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The content of this blog does not reflect the positions of the Peace Corps and is solely the responsibility of the author.

Teaching Nightmares that Come True in Tanzania


  • Going to the wrong classroom.
  • Having the wrong class come to your classroom 
    • (It was about 30 minutes into the lecture before anyone told me they weren't my class).
  • A complete failure of necessary technology.
    • Power cuts in the middle of a lecture.
    • White boards that are unwriteable due to no one erases them ever.
    • Internet connections that don't connect.
    • Computers rendered useless by viruses.
  • Completely forgetting everything I know about a subject.
    • I seriously could not figure out why some code wouldn't compile.  Naturally, after the class was over, I looked at it and instantly noticed I'd left the * off my pointer declaration.
  • Coming to school to find out there is some special occasion for which I am supposed to do something that no one bothered to tell me about beforehand.  (And then I am supposed to speak and participate in a ceremony not in my language  and I don't really know what is going on.) 


Today my multimedia class wanted to learn about blogs.  It turns out my Vodacom modem that is screamingly fast in my house can't get a connection inside the lab.  A wonderful student offered her modem, which just happened to be a Zantel modem, which is the one ISP that absolutely does not play with Linux under any circumstances.  Another wonderful student offered her computer, and then a third wonderful student had to show me how to get a modem to work on Windows.  I told the class that this is an illustration of how failure is always an option.   Particularly in science.  

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