Week Seven: Folktales

Mambo!

I hope you all enjoyed your week off! 

Like all cultures, Tanzania also has folktales and stories that are passed on from generation to generation. One day when I was teaching, I asked my students to practice writing a "Once upon a time" story using the past tense and having an animal as a main character.

One of my students, Linus, shared this folktale with me, and I thought it was so great, I just had to share it with all of you! I typed it exactly as he wrote it, so you'll see that there are a few errors in his writing. 

A couple of things to note before reading the story:

1. "the bush" is what many Tanzanians call rural areas, particularly small villages or houses far away from bigger towns and cities. It's kind of like what we'd refer to as "off the beaten path". 

2. There are a number of tribes in Tanzania who believe cows are sacred creatures. Also, many people who live in villages or in "the bush" may raise cattle or goats for a living, so cows today can only be found in captivity. Conversely, buffaloes are not domesticated and can be found in many national parks when you go on safari!

Some cows grazing outside of my house one rainy afternoon (the garbage bag on the right is a young boy with a makeshift raincoat!)

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The Story

BY: Linus B. Anatory

Once upon a time there was a buffalo and a cow. Both lived together in the bush. They cooked together and ate together, both gave birth and one day a buffalo went in the bush which was far from their home and a cow went to visit her friend goat. They left their babies themselves, they told them to play near their home. Both babies played for a long time but later on the cow’s child stepped the buffalo’s child and buffalo’s child got hurt and died. By a short time cow arrived from her friend goat she found buffalo’s child lied down without breathing. She realized that the baby has died. What could she do? She thought that when the buffalo will come back would attack them. The cow told her child to run as how she could. They ran to man’s home for their protection. When buffalo arrived home found her child died. She ran after the cow, when she reached the man’s home she asked have you seen the cow with the child passing? A man said they passed on that way. Man directed them by a front right leg while the cow and her child were inside the man’s house.  After the buffalo has gone away the cow got out the house. They thanked him. A cow asked what can I do for you? The man answered “come to live with me for better protection”. Until now the cow is living to man’s home, afraiding the buffalo.

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Last week, I also posted while you were gone all about food in Tanzania, so I'm going to keep this week's post pretty short!

I'll be visiting all of your schools in just THREE weeks! I'm getting really excited, and I hope you are too!

Baadaye,

Marisa 

Week Six: Tanzanian Food and Eating Customs

Habari!

All have the week off from school and are hopefully enjoying your break, but I've been getting a lot of questions about what I ate while I was in Tanzania, as well as what Tanzanians like to eat, so I figured I'd write about it this week so you can enjoy reading all about it when you're back in shule ("school" - pronounced shoo-lay)!

As I was going through the hundreds and hundreds of photographs I took during my time in Tanzania, I realized that almost none of them are of food! I took a couple of pictures of things that I made, and a couple of pictures of people cooking, but rarely did I ever take out my camera before eating....I wonder if I thought that it would be inappropriate to ask! 

Anyways, between my photos and some help from the internet, I've got some photos to show you of popular Tanzanian cuisine. This does not include everything, but does cover a lot of what you could find if you went to a small restaurant. 

Let's start with breakfast foods: 

We've got chapati - which is kind of like an oily tortilla, mandazi, which is a semi-sweet bread bun, and uji, which is a porridge made out of ground up corn and water. 

Chapati (photo courtesy of Google)

 

Here I am getting a scoop of uji into my teacup at Bukililo Secondary School

Mandazi - most commonly eaten after dunked into tea! Mandazi aren't only limited to breakfast,
but are also commonly eaten as a snack or served to guests. 

Of course, all of this must be served with some hot tea! You can either boil tea leaves into water,
or you boil hot milk and add a teabag and sugar. I prefer milky tea!

Lunch foods and dinner foods are largely the same -- families typically eat breakfast, and then eat either once again in the evening, or eat in the afternoon (4pm) and then again much later in the evening (10pm). This depends on what jobs they have, as well as if they can afford to eat two or three times a day. 

Because cooking takes up so much time, I only ate breakfast and dinner around 8pm. But before you eat, you need to make sure you know where you're going to cook!

Here are three options: 

You might cook dinner like Mama Kabibi here, with a pot over a small firewood fire in the open...

Or in a jiko, or stove, like I did...using charcoal and a bit of firewood to get the coals hot...

Or in a handbuilt shelter/hut like one of my students --
also using firewood she and her housemates collected!

