TFT

**warning: this is a long one!

Today, Stephen and I had our first experience with TFT (Tanzania Free Time). They told us here that if we are ever meeting up with anyone and we set a meeting time we have to say Mzungu time (like 7:00 Mzungu time… “white people time”) because otherwise it’s TFT…meaning we show up whenever the hell we want. So this morning we got dropped off at our placement at 8 am and school was supposed to start at eight…we waited until 8:30…still no teacher and no students. Just as we were leaving two students walked in but still no teacher. Can you imagine that happening in the US? People would go insane! So we went to a different school where two of the other volunteers are- Tumaini Nursery School. The people in charge decided we are going to stay there for the rest of the time because they need the extra hands and we really like it there.

So I was put in the preschool class (more good practice for next year!). I walked in and the teacher handed me the chalk and said, “Teach whatever you like”. Haha….I actually think I did ok for no prep work and I had a great time with the kids! We did letters and some spelling first and then joined the rest of the school for recess. The little kids sit and climb all over you outside, which made our giant game of duck, duck, goose very interesting. They also LOVE boys so Stephen often got tagged goose and then had to deposit three kids on the ground before taking off running. Our favorite quote since they are all still learning English was when they wanted to be tagged they’d say, “goose me, goose me” :-) We also played this game that (based on the rough translation) was one kid in the middle saying jump and the name of a meat…then everyone has to jump, but if he/she said jump and “not a meat” and you were caught jumping you were it. So since my Swahili Vocabulary doesn’t include the many types of animal meat, we “mzungus” could always be “it”. After recess, I taught some addition and tomorrow I’m assigned to shapes and colors. Also, we learned in Swahili today that “tutaonana kesho” means see you tomorrow but if you take out the first “n” it means “let’s get married tomorrow”…maybe that’s why they laughed at me when I said goodbye today :-)

This afternoon we had a talk about the HIV/AIDS problem in Tanzania and how although it is still a definite problem, the prevalence is actually low in Moshi compared to other parts. They were talking about how the education is so important because there is still a big stigma attached to being treated for HIV so people will avoid the clinic when it is really important they seek treatment. There is also a stigma attached to buying condoms because they don’t want to be seen as promiscuous…what a difference from the US where people buy condoms freely and guys even brag about how many they need! They also said when they first started the education on condoms, they were so new and foreign they were used completely wrong. They would have to demonstrate by putting them on their finger….so then people put a condom on their finger…and had sex. Oops!

This evening we finalized our safari plans for the weekend! I really like the people we are volunteering with here AND the animals this time of year are supposed to be amazing so I am SOO excited!

Amani,

Valerie