Spring Arrives

As the weather changes my nose takes notice and makes a fit. I'm not sure why I'm sneezing so much but I have a temperamental nose and it doesn't like change. Over the last week or so we've had a lot of visitors. Shadowers, PCTs (PC Trainees), came to our site for a few days to see how PCVs really live. As they noticed, it's so much less tramatic than being in training. When you become a PCV you're on your own schedule and you it's at a much more relaxed pace. We had a big pizza party for all the shadowers in our district on Sunday and it was a hit, especially with red wine!

My students are doing well...sort of. I'm juggling two classes who learn at different levels so I'm still trying to figure things out. They are currently learning about statistics and how to create bar charts, line graphs, and pie charts. It's interesting what the students come up with when they try to graph information...it goes back to common sense and if you know how to read a chart you'll be able to draw it correctly. I had a "guest teacher," my good friend Sajigwa, come in and teach them a little more about bar charts - in Kiswahili. We're supposed to teach in English but because my students were so frustrated, I thought it would help them if they understood the concepts in Kiswahili. Then they would be able to apply it to any table of information they see and draw a correct bar chart. They asked Sajigwa questions and seemed to get a better understanding. I'll find out next week as I gave them a few more assignments to do.

With three English teachers at my school, we have organized an English Essay Contest. The topic will be: Why I am Protecting Myself from HIV/AIDS. There will be a winner from each Form (grade) and the winners will receive a certificate (Tanzanians are BIG on certificates) and a pen or something small. The English teachers and I agree that if the students will need to learn English to do their subjects they should be encouraged to use it. They will have two weeks to complete the essay.