Once you figured out where you're cooking, you need to decide what you are cooking!

This is the fried chicken that Mama Kabibi was stirring up before!

Or, you can have boiled bananas, mixed in a tomato and vegetable stew (I made this!)
Boiled bananas can alternatively be mixed with beans as opposed to tomatoes. 

So here's a HUGE plate of boiled bananas and beans!
It's been covered with a boiled banana leaf to help keep it warm while everyone got ready to sit down. 

Another really common meal is ugali and beans. Ugali looks a lot like mashed potatoes, but is a specific type of flour that is mixed with water at high temperatures. It doesn't have a lot of taste, but it fills you up quickly! It's a common food that can be found in Tanzania and neighboring countries. 

If you want a snack, mahindi choma is quite popular (seasonally). This is corn that is grilled!
Corn in Tanzania is nowhere as sweet as the corn we have in Upstate NY -- mahindi choma tastes kind of like popcorn! (Image from Google)

On top of this pile of ugali is mchicha - which tastes a lot like spinach.
It's any kind of leafy green, boiled or cooked in oil, with lots of salt. It's usually served with ugali or rice and beans!
(Image from Google)

Katchumbari is a salad made up of cucumbers, tomatoes, sometimes cabbage, and fresh onions.
Dressing might be a little squeeze of salt and lime!
(Image from Google)

This could be served on the side of any meal (just a scoop or two),
but on the coast, is typically eaten with a rice dish called pilau. 

My favorite Tanzanian food is called chipsi mayai - which means chips (french fries) and eggs!
Basically, it's a french fry omelette! Here is a chef taking the french fries out of the hot oil (left) and into the omelette pan. He'll then add scrambled egg mix on top, and cook it on both sides!

 

Here's the finished product! You'll notice on the side is a big pile of salt, a squirt of ketchup or chili sauce,
 and a bit of kachumbari on top. Tanzanians will commonly eat this with a toothpick.
(Image from Google)

Another great snack is bananas! These ones aren't ripe yet, but these tiny bananas are very sweet, and very delicious!
People also might snack on an avocado too. 

Grilled meats are always loved - typically goat, cow or chicken,
but if you ask around you might also find pig! Tanzanians don't typically eat pork though,
so if it's served, it's very hush hush. 

Finally, a couple of times a year is kumbvi kumbvi season. I think it's a plague, but everyone in the village got very excited when these winged bugs started dropping out of the sky and crawling all around.

After a little bit (between minutes to a couple of hours), kumbvi kumbvi shed their wings. Tanzanians find these to be extremely delicious when fried -- we even had a day off of school when they came so students could run around and collect them!

I was not adventurous enough to eat them, but I hear they don't taste too bad. Grasshoppers are also a delicacy (because they're also seasonal and hard to catch!)

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So, that's a quick adventure through some typical Tanzanian food! 

What do you think? Did you see something that you would want to try? 

What looks similar to what you eat at home? What doesn't?

My favorite Tanzanian food is definitely the chips mayai - or the french fry omelette. Oddly, even in neighboring countries this dish is hard to find....but it's so delicious, I'm not sure why it isn't!

As for customs, it really depends on the area. Different tribes have different customs, and different regions also have different customs. In cities and now in many homes, silverware is fairly common (or at least they have it in case guests come). However, most of the time, meals are eaten with your right hand.

[Food is not allowed to be touched by your left hand because they have a bathroom hand (left) that is used for only that and an eating hand (right) in order not to mix the two and get sick]

 One thing is for certain -- if you ever visit someone's house, it is expected that you serve them food before they leave. This can be anything from some biscuits on a plate to a full meal...which definitely takes time to prepare!

And when you are visiting someone's house and they serve you food, you must always take seconds...and maybe even thirds! Whenever I knew I was going to visit, I would make sure to be really hungry before I got over there so they didn't think I didn't like their cooking! 

I should also add that napkins are not used except in some restaurants. Instead, a waiter, or your host, will bring over a jug of water, a basin, and a bar of soap before you begin eating and again after you finish eating for you to wash your hands. 

I think it's a great custom -- and a great way to save the trees!

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Baadaye,

Marisa 

Answering Questions from Week 5

Mambo!

A bunch of questions came in this week from Herman Avenue Elementary and Seward Elementary -- thanks guys! I've posted their questions below, as well as some answers!

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Kristen, a fourth grader at Seward wants to know what the students did on their days off from school.

