A Mass E-Mail From Lew

Some people might have recieved this from Lew, but for those that did not I thought you would enjoy reading what he has to say so far...



Dear Family and Friends,

Tanzanians aren't exactly accustomed to celebrating birthdays, so it was a special event as the monks tried to provide me with their best renindition of a birthday party this past Tuesday. The cook even prepared a Bunt cake, and although it was a bit more bunt than cake, it was well received. They also sang me the infamous "Cakey" song which sort of goes like this, "cakey, cakey, cakey, cakey (pause), cakey, cakey, cakey, cakey". The night climaxed, however, with the Abbot's teaching of his favourite drinking games. All in all it was a special day and thanks for all of the birthday wishes…I did get them.

Derek and I have been in Tanzania for a little over three weeks now, and apart from the short beds and even shorter doorways, we seem to fit in pretty well here. Life in Hanga is definitely wild…not so much in the "Spring Break Cancun" sense of the word, but more in the sense that everyday holds its new experiences and odd surprises. And since things are so different here, I'm not going to try and give a detailed explanation of what it's like. Instead, I thought I would run through a typical day so that you have of sense of what's happening here. Here it goes…



Having lived at St. John's for a good chunk of my life, I am accustomed to waking up to the calling of the church…and in a way it's the same here at Hanga. I guess the only difference is that instead of the slow ringing of soothing bells, there's a monk outside our windows going to town on a rusty old tire rim with a steel rod…it still works to the same effect however…I'm up.

So at 6:00 AM, I am sitting up in my bed trying to get my bearings in a hurry because I know that in 10 minutes, Guisi, the older Italian lady from across the hall, will be knocking at my door to pick me up for Mass. At this time in the morning it is pitch black out, so my mosquito net has proven to do a better job of keeping me in than the mosquitoes out, as I continually attempt to roll out of bed before untucking it first.

For the past two weeks, Guisi has accompanied me for the brisk (it's really cold here in the mornings) walk to the Abbey Church. Over this period of time we have both become accustomed to our specific roles for the walk; I carry the flashlight to light the way while she goes off about something in Italian (she speaks absolutely no English)…I don't know if she is actually talking me or just jabbering, but just in case she thinks I understand, I make sure to throw in a reassuring "si" whenever she pauses to take a breath.

After Mass and breakfast I'm off to work. It depends on the day, but I'll either be heading to the Seminary/Secondary School/Trade School to teach English and physics or to the farm to tend to the pigs and cows. Now while teaching is my full time job here at the Abbey, I'm really excited to be working with the animals and learning the ins and outs of agriculture. The monastery is self sufficient community, so they have everything here from bananas to sweet potatoes to rabbits. The only thing about the working at the farm that gets to me is that I know I've spent considerable amounts of time getting to know the animals that are being served to me later that day. So this is why having two jobs is nice, because you can change up the pace if one gets a little monotonous. The one odd thing about teaching at the Seminary and Secondary school is that the headmasters complain about the teachers not being strict enough with the students…Br. Allan is not afraid to remind us that if we are not comfortable with corporal punishment we should at least be willing to pinch the "foolish" students (check out the picture, you'll understand).

After work, Derek and I usually head out to the grounds to get some physical activity by playing soccer with the kids. Now there are three soccer fields (more like dustbowls) for the students; one for the good players, one for the okay players, and one for the kids with two left feet. To keep our street credit among our students, Derek and I have relinquished ourselves to the playing with the kids with two left feet. And as not to put any team at a greater disadvantage we have chosen to always play on opposite teams. But although there are more than 40 Tanzanians on the field at one time, Derek and I always have a knack of finding and running into one another. It's like we're polar magnets or something, because no matter where we are on the field it seems that we are always getting our gangly, uncoordinated bodies tangled up in one other…and I'm sure the students are just loving it. So far, I've been on the short end up the collisions and have the scabs on my knees to show for it…but also a couple goals (Me 2: Derek 0).

We've thought about hanging up our soccer cleats and picking up running again, but Derek's run in with a Viper during our last hike in the bush has really put a hamper on our desire to go running in the wild. Plus the locals seem to get enough of a shock just seeing a pair of Wazungu (white guys) walking around…so I don't think they'd know what to do if they saw us running towards them.

