Playground Building

July 6th, 2017
(Written morning of July 7th)
(Edited and continued July 20th)

Certainly not my best night's sleep. I'd stayed up late journaling, but I still wanted to get up early to see the sunrise. I looked at my watch at one point in the night and thought for sure it said 6am, but I felt like I'd been asleep for two hours. So I stretched and went over to the window. It was pitch black and the moon was still high in the sky. I looked at my watch again and it was 2am. I had been asleep for two hours, so I crawled back under my covers and tried to sleep. 

Later that morning I did witness the sunrise. It was a beautiful and peaceful morning. 

After breakfast we needed to go back to town for playground supplies, but we had to take a taxi. A taxi is just some guy driving his little car, so Talemwa took the front seat while all four of us piled in the back. That's definelty the closest we've ever been. 

We had to make a lot of stops because business in Tanzania is never simple, although it was a fun adventure. Between each of these stops we were getting in and out of the taxi. First was exchanging American money for shillings (2,250 shillings to 1 dollar at the exchange office), then to a store to buy cement bags, binding wire and rent a truck to move it all, then to the actual cement dealer who told us to go across the street to get the cement posts for the fence. Once they'd picked out what posts they wanted and how much it'd cost, we had to go to the office down the street to pay. At the office the guy was kind and gave us a discount, and then it was pack to pick up the posts. The men there, Talemwa and Brad loaded up all of the cement posts. 

The men were working. We were laughing at ourselves.

And taking selfies.

After that we loaded up into the taxi one more time (Talemwa sat in the rented truck with the supplies so we all had seats in the taxi), we went back to Sumawe Primary School. I didn't have to help with the unloading or playground work when we got there, so I got to spend more time with the kids. I also met a very kind man, Luka, who was visiting from Ngorongoro Crater. The two of us chatted for a bit, and then I went to see the kiddos. We played and did the hokey pokey and I would just grab their hands and spin them around. They loved the attention and I loved being with them. The fact we don't speak the same language was never a barrier at the school. Maybe I couldn't have a conversation with those young kids, but we knew how to make each other laugh. 

https://www.facebook.com/SimonsPromiseCulturalExchange/videos/vb.269237456841517/327926010972661/?type=2&theater

(Check out the link to see us doing the hokey pokey)

Some of the older kids came out and were playing too. We all danced and hopped around; I befriended a girl named Lavnes who was about twelve. She was very sassy but actually quite sweet. After a while she asked me to come into her class. Her friends were very excited, but I didn't want to interrupt their learning more than I already had. I asked where her teacher was, and she just pointed off to the other side of the school. (I found out later that teachers have to rotate classrooms, and Lavnes' class was just unsupervised which is why they came out to meet me). They were adamant I come in, but I was hesitant so they dragged me in. I saw some basic algebraic equations on the board, one kid gave me a piece of chalk, and they looked at me to demand I "do mathematics." It wasn't aggressive , but I didn't know whether they wanted me to solve or write equations, so I just stood there. They slowly got rowdier until Luka came in. They all stood and greeted him, and he talked to them in kiswahili. He grabbed a piece of chalk and wrote a problem on the board. The kids just looked at it until one girl (a KRO girl) went up and solved it. Luka talked to them some more, but the class had dissolved into chaos again. He left and they insisted I "do mathematics," but this time I knew what it meant. Once again I asked them where their teacher was and if it was okay that I was there, but they insisted it was fine. I let it go and wrote two more equations. All of them were so excited and loud, and we were all having a great time. 

Then a firm hand touched my shoulder.It was Talemwa or Luka, and he told me, "It's time to go." I waved goodbye to the kids, stepped outside the door, and Headmistress Grace was standing there looking more stern than I remembered. I quickly apologized for disrupting the class and walked away with Talemwa. Apparently Cindi, Brad and jill had no idea where I'd gone and were looking for me for several minutes. When I asked Talemwa if Grace was mad he just said, "It's no problem," but he's so sweet he'd say that to anything. Me, Kami Cooper, the girl who never dared get in trouble, gets pulled out of class by the headmistress in Tanzania! (But that's not the end of my trouble-making for the day although I didn't know it at the time). 

