Yardwork Day

Well, with school out for so long, there are plenty of teenagers hanging around town who have nothing to do and would love to earn some money.  The area inside my gate is all paved with paving stones, so you would think I wouldn't need to deal with mowing in any fashion, but alas, weeds grow up between the paving stones like crazy.  I've let them get pretty bad; I really don't spend a lot of time outside--if I'm at home I'm in the house, or I'm somewhere else.  There are plenty of better places to be outdoors that have a better view than my seven-foot wall.  I also have a small patch of weedy grass outside my gate to the side of my driveway, which is also rather overgrown at the moment.  So, I hired my student Salum to come be my gardener.  He brought his friend Kevin with him and they spent a couple of hours whacking down all the big weeds and uprooting the small ones.  It started pouring rain as soon as they finished, so I invited them in and made them some French toast while we waited out the downpour.  My yard look much, much better now! 

Rainy Season Goes On

Rainy season goes on...but it does make it super green!  Work continues, here and there, on the new bell tower on campus.  Here's a photo of the progress, above. 

The worst part about rainy season, as I've complained many many times, is the muddy roads.  My road is predictably in full rainy-season mess now.  

The corn field next to my house has been planted again and is coming up nicely.  With the weather here, farmers can get two or three crops a year; the last batch of corn was harvested in January.  At the coldest, it rarely gets below fifty degrees, and that only at night, so growing seasons depend upon getting enough rain, not on frost.  

Above, here's another view from just around the corner from my gate.  Definitely green and growing! 

The students have been out of school for two weeks now (well, as of tomorrow morning), and most of them are thoroughly bored already.  I had a couple of visitors today who have already gotten bored enough to want to hang out with their teachers again.  Paulo and Mathayo are from up in Monduli Juu, the collection of Maasai villages up on the summit of the mountain, but they're staying with Koimere (the preacher of the Monduli Juu church and also a school board member), who lives here in Monduli town.  We often call the main town here Monduli Chini (lower Monduli) to differentiate.  They came by to greet me and to pick up some school work I had printed for them. Since they have about a mile to walk back into town, I invited them in to hang out for a while to wait out a downpour.  

 

The Work Goes On

Although schools have been closed, we teachers still have work to do.  We would have had our two-week Easter break in two more weeks anyhow, but the students are missing two weeks of school now and then probably more after they would have come back from that break in mid-April.  Either way, it's going to be longer than they really should go without studying.  So, we're trying to put together packets of work to send out to the students for them to work on at home.  Before they left school, the headmaster told them to stay in touch so we could let them know about work.  I know there will be some we can't reach, but we're trying to get work to everyone we can.  

I put together packets for my form 1 and form 3 English grammar students.  Mine have three parts: a study guide (notes on the topics), exercises to do, and a key to the exercises so that they (or their parents, ideally) can check their work after if they aren't able to return it to me to check.  Just for fun, I tried to use all of their names somewhere in the notes or exercises.  Form three was especially fun; I wrote a silly story about a whole group of them going to the market for one exercise.  

My Portrait!

Last month, one of my students drew this picture of me.  How do you think they did? 

Baptisms in the time of Pandemic

Jackson helped to fill up the school's collapsible baptistry.

On Sunday afternoon, Beth and the kids and I went back up to school in the afternoon.  Fielden Allison had told us that there were going to be some baptisms.  Two boys returned to school to be baptized.  They had been talking with Fielden (who teaches Bible and life skills at the school) about it before the school was closed suddenly for the pandemic, and decided not to let the school closing stop them.  

Innocent, who is in form 4, has been thinking about this decision for a long time.  He lives in Monduli, and his brother and sister came with him up to the school.  

Innocent's baptism 

Baton is staying with a friend in Arusha while school is closed, but took a dala dala (van used as a crowded public bus) back to Monduli, over and hour each way.  We pointed out that we could have connected him with one of the churches in Arusha, but he really wanted to come back to the school to be baptized in a familiar place and by Fielden.  

Baton's baptism

A couple of other Monduli students came as well to witness the baptisms.  Afterwards, Fielden read some scriptures to the boys and we prayed for them.  These two baptisms make six so far this school year--and it's only March! 

The Allisons praying over the boys.

Innocent, Fielden and Baton

Since I had the camera, the boys wanted some non-wet photos of themselves, too.

Sunny Sunday Morning

After a few days of rain (it is the rainy season, after all, so no surprise), Sunday started out sunny and nice.  Since schools are closed, we, of course, don't have our normal worship service with the students, so I walked over to the Monduli church.  It's only about a ten-minute walk; it's in the neighborhood just across the road from mine.  

Although today is nice, you can see the effects of the last few days of rain on the roads on the way.  Somehow there's always an enormous mud hold right in front of the church; it seems right there is one of the worst spots in the neighborhood.  I always seem to do some weird clinging to the hedge to get into the churchyard without falling in the mud. 