Our evenings are spent studying Swahili, hanging out with students, or just figuring out what to teach the next day (we have no books for the classes we teach so this can take some creativeness) until it's time for supper. Now supper is usually the highlight of the day, because beside rice, ugali, vegetables, and bananas there is also some meat, fish or something I've never seen before (all things that are not too common for the local Hanga villagers). After dinner we hang out with the younger monks who teach us Swahili slang and at 8:45 we head to Kompleto. By the time Kompleto is over we are fairly exhausted so we hit the sack around 9:30…and that's all she wrote.

Sorry about the mass email, I dislike sending them, but since our time on the internet is scarce, this will have to do. I hope everything is going well in your next of the woods, and write me if you get the chance. It's always good to hear what's going on in the world.



Baadaye,

Lew

How to Contact Me/Send Donation

If anyone would like to contact me there are a few different ways to go about:

You can reply to a post on this website.

You can e-mail me directly at drunner18@gmail.com

You can mail me a letter to the address (this could take as little as a week and a half or as long as a month to arrive):

Derek Johnson
St. Maurus Hanga Abbey
PO Box 217
Songea, Tanzania
East Africa

You can call me on my cell phone:

255-78-219-0567

DONATIONS:

If you are interested in sending a donation the best way to go about this would be to send me a letter or e-mail telling me the amount you would like to donate and if you would like to donate to anything specifically (see previous post about specific options). I can then meet with the person in charge of fundraising to find out where to send the money. The Abbey has a bank account in the USA as well as Europe where personal checks are more easily deposited.

It's a small small world

The other day I was working in the Seminary library and browsing some math textbooks to help me lesson plan when I stumbled upon some Transition Mathbooks that looked similar to what I had used in middle school. I opened the book to see if I remembered doing any of that work and sure enough stamped right on the front cover was South View Middle School and under the names list where students that I graduated with from High School. Makes the world seem pretty small.

Fundraising/Donations

Some people have inquired about possible ways to help out the people here in Hanga. There are a number of different ways you can help donate depending on what you would like to help with.

Currently the Abbey is building a new guesthouse to celebrate their 50th anniversary jubilee. The monk that was in charge of fundraising in the US just recently passed away in a car accident and many of his contacts were lost. The Abbey is hoping to have this finished by August. After the celebration they will use this to host seminars and guests as a way to raise money for themselves.

The schools are in need of lots of repair. They have plenty of old textbooks that are just sitting in boxes because they don't have enough shelves in the library to arrange the books. Also, the blackboards in the schools are very poor quality and this makes it difficult to write, and read off of. There are certain books that the government puts out that follow the syllabus. These can be bought here in Tanzania and kept in the library so students would be able to use books that go along with what they need to be studying.

For secondary school it costs, I think, $150 for the year. Many students can't afford this and the Abbey helps them out financially. Supporting students is another way.

There are also many other projects that the abbey runs and could use any sort of donations for if there is nothing specific that you would like to contribute too. This includes a health center, a new washing center for clothes, they are trying to come up with a new way to get electricity to the campus grounds during the days during the dry season. (right now they use a hydropowered system that only works when the water level is high during the rainy season so it is very expensive to get electricity during the dry season), plus many more that I'm probably forgetting.

Teaching

This week I began my teaching assignments in Tanzania. I am teaching 3 different classes: Form 1 and Form 2 English, and Form 1 math in the secondary schools. In Tanzania they don't have the grade, middle, high school system like the US. They have a primary and secondary school. Primary school would be equivilant to an elementary and maybe 6th and 7th grade; secondary school would be equivilant to 8th-12th. Primary education is free, but secondary schooling costs students money and they must pass government tests in order to advance past Form 2 and, if they choose to further advance their education, they must pass a test after Form 4 as well.

The English classes that I teach are at St. Benedict's Secondary school. This is a school that was opened to give boys AND girls of all different religious backgrounds an opportunity to learn. Before this was open the monestary only had a seminary school for boys. In Form 1 at St Benedicts there are a total of 180 students divided into 2 classes, Form 1A and Form 1B. On Monday and Wednesday Lew and I go and teach for 2 hours. For the 1st hour Lew teaches Form 1A speech and I teach Form 1B writing. For the 2nd hour we switch. The first week was a bit of a challenge. Lesson planning for up to 90 students, who speak very little english, is a little difficult. In primary school students are taking English, but once you reach secondary school ALL of their classes are in english, so Form 1 students often don't speak all that well. Most of the teachers are left to simply write notes on the board and lecture. Group activites are pretty limited.

