It's Been Awhile

So needless to say it has been quite some time almost 3 weeks since I have given an update one here....sorry about that :)

What's new in my life?!? I can officially say that I love teaching and there is no question that this is the career I was meant to have. I have an excellent group of students. All 10 of them have their own personalities and their own way of putting a smile on my face. We are getting to know each other quite well and I think we are all becoming quite the team! I have a wonderful assistant who is there when ever I need her....she is terrific with the students and I would completely lost without her :) I love the school and the staff is very close and friendly.

Teaching still very much consumes my life. I have started staying late several nights at school and still spending lots of time during the evening and at least one day of the weekend preparing lessons and such. The school days fly by as do the weeks. It is hard to believe that we have been in session almost a month so far. I get my first official pay check as a teacher this week so I am excited to finally be getting paid for what I love doing :)

I have started to dedicate one day of my weekend to relaxing or a day where I do no school work. I have been spending lots of time at the beach. Last week I went to an event in Dar called Nyama Choma, which is a big BBQ meat event. It was a lot of fun and I got to try some traditional Tanzanian food. Something else I did was ate my whole meal with my hands which is something new for me. I am so use to using a fork and knife for every thing. I am adjusting. I am looking forward to trying more traditional Tanzanian food in the near future.

I am currently in the process of planning a weekend get away. In 2 weeks we get a 3 day weekend. So I am packing my bag and heading to Zanzibar for the weekend. I am really excited for some much needed relaxation time.

The staff at school have started a football (soccer) team and their first game is this Sunday. I will be there cheering them on. I am looking forward to it.

I am still adjusting to life here. We are entering the hot season so I am nervous as to the heat that will be fastly approaching. I am still amazed by all of the small things that I took for granted back home everyday. I am so thankful that I decided to embark on this journey. I must admit that I am not homesick....There are many things that I miss like just hanging out with my friends, getting in my car and driving some where and of course that one little girl that has such a huge part of my heart. There are many days that I know a Karrlee hug would be great but unfortunately that cannot happen. I get to talk to her at least once a week. She has finally accepted the fact that I am no longer on an airplane and at my new home. She asks to come to my house and then she usually just says "Can you come home now." I received a package from home the other day and there was a piece of artwork from her which made its way right to the bulletin board behind my desk!

 Well I think that is all of the updates for now. I will try to not wait so long before the next update.

What a Week!!

Well I have officially completed my first week of teaching. 2 of the days this past week were orientation days and 3 were with the students. It has been a good week in the classroom. Wednesday morning my alarm went off way too early 5:15 to be exact. Once at school we had a brief school wide assembly and then it was off to my classroom where I met my students and their parents. It was a great way to start the school year. During the first couple of days we have done many "get to know you" activities as well as me doing lots of group and individual assessments. It has been good to get the chance to do the assessments so that I know where my students stand and I can use that information in my planning. The day flies by and usually by the end of the day I cannot find my desk. I hope to get a better organization system into place this week. I have a total of 10 students in my class and they come from all over the world. Even though I have some days where I have several breaks while the students are at single subjects or recess, I still find that the day slips away. So my evenings are filled with planning. I am usually in bed by 7:30ish and asleep by 8 or 8:30 (never thought I would see the day that I was asleep before Karrlee!) Last night I found myself fighting to stay awake until 9:30. Hopefully my body will soon adjust to the early mornings and early nights.

Power has been hard to come by this week. All but 1 night this week the power was out from the time I got home from school (around 4:30) to sometime in the night. I usually wake up at some point in the night and it is back on. I will say that planning by candle light is a bit harder but with limited battery on my computer I am more productive because I limit my use.

Not much else has been happening here. Traffic has been terrible this week which makes the commute to school very long around an hour each way. Hopefully that is something I will get use to as well or maybe learn to use that time wisely.....we shall see. The other day we were stuck in a traffic jam for quite some time when the ice cream man drove by on his bicycle usually we just pass it up but this day we were in need of something so the whole car full of us bought ice cream to help pass the time in the traffic jam :)

First Day=Success

Well we got an extra day off...yesterday due to Eid (the end of Ramadan). I am quite thankful for this as it was nice to sleep in one more day and get things ready for today. We officially had power from 18:00 on Monday to sometime this morning....I was getting spoiled I think! It was hard to believe it was on for that long at one time. Yesterday afternoon I was feeling a bit drowsy from my allergy medicine (my allergies by the way have been going crazy due to all of the dust!) and tried to resist taking a nap but fell asleep reading anyways....this made sleeping last night quite difficult. I was already nervous, anxious, excited for our first day and add not really tired to that= bad combination! I finally fell asleep around 1 or 1:30 and was up every hour and finally got up at 6....thats an early morning after such a long summer holiday!

