Springsteen Enjoys Teaching in a Different Culture on African Peace Corps Mission
By Ellen Paquin

At left: Sarah Springsteen at her apartment, with some of the neighborhood children on the island of Zanzibar. The apartment has an indoor concrete sink, and she cooks on a kerosene burner on the floor. Most residents there do their laundry and cooking on small outdoor porches.

A strong sense of communal life marks each day in the island village of Zanzibar in Tanzania, Africa, where St. Ignace resident Sarah Springsteen is a teacher with the Peace Corps. Miss Springsteen, a 2001 graduate of LaSalle High School and the daughter of Mike and Betty Springsteen of St. Ignace, has been working in Africa for 16 months and plans to spend 10 more to improve the understanding of science and mathematics for teenagers in her school.

"Day-to-day life is extremely communal," Miss Springsteen said, "even more so than small town America, surprising though it may seem." The people of the village, she said, take ample time to greet each other each day as they go about their business.

"Nothing happens on time, but no one really expects it to, since it takes everyone a little longer to get everywhere when they must exchange pleasantries with all of their neighbors. It's great."

Sarah (from left), Betty, and Mike Springsteen of St. Ignace, climbing the Marangu Trail on Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. The family is pictured at 10,000 feet, and the peak of the mountain can be seen in the distance. (Springsteen family photographs)

While in Peace Corps training, Miss Springsteen and other volunteers first lived with local host families to learn the culture. Now, she has moved on her own to "a modest apartment flat, surrounded by flats where a hundred other Zanzibari locals live," she said. The Peace Corps houses its volunteers in conditions equivalent to the local people.

"It's very communal and social, and great for me, personally," she said. "The students' living situations vary, as well, but many live in what I would say is extreme poverty, like a thatch roof, mud housing, with dirt floors, without water or electricity. Some do have rather decent housing, and a few even have electricity and water."

The Springsteen family took this photograph during their visit to the open vegetable market at Stone Town, Zanzibar, where locals buy and sell fish, fresh juice, fruit, eggs, and firewood.

She is fortunate to have both water and electricity, which, she noted, "works most of the time."

A secondary school physics and mathematics teacher, she works in Forms 3 and 4, equivalent to American 11th and 12th grade classes. The school buildings have woven wire openings for windows. No meals are served at school, and because no textbooks are available, students must rely on notes for studying.

She is raising money for materials to build 18 wooden desks for her students, to allow them to expand into an additional classroom. One of her classes has 40 students and one has 15. The school of 1,200 students is severely overcrowded, and after the desks are built, Miss Springsteen wants to launch a fundraiser for school books.

"We have many books donated from overseas, but none are immediately applicable to the students' actual course work," Miss Springsteen said. "There won't be enough books for everyone, but right now we have none, so this would be a significant improvement."

The local ministry of education, she said, pays for teacher salaries, but no other expenses to educate the students. While education in her village is free to students, funds are too meager to improve conditions at the school. Without donated desks and books to accommodate the growing number of students, they would be shunted to other nearby schools, Miss Springsteen said, and because most of them are too poor to afford transportation, many would not attend school at all.

Students in Zanzibar have been disadvantaged in learning mathematics and sciences in their earlier grades, she said.

"One of the biggest challenges I've faced is learning how to teach in another culture, and working despite the lack of funds, equipment, and experience," Miss Springsteen said. "Most of the students come from a primary school experience of very shaky math and science education, where there often is not enough, or sometimes any, teachers, books, and desks for everyone. So they come into my class already in a tough situation."

There is also a language and cultural barrier between her and her students.

"When I come in, I have different methods of teaching, and my Kiswahili isn't fluent, and my dialect of English is different from the one they know, all compounding to making the class a challenge to them," Miss Springsteen acknowledged. "Also, in general, the culture of Zanzibar presents a challenge, as it is almost entirely Muslim, which is extremely different from what I'm used to. They are much more conservative."

Many of the Tanzanian villagers have formed shallow perceptions of Americans and Europeans from their fleeting contact with tourists in the area, she said.

"It is a challenge for me to break out of the expectations of the Muslim Zanzibaris on Western 'raciness,' and the expectation of the white Europeans on Islamic oppression of women's rights," she said. "I must also interact as an individual while still fitting in to the different groups of people around me."

People in Tanzania prize their daily connections to friends and neighbors and are content with fewer possessions than the typical American, she said.

"The biggest difference I find between Tanzania and America seems to be the amount of stuff people have. Tanzanians, as a whole, seem to own a lot less, and reuse a lot more," she said. "But I can't emphasize enough how it's only in the amount of stuff that I see a big difference. Poor though they may be, Tanzanians seem to enjoy each day as much as any American I've known, and laugh just as much, if not more, than some I know. Also, they take extreme pride in hosting things, and every time I visit someone, they make sure to greet me with a smile, a soda, and a gift of some sort. Even when I visited a student who had no money, he had gone out of his way to find the best orange tree in the forest and bring me good oranges and coconuts."

Her parents also remarked on the island's hospitality when they visited Miss Springsteen in Zanzibar last September. Mrs. Springsteen was struck by the beauty of the lush landscape of rainforest and rolling hills, set against a backdrop of extreme poverty.

"The trip was a wonderful experience in many ways, to see the beauty and grandeur of the land, the array of animal life, hear the sounds of life in the villages, like the Arabic morning call to prayer, the creak of cartwheels, the sounds of wash water being tossed from upper floors, and see the bright colors the people wear every day," Mrs. Springsteen said. "But you have to become acclimated to the poverty, because it surrounds you and permeates all that you do. When you come from a place as gifted as St. Ignace is, the change is enormous. We came home feeling so fortunate. It makes you glad to pay taxes just to have good roads, clean living conditions, public facilities, and services.

"The people there are very friendly, very kind," she said. "Perhaps because they have so little, they truly understand how important it is to look after each other. Most people don't have cars, and the roads are poor, so sometimes you'll see a large truck traveling down the road, and many people sitting on it, all catching a ride. Their only other option is to go by foot, or bicycle if a bicycle is available. In some places, there are many people with no work, and so you'll see people just sitting and watching the road. Everyone is very clean, but some students must go barefoot."

Meeting with Miss Springsteen on the mainland at Dar es Salaam before traveling to Zanzibar, the family visited during Ramadan, a Muslim religious observance, when eating is prohibited during daylight hours. Visitors can be accommodated with discreet meals indoors. They enjoyed a tour to see regions where different spices come from, and a wildlife safari. The family spent time in Tanzania, climbing part of Mount Kilimanjaro, camping at the Ngorongoro Crater, and visiting the Serengeti and other wildlife parks there.

With a fellow American volunteer who works at a school on a nearby island, Miss Springsteen plans to launch a girls' empowerment workshop in the coming months. She has also recently joined the Peace Corps peer support network to contribute ideas to improving volunteer life. She wants to help train new volunteers as they arrive.

"All in all," she said, "it should be a busy year."