A handwashing station was set up outside the door, as we all try to do what we can to keep the virus from spreading here.  As of right now, meetings of groups less than fifty is still allowed, so the church is still meeting. 

Greeting people and shaking hands is very important here, but for now, we've all agreed to wave and smile instead.  It made for several funny moments as people would reach out and then remember and pull their hands back, but everyone's trying to keep a good attitude about it. 

Roadwork...Sigh

So.  That mudhole above is the road to my house.  They're apparently redoing the road; they've taken out part of the row of brush between the road and the cornfield and moved the road over a few feet, and then extended it straight into the neighborhood, as more people in the neighborhood are getting cars and need a road in that direction.  I'm fine with that, but do they always have to do these things in rainy season?  

A neighbor came around the other evening, and we're all contributing (about five dollars per household) to getting an extra load of gravel to be added.  

Clean Dishes at Last!

With everything going on this week with closing school and making a shopping trip to Arusha to stock up in case things really do start locking down here, my kitchen got rather out of hand.  But today I finally stayed home and got caught up.  I had been joking with Beth about my dish pile yesterday, so I snapped a phot to prove that EVERYTHING is clean now! 

Schools are Closed

Well, the coronavirus has reached Tanzania.  Yesterday, the news reported the first case.  The students somehow found out before I even did, and rumours and worry were going around, so I scrapped my lesson plans for the days and chatted with my students about what facts we know so far.  I think it's better for them to know the truth, so far as we know at this point, rather than just keep passing more and more far-fetched rumours around.  The first case turned out to be not far from us; the woman lives in a town only about a half-hour drive away from us and had just returned from a trip to Belgium.  

We knew that it was likely that changes were coming; Kenya announced on Monday that they were closing schools and setting certain restriction to try to keep the virus from taking hold there (they have five or so cases right now).  Our government moved even faster than expected, though--the first case was reported earlier in the day and by that (Tuesday) night, it was announced that schools were closing.  Immediately.  I was already home for the night when the news came out, and by the time I got back up to the school Wednesday morning at ten half the students were already gone. 

I was expected the library to be a complete wreck as all the students would be returning books before leaving, and as we had no time to prepare or to check them in in an orderly fashion, I figured there would just be a massive pile on my desk, and my plan for the day was to sort them all out. 

However, I was in for a surprise!  The library workers, led by our head student librarian Baraka, had started right after breakfast and sorted out and shelved all the returned books before I could even get there!  It's times like this that I know I made the right choice in choosing Baraka as head librarian.  He's proven to be a hard worker over and over, and he's not afraid to motivate the others.  

Above: it's a bit sad for the library to be suddenly empty of students on what should be a school day.  And with everything just getting started here, who knows how long we will be out?  

Below: After leaving the school once most of the students were gone (some have to wait for morning as they take long-distance buses and the tickets need to be bought the day before), I went into Monduli to run a few errands.  The coronavirus is definitely the topic of conversation today.  Several businesses are putting out hand-washing stations outside, and NMB bank was the first.

Progress on the Bell Tower

The new bell tower is going up!  And today is a beautiful day! 

Fleebo

We have two school dogs at Alpha Omega.  They help the guards by patrolling at night and chasing off stray dogs, snakes, or any other critters that wander onto campus.  Fleebo has been here since before the school began, when there was just the clinic.  Unfortunately, she's getting pretty old now and really suffering from arthritis.  Beth gave her some attention and tried to get a better look at her stiff front paw to give a report to Dr Smelser, who is her owner, and try to decide how best to help her. 

One of Fleebo's favorite people on campus is the dorm dad (called the patron here).  They've bonded over the last year that he's been here, and he's one of the few people she trusts to touch her now that she's often in pain.  

 (Later edit: Fleebo died about three weeks later.) 

Elijah and the Ravens

Another fun day in Sunday school!  Today, we talked about the story of Elijah being fed by the ravens at the Brook of Kerith from 1 Kings 17.  Elijah is one of my favorite Bible characters, so I'm really excited about the next few weeks.  (Edit: everything closed for the virus three days later, so this was the last class for a few months).  

The story itself is fairly short, so we had time for two activities today.  First, we had a little game of hide and seek to find Elijah, who was hiding.  (I had taped a picture I drew under a chair in the lobby of the administration building, where we meet, before class.) 

After that, we had a craft project (always popular).  We made paper ravens!  I had precut heads, bodies, feet, beaks, tails and eyes.  The kids traced their hands and cut them out for the wings, and then we just had to assemble and decorate them.  

I also had a coloring sheet for them to do, to keep anyone who finished early or who was waiting their turn for glue something to do. We didn't have electricity this morning, so I couldn't print or copy a coloring page, so I just drew a simple design and then drew it again ten more times.  (I know it looked like I was doodling during the sermon, but I can listen and draw at the same time, I promise!) 

