A very special offer--for you!

Happy Revolution Day (Jan. 12)! This year we're celebrating our usual holidays in new ways and are discovering some new ones, as well.

We have a very special holiday offer for you!! Oscar and Calvin have started designing these crazy cards in Microsoft Word, and we thought it might be fun if they actually sent them.

Their card-designing started with a series of very traditional (and amazing) holiday cards designed using Microsoft Word shape art, and they've transformed into a couple of series of other cards--even if they don't design more, we have enough to last for a whole year now.

So send me your e-mail address and your preference for one or more of the following periodic card services if you would like to participate in our special offer (I'm their mom, of course, but I think the cards are pretty cool).

1. Oscar's holiday card series (on holidays, as appropriate)
2. Calvin's ancient civilization card series (on about the 15th of the month)
3. Oscar's curio cards (on about the 15th of the month)
4. Calvin's monster cards (on about the 30th of the month)
5. Oscar's video game-inspired cards (on about the 30th of the month).

Hope you'll take advantage of this very special offer!  To participate, e-mail me at my junk-mail address, jnchristoph@hotmail.com (I can't find a way to put my e-mail up here securely, and I'm being cautious about receiving spam--not from you, of course! In general, the hotmail address isn't one I check a lot.)

Literacy, Part I?

For me, one of the most exciting events of our stay in Zanzibar has been the visit on Saturday to a little school in the countryside, where a colleague of mine will be running a family literacy project, funded by his successful grant proposal to the International Reading Association.

 

The project is designed to give kids a solid start toward lifelong literacy by encouraging them and their families to read for fun. That’s challenge enough in the United States, where there are plenty of books and most adults can read well.  Here, where there are so few books and where fewer parents can read, it’s a daunting task, indeed.

 

But the project is terrific.  It will provide books to kids and it will help teachers and parents to develop low- and no-cost learning opportunities (things like making books out of cardboard and writing down stories—the kinds of things my kids have been playing with since we’ve been in Zanzibar). And low-cost is definitely important; the kids who showed up to school for the information meeting (on a Saturday, no less) were interested and excited, but neither they nor the school had writing utensils for them to fill out paperwork. So we scraped together pens from purses and bags and managed to get the job done. 

I was pleasantly surprised pleased to see my tax dollars at work there, as well.  Although the school was by no means luxurious, the well-tended teaching aids in the resource room at the school were funded by USAID (notice the beautiful hand-made supply checkout list on the blackboard behind the USAID-stamped chair).

I had a fantastic time—not least of which because I was able to talk and listen successfully in Kiswahili for almost 5 hours.  I’m so excited about participating in this project, in whatever way I can, and I hope to write more soon about my work there and about my own developing research on adult basic literacy.

Hamna umeme. (There is no Electricity.)

I’d hoped to write about the electricity situation when it was all just a distant memory. Unfortunately, the entire island of Unguja (the biggest island in the Zanzibar archipelago) has been without power since December 10, and it looks like we’ll be without electricity for some time now (the latest word on the street is until mid- to late-March).

Official and unofficial reports of when electricity will return have changed from day to day, and there are rampant rumors about what caused the power outage in the first place and who is to blame. Sometimes we hear power will return in two weeks, sometimes we hear that the U.S. government is building a new electrical line to the island, and sometimes we hear that one European government or other has sent huge generators to power the island (this last one is my favorite—I imagine huge, benevolent Godzilla-sized generators coming in to the port of Stone Town to save the day). It helps to be amused by the reports because finding accurate news is difficult.  There are no English newspapers on Zanzibar—the only place where this is a big news story—and even people who are fluent in both English and Kiswahili seem in the dark about what’s really going on.  As best I can tell, though, we have no power because there are not redundant electrical systems here; if one thing goes wrong with the island’s power supply, chances are the whole island will lose power—much like the old-style Christmas lights would short out entirely if one bulb was out.