On weekends, many students took the opportunity to study during the daylight hours, or helped their family with farming. Girls might help their mothers clean the house, watch the kids, or help cook lunch or dinner. However, the big market day was on Saturdays -- and that was the place for students to see and be seen! It was just like going to the mall; you wore your snazziest outfit (so people could see your style), walked around and saw what was being sold, and chatted with your friends.

A lot of students would also get their hair cut on Saturdays -- because in both primary (elementary) and secondary school, you were required to keep your hair short short short!

Reagan from Mrs. Dann's 6th Grade class and Ben and Michael who are in 4th grade at Seward 
want to know: What do kids play with? What sports do they play? 

Most children don't have toys, so they use their imaginations a lot. I posted a picture a couple of weeks ago of a little boy playing with a toy car he made, which is common, and also kids use old bicycle tires and chase them around! 

Without a doubt, the biggest sport that everyone is always talking about is football! However, when they say "football", they mean soccer, not American football. They are in love with the English Premier League and listen to the radio to hear the updates (Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal are top favorites). 

Girls don't play football though, they like to play netball, which is a game that has hoops like basketball except that you can only throw the ball to one another while jumping, so it's a little different. 

Each year, all of the schools train their students for a nation-wide sports competition. For the competition, students participate in different running events, team sports (football, volleyball and netball) and also the long and high jump. I've put a bunch of pictures below for you to see them playing!

My girls running a distance race

The start of a sprint race

Long Jump

High Jump

High Jump (seriously high!)

Football

Netball

Finally, when I was in Tanzania, one of my friends came to visit and brought with him a few Frisbees. When we first showed them, they asked why Americans play with plates! 

So, we taught all of the students how to play Frisbee (and that it is made of plastic, not a plate!), and left the Frisbees at the school for them to play with on Fridays. 

Here's some pictures of them in action!

The girls practicing with my friend Matt

Dawsoni ready to throw (he's a Nyota Scholar!)

Linus showing good form

Caitlyn in Mrs. Messina's 6th Grade class is wondering what types of foods you ate while you were in Tanzania. 

My post on Monday will be ALL about food, so you only have to wait a couple more days to find out!!!

Amber from Mrs. Messina's 6th Grade Class wants to know: 

How did you feel when you first got to Tanzania? Was it difficult to get used to the language? 

Amber, what a great question! This was actually my second time visiting Tanzania so I knew what to expect, the only difference was I was about to LIVE there for ten whole months! I was very excited, but I was also a bit nervous because I still didn't know where in the country I was going to be teaching. Also, it was a very long time to be so far away from home. 

As for the language, it definitely took a little while to realize that I couldn't just start speaking in English when I saw somebody. But I have been studying Swahili for a few years now, and I was happy to be in a place where I could practice...a lot!

Caitlyn from Mrs. Dann's 6th Grade class asks: 

Are you still in contact with the people in Tanzania?

I am in contact with some of the people I met and worked with in Tanzania through email. However, my students don't have access to email and they are not allowed cellphones, and the cost of calling Tanzania is also extremely expensive, so unfortunately, I do not get to talk to them as much as I would like to.

But Josias, who helps me run my scholarship fund, meets with students regularly and passes on my greetings to them, and then they relay it back to him to tell me! So I am lucky that Josias is able to communicate for me. 

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Looking forward to more questions, and to meeting you all in a month! 

Baadaye,
Marisa 

Week Five: Water, Water, Water

Habari!

 I hope everyone had a great weekend and was able to stay warm! 

As I mentioned last week, this week I wanted to share with you all my living experience in Tanzania - particularly in regards to water. 

If you think about it, we use A LOT of water here in the United States. To wash our hands, do our dishes, wash our clothes, take our showers, brush our teeth, flush our toilets, and to drink to stay hydrated. We might also use water to help plants grow, mop the floors, or make ice to keep our drinks cool. It is really easy to forget how lucky we are sometimes!

When I was living in Tanzania, my house did not have running water. In fact, my house did not even have a sink, a shower, or even a faucet. We learned that there were two ways of getting water: either collecting buckets of rain water outside during rainy season, or having students carry buckets of water to our houses (they knew that I was not strong enough to carry my own water from the water pump).

Whenever we thought it was going to rain, we would put our basins outside underneath where our roof drips into our courtyard. If we forgot to put it out, we didn't collect any water...so there were days while I ran home in between classes to double check our basins were out!