We headed back to Tina's to pick up the playground supplies that had been dropped off the night before. We made several trips up the hill, and Talemwa recruited some school boys to expedite the process. 

I dropped off some wood, and I was about to go back down when the boys started teasing me. I tried to tease them back but they just laughed and started jogging away. I started running with them, and we were all laughing and yelling as we barreled down the hill past the cornfield we'd been walking by for days. Some boys were in front of me and some behind, and but realized how reckless our running was so I called out, "Pole pole," which means "Slow." One of the boys called out, "Slow down." Then I heard this lady yell, "Hapana! Hapana!" which means, "No. No." All of the boys stop, so I pushed my way to the front and there was this lady yelling in kiswahili and swinging around a long stick. I tried to talk to her, but she didn't speak English, so she's just yelling at me swinging this stick, and I froze feeling afraid and very guilty. None of the boys are trying to talk to her, so I'm just there being yelled at in a foreign language. I look up the hill to see Cindi and Brad with some KRO girls, but they don't see me desperately trying to make eye contact. Soon they notice the hold up and Talemwa comes down the hill to talk to her. Apparently the KRO girls are up the hill yelling at us to just go past her and they're being sassy as all get out. Talemwa talks to her, and I asked one of the boys what they're saying. All he said was, "She's saying we can't go through. We have to go another way." They argue for a bit, Talemwa called Tina, but eventually we retreated  up the hill. One of the boys tells me, "You can just go past her. You're American," but I wasn't feeling nearly that bold. We just had to go around another cornfield and add about two minutes to our walk. No big deal, but I felt very bad about getting all of us in trouble. After we moved all the equipment it's down, we went to Tina's so we could meet her and her friend Jude.

It was a very brief introduction, but we had to tell them about the lady who was very unhappy with us. Tina explained that it's the other lady's cornfield, but she'd have had a problem with them walking on that path before. I apologized to Tina; it probably wasn't the best first impression. She said she'd have Talemwa apologize because he should have known better. She was unhappy we hadn't asked permission to walk on her land, and I'm sure a bunch of kids yelling on her property didn't help. Tina's niece, Nwaso, and daughter, Maura, lead us back up the hill to the school. I was quite nervous heading up that trail.

The men from IBES were making fast work of the playground! We got back up there to take some pictures. 

That's Talemwa in the middle!

After we observed for a bit, it was time to move the cement posts from a classroom to the playground. The men were digging holes around the playgroud for the cement posts to go in, thus building the playground's perimeter. Cindi and I were the first ones in the room with the posts, but I couldn't lift one with her. She and Brad were fine, but it took me and 2 or more school boys to lift those things. 

While we were moving the posts, school let out so all the kids were helping or observing. Once all the posts were moved it was just a lot of standing around until I found Lavnes. She pulled me over and we played a game called 'Poison Ball' with a huge group of kids surrounding and joining in. It reminded me of a basketball drill; three people were in at once, so you throw ball over the person's head in the middle to the one on the opposite side. Once you throw it you follow the ball to the opposite side where it will be thrown to you. If you drop it you're out, but Lavnes and her friends wanted me to keep playing even when I messed up. For me it was about 30 minutes of straight sprinting with one two minute break to catch my breath. The ball we played with was just a bunch of trash bags tied together with rubber bands, and that just goes to show how innovative they are. 

Back in our house, we were hopping to catch some rest before dinner. Nwaso and Maura were very excited to see us, and didn't quite understand that we wanted some quiet time, but I had them play, "Dead Fish" and peace was restored. Luckily they were both very good at it. :) 

We had dinner in Tina's house, and we stayed up late introducing ourselves and beginning discussion about collaboration. All of us were beat, but it was nice getting to know everyone. I slept like a rock that night, but it was a great day. Definitely the most trouble I've ever been in (pulled out of class and trespassing?!) It only took Tanzania to turn me into a troublemaker! Allora!

Much love,
Kami