Wednesday, February 21, 2007

February Chill

I sort of wanted to do an update on the Tanzania class. There are ten students now involved, plane tickets bought and everything!
Hilary O'Sullivan
Maggie Spring
Chris Zeek
TJ Bittel
Alyssa Gordos
Lynn Bahret
Meredith Poff
Jessie Lane
Kelsey Laitinen
Charlotte Sherman
Together, we have been taking a one hour credit class on teaching in Tanzania. We have learned everything from the history of colonization in Africa, to key Swahili phrases, to how to teach pronunciation to ESL students. This week, we watched a movie that is called "Tusamehe", which documents the life of an African couple who comes to to U.S. only to discover that they both have contracted AIDS from the husbands former american girlfriend. It is partially done in Swahili, and I think it brings up some important issues for our trip. We also talked alot about culture shock, and Chris presented 3 articles he found that described his past experiences well.
Right now I am pleased to be working on a business plan to make ASAP more of a business in the sense that we can sustain our organization with cashflow. We hope to work with the office of entrepreneurship to accomplish this goal. We have compiled a list of supplies needed for this summer. For more information on what we need for our school, Maji Ya Chai, please send an email to POFFME@muohio.edu.