sadness came over me just knowing that they were left there with literally nothing. I was able to hold a 2 week old baby boy and I held him like everything was going to be ok. Right now he maybe doesn’t know the difference, I just hope that he can get to a better home before he realizes he doesn’t really have a home. The orphanage was pretty small and didn’t have many resources. Like I said, it was a pretty sobering experience but I was glad I could be there to just show them some love and affection. I think they’re taken care of fairly well there but every bit of love helps. I plan to go back every Wednesday with some students and another teacher here.
I better be going because it’s starting to get dark here. I’ll try to keep up to date better but I start full-time teaching next week so I think I’ll be pretty busy! Keep in touch and take care of yourselves! I love and miss you all.
Love,
Alissa

ugh! I just had a SUPER long blog that was all about the past few days and some really great stories...but when I went to send it, it didn't go through!!! I'm so mad it didn't work! But...as Mhula would say...TIA (this is Africa)
I'll try to post more tomorrow and remember what my ramblings were about today.
Love you all and I hope I can get a better blog post to you all tomorrow.
Pole sana :(
Alissa

what a weekend!

Hello again!!
Pole sana (very sorry) it's been a few days but I've had a pretty busy past few days. I have TONS to blog about so hopefully I won't go off on too many tangents...try to stay with me if I do :)
I'll start off on Friday and go from there...
Friday:
Got to school about 7:15 (school starts at 7:30) we did our independent study time and then we prepared to go into town to the market with the kids. Our goal for this time was to let some students who hadn't experienced the markets just experience what it's like, but also to get them talking to people in town about their jobs and what they do on a daily basis. This trip will help them with their big project at the end of term where they have to get info from people about their exhibition topic. One thing I thought was interesting about this trip to town was that I had to rely on my students more than they could rely on me. It was a change in roles since usually the teacher is the one you go to for the facts. Instead I was the one relying on them to interpret the information for me. Not all the students knew how to speak in Swahili, but it was a really good experience for the students who could because they were able to have their moment to "shine" so to speak. A lot of the students who are Swahili speakers struggle a bit in English, so now the English speakers could see a different perspective.
After that we went back to school and had a talk about the different experiences each group of students had and then the day was done! We get out early on Fridays (12:30) so that's nice to get an early start on the weekend! It was the P3/4 teacher's birthday so we went out to lunch at a really cute place just down the road. We sat outside under a little tent and had some amazing food. Then later that night we went out again to Glacier and sat around all night and talked and enjoyed some music outside. The music wasn't anything to brag about, but it was fun to be out under the stars talking and sharing fun times with the teachers from school.

Saturday:
Saturday I got to go to Arusha for the first time and hopefully not the last time! It was quite an adventure to say the least. I maybe shouldn't say this but I probably had roughly 17,432 near deaths on my way to Arusha. Lets just say that driving here is much different than what we're used to! Here in Africa one form of public transportation is called a Dala Dala. They are basically long vans that smush as many people as possible in and then drive like maniacs! They cut people off and drive on the wrong side of the road its nuts. I really can't explain it well but I saw dala dala's run other cars off the road and get within inches of another car. Like I said, I probably shouldn't be saying this because you'll all worry...but I'm still alive so lets just appreciate that :)
When I wasn't worrying about the Dala Dalas hitting us I was admiring the land and all the things I could see passing by...we went through a few villages where I saw Maasai people taking care of their fields or tending to animals. I even saw one guy plowing his field using oxen! That was quite a culture shock. It was interesting to see the progression from Moshi --a fairly modern town, to villages with poor housing and bare, dusty fields, to Arusha where there was a huge supermarket, movie theater, hotels and pretty much anything you need in a town. It was one of those times when I really felt so blessed to have all the things I have now, and to not take them for granted. Later in the day we had lunch at a restaurant and then we went to see Madagascar 2 at the cinema complex! I thought it was so great and pretty funny actually that I'd get to see that movie in Africa! ha! It was a good movie, but I couldn't help feeling guilty being there after all that I'd seen on my way to town. It just seemed so strange to me that within minutes of where I was sitting comfortably watching a movie there were people who probably could never have afforded to see a movie in their life. Again, just one of those moments that will stay with me forever.
After the movie we made our journey back to Moshi. We had to make sure we got home before dark because it's dangerous enough during the day we didn't want to have to face even more obstacles at night. I stayed home for awhile and chatted with my roomates and then French guy (Nicholas) and I went to the Watering Hole with Ray (the P3/4) teacher and met some people there. It's basically an outdoor bar that has movies sometimes on the weekend. I wasn't really excited about going but it got me out of the house and I liked the time I got to spend with the peope we met there so it was fine. I guess there isn't too much to do in Moshi so I try to do things when the options are there.