This water could only be used to quickly rinse your hands (if you had charcoal or dirt on them) or to flush our toilet or clean where we spit out our toothpaste. This water was dirty because while it was rainwater, we kept it outside and uncovered, and within a day you could see organisms and algae start to grow (see how the middle basin is dirty? That water is older than the one with the soccer ball on the left). 

Our best invention was this: We went to a hardware store and bought a spicket, then we went to a market and bought a bucket, and then we walked one afternoon to town to have a fundi, which is a handyman make us this makeshift water tap. The water in here was water we got from the students who carried water for us. We used this to wash our hands and to help save water when we washed our dishes! Also it was great when we were rinsing the suds out of our small clothing items! Underneath we put another basin to collect our dirty water and also used that to flush our toilet.

When my roommate and I left Muyenzi, we gave this "sink" to the girl's dormitory on campus to use outside of their bathroom.

Here is the only water pump I knew how to find, but I know there are a couple more near our house. This one, around the same distance as the others, was about 1.5 miles away. Everyone who lived in the area went to one of these few water pumps for ALL of their water needs. 

These are elementary school girls walking with their water in the afternoon (while wearing their school uniforms!)

Here are some of my secondary school students carrying water back to their houses. Because the water is so heavy, the girls take a fabric and make a bit of a hat out of it, and rest the bucket on top of that. It's still heavy, but it's easier to carry long distances this way. As they walk, the girls sing songs, chat with one another, or greet other people walking on the paths and roads. 

Off of our courtyard, Elizabeth and I had a room where we were able to store our buckets of water.  Because there were bugs, lizards and bats that lived in the roof, we tried to keep as many of the buckets covered as we could, but sometimes, our water would become too contaminated and we couldn't use it.

These five buckets would usually have to last us an entire week -- that's about one bucket a day. It meant that I was only able to take one shower a week, but that left us enough water for cooking and drinking, so it was a price I was happy to pay.

Here I am putting some eggs in to boil! That pot is sitting on my kitchen -- it was just a part of the courtyard where I would put out our charcoal grill, light the charcoals, and cook over. It wasn't easy, but once the coals got hot -- it didn't take more than 30 minutes to get to a boil! Every night, we spent about 2 hours cooking dinner, and another hour boiling water for tea or making boiled eggs for the next day.

Here are some of the girls from the girls' dormitory washing their clothes! All clothes have to be washed by hand -- which takes a lot of skill if you're messy like me! I ended up paying someone to wash my clothes most of the time, but a few weeks these lovely students of mine washed my clothes and sheets for me, which was so nice of them. 

  

Because we had to take "showers" outside in our courtyard, we would wear a swimsuit while we bathed. You can see our swimsuits and towels hanging up to dry after an afternoon shower! We would fill a basin with about 6 cups of water for our bodies (using a loofah and soap) and then when we emptied that basin, we would fill it again to wash our hair with shampoo, and one more time for conditioner! In total, about 20 cups of water for a whole shower.

That's a little over 1 gallon of water. When I looked up how much water a shower uses, it's 2.5 gallons A MINUTE! So, if you took an entire shower in 30 seconds, that's how much water I used...once a week. 

 Other ways we saved water was by using wet wipes to wipe off dirt from our face, arms, legs and feet during the week, paying other people to do our laundry, using 'dirty' water to flush the toilet (about 1-2 cups a flush), and using hand sanitizer to wash our hands rather than use water. 

We were frugal with our water because my students had to carry water for us, and we knew we couldn't possibly carry it ourselves. Students left during school hours to go and fetch water for all of their teachers, and I wanted to put as little of a burden on them as possible. However, we could have been very wasteful with our water, and asked them to bring us 5 buckets a day if we wanted! I just knew that it was more important for them to be in the classroom or be doing fun academic activities with their classmates.

And that's that! Some weeks we had a lot of water, some weeks we really struggled. But overall, it wasn't that bad. 

But I have to admit, every time we went to a bigger city with a shower, it was my favorite part of the vacation!!!

Next week, I'll be back to share with you some local Tanzanian foods as well as some customs! 

Kwa heri,

Marisa 

Weekly Challenge:

1. Write down all of the times you used water and why for one whole day. The next day, look at the list you made and think about how you might conserve some of that water. How could you use less water? 

Answering Questions from Week 4!

Habari!

I know the week is almost over, but I had a couple more students submit questions, and I wanted to share with you their questions and the answers before the wikiendi!