At the seminary, teaching is a little different. The classes are smaller, 54 students, and they tend to be a bit more advanced than those at St. benedicts. Form 1 math teaches is pretty basic. It reminds me a lot of 5th and 6th grade math in the US. Basic algebra, graphing, geometry, and so on. I am going to start the unit on geometry next week. Teaching is difficult as well beacuse not all students have books. The libraries here have lots and lots of books that have been donated from different schools around the world, but none of them fully coordinate with what the government syllabus requires. This leaves students struggling to look through various books to try and find problems relating to what was being taught in class. It also creates problems when trying to lesson plan, because students do not have workbooks to do exercises or problems. Usually I find myself going though most of these old text books looking for problems that I can write on the board for students to copy and do for homework.

Aside from teaching I will begin working on a website for the Abbey and the various schools that the Abbey helps to run. Electricity permitting, I hope to work on this when I have free time. I think it will greatly help the Abbey with fundraising and general awareness about who they are.

Added Pictures

So, I think I figured a way to share pictures on here. I have been posting my pictures on the website Facebook.com but I think the links that I just added under interesting links will allow anyone to view the pictures, whether you belong to facebook or not. Hopefully it works!

Reflection

“Being in a foreign country means walking a tightrope high above the ground without the net afforded a person by the country where he has family, colleagues, and friends, and where he can easily say what he has to say in a language he has known from childhood.”
Milan Kundera, “The Unbearable Lightness of Being”

There is never an easy way to say goodbye to what you have become accustomed to doing. This can be as simple as saying goodbye to the college life and starting a job in the “real world” or as complex as moving to a new country and working with none of the immediate support that was once so readily available. As I begin to acclimate myself to the lifestyle of the Tanzanian people I have been reflecting on the incredible differences between the way of life between the people here and back in the United States.
According to a 2004 report Tanzania was listed as the 2nd poorest country in the world with a measurable GDP, only in front of Sierra Leone. A big part of this is because of the size of the country and the education and occupation of many of the people. The country itself is twice the size of California and the people are spread out amongst the countryside. There are a few bigger cities, which you can see have made the map where life is somewhat more similar to the US, but there are many many people who live in small villages that have not been deemed map worthy. The people in these small villages usually will never make it to the bigger cities. They are farmers by occupation and grow what they need to live off of and will set up a stand, much like kids set up lemonade stands, with some of their produce to try and sell or trade with people who are passing by on their way to get water, food, or sometimes kids on their way to school. They make little money from their sales and have no cars. Many times as I meet people and talk with them one of their first questions is do you drive a car in America. When I tell them I do they look at me wide eyed as if they have just met a celebrity. If a farmer is able to have an unusually healthy harvest he might be able to sell or trade enough of his goods to buy a bike. A coveted sign of wealth. Because many people must walk up to 10-15 miles a day to find water, supplies, or education, a bike provides faster transport and the ability to carry heavier loads.
Education is a big issue in Tanzania and not everyone is able to get it. The government recently passed a mandate to make primary school (grade school) free to all students, but secondary school costs money, which some families cannot afford. Those that are able to go to school often don’t have the supplies they need to get a worthy education. In order to pass the national tests and move up in grade levels students must study many subjects: English, Swahili, math, chemistry, physics, physical education, geography, history, and civics, to name a few. Students and schools have little money, however so there are no calculators for math, no test tubes or labs for chemistry, in fact, most of the time there are no text books at all. Students rely only on their teacher and their notes and the private study that they do in order to learn the subjects. One on one help is also something rarely found as the teacher to student ratio can soar as high as 220:1. This leaves frustrated students to simply fall behind and fail their tests to advance to the next level of schooling.
When students aren’t in school they have various jobs and activities that can keep them busy. None of which include sitting in front of the TV or playing video games…Because most families are farmers, students must also help with the farming responsibilities. Taking care of livestock, or helping with the garden, and helping to prepare meals are a few jobs they might help with. When they get some free time they have different games they play. Soccer, basketball, and volleyball are all pretty popular. Soccer being the favorite, however, you often see people kicking balls around. Those that cannot afford an actual ball will roll up many plastic bags and tie string or yarn around it to create a ball. Lew and I created a game in Dar es Salaam where we drew three circles, like a bulls eye, and had to throw rocks into the center to score points. Many of the monks found this game very amusing and the abbot was surprised we just made it up saying it was a very good and fun game. One must become creative to come up with new activities when electricity is rarely available. In the small villages electricity is not an option, and even in some of the bigger towns and villages electricity is a scarce commodity. If you can’t afford flashlights or batteries, evenings are spent by candlelight.
I’ve noticed that with the lack of electronics, people here are much more social than in the US. People love to talk and be around one another. When work is done they gather together to talk. If you pass by anyone they stop and greet you and want to know how everything is going, has been going, and what you will be doing. They are very proud of the country and everyone welcomes you with great pleasure. People always smile and laugh despite their poor economic standing. I think Tanzanians are some of the happiest people around. Maybe it’s because they don’t have the financial stresses that come with the lifestyle stamped upon us in the United States or maybe they just are happy to be alive.
The average length of life for the country is only around 45 years old. Going hand in hand with the lack of schooling and education is the lack of health awareness. AIDS is a big problem as well as other diseases such as Malaria or yellow fever. The government here has made a big initiative to spread the word about AIDS and prevention, but many people never get the message, or refuse to follow the steps. In many of the smaller villages hospitals and doctors are too far away or medicine costs too much money leaving many small children or elderly who contract Malaria, a very treatable disease if caught early enough, left to fall victim to the deadly disease.
I think I could go on and on about more of the differences between the countries, however this is getting rather long. The adjustment has, and will continue to take some getting used to, but the warmth and joy the people express to have someone here who wants to help them is beginning to create a new safety net under my tight rope hanging high above.

