How did I feel about leaving Tanzania? It was sad, but at the same time I thought that it was good to move on. The worst thing was to leave my students, especially because I felt that so many things were left undone and untaught, and I had only recently started to feel that I was settling down there and knew what I was doing, what worked and what didn't. But the most heart breaking thing ever was to see one of the students crying miserably when I left.
The things that I'm going to tell you about Tanzania next are somewhat irrelevant, but want to share them with you anyway.
Although I hadn't been looking forward to the cold showers, they turned out to be my everyday luxury there. It was the only way to refresh oneself after a sweaty day or night. Believe me, it felt so good. Who needs hot water: there's no shower like cold shower!
The dogs kept on fighting at nights. The noise was terrible and scary and it woke up half of the house at night. At one night I and one of my roommates had a nightmare about a tiger. I wonder why... We also had a puppy there, but it was eaten by the big dogs the other night. Horrifying, isn't it?
As you might understand, there really weren't much goods or resources. When I brought dice or an egg timer to be used during the lesson, the (adult!) students got amazingly enthusiastic about such fine objects. I got used to using the smallest pieces of chalk because there just wasn't anything else to use. One day a student came in and gave me a long and thick, pink chalk. What did I do? I grabbed the chalk, stared at it for probably a whole minute repeating "Wow! Where did you get this from?", and could barely breathe because I felt I had been given a valuable treasure. See: surprisingly it is possible for a rich European to get excited about the smallest things given!
A rich European? Yes. I have to admit (reluctantly) that even though in Finland I am just an average person earning an average amount of money, globally seen I am rich. And so are you! Actually, I see myself so rich that I feel guilty for having all the things that I have.
Power cuts seemed to have a perfect timing. Just to tell you an example: on four nights on a row, the electricity went off just when everyone had their dinner on plate, ready to be eaten. You can only imagine the chaotic atmosphere, when 16 people were sitting on the floor holding their plates in total darkness and having to get up and wander around the house looking for torches and candles.
Nothing really shocked me Tanzania, except the following: many times I saw a woman who's both legs were amputated from knees down. She had thick gloves on her hands and some kind of thick socks protecting her knees. She didn't have a wheel chair, so she walked like a dog along the street. It wasn't the fact that she was missing legs that shocked me, but the thing that she had to nearly crawl along the street to get where she needed to go. Looking at her made me feel so sad. But when I later saw a person having a wheel chair , I felt so happy for him.
Now that I'm in Kenya, I can already tell you what I miss about Tanzania:
- I miss the heat, even though I quite often felt like I was trapped in a sauna. On the other hand it is nice to be able to wear the same shirt more that one day as it isn't nearly as hot here as it was in Tanzania.
- I miss the scenery: although the nature seems to be the same as it is in Tanzania, but the way it looks like in Kitengela compared to Moshi, is ugly. This is a poor neighborhood with almost crashed down buildings, there is litter everywhere, and it stinks like landfill.
- I miss the feeling of familiarity: when I came here the process of me settling down started all over again. Knowing (based on the experience in Tanzania) that 4 weeks is going to be just about long enough to get used to living here, didn't make it any easier to motivate myself.
Last but not least, a little information about my "life" in Kenya
I live with a Kenyan family and two other volunteers here: a 22 year old English guy and a 18 year old Irish guy. I have my own room - and a 120 cm bed - here, which is so luxurious after having slept in a bunk bed and sharing the room with 1-3 other people. We even have warm water here, but we seem to run out of water every second day. I really like living like this here: the family, the maid and the two other volunteers are very nice and easy-going people.
I am teaching here in a school called Enkasity primary school. The building is just a brown building with some of the windows broken. They don't have any fancy things to use as teaching aids. The students are mainly Maasai children who have been raised up fairly unaware of the surrounding world. And to be honest with you, even some of the teachers have curious ideas about the world: did you know that when a black and a white person have a baby, it always becomes some kind of a super person, like Obama. Yep. I had to disagree with that.
Surpringly I am not teaching English here. I am a mathematics and a science teacher now! Teaching and lesson planning has taken a lot of my energy as I have had to remind myself about many things I was taught years ago. What has made preparing lessons even more challenging is that I have had to (and will have to) English vocabulary that I haven't been familiar with previously. Anyway, for now I have enjoyed teaching here, and I believe that I will enjoy the following three weeks as well.
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