Sunday:
This morning I went to St. Margaret's church with some people who live down the road from me and also work at ISM. It was an anglocan (spelling?) church and I really loved the people there and the message the pastor gave. I will definitely be making that part of my routine on Sundays. I know this might sound cliche but while I was sitting in church I just thought about how God truely is EVERYWHERE. I was listening to the pastor pray and it just hit me that seriously no matter where I am God is with me. It sounds so simple, but it was a very powerful moment.
After church I went to school to plan for this week at school. I will be doing a lot more teaching this week and basically David has given me the afternoons to work with the 5th grade on preping for the big ACER test they have coming up. I will be refreshing their skills in some math and writing so tonight I'll make plans for that.
I have tons more to say but I've been online for far too long today and I need to get home to plan for tomorrow's lesson so I'm off for now. I want to write more about my students since I know some of you are wondering about that but I'll do that in another post. I also have some other random and funny stories to share but I'll leave you on a cliff hanger blog post ......to be continued... :)
Have a great Sunday everyone!
Love you all!!
Alissa

I'm a student teacher: day two!

Habari! (I'm not sure if that's how you spell it but that's how I decided my hick Iowa Dutch girl phonics would spell it)

Today was day two of the student teaching adventures. This morning we went right to work on their half-hour of independent study time. David has determined that some students need some extra time and work in a few key areas. Like I said before...there is a wide range of abilities in the class so this is the time when we try to catch up with some of the students. Here's something that may surprise you...one of the categories some students are working on is clocks!! I couldn't believe it but some of the students in 5/6 are having a hard time reading clocks! So we definitely want to straighten that up asap! The other categories are adding and subtracting, mult and division, grammar, spelling and decimals. We do different activities with those and students also have time to read during this first half hour. I look forward to seeing the improvements after having this time dedicated specifically to these struggle areas. I have also suggested to David that we do some running records during this time too so we can see the students' reading progress. He seems to be in agreement so hopefully we can start that soon.
The next part of the day was dedicated again to math. We did some talking about mapping and using a compas to find degree and angles. Then David had a map copied of the school and he sent all the kids out and had them determine what degree they would be going from one location to the next. It was fun and I think it was a good way to apply the learning. Next we had break, but today we were on recess duty so we hung out with the kids and played a bit. Then we came in and talked about our journey we are going on tomorrow. We aren't going far...just down to the markets but we're having the students practice making conversation with the people in the markets so they will be ready for their exhibition. Exhibition is this huge final projec that the students do hear towards the end of the term. They have a big question and then they narrow down the question by finding data from a variety of sources...one of which may be from Swahili speaking people so this trip tomorrow will help them with that. After our discussion we had the students brainstorm good questions they might ask tomorrow. Then we had some time leftover for read-aloud. The kids are loving "Winn-Dixie" and we had some good discussions from our reading too. I love teaching! :)
After school I had my first staff meeting...just 5 of us but we talked about some schedule things. In March my class and the 5/6 Arusha class will be going on a camping trip for a few days. That will definitely be a fun and exciting adventure! David and I also talked about going on weekend trips so I can go out and see the beautiful lands of Africa. I can't wait to see more of this stinking hot place :) (sorry didn't mean to rub it in for all you folks in the mid-west)
Love you all!!
Alissa

