Final Post!!!

Habari!

First, I made a quick video so you can see how excited I am!

Alright. Time for this week's (and this blog's) last post!

This week I want to get you thinking about how far $1 can go in Tanzania. Because, well, $1 can pay for a whole lot of things!

If you had $1 in Tanzania you could....

...buy 1kg (2.2 pounds) of rice

or

...buy 1kg of flour

or

...buy 6 candles, and have 10c left over!

or

...buy 1,650 matches (33 boxes of matches)

or

....buy 3.5 pounds of fresh tomatoes

or

...buy 1kg of onions

or 

...buy 3 small bags of okra

or 

...buy 15 big carrots

or

...buy 12 cucumbers

or

...buy 4 heads of cabbage

or

...buy 33 avocados

or

...buy a bunch of bananas!

or

...buy two medium-sized pineapples

or

...buy a box of pasta

or

...3 forks to eat dinner with 

or

....buy 3 boxes of mango juice (like a Capri Sun or Juicy Juice)

or

...a plate of rice and beans at a restaurant

or

... two bottles of soda

or

...buy 6 eggs

or

...buy 15 passion fruits

or

...100 hot peppers!

or

...5 rolls of toilet paper

or

...1L of Dasani bottled water

or

...buy 25 tea bags

or

...a mug to put your tea in

or

...buy 4 piles of ginger

or

...12 big eggplants

or

...a knife for cutting up all of those veggies and fruits!

or

...a bag of sweet biscuits

or

...half a liter of kerosene

or

...half a liter of cooking oil
or 

...buy an exercise book for school

or

...buy 15 pens for class

or 

...pay for one week of school. 

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So you see, $1 can buy you a lot of things in Tanzania. It can help you buy things that you might not really need, like mango juice or lots of hot peppers, and it can help you buy a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables when you go to the market. 

But, it can also go a long way if you're a student. You can buy an exercise book to write all of your notes in or a bunch of pens so you can take your notes. But most importantly, $1 means that you can go to school for an entire week and not have to worry about being sent home for not being able to pay for school fees. 

A lot of Tanzanian families live on farms; they grow all of the food that their families need to survive, but aren't able to sell a lot of it at the market, because everyone else nearby is a farmer too. That means that while these families are hard-working, they don't have an income (or money that's paid to you for your work/job). 

This also means that they don't have a lot of cash, so when they need to spend what they have, it goes towards kerosene, to light their cooking fires and their lanterns, or to buy rice and flour, which is harder to grow, instead of going towards their children's educations. Furthermore, a lot of families are really big because they have a lot of children, or they also take care of nieces and nephews, so even if they can pay for some kids to go to (secondary) school, they might not be able to send all of them. 

When I was living in Muyenzi and working at the schools, I realized that paying for school fees was a really big problem for many of my students. Many of them were beaten and sent home week after week for not being able to pay, yet continued to come day after day in the hopes that they could learn a bit more before being sent home again.

In order to help some of these students, I started a scholarship fund while I was still living there. I called it The Nyota Fund -- 'Nyota' means 'star' in Swahili, because I hope that helping them get an education allows them to "reach for the stars" and pursue their dreams. 

The Nyota Fund logo....a star bursting out of where I was living in Tanzania!

As I said, it only costs $1 to keep a secondary school student in school for a week-- which means it costs in total anywhere between $30 and $50 a year (depending on the school)! 

I'm still raising money for my students for the 2014 school year, and I would LOVE your help.

If you find any pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, or $1 bills laying around your house, or have an extra coin or two in your piggy bank and want to bring them to school the day that I visit, I'll collect them all, count up how much each school raises, and then email you guys the names of the students you helped in Tanzania stay in school (and send you a picture or two)! 

I can even share with you our address in Tanzania so you can write a pen pal letter, and hopefully, they can send you a letter in return thanking you for all of your help.  

If each school can raise $100 -- which would send up to 3 students to school for an entire year (!) -- the Auburn Education Foundation said they would match your donation, meaning that every dime or dollar you bring in, is really worth twice as much! How cool would that be?

