Planting a Nutritious Future

So,  I have been back at home for a few weeks now and I am happy to report that the Fruit Tree Orchard grant project at Maria Nyerere Girl’s Secondary School  has been successfully implemented!
The project started in November as we installed 2 more water spigots at my school. These will provided a close water source during dry season the water the trees.  After the spigots were successfully installed in November, we started ordering fertilizer from a local village farmer and the students starting digging holes. The holes were about 3 feet deep and just as wide in diameter. Digging the holes this large allowed us to fill it in with organic matter, soil and fertilizer to give the roots space to expand. The soil in my village is very acidic (an average of pH 4.5- 4.7) because it sits on granite.  The ground has thick layers of clay and rock not far below the surface and almost no top soil, so we knew the area would take a lot of preparation to ensure a good environment for the trees.  After digging the holes, the students and teachers alike left for December vacation.

How is she so happy doing manual labor?!

a lovely day to dig some tree holes

Several loads of fertilizer were delivered during the first week of school as students and teachers began arriving. Unfortunately, after 4 loads, the tractor broke, so we were forced to use a little manual labor. My counterpart and I took 100 students with buckets and walked to the other side of the village valley to manually shovel and carry back the manure.  My counterpart dove into the shit pit in his teaching attire: dress slacks, dress shoes and a button up and filled all of the buckets. I was very impressed.

skipping to the shit pit

My counterpart is such a trooper

hauling it back through the village to the school

 My counterpart was very eager to get the trees delivered to the school and begin planting. Also during the first week of school, we had 500 trees delivered: 200 avocado, 100 apple, 100 peach and 100 pear.

 

This shipment arrived in the trunk of a car. The rest came on the back of  motorcycles

my counterpart putting the trees in safe keeping

our tree provider and my counterpart all smiles 

When I returned to the school that afternoon, he said he wanted to surprise me and had planted about 350 trees while I was gone. I looked around and asked him “Where? I don’t see them.”  He told me that they were IN the holes. I think my counterpart tends to only listen to about the first half of what anyone says, which lead to a few problems in implementing this project. I went to look and he had simply thrown half a bucket of fertilizer in the 3 foot-deep hole and then planted the tree in it. I had to explain to him that by doing this, the trees would drown because it is rainy season right now and that the roots now have nowhere to go since they are placed up against solid clay and rock. He understood that he made a mistake and the following weekend, we had the help of several hundred students and a few teachers to help supervise as we corrected the 350 trees and planted the remaining 150 trees.

This poor tree 3 feet too deep just waiting to drown

Mwakapala showing the students how to correctly plant the trees

We even planted between the corn crops

A shipment of fertilizer being delivered by the tractor

The finished product 

The trees have now all been planted and will hopefully thrive in their environment.  We are hoping that 80% of the trees survive. Due to the method of transportation, we are skeptical that this will be obtained, but we will see. Some of them have to be resilient enough to make it, and eventually they will bear fruit to improve the nutrition of the students at Maria Nyerere Girl’s Secondary School long after I leave. 

Holiday Medley Catch-up

I am sorry that I have been so far behind on posting. Things always get a little hectic toward the end of the year, even here in Tanzania.

I was so excited about having a new companion at home that I forgot to share with you a little taste of Halloween this year. I just stayed in Njombe and hung out with a few friends. I took advantage of all the wonderful seamstresses in this country at my disposal and had them make me a custom costume. That’s right, me and every 4 year old in America went as Elsa from Frozen for Halloween.

Elsa

 After Halloween, life was filled with study guides, quizzes and practice questions to prepare students for NECTA’s and annual exams. My district had a little bit later schedule than most, so my friends decided that they would come to me for Thanksgiving. It was just a small crowd of us and we decided to make it festive, so I dug up a small conifer (that my neighbor had planted as an economic investment), put it in a bucket with some dirt and decorated it with paper snowflakes.  This year, we decided to go big, slaughtering 2 chickens and cooking them different ways: one was baked with lemon pepper seasoning and the other was cut into parts and fried. The chicken 2 ways was accompanied by mashed potatoes and gravy, fruit salad and homemade wheat bread and brownies for dessert.

A spread fit for kings (or starving volunteers)

Zane building my fuel efficient stove

We did it!

No holiday is complete without drinking and games

Our lovely little tree. complete with lights

Happy Holidays from Tanzania!

We fried the chicken on my newly built fuel-efficient jiko that uses firewood. Firewood get’s much hotter than charcoal so is ideal for frying.  We got the wood jiko stoked and hot, but then had time to kill before starting the chicken (we were waiting for the bread to cook), so we decided to take advantage of the extra fry batter and had a fry fest! We battered and fried everything we could… garlic, bananas, pineapple, brownies, onion rings, cheese, the list goes on! The best combination was to put a pineapple chunk, cheese and an onion slice on a toothpick, batter it and fry it. It tasted like a pineapple pizza!

Lauren frying up somthing

Pineapple Pizza Kabob!

