School Baraza

This afternoon we had the first school baraza (assembly/meeting) of the year.  We started off with the sutdents singing first the national anthem and then the school song.  The assembly had several items on the agenda.  First, the headmaster and deputy headmaster both welcomed the students and teachers to the new school year and made speeches about their vision for the new year.

Next, we gave out awards for last school year: most improved in each grade, best at cleanliness, the top three students in each class, and all of last year's Form Two students who just got back their results on the national NECTA exam (34 scored division I and 3 scored division II--incredible for a new school, second out of all the schools in our district, and well above the national average!  Monduli district is now 9th in the whole country!).

And then we had the Head Prefect, Benedict, come to address the administration and teachers with the concerns and requests of the students, and went through items from the suggestion box outside the office.  Or, as I called it, The Airing of Grievances.  The students had some good suggestions and some that were really long shots.  Of course, everyone is still a bit frustrated with the new textbook system, but I'm hoping as we get things organized and work out the issues that that will get better.  The girls would really like to be allowed to braid their hair instead of shaving their heads; that got a resounding NO from the headmaster.  (Students of both genders being required to keep their heads shaved is very common here, and we often have water shortages so anything requiring longer showers etc. is probably not a good idea.)   The students would also like more field trips.  Of course, we would love for them to go on more field trips...but field trips gets expensive fast.  Their request for more physics and chemistry practicals (lab time) is already in motion; we have hired several new teachers this term, so we should be able to do more of that this year.  Overall, the meeting went pretty well, and only started late enough and then ran long enough that the students were only about half an hour late for the normal supper time.  (Yes, I'm being rather sarcastic.  Much better than the teachers' meeting the Saturday before classes started--it was scheduled for 9-11:30 am, but actually ran from 11:15 am to 3 pm...).

Mr. Oscar (in the middle), my co-English teacher, with the top students: Regarn, Benedict, Shuaka, Pamela, Moureen, and Mariam.  

Top students for the 2018 School Year:
Form 2: Benedict (who is also the Head Prefect)
Form 1: Shuaka
Form 3: Pamela (the eldest daughter of one of the main families in the Monduli church).

Working in the Library

I finally have the textbook shelves arranged in the library.  I think it looks pretty good; we’ll see how the system works, though.  Although it may sound simple to have students check out textbooks, it’s always a learning process when starting a new system.  Hopefully, over the next few weeks I can keep adjusting until we have a process that works for everyone.  Currently, the plan is for the library to be open from 6:30-7:00 am (between breakfast and morning assembly), 9:30-9:50 (morning break), 12:30-1:30 (lunch, when it has always been open for checking out normal library books anyhow), and from 3:30-4:00 (between classes ending and the beginning of clubs/sports time).  I wanted to have it open in the evening as well, but there is no time in the schedule after dinner and the academic master does not want to adjust times there.  Fortunately, the student workers can handle some of the times—especially the morning one! 

The Students Arrive

And they’re back!  It’s move-in day for the 2019 school year.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures today, but here’s a photo of some of the students being silly another day. 

This year, I’m co-teaching Form 1 and Form 3 English with Oscar; I’m doing the grammar/pronunciation/speaking/general English, and he’s doing the literature/writing part.  We’ve worked it out where I’ll teach them three days a week and he’ll do the other two (he’s also teaching Kiswahili classes every day, as well as being the teacher in charge of sports).  In addition to teaching, I am taking on the role of librarian. 

Michela, the Short’s teenage daughter, and a few student workers have been managing the library the last couple of years and have done a good job.  However, we are trying a new system of storing all of the textbooks in the library and having students come to check them out as they need them instead of issuing them to the students for the semester.  The students do not have a good track record of taking care of books, and Mr Gerald, the academic master, had heard of other schools doing it this way and thought we could give it a try to see if we can get the books to last longer.  Also, we are expecting a container from the US with some new equipment for the school as well as about 3000 more books for the library (we have less than 500 now); it was originally supposed to have been here by now but has been delayed.  We’re now hoping for April or May; the bookworms among the students ask about it’s progress frequently.  So, between these two major changes to the library, there’s plenty of work for me to do. 

The first tasks today were stamping and inventorying (is that a word?) the first boxes of new books for Form 4 and getting started on organizing all the textbooks and rearranging the shelves to make them easily accessible.  This is more than a one-day job; apparently the teachers forgot about collecting textbooks until the last-minute last term, so everything was just tossed onto tables in the library rather haphazardly.  I’ll post some pictures once I get it looking nice, though!     

So, some new challenges, but I’m ready to get back to work.  Most of the students I taught in preform last term have returned to begin Form 1, and it was good to see them all again.  I’m looking forward to getting to know the Form 3 students better as well.  I’m hoping this will be a good year at Alpha Omega!

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!  

Thanksgiving at the Duncans'

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!  Having Thanksgiving dinner was a bonus for me this year; Mom cooked Thanksgiving dinner in August before I left so that we could celebrate together.  

The Shorts and I drove to Kisongo, a town about a forty-minute drive away (almost to Arusha) to have dinner with a missionary family there, the Duncans.  The Duncans (Philip and Bekah and their sons Micah and Nathan) work on the farm that supports the School of Preaching (ACSOP).  They arrived in Tanzania the same week I did.  If you'd like to know more about their work, here is their blog: https://havegodwillgo.com/.   Ralph and Twyla Williams, Canadians (but who lived in Memphis for thirty years) who live up in Monduli Juu (up on the mountain that Monduli is at the base of) and Margaret Thompson, who is a veterinarian who works for a Christian organization in Karatu, were also there.   

