Today we went to Alliance Francaise. This is where they teach French classes in Dar. Kim’s roommate works here so she let us use a room here for the day! It is on the golf course and it is so pretty! We started our first session on the Tanzanian school system and the curriculum. I really did not like this session too much it was a lot of history. The main thing I got out of it was how much they discipline their kids here, which I am going to have a really hard time with. Ali talked about how at one time in her school they broke a desk over a child. And they always have to be on their knees when they get hit or sometimes they do it in front of the entire school. Kim told us if it is too much for us to watch we can go home. I asked if it would be over stepping my bounds to step in and prevent it and she said I would advice not to do that. She kept trying to help us understand that they are doing it to help them they think in their culture that this is a form of love. I just will never understand that but that’s just how my culture differs from theirs and it is definitely legal here. It is going to kill me. Ali said that she tried to comfort a little boy after he got the stick (that’s what they call it) and he was just so confused and it made thing ten times worse. She said teachers will constantly ask you why you don’t give your students the stick and make fun of you for it. Kim really struggles with this too in the ministry of education because they see nothing wrong with it. I also learned that school is from 7:30-2:30pm. They get fed NO lunch so these students are SO hungry. Some leave early to go eat, some get no food at home either so it doesn’t matter either way. It is so sad. Standard 1-7 is Primary School, Form 1-4 is Ordinary Secondary School, Form 5-6 is Advanced Secondary School, then there is University. There are National Exams you have to pass to move on after Standard 7, Form 2, 4, and 5. The one that no one can pass is during Form 4.

The next session was on reading. We learned different ways to enforce reading comprehension, for example through venn diagrams or doing different charts while reading to make sure you’re following while reading and not just reading and not understanding. After session we went to lunch at the best pizza place ever!! I think I just needed a little change of taste in the food and some homemade pizza was just the thing! I got cheese pizza with pineapple and a coke!

After lunch, Natalie (she’s a volunteer) had taken a year of courses in Sahili so is pretty fluent, offered to teach us some Swahili this week before we start our official lessons at the language school next week. She did so well and we learned a lot! After that, we had a session on culture shock and adjustment with Kim. She drew the culture shock graph on the board. It starts with an upward curve in the honey moon phase when everything is new and different, then it slopes down and you experience culture shock, you are confused, you miss home and you are frustrated and irritated. Everyday differences are getting on your nerves. Then the slope goes back up again but even higher so you are at the highest high yet, and you experience adjustment on the surface, then the slope goes back down at the lowest low yet of culture shock, this is when cultural, religious, and relational differences are really getting to you, and you are having a really tough time, then the slope goes back up again and you experience adaptation. Many people are on many different parts of this curve at so many different points of the year but it is always important to be aware of where you are on it and what you are going through. Some people feel like they experience the entire curve multiple times daily.

            After session Shana and I took a Bajaj and met some other volunteers at AK’s this Indian restaurant and had dinner! We got a nice little tour of Dar on the way to AK’s because our Bajaj driver acted as if he knew where AK’s was but in hindsight he had no idea so it took us a while to get there after we asked every random person how to get there along our drive! I had an Indian style chicken pita haha it was interesting and fresh mango juice!