So we wait.  In the mean time, the blackout is taking its toll on the island, where the use of electrical appliances is relatively recent but has become pretty widespread within the past 30 years:

• air pollution and continued deforestation from the increased use of traditional charcoal for cooking
• noise and air pollution from the gasoline generators that the lucky few have (our apartment building has a small generator for charging batteries and for a couple of hours’ worth of lights/fans, and almost no one has power 24-hours/day)
• fuel shortages
• higher gas prices (at about $4/gallon and rising)
• higher consumer good costs (because of the higher cost of transportation and production)
• business distress (if you’re eking out a living sewing piecework on a sewing machine or are baking birthday cakes in an electric oven, then there’s no money for a generator, which means no money to run the business)
• water shortages (people who don’t have generators no longer have power to pump  running water in their homes)
• higher prices for water, both bottled and at public spigots
• setbacks in education (schools are considering closing because there is no water—the boys’ school has a generator and won’t close, the university currently has a generator running 9-5, and Brady’s evening tutoring program will likely stay open if we can find money for a generator for lights) 
• higher risk of sanitation problems with the water shortages
• higher malaria rates (people are getting lax about sleeping under mosquito nets and keeping screens on windows when those layers of protection mean less fresh air to make sleeping conditions in the tropical summer more comfortable)
• higher risk for heat exhaustion

We have six more months planned here: Can we make it if we are able to keep powering up computers to work, if we can manage to sleep in the heat, and if we have an escape plan if the public health situation worsens?  Or do we give up? Alternatives we’ve considered are to try to go to mainland Tanzania (where there is power) or to go home and forego our plans for research, more traveling, and the World Cup (we have tickets!). 

In thinking through options, we realized that we’re not going to get a chance to be in East Africa again for a long time, and we have a lot invested here—in Zanzibar, specifically.  We like our neighbors, the boys like their school, we have fulfilling jobs and research to do here, and Zanzibar is a pretty safe place to be by East African standards. And cheesy though the Fulbright goal of achieving “mutual understanding” is, the attempted airline bombing last month reminds us of the importance of Americans living and getting along with people in Muslim societies. So, we’re sticking it out.  But if you have a spare Godzilla-sized generator (or better yet, a Mothra-sized solar generator), I know a place that could use it.

Our new kitchen cabinet

Keeping Entertained in a Low-Tech Environment, Part IV: Paper Wario

(This entry dictated by Oscar)

The history of Paper Wario started when I was at a restaurant on Christmas Eve and was tired of waiting to eat. I took a napkin and started drawing a maze on it. But the maze had a bunch of rules, like there were places where you could get teleported to another place, and the end was blocked by a frowny face.  What you had to do was get a bucket in the maze to carry a smiley face over to the frowny face and destroy it.

[Interjection by Julie: Here are Brady, Oscar, and Calvin puzzling over one of Oscar's mazes on Christmas Night.]

The second one I made at home. It was the same kind of thing except there were new things like magnetic fields that would pull you into them and buttons that you had to push and little sticks called “secrets” that meant there was a wall that you could walk through.

The third one was exactly like it.

Then I decided to make it so that you had to do more than just that and you had to do timing.  So I would do stuff like count to a certain number and then you had to tap repeatedly at a fast rate on a book.  That was when the mazes started getting more like video games (but like really old ones). 

Then I played it myself and decided it wasn’t much fun, so I made new actions instead of just tapping.  So you could run by tapping your fingers on the book or you could break brick and squish enemies by slamming your fist on the book. 

Then I decided if it is supposed to be like a video game, then it should have buttons, and I made a replica of a Nintendo DS, but it wasn’t very good at all.  The touch pad was a piece of tape, and the stylus was made of cardboard, which was a very bad choice.  (At least that stylus looked the most like a DS stylus of any of the controllers I’ve made.)  It was still a lot of fun doing that.  That was around when we started calling it Paper Wario.

Then I made a better controller.  Its buttons were made from a drinking straw that I cut into pieces and taped onto the cardboard.  These buttons worked well but were not the last design that I would make.  Its problem was its direction control.  I didn’t have space for two buttons, so I made one button out of a straw that I strung on a toothpick so that you could slide it on the toothpick and press down when it was in the position you wanted it to be in.  But that was slow if you wanted to change direction fast in your game. 

The third controller was really good.  I made it hinged, so that you could close it up like a real DS.  It had full buttons, even up and down for 3-D mazes and things.  It also had a compartment in the back to hold games that were folded up.  But I never really used it.  Making them was funner!

I started working on another controller that couldn’t fold but was of two pieces, but it had no buttons and I gave up on it before it was done. 

