From Under the Mosquito Net
The temperature dropped for a few days due to rain and Scott and I thought we were in it for the rainy season. The nights were more comfortable with a slight chill. For a couple of days I was even wearing long pants and a long sleeve shirt to bed, the top sheet not keeping me warm enough. But we were wrong. This isn’t the rainy season – just some rain. So now we’re back to uncomfortable, sweltering nights under the mosquito net, top sheet too warm.
***
It was a productive Monday. Taught three blocks of classes. Even got my Form II students to open up and share. I correct myself – they’re good with sharing. It’s more class discussions that I haven’t been able to foster – healthy, productive class discussions. But today I succeeded, and it felt good. It wasn’t anything earth shattering, just a discussion on accidents, a subtopic under the Talking about Events chapter.
I’m giving both my Forms their first monthly test. I’ve been teaching in Tanzania for one month. Crazy. Scott and I both worked on making the tests this past weekend. I dreamt about giving it. I used to dream about taking tests. Now I dream about giving them. I worry that it’ll be too hard, too complicated, too something that’s not right.
***
Tonight I made eggplant parm and chicken parm in a sufuria oven with homemade breadcrumbs and chedder cheese. A sufuria oven is something I use since no actual oven exists at the house (we do have a toaster oven that we toast bread in. I do intend on using it to bake cookies, but it can’t handle anything much bigger). We have a gas stove and several metal cooking pots called sufurias. I take the largest one we have, lay three stones from the yard on the bottom, place a smaller sufuria on top of the stones inside the large sufuria (you just have to make sure there’s at least a half inch around the entire inside sufuria, according to the Peace Corps Tanzania cookbook), put a lid on top, turn on the stove, and – voila! – an oven.
I had always wanted to make eggplant parm but never found the time in Wrangell. I have to say that eggplant and chicken parm Tanzania-style wasn’t bad at all.
***
It was a productive Monday. Taught three blocks of classes. Even got my Form II students to open up and share. I correct myself – they’re good with sharing. It’s more class discussions that I haven’t been able to foster – healthy, productive class discussions. But today I succeeded, and it felt good. It wasn’t anything earth shattering, just a discussion on accidents, a subtopic under the Talking about Events chapter.
I’m giving both my Forms their first monthly test. I’ve been teaching in Tanzania for one month. Crazy. Scott and I both worked on making the tests this past weekend. I dreamt about giving it. I used to dream about taking tests. Now I dream about giving them. I worry that it’ll be too hard, too complicated, too something that’s not right.
***
Tonight I made eggplant parm and chicken parm in a sufuria oven with homemade breadcrumbs and chedder cheese. A sufuria oven is something I use since no actual oven exists at the house (we do have a toaster oven that we toast bread in. I do intend on using it to bake cookies, but it can’t handle anything much bigger). We have a gas stove and several metal cooking pots called sufurias. I take the largest one we have, lay three stones from the yard on the bottom, place a smaller sufuria on top of the stones inside the large sufuria (you just have to make sure there’s at least a half inch around the entire inside sufuria, according to the Peace Corps Tanzania cookbook), put a lid on top, turn on the stove, and – voila! – an oven.
I had always wanted to make eggplant parm but never found the time in Wrangell. I have to say that eggplant and chicken parm Tanzania-style wasn’t bad at all.
posted by Siapiau | 7:37 PM
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