So my love for these people continues to grow and grow and its almost becoming unbearable. the thought of leaving never fails to bring a tightness in my chest and tears to my eyes. ever since i came back from my safari, i've been spending more and more time with everyone and growing closer and closer to them.
i think the ultimate highlight of my week was saturday night. last week, i was just hanging out with the boys and thinking how they never get to go out, they never have fun, they never just have time when they can be free and away from work and just let go. so i talked to bibi and i arranged to take the boys out. so on saturday, i took albert, iwe, lusekelo, james, simon, and amos to see ngwasuma (the most popular band in tanzania). all week they "prepared" themselves, singing and dancing. and they LOVED the concert. i will NEVER forget how much they laughed, how they danced, how they were SOO incredibly happy. it was probably the first time they had ever done anything like that, and for most of them, it may be the last. unless of course, i can arrange to do it once more before i leave. which could prove to be difficult. the boys enjoyed themselves SO much that they refused to leave when we were supposed to. bibi had told us to be home at 1 a.m. (since i was taking all the boys there would be no one to open the gate, so she was going to stay awake and wait for us). well, we couldn't get the boys to leave, so we didnt make it home until 3 a.m. needless to say, bibi was NOT pleased, but i took full responsibility because i felt getting in trouble was worth a night of so much fun for the boys. by the next day bibi insisted she was over it, and all was forgiven.
babu's been gone for a few days now because his sister died last week, so he left to go to the funeral and travel around to other parts of TZ to see family. When his sister died, our house was filled with family and everyone was cooking and we basically had a HUGE "sleepover" for 2 nights.
i bought all the people who work at the house their own english-swahili/swahili-english dictionary to help them communicate with me (i bought myself one, too). apparently, eliza and petronella have been going to english classes every other day for the past 4-5 months and that has definitely been helping them. iwe and i have been working on his english, he has been completing the tests and assignments that i give my class. one person who has latched on to me, MUCH to my surprise, is lusekelo. he and i have been sitting and working on his english every night. i tell him stories, we work on his pronunciation and vocabulary, and i help him with his writing and spelling. if im sitting inside, he makes the stupidest reasons to come in and sit there as long as possible, or he calls me and lets it ring once, and this his way of telling me he wants me to come outside to sit and talk with him. my students are also seeking me much more than i expected they would. they actually come to me during their free periods and ask me to have an extra class. one of the massai boys who is a guard at the school is illiterate (he's in his late 20's), but he's just been learning to write the alphabet and he very proudly showed me his a, b, and c scribbles today. VERY cute.
many of the teachers are really making me angry, two of them in particular. they are so lazy and so irresponsible. there are many times when they just sit in the staff room and dont teach their classes. last week i went to help at ELA, the nursery school, and i was on my way back to fanaka around 11:30 and i came across those two teachers sitting at the bar. i told bibi and she had quite a talk with them. then, the very next day, one of them came to school two hours late with no reason. today, i came back from class and saw that my pen was missing from my desk. it was the only one i had with me, so i was searching for it. i spotted it on one of the teachers' desks along with about 4 other pens (so he obviously wasn't "borrowing" it out of need). i walked over, picked up the pen, and said, "yeah, this is mine," and sat back down at my desk. the two teachers said some things in swahili to each other and giggled like they always do so stupidly. the teacher who took my pen also owes the shop next to our house about $30 for beer he never paid for one night. somedays it takes all i have not to walk over and punch those two in the face.
BUT, other than that, haha, i like school, and i live my students. sometimes they talk too much and they drive me crazy, but i do my best to incorporate things into class that they will find "entertaining" and its done a lot to keep them interested. they are precious. i really, really love them.
thats the latest from tz. :)
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