Then I worked on a fifth one.  I tried to make it hinged, but I kept cutting off the hinges by accident, so that it only had one side with a hinge.  I just stuck a bunch of toothpicks in it so that it wouldn’t fold.  This one was the smallest of all of them.  The others were too big.  Then in the place where the hinge would be, I made three styluses.  I also put on a piece of paper on the front bottom.  This one’s stylus pad was nice, too.  It was made of silver tape, and I rounded out the edges.  It was better, too, because if you have two pieces, then when you use the stylus, it might mess with the edge of the one in the middle.  And I made styrofoam buttons because they were squishy and were easier to glue on (I was trying to make it look good and not use tape).

Now that I’ve told you about what I’ve been doing with Paper Wario, maybe you will want to try for yourself. 

Make Your Own Cardboard Controller

Step 1: Take one or two pieces of cardboard, depending on whether you want it hinged or one piece.

Step 2: Make your stylus pad by gluing on a piece of tape that has already been used (so that it has a tape surface but paper on the bottom so that you can cut it into rounded edges without the tape sticking to your hands).  If you don’t have one handy, then just use a regular piece of tape.  

Step 3: (Optional) Cut the pieces, if you have two, like hinges.  You can use a real DS to see how.  But make sure that your cardboard is corrugated horizontally.  Then fit them together and stick a toothpick through the corrugation tunnels to connect the two pieces.  Now the controller will fold, but not completely.

Step 4: Pick a toothpick and wrap a bunch of tape around one end.  This is your stylus.  Then stick it in one of the corrugation tunnels on the side of your controller.  Make as many as you want!

Step 5: Make a button out of either a piece of cardboard or a cut-up straw or a styrofoam ball.  For cardboard, tape one side of the folded piece onto the controller and bend the other over it and label it.  For straw, take a thin sliver of tape and tape it on (you don’t want to put it over the edges of the straw).  Then glue a piece of paper below it and label the paper.  For styrofoam, glue a styrofoam ball onto the controller.  This should be practiced first on another piece so that you get it right and don’t mess up your controller.  You also need to carefully take a pen and make a label directly on the styrofoam.

Make Your Own Paper Videogame

After you make a controller, you will want a game to play with it.

Step 1: Get a blank piece of paper to use and come up with a name for your game, like Paper Wario.

Step 2: Make a starting point and add little obstacles to get past.  For example, one where you have to operate a cannon to destroy a barricade, or one where you have to logroll on something.  Then make a boss enemy that you get to at the end who has a star and something else like a shield or a smiley face or something (you will have to fight the boss enemy at the end to complete the mission).

Step 3: Then make a few more missions or mazes, and scatter around your symbol (smiley face, shield, etc.) in them but don’t put them in every mission. 

Step 4: After you’ve made three missions, make a super boss for that level of the paper game.  The super boss should be kind of like a stadium, too, where you have to climb up on him to get the star and to go a bunch of places to prepare everything and destroy him.

Step 5: Make characters you can unlock, like Donkey Kong, Toad, and Peach, and give them special prices in stars (which you collect after completing a mission).  When you get five of your symbols, then you get to have bonus characters like Fire Mario, Bee Mario, or Boom Mario.

Step 6: Have fun!

Candlelight Christmas

The power outage continues here in Zanzibar, with no end in sight.  We’re trying to look on the bright side (ha), and Christmas with Kyle and Laura made that easier.

This being a Muslim culture, Christmas is definitely much more low-key than in the States, with the benefit of there being much less pressure to see the holiday as a shopping holiday and to be deliberate about what aspects of the holiday are worth celebrating.  Music was a big part of the holiday for us, both at Christmas and during Advent at the Anglican Cathedral.  The English services at the Cathedral have hymnals with lyrics but no music. As a lapsed musician who likes to keep in practice reading music by singing harmony, the no-music was tricky for me to get used to at first; I like being able to read what I’m supposed to sing.  No such clear path is marked out in the hymnals here, but the harmonies that emerge sometimes in the 3^rd or 4^th verse, when people are familiar enough with the tune to branch out and experiment, are sometimes amazingly rich.  We also had the unique pleasure of listening to the special Christmas concert put on by the Dhow Countries Music Society, which is a local music organization that offers a monthly concert by its students and faculty.  A small audience followed the path of lit candles going up the stairs to gather on the refreshingly breezy third floor of the old Dhow Countries building to hear music ranging from traditional Taarab music (more on this in February, when we go to Zanzibar’s music festival), to Taarab-y Christmas songs (Jingle Bells will always remind me of this surprisingly effective syncopated version played by a student band with a lead violinist who evidently didn’t know the song well enough to notice that he’d dropped a note every few measures), and a terrific and un-Christmas-inflected set by Swahili Vibe (a very danceable Afro-fusion band).  I love live music of almost any kind, and I’m really excited that we now know when and where these monthly concerts are—we’ll be back!

