Conversations with Barnabas #8

Welcome back to Conversations with Barnabas Bear. A couple of items up front, the conversation is fictional (hopefully that was obvious) but are pulled from some of my conversations and observations during my time here in Tanzania.  The main purpose of these is to help everyone get to know the people in Tanzania a little bit better while having a little bit of fun.  I would love some feedback on these so I know if I should continue and if so what types of conversations Barnabas needs to be having.  The stories are told from Barnaba’s point of view and because of that they are in English though I try to reflect some of the problems with the English translation.

Meet Zawati which means "Gift".  She is a student at our pre-school and I wanted to talk to her about the experience of having a team over doing children's ministry.

B:  "Jambo Zawati"

Z:  "Shikamoo"  (I greet you as an elder)

B:  "Marahaba" (respectful response to Shikamoo)

Z:  "When do we get to see another Akili and Me cartoon?"

B:  " We are going to start doing those every week so probably Wednesday."

Z:  Big smile across her face, "Those were fun"

B:  "Did you have fun doing the crafts with the folks from the US?"

Z:  She pulls her bead necklace they made as part of Jesus feeds 5000 day.  "I still wear it but my little sister broke it.  I was glad we made kept breaking them to have all of you fix them that day so I knew how."

B:  Smiles because several on the team thought that was what the kids were doing when so many  broke.  "I am glad you were able to fix it, what else did you like to do while they were here?"

Z:  "Getting a picture to show my family, my mom was one of the ladies that came over to make a necklace and get her picture taken later in the week.  I also liked playing the drums in the music station.  They make  a lot of noise."

B:  "Yes they do, it is making hard for the teachers to sleep"  he giggles, "anything else you really loved."

Z:  "It was all a lot of fun because we did not have to do the math and letters. I get tired of writing down the stuff on the blackboard.  But when the one lady ran around with us that was a lot of fun too."

B:  "That was Soonja.  She is always full of energy.  Have you played with the math station yet."

Z:  "We did, my friends and I, it was fun to actually work out the answer on the abacus but I still like the music station the best.   My friends like the bean bag toss a lot."

B:  "So now that the folks from the USA are gone what is school like?"

Z:  "It is the same for the most part, we copy stuff off the blackboard.  But we still get to play with the things on the playground so that is fun.  We had so little on the playground we were always waiting for our turn, now there is more to do.  We want to start using the tic-tac-toe boards to play games as well."

B:  "So what do you hope for school next year?"

Z:  "More of your friends coming over to play with us and do stories with us.  And more of the cartoons.  Can someone come over for a long time and make the classes more fun?"