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 

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!

Answering Questions from Week 1

Habari!

Some of you sent in some great questions this past week, so I wanted to post them below along with my answers before tomorrow's new blog post!

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Aaron, from Mr. Kennedy's class, would like to know if people in Tanzania use the same alphabet as we do.

Aaron, people in Tanzania use the same alphabet as we do when they are learning to read and write Swahili! However, they don't use some of the letters because they make the sounds using other letter combinations. 

Therefore, in Swahili, there is no 'Q' and no 'X'. 

Zayquan from Mr. Scott's 4th grade class at Genesee would like to know how you got to Tanzania (by boat or plane) and how long it took you. 

Hi Zayquan! To get to Tanzania, I took a plane from New York City to Zurich, Switzerland (8 hours). Then, I took another plane from Zurich to Dar es Salaam, which is the main city (but not the capital) of Tanzania, which took 9 and 1/2 hours.  

The view from the airplane before I arrived in Tanzania

From Dar es Salaam to get to my village, I first took a bus across the country. That took 36 hours! Then, I took a car to my village, which was another hour away driving, even though the distance was only 30 miles. It took us a lot longer because the road to Muyenzi is not paved.  

This is about one mile from my house on the road I was talking about. It's actually a very steep hill down...and then back up!

Nathan from Mr. Musso's class wants to know how long it took you to learn Swahili and how you learned it?

Hi Nathan! I started learning Swahili when I was a sophomore in college. I had class three times a week for almost two hours at a time. My junior year, I studied abroad in Kenya, where I practiced my Swahili and took another language course. My senior year of college I did not take any Swahili classes -- and I forgot a lot of my vocabulary!

A lot of it came back to me though when I moved to Tanzania. Although a lot of people in the big cities can speak English, when you go to rural areas, fewer people can speak English. Where I was living, only my students and other teachers knew how to speak English...and some of them were just beginners. So, I was able to practice my Swahili a lot. I even attended an 8 hour long meeting -- mostly conducted in Swahili! 

I would still say that I am far from fluent. There are lots and lots of vocabulary words that I don't know yet, and I am not very good at remembering things! It is important to keep practicing any language you're learning (even if it's your first language, like English!) to keep growing your vocabulary and improving your reading and writing skills. 

Mrs. Liberatore's 5th grade class would like to know if there is inflection at the end of a question.

Mrs. Liberatore's class, thanks for the question! Well, it's a bit complicated. In some cases,when speaking Swahili and asking a question or making an exclamation, you produce the same inflection you would as though you are speaking English if the question is framed as a statement.

For example, there isn't really a word for 'do' as in "do you...." so if you said "you want a soda" you would have to add an inflection to make it sound like a question (if it is one) or don't add an inflection, so it remains a statement. 

However, for shorter phrases and question words, you can just say the word. Whatever inflection you might give is just to show your own emotion. For example, Habari doesn't require any inflection. Many times, I would say it in a sing-song voice to the younger children, and they would sing back "nzuri!" 

Finally, Swahili also has 'question words', much like English, that indicate to the listener or reader whether or not the statement is actually a question. There is also the phrase "je" that can be added at the beginning to denote to the listener/reader that the following statement is a question. 

For example, "Je, unataka soda?" (Do you want a soda?) could either be said with or without an inflection because the 'je' asks as the question mark.

Phew, that was a long answer....but I hope it answered your question!

Casey Park students wonder where you went to elementary school.

Hi Casey Park! Great question. When I was in elementary school, I was not living in Auburn. I actually lived in Singapore - which is a small island nation near Malaysia - until I was 13 years old. My elementary school was called Overseas Family School.

Mambo from elementary-school Me!

When I moved to Auburn, I went to West Middle School for 8th grade, and then graduated from Auburn High. 

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Asante sana (Thank you so much) for submitting questions; and feel free to ask anything else that comes to mind as we continue!

Baadaye,

Marisa