Life in Tanzania (2013-2017) – Page 5

5 Questions

I could start complaining about how I hit snooze fifteen times this morning, or how changing the oil in my motorcycle became a TIA crisis, or how I really should be grading papers instead of reading all of the posts backpiling in my RSS reader, but that’s all rather irrelevant. After clicking through several links…

Moments

What follows is a collection of moments, glimpses into my life since returning from my summer holiday in the U.S. a month ago. Some are funny, some are serious, some from school, and some from play. This is #life. He walked into the room, said hi, and sat down across from me. He was average…

HOPAC 2014-2015: Day One

Its a wrap. The first day of school is done and over. And all in all, it was far less chaotic than I expected. Maybe its because I’m getting better at planning with the advent of my fourth year of teaching, but I find that unlikely. In all reality, it is simply helpful to be…

Year Two

I arrived back in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania late Tuesday evening to begin year two of life in Tanzania as an English Literature teacher at Haven of Peace Academy. Aside from the the inevitable jet lag, depression, broken motorcycle, and setbacks that come with extreme culture and time shifts, I am starting to get excited about…

I’d Rather Not Say Goodbye

I’d rather not say goodbye. Even though saying goodbye is normal. In 2001, when I went with my brother to Miracle Mountain Ranch for a week of summer camp, my life changed forever. For the next nine years, my summers were a fast-spinning montage of strong friendships bonded in the forge of being summer camp…

14 Days…

With just two weeks until I land in the U.S. of A., here is a Buzzfeed-style list of fourteen things I’m looking forward to during this this summer visit home (in no particular order). 1. Family! 2. Being at Wallen Baptist Church. 3. Riding my Specialized Tarmac on flat, smooth roads. 4. Eating Tostitos corn…

Street Children & Football: Faith Filled Friday Link-up

All year, Dan Kappers and I have been co-teaching the grade 9 Service Learning class at HOPAC. Throughout the course of the year, students researched and wrote about problems in Tanzania and their possible solutions. As a culminating project, students split into groups to write two more specific research papers on problems they saw in…

Running isn’t as Boring Here

I hate running. Not because its that hard, or because it makes me sweat, or because I might mess up my hair. I hate running for the same reason I hated math in high school: its boring. But since I made the ridiculous decision to participate in a half-marathon later this month, I’ve discovered that…

Ponderings…

I’ve been exhausted the past few weeks, despite going to bed early and getting up later than usual. Apparently, my ability to sleep from 2-5 and go all Energizer Bunny for the other 21 hours of the day is failing. Maybe its the end of the school year. Maybe I’m just getting old. =D Anyways,…

Responding to Disagreements

Last week, I sat down at the snack bar for lunch with a group of fellow teachers. I work at a Christian school, but that by no means eliminates disagreements. The topic of conversation for the day was set by one of the teachers who was expressing his surprise at how many of the students…