Dirt, Home Base, Volunteering: Adam and Emma

Dirt

“Out Damn Dirt”
--Macbeth (or what the line might have been had the play been set in Africa).

I don’t share Melissa’s OCD tendencies regarding dirt, but even my highly relaxed standards are being tested. Every night, I scrub the bottom of my feet and yet they remain black. I have this nagging fear that I’m going to end up in a lovely, walled institution, where I will spend the balance of my days scrubbing my feet, while gazing emptily into the sky. You must visit!!

Home Base

Melissa pretty well captured the animal menagerie that is our morning alarm clock. I have only one thing to add. Roosters really do say cock a doodle do. It's uncanny. The other unfortunate side effect of this noise is that every morning I wake up with an adolescent joke on my mind. What’s the difference between a rooster and a prostitute? Given the family nature of this blog, I will spare you the punch line (thought I suspect that many of you have heard this joke). If you really want to know the punch line, email me.

It is worth briefly introducing you to the locals that run the organization here. There are three senior people: Moses is the boss, Mama Grace and Fulgence. Each of them is quite extraordinary. Moses exudes this Gandhiesque wisdom and gentleness. Mama Grace is a regal woman who exudes African strength. In a world where woman are still very subservient, she is a forceful and opinionated (in a good way) presence. Fulgence is a gentle, jovial soul. He speaks in a slow, deliberate, almost dramatic cadence. He almost sounds like he is performing Shakespeare when he speaks of even the most insignificant matters (e.g. giving directions to the local orphanage). The main responsibility of the three of them is to ensure that all runs smoothly, from our accommodations to our placements. They are committed to our getting as much out of our time in Africa as is possible. They are remarkable people and we all feel our lives have been enriched by knowing them. There are several others as well—and everyone one of them feels like part of this really lovely and warm family.

Volunteering

Emma and my work experience has been markedly different from Melissa’s and Maya’s. We’re at a school called Ebenezer Academy, an English immersion school, so every subject is taught in English. On Monday, I met the headmaster, who seemed nice, if slightly psychologically off-kilter. More on that later. Our first day, Tuesday, was spent observing. We arrived at, what by Tanzanian standards, was a fairly high end private school, classrooms (with real floors), only 20 students or so in a class, a real cafeteria of sorts, etc. When we arrived, they were doing their morning assembly, consisting of singing the Tanzanian National Anthem and praying to God. While the school is not a parochial school per se, Christianity is firmly embedded into the school. I wonder what the Muslim students think. In addition, they do a lot of quasi-military activities-marching, responsive yelling, etc. They are all dressed in uniforms consisting of green v-neck sweaters and green shorts for the boys and green skirts for the girls. Uniforms are mandatory for school kids in both the public and private schools. Every morning, throughout Tanzania, you see reams of similarly clad children walking to school. It’s a very adorable sight. At Ebenezer the kids range in age from 2 to 13 or so. Emma spent the bulk of the day hanging out with the pre-school kids, who love her and I observed a variety of classes.

However, at one point, Emma joined me in a science class. Imagine my surprise when I saw the teacher write on the top of the board “Human Reproduction.” So, a moment of uncertainty set in—do I grab Emma and run out of the class and risk insulting them? Now, don’t get me wrong, I am not naïve enough to believe that my precocious Emma is unaware of the birds and the bees, it was really more a question of what was going to be presented. Well, we decided to stay, for the sake of cultural sensitivity. The teacher then proceeded to go into an in depth discussion of the female reproductive system. Unlike an American classroom, where all the students would be tittering, the students took this very seriously answering all manner of questions about female sexual organs. Only Emma and I were tittering. I will say that it was somewhat humorous in that while the teacher’s English was very good, some of the idioms were slightly off, which in the context of a discussion of female sex organs is, well, funny. For instance, menstruation was described as the “monthly flowing out of uterus fragments together with blood.” Certainly not wrong (I think), but perhaps not the words that I would have chosen. Indeed, to me, it sounded like the description of a botched hysterectomy. After class, Emma and I made a blood oath to never talk of this again.

The teaching has been interesting. First, when you walk into the classroom the students stand up and give you a formal welcome. It’s not short. I stand there feeling slightly awkward as this ritual goes on. It reminded me, a little, of when I had just moved from NY to LA. I was used to jay walking in NY and the first time I started to jay walk in LA across a major thoroughfare, I brought traffic to a complete halt. I didn’t know whether to continue to jay walk or move back. Similarly, when they start this welcome ritual I don’t know whether to have them sit down and forego or just stand there awkwardly.

