Education & Dexter

These past few days have been pretty slow.  For the most part everyone has just been going to class and relaxing.  I walk around Arusha most days and go into stores to check stuff out, but nothing too exciting.  Honestly,my roommates and I have been filling our days with the show Dexter.  They had never seen it before, and me and a few other people were saying how great it was so we decided to start watching the first season. Now they are hooked.  I feel a little lame being in Africa and watching Dexter, but I guess even African Adventures require down time.

Class lately has been especially enlightening for me.  Today's class, in particular, focused largely on the right to development and conservation.  As a Human Service major and a Environmental Science minor, both human rights and environmental conservation are very important to me.  How to balance those two issues is extremely challenging.  It was very interesting to hear the East African students and their point of view on the issue.  Specifically looking at the Serengeti highway, we discussed the environmental and social implications.  The East Africans had the point of view that if the U.S. destroyed their environment in the name of development, who are we to say they can't put a much needed highway in the Serengeti.  Some, though not all, of the American students held the view that two wrongs don't make a right in this case and thus Tanzania should look for more sustainable ways of development.  I really enjoyed the discussion and I think I'm going to write my final research paper on the Serengeti highway issue.

Also today I went with a few of the other students to a local school.  As a part of our study abroad program we are suppose to do some volunteer work, and about 6 of us are going to help teach at an Arusha boarding school.  We went today just to talk with the headmistress and the academic director to see what we will do.  It appears most of us will be assisting with english classes in a 3rd or 4th grade class.  I am excited, but a little scared.  All the children we interacted with today were so nice and seemed really excited we were there.  On the other hand I have never taught in a formal setting before and I don't want to be a bad teacher for these kids.  I start working there next week so I guess we will just have to wait and see.