Blink Blink, or Can't Stop the Cuteness Redux

This is just a silly, throwaway post as it is a holiday weekend here in the U.S. and I am actually swamped with other work at the moment - finances, fundraising, and feelin' funky (I jest....) - but still, I wanted to put something up for the week.

The first "Can't Stop the Cuteness" video back in March featured my little mchumba (fiance) Baraka with his toothless grin and stuttery speech.  This vid shows Haika (aka Blinky Ghost from Pac-Man) with her bucktooth smile and, well, blinky eyes.  

I know I am poking good fun, but this video actually makes my heart fill up because this was the same day as the Lego-building episode and she was really up and down that day.  Haika comes from a pretty horrible home situation - mama died a while back, auntie *raises* her (not very well, IMO) - and Haika is prone to some very scary personal risks to which her intellectual impairment has left her even more vulnerable than your average seven-year-old.  We have had a tough time breaking through to her even just on a psych/emo level, forget about trying to get anywhere academically, and I think she is probably a candidate for Gabriella, but we are monitoring her in Msaranga for the moment.
 
Anyhoo, the day of the wageni/Lego-building, Haika stuck to me like glue, chattering away at my side, so I got out my camera and prepared to take some video.  Well, what do you know?  The girl is camera-shy!  As soon as I started rolling, she clammed up and all I got was a few moments of slow blinking, which were actually pretty adorable in and of themselves.  Oh well, at least you can enjoy her precious smile and take my word for it....this girl has found her voice!!
 

Jenga

Okay, so this entry does not actually feature the game of Jenga in which players take turns removing one block at a time from a tower and then attempt to re-balance each removed block back on top of the tower until the whole thing comes tumbling down - NOTE TO SELF: (and Angi, Evelyn, Danna and Philip, the Cartusciello family, and any impending visitors to The Toa Nafasi Project) that would be a GREAT idea of something new to do with the kids - but because the word jenga is the Swahili for "to build" and the kids were indeed building on this particular day, I feel it is an apropos heading.

So, after tuckering ourselves out playing soccer and learning kickball, the wageni group of Petersons and Cartusciellos along with me, Angi, Evelyn, and the Tanzanian staff retired inside where we were lucky enough to have the chance to play with a ton of Legos, courtesy of a friend of Angi's who works at the Lego Store in Boston.  Truthfully, I had NO idea what a ginormous success this activity would turn out to be.  I had bought larger block sets in Arusha and at the Nakumatt in Moshi, but they didn't even compare to the popularity of the Legos.  We settled in groups on the floor and set ourselves to jenga-ing!

 
I sat with Haika, a little girl who suffers from both psycho-social issues due to a really messed-up family background which we are trying to rectify as well as some intellectual impairment.  She had a hard time understanding that in order to fit the Legos together, you had to put the grooved parts into the empty spaces and I kept telling her to turn just one block over but she would turn both over every time, thus having the same problem, just in reverse.  Then when I would take the blocks from her to show her myself, she would lose focus and rather than watch my example, she would pick up more blocks and continue to have the same struggle over and over again.  She became very frustrated and start to cry but I stayed with her all afternoon and when she finally put one and one together, so to speak, she was so happy she reached to me with outstretched arms and a big hug.  Well worth the wait, I'd say!

 
My cousin Philip and Mike Cartusciello Jr. commanded a group of young men and, as I was busy with Haika, I didn't really get to see what they got themselves up to though I assume that they managed to communicate through the international language of "boy" and build "boy" things like guns and airplanes and snips and snails and puppy dogs' tails, and things of that nature.

Sophia, the Cartusciello daughter, became very enthralled with one of the little girls in the program, Jesca, and spent the whole afternoon together with her.  They built things with the Legos, but Jesca also showed Sophia her schoolwork and they sat for quite a long time at the desks studying together while everyone else was playing on the floor.  Needless to say, Sophia made a friend for life that day!