Santa managed to make it through to our apartment (magic needing no electricity).  Calvin and I made sure that we were prepared, hand sewing stockings for everyone (4 of which pictured here) from two different kanga fabrics. 

Christmas dinner was definitely non-traditional but no less festive.  We got “chipsi mayai” (a local treat of French fries cooked into a sort of irregularly shaped frittata with eggs and hot sauce—don’t knock it until you’ve tried it!) at our favorite street vendor.  For dessert, we went to Freddy Mercury’s Restaurant (named after Zanzibar’s own, of Queen fame) and although there was no ice cream or other desserts because of the blackout, there was cold soda, a refreshing treat.

We were so glad to be able to celebrate our holiday with Kyle and Laura, and we look forward 2010 here in Zanzibar, which will no doubt bring more surprises both pleasant and unpleasant, but also much learning together as a family.

A watch, a club, and lots of beads

A part of the trip that we hadn’t anticipated was visiting a Maasai boma, or village, in Ngorongoro Crater.  I think we were all somewhat ambivalent about visiting real people displaying themselves and their homes to (much wealthier) outsiders.  Having talked with some Maasai people in Stone Town, we also knew that Maasai are divided about inviting outsiders into villages because the performance of Maasai identity changes villagers’ relationship both with their heritage and with other people in their village.  But at the same time, when else would we get to see a Maasai village?

The experience was both hokey and moving. When our safari vehicle drove up (and after we paid), we were greeted by a Maasai men’s jumping competition, accompanied by women’s singing.  I was unable to learn what the words of the song were about (our guide told us it was “just a traditional song”), but I was happy to see one of the women goofing around after the official ceremony and showing off her jumping skills to the other women.  It’s been a while since I’ve seen a woman showing off her athleticism.

We then went with the chief into the home of one of the families, and we sat down and talked, as invited, on the feet of the two beds (one for kids, one for parents).  The homes are made of sticks and cow dung, and they are heated by the smoky cooking fire. The furnishings are very spare: just the beds, the fire, an empty margarine tub/chair, some mugs on a wall, and an area for small calves unable to survive potential lion attacks out in the plains.

After the home visit, we went out to purchase some of the beaded items for sale, made by the village women.  This was a huge treat for me as a beader.  While we saw many Maasai crafts for sale at shops in the Arusha area, the most finely crafted pieces were in the village. And seeing the beads as worn by the Maasai changed my view of their art form.  While visitors (including me) buy their work to hang on walls as mementos, the beads as worn by the Maasai are more moving pieces than art objects. During the singing, the stiff necklaces that I had always thought looked unwearable had a clear function: to bob and move to accentuate the singing and add a new level of movement to a dance.

The highlight of the trip, though, was very unexpected.  Brady was looking at a Maasai club, and asked how much it cost.  The chief answered, “I like your watch.”  I think both of them were surprised when Brady said, “Okay: Trade?” Then there was a whole complicated set of maneuvers that ended with Brady trading his newish watch and a bit of cash for a different and much fancier beaded club as a birthday present for Oscar.  It was oddly satisfying; Brady really did like his watch but enjoyed showing the chief its indiglo and other features, the chief really likes his new watch, and Oscar really does like his club.

Lions, and almost everything but tigers and bears!

The central piece of safari, though, is the animals. Our mission every day on our “game drives” was to go spot some particular kind of animal known to be in a general area at that time in the small rainy season.  Brady added over 250 birds to his lifetime bird list, and we all saw more animals than it is interesting to list.  We by no means were able to watch any animals long enough to really observe their behavioral patterns, but between glimpsing them for a while plus a lifetime of watching animal shows, visiting zoos, and reading, it was a pretty satisfying education.  Here are some of the greatest hits photos of animals from our safari.

What is Safari?

Safari on the mainland was amazing, so much so that I’m going to write a few posts about it, which I'm going to post now while my computer is charged up (more later on the continuing blackout in Zanzibar).

