Madam Heather

When Jason and I were placed at Mbeya University of  Science and Technology I was thrilled to learn that I would be teaching microbiology and genetics to the laboratory science students.  I still am very happy to be teaching my favorite subject, but the challenges I have faced so far have been many-and I know that there are more ahead.

My first challenge was to design my course-both the theory portion and the laboratory portion.  The class had been taught before, but the previous teacher did not leave any material behind.  I spent my first weeks crafting my syllabus and designing (what I thought to be) appropriate labs using limited materials.  As the semester drew nearer, I began to panic.  A laboratory technician had not arrived at work yet to show me what materials we had available.  Armed with a pre-test and my first lecture, I was ready to start teaching at the appointed time.  The indicated start date for the semester came and went, with no students showing up to my classes.  My fellow teachers told me to wait until the following week to teach, as students did not show up until the second week of class.  The first week of class is actually devoted to registration and the taking of supplementary exams (an exam that students take if they fail their final exam from the previous semester’s class).

I have now been teaching for five weeks.  My students are very excited, exceptionally smart, and dedicated.  I am a proud teacher.  Many students ask questions during my lectures that show me they are thinking critically.  I have students swarm around me after lab asking questions like “Madam, can you name all the of the normal flora found in the human body?” (Just in case you were wondering, no-no I can’t.  I can, however, launch into a discussion about the human microbiome in general).  Students email me telling me that they enjoy my lectures and they understand what I am saying very well.  I think I prefer Tanzanian students to American students despite the hardships of teaching in a different culture.  My Tanzanian students are so hungry for knowledge.

My teaching load is light (I only teach one class) but I am keep very busy.  I lecture once per week, during which my students take a quiz covering the previous week’s material.  I have lab three times per week, as I split my 120 students into three groups.  Lectures can leave me very frustrated at times, as I can observe some of my students cheating on their quizzes.  But I am also very happy, as students stop me to ask questions.  In lab so far students have learned how to stain cells and use a compound microscope, perform simple calculations and dilutions, and extract DNA.  I have to be creative when designing labs as resources are scarce.  For example, the university owns three compound microscopes.  40 students crowding around 3 microscopes to view their stained cheek cells is fairly chaotic to say the least.

Another challenge I am facing is the fact that the university has no stock cultures of bacteria (no available microorganisms to grow).  I am attempting to isolate microorganisms from the environment, but have encountered difficulties in growing them.  I collected a soil sample in an attempt to culture the common soil microbe Bacillus, a goat fecal sample in an attempt to culture the common fecal coliform Escherichia, and my fellow teachers and I donated a sample from our skin in order to grow Staphylococcus.  Just as my first round of isolation was complete, Tanzania went into a period of lengthy power outages.  This meant that I could not use the incubator to grow my bacteria or the autoclave to sterilize my materials.  Praise the Lord that power is now restored and I can continue isolating bacteria for my students to use in lab.

The work here is challenging, but I enjoy what I do immensely.  The smiles and laughter from my students keep me working hard to provide the best microbiology course I can offer them with the resources I have available.  Who knows?  Maybe one day the kid who wishes to become a genetic engineer will make an important discovery.

Peace,
Heather

I have 10 textbooks total for my class and 1 lab manual

When you have no electricity you set your students math problems

And to my utter surprise, they love to do math!

Their favorite lab so far has been extracting DNA from bananas

Pony Express

We thought that we would include a post about how to mail us goodies, if you are so inclined ;)

First, the logistics.  Letters are sent to the university and are given directly to Jason in his department.  Padded envelopes are cheaper than boxes to send and get mailed directly to us at the university as well.  Letters and padded envelopes seem to reach us in about 10 days time.  Boxes are sent to the post office in Mbeya.  We have to make a trip into town on Saturday to pick up boxes so they may sit for awhile until we can get into town.  Currently we are having difficulties with boxes as the notification slip is not being sent to us at the university.  If you send us a box, please email us at lavalleurs2011@gmail.com and let us know the tracking number.  That way we can see when the box clears Tanzanian customs and estimate when the box will arrive at the posta (local post office).

Many people have asked me what would we like to receive in packages.  Jason and I put our heads together and came up with the following items to choose from:

• Granola bars (Cliff, Nature Valley, Quaker Chewy)
• Goldfish crackers
• Starburst
• Pretzels
• Good-smelling candles in glass jars-make sure to pack in a ziplock as they can melt on their long journey across the sea
• Hand sanitizer
• Reese's Pieces
• Trail mix
• Salmon packets
• Beef jerky
• All beef summer sausage
• 3 x 5 white index cards
• Pictures of you!
• Pictures or postcards of California and Nebraska
• 40 compound microscopes (just kidding!)