Kicking and Screaming

Greetings from New York City, my dear readers!  Bet you all weren't expecting that one!!  I am more than pretty sure that what with my busy months of June and July (travel, illness, wageni, personnel changes, general busy-ness, etc.), I neglected to post that I would be coming back to NYC for my annual stateside sojourn in search of funding.  Oopsy.

To be honest, this year's trip crept up on me pretty quickly as well, and I was so busy last month that I didn't even get to update the blog as much as I would have wanted.  But that's okay, it just means that my first bunch of posts from the U.S. will be chock-full of Tanz stories, of which there are many.  For the next 3+ months, I'll be splitting my time between NYC and DC, networking, researching grant opportunities, taking care of financial matters, and addressing other non-program-related aspects of Toa Nafasi.  Holla back if anyone's in the New York or Washington areas and wants to get together.

Anyhoo, a couple weeks back, I wrote about the first few wageni who rolled through the Project but since Kelly and Andrea, there have been many more, the most notable group being the Cartusciello family, comprised of Michael Sr., Tina, Sophia, and Michael Jr.  Michael Sr. is a tax law friend of my dad's and, upon hearing about the Project from him, expressed interest in being a part of it.  His wife, Tina, was also enthusiastic having a background in special education herself as well as being a speech pathologist.  College-age daughter Sophia and high school athlete son Michael Jr. came along for the ride.

In a lucky coincidence, my own auntie, Danna Peterson, and her teenage son Philip, had also planned a trip to come see the Project at the same time, so I was able to combine the two family vacations into one super-sized one, the likes of which National Lampoon would have been proud to behold.  We planned a week for both families to come out to Msaranga Primary School and hang with the kids and a week of safari so the visitors could see all the natural beauty that Tanzania has to offer (ahsante sana, Pristine Tours, for helping with that jazz!!)

Originally, the boys, Philip and Mike Jr., wanted to run a brief sports camp with the Standard Ones for the week, but the Muslim holiday of Eid interfered and with two days off from school, we had a very abbreviated time to play.  Still, I think we managed to make the most of the short time we had and both families had a lot of fun teaching the kids kickball and playing soccer.  As Angi was still in-country for their visit and Evelyn volunteering with the Project, they also got to be part of the family fun.

There are tons of photos and videos from the visit, so I'm splitting them up into sections, and just posting the sports items this time.  Next time, you'll see the kids playing with Legos (donated by a friend of Angi's who works for The LEGO Group, ahsante sana, Lego Company!!) and Sophia making a new friend.  Until then, check out the "kickin' and screamin'" below!

 Philip plays a little one-on-one with Milulu.

Young Mike gets in on the action.

 

 And you thought World Cup was over....

 

Gooooooooool!

Mike Jr. getting ready to "pitch."

 

 

 The ball in motion.

 Mike Sr. and Sophia watching from the sidelines.

 

Vumi helping to explain the game of kickball....

after getting the explanation herself!

 

Kickball Cartusciello-style.

More from the Cartusciello/Peterson/Rosenbloom/Stone-MacDonald/Keane/Temba family vacation next post!

Additional Faces of Edwin Ludovick

This'll be real quick since I'm already running late to start my day/week, but I wanted to put something up since I haven't posted in far too long.
 
A couple weeks back, I wrote about a young man named Edwin Ludovick who is a Standard One student at Msaranga Primary but is not, in fact, part of The Toa Nafasi Project.
 
He is doing exceptionally well in school actually, especially given his proclivities for trouble-making.  Still, he loves to come by the Toa Nafasi classroom and rabble-rouse in his spare time.  Check the latest from Ludo below!
 

Hamming it up on the far left.

 

Lord of the flies, liege of Liliput.

 

He walks a lonely road, the only one he's ever known....

 

Teacher's pet.

Furahi-Day!

Okay, this post makes decidedly less sense since I'm way late to put it up, but the title refers to "Friday" nicknamed by Tanzanians the country over as Furahi-day, furaha being the Swahili word for "happiness."  At any rate, using the magical powers of TFT or "Tanzania Flex Time," I am posting this entry on the following Thursday afternoon and I am hoping no one will think the less of me for it....?!

