Potential New Apartment

Living room

Today, I visited an apartment, managed by Beth's husband, Tizo, that I may move into.  While living in the Shorts' guesthouse has been fine, they have a lot of visitors coming over the next few months, and I'd like to have a more permanent place.  The apartment looks great; I'm sitting down with Tizo soon to discuss the details, so hopefully, it'll work out.  Enjoy a look around!

Bedroom

In the living room, there are these interesting sconces on each of the four walls, each a different animal.  Of course the rhino is my favorite.  They are a bit odd, but I love them as they certainly make the room unique.  I love living places with interesting quirks. 

See, there's an antelope on that wall!

Checking the Mailbox

...And this is why I keep telling people not to try to send me anything.  Lewis's mother, Sharon, mailed something to Tammy in 2014.  It arrived today in Monduli, four and a half years after it was stamped into the country at Dar Es Salaam.  I'm honestly not sure why they bothered at this point.  

January Exam Results

Finally, all the exams from the end of January have been graded, and the results have been posted!  The students have been waiting impatiently to find out how they've done.  In past years, the results have just been posted and there's been no further recognition until the end of the semester, but this year we're having a school baraza (meeting) after each monthly exam to announce the top ten students overall in each form, the most improved student in each form, and the top student in each subject in each form.  It does seem to be motivating to the students to have their efforts recognized frequently and to have a more short-term goal to work hard rather than the longer-term goal of the end of the semester. 

The teachers line up to shake the hands of the students as they come up to be recognized.  I had been up there, but stepped down to take photos. 

Happy Valentines!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! 

Students here in Tanzania are not allowed to date while still in secondary school, so we don't do much as a school to celebrate a holiday about romance, but the students remember anyhow.

I have been wished a happy Valentine's by many of my students today, and a couple have even brought me flowers they've picked somewhere or other on campus (I hope the idea doesn't spread too much, or the bushes will look quite sad; we don't have that many flowering things about.) :)  This only-slightly-squashed pink hibiscus my form 1 (first year) student Shadhili brought me is brightening up the library quite nicely.  Shyrose (another first-year student) brought me a little red flower, but I didn't get a photo of it. 

Both Shadhili and Shyrose are going to be part of my 'student family'.  At our recent teacher in-service, the visiting trainers from Mwenge University suggested that boarding schools have "families" with small groups of students, each assigned to one teacher.  The idea is somewhat like Hogwarts houses, if you're familiar with Harry Potter, except we'll have twelve of them with twelve-thirteen students in each.  Since there are twelve, Lewis wants to name them after the twelve tribes of Israel (sigh).  We just organized the groups this week, and we haven't done any activities yet, so we'll see how it goes.  I think we might break up evening devo one night a week into our small groups, but we're still thinking of other ideas.  The point is that with the small family groups each teacher will get to know these few students well and pay attention to how they are doing so that no one gets lost in the shuffle either academically or emotionally. Also, each student will theoretically have one teacher they are close to that they can go to when they have any problems.  I hope that I can use this to encourage these students and be a positive influence for them! 

Visit from Pepperdine Students, Day 2

Today, the Pepperdine students returned for a second day.  They arrived just in time for lunch.  They had intended to arrive earlier to have more time to discuss careers/university/etc. with the students, but a police road block on the way delayed them.  The students enjoyed getting to know them better as they ate together, though.  

Salum never passes up the opportunity to ham it up in front of a camera.

After lunch came the fun part of the day.  We started out with some silly games in the dining hall, and then moved outside for a volleyball tournament, a sack race, a few relay races, and a football (soccer) game with the Pepperdine students. 

First up, we had one volunteer from each form come to the front.  The challenge was to see who could guzzle a bottle of coke the fastest.  (Might I note, this was all planned by Oscar, a first-year teacher, who is twenty-four.)  Fortunately, no one got sick, and we now know that Bahati (form 3) has a hidden talent.  

Everyone who wanted to play volleyball was split into teams with a mix of students, teacher and Pepperdine students on each team, and a tournament was held.  Other students watched, or, in this big wad of people in the photo below, taught some Pepperdine students a Tanzanian hit song that is currently popular.

It was a bit hot out; even just watching, I ended up with a bit of a sunburn.  (Remember, February is summer here; so just imagine all of this taking place in August, but with less humidity). 

Carry-an-egg-on-a-spoon relay race!

Did I mention that you have to carry the spoon in your mouth? 

Time for soccer! 

Many smiling faces at the end of the day! The person with their feet in the air in the front is a teacher... sigh. ;)  The students were sad to say goodbye to their new friends as they piled back into their bus. 

