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.