We made it through our first week of school -mostly teaching multiplication, even Lattice Multiplication. The teachers are excited for the new way. And I think it will help because they are regrouping their numbers on the side, which seems so confusing to me! (Bill - that part was for you and yes, we aren't really into teaching PE and Health so don't worry!)
Yesterday, we took a hike through the foothills of Mt. Kilimanjaro. It was 1.5 miles to get to the trail head (and part uphill!) and then we continued towards the mountain. Unfortunately, it was in the clouds (the only time you can see it is in the morning this time of year.) It was crazy to see little kids harvesting corn and wood so far away from the village and then carrying it back on their heads. I tried for a minute and it was so heavy and it hurt!
We finally reached the forest close to the mountain and saw huge piles of elephant poop! We didn't see any elephants or monkeys. When we turned around, we had a beautiful view of the village below and Kenya in the distance.
By the time we made it back for porridge (like oatmeal) we had hiked another 5 miles. And we weren't done! We then walked another 5 miles through the foothills to the other end of town to see our host mother's saw mill factory. It was pretty amazing because Mama started it by herself 22 years ago and now they not only cut wood, but make flour and cement blocks for building! The company is run by all women; the men do all the hard work! How wonderful! Mama is a incredible woman - she is on SO SO many committees, including the district's board of education and many more. She is always off to the meetings.
Today we visited Jifty's (a boy living at our compound) school. It had ten classrooms, which each hold 60-100 students for class. The school was rather small for having an enrollment of over 550 kids. I wish we could contribute more in so many ways....to all the schools. They need everything from pencils to paper to many many more text books.
We are loving our quiet nights at home. The family loves the games we brought and it is so much fun playing with them. Mama said she will play Rook every day! (Thanks Molly, Robyn, and Will!)
We forget to mention a funny school story! Aaron, a boy that lives with us and walks us to school each morning, was classifying grasshopper as an insect during our reproduction lesson when he pulled a HUGE one out of his backpack (just like the one that jumped on Tara when we were at the airport)! We didn't know whether we should make him let it go or not until he told us that he was saving it to cook and eat later! Apparently, it is an honor here if somebody gives you a cooked grasshopper to eat. Thankfully, we haven't received one yet. Oh my.
We are off to home to learn how to cook a traditional Tanzanian meal. And then we must do more laundry! Scrubbing our socks today took well over an hour because of the road dirt! We are extra appreciative of washing machines now!
Apologies for any typos above....our internet time is limited!
Lattice multiplication, pretty impressive...but even more impressive is how much you have learned & seen in a week. African woman are amazing capitalists. Fairly long hikes to us are just regualr walks tot he farm or to school. I hope you are taking plenty of pictures and I look forward to your African cooking without the grass hoppers.
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