My First Weekend After a Week at School

So far it has been a great weekend. Friday after school all the teachers went out for a nice celebratory lunch. By the time we were all done eating we went back to school for a PTA welcome meeting with tea and bites (snacks). All the snacks were actually really good! After that we had a little party at our head teacher's house. Here we had even more food!

On Saturday we did some rock climbing. The other teachers and I climbed to the top of Gangalonga rock. We had a view of the whole town. After our hike we went to lunch and I had a fabulous ice coffee with ice cream in it! What a treat! Then we went to a farm house where a bunch of families go every Saturday to have tea and play volleyball. It was an amazing view. I also went for a walk around the area and got to see the area where the cows get milked. I was so amused by this! After this fun adventure, I got to go home and eat some homemade pizza. Overall, a great weekend so far.

First Day of School

Today was the first day of school with Ms. Elizabeth as a teacher! All of my students were present and we all (hopefully) had a good first day. It wasn't anything too intense for the first day. We did do a reading comprehension and art lesson but the rest was mostly getting to know you, tell us something about your summer kind of stuff. All the kids seemed pretty excited to be at school. I am very happy with my class! I can't wait to get to know the students more.

All Ready to Start School

A Little Bit of Home...

Today at the market I saw a man wearing a Minnesota Gophers t-shirt! It made me smile. Everything here is still going well. We have had a lot of meetings and teacher workshops; we even worked on Saturday and Sunday. Since I have been here I have yet to go a day without actually working! It is good though because it keeps me busy and the people at the school are so wonderful! I am so lucky to be here!

Hiking through the Isimila Stone Age Site

Setting up my Classroom

Over the past few days in Iringa I have been busy with Kiswahili classes. I have been learning a lot; it is a beautiful language. In addition to the classes I have been taking I have also been busy setting up my classroom. Since I have such a small class, I also have a small classroom. My classroom is a building that stands alone; it was previously the school library which may make it sound like it is big but I have no idea how they fit all the books in there. Today I spent a lot of time contemplating how I should set it up. It was filled with all the materials from last year so I had a lot of cleaning up to do before I could do anything. I made a small amount of progress today. I will continue to work at it until it is good to go for all the kiddos! I also had a meeting today to discuss some curriculum items. I was able to get my class list and gather some ideas about what my students might be like. This all made me so excited I could barely stand it!
I have been going out to eat a lot with the other teachers. We have been going to a place called Neema Crafts. It is a little cafe that employs people who have disabilities. People with disabilities here in Tanzania have are really looked down upon and have very few opportunities. A couple who was traveling in Tanzania opened up Neema Crafts to help those with disabilities make a life for themselves. A lot of the workers are deaf so we order our food on slips of paper. It also has a nice little shop attached to the cafe as well. I also walked to the market with the other teachers. It was another successful day in Africa. I am enjoying myself but can't wait to start teaching. I am feeling very fortunate to be living in such a beautiful area with such kind people, but I really miss everyone!

Arrival in Dar es Salaam

I had a very long, but very safe trip all the way to Dar es Salaam. After many hours of sitting on a plane I finally arrived at the hotel that I am staying at while I am here. I met with a fellow teacher who got in earlier today. We went out and about around the city. It was a great night and Africa already feels like home to me! I will drive to Iringa tomorrow and will take many pictures on the way!