Twerking

Back to the grind...last week I had a conference in Mwanza, the second largest city here in Tanzania. It was awesome, just for the fact that I ate Chinese or Indian food every night. They even had a casino, but there was no Hold 'Em table for me to destroy people like Brandon. In total, over the last month I've been at my house for about one week out of the four. It was nice to walk in the door on Monday and realize that I'm stuck here until June, no more packing and unpacking, taking crazy buses or ferries. So on Wednesday I got back to work after a month and a half hiatus. When I returned from Mwanza, my headmaster informed me that the number of periods I'm teaching increased from 20 to 30, making me the second busiest teacher on campus (after Aaron, computer skills are in high demand in these parts). The reason for the addition is that we got seventy new form 5 students. The headmaster explained to me, "Robert Masanja, you could teach 50 or perhaps 60 students in one classroom, but 70 is too very much, so we must split them." Keep in mind the rooms are equivalent in size to our American high school classrooms. I wanted to ask him how 60 was cool if 70 wasn't, but since he has the laptop which I was borrowing and I want it back, I simply agreed with him, in a very obsequious manner.
So for now, I'm back to doing why I was sent here in the first place. I'll be teaching and coaching, and, if I get some time, working on the library. Excepting a short break in June, I'll be living the 9-to-5 style working man's life until September, when the first term ends. It really is nice to be working again. Without the distractions of America easily available (TV, movies, internet, video games, etc..) having vacation sometimes felt like a battle to kill time. A returned volunteer told me once that she got really skilled at "staring at the walls for way too long." I'll stare at a book instead (right now: The Brothers Karamazov...) but even that can get tiring.
And since blogs don't require segues, I feel no shame in switching topics to my plans for when I finish here. I don't mean long term plans, like grad school or the like, but immediate things. For example, when I get to Seattle I will eat a Big Cheeseburger with Ivan, then paint a house for Sasha or something. But before that, I'm making plans to do a world tour of sorts. I've found that there are sites which sell multi-stop tickets to anywhere you choose, so I've been trying to craft an itinerary for after the Corps. I'm hoping my brother will come, but the tickets aren't cheap and he is (dude, just kidding, quiet down now). The places we've talked about going are (in longitudinal order, thats right): Paris, to see some artistry; Croatia, the new Prague of Eastern Europe; Istanbul, capital of both the East Roman (Byzantine) Empire and the Ottoman Empire...history, yo; India, its a subcontinent. That's my only reason. Oh, and food; Thailand, Scott Boyd went there and rode an elephant. Its also very cheap; Seoul, cuz I've got Seoul but I'm not a Seoul-dier; and Japan, there's this cat I once knew who lives there, name of Kento. I heard that he has learned how to "ball out of control" and that he will teach me (got you, player). That and Andrew has wanted to see Japan for like 10 years. So yeah, those are the major plans. Does anyone who knows anything about air travel have any advice? Or are there any globe-trotters (not from Harlem) who can recommend other places? I'm still in the early planning stages, but it sounds like it might be a pretty awesome trip. Oh, we're thinking of going for 2 or 3 months, dunno yet. That's it for today.