Hello all!
It’s been a couple days so I’ll fill you in with the exciting things happening over here. Today was the first day of school and I LOVED every minute of it. I was able to meet most of the 29 students that will be in our class….yes I said correctly…29! It will be interesting to see how hard it will be for me to start teaching with 29 students right away!
We started out our day just playing a bit of dodgeball and then did a few introductions. We have two new students joining the class this term so I wasn’t the only unfamiliar face. The kids took some time to ask me questions about myself, why I’m here, what my favorite color is…just to get to know me a bit. Then we learned a little math and took our math information and plugged it into computers during our IT time. Let me just side note that the power only went of twice during our morning work time :)
After IT time there is a short break for the students to get out and play and then they came back to go to library and then I did a minilesson about book reviews for the students. I was really excited that David gave me the reigns to do a little bit of teaching already on my first day. It wasn’t anything to brag about but it was a good way for David and the students to get a feel for how I teach and for me to get a better handle on what the students know. After that the students shared some of the book reviews they wrote and then we had enough time at the end so I could do a little read aloud. I decided that “Because of Winn-Dixie” would be a good one to start out with and so far they really love the story! We have a variety of readers in the class as I can tell already so again, that will be another challenge in my teaching.
I have to mention a few things I’ve noticed so far about the way teaching is done here. First of all there is no math or English textbook. We have big themed units that have different goals and objectives and then within that time of doing this unit we integrate math and English where it fits best. There are certain topics that must be met in both of the areas, but I like that it’s integrated so you have a lot of flexibility. Another thing I discovered today that is VERY different than teaching in the states is that assessment is not everything here. There are very few standardized tests and grading things is rare. Most things are graded on a rubric and otherwise its more or less the teacher’s digression as to if the student is doing well or not in an area. I may still be a little unclear on that, but this is how it seems to me at the moment. I think there are good and bad things about that way of assessing but I know it will be nice to not have to constantly be worried about standardized testing at this school.
When class got out at 1:00pm the kids either went to their boarding houses or took the bus home. David and I stayed around for awhile and graded one of their writings they did for us today. Again, this really gave me a better insight as to where my students are at. There is quite a range of abilities so I’m already thinking of how I can build on their strengths and help with their weaknesses.

I didn’t blog yesterday so I’ll catch you up with that now…Yesterday was our planning day with the teachers from both the Moshi campus and the Arusha campus. David and I planned as best we could, but the two Arusha teachers we needed to plan with were still away on holiday. We were able to meet with the Arusha 5/6 primary student teacher though and meet him. Ironically enough his name is Ryan so it was funny when we were being introduced as Alissa and Ryan it made me think of my boy I love so much back home :) Anyway, we did what we could and planned a bit but more or less I got a feel for what the curriculum is like here. Like I said it’s a lot of big picture units and the details kind of fit into the unit as you go. The unit we are going to start soon is “Work and Play” so we are going to be looking at different people’s perspectives on what work and play are and do some things with that. I think it will be interesting and a really fun unit to get in on.
After our planning session I did some Skyping with people back home and then went across the road with Mhula to one of his friend’s house and we had supper with some people our age. There were two girls and one guy and then Mhula and I and we all made supper together and just chatted. It was nice to be with people my age and just hang out. I hope to get to know them more because they all seemed very nice. They all are there for about a year doing internships at the same hospital that Mhula works at. We also had another exciting event...French guy arrived! He got in about 9pm last night and so we greeted him with a warm Tanzanian hello and helped him get settled in our big house. He seems nice and it'll be good to have another person in the huge empty house!
I feel like I've probably said too much and I'm sure I'm boring you by now but for those of you who know me well you know I'm a bit of a chatty Kathy so keep bearing with me :)
I hope everyone back home is doing well and the cold isn't making life too miserable. I hear it's been pretty bad lately. I'm going to Skype for a bit and then head home to relax after my first big day at school!
Take care everyone.
Love you all!

first Sunday in Africa

Jambo!
I'm trying to pick up a few Swahili words so I'll incorporate them when I can. Mhula is teaching me new words each day so I'm getting better. I know some numbers and some greetings. I try to use them when I find it appropriate. I say asante often which means thank you.

