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Blog entry number two!
This week has been quite eventful because, firstly, I have had worms and, secondly, there was an earthquake! It all sounds much more dramatic than it is! I started to get stomach pains last weekend and was very tired and emotional, so I was carted off to the health post and diagnosed with threadworms. Fortunately, these are very treatable and I am on the mend now. Secondly, the earthquake- well, I don't think it was exactly high on the Richter Scale but it was pretty exciting. Apparently, Milli was built on a bloomin' faultline so the villagers are quite used to such quakes and were incredibly amused by our OTT reaction!
The last fortnight of teaching has been wonderful (despite having to miss a couple of days due to illness). My classes are starting to make impressive progress and I am becoming much more comfortable standing in front of the sea of eager faces! Behaviour has been helped by handing out raffle tickets to those who sit quietly or produce good work, with a prize draw at the end of the week. It is fantastic to see how excited the children are when they receive a pen, pencil or ruler as a prize! I am hoping to advance the children's level of spoken and written English as much as possible whilst I am here - it is incredibly important because all teaching at secondary school in Tanzania takes place in English, so a good knowledge and understanding of the language is a prerequisite to entrance into a school.
After the day at school, it is then time to open the dreaded MAKTABA!! This is the name for the toy and book library. It only opens for an hour each day between 5 and 6pm but the children begin coming to our door and shouting 'Maktaba' at us from 7am onwards!! Maktaba is very rewarding, but also slightly intimidating, opening the shutters to see crowds of children shouting, pushing and fighting to be the first to get a toy! They are only allowed each toy for the hour between 5-6pm so they need to get one as early as possible to maximise enjoyment. The children tend to just shout things like " Teacher, football" at us and we are trying to teach them to say full sentences instead, although with limited success so far!
After Maktaba, we then do extra tuition and games for those who are most eager to learn. We tend to lead a short lesson and then bring out a game from the Maktaba for them. The favourite so far is a giant Snakes and Ladders with a blow -up dice, which they love!
I am feeling very settled in Milli- very happy and fulfilled. I live with one other volunteer, Emma, and we are the only Mzungus (white people!) for miles around so are a bit of a tourist attraction! Despite this, I feel that we are really becoming part of the community and often sit with the local people for a natter (well, with our very limited knowledge of Kiswahili and Kisambaa!)
Last weekend, we went up to Yamba to see the other volunteers, which was great. We went on a trek to a viewpoint which looks out over Kenya. The views were just absolutely breathtaking! Vast plains rolling on infinitely towards the horizon! From the viewpoint, I could see several other tiny villages. There must be villages like Yamba and Milli all over Africa, all containing magical, positive people just like these! I feel incredibly fortunate just to have met some of them!
More soon!
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