Jake Sosne - Senior Project

More more more

As much as I would like to write an entry talking about how hard my project WAS, or how much stuff i had to do, I am in a position in which I still have a good deal of work ahead of me. This week I worked on revisions and additions to my compositions, kept in contact with my outside mentor, had the Blurb Booksmart application installed on my laptop so that I can format my product, and I also scanned multiple images to be included in my final product.

I want to keep this short and sweet. As my project has moved on it really has grown on me. This is an area which I am very interested in and as I learned from my research, my interest has grown exponentially. Frankel ranking on me on a weekly basis was just one of the challenges, but all in all I think that my project will be successful in conveying the messages and content I hope to about the education system in Zanzibar and my experiences.

Crunch

This week has been hectic: there is way too much stuff going on, but as it is the closure of my time on senior project I have been wholly dedicated to producing my material on time. This week I composed a section on the education system in Zanzibar and how it functions, as well as contacted the Tanzanian consulate (and possibly the government), while I also had a phone interview with a student at UNC who did service work in Zanzibar and told me about her personal experience and who also accepted the position of being my outside consultant.

There is a final section I am working on now about the issues that the education system faces and what is being done to address these issues. I have to finish revisions on the sections I just wrote, and finally organize my pieces and images into a coherent product.

I am very busy.

A New Direction

After spending break revising old materials, reading the SACMEQ and Zanzibar-ian government reviews on the status of education, and composing a little more about the Jambiani school, I am now ready to begin composing the two major pieces on the topic of education. I will focus first on describing how the education system exists today; that is, I will give an overview of teacher, student, and learning standards in Zanzibar. Secondly, I will address the problems that exist in the system and will use my contacts from the Zanzibar consulate and other organizations in order to corroborate my findings.

Hopefully I will get the college search over with soon so that next week I will only have my Senior Project to focus on. Regardless, I know that there is a fair amount of work for me to focus on, primarily composing the transition between my memories and the factual portions of my essay. I hope to be able to compose these remaining pieces before Christmas break.

More work

    The last two weeks have focused on writing specific memories and trying to recall events that I found interesting in relation to the main topic I am researching: education in Zanzibar. This week, my sights shifted from looking at the past to researching the modern day education system and status in Zanzibar. I called the Tanzanian consulate yesterday in New York City in the hopes of being able to speak with a person about the Zanzibar Vision 2020, which is a large development project in Zanzibar, and the Zanzibar Development Project, which is more focused on the education system. I was not able to get someone helpful on the phone but I did leave my name, number, and message to be passed on to a woman named Mrs Mwingira.

    Over break I will review what I have already written and continue reading the SACMEQ education review. When I come home I will be ready to begin writing about the present day education system.

Writing

I have been writing a lot. There is not much more to say on the subject besides the simple point that six pages of writing per week of memories is most probably going to be nothing compared to the research compositions I will be writing following Thanksgiving break.

I have been working on two memories, mainly: one about arrival, the other about stereotypes. They are developing well and Frankel appears to like what I have written, but for now it is a matter of getting a large amount of material composed so that I can go back later and cull through it so as to pick which elements I want to keep.

It would be redundant for me to reexplain what i've been focusing on, so what I will say is that leading up until Thanksgiving break I will be writing more. Over break, even though I will be away, I will try to get some revisions completed so as to not have to deal with them once I get home. I will also be compiling information so I can write the research element of my project.

It's Alive!

Two weeks might have been a long time, but the work i've been doing is largely repetitive and not extremely interesting. After meeting with Frankel this week, we decided that a minimum of six pages of new material would be my assignment for each week. After writing a response to the Agee passage, a historical look at the pre-indepdence period of Zanzibar history, and beginning to compose reflective pieces about specific memories, I feel that my work is moving along quite quickly. However, what I am finding is that although writing about memories is generally not the most difficult task, writing them in the tone of Agee's reflective pieces has become an extremely difficult task. In some respects, I have put aside composing my pieces in this tone and have decided that I would rather write as much as I can now and then edit and revise them later.

As for the letters I have been organizing, the pile of responses is slowly growing. This project has become secondary to the main part of senior project but I have not disregarded it entirely. Even so, I don't know how much time I have to commit to tracking down individual students and remembering them to give me their response letters; ultimately, that is out of my control in many ways.