Give Thanks

Tanzania does not celebrate Thanksgiving-it is just another day.  Jason and I both teach on Thursdays, so we will be spending the day in class.  Many Peace Corps volunteers get together on American holidays, but Jason and I will have to miss our region’s get-together so this past weekend we headed down to Tukuyu to visit our friend Beth and celebrate Thanksgiving together.  What does a Tanzanian Thanksgiving look like, you ask?  I will show you.

We planned on having chicken, mashed potatoes, rolls, peas, and an apple cobbler.  Miraculously, everything came together and our Thanksgiving dinner was a success!  First off, all of us were too, well, chicken to go through the whole process of killing a chicken.  We had a mama do the killing and the cooking for us.  A mama also helped us start our peas, as the electricity was out and we only had Beth’s charcoal jiko to cook on.  Eventually we ended up with two jikos and we were really cooking!  Once dinner was all cooked we sat down and ate ourselves into food comas.  We enjoyed the fellowship with Beth-we played games and tossed a Frisbee around with some of the kids who live at Beth’s school.  It was a wonderful Thanksgiving day.

 

Me cooking over the charcoal jikos-we had to have help to get them started as they are hard to light

Our Thanksgiving table-Beth set the table so pretty!

Jason is very excited to dig in to the good food

Looking at the picture makes me hungry all over again!  Such good food!

Jason playing Frisbee with the neighborhood kids

 

Being in Tanzania these past few months has helped me to appreciate the simple and small things in life.  We don’t have much, but what we have is enough and I am truly thankful.  I thought I would share some of the things I am thankful for this year:

• The view of the mountains I have while hand-washing my laundry
• Water-and not even clean water, as we cannot drink what comes out of the tap until we boil it, but I am so thankful for water when it is around
• Family and good friends both near and far, far away
• My students, who make every day worth the struggle of living in a culture different from my own
• Spices-they make beans and rice so much more interesting
• Our gas stove-so useful when the power goes out
• My husband-for following God’s call and leading us to Tanzania
• For the opportunity to live a life full of adventure and service!

Peace,

Heather

Chef Jason

I am a very blessed woman-my husband loves to cook.  And he is a very good cook.  Here in Tanzania we have to be creative when it comes to dinner time.  At our local market we can find tomatoes, onions, garlic, carrots, bell pepper, cucumbers, avocados, bananas, fruit that is in season (right now it is mango season!), corn, potatoes, wheat, rice, and every type of bean that you could ever imagine.  There are also all types of leaves that Tanzanians like to cook in oil, as well as peanuts that you roast yourself.  And spaghetti noodles (where would we be without pasta?).  So behold the creations of Chef Jason-made from scratch and mostly local.

Banana bread with black tea is our staple breakfast.  We used to have wonderful loose leaf tea from Irente Biodiversity Reserve in Lushoto, but we enjoyed it too much and it is now gone.  Now we enjoy a cup of Chai Bora with our freshly made banana bread.

One of the first meals Jason perfected was spaghetti with tomato sauce.  Good old comfort food sometimes served with a side of parachichi for me.

Jason tried another variation on pasta-peanut noodles!  We can buy peanut butter at the store on campus and it has saved our lives (not really, but we are thankful for peanut butter).  We serve our peanut noodles with grated carrots and cucumber.  So refreshing and tasty!

This meal is one of my creations.  Chef Heather serves up roasted potatoes with local vegetables and rosemary.  I plan on growing a little rosemary bush on our back balcony to have fresh rosemary available.

One day Chef Jason marched to the local butcher in search of meat.  Our butcher shop consists of a little room that is tiled with identifiable and unidentifiable parts of cows and goats and mystery meat hanging from the ceiling.  Jason brought back some mystery meat for this delightful stir fry made with tomatoes, onions, bell pepper, and soy sauce.

Tonight's meal was homemade pizza.  We made the dough and sauce and a fancy store in Mbeya provided the cheese.  Served with an ice-cold Tangawizi (a type of ginger ale soda made by Coca Cola) a bad evening can turn into a good evening.

And now I am off to go grade quizzes.  Enough procrastinating for me.  Until next time,

Peace,
Heather

Better Homes and No Garden-Tanzania Edition

Welcome to our home in Mbeya, Tanzania!  We have a two bedroom apartment with a view of the local mountains from our living room windows and front balcony.  Jason and I have spent time cleaning and organizing and now we have have a very livable home.  We still have some things we would like to purchase, but for the most part we are all settled in and can welcome guests into our home.  Karibu!

