School Days

After three months of peace and quiet, it's nice to see the campus full of life and noise.  (I'll be missing the peace and quiet soon, I'm sure. :)  )  Classes are back in full swing, and life is back to almost-normal, with the addition of extra handwashing, some social distancing in the dining hall (not that it'll do much good, because there's not much way to socially distance in many other spaces), and anyone with a sniffle wearing a mask.  "Mask" in Swahili is "barakoa", which I just learned this week.  Makes me thing of barracudas every time... 

Esther and Denisa are heading for the computer lab...

I was having a study session in the library with some form 2 students, and someone picked up my phone and took I photo of me.  I made a weird face for the photo, which always makes them laugh.  

Cyrene, Abigael and Mary hanging out in the library as we wait for the rest of their small group to arrive for our study session.

Teacher Ilampa called an afternoon assembly to make some announcements to the kids.  Another beautiful day at Alpha Omega! 

 

First Day Back in Class

Back to school!  The students are finally back on campus, but we do have a few new features on campus.  First, several handwashing stations have been set up, by the school gate, outside the classroom building, and outside the dining hall.  Students are encouraged to wash their hands frequently, especially these first couple of weeks while we make sure no one has brought the virus with them.  

We have incredible weather for our first day back; blue skies and in the 70s!  

The students are lining up for an assembly.  Form 1 is ready, but it looks like the other forms are still straggling in.  They stand in rows, with form 1 in the front and form 4 in the back.  It's been a good first day back; everyone is happy to catch up with their friends and get back into their normal routine.  I enjoyed teaching form 1 again this afternoon!  

 

The Students Return

And we're back!  The students are moving back into their dormitories on this beautiful Sunday afternoon.  For most of them, it's their first time seeing our new bell tower in the middle of campus completed and ready to ring!  

The dining hall (above) really stands out against today's bright blue sky.  Below, once of our form 2 students, Prisca, shows her baby sister Rebecca around campus while having a last-minute chat with a friend before her dad takes the phone home with him.  She grew up in the Kisongo congregation, near the Andrew Connolly School of Preaching, so she was chatting with an American friend who lived here for a few years but has now returned to the US.  

Some students, with their bags, are waiting to be checked in at the administration building before taking their things to the dormitory. 

During the busiest part of the day, the teachers had some tables set up near the school gate to welcome students and check them in (receiving tuition payments from parents, checking their bags for contraband, etc.).  But now it's late enough that the main rush is over, and the few that straggle in late can just come up to the administration building. 

Our campus is looking good!  For probably the first time since the school began, there's no new construction going on this term.  

I had a couple of light bulbs that had burned out in the library, so a couple of teachers, Mbesere and Gerald, found some new ones in the store room and helped to change them out.  

Athuman and Dismas, two of my form 2 boys, came to say hi and hang out in the library.  Dismas is one of student librarians, and Athuman, while not a librarian, often pretends to be and spends a lot of his free time in the library (more to bother me than to read books).  He needed an excuse to stay in the library today, so he ended up sweeping the floor, so I gladly let him stay.  It's getting dusty around here after nearly two months of no rain, so it needed it! 

Some of the form 2 guys back in the library!  Athuman, Pascal, Ombeni and Isack.

Many students, like Hans below, came to check out textbooks before they get picked over, so it was a busy evening in the library. 

The boys, trying to be cool in the library: Pascal, Isack G, Hans, Ombeni, Isack P, and Omega.  Those are chicken legs they're eating.  They're enjoying the last bit of food sent from home before it's back to caferia food for the foreseeable future.  

The chairs in the auditorium end of the dining hall have been spread out in an attempt at a bit of social distancing.  We'll see how long this lasts.  The students are settling in for evening devotional after supper. 

Our first evening devotional back at school.  Oh dear, they have apparently forgotten how to sing... this is a bit painful.  ;) 

 

Going Up to the School

I'm heading down my road to go up to the school.  The students return today!  Schools have been closed since March 18th because of corona, so we've had about a three and a half month break.  It's not as bad as it could have been; our two-week spring break and our midterm break for the month of June would have been during this time, so we've only actually missed about two months of school time that we would have had. Most of the students are excited to get back; they've been rather bored.  

 

Visiting Up on the Mountain

During this long likizo (vacation) due to Corona, I've tried to keep in touch with what students I can.  I had previously had a no-facebook-friends-with-students rule, but I relaxed that so that I could keep up with more of them (Facebook is free here, so Facebook messenger is often the only way some students can communicate if they don't have money for an internet bundle).  One student that I've kept up with is Paulo.  He didn't have a phone during most of the likizo, but he was staying with a family (one of the school board members) here in Monduli for most of the break instead of spending all his time up on the mountain with his family so that he could get books and keep studying.  He knows where I live and would come by to ring my doorbell and chat now and then.  If he came with Mathayo, another student, they could come inside, but if it was just him I'd come outside to the gate and chat outside.  (I have a rule, which they know, that they will only be invited in the house if there are at least two of them.  I don't want any accusation of being improper by having only one student in my house with me).  