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Well, that's all I've got to share with you guys!

It's been really great blogging once a week and sharing with you all about Tanzania for the past couple of months and answer all of your wonderful questions...but I'm more excited to come and meet you all!

Don't forget to save any last questions you might have until my visit...and if you have anything to donate to The Nyota Fund when I come, karibu! 

See you soon!

Baadaye,

Marisa 

Answering More Questions!

Habari!

The last group of questions has been trickling in, so I wanted to answer them for you now. However, if you have any more questions -- you're going to have to save them until I get there!

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Here at Owasco Elementary, we have been catching up with your earlier posts. Students from Mrs. Brown's class were particularly interested in your climb on Mt. Kilamanjaro. We were wondering how you prevented yourself from getting too cold and tired, and how many miles you climbed. Another student asked if there are any zoos in Tanzania?

Great question! While I was climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, it got increasingly colder the higher up we went. So, in our giant backpacks, we had big winter coats, knit hats, scarves, puffy gloves (like the ones you might use for skiing!), handwarmers, long johns, ski pants, and Under Armour shirts. We also layered our socks and wore big hiking boots to keep our feet warm! And for sleeping, we all got these sleeping bags that keep you warm even in below - zero temperatures. However, while we were wearing all of this clothing and climbing, a lot of the times your body would get nice and toasty...maybe even too toasty! It was definitely better to be hot than cold though! 

I'm only wearing a sweatshirt and sweatpants at the moment (and a hat), but this is all of my gear! 

In order to not be tired....well, we only climbed about 6 hours a day (at the max) while we were going up the mountain. That meant we had a lot of time for resting and a good night's sleep! But we were also encouraged to stay hydrated by drinking a lot of water and taking a break if you needed one. From my experience, it is better to walk slowly and steady without any breaks than to go fast and need a lot of breaks.  

Finally, there are some zoos in Tanzania -- but most Tanzanians have never heard of them or know what they are! Zoos, and the ideas of keeping animals just to look at,  is very Western. Tanzanians would be more excited to go on a safari, where they could see local animals in the wild! Because they don't have zoos though, they are not very familiar with all of the different types of animals you can find around the world in different places. For example, my students were shocked that there are no giraffes and elephants in America, and kept asking, what are these bears you speak of?

I did find this snake park near Arusha, Tanzania though....

But even there, you could touch some of the animals!
(I really was not too happy about where it's head was looking!)

Casey Park wrote, We thought that students who could afford high school were able to go to high school. But after reading Bahati's story, we know that students must also pass the Standard 7 exam. Is that right?
 

This is a great question! I can't believe I haven't addressed this yet. 

Yes, in order to even be allowed to go to secondary school (high school), Tanzanian students take a national examination while they are in Standard 7, or their seventh year of schooling. This tests to see how much they've learned while in elementary school, and how likely they will be able to learn English -- because elementary school is taught entirely in Swahili and secondary school is taught entirely in English. 

As you've seen from the photos, elementary schools are not great places for students to learn a lot. Unfortunately, this means that around 50% of elementary school students do not pass, and are not allowed to attend secondary school. 

Moreover, only 10% of students pass secondary school. Talk about the odds being against you!

In New York State, 74% of students graduate from high school. 

Some of these students stay on the farm until they get married (which they will marry much younger than those who continue on in school), or may spend a few years doing odd jobs. Some girls move in with other families to be maids in order to gain a small income. Imagine being done with school at the age of 12, or even 15, with basically no opportunities for a better life? It's a really sad situation. 

Dakota from Mrs. Dann's 6th grade class wants to know: How old do people have to be to work in Tanzania?

While there may be a law in Tanzania that states how old someone must be in order to work, it is not followed at all. Children work around the house beginning at a very young age, and children who do not go to elementary school (some cannot even afford the uniform or cost of pens and books) or secondary school can be found selling items or food on the side of the road. The money they make goes towards the living expenses of the family. 

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Thanks for all of the questions guys!

Tutaonana karibu! (We will see one another soon!) 