This week has been full of writing, as I am assured the upcoming weeks will be. The work is good though, and I am enjoying writing. The project is moving along well now.

Agee

Luckily Frankel will be leaving for Sweden or else I would fear for my safety as I did not manage to read the passage he told me to summarize in this entry last night. Although, from what I did read while I met with him yesterday, I am genuinely interested in what is assigned. Below is an excerpt from my journal:

            My meeting with Frankel today really made me think about how I want to approach my compositions. I have realized, and so has he shown me through literary examples, that this is not about me telling my story. This my way of showing the truth, the raw, unrestrained reality of what I saw and in doing so attempting to avoid taking any credit or acclaim for composing the reality in the form of literature. I have always wanted to write something like this.

I composed a piece on Zanzibar's history this week and as my other essays for college are polished up for next weekends deadline I am finding myself with more and more time to focus on specifically developing how I will present my research, stories, and materials.

Edit: After reading James Agee's Let Us Now Praise Famous Men first chapter, I have come to realize a crucial element in my project. I am not fair, I am in many respects a liar, as I sit at my desk and write the words that will bring me an accomplishment. The stories I tell are those of others yet I will reap the benefits of their undoing, even though that is not intended. As Agee writes, if I could I would completely remove myself from the writing. This is a composition only by necessity in that how else can I tell truths if not via text? Truly an interesting read, I plan on continuing with the book.

It's all about LOB-stirs

I'd firstly like to apologize for the title; not a clue what the reference is nor why I chose to substitute an i for an e in lobster. Other than that, lets get to the serious business.

I finally started my essay this week and I've written an introduction I am happy with. Of course, many, many revisions will follow. As for the research element of my project, I've gotten a bit ahead of schedule (which hopefully with satisfy the Gods aka Frankel). For Monday, my next deadline, I am to have researched the pre-independence period of Zanzibar History and know it well. I have learned much about the evolution of culture and government in Zanzibar; Arab and Persian traders sailing to Zanzibar, the spice and slave isle, on monsoon winds to trade, Portuguese rule, the Sultan of Oman, British colonization, the end of the slave trade, and eventual independence.

I am actually on the right track now, seriously...really. I know where I am headed and my project is developing well.

"Insert Title Here"

This week has been very fruitful: I have begun to lay out my memories and questions while attempting to tie them together in order to piece together a story. I finally reached a head master at a school in Zanzibar, who, after putting contact with Frankel I never heard from again (who knows). All jokes aside, I am happy with the progress. I will use the long weekend to continue to outline my ideas and questions and hopefully on Tuesday at my weekly mentor meeting we will outline the essay so that I can start to do specific research.

Otherwise, research is research. I have found some very interesting sites and information, including a website of the SACMEQ (Southern African Consortium for Monitoring Education Quality), which monitors and surveys Southern African education levels.

For the upcoming week, I hope to have an outline composed and my research well underway. By this time next week I hope to be compiling my essay in a way that will allow me to start writing.

Jambo Mambo (NOT Mumbo Jumbo)

I find myself hoping that Mrs Parkes wont shoot me when I give her the now weekly news that my project has been again altered, but what is progress without change? I finally have a finalized mentor, one who I know will push me to the fullest extent of my ability, and my project is quickly taking shape. Two essays have now become one, with the goal of composing a personal essay that addresses questions that have arisen over my travel experiences through a combination of research and reflection.

I am quickly realizing that time not only flies when you're having fun but also when you think you might explode because of the amount of work before you. At the same time, if you are passionate about everything you are doing the word "work" hold little meaning in comparison to the idea of goals. Regardless, with a proposal for my essay due Sunday and a constant stream of thought concerning my compositions lay out in my mind, I think that my research and thinking will allow for me to begin composing soon.

On the other side of my project, a package from Africa has been shipped and a return address has been given to me so I can send letters and videos to Zanzibar. If you are reading this (and you aren't Mrs. Parkes), please let me know if you are interested in sending anything to Zanzibar, be it a picture, a book, or a letter you've written.

Finally, today something extremely exciting happened to me. While heading home from surfing, I received a text message from a boy in Zanzibar named Muhammed who I met over M-term. As I recall, I gave him my number, not thinking that he would actually get in contact with me. Hopefully his initiative to text me was spurred by the women at African Impact talking about my project and not by a plea for money. Either way, it was interesting.