We had a bit of craziness when it came to getting to school today. There was a bit of confusion as to who all was getting picked up by the driver so a few wrong turns and one very bad traffic jam we arrive at school with a few minutes to spare before orientation started! It was great to finally meet everyone especially the other grade 1 teacher, our assistants, and the primary school coordinator. Everyone at DIA made me feel very welcome and I know this is going to be a great experience. I did feel a bit bad though because my assistant was prepared to help me put my classroom together today but oops! Most of it was already done. I was not prepared to have extra hands this week helping. I guess  it will teach me that I do not always have to have things prepared way in advance :) It did give me some time to get use to the server and look at the curriculum map and such.

The day was also spent filling out lots of paper work. I was so confused and a lot of times  had to ask what specifically they were asking for. Then the NSSF (National Social Security Fund) form was in Swahili luckily there were some people to translate and then they found an example in English! All in all it was a very successful day. I will admit though that at the end of the day today I was sitting my classroom and dazed off.....it is hard to believe that I finally have received my degree and have my own classroom and that it is half way around the world from my home! I was a bit overwhelmed with all the information we were provided with today so still taking it all in. I look forward to returning on Monday and meeting my students on Wednesday!

Tonight has been very uneventful. I have relaxed done some reading and looked through one of the teachers manuals to become more familiar with the curriculum. Tomorrow and Sunday I also plan on relaxing and maybe getting out and exploring some more of Dar.

I think that is all for now :)

Lots of Power!!!

Well I have officially had power for over 48 hours!! I kinda had forgotten what it was like to have power consistently. I still find myself sitting in the dark because I forget that the power is on this evening. Or lighting a candle when I shower at night just in case the power goes off.....don't want to be stuck in the shower without light!

Today has been a pretty good day and a relaxing day. I slept in again which means that when Friday morning comes I am going to have a bit of trouble getting up at 6 and being out the door before 7:30 but it will all come back to me ....at least I hope! Today I finished my third book in a week. Probably more reading than I have done since high school that has not been from a textbook! It feels good to get to read whatever I want in my spare time :-)

Hard to believe that today marks 2 weeks since I left NKY! Feels like just yesterday and I know that once school starts that the days will fly by even more quickly. I am happy to announce that my Rooster friend was back to himself today......Crowing away a majority of the day. I was able to even take a short nap this afternoon so I guess you could say that I am getting a bit use to the background noise of my apartment ;-)

Other than that not much happened today!

Lazy Tuesday!

Another good day here in Dar. I am finally sleeping through the night...wooohooo! I always heard that it takes a day for each hour of time difference so that would have been 7 days so I am pretty much on track. I am grateful that I am finally catching up on sleep before school starts. I got the call today that Eid (The end of Ramadan) will take place on Thursday so we will not start school until Friday. I was a little bummed as I am ready to get started and get a routine established. I think I might go and work in my classroom a bit tomorrow to help get a bit of a routine down.

Today I have not done much. Spent most of the morning reading and then this afternoon I looked at some of the teacher manuals to just look over the content a bit before starting the school year. I must say that today was a bit of a quiet day and I only heard my Rooster friend once or twice.....I am a bit worried about him but did enjoy the peace and quiet :-)

Another surprise today the power has been on since 6 pm last night!!! Woohoo!! I have enjoyed having the power on for over 24 hours instead of it being out for 24 hours :) We will see what the next 24 hours brings.....

I think that is all for now :)

Uneventful Weekend

Oops kinda let the weekend slip away without posting anything.  For the most part the past few days have been pretty uneventful. On Friday I went in to my classroom to work again! As we were on our way to find a taxi there is a woman standing there talking to another woman who is just holding a live chicken by its neck and the chicken is just hanging there not making a fuss or anything....I know these are things that I will eventually get use to but I was a bit shocked to see because to me it is not normal but here it is.

