safari ni hatua

I've decided to make this blog a bit more of an educational endeavor than a strictly what's-going-on type deal, because to be honest, not much changes from day to day.  And that's not to say that life is boring - on the contrary, I love it here at school.  The students are great, the teachers are great, and teaching has been going quite well.  Right now I've got 29 periods a week (one period is 40 minutes), which is a bit over the 24 period limit Peace Corps recommends.  Which isn't a bad thing at all in my eyes, because I came to contribute as much as possible, and my school certainly needs the help.

For my part, 24 of my periods are spent teaching computers to Forms 2, 3, and 4, while the remaining 5 are teaching Form 3 Chemistry.  Not exactly what I had imagined I'd been teaching - welcome to Peace Corps, or life in Tanzania in general - but I'm happy with my situation.  I actually took the 5 periods of Chemistry because I really didn't want to be teaching only computers, both from a personal interest and professional standpoint.  And in fact, I'm glad that I'm teaching Chemistry and not Physics (though I may pick up a class or two of Physics once the Form 5 kids come in March), because as I've been reviewing class materials, I've been reminded of the fact that introductory Physics is pretty damn boring.  I actually like intro Chemistry better, so that worked out well.  Plus, Physics is more abstract, which is harder to teach when you've got a fairly large language barrier working against you.  Oddly enough, I'd say that the students can probably understand their Tanzanian teachers' English better than they can understand mine, probably because my accent is more than a little different from theirs.

I had my doubts at times as to how relevant all the Swahili training was to our abilities to function as teachers, but it became immediately apparent to me as soon as I started teaching.  I'd almost say there are students here whose level of proficiency in English is at the same level of my proficiency in Swahili, which is kind of mind-boggling considering they learn English in primary school and considering it's the medium of instruction in secondary school.  So needless to say, it is a huge advantage to be able to explain concepts or give the students instructions in Swahili.  At the same time it's a balancing act - using Swahili is great for me, because it helps me practice the language.  And it can be great for the students as well, as my main concern here is that they understand the subject I'm teaching them.  If using Swahili can help to ensure that, cool.  However, I know it's also important for the students to improve their English, because it can help them to get better jobs in the future.

As far as the computers go, it's a mixed blessing, but so far I think the positives are outweighing the negatives.  One issue is kind of an important one, and that's electricity.  Supposedly there is no more power rationing in the country, as the drought Tanzania had been experiencing seems to be over for the moment (it's been raining a lot).  But there are still power cuts, which while usually only lasting for 30-60 minutes, can be kind of a large disruption if it happens right in the middle of a computer class (which it already has).

Another issue is that the syllabus for computer studies is, in my opinion, awful.  There are countless numbers of lessons taken up by teaching students about things not directly related to *using* a computer (such as the history of information technology).  And some of that information is useful, no doubt - the thing is, in my opinion at least, that the students first need to know how to use a computer, because that most directly relates to future employment success.  As far as I know, none of my students have a computer at home - I'm sure if there are, at most there might be 5-10 in the entire school that do - and therefore computer classes here at school represent the vast majority of exposure they're going to get in using them.  Considering that each student is getting only 40 minutes of computer time per week (more on why that is in a minute), I don't feel like I can be wasting time doing anything with the students except having them sit in front of a computer using it.

Yet, there's the issue of the national examinations which the students take.  I think the computer exam is optional, but if I have students that want to take it, I feel like I have a duty to prepare them for the exam.  And guess what's on the exam?  Material in the syllabus, which includes stuff that I simply don't want to teach.  I'm considering holding separate tutoring classes for the kids that are interested in the exam, so I'll see how that goes.

Yet another drawback is class size.  I don't think any of my classes have less than 35 students in them, and I'd say the average size is around 45 (my largest has 54).  This is an enormous problem when you only have 13 working computers, namely because even having 2 students at one computer means trouble, let alone 3 or 4.  When there's more than one student at a computer, inevitably one of the students (usually the one who is more skilled at using computers) does everything, and the other one sits passively watching.  Plus, trying to teach when you've got 3-4 people at a computer just isn't feasible, as managing the class becomes a chore even when you've got a class full of normally well-behaved students.  I know because I tried having an entire class in the computer lab a few times, and, well, it doesn't work.

