Dyness's Baptism

On March 1st, we gained a new sister. Dyness, one of our form one students, was baptized on Sunday afternoon. She's a sweet and capable girl; please pray that she can grow in her faith over the coming years here at Alpha Omega. 

Graduation 2019!

All of the graduates along with the TCS board members, the headmaster, the District Commissioner, and a few of the teachers. 

On October 26th, we had our very first graduation at Alpha Omega!  Four years ago, this group of students started out at a brand-new school.  It must have been a bit strange to be the only class on campus, but they stuck it out.  Each year since we've added a new form as they have progressed, so now we are graduating our first form 4 students.  

Graduations here in Tanzania are an event.  It turned out to be a combination graduation/science-fair/talent show/church service/dinner, and from what I've heard of other local graduations, ours was quite tame and sedate.  (There was a fashion show that was somehow part of another local high school's graduation last weekend; some of our students wanted to do something like that, but Lewis said ABSOLUTELY NOT.  Also, a couple of our students had signed up to salute the graduates with a break-dancing demonstration, but Tammy 'accidentally' edited the program to where it turned out to be a poetry reading).  Graduations are an all-day commitment, and since once people get food they tend to leave, 'lunch' is always the last thing.  It was scheduled for 3 pm, but I knew that we'd be lucky to see food until at least five.  (I was right.  I had a snack in my bag.) 

Graduation gowns and hats are more of a university graduation thing here in Tanzania, so all of the graduates dressed up in white shirts and black trousers or shimmery black skirts.  There was a lot of last-minute scrambling as some of the boys realized at the last minute that they didn't have any clean socks and some of the girls realized that white blouses tend to be rather see-through and need an undershirt.  I spent a while in the girls' dorm rushing people out so that we could start photos only an hour or so late. 

While the Form 4 students took got ready and took pictures, guests could walk around campus to see tables set up by the younger students showing various projects.  The once above was a demonstration of various settlement types and ways communities can be organized.  Quite a bit of my tape, staples, glue, etc. was 'borrowed' for this particular project. I did stop by to be a practice audience for Baraka's whole spiel.  Later, I got this picture of him going through the demonstration for Nancy Smelser, one of the founders of the school. 

There were other tables with physics, chemistry and biology demonstrations, as well.  I was supposed to go back and buy some homemade soap from the chemistry team, but I never made it back that way. 

   

Another major difference in just about any big even here in Tanzania from similar events in America is the dancing.  Graduates do not walk sedately in.  They dance up the aisle.  In unison.  They'd been practicing their routine all week.  Thankfully, it was fun and happy while still being in good taste. 

Once everyone was settled with the graduates in their seats at the front, the parents, guests, and teachers in their places, and the school board, administration, and speakers settled on stage, we got started with the ceremony.  My role for the day was as one of the photographers, so I was moving around quite a bit.  

   

The ceremony involved four speakers (one of the parents, Mr. Songoyo; Tammy's brother David, Dr. Smelser, the school founder, and the District Commissioner).  The speeches were interspersed with a few rather cheesy songs sung by some Form 2 students to the form 4 students, and from some Form 4 girls to the parents.  They had taken some songs and personalized them; my name even ended up in one of the Form 2 songs.  It was a song about how various groups of people were saying goodbye to the Form 4 students and wishing them well, including a rather long section with this teacher says goodbye and that teacher says goodbye.  There was also a really hilarious play somewhere in the middle, acted by a combination of Form 4 and Form 3 students.  

David Reese giving an encouraging speech to the graduates.

Dr. Smelser and Mr. Bernard Kulanga honored Lewis and Tammy for their five years of service, which was certainly deserved as they've dedicated so much time to these students over the last few years.  The students had all signed a big picture of an elephant for them. 

Finally, we go to the part in which the graduates walked across the stage to receive their School Leaving Certificates (Tanzanians tend to like extremely literal names for things...). I joined a small crowd of photographers on stage to capture the moment for each student.  After everyone received their certificate, they were then called up individually for awards for various accomplishments (school government positions, etc.) and academic awards for the top student in each subject.  The top two students, Regarn and Pamela, won all of those; we all rather got the giggles when Pamela ended up having to go in circles as she won award after award.  They don't really use the term 'valedictorian' here, but the top three were clearly recognized:  Pamela Innocent, Regard Richard, and Moureen Simon.  

The ceremony finally ended, and the celebrations began.  Food was served; it was the typical Tanzanian party menu of pilau (spiced rice), chicken, cabbage, kachumbari, and watermelon. I spent most of the rest of the evening taking photos of groups of students.  I've now made a google photos account for the school and I'm going to show the students how to access so they can download photos on their phone after leaving school if they want.  

Two of the boys, Aloyce and Joseph, their father Narda, and Lewis and Tammy

I didn't get in many pictures myself, but I did get this one with one of my students, Aloyce.  We all had new dresses made for the occasion.  I bought the fabric in Iringa back in August and I've been looking forward to having it sewn.  There are such great fabrics here that it's a constant temptation to buy way too much.  

Overall, the day was long but went very well.  It was a great celebration of the hard work the form 4 students have put in over the last four years and a nice event for the community.  The students aren't leaving quite yet, though; they still have their big national exams in a couple of weeks before they're completely done, but the tradition here is to have the graduation when they finish classes, so preparing for it is not a distraction from their exams.  

It's going to be strange for the school once these students leave; we've never had students not come back before.  I am wishing all of them the best as they go on to further their education or find jobs. 

New Administration Building is Open!

