Wednesday Afternoon Adventures

Students as soon as class is over...

Wednesday afternoon...I finished classes for the day with form two, with the last class of the day, from 2:00-3:20.  They get sleepy in the afternoon after lunch, so as soon as class finished, many of them flopped.  Later, I got some photos at an afternoon assembly.  The students have assemblies at various times, and the teacher on duty calls them most afternoons at some points to make announcements and give instructions for whatever the afternoon's activities are. 

The prefects stand at the front facing the other students. This afternoon's activity turned out to include a punishment for form one for something-or-other (I think because many of them are in a bad habit of being late to class after every break); they had to pick weeds out of the grass around the belltower for a while (a pretty light punishment around here; it doesn't take that long with 37 of them in the class). 

While the weather had been so beautiful all day, it didn't last.  Just before I was ready to leave for the day, a dark cloud came over the mountain and the rain started.  David and Oscar joked about calling Tizo to come get us all with his car, but in the end, we all made our way home somehow.  I tried waiting a while to see if it would clear up, but it was almost dark before it lightened up so I decided to go for it.  None of my usual boda boda drivers were available at the moment, and most won't drive if it's pouring rain anyhow.  I finally got one, but he was way over on the other side of town and he was willing to come get me, but it would be a while.  I started walking, but it was rough going as I didn't have my muck boots with me and the road was quickly turning to sludge.  I got a ways, but realized it was going to take hours at the rate I was going picking through the slick spots.  However, Baraka, our school maintenance guy/general handyman around town (he's the one we all call when we need anything done around the house), happened by on his motorcycle and took pity on me, and drove me to the end of my road.  

My road was already too bad for a motorcycle to go on safely, so I picked my way on foot.  You can see the results.  I had mud up to my knees.  Sigh, is rainy season over yet?  (It just started.  It won't be over until May at least.) 

 

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.  

My Road

Well, the rainy season still isn't my favorite.  I know, I know, I'm being whiny.  At least it's convenient to know almost all the rain will be confined to certain times of the year.   I've tried explaining how weather usually works in climates with four seasons to my students, and they are rather amazed by the fact that it could just...rain...any time at all.  It could be sunny today and rainy tomorrow, or the temperature could change drastically, or all sorts of things.  Here, weather reports aren't much of a thing because the weather is pretty predictable.  In the dry season it will be dry (it rains just a little maybe once a month or so, sometimes), and in the rainy season, it's going to rain hard at some point during the day. 

It really wouldn't be so bad except for how difficult it makes it to get around.  I have mud boots, but even so, the mud is like walking on ice. My road is one big mudhole, and there aren't any sidewalks to get around it.  Cars slide, too.  I have managed not to actually fall in the mud yet, but I know it'll happen eventually!  

The Beautiful Parts of Rainy Season

The view from behind my house

Rainy season has its pains, but it has its beauties, too.  Everything is green and growing, and I love to watch the clouds roll down over the mountain.  It's also nice to have a bit of long-sleeve weather as it is often in the 60s on rainy days, although I tend to disagree with the Tanzanian who make small talk about how cold it is (this is about as cold as it gets here). 

The corn is coming up in the field by my house.

Clouds over Monduli Mountain

While in general I find rainy season rather annoying--I've walked through enough mud to last me for quite a while, and this has been a relatively light rainy season this year--it really does have its beautiful moments.  Everything is so green and growing, and I suppose beautiful blue skies day after day do get slightly boring after a while...maybe.  But the clouds can be beautiful.  This afternoon, clouds were hanging over Monduli Mountain, with the higher slopes fading in and out of view.  I had to stop and watch for a few minutes after class.  

Rainy Season at the School

Rainy season generally starts at the end of February or early March, but it’s getting off to a late start this year. For me, it’s been nice, as it was a few extra weeks without mud, but the late start has caused a lot of issues for farmers.  They planted in February, having faith that the rains would come as they do every year, but many lost their crops as they withered (if they came up at all) in the dry weather.  Some can afford to replant now that it’s finally raining and seems set to continue, but many cannot afford to.  It will be a very difficult year for them without a crop they count on.  Whatever your thoughts on climate change, it’s easy to see here what a difference even a small change makes on people’s lives as the rainy season has become more unpredictable in recent years.