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David, a fifth grader at Seward Elementary asked:

What the students studied in school besides their English class?

Secondary school students (which is what Tanzanians say instead of high school) learn:

English, Mathematics, Biology, Physics, Chemistry, History, Kiswahili, French, Geography, and Civics...although French is taught in only some parts of the country. 

It's a lot of things to be learning, and a lot of notebooks for all of the students to keep track of! Luckily, they can keep some of their notebooks in their desks so they don't have to carry them home every day. 

Madison, another fifth-grader at Seward Elementary, was wondering how Tanzanians travel around. How do they get to the hospital or other places?

That's a great question! It really depends on where you live. If you are in rural areas, most people just walk or ride a bicycle if they have one. Usually, you also know someone who owns a motorcycle, and you can call them to bring you somewhere. 

If you are in a larger village or town, there will be motorcycle taxis, taxi cars, or vans that you can take to get from one town to the next. There are also big buses that take people to different parts of the country!

My favorite way to get around was to take a motorcycle taxi!

One of our motorcycle taxi rides...I'm in the middle of my roommate and the driver!

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I hope you all have a great weekend, and tune in next week to learn about water!

Wikiendi njema (have a good/safe weekend),

Marisa 

Answering Questions From Week 3

Habari?

I wanted to share this list of great questions I got from students at Genesee Elementary, as well as all of their answers! Asante for sending them in!

Feel free to send in any more that you think of!

Baadaye,

Marisa

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From Mrs. Gilmore's 4th grade class:

1.  What is a typical school day like...(when do kids arrive, do they eat in a cafeteria, what time do they leave, do they change classes)? Do they go all year round or like us - September to June?

Great question! Before 'school' starts, all of the students arrive and "clean their portion". Each student has a small section of the school grounds or a classroom that they have to keep clean. If theirs is inside, they sweep it everyday. If theirs is outside, they will cut the grass with a machete (see the picture). 

Can you imagine cutting entire fields without a lawnmower?

Then is assembly at around 7:45AM, where students sing, listen to announcements, and take attendance before going to their classroom. In Tanzania, students stay in one classroom all day, and all of their teachers come to them!

At 8AM, classes begin and continue until 10:40. Then we had our "chai", which means 'tea'. This break lasted 30 minutes. Teachers go to our staff room and drink tea and eat buns together, and the students go and drink porridge together (see picture). 

Some of my boy students drinking porridge

After Chai, classes continue for another hour and a half or so, and from 12:30-12:40 there is a ten minute recess. After the short break, there is another class before students have their afternoon activity. Twice a week, students did work around the school or in the school's farmland to make improvements. They might cut down trees, burn garbage, cut grass, put down fertilizer, fix pathways or collect firewood (see pictures). 

Sweeping the roof!!

Cutting down branches from this tree. 

Once a week, students met for Debate, and on Friday afternoons we would have Sports and Games, where the boys played a giant soccer match and the girls played netball, which is a game that is a mix of basketball and volleyball. School ended everyday at 3PM, and a final closing assembly (see below).

One thing that is different is that the school year in Tanzania begins in January and ends in December, rather than from September-June. However, they have a long December break like we do (though I guess that would be considered summer break) and another break from May/June-August. 

2.   Do the kids take a bus to school? How long does it take them to get to school?

Students didn't have a bus to take to school....most families didn't even own a bicycle! So, all of the kids at my school walked to school every day. For most of them, the walk was 5 miles to school, and 5 miles home, which took them up to two hours each way. Can you imagine doing that five times a week?

3.  If you are living here in NY, who is teaching the students in Tanzania?  

Now that I am back in New York, the students have another English teacher. Because they were in Secondary School, they had up to ten different teachers, one for each subject. So even if they don't have a new English teacher, they still have plenty of other teachers for their studies!

Here is a picture of me and the rest of my teaching staff at Muyenzi! Except the man on the far right with the club, he was our security guard. 

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From Mrs. Gardiner's 3rd Grade class:

1.  Do people sleep on beds or on the ground?

People do both! Some sleep on mats or a mattress right on the ground, and others have beds that keep the mattresses off of the ground. I know a lot of my students had never slept with a pillow, but people do have pillows as well. 

Here is a picture of my bedroom. My bed was quite simple, but many of my students don't sleep on a mattress.