On the Friday before classes were to start on Monday, the new administration building at the school was officially opened.  Several of the teachers as well as a few students who live nearby and didn’t have anything better to do came to move furniture from the old offices into the new ones.  The new building is really nice; I like the soft orange color that it’s painted inside.  It now houses the school secretary/receptionist, the workroom with the copier, a meeting room, and the offices of the headmaster, deputy headmaster, academic master, discipline master, and school accountant.  There’re still a couple of empty offices, as well, for any future needs. 

The building next door has three main divisions; before this move, the first was the offices, the second was the teacher’s lounge, and the third was the library/computer lab.  Now, we’ve moved the teachers’ desks into the old office space; Lewis plans on removing a temporary wall eventually as we all rather liked having a larger open space, but for now we’ve split up into an English/Kiswahili office (me, Janet, Oscar, and Fibi), a History/Bible/Civics office (Neema, Judika, and Fielden), and a Math/Science office (Godfrey, John, Charles, and Leah).  It’s a bit tight but should do for now.  Then the computers were moved into the old teacher’s lounge room, and the library is finally just a library.  

It was good to be back on campus after the summer break; I’m looking forward to the students returning on Sunday afternoon!  

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.  

Cloudy Day on Campus

A cloudy day is rather a nice change (although I'll be tired of them soon enough) after over a month of dry-season blue skies.  Here are a few pictures of the school campus where I spend quite a bit of my time. 

The classroom building is on the left.  In the nearest building on the right is the school office, teachers' lounge, and library. The next building is the new administration building where the secretary, headmaster, and vice headmaster's offices will be moved once construction is completed.  We'll use the space in the current building for more room for teachers, as our current teacher's lounge will be too crowded as we're hiring several more teachers starting in January. The furthest building is the science labs. 

The classroom building.  My class in the first one on the bottom level, with the open door. 

In this little pavilion, there is a small shop where the students can buy snacks, drinks, and basic school supplies.  There are a sink and large work tables that sometimes the cooks come out and use (this was a temporary kitchen while the current dining hall was being built), a ping-pong table, and a big water tank where the students come for drinking water. I love seeing the green upper slopes of Monduli Mountain looming over the school. 

During the week of the 15th, the fourth of the nine weeks of the preform course, we had midterms.  I gave my midterm for civics (actually, life skills: the topics were peer pressure, saying no to drugs, teamwork, and problem solving) on Wednesday and my English midterm on Thursday.  The midterm covered present tense verbs, nouns and pronouns, telling time, reading comprehension, and writing at least three sentences about a given topic.  The two topics were food you like/don't like and describing a typical day, with times (for example, 'I wake up at 7:00.'). 

I went to the school shop (called a duka) and bought a small bag of popcorn and some mango juice as a snack while I sat in the teachers' lounge after class and got started on grading.  I am quite grateful to just have had thirty-six students' exams to grade; I absolutely loved my years in China but I do NOT miss having a hundred and fifty final exams to grade. 

I'm looking forward to seeing how my students have done; the civics exam especially was rather difficult for many simply because of the level of English necessary. 

Preform Entrance Exam

Prospective students and parents are beginning to arrive!

Saturday, September 15th was the main day for prospective students to come and take the preform entrance exam.  The exam has sixty questions: forty in math and twenty in English. Many students, most along with their parents, arrived to give it a try.  It was an exciting day for me, as the students who were accepted would soon be my students. I tried to talk to as many of them as possible, but most were quite shy and rather nervous that day.  

Waiting to get started...

They had two and a half hours to take the exam, and then the teachers gathered around a table, grading as quickly as we could while the students and teachers waited to hear the results.  I helped for a bit, but the other teachers were able to work much faster without me as they’ve done this before and could speak in Swahili together, so I got out of the way and helped in sorting out the application forms instead.  

The regular school year starts in January, but students finishing Form 7 (the last year of primary school) take a major national exam during the summer and then have the last term of the year free.  So, we (and I assume other private schools must do it as well, as no one seems surprised by it) have a nine-week course for prospective students from the end of September through November. This is a great chance to get to know the students and make sure they will be a good fit for the school both academically and socially, and helps to get everyone on the same page (they come from a variety of primary schools of varying degrees of academic rigor and from across the country) so that in January they will be prepared for Form 1 work.  While as a private school there are school fees, we do offer scholarships to students who qualify but come from difficult circumstances.

At the end of the day, we had a list of nearly forty students who were invited to attend preform and, assuming that they pass their classes in preform, become students at Alpha Omega full-time in January.  Preform will begin September 24th; I’m looking forward to getting to know them all!

Heading the hear the results announced!

The Students' Singing

We went back by the school the next day before the students left; they had one last assembly in the dining hall before being finished for the two-week fall break.  As part of the assembly, some of the students had prepared a song.  They have beautiful voices; I look forward to hearing them sing again when school is back in session and we have worship services together.  

My First Visit to the School

The kitchen and dining hall, with the girls' dormitory in the distance. 

Once arriving in Monduli, we took a bit of time to shower and rest a bit, and then we were off again to go up to the school.  Lewis and Tammy wanted to see all of the students before they leave for their fall break tomorrow, so I went along to see it.  The light when we arrived was that beautiful gold of late afternoon, which made the dusty landscape glow.  While we walked around and chatted with students, the sun sank over the mountain.  I'll of course be posting more about the school in the future, but here's a few photos of my first view of it. 

The boys' dormitory, the water tower (they have to store water, because the city water doesn't always make it up the hill), and the school shop. 

The dinner gong.

Teenage boys are the same everywhere.  They made me a bit nervous launching themselves headfirst down the hill, but they were landing their flips and no one got hurt. 

Students standing around watching the crazy ones who were doing flips.

Teacher vs. student volleyball game to celebrate the end of the term.