An update at last

[Note: I wrote this update a month ago (October 1 or so), but the Internet was down in town when I went to sent it. To preserve it in all its original glory (that is, because I am lazy), I have not edited this post at all. I would also like to congratulate the Phillips girls cross country team, including a certain sister of mine, for qualifying for and competing well in the Wisconsin Division 3 state championship race yesterday!]

Well, I’m now failing again at updating the blog. Contrary to popular belief, I have in fact been doing things here, just not updating online, and a lot has been happening.

Last month, my Grandma Dresser passed away peacefully from the late stage lung cancer she had been diagnosed with this summer. She was an amazing woman, and I can’t believe she and Grandpa are both gone now. The obituary she wrote is available at: http://www.westgorfuneralhomes.com/fh/obituaries/obituary.cfm?o_id=1262565&fh_id=13304

At Majengo Secondary School, our students took their mid-term exams in mid-September, and then I marked my English exams like it was my job (which, yet again, it was). As always, I don’t know how much English my students are learning, but the more I try to teach English, the better my still limited KiSwahili becomes. I have become particularly proficient in talking bilingually about such exciting topics as the parts of speech and book reports. I have also read far too many book reports about Kalulu the Hare. I wonder what author Frank Worthington would think if he knew that the 1937 abridgment of his collection of traditional stories about the trickster rabbit Kalulu would become a staple of the Tanzanian educational system’s Form I curriculum, at least for those schools which have resources. (I believe our copies were donated by the British government.)

During mid-term break, I took a day off from marking and ventured west to Arusha, the major city in northern Tanzania, for the first time since in-country orientation in December. I visited two modest museums, one of which was in the former German colonial boma (fort/administration building) and the other was in the hall where the ruling party issued the Arusha Declaration. The Declaration set forth the terms of Tanzanian socialism, laying down strict limits for leaders and also announcing the imminent nationalization of several major industries. Needless to say, the Arusha Declaration is no longer in effect today, but it remains an important historical document. I also visited the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and was able to watch through glass windows and listen using headphones to the ongoing prosecution and appeals proceedings of accused perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide. I hope to go back when I have time to watch the proceedings for a longer period of time.

As for other excitement, I continue to run in the morning all five weekdays, which is crazy. What would be even crazier is if I could fire myself up to get in that crucial weekly long run I need each Saturday so that maybe, just maybe I won’t get crushed in next year’s Kilimanjaro Marathon, which is less than five months away at this point. My KiSwahili is chugging along, and I finally finished Teach Yourself Swahili by Joan Russell. I would definitely recommend it as a decent way to build up to a basic understanding of the KiSwahili language, but I’ve also heard from other people, including several fellow Jesuit Volunteers, that they didn’t find the program helpful. What can I say? Maybe Joan just likes me better . . . although I really wish she would have prepared me better to read newspapers and listen to radio news. Let the studies continue!

I’ve started meeting regularly with a nun and an aspiring nun near our house at the compound of the Sisters of Mt. Kilimanjaro, the same order which runs Saint Mary Goretti Secondary School where Liz and Beth work. Mostly, we just practice speaking in a mix of Swahili and English, and I continue to be amazed by the vibrancy of religious life here in Tanzania. In Moshi, becoming a sister is absolutely a relatively common and certainly respectable life decision for Catholic girls and young women to make, and many more men here consider becoming priests or brothers. In fact, quite a few teachers at Majengo are men who were on the priesthood track but for various reasons were not ordained.

Oh, and I’ve found what may be my favorite Thing with a capital “T” to do here (as in, a formal activity you could direct someone to emulate by including a paragraph in a Moshi guidebook). A newly built 11-story retail and office complex, only has tenants on the first several floors, but I recently discovered that the steps are open all the way until the 10^th floor (officially the 9^th here, where they don’t count the ground floor), where there is a nice open space with guardrails to look out over the city. I suspect they will put a restaurant or some other business that can utilize the space by charging money, but for now, it’s still bure (free). I took a few pictures last weekend. Although they don’t really do Moshi justice, I’m putting a few up here in an accompanying post because, well generally because I don’t normally put pictures of Moshi on the blog.

This coming weekend, our director and our program director from the JVC International Program Office in Washington, DC, will be here in Moshi hanging out with us. Among many other things, they will be coming to school with us. Is Majengo ready for four Americans associated with JVC to show up at one time? We’ll find out on October 10.

May the truth continue to set us free,

Andy

 

 

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