Welcome Cornelia!
I hope everyone is off to a great summer. I know I am, but I sure am getting busy finalizing all the details before I leave to Hanga, Tanzania for the year. I wanted to start this blog by giving you a little information about what I will be doing while living abroad.
Hanga is a village of about 7,000 people. Almost everyone there is a farmer and relies on their crops and livestock for food. They depend so much on their farming because the average family of four lives off of only $5.00 a week. Within the village there is a monastery that has set up 4 schools:
Kindergarten and Primary School: 250 students
Secondary School: 470 students
Seminary/High School: 160 students
Vocational School (focuses on teaching auto mechanics, carpentry, bricklaying, tailoring, and plumbing): 80 Students
I'm not sure where I will be placed yet, but I will be teaching English or math at one of these schools. The classrooms are much different from what you are used to at Cornelia. The classrooms are about half the size of yours and there are usually between 50-70 students in one class! There aren't any TVs or computers for the kids to use or play games on. In fact for part of the year, there is usually only 3-4 hours of electricity for the whole day!
Besides going to class and studying the kids help in the gardens, build bricks for new buildings, help gathering eggs from chickens and milking cows, and when they get a little free time they love to play soccer (that part sounds a little like Cornelia).
I don't leave until the end of July, but then I have a little over a 24hour plane ride before I arrive in Africa.
I hope you keep checking back, as I hope to be able to update frequently while I am over there. Hopefully this website will give you the chance learn a lot about the different cultures and lifestyles of the students in Tanzania.
If you have any questions leave them in the comments section and I will try to answer them as soon as I can. I would love hearing from you!
Kwaheri (goodbye in Swahili, the national language)
Derek
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I will be living about 30 miles from the city of Songea
I hope this site will provide a gateway for you to learn the differences between the cultures and lifestyles of students in Tanzania and you, the studens of Cornelia Elementary!
African Sunset
About Me
Interesting Links
- A link to the place where I am staying and the schools that I work at
- Want to learn some Swahili?
- US Department of State Profile on Tanzania
- National Website of the United Republic of Tanzania
- Cornelia's Homepage
- This is the program that I am volunteering with
- This is another blog that I have created with more pictures and information about what I am doing
This is Tanzania
I will be living about 30 miles from the city of Songea
1 comment:
Derek,
Jon Z. from third grade here. Great blog! I trust peopel will start using it. It will be a solid way for you to stay in touch with America.
I don't know if you knew this before you left, but.....the Twins are horrible. Completely fell apart there at the end of the summer. The Vikings are 1-1 and Adrian Peterson is looking promising for us. The first game was almost blacked out, though, due to low ticket sales. Then, Fox 9 bought the rest of the tickets because they would have lost over one-hundred thousand dollars in advertising. It would have been the first blackout game since 1997.
We have a couple new teachers in the building. One in first grade and do you remember Melissa A. (she subbed often last year in our building)? She was hired 0.5 FTE Kindergarten teacher. There is also a new teacher who took over Gail's spot.
The students are doing well in Cornelia. It has been a great start to the year.
To your kids:
1) What do they know about America? What is their concept of America?
2) What is one thing they would love to receive in America that could actually be mailed and doesn't cost a million dollars? (i.e. scratch and sniff stickers, that black paper that turns colors when rubbed, sour candy, etc.)
Now to you:
1) What is one thing that your really, really miss from your daily routine?
2) What is something from there that we would really think is cool here in America?
Okay, I had to post something to you. Take care.
-Jon Z.
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