Tuned In

Back in Dodoma. Russ, myself, and a bunch of other PCVs in our region are in town this week for an HIV/AIDS seminar. Tanzania is one of 15 countries in the world receiving PEPFAR (The President's Emergency Plan For Aids Relief) funds and we are going to learn how we can best use the money to help our communities.

My parents sent us a wind-up/crank radio so we've been listening to VOA (Voice of America), Talk to America, and Border Crossings on shortwave. Because of the surrounding mountains we are not able to get FM. They also sent us cute little speakers so we can listen to our ipod shuffles without headphones! And we found an adapter in town so we don't use batteries. Ah yes, we are tuned in.

Last weekend we went on a very long hike up a few of the mountains that surround us. M., Russ and I started at 6 am, before the sun was up, and hiked to a local moonstone mine where the workers were already digging deeper into the earth to find the white rock which they sell to Thailand for a whopping 300,000/= ($300) per kilo! We then proceeded down the mountain and up the next valley saying good morning to everyone in the local tribal language. We then went down and back up and up and up to the very top of the next valley where there are huge stones on which one can stand and see all of our area. It took 5 hours to reach the peak so I'm glad we started out early. The sun was starting to get high in the sky when we ate our snacks of hard boiled eggs, bread and butter, and clif bars. The scenery was gorgeous and very green. We now know that all the rain gets caught up in those mountains before coming to us with a drizzle. On the way back the two boys had no problems but my legs were started to get really tired. For this past week I have been stretching them out...I think I've finally recovered. Perhaps next time we'll start out on a small hike then work our way up to the 8-hour hikes!

I have gotten involved with a group on campus called My Body My Life which is run by students and a biology teacher. They meet once a week and teach other students from different forms (grade levels) about sex, sexuality, HIV/AIDS, growing up, answer questions and perform plays. We have yet to start to do anything this term but I'm hoping this HIV/AIDS seminar I am in Dodoma for will help me with ideas to bring to the group.

I thought it was time for a test for my students so I typed one up and printed it off in town and made copies. I must say I was quite proud of the exam and how it looked. I will take a picture of the typed by typewriter exams the students usually get here, often with typos, with my exam next to it. Anyway, I asked some fellow math teachers what they thought of my exam and they liked it. So I went ahead and gave them the exam, with plenty of notice and reviewed any questions they had. My science class used the whole 80 minutes (2 periods) to do the exam. The average score was 60%. My art class, of which six students didn't show up to take the exam, used the whole 80 as well and the average score was 32%. Keep in mind that in Tanzania (in percentage) 80-100 is an A, 60 - 79 is a B, 40 - 59 is a C, 20 - 39 is a D and below 20 is an F. I showed the scores to a teacher and he said that was a pretty good test given the scores. Here, the scores of students are posted by the failure rate. There's a print out in our math department which graphs the percentage of students, split up into boys and girls, who failed the national exams.

There was a crazy doctor in town. We've seen him before around and likes to greet us in French. Apparently he used to be a wealthy and liked dentist in town but turned schizophrenic. We have heard he has stopped taking his medications and that has caused him much trouble. One day while Russ was chilling in the market the crazy doctor came up behind him and started drawing on the back of Russ's Hawaiian shirt with a ball point pen. Another day when I went to town by myself he saw me and knelt down and greeted me as Madamemoiselle. He then tried to kiss me and smashed his face right into my sunglasses then ran off saying "I love you! I love you!". After I told my friends in town about this they say he's done that to many women and actually has caused many disturbances in church and in the market. Just last week we heard he was being taken to the hospital in Dodoma and haven't seen him since.

So we have learned that the typing program that Russ uses in his computer lab provides lessons in the DVORAK keyboard layout. Everyone in the world uses the QWERTY keyboard (named so after the six upper left keys) and was invented to actually slow down typing for typists because they typed too fast and jammed the typewriters. So Russ and I have been practicing DVORAK and it really screws with your head if you are so used to typing with the QWERTY layout. I swear I felt my brain creating new nerve connections. Yes, you can say dorky.

There have been three ETs (Early Terminations) that I've heard of in the past two months. All of them I met before and knew. One of them from our training group.