Anyhoo, every Friday, the staff at Toa Nafasi takes a break from teaching to get down and dirty with the students and have some fun and games.  This past week was a very special Furahi-day as it was Angi's first back at school and we decided to celebrate by making paper-bag puppets, dancing the Macarena, and duckpin bowling.

Enjoy the shots below!!

 My example of a paper-bag puppet.

 Students making their own puppets.

 Evelyn and Dorin helping the kids decorate their bags.

 Vumi's daughter Grace just HAD to get in on the action.

 A happy student with his finished product.

Derick's puppet knew only two words: Mambo? and Poa!

 Puppets a-plenty!

Vumi and her mini-me.

 Angi and Evelyn demonstrating the Macarena.

 Vumi shaking her groove-thang.

Yes, technically, there IS a booty-slap in the Macarena.

But it's still good, clean fun!

Polepole, getting the hang of it....

 

 

Angi helping a girl with bowling,

Grace asking her mama when it will be her turn....

Bowling in motion.

 

 And sweet treats to end the day: juice and biscuits!!

Wals and Wags and Angi, Oh My!

Hello dear readers, I hope everyone is well this week.  Things continue to go swimmingly at Toa Nafasi and big changes are afoot.  I mentioned last week that we had moved classrooms and are now properly ensconced in a real darasa, so that has been a great improvement on the dilapidated shack we were using before.

With the move have also come significant changes in personnel, and I am pleased to say that we have had a lot of movement through the program in the last six weeks or so.  The title of this post refers to this movement with the additions of walimu or "wals" in Sarah-speak, "teachers" in Swahili, wageni or "wags" (visitors), and Dr. Angela Stone-MacDonald (early childhood education expert and Toa Nafasi consultant extraordinaire), all of whom have touched us in some way in recent days.

First off, we have hired a new teacher to help Vumi and Yacinta with the individual lesson plans.  Her name is Dorin and she's very young and quiet, but I think under our tutelage, she will flourish and develop some skills as a private tutor.  I don't have a photo of her just yet as she has only been working for about a month and two weeks of that time I was on vacation, but you all will come to know her face soon!

It's nice to think that, in addition to supporting slow-learning primary schoolchildren, Toa Nafasi can also provide employment opportunities to these young ladies of the village and help them to grow their experience and expertise as teachers.

Next, we've welcomed a lovely, young Western volunteer into our fold.  Evelyn is from Ireland, and was referred to the Project by a friend of mine who runs a hostel here in Moshi and has included Toa Nafasi as a possible volunteer site for the expats who roll through (asante sana, Rhiannon!!).

Evelyn has a background in physical education for children with disabilities and knows how to use sports and games to promote academic development amongst slow learners.  She joined us in June and will stay on until the end of August.  Thus far, she has been a great addition to the Project; "ready, willing, and able" would be the understatement of the year!!  Vumi and I have not hesitated for a second to put her to work and she is even studying Swahili and making materials for the classroom in her spare time.  Here she is with Julius, a student from last year, working on math.

Around the same time Evelyn joined us, Vumi and I were taking some of this year's Standard One students on referral appointments to KCMC and Gabriella to see if various other issues (poor eyesight, psycho-social issues, etc) were causing their low academic performances rather than an actual learning difficulty (a blog entry on our exploits at the hospital will follow shortly....).  

On one such outing, I met an American doctor of orthopedic surgery who examined a child with a bum arm.  He asked me what I was doing in Moshi and I told him about Toa Nafasi.  He then recommended the Project to his girlfriend and college-age daughter as a volunteer opportunity and they joined us for about a week, doing arts and crafts and playing games with the children.  

It was my first time to welcome wageni to Toa Nafasi and I hope I came correct!!  Back in the day, pre-TTNP when I was working for the other NGO and just volunteering my spare time at the nursery schools, I used to bring friends who visited me in TZ to Msaranga, but this is quite different.  Not only were Kelly and Andrea strangers to me, but the onus was on me to explain the Project well and to show them a good time.  I hope I succeeded!!

