Head Prefects

Up on the wall, very high up near the ceiling, there is a photo of Yohana in Form 4.  When I first moved here, I thought maybe it was of a student who had died or something, but I'd never heard of anything happening.  It was really high up, so I couldn't really tell who it was.  It turns out it was the photo of the first Head Prefect (sort of like the Student Body President, or the position of Head Boy/Girl if you're familiar with Harry Potter).  We had had another head prefect, Benedict, since then, and in March elected the third (they have the position for one year), Meleji.  One of the teachers, Mr Gerald, asked me to get some headshots of the boys so we could add their photos to the wall.  Apparently, the photos are hung so high up so that we have lots and lots of wall left for many years of future Head Prefects.  

The boys weren't so enthusiastic, but they stood still with mostly good grace.  Above, our current head prefect, Meleji, and below, last year's head prefect, Benedict. Maybe don't tell them I'm posting these, though... 😉

Running from the Clippers

Somebody made the mistake of complaining in Tammy's presence about their nails.  She pulled out some clippers, and you would have thought the boys were a bunch of three-year-olds, not high school students.  They ran. 

She caught up with them in front of the boys' dormitory, though.  Bahati looks extremely worried as she takes a go at his nails. 

Somehow, nail-cutting has become a spectator sport today. I guess none of us had anything much better to do between church and lunch on a Sunday. 

Of course, if someone sees that I am taking pictures, they have to pose, or ask for selfies. 

Scavenger Hunt in Bible Class

This week in Bible class we continued our study of the parables of Jesus.  Today we talked about the Parables of a Hidden Treasure and a Lost Pearl from Matthew 13.  I've been using a website called Mission Bible Study that has been really helpful.  There are some good ideas, though of course I also add in my own for some lessons. 

Since we were talking about treasure, of course I had to organize a treasure hunt!  I had some chocolate coins I found in Kenya that I had been waiting for the right opportunity to use, so I put some in a wooden box with brass trimming that I bought in Zanzibar (which made a perfect little treasure chest) and hid it.  Then I taped various Bible verses around campus.  Each Bible verse mentioned a place in it, which was a hint to where to go next.  One mentioned a gate, one mentioned a banner being flown (which led us to this picture, at the flagpole), one mentioned a store (the school shop), etc. 

The clues led us to the teacher's lounge where we found...oh wait.  We found nothing.  The box was not where I had left it.  I had thought it a safe place; it was up on top of the school nurse's cabinet and it wasn't an area students should be in on a Sunday without teachers there anyhow.  But it was definitely not there now. 

It was a bit of an anticlimactic scavenger hunt, but we went back to class and shared the rest of the chocolate coins which were still in my purse. 

Later, it came out that Shuaka, one of the form 2 students who is the Health Prefect (and therefore the holder of the keys to the nurse's cabinet when she is not on duty), had come in to get something out of the cabinet.  He saw the pretty box and assumed someone would try to steal it.  So he took it and locked it in the cabinet. 

I was pretty annoyed with him, as I had even announced at the end of the church service that I was doing something with the kids so if the students saw strange things (like the taped up Bible verses) around not to bother them, but he never seemed to grasp that he had been anything but helpful in protecting my property.  Lewis says it's a cultural thing; in this culture he did the right thing, but as an American I felt not touching something that had nothing to do with you would have been better.  Oh well; it was found in the end and the kids enjoyed the chocolate and had fun running around campus looking for clues.  

Mbuzi Cup!

Watching a netball game 

As a special treat to begin the second term, the teachers in charge of sports (Oscar and Leah) organized the Mbuzi Cup.  The four forms competed with each other in games during sports time in the afternoon all week.  The girls had a netball tournament, and the boys had a soccer tournament. I posted a few photos of the boys playing football earlier in the week, so here are lots of pictures of the girls' netball (kind of similar to basketball) tournament! 

The form one and form two girls compete, while Leah (in black) referees.

'Mbuzi' in Swahili means 'goat'.  So, we had the Goat Cup.  And to fit the theme, the winning teams competed to win a goat to roast and a case of sodas.  The goats were bought live at the beginning of the week, and left to wander around campus eating grass and fattening up.  Every now and then they'd get somewhere they didn't need to be or where they were inconveniencing someone, and a student would be sent to herd them elsewhere.  They weren't particularly fond of being herded; I got a good laugh at Nelson John (form 2) pulling with all his might on their ropes trying to get them away from the sidewalk in front of the library.  One goat was determined not to move at all and the other was determined to go the opposite direction from where he wanted it to go.

A lot of people tried to find a shady spot from which to watch the netball game.