Visit from Pepperdine Students, Day 1

On February 12th and 13th, we had a group of Pepperdine students who came to visit.  As part of a larger trip, they were spending a few days volunteering.  They split their group into four, and some went to an orphanage, some went to a couple of other places, and one group came to us to spend time with the students. 

On the first day, they split up into areas of study and talked with the kids about their fields--some talked about biology/medical fields, education, chemistry, sports education/coaching, etc.  A few of the groups that I helped supervise were in the library.  It's helpful for our students to hear from people who are a few years ahead of them in their schooling as they consider whether to go to university themselves, what they might study, and what they may want to do as a job someday.

Our students really enjoyed meeting some people from different places and backgrounds.  The mix of ethnicities helped them to understand how diverse the US is.  It's good for them, too, to listen to native speakers who aren't used to adjusting their English to be heard by learners; it gives them a challenge.  Also, the visitors were university students, so while they are just enough older for the high school students to respect them for their experience, they were close enough in age that they could chat about what's cool in their countries and the common experiences of being a teenager.  The Pepperdine students were really surprised to hear how much my students love Charlie Puth, for example. 

Overall, it was an exciting day for our students as they got to meet so many new people.

Festival at Sable Square

On a Sunny Saturday (and it's very American of me to keep referring to the weather; it's not rainy season so of course it's sunny.  Every Saturday in February is almost certain to be sunny and warm), Beth and I took the kids to the Arusha Lifestyle Market Festival at Sable Square.  Sable Square is a SouthAfrican-style complex including two grocery stores along with a few smaller shops and restaurants that is on the outskirts of Arusha in our direction. They have a festival two or three times a year; I missed the one in October when I was sick, but made it to this one.  Booths and tents are set up on the lawn and on the back parking lot; several of my favorite restaurants had booths, although most of the shopping was more touristy stuff.

It was fun to poke around the booths, and of course I ended up buying a few things.  I got a couple of cute little succulents in terra cotta pots as well as a wallet and bag in colorful kitenge fabric.  All of us except Rebecca decided to have lunch from the Taste of Mexico booth; the burrito I got was pretty good, though as usual I miss real sour cream.  Rebecca went inside the grocery store and bought pizza from the deli.  We were lucky to find a bench in the shade where we could eat.

Watching a demonstration of toffee candy being made.

A Roof Full of Bananas

The big market in Monduli is held on Thursdays and Sundays, so Thursdays are usually when the school shopping is done.  Babadeo (Albert) stocks up on whatever fruits or vegetables are needed, including several big bunches of still-green bananas, which he loads up on the roof of the Landrover.  Bananas are grown all around here, so we eat them a lot.  The students often have banana porridge for a meal during the weekend.  

Monday Morning Again

 Another Monday has come around...at least it's a beautiful day!  Of course, I don't know why I'm surprised by continued beautiful days; there's not much chance of rain until the rainy season gets started sometime in March.  Weather here, unlike in the US, is pretty predictable.  People don't really make small talk about the weather except right at the beginning or end of rainy season, as that's the only time when it's at all uncertain about what the weather will be.  The students usually just give me a bit of an odd look when I comment on what a beautiful day it is.  It is warm this time of year; the highs are in the upper 80s most days.  January tends to be the hottest month here, and we're just a few days into February now.

Monday mornings start early for me; I have a class at 8:10 so I usually ride up to the school with Lewis when he goes around 6:45 for the morning assembly from 7:00-7:30.  The students assemble on the edge of the football field in front of the dining hall every morning right after breakfast for various announcements and usually either a staff or student speaker.  Not being a morning person, I rarely attend assembly any other day of the week when I don't have class as early.

My first class of the day is from 8:10-9:30 with form 3.  After that, I head back to the library to work there until lunchtime.  During the lunch hour, we have a staff devotional and teachers' meeting, and then I am back in the library doing library work/grading papers/lesson planning etc. until 2:50.  I have a class with form 1 during the last period of the day, from 2:50-3:30.  After that, students are often in the library studying and reading and hanging out (we have a pack of UNO cards); I play music and supervise and help with various research questions.

The form one students were sent out to collect types of grass and leaves for something in one of their science classes.

I usually intend to leave by five or so, but I never do; somehow Mondays always turn into long days as I stay at least until dinner (at 6:30) and usually by then I just stay until Lewis is ready to leave so that I can ride with him instead of calling a boda boda (motorcycle taxi) to get home; it's usually after 8:00 when I leave as he does the Monday night devotional.  Somehow there's always plenty to do. It's a long day, but usually a productive one!

Evening devotional in the Dining Hall