I haven't had much news since my last post. Yesterday and today were pretty low key. Last night Mhula and I went over to Rosi's house and she cooked us supper. She has two boys in their teens so they ate with us also. We had a veggie curry and some chipote which is basically flat bread. We also had fresh fruits and veggies. Mmmm good :) One thing about the fruit I noticed is that some of the same fruits we have here are very different than in the U.S. For example, oranges here are actually green! haha We had some last night and Rosi was raving about how good and sweet they are. To me it was not so good compared to the ones at home. However, their fresh mango's win by a landslide here. I had part of one today at lunch and it was sooo good. I feel like I talk about their food a lot...so sorry if that is boring! I find it interesting to compare so hopefully you do as well.

After our meal together we talked for a long time. I was feeling pretty tired so around 10pm Mhula and I walked home. I thought for sure I would finally get a full night's rest since I haven't hardly slept at all here...but no such luck. I fell asleep for about 1 and 1/2 hours and then was WIDE awake. Mhula and our night guard were watching Swahili DVD's on the laptop so I decided to join them for awhile. The movie was subtitled so I was able to catch the gist of it but it was WAY different than American films. The movie cut right to the point for everything! For us it's like we have all this lead up to this big dramatic moment and then the movie ends and everything kind of fits together...with this it was cut and dry straight to the point. A guy has an affair, a scene later he's dead...then this other guy is working at the same place of work he finds out yada yada...it was interesting to say the least. After that I tried to go back to bed, but no such luck. Oh well.

When I decided to get out of bed around 6 this morning I thought maybe a nice shower would help me fall asleep later...I went to turn on the water...nothing! A nice little suprise. Muhala got up later and showed me how to get water from a tank outside. Then we cooked some lunch (rice and lentils and fruit) and I went over to Rosi's house for a bit to relax and watch some t.v. with her. Tonight a few of us are going to a nearby restaurant called El Rancho's. Apparently it's very good there.
Sorry if I bored you with today's post...like I said it was a pretty low key day. I did talk to Collin who works here at the school though and he invited me to church with him next week. So I'll have to tell you about that later. He is a former missionary and so I hope I can get to know him better in the next few weeks. Mhula and I are also looking forward to adding another guest to our house soon. A student teacher from France will be coming to teach h.s. French so we think he's coming tomorrow or the next day. We don't know his name yet so we call him "french guy." Apparently I was "lady" before I got to Africa because no one knew my name either :) Together in our house we are lady, french guy and Mhula. That has a nice ring. haha. Take care everyone.


Love and miss you all,
Alissa

Halo!

Halo! (not much different in Swahili is it? :)
I have some free time today so I will try to catch everyone up on my news over here.

Since my last post I've experienced a lot of "firsts" and learned a lot about the culture here and a lot about the people at my school. Yesterday Rosi (the head of primary) and Tina (a teacher at the school) and I went out for brunch at a cafe in town. We drove about 5 minutes into town to the place where we ate. Driving is VERY different here...learning to drive will not be one of my "firsts" because I would crash for sure!! Everything is opposite and there really is no speed limit. There are people walking along-side the road and so you must be careful of that. I see many women carrying bananas on their head as they walk into town to sell them in the market and other people just walking to market or whereever they need to be. At the coffee shop I had a muffin and a mango smoothy. The muffin was about the same as in the U.S. but the fresh mango smoothy was delicious!! After that we exchanged some of my money and then I went home and took a nap--I'm still trying to adjust my sleep habits. I'm not really that tired even though I haven't slept much but I hate it at night when I wake up wide-awake and can't fall back to sleep. So I'm really trying to tire myself out so I can start getting full night's rest.
Anyway, then at 5 I met up with Rosi again and we walked a bit down the road to a place called Glacier. There we met up with my teacher David and his soon to be wife Narelle and a parent of one of the students at school (Caroline) was with us too. We had a couple drinks and listnened to some live music and I was able to get to know everyone a little better. I enjoyed the conversation and learning more about the people I'll be working with. After that Caroline invited us over to her house to have supper. We had a pasta dish and chatted some more and then we went off our separate ways. Back home I was ever so nicely greeted by a gecco on my door but it scattered off. I've seen a few of them in the house but I'm told they are harmless. I tried to go to bed but like I said it's still a little tricky. I hear dogs barking outside and roosters crowing even though its 2am. Around 4:30 or 5 I hear music coming from a place where Muslims gather to worship. Then about 6am the sun rises.
This morning when the sun rose I got out of bed and got ready for the day. Rosi took me to the market which was a great experience!! I did a little bartering for some food so I can cook some things for supper. I bought some potatoes, onions, rice, carrots, green pepper, mangos, juice, cheese, and some soda and maybe a couple other things I'm forgetting. In all it probably cost me about 20 US dollars? So pretty cheap for all the stuff I got. Now, the trick will be to actually cook something tasty with it all. Which is why tonight I'm invited to Rosi's house for supper. She is going to show me how to cook something so I can make it at home. Also Mhula (my roomate) said he would help me out in the kitchen until I can fend for myself :)
I have a teacher inservice on Tuesday and then school starts on Wednesday. I have a few more days to adjust and relax until everything begins :) I'm very excited for school to start first, because I'm just excited for school!!! And second because I get a little bored at my house at night so school will help me stay occupied. Every day I get a little better adjusted to life here. It's not always easy, but I've been having a good time so far.
Like I said, the next few days are pretty laid back so I'll keep you up to date with all the news here. School is about a 5 minute walk from my house so I'm sure I'll be back tomorrow with more stuff about life in Africa.

