As my final gift to my class, I put together 75 booklets, complete with a photo of each student, their painted hand print, a leaf rubbing, a math handout we completed 8 weeks ago, a new unsharpened pencil and to top it off (the cherry on the cake, I’d like to think)…A SHINY, NEW, METAL PENCIL SHARPENER!!! The books were a success…maybe too successful, because the next thing I knew, teachers and students were asking for a picture of themselves. But my students loved their gifts…handling their books with the utmost of care. I hope that these books will remain with them..or at least stay somewhat intact, so that in the future, they can look back and remember how they looked at that age, their school, and of course, remember their mzungu math teacher.As gifts for my English and kiswahili teachers, I gave each of them a kanga/kitenge wrapped up in traditional jue-style wrapping paper (origami crane included!) For the other teachers, of whom I graded countless student papers and books, I gave sugar biscuts to go with the chai they served me nearly every day.

For the classroom, I donated all the 1980’s pictures (i.e. lions, giraffes, weather, color) my mom insisted that I take with me, bought a number chart and as a FINALE, laminated/created a changeable calendar inspired by none other than my mother and my memories at Acacia school. I told the teachers that it would be the students’ job to move the box everyday, since I found my teacher always asking me what the date was. I’m not sure why I didn’t think of it sooner…an interactive calendar is ideal for learning how to count numbers and see how numbers relate in everyday things.

As for me, the teachers gave me a nice shirt and a traditional African cloth/skirt. They wrapped me up in it and took lots of photos. I did not cry, like I thought I would. But felt more relieved of my job at Moivaro. It was an intense 11 weeks at the school. Thinking of ways to get the kids to count, do math in a different sort of way was a neverending challenge. I reached my goals of teaching the kids how to add/subtract and taught them other creative ways of learning numbers (i.e. Bingo.) Most importantly, I taught them a sense of self…through their pictures and hand prints…and I hope they can take this away and be proud of who they are…because at times, the Tanzanian school system seems to take this away with their disciplinary methods.

Anyway, ONE WEEK LEFT. Unbelievable how fast it’s gone. Will be working at various other sites and well…PACKING!!! sigh…soooo fast….will want to return as soon as I can afford to. This has been QUITE the adventure…but am so happy to be spending my 26th birthday in Tanzania…