The students had a lot of fun with it, at least.  In the end, the form 3 boys won the soccer tournament, and the form two girls won the netball tournament, so on Saturday night, they had their promised goat roast to celebrate.  Jackson (Beth's son) was sad all day on Saturday because he'd been rooting for the form four boys, but they lost the championship game to form 3. 

Errands in Arusha

This term, I don't have classes on Thursday, so that's generally the day that I go with Beth and Michela, and whoever else needs to go, to Arusha to run errands and go grocery shopping.  Today, we had a few unusual errands, so here are some pictures of our day. 

First, we needed to go out to the Kahindi Mechanic Shop, where one of the Shorts' cars is being worked on, to check on the progress.  The road out to the mechanic passes by a small quarry where rock is dug up and turned into gravel.  The gravel is made the old-fashioned way--there is no big grinder, just some people sitting around with hammers beating the rocks into smaller and smaller chunks to earn a pittance for the gravel they produce.  

After finishing at the mechanic, we headed downtown to buy vegetables at the big central market.  While we were down there, I stopped by a roadside stand to have more library keys and an extra set of keys for my house made. 

Next, we we to the home of Ali Shariff, and Indian expat who runs a hair salon out of his home.  Well, half the week he works out of a space he has at Sable Square, a shopping center in an area with a lot of expats, and half the time he works out of his home salon.  While there are salons (well, 'saloons', someone got the words mixed up decades ago and it stuck) everywhere, he's the only one we've found who caters to non-African hair. 

He's quite a character.  He loves animals; he has a couple of cats and a whole pack of small fluffy lapdogs running around the place.  Around back, there're several cages with all sorts of exotic birds.  He also has a set of concrete zebra statues in his front yard.  Emmy liked the baby one, but was rather scared of the adult-sized one.

We ended the day at the TFA Plaza, where our favorite large grocery store, Shoppers, is.  While there, we stopped by Rachel's Fabric Shop.  She has an amazing selection of kitenge fabrics, especially batiks.  We also used to have clothes made there, but the seamstress we liked went on maternity leave and none of us are impressed with the work of the new seamstress.  It's fun to look around there, but I'm always tempted to buy more fabric than I really need.  Today, I looked through some of the ready-made dresses they had, and I found one I really liked.  I probably wouldn't have picked this color scheme if I was starting from scratch, but it's different from anything I already have and will match well with a jacket and a scarf that I already have.  So, I have a new dress.  :)

Giggling

I happened to notice what one Form 3 student wrote for "date" on his English notebook... :) 

The Mbuzi Cup Begins...

Let the Mbuzi Cup begin!  This week, as something fun to kick off the new term, the teachers in charge of sports (Leah and Oscar) organized a sports tournament for the students.  Each afternoon during the sports time (five to six), there are games between the forms, with the championship game to played on Saturday afternoon.  The winning teams will receive a goat to roast and a case of sodas, hence the name Mbuzi Cup. (Mbuzi means goat in Swahili).  

The boys are playing football, and the girls are playing netball.  I'll post more photos of the girls' netball games later in the week.  For now, here are some photos of the first football match! 

The students and the dorm dad are enjoying watching the match.

Not all students are that interested in watching sports, so I was playing music in the library for those who wanted to hang out there.  When I was ready to leave, a few of the students walked me all the way to the car so that we could keep my laptop open and playing music until the last possible second. 

Norman, Regarn, unknown person's head, and Faith

Norman wanted to try scaring some people by taking my portable speaker up into the crowd watching football and then for me to suddenly turn on the music, blasting it loud.  I didn't think the speaker's range would make it; I walked back as far as the middle of the schoolyard in front of the library.  Apparently it did make it that far at least, but unfortunately for Norman nobody was much phased by sudden music.  I kept telling him to hurry back, as I was waiting for Lewis to leave and didn't want to hold him up when Norman was who-knows-where with my speaker, but it's Lewis, who always takes forever to get out of the office, so we had plenty of time for our shenanigans.

Afternoons in the Library

Another day in a library full of students...when the students are out of class, I've usually got a crowd around me as they come in to read, study, listen to music, ask for research help (or for the latest football scores), and just to talk. I try not to make it a regular thing (otherwise they beg to do it constantly), but now and then there'll be a day with not much going on and I'll let them take some photos with my phone.  I also like to get some photos of the kids using the library now and then.

Look! Someone actually doing work! 

It's hard to get a good selfie with the peanut gallery behind you! This is Moureen, the head student librarian.  She's always a great help!

Friday nights are cinema night at the school; Beth brought Jackson up to watch the movie with his beloved high school students, and he came by to say hi, along with one of his favorite 'big brothers', Salum. 

It's been a long day, and here I am still marking papers...