More Thank You Videos from Mariam Mshangama Secondary School

One half of my form 4 class.

One half of my form 1 class.

Those New Fangled Fancy Cell Phone Things

In the U.S. and Europe, cell phone are so common, it’s actually surprising to find someone who doesn’t have one.  They’re everywhere, and are both useful and very annoying.

            The same applies here.  Even in the middle of nowhere Tanzania, there will be a student or a very old mama (I mean like 60 or 70 who has never had electricity in her life) who will have a cell phone.  Though there are the fancy ones with internet and stuff that you see often in cities, in my village most people have the older (but practically impossible indestructible) cell phones that were popular during the early 2000s.  It’s funny because in the U.S. my parents would ask me questions about how to do something on the phone.  Well, I saw the same thing happen a few days ago, where an old mama had to get her son to save a phone number for her because she didn’t know how and he plays with her phone all the time.

            Now, I’ve complained many a time about my village not having electricity.  So how does one charge a cell phone when you don’t leave the village for weeks and weeks but still feel that need to call people to say hi?  Well, there’s a little shop that has a solar panel not far from my house.  For about 300 shillings (about 20 cents in the U.S.) you can get them to charge your phone, and they help supply the whole village with charged phones.  Those phones are used a lot.  One cool thing that I’ve noticed is that every phone here has a flashlight (super awesome when walking through the village after dark) and a radio.  Why don’t all phones in the U.S. do that?

            In the U.S., phone calls are generally short and get to the point.  “Hey, where are we meeting up later?  Ok, see you soon.”  Most of my phone calls were maybe a minute long, if not shorter…I would rather exchange pleasantries with someone in person, especially if I’m going to see them soon.  Here, it’s very common for someone to call you just to say hi.  But when I say “say hi,” it means a few minutes of social awkwardness from my end.  They just say many different greetings, then hang up without saying good-bye.  This is the thing that gets me most.  It’s great that people want to say hi, but it drives me crazy when they’re suddenly gone and didn’t tell me in any way except to hang up.

            Phone culture is definitely very different here.  For example, many people have their phones on during meetings, and will answer in the middle of the meeting without thinking it’s rude.  Everyone just waits until they’re finished.  Ring tones are loud, and if you remember “Boom Boom Boom” by the Vega Boys, it’s one of the most popular ring tones I’ve heard in country.  People speak VERY loudly on the phone, almost as if they think they have to shout in order to get their voice to go through the phone.  People will answer everywhere and have very loud conversations that I find a wee bit annoying when I’m trying to sleep on a bus.  People will also play their radios blaringly loud, but being forced to hear everyone else’s conversations and music is just common here.

            The thing about cell phones that I find interesting is the fact that many people never used a phone before cell phones.  In the U.S., landlines are not used very much anymore, but there are many parts of Tanzania that landlines never reached.  The telephone poles just never made it out to the middle of nowhere (unsurprisingly).  It’s as if the country skipped some technologies and instead adopted the technology that works best for them.  It’s like how records never made it here, but portable radios and music files are commonplace.  It’s incredible how much technology really does make a difference, even in places you wouldn’t think it would reach.

Racist Babies

Babies are adorable.  No matter where you go, they’re just the cutest little things on earth.  Tanzania of course also has an incredible number of the adorable little balls of awesomeness.  Here, most mothers carry babies on their backs with a khanga tied in the front.  I’ve seen one baby backpack since arriving here, and openly stared at the mother and child when I did see it.  On buses, on the street, around the village or town, you can count on seeing a mother or a sibling with a little cutie-pie baby on their back.  There are lots and lots of babies around.  This is partially because of the fact that the birthrate is so high and because people have kids when they’re so young.  Many people are astonished to find out that I’m a whole 25 years-old and don’t have any kids. 