With peace and love,
Derek

Arrival to Africa

I have now been in Africa for almost a week and have decided I'm going to try and run this blog in two ways. One of the updates will be just on day to day type of stuff talking about what I have been doing. The other type of posts will be more reflections on how the things that I am doing are impacting my life. This will just be an update about what I have been doing.

I flew into the city of Dar es Salaam on Friday morning last week. I have been staying here in Dar for the past week at a guest house that is run by the monks of Hanga Abbey. They are very nice and everyone is very welcoming. Since arriving we have taken trips to the ocean, the main city, one of the first catholic churches in Tanzania, and to a few local bars and pubs. Since I have been here I will touch on some of the main things that I have seen.

ROADS: The roads here are bumpy. There is a lot of construction that goes on and many of the roads are just dirt, with lots of pot holes. Top that with some pretty sketchy cars and driving gets to be a little interesting. Along with the road conditions there are ALWAYS people on both sides of the roads, and lots of them. Walking, biking, carrying pales of water on their heads, biking with crates of eggs or big baskets of fruit on the back. Many people walk 10-15 miles a day to buy or sell items.

FOOD: The food in the guest house is pretty good, but there is not much selection. For breakfast every morning we have bread, eggs, and tea or coffee. For lunch we have rice, some sort of meat in some kind of sauce, some green type of vegetable, and maybe some potatoes. Dinner is pretty much the exact same as lunch except we might get some beans and then we have papaya or bananas as well. In the city you see vendors selling all kind of food. Seafood, corn, beef sticks, chicken, all that good stuff. I have eaten outside of the guest house once and the food was pretty good, but I was joined by about 50 flies.

TRASH: There are no public trash cans. I think I must have spent about 4 or 5 hours walking downtown Dar and passed 2. People throw their garbage everywhere on the side of the road. ALong with people all you see is garbage or fires. The garbage is collected into piles and set on fire. When flying in I thought it must be really foggy in some parts of the city, only to learn that that was simply smoke from the garbage that is being set on fire.

ANIMALS: No, I havent seen any real "wild animals." I have had 2 cockroaches, and a gieko living in my room and lots of mosiqutoes. There are hens and roosters everywhere. They really do crow early in the morning and they wake me up everyday. Other than that, all I have seen are birds.

HOUSING: Here at the guest house we have decent housing. I have a room to myself. I sleep in a bed that is too short for me so I sleep in a ball or like a question mark when I want to stretch out my legs. The bed is surrounded by a mosquito net, which makes me feel like I am sleeping in a fort, which makes me feel pretty cool. The shower has no stall so when I shower my toliet is covered in water, and the water is cold. I have only showered a few times since I have been here. I think I might smell a little bit.

LANGUAGE: The national language of Tanzania is swahili. I have been practicing and trying to learn more of the language since I've been here and it is coming along bit by bit. Hopefully as I continue to spend time with people who speak the language I will continue to improve.

I am now running out of minutes so I have to wrap up this session. If you are wondering about anything else, leave me a comment and I will try and answer when I have time. I would like to figure out a way to get pictures on here for people to see, but in the meantime if you have facebook I have posted pictures on there. Tomorrow Lew and I leave Dar for Hanga. IT will be a 13 hour bus ride. Very long, bbut I hear we get to drive through a national park and see elephants and other animals.

Hope everyone is doing well.

Derek