When you first enter our home, you will be welcomed into our living room.  We have maps of Tanzania and the world decorating our walls at the moment.  We have a nice selection of books left by the previous volunteer in our bookcase.  Jason and I sit and play games at the coffee table most every night.

Up next is our kitchen!  We have a nice, big kitchen in which to prepare our meals.  We have a little stove that has both electric and gas burners (the gas is very nice when the power is out) and a little oven.  We have a kitchen sink, but I need to do dishes in basins as the sink has no stopper and the water is not usually on anyway.  Jason and I bought a refrigerator a couple of weeks ago and it has been so nice to have cold water to drink.  On top of the refrigerator is our drinking water, which we collect from the bathroom sink, then boil to make it safe to drink.

Our bathroom!  We have a shower room with a shower that spills cold water, so we normally take bucket baths.  We have a toilet room with a Western toilet!  The downside of the Western toilet is that it really only flushes when the water is on.  And lastly we have a little sink area where we can store our buckets of water.  We have water ~3 times per day, so we need to collect and store the water in order to have it when we need it.

This is our guest bedroom.  We have two almost twin-sized beds, and a chair.  Come visit us!

Our bedroom!  We have a large, king-sized bed with the most amazing, fuzzy blanket on which Jason has bestowed the title of "Beauty and the Beast Blanket" as it is purple with pink roses that look like the forbidden rose in "Beauty and the Beast."  We have a big wardrobe in which to store our clothes and not pictured is a little vanity with a big mirror on which we store our toiletries.  Our bedroom windows look out over the mountains.

Attached to the guest bedroom is a little balcony that gets plenty of sun.  I hope to grow a bucket garden here one day soon.  The first balcony picture looks west to the eucalyptus forest and the farms upon which the teachers cultivate their maize.  The second picture looks east to more staff housing and the university beyond.  We are happy to call Mbeya and Mbeya University of Science and Technology our home for the next two years!

Peace,
Heather and Jason

Hearing Their Cry

This post stems from a conversation I had today with a young man attending the university Jason and I work at.  After going through the usual Tanzanian greetings and finding out where I was from, he proceeded to ask me a rather difficult and uncomfortable question: "Where does all the money America gives to Tanzania go?" he asked. "We are still crying.  The people never see it."  He told me to go tell the American embassy that the money they give to Tanzania is going to the wrong people.  "There are people all over Tanzania who do not know how to end their day" he said.  "Their crying is not heard."

"That is why we are here," I explained.  "We have been sent to listen.  The Peace Corps sends volunteers all over Tanzania to work alongside Tanzanians in villages and towns.  We help Tanzanians connect with the right people so that they do not have to cry anymore."

A smile widened the young man's face.  "This is good," he said.  "You will learn from Tanzanians and Tanzanians will learn from Americans."

And this is what it is all about.  Listening.  Sharing. Learning.  What we are doing here seems small and insignificant, and the work here is harder than I ever could have imagined, but it is good.  We hear the cry of our small little community.  God hears their cry.  And together, us and God, we make a terrific trio.

Peace,
Heather

Tukuyu

One fine weekend in October Jason and I visited our friend Beth when we had time off from work due to the Tanzanian national holiday, Nyrere Day (celebrating Tanzania’s founding father).  Beth lives near the hopping little town of Tukuyu and is surrounded by lush mountains that you can climb and tea fields that you can meander through.  We did both on our visit.  I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

This is on the trail on the way to the top of Ngozi Crater, which is not too steep at this point in the journey.  Ngozi Crater holds a deep blue lake which locals spin magical tales about.  You can see little banana trees growing around us.  Full grown banana trees have leaves as tall as Jason!  On our hike back down the mountain, we saw monkeys swinging in the tall trees that guard the path on the crater.


Tanzania’s Crater Lake, a nice 2629 meters high and well worth the scramble to the crater rim. We ate lunch on the rim and enjoyed the rumble of thunder from an approaching storm that surrounded us.


Beth (in the pink shirt) and Rachel (in purple) and I scrambled/down-climbed the steep sides of the crater in an attempt to reach the lake.  Roots from sturdy trees served as our climbing ropes in some cases.  About halfway down the crater wall to the lake, I chickened out and returned to the rim.


Jason and I hung out on the rim while our friends took a swim in the crater lake.


In the tea fields near Beth’s school!  The tea plantations stretch as far as the eye can see over verdant rolling hills.


Beth, Eunice, and Jason.  Eunice attends college in Mbeya and over the weekend she gave us a tour of the tea fields.  She has a very bubbly personality and is very patient in teaching Kiswalil.  She is also very generous.
Until our next adventure!
Heather