First, a few words about what safari is.  “Safari” just means “trip” or “journey” in Swahili, but to “watali” (tourists), safari means the specific trip of exploring a national park or parks and looking at animals, especially the Big 5 (elephant, cape buffalo, rhinoceros, leopard, lion). 

Tanzania has one of the highest proportions of protected land in the world: Around 39% of the land mass in the country is protected in some way, either as national park or wildlife reserve. Although the land and animals in these areas are protected pretty rigorously, poachers still kill animals—to sell parts such as tusks, or to sell as bush meat for hungry people or tourists in search of an exotic treat (for a more in-depth discussion see my biologist fellow Fulbrighter Cindy Groh’s posts on bush meat)—and they sometimes burn land in the process, to flush out the animals for an easy kill. 

One of the protections in the so-called “Northern Circuit” of the Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, Lake Manyara, and Tarangire is that visitors need to remain within the well-conscribed area of a safari vehicle or the grounds of a lodge or official campground.  Although the parks felt in many ways similar to American national parks—with impressive opening gates, visitor centers, and informational signs—the restriction against walking around took some getting used to.

But you sure can see a lot if you’re driving around in a 4-wheel drive vehicle! We had 7 of us for most of the trip in a Land Cruiser with a pop-up top, and we traded turns sitting in the front, back and middle, each of which has different strengths and weaknesses. When we were on smooth ground, Oscar and Calvin were allowed to stand up and look around at animals (the thrill of relaxed safety regulations was as exciting for them as seeing the animals was). Our driver Emmanuel took us out for a good 5 or so hours a day, to areas known for their wildlife concentrations. 

On our first day, we started out from Arusha (which was heavenly after the heat of Zanzibar—so cool and lush), and went on our first day up into Ngorongoro Crater, where we drove down into the crater and saw a mind-boggling number of animals we’d only seen in zoos and later stayed at a lodge up on the crater rim.  On our second day (Oscar’s birthday), we drove to Lake Ndutu and stayed at the incomparable Ndutu Lodge, where they made birthday cake for Oscar (not on their usual menu, so the frosting was colored with whatever was around—namely coffee powder and turmeric). On the third day, we drove out of Ngorongoro and into the Serengeti, over an endless plain of wildebeest and zebras, and we stayed in tents for our third and fourth nights at Seronera Campground, in the Serengeti (the sound of hyenas outside our nylon tent was a little unnerving, but it was nice to be camping on a new continent). On our fifth day, we had a long drive back, stopping at Olduvai (or Oldupai in Maa, the Maasai language), then through Ngorongoro and down to Lake Manyara, where we camped again, this time at a KOA-style campground before we headed back to Arusha.

As much as seeing the animals, we enjoyed seeing the subtle changes in landscape, from the lush coffee farms around Arusha, to the wild brambles of Ngorongoro Rim, to the dry riverbed of Ndutu, to the grassy plains of Serengeti, to the awesome eroded rock walls of Oldupai. So many different kinds of places are Africa.

Jozani Forest

This coming week, we’re going on safari on mainland Tanzania, and we’re looking forward to it for many reasons. Aside from our excitement about seeing large African mammals in the wild, we’re also looking forward to meeting up with family who are coming to visit for the holidays and getting new supplies from America (never has Santa’s pack been met with such anticipation as we have for our suitcase of goodies from America).  We’re also excited about having electricity, reliable water, and cooler weather; Unguja (the island in the Zanzibar archipelago where we’re living) just began what is predicted to be a three or more week power outage because of either a transformer exploding or an undersea cable being damaged (accounts on the street differ, and it’s hard to get accurate news when the power is down). While my laptop battery is temporarily charged now, though (thank you Zanzibar Coffee House’s generator!), I’ll share some pictures from a trip we took a few weeks ago to see Jozani Forest and Zanzibar’s famed red colobus monkeys.

Like the Spice Tour, a trip to Jozani Forest Reserve to see the monkeys is de rigueur for visitors to Zanzibar, and we found it well worth our while.  We enjoyed getting out to see Zanzibar’s largest section of mature indigenous forest, and we especially enjoyed seeing the mangrove swamp.  There are lots of mangrove swamps at the coast, but we had never seen a mangrove stand in an inlet.  The ecosystem was pretty amazing.  There is a boardwalk that goes through the mangroves so that you can look down and see the water and the crabs and fish swimming around by the roots.  We were surprised to see trumpet fish, which we’ve seen much farther out in the ocean when we’ve gone snorkeling—it’s a surreal experience to see ocean fish swimming among tree roots.  Oscar and Calvin found other uses for the roots and branches, as you can see here.