[ too-tah-oh-na-na  karibu!]

Marisa 

Week Eight: School Difficulties

Mambo!

This week I wanted to start thinking about what it might be like to live and go to school in an impoverished area. An impoverished area is somewhere that lacks money and infrastructure (like roads, electricity, government services), meaning that day-to-day life is different than what we might consider 'poor' in the United States. 

On this blog so far, we've touched a few of the other difficulties some Tanzanians face. 

I've shared pictures of how people might cook over charcoal or woodfire, and that they have to walk long distances for water, carrying the water on their heads. 

I've also shared that hospitals are far away, and some houses may not even be made out of concrete or have a metal roof. 

In short, life outside of the classroom isn't easy. Most students have to study in the evenings with dim lighting. Many do not have alarm clocks, but will be beaten if they are late for school. Others are only able to eat one meal a day.

My student Boniphace only has one school uniform, which he keeps in pristine condition by hanging them up in his small room. 

Being silly with a number of the boys who live in the shared housing near the school in order to focus on their studies.
(The one in the blue shirt and yellow flipflops on the left is Linus, who wrote last week's story I shared!)

Others decide to live with other students in shared housing without parents in order to save hours a day in walking to and from school. One of these buildings is pictured here, where 4-8 boys live inside and share a handful of bedrooms.

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But life in the classroom is also difficult. 

In Tanzania, it is 'free' for children to go to elementary school through 7th grade. However, Tanzania had to quickly build schools across the country to try and accommodate the sudden influx of students. 

Because of this, many of the primary schools (elementary schools) are dilapidated -- literally falling down. Yet, the government cannot afford to rebuild schools, so students and teachers must make the best of what they have. 

*Note: Elementary school teachers in Tanzania only have a high school education; they barely even need to pass in order to go to a primary school teacher's college! 

Here's the principal sitting in his office at a primary school I visited. 

A primary school in NW Tanzania

The kitchen for the primary school, where they make porridge for the students. 

This is Muyenzi Primary School. Notice none of the rooms have windows, and only a few of the classrooms have doors. 

Another photo of Muyenzi Primary School. Only a handful of these students pass their exams in seventh grade and are able to attend Secondary School (which is not free). 

 When you get to secondary school, another set of problems arise. 

The first is that you have to pay to go to school every year, or as they say "school fees". They might be what we consider cheap, about $50 for a year, but where these students are from, that might be 10%-50% of what their entire family makes a year. 

One of my classes posing with me (can you see me?!) my first semester. 

 The second major issue is that teachers do not always go to all of their classes and teach their students. One of the reasons I think my students did so well in English class was that I was always there to teach them!

The other hardship is that there is no technology in the classroom, and students do not have their own textbooks. This means that the only information students get is what the teacher writes, by hand with chalk, on the chalkboard in the front of the classroom.

In one class, I would fill the board at least twice, because I was careful to write large enough so students in the back of the classroom could read what I was writing! 

Yet, in the face of difficulty, in the face of long days, grumbling stomachs, and hard chores, these students have big dreams.

They go to school each and every day with a smile on their face, many times walking hours a day to and from school, because they know that education is the key that could unlock a brighter future.

These students know that if they study hard and get high enough scores, they might have the chance to go to college and get a job that will allow them to live a better life, and help their families to have a better life too. 

They are all truly, truly inspiring -- and an amazing reminder for us to be grateful for everything that we have...but also to also dream for everything we can be!

Next week is my last post! I'll be talking about the value of $1, as well as sharing with you a fundraiser that I am working on that helps keep students like the ones I talked about today in school. Hopefully, I will also be able to post a short video introducing myself before my arrival!

Baadaye,

Marisa 

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Teachers & Faculty: Below is a link to a story of a specific student, Bahati. Bahati is a true inspiration to me, and depending on the ages of your students, you might want to read this story to them and engage them in a meaningful conversation about education. 

"A Boy Named Luck: Bahati" 

http://www.tanzania365.com/2013/06/a-boy-named-luck.html