Here are some of our masterpieces: 

School Days

More ordinary school days... the headmaster brought a couple of newspapers over to the library.  The students really enjoy reading newspapers and don't get new ones very often.  However, they usually destroy them in short order.  All the pages get separated as different people take them apart to read them, and some get lost, or someone takes them out of the library, etc.  Baraka, the head student librarian, decided Not This Time.  He ran tape down the spine and taped one to my work table (I've got plenty of room, so it's not in my way) and the other to one of the study tables.  He taped them in a way that the pages can still be turned, but they can't be taken apart.  

He's optimistic.  I doubt it'll last long.  Anyhow, he then wandered off, and I spent the rest of the afternoon watching people walk into the library: 

"Ooh, a newspaper!"  Grab it to pick it up and take it off to a chair... "What?? It's taped to the table!" (edit: there were no newspapers taped to table by the next day).  

Two teachers, Mr Mbesere (one of the only teachers everyone calls by his last name; most are called by their first name here) and Mr David came in while students were in their afternoon exam and started a project at one of the study tables: making several pyramids out of cardboard and tape.  Mbesere is a math teacher, so I assume they are props for some sort of geometry lesson.  I provided tape and left them to it. 

I spent the quiet time while students were taking their tests getting some grading done.  We talked about giving directions or instructions in form one last week, so they had an assignment to write two sets of instructions. I gave them several options: how to get to Dar es Salaam (the largest city in Tanzania), how to cook chips (french fries), how to wash clothes, how to plant a tree (Teacher Mbesere had several of them helping plant some on campus last weekend), etc. 

One of the form 2 students, Theresia, has been out of school already for about three weeks.  She has some sort of bad eye infection, and she's been at home in Moshi trying different medications.  They are planning to do a biopsy of a welt on her eyelid next week if she isn't much improved by then.  Tammy is planning to go to Moshi tomorrow for other things and said she would stop by and visit her, so I stayed at school late to have the form 2 students write some notes to her during their evening study time.  I provided colorful paper and crayons, and they had fun with it.  They took longer than I meant for them to take, though; some of them are such perfectionists.  I kept repeating that this is meant to be a note, not a masterpiece artistic creation. 

Bell Tower Construction

In the container we received last August, there was a huge iron bell (imagine something like the Liberty Bell).  Our current school "bell" is a piece of scrap metal with a piece of rebar to hit it with (effective in making enough noise, but not terribly elegant--but I'll miss it when it's gone), so the school wanted a proper bell.  The bell weighs several hundred pounds, though, so it needs a proper bell tower.  The work has started in the middle of campus in front of the classroom building.  The bell tower will also have a built-in baptistry in the base.  I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out!  

Rainy Season Begins, and Form 2 are Hams as Always

Well, it seems that rainy season is here!  I was in class with form one this afternoon, but just before the end of class, the bottom dropped out.  The rain's pouring down out there.  When it was time for class (the last of the day) to end, we all just stayed there, as it was raining too hard to get anywhere else without being soaked.  The way it was raining, even the covered porch of the building wasn't dry. 

However, this week and next we're on a bit of an odd schedule; instead of taking a whole week with no regular classes to have exams, we're doing one exam a day in addition to regular classes.  They're alternating, in the morning one day and in the afternoon the next day, and the exams are only about half as long as what we usually write.  There are so many national and regional exams that we've gotten away from doing many of our own exams, but teachers did want to assess the students now since Easter (and thus the spring exams, taken the week before the Easter break) is rather late this year. 

Mr Godfrey braved the rain and turned up to give the students today's exam, which is physics.  I hung around for a few minutes, but then I could hear that form 2 next door wasn't doing anything, and I haven't spent much time with them lately.  Our current form 2 are the students that I first taught at this school, when they came from Preform from September to November in 2018 before starting as regular students in January 2019.  And then last year, I spent a lot of time with them since form one's schedule is heavily weighted with English compared to other forms, since if they don't understand English well they won't do well in other courses, either, which are all taught in English.  So, they were my babies.  But now they're in form 2, which I don't teach, so I'm not interacting with them at all this year as a teacher, unless they come to the library to see me.  Several have been asking me to come by their classroom more often to see them, so I took the opportunity. 

The teacher to give the form 2 exam had not yet braved the rain, so we had several minutes to chat, and I took a few photos for them since they are HUGE hams.  Here are a few of my favourites: 

These boys...first they try to look cool, and then just silly.  I can't help but smile every time I look at these, though.  In the photo above: (back) Dismas, Pascal, Ombeni, Isaya, Isack, Martin, Athuman (front) Gabriel, Evance and John. 

Once I finally got the boys out of the way (seriously, biggest hams ever), the girls wanted some photos.  However, the boys kept trying to get back in. Ombeni just walked right in front, making a ridiculous face, but John and Gabriel kept crouching behind and then jumping up when the photo was being taken. 

Finally, no boys in this one! 

The girls can be hams, too, when they want to be. :) 

After a while, the rain slacked off slightly, and Mr Ilampa made it over to give form 2 their test and I made a run for the library.