So what I've done is divided each class into three groups, because each class has computers three times per week.  During each class period, one group is in the computer lab, while the other two are in their normal classroom.  Doing this, there are at most two students at each computer, and after the school purchases a few more used computers this week, I should be able to have only one student per computer in almost every class.  Obviously it isn't an ideal situation either, because each student is only in the computer lab once per week instead of three times.  But I feel like I can still get more taught than if I tried having all the students in the lab every class.

Finally, computer skills of the kids are unsurprisingly low.  There are some who can do a decent amount of stuff, but there are many who don't even know how to turn the computers off and on, let alone how to use a mouse effectively.  Though after seeing the students try to use the mouse, I've gained a greater appreciation for how hard computers can be to learn if you haven't spent most of your life using one.  In many ways, using a computer can be pretty darn unintuitive until you gain enough basic skills to learn on your own.

Yet, despite the drawbacks, teaching computers has a big benefit, in that the students are really excited about learning how to use them.  They're especially excited about the fact that we're going to have Internet access shortly (and, well, I am too).  Most of my evenings are spent in the computer lab with the female boarding students, because they always want to come and use them after classes are over (the male boarders stay on the other side of the school, and I don't think they're allowed to come over where the computer lab is at night).  It takes up a lot of time, since I usually come to the computer lab around 8:30-9:00 pm and stay until 10:30-11:00 pm.  But I'm happy to do it, because I'm here for the students.  Sure, I could go home at night and read a book instead, but why?  The students have so little exposure to computers through their normal classes, that I'm more than happy to give them as much exposure as possible in using them.  Granted, mostly what they want to do at night is play karata (cards), but some of them also like to type using Microsoft Word, or to draw pictures.  To be honest, outside of class it doesn't matter much to me what they do, as long as they're getting used to using the computers.  Even playing cards isn't bad, because it helps with mouse skill.  Plus, it gives me time to talk to the students and get to know them better, which is a lot of fun.

Another benefit to having computers, and specifically Internet access, is the opportunity to enhance the students' learning in subjects other than computers.  For instance, I can use science programs to show students 3-D models of molecules for Chemistry class, or to show how reactions take place.  That's an immensely powerful tool to have in a country where a very small number of students actually have textbooks (and the ones they do have are not great).  So there are almost limitless teaching possibilities.  Of course, that also means it's a lot harder to figure out what exactly to teach, but that will just take some time to learn how to do.

So things are really going well, and I'm extraordinarily happy with the situation I've been placed in.  My life is busy, but fun.  Days are spent teaching and working in the computer lab (I'm currently networking all the computers together), and my nights are usually spent hanging around with the other male teachers, and then going to the computer lab.  My neighbor is a really nice mzee (old person), and he and I have been cooking/eating together for a couple weeks now.  Sometimes we also go out to a local bar with some of the other teachers to eat and have a beer, or we go over another teacher's house.  In fact, I don't think I've eaten a single meal by myself in the past 2 weeks, as I get tea in the mornings and lunch from the school, which all of the teachers eat together in the staff room.  So I don't feel isolated at all, like I sometimes did while I was teaching in China.

All in all, I'm glad I decided to come.  Of course I'm only just getting started, and who knows how things may change over the course of two years, but still, I'm really excited about my time here in Tanzania.  It's hard to believe I'm closing in on 5 months - I can easily see the next 22 flying by.  And ultimately, I'm glad I changed my mind about not joining.  After so much deliberation over such a long period of time as to whether or not I should join, I know I made the right choice. 

I hope all of you back home are doing well, and I do miss you all.  I'm actually contemplating coming home for the holidays this year, as I'll have enough vacation time (with an advance) for a 2-3 week trip back to the States.  At the same time, I'll repeat the invitation for people to come visit.  I know not all of you could afford a trip here (it's damned expensive), and I know the misconceptions many people have about Africa, but this is a great country, and I would love to get the chance to show it to as many people as possible. 