We loved the mangroves, but the real showstopper at Jozani is the monkeys, which you can see up much closer than at many zoos and far closer than in most wild settings. These Kirk’s red colobus monkeys are endangered and are endemic to Zanzibar. Luckily for visitors, there are several large family groups that stay fairly predictably in several trees that are near to walking paths.  We walked right up near them and couldn’t help but gawk and act like total tourists, snapping pictures left and right.  The monkeys are by no means tame, but they seemed unfazed by our gawking and went right on grooming each other, eating, napping, and swinging about in the trees.

Like the Spice Tour, the Jozani Forest Reserve gives back to the local community.  When the reserve was created in the 1960s, the forest was starting to be logged and the monkeys were being killed for encroaching on farmland. Now, part of the proceeds from the reserve go back to the local community, so that protecting the ecosystem is in everyone’s best interests.  All in all, it was a great trip and much more fun to think about than my laptop’s dwindling power level!  More soon on our upcoming adventures, Insha’Allah.

Insha’Allah

Now that I’ve been teaching in Zanzibar for two months, I’ve settled into a good routine and am really enjoying getting to know my students.  The students are all computer science diploma students (the equivalent of an associate’s degree).  A lot of my communication skills syllabus is pre-determined by state mandate but, where possible, I’ve been trying to tailor it to computer science by assigning communication tasks that the students might need to do in their chosen profession.  I’ve learned a lot about Zanzibari culture through reading their work.  From the assignment to write an instruction manual for something they know how to do well, I learned how to weave baskets, how to make pilau (a Swahili rice dish), how to spear fish, and how to make katlesi (the ubiquitous fritters made from mashed potatoes plus something else like fish or meat). More recently, students wrote business letters, including a complaint letter: From that, I learned a lot about what is frustrating to my students—inconsistent electricity, unreliable water, erratic cable television, and inefficient civil servants.

I share their frustrations, but I’ve learned a coping mechanism from students, as well.  People in Zanzibar (and Muslims more generally) say “Insha’Allah” (or “God willing”) when making plans for the future. Before living here, I thought that it either reflected a fatalistic attitude or was like “knock on wood,” a perfunctory phrase that people say reflecting on (or knowing) the significance.

But it really does do here to make plans with the awareness that the plans may not work out as expected. Slowly, I am learning do that, myself.   When I am planning for class, I can’t count on doing anything at all at the last minute because there's invariably some crucial element that is not available.  In the past month, for instance, my stapler has gone missing from my desk, my computer has blown a fuse, my computer cable has malfunctioned, my computer date has reset to 1950, my printer has jammed and run out of toner, the internet has been down, the photocopy shop that makes my copies has had a giant paper jam in the one (barely) functional copier, the street I’ve needed to walk through has been flooded, there’s been no chalk in the classroom, and my class has been shifted to another time and room unbeknownst to me or my students. On a good day, only one little thing like that goes wrong, but there’s usually a couple. At home, I’d be frustrated by all of these small mishaps, but here I’m starting to accept the unpredictable and am finding that there are benefits to living in a place where I don't usually know what's going to happen. I make plans, I do my best work, and I know that things may not work out as I have planned--and I'm learning that that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

So, last week, when it was pouring so loudly that it was impossible to hear in my classroom, I was happy that I had a quiz planned and that I didn't need to do a big lecture day.  A few minutes into the class, the courtyard outside my classroom started filling rapidly with water, and a few minutes later, water crept up and over the foot-high concrete step outside the classroom and promised in short order to spread into our classroom itself. I interrupted my students, who were working diligently, and I asked them for help—what does one do in this kind of rain: Go up to the second floor? Hold one’s  feet up and wait it out with the expectation that the water will recede soon? Exit quickly to a nearby classroom on slightly higher ground?  My students considered the all of the options, but advised the last one. With the quiz-taking conditions decidedly disrupted, I decided just to count the quiz as a homework assignment. The students were happy not to have the quiz, and I was happy, while we were waiting for the storm to subside, to have a chance to talk with my students more informally than I usually can when we're in our regular classroom setting.  It’s not what I had planned to do that day, but it wasn’t necessarily a worse plan.