I have been asked to teach math and English. The math is currently adding and subtracting fractions, of which I, of course, had no recollection. As a lawyer, adding and subtracting fractions does not come up much. The English class was a bit more my speed, but even that posed unexpected challenges. They teach in a very traditional manner. For instance, I was asked to prepare a lesson on present tense—present simple, present continuous and present perfect. Needless to say, I did not admit that I had no recollection of these various tenses. Nonetheless, I muddled through and it has been okay (although when Maya came with me one day she thought that I was atrociously boring). The kids are good kids and seem committed to learning. I think the fact that they’re at a private school suggests that the parents of these kids recognize the importance of education.

A brief side note: Corporal punishment is still permitted in the schools in Tanzania. They use a switch to discipline the kids. While I have not seen it, Emma and I heard a kid being disciplined and it was very upsetting. We were warned of this practice before we started, but it’s still jarring to hear this going on right in front of you. I discussed this with one of the teachers, a 21 year old from man from Kenya named Hillary, and he believes that, in moderation, this type of discipline is appropriate. He asked me how it would be viewed in the US, to which I responded the teacher would be fired and arrested. He laughed, I laughed and another slightly surreal moment had passed.

I have become pretty good friends with two of the teachers, Hillary and Charles, both of whom are from Kenya and in their early twenties. Both are committed, talented teachers and very interesting guys. After meeting Charles for all of five minutes, he asked me who was going to be the next president. Similarly, at one point, Hillary asked me what Bush was thinking in wanting to increase the number of troops in Iraq. We have had some great conversations.

The one day that Maya came with me, they asked her to sing the US National Anthem. She said no, but offered me up. I started to try to sing it, but did not remember the words, so I promised to sing it the next day on the condition that they would sing the Tanzanian national anthem. Sure enough, the next day (after finding the words online the night before) I got up in front of the class and sang the national anthem. For those of you who know me, singing in public (especially a song that requires a 4 octave range) is slightly less desirable than root canal. However, in my effort to transcend my naturally curmudgeonly tendencies, I decided to go with it. All I can say is that, in retrospect, Roseanne Barr’s rendition was actually pretty good. I do not expect an invitation to the Super Bowl, anytime soon.

Yesterday, at snack time, which is preceded and proceeded by a prayer to Jesus, I was introduced to the School Manager. He spoke to the students and advised them that “knowledge starts with fear of god.” So that’s my problem, I’m only afraid of Melissa (and to a lesser extent, but only slightly, Paulette). After meeting the school manager, I asked one of the teachers to explain to me the structure of the school management. He advised me that the guy who had been introduced to me as the Headmaster had essentially been kicked upstairs. When I asked why, the teacher responded that he had psychological problems. As I mentioned above, I had this sense early on. When the headmaster was giving me the tour the teachers showed him very little respect. Moreover, when I talk to him, I always had this feeling that one synapse was slightly misfiring.

While it was an interesting week, I think I’m going to change my volunteer placement. The fact is that the teachers at Ebenezer are better than I am and I am simply taking the place of more qualified teachers. I think that they want volunteers so that they can tell people that they have volunteers and I think that they also see it as a source of potential donations. On Monday, I’m going to check out another organization called Second Chance, which focuses on helping kids who did not make it into the regular secondary schools. Apparently, they need English teachers pretty desperately. I think the placement will be more difficult, but I think that I will be able to provide more valuable assistance.

Most of the volunteers do various side projects in addition to their day to day volunteering. As Melissa mentioned in her earlier blog, we have helped raise money to buy mattresses for an orphanage. Below are pictures from the orphanage.





Today (Saturday) we painted the inside of dilapidated building, in what can only be described as a shanty town. The project was inspired and orchestrated by our fellow volunteers—two extraordinary young women with boundless energy and impressive skills.



The building will be used as an orphanage and a school. It’s hard to know whether these projects are worthwhile. On the one hand, these projects provide immediate benefits (and satisfaction to the volunteers) and some hope and optimism for the locals who were so appreciative and seemingly touched by the whole production. We have some sense that projects such as these seem like non-sustainable band aids, but maybe inspiration is enough. It’s really hard to know what the right thing is.

That said, last night, we dropped off the mattresses at the orphanage. It was an amazing experience. The kids were simply overjoyed to see us. The kids are unbelievably cute. They also seem so happy, despite the fact that they live in squalor, truly.

Adios.