I hope everyone is doing well back home. Keep me posted with any of your news! I'd love to hear it.

Love you all,
Alissa

I'm here!

Hello! I have made it to Tanzania with only a few minor complications but none-the-less...i'm here and it's beautiful. When we boarded the plane in Amsterdam they had to de-ice the plane and while doing that they damaged the right wing. After sitting and waiting about 2 hours they told us we need to get on a different plane....ugh. But it was actually kind of good for me because i wasn't feeling the greatest and it gave me time to take a little nap and get over it :) Then i landed in TAnzania around 11:30 here and Rosi and a driver and my bags were all here to greet me! phew sigh of relief!!! we traveled about 35 mintues and they brought me to the house i will stay at. i have my own room and bathroom and the rest of the house is HUGE!!! I currently have one other person living with me, he is just out of high school and is working at a hospital down the road before he goes on to university. soon another teacher will be moving in and he will be teaching french. the two boys share the upstairs and i have my room and bathroom on the main floor along with a kitchen, living area, and beautiful VIEW!! Even though i sound pretty excited (which i am of course) it doesn't mean that there havent been any tears. i miss you all VERY much and i before i actuaally got a few hours of sleep last night i remember thinking to myself multiple times....really Alissa? 10 weeks? can you do this??? but so far today has been great and i'm starting to adjust already. I've met many of the teachers here and they all seem very nice. Rosi, another teacher and i are going to have some tea soon and go to town to exchange my money and I'll hopefully get a simcard for the phone they have for me already here so i can make a few calls. i hope everything is well back home. i'll try to stay posted. it seems like these next few days are going to be pretty low key so i'll keep in touch. Oh and if you're suprised by my shotty typing skills the keyboard is a bit sticky so i have given up making my typing look nice :)

Getting ready for Africa

I can't believe it, but in five short days I'm going to be stepping off of an airplane into Kilimanjaro Airport. I'm going to be in AFRICA! It still sounds unbelievable to me but I'm sure it will become real when I view the beautiful African land that will surround me for 11 weeks.

I'm going to Moshi, Tanzania, to student teach at the Moshi International School and I have a feeling time is going to fly! In my preparations for Africa I've felt everything from giddy excitement to complete terror when I think about getting on a plane...alone...to a whole different continent! However, everyone that I've talked to has said what a wonderful experience I'm going to have and I'm sure they're right.

I'm so thankful for this opportunity to student teach at Moshi and I know this is going to be a once-in-a-life-time opportunity. I will try to keep everyone updated while I'm away and post pictures as I experience life in a whole new way. Please keep me in your prayers and look forward to my next posts that will come to you all the way from Africa.

Love,
Alissa
P.S. If you have Skype you can add me: alissajoy09