So this didn't turn out to be much of an educational entry, but I wanted to get more general info about what I've been up to out of the way.  The next entry is going to be about Swahili as a language, to give you all a sense of what it's like :)

Swahili is, for the most part, an exceptionally easy language to learn. It also happens to be, as far as I know, the most widespread native African language in Sub-Saharan Africa (north of the Sahara it's Arabic), which means it's also a very practical language to learn. It's slowly becoming a lingua franca as its use spreads beyond East Africa. One reason for this is that it's not really a "tribal" language any more, which makes it more attractive for Africans looking for a national language other than English or French.

It might seem odd that most of the official languages in Africa aren't native African languages, but rather European ones (a leftover from colonialism). Yet, in a way it makes sense, because for many countries to choose a tribal language as a national language would be disastrous, as it could very well result in tribal warfare. Swahili, while technically is the language of the Swahili people (a term used for people who live on the coasts of East Africa and are basically all Muslims), is not really seen that way any more. It's been a national language for quite some time now in both Tanzania and Kenya, and is also widely spoken in Uganda, in parts of Rwanda and Burundi, northern Madagascar, and even parts of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

For instance, here in Tanzania, there are over 100 tribal languages, but everyone knows Swahili. People still speak their tribal languages also, but in my experience tribal languages are slowly starting to die out - for instance, the headmaster of my school only speaks Swahili to his children, and never uses Kichaga (the language of the Chaga tribe), which is his tribal language. The reason is fairly easy to understand, as using Swahili allows for greatly enhanced communication between people. It's also been a great unifying aspect for Tanzania, and I'm sure is part of the reason why you won't find tribal fighting here like in so many other countries.

As for the language itself, it's a Bantu language (part of the Niger-Congo language family), which means it was brought to East Africa by Bantu people who migrated out of the Niger River basin centuries ago. Even though the language is African in origin, Swahili has been heavily influenced by Arabic. The reason is that there has been a large Arab presence (mostly traders) on the coast of East Africa for a long time. Because of this, Swahili has borrowed many words from Arabic - and more recently, other languages as well. In fact, "standard" Swahili - which is what we learn as Peace Corps trainees - is the dialect of Zanzibar. So the language was originally brought to the coast from the interior of the country, where it came into contact with Arabic. It was then spread back inland by traders, having taken a large influx of words from Arabic. Swahili words like salama (peace), fikiri (think), and subiri (wait) are taken almost directly from Arabic. Other more recent borrowings from Western languages are words like kompyuta (computer), pesa (money), and basi (bus).

The language structure is very regular, and as I said, generally very easy to learn. Pronunciation is perhaps the easiest aspect of all, as words are pronounced phonetically. Furthermore, each letter only has one pronounciation, which means there is no confusion like there is in English (for instance, how we say the "g" in girl and giraffe). Not only that, every letter in a word is spoken, and there are no dipthongs like in English. A dipthong is a combination of vowels, e.g. in the word tear, the "e" and "a" are spoken as a single syllable. In Swahili, those two letters would be spoken as independent sounds. And the stress in words is practically always on the second-to-last syllable, the exception being if the word ends in a double vowel, then the stress is on the last syllable, e.g. shikamoo (a word used to greet elders respectfully).

Grammar is also very straightforward, for the most part. A normal way of constructing a sentence is to take a verb, add a subject prefix, and add a tense marker. For instance, take the verb kufanya (to do). The ku- is the infinitive prefix, so fanya is what you use. If you want to say "I do", you take the verb stem, add the subject prefix for "I", which is ni, and add the present tense marker, which is na. Putting them together, you get ninafanya. To change to past or future tense, you simply change the tense marker, which is li for past, and ta for future. So nilifanya is "I did", and nitafanya is "I will do".