It’s also very common to see young children (I mean even 5 or 6) carrying their young siblings or neighbors.  It’s been my observation (I think it’s throughout Tanzania though of course I can only speak from my experience) that everyone in this country is used to being around children.  Men, women, young, old…kids aren’t scary to them.  Back in the U.S., one of my best friends, Emily, is terrified of children.  My sister Kaitlyn feels like she’ll break babies if she holds them.  My father used to feel that way as well, until he had some kids of his own.  Now he’s well known for loving babies and getting to hang out with kids.  Though many Americans are good with kids and love to be around them, there are also so many people who are scared of kids or are not used to being around them.  But here in Tanzania, I’ve seen some of my macho male students pick up little babies and smother them with kisses.  Older men on buses will smile and pick up a kid and play with them for the rest of the journey.  Everyone in the whole country seems not only accustomed to kids, but able to play with them and not be afraid of breaking them.  If a child falls or starts crying, it’s not the end of the world.  Mothers don’t panic that their son or daughter has been hurt a little bit, as it will only make them stronger.  I guess that helps contribute to making the kids the toughest I’ve ever been around.  Parents also aren’t afraid of a stranger holding their child.  On buses, if there’s no room for the parent to sit, strangers will often have a baby or small kid passed back and put on his or her lap for the trip.  I’m sure that there are some sick and perverted people in Tanzania who abuse children, but it’s not a crippling fear for parents the way it is for some people back in the U.S.  The first time a young kid (like 3) was passed back to sit on my lap, I was pretty stoked – cultural integration!

So overall I really want to be able to hold babies here and be a part of that aspect of the culture.  But no.  Babies look at me and start crying.  I can’t even count the number of babies and very, very young kids I’ve made cry.  They catch sight of me, their face starts to crumple into a wail, and then they scream.  I know it’s because I’m the first face they’ve seen that isn’t black, but it’s kinda disheartening when you can’t hold a single baby in the village because the kid will scream in fear.  Racist babies.  They’re such day ruiners.

A Big Thank You to Good Sam's and My Mum and Da

Two weekends ago, I went to the post office to have an incredible surprise waiting.  Two packages chock full of donations and supplies for my school.  Now allow me to explain a wee bit.  My wonderful mum and fantastic da have been spreading the word about the needs of my school to people they work with and their many incredible friends.  The amount of rallying has been astounding.  The boxes that I got were full of supplies.  When I emptied out the boxes onto the bed at my hotel, it took up quite a bit of space.  Colored pencils, books, National Geographics (which I enjoyed in particular because they’re not only good for the students, but I get to enjoy awesome reading material too!), candy, pencils, a mount-on-the-wall-or-table big pencil sharpener, erasers, flashcards, chalk, playing cards, stickers, postcards, puzzles, crayons, and then stuff for me (yay for quick meals, canned chicken and wondrous cliff bars!).  

The boxes full of goodies from my parents, the great people at Good Sam's, and my dad's school.

I was blown away and super excited to show my students and the staff the wonderful things that people were kind enough to send.  When I showed my school, I tried to get a student to videotape it, but he kept pressing the button on my camera so they’re only 5-second splits.  But there were enough pencils to give every single student one.  The excitement was tangible as I tossed pencils across the classrooms at my students (I guess I didn’t need to throw them, but frankly, it made passing out 120+ pencils a hell of a lot more fun for me).  The new pencil sharpener is something that none of my students have used before, so it’s been kind of entertaining to show them how to use it.  Their excited faces at seeing a sharp pencil (that they didn’t have to spend several minutes sharpening with a razor blade) has been quite the awesome distraction in the staff room for me.

            The supplies are now all in the school’s possession, and I’ve seen students around the village and at school clutching the books.  The other day, when my awesome kids finished a reading assignment early, I brought out some of the National Geographics (which are all from 2007 or 2008, but that doesn’t matter in the slightest, they’re still interesting).  I was laughing pretty hard when one group kept calling me over, asking me what things are.  Literally every three minutes, they would raise a hand and say loudly “Madam!  Njoo.”  Pictures of Israel (trying to explain in only a few, simple sentences about Israelis and Palestinians is kind of hard), China right before the Olympics, modern-day Celtic culture, coal country on the U.S. East Coast, Untouchable women helping supply their communities with health service in rural India…life from all around the world.  The students pretty much just looked at the pictures and the maps, but it was fun to see their faces excited at seeing something different.  In all reality, seeing the world outside of Tanzania is something that most of them won’t do in person, but if they can be exposed to a little bit more, I think they’ll be better in the long run. 

            Overall, my students and the staff at my school are incredibly grateful for all of the gifts.  When I busted out the colored pencils, it was a wee bit difficult to get all of them back at the end of the period.  Thank you so much to everyone who contributed and has helped my school.  I’m incredibly touched and my school is quite excited at the kindness you’ve all shown us.  Thank you again.

I videotaped my students saying thank you, but the internet is being incredibly slow and irritating, so I was only able to upload 2 of the 6 we made.  Here are two of them, and I will continue to try to get the other videos to load in the future.  Until then, enjoy seeing my students say thank you.

My form 2 class.  One of the kids said "And God bless you" close to me, which made me laugh a little in the video, but you can't hear him saying it.

My form 3 class.