Dr. Seuss and Wachawi Come to the Village

March 12, 2009

I am exhausted. I only got eight hours of sleep last night. Yep, that's right, I said only. Usually I get ten. During training PC told us that we would need more because of our stress level, but really I think what most PCVs attribute it to is being alone with no electricity, you can only read for so long, this causes us to go to bed at the time of most five year olds. But last night I couldn't fall asleep. Sometimes I have a hard time the night before I teach.

We have been having beautiful nights here in the village. With a big full moon and a million stars. There is a huge owl that sits in the tree outside my house, he is there every night now. In the early morning around 4.30 am when I wait for our village car to take me to town I can see three of them usually. They all have their respective perches and they call to each other. Also, I have never seen so many bats as when I wait for the car. It is a good thing I love both bats and owls. The bats fly around me so closely their wings brush my hair. The owl in my tree and I have pretty regular staring contests, I don't have a lot else to do at night. Tanzanians hate owls as they believe them to be a bad omen, so I decided to freak Juster out. I told her about the owls I see, and she reacted in shock. "You see them!" "Yep." Then she told me that someone has put the evil eye on me because I see them and they hang out around me. It seems to me though that the owl is the only one with his eye one me. He turns his neck all the way around to check me out. Then he goes back to scanning the ground for rats, so I make a shuffling noise so he looks back over at me. I know this is distracting him from keeping the rats away from my house, but it is sort of fun and he is really smart. He only falls for my shuffling a few times before he ignores me. All is beautiful here. In fact, during my last sight visit PC told me that my view from my house was the most beautiful they had seen at a PC home.

So today I taught at school. Yesterday I spent the entire day translating, "Oh, The Places You'll Go" by Dr. Seuss into Kiswahili. I must say that I did take some artistic liberties though, it is difficult to find words like "mind-maker-upper" and "boom band" in my dictionary. I think a bit was lost in translation- but overall, introducing Dr. Seuss at a Tanzanian primary school was a big success. You have to put yourself in the mindset here. These children have no books, no teacher has ever sat them down to read to them, there is no story rug. So I decide to try it. "Oh, The Places You'll Go" I figure is a great life skills book about making good choices and believing in yourself and an insight into American culture. It also seems like a travesty to me to be 10 years old and never have heard Dr. Seuss, even if it is in Kiswahili.

The reaction was out of control. I was supposed to teach class 6 & 7 today, which can loosely be compared to sixth and seventh grade. However, while TZ children are more advanced in many ways than American children (Most of the girls will be married in a few short years), in many ways they are stunted somehow. So I worry they will be too cool for the book... should not have worried. The reaction was verbal- from screams of delight, to "Ah!", to uncontrollable laughter. I did not even have to translate the book, they loved the pictures so much. Excited conversation was sparked each time I turned the page. A little boy in Darasa Sita (Class six), who has always reminded me of my brothers (weird how Africans can act and look so much like Americans in a weird way) moved all the way around the class following me so that he could look at the pictures for as long as possible. It is difficult to show a picture to a class of 80, so I was basically just running around the room. I teach it four times in a row because all the class levels are split into two rooms of about 80 a piece. I don't usually teach in a row though but because no one else is teaching, I just do it all. I try to be like Miss Honey from Matilda today... I try to make the student's day fun. After I taught my four classes I figured that the rest of the school should get some Dr. Seuss too. So I taught every class today- 10 separate times of reading Dr. Seuss in Kiswahili. It was great I would walk into a class without a teacher and all the kids would do the "Yes!" arm pump-type response that is typical of American kids. As I read I would half the time I would expect to hear my Dad's voice. My Mom usually read to us, but my Dad's job was to read Dr. Seuss in a big booming voice that I tried to replicate.

Then I went home and fell asleep- it was only 2.30 but I was wiped.

Today Mwalimu Msanga asked me if I would teach Rebeca (Katherine's older sister) English, so that she will be able to get into secondary school. In exchange (I did not really need an exchange) she is going to help me around the house. I am really excited about getting to know students one on one and she is a really sweet girl who I would love to see do well.

After I got up from my nap, I played with the lost boys for a bit. This is my nickname for Clavel, Lau and all their friends. Being 3 and 4 years old, they are too young to go to school. So they spend their days running around in a miniature gang. They are the dirtiest bunch but so cute. Today they were running up and down our main dirt road, barefoot holding bucket lids like steering wheels and making car noises. It was like a tiny version of the Indy 500 minus the cars.

A weird thing happened today. The Mwalimu Mkuu came into school and said something to the teachers and they were all really upset. I didn't understand and Juster and Jen were both traveling, so there goes my English speakers. Mama Lau tried to tell me slowly in Kiswahili but Mwalimu Mjemah told her 'No, Brie needs to know. We must try to use our English." So then I had about 8 teachers attempting to string together what little English they could manage mixed with Kiswahili to get this story. Apparently some Wachawi (Witches) have come to our village that are from somewhere else. They are selling human hands, breast and vaginas. Right- I know. So many questions. It should be said that witchcraft is wide spread all over Africa. On Radio Africa it is one of the main news topics all over the continent. It is a huge problem here. Tanzania is particularly known for the murdering of Albinos. Usually their skin or body parts are sold or used in some type of potion that is supposed to bring the bearer luck, a good harvest or money. I begin questioning- "Human ones?" Not that monkeys would really be much better. Answer: Yes. Me: From Albinos? Them: Some are but some people who have the lines of the palm making an "m" (Mwalimu Maria immediately check my palm- no "m") Me: Why? Them: They will make money. (Ok- not the question.) Me: Why would anyone buy them? They have magical powers. There are so many things wrong with this I can't even begin. All I know is that this is a bit creepy. If it was just regular TZ superstition, I would be all for it, but this is weird, a little more serial-killerish. I am assured I cannot be mistaken for an Albino... so don't worry, Mom. :-)