The week before school started back, he invited me to go up to Monduli Juu to visit his family.  We drove up around noon on Thursday.  I'd never been to that part of the Monduli Juu area, but it's beautiful.  We came over a ridge into a wide, nearly treeless valley, surrounded by higher ridges.  This valley (probably an ancient crater) is somewhere over 6000 feet in elevation.  His family's home is up just under the ridge on the far side.  There's a field of corn planted right on the ridge, and I wish I'd had the chance to go up and look over to see what's beyond the ridge.  

Paulo's uncle, me, his mother, and his two little cousins

When we arrived, we were greeted by several small children, who were a bit shy to see an mzungu (foreigner), and Paulo's mother.  Paulo comes from a traditional Maasai family; his father has more than one wife, so he isn't around their boma very often.  Paulo is one of the middle children of six, and I also met his younger sister, Maria, who is three years behind him in school and was also preparing to go back to school on Sunday.  The young children turned out to mostly be his cousins, the two little girls of his uncle, his mother's brother, who lives right next door.  The very littlest one, only about a year old, is his niece, his eldest brother's first child and his mother's first grandchild.  I never did figure out who to rest of the kids were; neighbours, I suppose.  

Inside, I was offered the nice plastic chair as I was the guest, and his mother brought out milky tea (which was very good); first, she served an elderly lady who came in (his grandmother, I assume, although we were never directly introduced), then me as a guest, and then she brought mugs for herself and Paulo.  We chatted a bit as we could using Swahili as a lingua franca; they speak Maasai at home and his mother only knows some Swahili and certainly not English.  I only know the equivalent of "How are you? I'm fine" in Maasai. Paulo translated a bit between English and Maasai for us.  After a bit, his uncle came in, and he speaks fluent Swahili (though not much English).  I was happy that my Swahili has improved enough that we were mostly able to chat in Swahili for nearly an hour.  I did have Paulo translate a few difficult words here and there, or check with him to make sure I had understood something correctly. 

I really enjoyed getting to meet his family and see the beautiful area where they live.  It's nice to get a better idea of where my students are coming from and what their life at home is like.  I wouldn't have taken photos as it's kind of weird to go to someone's house and take photos of it, but Paulo wanted to take photos so I did get some.  My phone has a better camera than the one he has somehow acquired this week, so he took photos with mine and then later I transferred them to his.     

So, here's a glimpse into life up on Monduli Mountain.  It was a beautiful day to visit a beautiful area!  Once we got back down the mountain, I saw several more students as Thursday is market day and they were all out shopping for whatever they need before heading back to school on Sunday afternoon.  I ended up running into another student, Dismas, and giving him a lift home and meeting his family at their little store, where I narrowly avoided being gifted a live chicken.  It was good to see some of the kids today, and I look forward to seeing everyone back at school next week! 

The kids and a few family members walked us out to the car as we were leaving. 

 

Another Day Out in Monduli Town

Several of you really enjoy seeing the photos around my town the other day, so here are a few more of my every day stops around town.  Above, my friend Upendo (which means love) has a laundry business that she started at the beginning of the year.  Since I don't have a washing machine, I take most of my laundry to her.  Most of the laundry businesses here in Monduli say "dry cleaner", but they don't really offer chemical dry cleaning, just normal laundry-doing.  

This photo, above, is of Meena's Hardware Store, on the main road through town.  I've been in there a few times to buy grass slashers (the kind of long machete like things people here use to weed-whack).  He sells all sorts of hardware items: nails, screws, tools, wheelbarrows, etc. 

(Last two pictures) Here's the main road through Monduli.  If you keep following the road out of town, eventually the school is down that way, at the curve where the road turns to go up the mountain.  In town, the road is lined with shops. 

(Above)  Looking up one of the side streets from the main road.  All the side streets are on a slope, as Monduli is on the side of the mountain, but towards the bottom before it gets steep. 

(Below)  This is Tumaini Shop, our biggest grocery store in town (just the left side, not the whole building).  I stop here often for the basics--bread, juice, milk, etc.  

(Below)  This is the intersection next to Tumaini Shop.  Going straight takes you up to the bank, police station and hospital.  Turning left goes to the Farmer's Market.  Turning right goes to the bus stand.  If you go in the opposite direction, the road crosses the main road and goes downhill towards where I live.  

(Below)  In the late afternoon, I drove out to the school.  I'm not often going this direction at this time of day.  It's a beautiful sunny day! I had to watch out for goats, though, with the sun in my eyes. 

   

Here's the view from the school gate, looking both down the hill and up the hill.  It's getting really dusty now that it hasn't rained since the first week of May. 

In the evening, I was back in town and stopped by Upendo's laundry to pick up my clothes, so here's another side street of Monduli. I hope you have enjoyed seeing a little more of my town.