There is no gender in Swahili, and the general sentence structure is the same as English (Subject-Verb-Object). Though, like many languages other than English, adjectives come after the nouns they describe, not before. So if I want to say "I did a lot of work", you would say Nilifanya kazi nyingi, but kazi is work, and nyingi is a lot.

The only confusing aspect of Swahili has to do with something called noun classes. Even though the distinctions have become a bit blurred over the centuries, Swahili nouns used to be grouped into fairly well-defined classes based on what the noun represented (this is a feature of many Bantu languages). For instance, words in what we call the M-WA noun class have to do with living, moving things:

mwalimu (teacher) - walimu (teachers)
mzazi (parent) - wazazi (parents)
mwanafunzi (student) - wanafunzi (students)

There are seven noun classes in total, which in itself isn't a big deal. The problem comes when you are constructing a sentence. This example should explain where the trouble arises:

This is my book. Hiki ni kitabu changu.
These are my books. Hivi ni vitabu vyangu.

This is my mango. Hili ni embe langu.
These are my mangoes. Haya ni maembe yangu.

So in the above sentences, -angu is the possessive word. The thing is, the prefix in front of -angu changes depending on a) what noun class the noun you are possessing comes from, and b) whether the noun is singular or plural. Likewise, the words Hiki and Hili both mean "this", while the words Hivi and Haya both mean "these".

This makes it tough to speak proper Swahili, because I basically have to think the sentence out before I speak, and make sure I'm using all the right agreements. Eventually it starts to become automatic, but it's definitely rough when you're first learning. Here's a longer example to see just how many words in a sentence have to agree with the noun they're talking about (bolded letters are ones that will change with different nouns - I've bolded them to make it easier to see):

Huyu ni mwalimu wangu mzuri wa Kiswahili ambaye ana magari mengi.
(This is my good Swahili teacher who has many cars.)

Hiki ni kitabu changu kizuri cha Kemia ambacho kina kurasa nyingi.
(This is my good Chemistry book which has many pages.)

In the first sentence, the word mwalimu is dictating the structure of the words Huyu (this), wangu (my), mzuri (good), wa (of), ambaye (who), and ana (has). The word magari (cars) is dictating the structure of the word mengi (many).

In the second sentence, the word kitabu is dictating the structure of the words Hiki (this), changu (my), kizuri (good), cha (of), ambacho (which), and kina (has). The word kurasa (pages) is dictating the structure of the word nyingi (many).

See where the confusion arises? If you said Hiki ni mwalimu changu kizuri cha Kiswahili ambacho kina magari nyingi, you would probably get a blank stare from many people here, because it's completely incorrect. So changing just one word in a sentence can cause nearly every other word in the sentence to change as well. And because there are different agreements for each of the seven noun classes, it's tough to always get them right. It makes it even harder because some of the agreements are the same for different noun classes, except they're swiched for singular and plural. For instance:

Hii ni funguo yangu. (These are my keys.) - The word funguo is plural and in the U-N noun class

Hii ni kompyuta yangu. (This is my computer.) - The word kompyuta is singular and in the N-N noun class

This can get very confusing, when agreements for the singular in one noun class are used for the plural for another noun class. (head exploding)

Still, considering that's the only real hard part about learning Swahili, there isn't much to complain about. Overall I'd still say it's a vastly easier language to learn than English, and it has the benefit of being widely useful.

It also has some great words/phrases; here are some of my favorites:

mzushi - rumormonger
lala fofofo - sleep like a log (lala is sleep)
acha longolongo - stop the chatter (acha is stop)
wowowo - large rear-end
funga bakuli lako - literally "shut your bowl" (probably the strongest way to tell someone to shut up)
umetoka mchicha - literally "you are from spinach" (a way to tell someone they're smartly dressed)
tako - any old rear-end (had a great time with this one trying to explain to my host family that in the US, a taco is something you eat)

And though it's not a Swahili word, I still have to forcibly keep myself from laughing when my students ask me for a "rubber" - apparently it's what the British call an eraser, and obviously the people here have no idea that it's slang for a condom, but it cracks me up nonetheless.