just call me "U.S."

Today was my third day of class, and I have not seen the same professor twice, so it has been interesting to observe different teaching styles. The professors all follow the same basic formula of standing in front of the class and lecturing for two hours, but today one of the professors gave the students a five minute break after about an hour, so that was kind of refreshing! Normally they just power through and talk for the whole two hours. The most memorable professor today either couldn't pronounce or couldn't remember my name and so he referred to me as "U.S." Also today, two of the professors went around the room and had the students say their names, where they were from, and whether they were "fresh from school" or "in service," meaning they were previously working as nurses before going back to school. The program I am observing in is the bachelor's program, but it is only open to students who already have their diplomas in nursing. So it is a three year continuation program. For the first year though, the nursing students and the physiotherapy students take the same classes. So those who were "fresh from school" tended to be the physiotherapy students. The nursing students however, all have to have at least 3 years of experience as nurses before they can be accepted into the BScN program.

So anyway, everyone is going around the room saying their names, and since I'm sitting amongst the students, when it gets to be my turn I said "my name is Jael, I'm a Duke student from the US, and I am both in service and fresh from school." For some reason the students thought that was funny and I got a laugh, so I tried to clarify that I am working as a nurse and studying nursing education, but I don't know if that got through. Our accents are very different and we often need to ask the other to repeat what was just said. Unless I am talking to someone one on one, it is very difficult to understand names in particular due to the different accent.

I think that I confuse the teachers though. None of them show up for class until 10 minutes after class is supposed to have started, so I don't have a chance to introduce myself and tell them what I am doing ahead of time. And like I said, there has been a new teacher for every class. So I try to talk to them after class to let them know what I am doing, but a couple times the teacher has just ran out of the room right after class. The dean of the nursing school is also gone right now, she is actually at Duke, so it apparently wasn't communicated to the faculty what I would be doing, or even that I would be here. Which is fine, it just makes for some interesting moments when the teacher is obviously confused by my presence and I try to explain myself.

I have met a couple of the students now though, and they have been very nice. One of the girls yesterday walked me to class in a different building so I would know where to go, and we had a great conversation about nursing in Tanzania. One of the things I learned from her was that the scope of practice is the same whether she has a diploma or a bachelor's, the difference is in salary, at least in Tanzania. This is similar to the US though, where an ADN RN has the same job as a BSN RN, although usually there isn't a salary difference, just in the type of job you would be qualified for with a BSN as opposed to an ADN.

There is also a dress code that I was reading today. Trousers are on the "indecent" list for women, at least in the nursing school. Female students have to wear dresses and they have to be at least to the knee. I had been planning on rotating my pants into my weekday wardrobe, but it looks like I might need to go dress shopping instead!

Kili was looking beautiful this day.