Visit from Last Year's Graduates

Some students who graduated last year contacted me and asked if they could come to visit me. On Thursday (the day I don't have any scheduled classes at school), a group of six students who graduated last year came over.  I made some no-bake (chocolate oatmeal) cookies and got some sodas, and we had a nice visit.  It was good to see them all again! Above are the boys: Innocent, Paulo, Daniel, Bahati, Gabriel and Meleji.  Most of the boys live in this area.  Gabriel and Daniel are from a town in central Tanzania, but they are visiting Monduli right now.  

We had a good laugh because Bahati is still as crazy as always--he decided to have a picture with long hair, so he sat next to me and draped my hair over his head.  😂

 

In Tanzania, form 4 ends in November, but form 5 (which is often a different school, and definitely a different program; Tanzania's system is similar to the British system with O-level and A-level) doesn't start until July or August to allow time to receive test results, apply to schools, etc., so they have several months' gap in between.  It's hard for teenagers to find jobs here as everyone knows they'll leave after a few months and even low-level jobs are mostly needed by adults, but they find what they can to do, and many of them are taking some enrichment classes at a local college, like a computer class or refresher classes in various subjects so that they don't forget everything before going back to school.  Most of the boys want to continue in the sciences in various ways; Daniel really wants to become a veterianarian, especially for livestock.  

The boys also noticed that the weeds around my house have gotten high, so they said they will come back over the weekend to do some yardwork for me.  I usually pay students to do it, but they said they don't want any payment.  Maybe I will make them a cake...

I enjoyed the visit from the boys!  It's good to see how they're doing and to know they haven't forgotten us from their old school already.  I look forward to seeing what they will do next!