February 7, 2019
Albino Peacemakers
On Thursday, Janet and I went to Albino Peacemakers. A group of people from the United States went there as part of their tour and we
went to hear the presentation about the Peacemakers group; and, I wanted to see
how the women interacted with them in order to be more specific and applicable
with the English I taught. They certainly had the routine down. They moved their sewing machines out of the
covered area and into the shade and were working when the group arrived.
The group sat in a circle under the covered
area. Terry gave an excellent talk about
Albinism—causes, prejudices against it, health problems like cancer and the
serious danger that these people are in because they are sometimes killed or mutilated
for their body parts. "Traditional" Doctors aka Witch Doctors have convinced some people that wearing a
bag of ground up Albino body parts will make them wealthy very quickly. Of course, the witch doctor is the only one
getting rich. Here’s a site you can
access to learn more about it:
Siwema, one of the best English speakers spoke about having
a child with albinism. Then the group went shopping. Most of the women managed very well with the
English with only a few kerfuffles. I had to smile when one of the Americans asked Arafa
(standing behind a counter), “Do you make these, too?” And Arafa said, “No.”
Then the woman said, “Oh, you must not be one of the sewers.” Arafa thought she
was asking if she had made the bag that the woman held up, AND, since Arafa is
black with an albino family member, the woman thought she wasn’t one of the
sewers. I think that Terry explained that the women in the workshop are either
albino themselves or have a family member who is….but I’m not sure everyone
caught that. After the group left, I chatted with each of the women…well, a
couple of them don’t have enough English to actually “chat” but I talked to
each of them. They made quite a bit of money that day—I think about $180—and after
their overhead, each woman, who is an independent contractor of sorts, will get
about $10. (I spend more than that a week on water.)
Janet took these photos of the afternoon when the visitors
were there.
Speaking of water, I've been going through about 3- 10-liter jugs a week. Getting the water is problematic. I can't carry enough water so I have to take a taxi. After the meeting at the workshop, Ray took us to the Perfect Choice Supermarket (think small grocery store), and I bought 10 10-liter jugs of water. Yes, TEN JUGS of WATER. I'm good for about a month. YES! It cost me 66,000 TZH. That's about $28.
February 8, 2019
English at the workshop….
I left at about 9:20. Here I am on my way...leaving Kundayo. (LOL)
I arrived at about 10:00 and chatted with the women for a
bit. Then I pulled aside the ones who
could speak pretty good English (3 of them) and we listened to some dialogues
and talked about the parts of a conversation and practiced it. I looked through my old teaching files
in the cloud and discovered some dialogues that my former colleagues, Ron and
Tim, recorded about 20 years ago. Then I downloaded them to my iPad and there
you have it. I encouraged the women to use the English rejoinders, even if they were
speaking Swahili so maybe the workshop will ring with “uh-huh” and “that’s
great” and “I see” and “WOW!”
With the others who are a bit lower-to-no-English, we went
over some vocab that I noticed was problematic the day before. Then we went
over common questions and answers that they might hear with the groups.
Finally, we practiced counting aloud quickly as they added up the items the visitors
might buy. Sauda, one of the women with the lowest English, was one of the best ones with
counting and adding up the items. (They
were counting silently so the buyers sometimes thought they didn’t know how to
add up the purchases and there was some confusion. This is why they want to learn English...to be able to communicate better with the visitors.)
The two hours went quickly. I left and walked over to my
favorite produce stand about a kilometer away. Then I walked home which is
about 2 kilometers. It was so hot that
my clothes were completely wet and my hair was dripping. I don’t feel so miserable when I’m walking
and sweating but after I get home, I feel….well, the online dictionary
describes it as “damp, dank, wet,
moisture-laden.” That about covers it.
Icky!
I don’t have any photos of the workshop that day but I do
have a couple of the mysterious black gate behind which one can find the Albino
Peacemakers.
Mary Lou, you need to read about Amy McGarry's experience in Thailand with a "splash bath." It was hotter than hot there, too, and the tradition there is to dump room-temperature water over yourself in your bathroom (which has a drain in the floor? or in your shower?). Apparently, in Thailand, people do that about 4-5 times a day to keep cool. Amy described it as heavenly. :-)
ReplyDeleteThe natural water temperature is tepid when the weather is hot so that would feel good. Just peeling off my wet clothes would probably work too. The "shower" is next to the toilet and there's a drain in the floor. It's gravity fed so it runs very slowly.
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