Kelly, in particular, came with a lot of great ideas for stuff to do with the kids so we really let her run with it and Vumi and I just hung back and helped with the language barrier.  We organized arts and crafts projects which then helped to beautify our new classroom and also taught the kids dodgeball which, you might imagine, they LOVED as there's truly nothing more satisfying than pegging your fellow classmate at top speed with a rubber ball.  Check the photos below!

Another Kelly idea was to help the kids count by tens using tracings of their hands.  Here she is getting down and dirty with a few of them, and then a couple students taking the reins themselves and finally, the end result!!

She and Andrea also helped the kids to draw their houses and yards.

 

Enter dodgeball, that happy pastime described by Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller in the eponymous 2004 movie as a sport of "violence, exclusion, and degradation."

I jest....but really, it can be a rather dangerous activity if left unsupervised....

So, I think we're all clear on the "wals" and "wags," but what about Angi?!  Well, I am pleased to announce that the good professor has returned to Moshi for a second year of service with The Toa Nafasi Project!!

This time around, she is spending a bit less time in-country, but that certainly doesn't mean she is any less significant to us or doing any less work - trust me, if I am not a hard task-master, which I am, Vumi is even worse and she has put Miss Angi to work right and proper.  Here's Evelyn and Vumi observing Angi as she tests a student from last year for the third and final time.

Once we have completed all those exams and analyzed the data, I'll be sharing with you all what we have learned from our first full cycle: the original assessment followed by referral appointments when necessary and the start of private tuition; the second assessment after six months' time; the continuation of tuition and the last assessment.  For the most part, it is very happy news!!

Movin' On Up

No, not to the East Side -- and, certainly not to a deluxe apartment in the sky -- but The Toa Nafasi Project has indeed moved up!  Or rather, over, to be more precise, to a classroom in the nursery school block at Msaranga Primary, one that actually has windows.... and a door.... and a floor.... come to think of it!!

We have finally got a piece of the pie that is classroom real estate in Msaranga.  After having received the written approval of the Moshi Municipal Council that we can continue our activities at Msaranga Primary School, Headmaster Kennedy gifted the Project with a proper classroom in the nursery building adjacent to the main part of the school.

So, we now have a sort of headquarters on the premises (though I am wary of getting too keenly settled there as the whole point of Toa Nafasi is that it's a movable feast: rich in pedagogy rather than brick-and-mortar).  Nevertheless, I suppose it's nice to have somewhere to call home for the moment and I'll worry about getting pigeon-holed inside it at a later date.

Truth be told, we moved in about two months ago but what with my travels and school on holiday and this and that, I've not had time to divulge.  Sorry for that, but check out some images of our new digs below.

Next week, I'll inform you of some new personnel in the Toa Nafasi ranks: a part-time administrative consultant who's so smart she makes me nervous; a real-life expat volunteer, just like I used to be back in the day (!); another Tanzanian hire brought on by Vumi to chip in in the classroom; and several "wags" (short for wageni, Swahili for visitors) who've come and gone, and more who are expected.  It has been a busy couple of weeks and I expect it will be a busy few more....  Stay tuned!!

The exterior of our old classroom.

Not much to look at....

The interior.... dust in the dry season, mud in the rainy,

refuge for wayward chickens all-year-round....

 

Vumi in the forefront and our new volunteer Evelyn

in the background, both teaching in the luxury of our new digs!!

 

Art created under the tutelage of some "wags" who passed through back in June.  What a difference from the chicken room, right?!

 

Check out the origami dog faces and imagine us,

American volunteers (for the most part), teaching

Tanzanian schoolchildren the ancient art

of Japanese paper-folding....!!

 

The nursery school kids excited about their new neighbors,

The Toa Nafasi Project (!!), and peeping in.

 

 

Word travels fast!  By the end of the first week,

we were the most popular thing to hit the village since electricity!!