Fried Cheese. Yum

I rang in the new year on Zanzibar once again (what can I say, the party just can’t be beat!) We wandered the beautiful town of Stone Town and went crazy buying muumuus, then spent the remainder of our days swimming and enjoying the beaches. A perfect, beautiful vacation.

Mimosas and cinnamon rolls

lovely ladies having a lovely New Years morning

Cheers!

Nungwi village in Zanzibar

My holidays in Tanzania are different than in America. It’s not cold, no lights hanging anywhere or Christmas Decorations in yards. I don’t hear holiday music everywhere I go, which means there is no real reminder that it’s the holidays. It just feels like another day spent in a beautiful country with amazing friends. Surrounding yourself with people that you are about is the meaning on the holidays, and that’s exactly what I did. 

Trainings, Trainings, and more Trainings!

Shika na Mikono

The month of December was full of adventures. My break from school started off with a productive bang. I made my 14 hour journey (not usually that long, but I had my fair share of travel problems) to Morogoro. Upon arrival, I was dropped off not at the bus stand, but at a gas station/mosque where I waited for Peace Corps to come and pick me up.

The next day we prepared all of our materials to represent Shika na Mikono at the Early Service Training being held for the new Education class of 2014. This training is less for the volunteers themselves and more to build a working relationship with the counterparts from their schools to successfully work together when they return to start their first full school year teaching in Tanzania.

We broke participants into groups by subject and proceeded throughout the day doing activities including Box of Fun, Shika Express and a Competition of course!

A group of volunteers and their counterparts constructing science teaching aids from locally available materials

Peace Corps asked me to stay as an extra pair of hands at EST because I had to be present for another training that was taking place the next week, so I got roped into facilitating/presenting a day and a half worth of materials about Project Design and Management.  This presentation included walking through how to plan and implement a successful and sustainable project in your school or community. There was big emphasis on the role of the volunteer in this process and they were able to walk through an example project of their choice with their counterpart. This was very beneficial because it gave them a great idea 

The aim was to get the counterparts excited about hands-on science and being a great partner to the volunteer in their future Shika endeavors at their school.

After Shika day, I had the wonderful opportunity to hold a 2 hour session about by block/tile project, which lead into a discussion about various Shika approaches to English teaching. These new volunteers are full of amazing ideas and I’m excited to see what they accomplish and decided to take on during this service. I have a great feeling about them!

Project Design and Management

Peace Corps asked me to stay as an extra pair of hands at EST because I had to be present for another training that was taking place the next week, so I got roped into facilitating/presenting a day and a half worth of materials about Project Design and Management.  This presentation included walking through how to plan and implement a successful and sustainable project in your school or community. There was big emphasis on the role of the volunteer in this process and they were able to walk through an example project of their choice with their counterpart. This was very beneficial because it gave them a great idea about the amount of work that goes into a project, how feasible it is to accomplish what they want and gave them an outline of a project to implement at their school upon returning if they wish.

Student-Friendly Schools

The next week, I was honored to be given the opportunity to facilitate the 3 day Student-Friendly Schools Training. I attended this training in April 2014 and found it hugely beneficial, especially when taking into account the dynamic between teachers and students at my all-girl’s boarding school.  I was doubly excited when I learned that I was able to co-facilitate this training with my best friend in country Lauren! 

Lauren (on the far left) introducing the concept of GBV

The material of training included Gender-Based Violence as well as its causes and influences, bystander intervention, the role of the educator in these matters and alternatives to corporal punishment.  These subjects can be very sensitive and opinions can turned into heated arguments, so respecting ground rules and norms for training were very important.

The size of this training is relatively small compared to other Peace Corps trainings. We had 9 volunteers and their counterparts participating. This training allowed volunteers and counterparts alike to express their feelings about the behavior that they witness at their schools in a safe environment and brainstorm ways to become agents of change. The collaboration between counterparts and volunteers was important because Americans may have many ideas, but Tanzanians are aware of realistically what can work in this education system.

Volunteers and counterparts brainstorming and working together

A counterpart presenting for the group about corporal punishment

To end training the second day, we thought it was important to end on a positive note after the very sensitive topic of corporal punishment. We decided to do spend a few hours crafting and listening to music. This craft was generic and should be made to be given to anyone in the group.

Glitter glue, craft paper and feathers. Oh My!

Our wonderful co-facilitator, Anna,  loving arts and crafts time!

To conclude the training, we handed out completion certificates randomly and they gave the certificate recipient their gift also. It was a nice way to bond and bring everyone together before going our separate ways.

Exchanging craft zawadi and certificates

Group Picture!

The hotel pet tortoise kept us company as we prepared for training

 I was so thankful for the opportunity to participate in these trainings and share my knowledge with the new education volunteers as they enter their full year of teaching (I like to call it your "Rock Star Year").  I know they are going to do amazing things and I was so happy to get to know them. They are an interesting class full of amazing indivuduals and I wish them all the best for the rest of their service!