I had another successful day in my classroom. I spent a majority of the day getting organized and putting "worksheets" and such into folders to hang in my file cabinet so they are ready to use when I need them. I also worked on my wall where my classroom procedures and behaviour plans will go. Also on Friday I got us to school without the help of someone from the school and a new driver...that is another reason my day was so successful! I am finally able to notice landmarks and get around to places that are near my apartment or the school :-)

Upon returning home we still had power woohoo! It went out for the evening but that was okay it was nice to have it during the day. I spent most of the afternoon reading my Nook and enjoying the sunlight and of course some lovely background noise from my Rooster friend. Who by the way does not just crow in the morning but typically all day long :-( 

Saturday morning we invited our friend, Sam, over. We met Sam on our flight over here. He is from Maryland but works for the University of Minnesota. He is the current country manager for Tanzania and is here for a year to help improve the blood collections for the blood banks here. I made pancakes Shannon, Sam and myself. We then found a taxi and went to Slipway...Sam had never been before. It was good weather and we all had a good time. I even bought a new book for my classroom. There is a cute little bookshop at Slipway that I will be visiting quite frequently I think :-)

Saturday night Shannon and I enjoyed playing our last game of Phase 10 and we even got to play by the actual light and not candle light since we had power :)

I talked to Karrlee for the first time Saturday since I left. She was excited to talk to me. It definitely made my day better until she said ....." I miss you can you please come home now" Totally broke my heart :( I fought back the tears though and told her I will be soon enough and I will bring Santa with me lol. When my mom asked for the phone back she cried and fought her... I know it will get easier but I sure do miss her! I put our picture from last Christmas on my desk along with a picture of her and I at my graduation party:) I know her smiling face will help me through those rough days as it already has!
Sunday was a sad day. I actually slept in until around 9:30...that's a lot with all of the noises around here :) I then got up helped Shannon get ready and we left for the airport around noon. She left with only 2 bags (she came with 3) so I am interested to see how much those 2 bags weighed. The trip home for the airport was very long between 1 1/2 hours and 2 hours due to traffic. I just put in my headphones and enjoyed some music. My first night alone was not too bad. I actually slept quite well. Only woke up once at 5 am due to the mosque prayer service which I wake up to each morning. Then I put in my headphone and went right back to sleep.

Today has been a mixture of laziness and productiveness. I spent most of the morning on the balcony reading my Nook and enjoying some hot herbal tea. Then this afternoon I clean a good portion of the apartment. It gets so dirty due to the windows being open and living on a dirt road. I sure will be happy when I get maid hired. I know it will be difficult to clean so often once school gets into full swing but for now it works out.

The teacher that replaces Shannon arrives tomorrow. I look forward to meeting her and her possibly being my new roommate.

I think that is all I have to update on now!

Another Successful Day :-)

Today I had an early start to my day so that I could get lots accomplished in my class! It was a good day and the time flies by. I thought I had a lot of time but the day just flew by and it was time to leave. Shannon and I did get a lot accomplished. I could not imagine how little I would get done without her help. It is great to have an extra set of hands and eyes and ideas :) I will go back again tomorrow to get some more done but my classroom is finally looking more like a classroom! I am stuck on a few things though. I want to have a "procedures wall" On that wall will be my classroom procedures and I am also using a behaviour number line. For ex: all of the students will start on 0 and if they get praised by me or another teacher they will get to move their clip to a positive number (it goes up to 4) but if they break a classroom procedure they will have to move their clip to a negative number (it goes down to -4) I will list what each number means following the school's system for the negative number but also include what they will receive for being on each positive number. I am looking for a title for this wall but am stuck.....any ideas?!? I am also stuck on another part of my classroom. I am using the bulletin board by my desk as a "communication/ news" board. Below the the board is where the students will turn in work to one tray and I will also put work that I have given feedback on in another tray. On the bulletin board I was hoping to put news from the class such as field trip permission slips, extra copies of homework, upcoming events for the classroom and DIA, etc. I am looking for a catchy title for this board......any suggestions?!? All in all the room is coming together and I am excited to meet my students for the first time!!! I am also excited to meet my assistant and look forward to working with her :)

Downfall of today....I have been a bit sick. As most of you know I am scheduled to get my wisdom teeth out over winter break. Unfortunately one of them is hurting which I knew was always a possibility after seeing the dentist and oral surgeon prior to my departure. I spent the afternoon resting up and am taking it easy. I hope to be on the mend very soon! Other than that today has been good. Power was off again today for about 15 hours but I was at school and resting most of the day so it was not bad at all.

Look forward to hearing some suggestions for catchy titles!

Link to the pictures :     http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.784111826828.2245465.37710699&l=20147a3382&type=1