Babati town!

Hello! The past couple of days have been filled with class, and we have learned a lot, as well as had the opportunity to practice teaching and planning lessons.

We wake up around 6:45AM, eat breakfast at our hostel, and then rush over to class by 8AM (it takes around 15 minutes to walk there). We have Swahili first, while our Tanzanian teaching partners have their own class. We had been warned that people compliment you by calling you fat or heavy, but my first real experience with this was when our Swahili teacher picked me up, threw me over his shoulder, and announced to the class that I was very heavy. When we laughed, he thought we didn't understand, and ensured me that I was, in fact, very heavy. He definitely meant it as a compliment, but it was definitely a little off-putting.

We then have classes until 1PM, an hourlong lunch break, and then more classes until 5PM. The internet cafe closes at 7PM, and a lot of shops close by 6PM, so we have to hurry to get things done. Then we eat dinner at 7:30PM. Usually we go to bed pretty early (around 9:30), but last night turned into a dance party after dinner, since we all decided to have a few beers. The dance party, which lasted about three hours, consisted almost entirely of one song being played. It's a very popular song here now which we call the "Beep Beep" song, because the refrain goes "Beep Beep, move out the way", before switching back to Swahili lyrics. The Tanzanian teaching partners love to dance, and they know all the words. All of us basically know the words since we probably heard the song 40 times last night.

Since I've had a request to say a little more about the structure of the program (shout-out to Lizzi), I'll take a moment to do so. There are 16 American volunteers, 10 Tanzanian teaching partners, 2 American coordinators (former volunteers), and one Tanzanian coordinator. Leading the orientation is our Volunteer Program Manager Dan (who is awesome and Australian), and our Orientation Leader Harriet (who goes by Harry and is a doctor and British). Dan knows most about what our villages will be like, and Harry is our HIV Bio expert. The majority of American volunteers majored in something health or biology related in college, so I am kind of an outsider. On the other hand, I've been told many times that they will value my theatre experience for creativity in lesson planning, and that they really try to get a mix of majors.

We really have an awesome group. We can have fun together, but it's also a really smart group of people and we can get a lot done in class. On Sunday we'll find out how we're being divided into 5 groups for our times in the villages. We'll all be in the Qash ward, which is about an hour away from Babati town. Each group will have 3-4 volunteers and 2 teaching partners. I'm excited to find out who I'll be partnered up with, but I know we'll have biweekly meetings as a group to check in. Tomorrow is a day off, which is much needed especially after the revelries of last night and today being a long day.

Got to go but thanks for reading!