Some Things Do Change...

You know how if things are going pretty smoothly in your life, and someone asks you whats up, you reply "not much" or "the usual" and so on..? Or if I am writing an entry and life has been calm, I'll start by saying "so not much has happened since I last wrote." Well, this post will be the opposite of that. A lot of things have happened, and life got pretty crazy here for awhile. I apologize in advance for the length of this post, but I've got a lot to say.

It all started last week Saturday, when one of our students complained of feeling sick. The next day, he was taken to the regional hospital, where they diagnosed him with malaria. However, this was an incorrect diagnosis, which they realized when they saw his condition exacerbating (GRE word #1). On Monday the poor kid went into a coma, and was having trouble breathing. At this point, he was diagnosed again and found to have meningitis(!). I'm not sure which type, but thats not important. What is inmportant was that the proper medicine was in short supply, so the entire town had to scoured to find him any. Maybe it was too little, too late, for a day and night later, he passed away. This was around 11pm Tuesday night.

At his bedside, a fellow student had been present. This student immediately called his classmates to tell them the terrible news. Within a few minutes of his death, a majority of the students knew of it. Now, this is the first student death at Ihungo in five or six years, but I've been informed that the "standard procedures" when a student passes away are to hold a school-wide assembly the following day to address the issue. Well, the advent (GRE word #2) of cellular phones allowed this procedure to be circumvented, and the students were aware of the death before the administration. And they were very, very unhappy.

Shortly after getting the news, the students arranged amongst themselves to meet at their parade ground. Once assembled, the organized a plan to march en masse to the headmaster's house, to voice their grievances. Their largest concern was that the student wasn't treated properly, they thought with more attention he could have been spared. Maybe, maybe not... Well, at this gathering, another student collapsed and was taken to the house of another school official. I suppose this student's collapse was the progenitor (GRE word #3) of the events which follow. While this student was being looked at in the other house, the students decided to march, as planned. But now, rage was with them.

They arrived at the headmaster's house, roughly 500 of them, as a seething mob. Somewhere en route to his house, mob mentality had taken over and they didn't calmly present their concerns, as was initially planned. Now if you recall from my previous post about the soccer riot, what these kids do when they form a mob is throw rocks. So that's what they did. They began bombarding the headmaster's house with rocks, and the yell "Tunakufa!" got taken up ("We are dying!"). They demanded the headmaster come out and face them, and give them an explanation, but prudently he remained inside and told them via a window that he would address them if they calmed down and returned to the parade ground. They refused.

I should point out two important facts now. The first is that they arrived at his house around 1am, and that at this time, the power had gone out. The second is that Aaron's house was adjacent to the headmaster's (yes, was; we'll get to that). Imagine waking up in the middle of the night to the cacophony (GRE word #4) of 500 students rioting, and then realizing you can't turn on the lights to see what's going on- the night is stygian (GRE word #5).

That's what happened to Aaron, he woke up, and not knowing what was happening, he went outside. The students saw him, and yelled at him "Go back inside! This doesn't concern you!" He did, as anyone would when faced with 500 angry students with rocks. The rioting and shouting continued for an hour or so, but eventually the mob moved away from the headmaster's house and into the soccer field, where a coalition from the school met with them.

Around this time, two things happened concurrently (GRE word #6). First, the school administration realized the students were getting more and more out of hand, and that they wouldn't disperse. Second, Aaron assumed all the students had left his immediate area, as the shouting had ceased. He decided to go outside again and see the aftermath of this maelstrom (GRE word #7). When he went out on his porch, he heard some commotion around the headmaster's car, and so he shined his flashlight in that direction. The students he illuminated immediately responded by throwing rocks at him. Maybe to avoid being identified, maybe because they were just angry... Whatever the case, two of the windows in Aaron's house were broken, and he was hit a glancing blow to his head. Don't worry; he's fine physically. But emotionally, the fact that his students he came here to help would be brazen (GRE word #8) enough throw stones at him really got under his skin. So much so, the next morning he called Peace Corps and told them the situation, requesting a transfer.

At around 3am, the administration called the police, who arrived to break up the riot an hour later. Most of the students fled into the hills surrounding Ihungo, so as to avoid punishment. They are still slowly trickling in, a week later. The riot attracted regional and even national attention, making the front page of the news in Dar Es Salaam.

What matters to you is probably my safety. If there's one thing you should not worry about, its my safety. This might sound counterintuitive (GRE word #9) considering what you just read, but my house was far from the scene. I even had some of my students tell me they had wanted to ask to sleep in my house, to escape all the riot nonsense. I've never felt jeopardized here, even during this recent debacle.

But, as I've said, Ihungo is different now. Aaron was in fact transferred. He has been placed at a school in Njombe, which is two days' travel from Bukoba. In fact, Peace Corps was considering transferring me as well. Safety issues are of prime importance to our national office, and they had trouble rationalizing the act of moving one person but not two, especially at the same site. My regional director flew to Bukoba to ascertain (GRE word #10) exactly how volatile the situation was. It took him, my headmaster, various teachers and students, and myself roughly 8 hours worth of meetings to decide that Ihungo was A) calm again, and B) safe for me to stay at. At this juncture, it looks likes we succeeded. I will probably not have to move. However, its not my decision, or even that of the regional director. The national director has to look at the reports and make an impersonal choice as to my fate. I'm still nervous. I don't want to leave Ihungo. In fact, my students even gave me a round of standing applause when I told them how I had disagreed with Peace Corps, saying I didn't want to go. That was a pretty solid gesture.

So, in summary, for the long-paragraph wary:
1) A student passed away.
2) The other students rioted.
3) Aaron was hit with a stone.
4) Peace Corps moved him.
5) I am safe, but might also be moved.

Things are different at Ihungo without Aaron. Its going to be another act of adaptation to adjust to the lack of his presence. There are times I want to call him to watch a movie or cook dinner, and as I begin to dial I remember that his house is empty now. It all happened really suddenly. He flew out last Thursday.

What's up with my students loving to riot so much? Does anyone think it might be related to their school life? (Consult my post "Saved By the Bell: The African Years" if you haven't burned out on reading today). Thats it for today, sorry for my verbosity (GRE word #11).

PS I'm studying for the GRE.