Generally, it doesn’t rain all day every day.  We haven’t had to have the morning assembly indoors yet, but it was a bit of a close call today. It usually rains hardest in the afternoon; I’m glad to be in the library where it’s dry. 

The mud is getting bad already—my (dirt) road has potholes full of sludge that are growing by the day.  Tammy was driving to my house from hers, and the car slid a full 180 to face the wrong direction as she was driving down her road.  Driving and walking in this mud is like being on ice.  I look quite elderly as I hobble around in my mud boots; I am determined not to end up on the ground, but I probably will at some point.  One year Lewis fell in the mud four times in one day; his children still remember that day fondly. 

The Tanzanians take the rainy season stoically; it doesn’t seem to slow anyone down much.  The students are already enacting rules about leaving shoes at the door of the library.  Moureen, our head student librarian, has become quite militant and heaven help anyone she catches inside with shoes on.  Sock feet only, or else we’ll be needing to mop the floor nearly every day.  She came in suddenly as a surprise and caught out several people; she gleefully made a list that she threatened to give to the discipline master and banned them from the library for the day.  I was there the whole time, but frankly I don’t usually pay that much attention to what people are doing at the door.  Fortunately, she has granted me an exception since I usually wear mud boots out and bring a second pair of shoes to wear indoors.  (And I hate walking around without shoes on concrete). 

Since it’s just started, not everyone has completely adjusted yet, though.  One student stopped to dither outside the library; he needed to be in the dining hall with everyone else for a meeting, but it was pouring down.  He asked to borrow my umbrella, but Mwelu had already borrowed it and hadn’t come back yet.  He dithered a bit more before I told him he was just going to have to make a run for it before he got in trouble for being late.  

So…rain, rain, and more rain.  And MUD.

Mud.

You can tell by looking at the cars that it's been raining. 

Rainy Season, day 3

Well, it appears that rainy season has come early; usually, it doesn't start until November.  However, in mid-October we started having afternoon thunderstorms come down off the mountain, which is a sign that it's coming. Fortunately, I finally got around to buying rainboots on Sunday, and I wore them for the first time today.

It rained lightly on Monday, but then it was cloudy both Tuesday and Wednesday but only sprinkled. Today it's raining steadily.

Lewis called and said he and Babadeo (Albert) were going into town for supplies for the school duka (store) and could pick me up on the way back to go to the school for my afternoon classes. I would be quite early, but my students needed a substitute for an earlier class time, so I could help with that (spoiler alert: that didn't happen). So Rebecca and I hopped in.

It's a long story, but the culvert between the school driveway and the, well, not paved, but hard-packed road running by the school has been out since before I moved here.  The local department of transportation were the ones who dug it up last time they were repairing the roads (at the end of the last rainy season, so around June), and they refuse to fix it back, saying that the school should pay to fix it (even thought they messed it up).  Anyhow.  We've gotten around the issue thus far by driving up the cow path that runs between the road and the school fence; there's a place without a ditch around the corner that we can turn onto it.  This has been a bit bumpy and involves the occasional traffic jam of cows (it is actually their road, after all), but has been workable all through dry season.

It will not work so well in rainy season.  We were in the big four-wheel-drive landrover, which is built for bad roads, so we gave it a try.  We made it about halfway around, sliding a bit (the mud here is like driving on ice) before we finally got stuck.  We managed to back up a bit and try a few running starts, but the mud was deep everywhere, and finally we ended up wedged at an awkward angle up against a very large jute plant.

Rebecca and I stayed in the car and observed the proceedings while Lewis and Albert tried various things to no avail.  Finally Albert walked up to the school and got the work crew who are building the new administration building to come down and help.  The group of men managed to rock the car enough that Lewis could get it unwedged from the rut by the jute plant, and then he managed to back us all the way back out to the road.

We finally managed to park at the clinic; from there we can walk through their back garden to a little gate that opens onto school grounds back behind the classroom building.

We're three days in.  Is rainy season over yet?  

Rainy Season

Well, rainy season isn't supposed to start until well into November, but from the look of things I think it might be starting early this year. 

 

This is the classroom building, by the way.  There's a downstairs; it's built into a hill so the lower level windows look out the other direction.  My classroom is downstairs on the left end.  

Rain Boots!

I'm now prepared for the coming rainy season!  I bought boots at the Sunday market this afternoon.