2.  Why are people poor if gold and diamonds are some of the natural resources?

That's a great question. Even though Tanzania has some amazing natural resources like gemstones, they didn't have enough money to build the proper mining equipment or factories or know who to sell them to. So, many times they allow people and companies from other companies to come in and pay for everything, which means that those outside people and companies also get most of the money. While the government gets some of the money through taxes, a lot of the profit is unfortunately lost. 

Tanzania recently found a large deposit of petroleum off of the coast, and citizens are demanding that this time, the government find a deal that will give them a higher profit. Hopefully in the future, Tanzanians will have enough money to build their own equipment and factories instead of having to depend on foreigners!

3.  How do people celebrate weddings?

Weddings are similar to many weddings in the United States, they have a marriage ceremony in a church or mosque, followed by a reception. The reception might be at a big party hall, or it might be somewhere in the village; depending where you live. For big celebrations, it is very common to hire a DJ to come and play music, as well as to have an EmCee! Tanzanians love to dance!!! They also will eat a lot of common Tanzanian food, including cooked beef, goat, chicken, boiled bananas, rice, and salad.  For drinks, the families will provide crates of sodas (Coca Cola, Sprite, Mt. Dew, Pepsi) and beer for the adults. 

However, unless you have a lot of money, women might not have a white dress to wear for the wedding and will wear a fancy dress made of local fabric instead. People also do not buy a lot of flowers and decorations in the same way we do here in the United States. 

One thing that is unique for weddings in Tanzania is that when you are invited, you send your gift (of money) before the wedding begins. If you are not going, you can give a little bit, but if you are attending, you are expected to give more. That is because the money collected is used to pay for the wedding -- particularly the food and drinks!

4.  What national holidays do you celebrate?

Alongside celebrating popular Christian and Muslim holidays, Tanzania also has some unique national holidays. I've included most of them below:

-- Zanzibar Revolution Anniversary

 January 12th, celebrates the overthrow of the Sultanate in Zanzibar in 1964

-- Union Day

April 26th, celebrates the unification of Zanzibar and Tanganyika into the Republic of Tanzania in 1964. This day is like our 4th of July! 

-- Saba Saba Day (which means 7,7 day)

July 7, celebrates the founding of the first political party in Tanganyika. It is also the day in which the International Trade Fair is held every year. 

-- Nane Nane Day (which means 8,8 day)

August 8th, is also known as Farmer's Day, celebrates the farmers' contribution to making Tanzania a great country. 

-- Nyerere Day 

October 14, celebrates the first president of Tanzania, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere. They LOVE Nyerere, just like how we love and celebrate George Washington each year!

-- Independence Day

December 9th, celebrates Tanganyika's independence from the British in 1961.

5.  What do you use for money?

The Tanzanian currency is called the Shilling. There are 1,500 shillings for every $1 USD. Just like in the US, they have coins and paper bills, but the numbers are all different! However, the largest bill is only 10,000 -- which means if you're rich, you need to buy a big wallet!

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From Mr. Musso's 3rd grade class:

1.  Are all the houses like the one in your picture, made of mud and wood?

No, but a lot of them are. Others are made of wood and have corrugated iron sheet metal roofs, walls, or doors, and others are made from cement, like mine was. Here's a picture of my house so you can compare!

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From 5th graders:

Lauren wants to know if Tanzania has a pledge of allegiance like we do.

As far as I know, Tanzania does not have a pledge of allegiance. However, students do sing one of two songs at the beginning of the day, either the national anthem or the unofficial song of Tanzania.

Madison wonders if there are hospitals in Tanzania.

There are definitely hospitals in Tanzania; I know because I had to stay in one once when I got very sick! However, most of them are not like what we think of when we think of hospitals because there are a lot of differences. Hospitals are also not as common and do not have as many nurses and doctors as they do in America, so many times people go to a dispensary, where you can meet with a nurse and get medication for illnesses, instead of going to the hospital.

Here's a picture of the dispensary near my house where I went once when I had a bad cough. 

The dispensary is the building on the left. 

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the hospital I went to, but they didn't even give patients drinking water! You had to bring your own pillow, water, clothes, food, towels, etc. The only thing they provided was a room (with no call button!) with a bed and a small sofa and chair and my medications. 

 

Alyssa wants to know at what age children start school.

Students start going to school for first grade, so about when they are 5-7 years old. However, some students start later, or take off time between grades because their parents don't have enough money to pay for school every year. Even in first grade, all of the students wear uniforms!