I should have taken a group photo, but it seems I have mostly pictures of the food.  I did get a couple of photos with people, but Michela would only be in them if I promised not to post them publicly. :)

Turkeys are not a native species here; the only turkeys for sale and brought in just for foreigners at holidays, but cost nearly $100 USD.  We all decided we were happy forgoing turkey, so instead, we had both chicken (roasted and barbecued) and guinea fowl.  I took broccoli salad, bacon glazed carrots, and jalapeno roll-ups.  We had plenty to eat, in true Thanksgiving fashion!  

Kilimanjaro at a Great Distance

I'm not sure how well you can see it, but the mountain in the foreground on the left is Mt Meru, the second highest mountain in Tanzania, which we can see most of the time as it's just north of Arusha.  Behind it, you may be able to make out a shape in the distance--Mt. Kilimanjaro.  Kilimanjaro is more than 100 kilometers (just over 62 miles) away, a good three-hour drive, so it's almost never visible this far.  For that matter, as it's generally hazy around the mountain, it's rarely visible from a good deal closer.  But sometimes, when the sky is clear enough, and the light is just right from about five to six in the evening, from just the right places along the Arusha road, we can see it when leaving Monduli.  On Thanksgiving Day, the conditions lined up just right, the only time they have since I've been living here (but then again, I'm rarely going into town at that time in the evening).  

Rebecca's Birthday

Veronica, Radhia, Jackline, and Rebecca

There's a tradition here in Tanzania that people dump water on the birthday person.  I know I've mentioned it before, but I had another chance to witness it on Rebecca's birthday.  She was prepared: she packed a change of clothes and a towel before going up to the school, and her friends did not disappoint her.  I think the second set of clothes might have ended up rather damp as well.  Remind me to hide on my birthday...or at the very least to not carry my phone or any papers around! :)

Rebecca's birthday fell on Thanksgiving Day again this year (tends to happen occasionally with a late November birthday), but we stopped to sing and present her with her gifts before we left to celebrate Thanksgiving at the Duncans' house.  We were in a rush, as always, so she took the gifts with her in the car to open.  She absolutely loves Agatha Christie mysteries, so she was really happy that I'd found one she doesn't have!   She also took the opportunity, since it was her birthday and she could get away with it, to wear a long, flowy flowered dress.  One of her favorite presents was a pair of high heels; she's definitely the sister most into glamour these days. 

Tammy and I decided Lewis needed some quality time with his children since he's been working a lot lately.  Or at least that was our excuse to stick him in the back. :) 

Playing and Working

I'm really enjoying teaching the Preform students!  They're a good group of kids.  I was wandering around a bit during free time this afternoon and stopped to watch some of the boys having a lively game of ping pong.

The boys later were commandeered and put to work; there are bags of corn to be cleaned for supper!  They are pouring the corn over a mesh table; any bits of trash are sifted out.

Preform Final Exams

And we have reached the end of the nine-week Preform program...time for final exams!  Once we have the results, we can evaluate how the students have been able to handle the work during preform, which will help us to decide if they will be able to handle the work as full-time students in January.  Most of them will make it, but there may be a few that just aren't able to keep up, and it would be better for them to find a school better suited to their level than to struggle and fail here.  The education system here has made it very difficult to repeat grades or to move school after year two.   

I've really enjoyed teaching them for this term, and I look forward to seeing them back in January!  

My Students Hamming It Up

Me with Mary, Monica, Shyrose, Bilihuda, Jackline, Veronica, Gabriel and Omega.

On one of the rare days that I had my big camera with me at school, I let my preform students have some fun taking pictures after class (not just a free for all--I let only one responsible student hold the camera so as to avoid accidents passing it around). I'm glad to have these memories of my students being silly and having fun.  As you might have seen, I'm using the first picture of me with a group of the students as my cover photo on my 'My Life in Monduli' facebook page. 

Welcome to my world, and enjoy the photos! 

Evance is very serious and detail-oriented; he always asks the best questions in class.  He really wants to understand everything.  

Shyrose, Mary Douglas, and Bilihuda

(Back) Lowasa, Esther, Ombeni, Abigael, Shyrose, Theresia and Bilihuda (Front) Mary Douglas and Monica.  Since they are in preform and not regular students yet, they don't have Alpha Omega uniforms.  Many wear their primary school uniforms. 

Two of my native Monduli students.  Shyrose is my neighbor--her family lives across the street from me.  Her mother works for the Catholic charity that runs the daycare for orphaned children that is on our street.

The peace sign is apparently universal.

Foibe strikes a pose

Theresia, Monica, Abigael, Bilihuda and Shyrose in the back; Esther and Mary Douglas in the front.

Ombeni and Michael...facepalming is actually pretty common when Michael is around.  He's one of the youngest students, but he's also one of the smartest and he is a complete ham.  

Athuman, Ombeni, Omega, Dismas, Gabriel in the back, Michael in the front

Posing with Calreen and Jackline 

Isack and Ombeni

Peter and Martin

Dismas and Athuman

Lowasa and Olotai 

My students. :)

Sunday Mornings at the School

A beautiful sunny Sunday on campus

Sunday mornings start early; the church service for the students held in the dining hall on campus begins at eight.  The area churches generally start at ten, but their services often last for three or four hours, while ours is about an hour and a half, so there are trade-offs.  Ours is so early for several reasons.  For one thing, ours is finished before the church across the street begins, so some of our students go there afterwards to help with teaching a Bible class for the children.  We have an optional Bible class afterwards, so an early start gives plenty of time before lunch, and the students have plenty of time to study in the afternoon.  

All of the students are required to attend the morning worship service, but the Bible class led by Lewis, a leadership class led by Fielden Allison, and attending the service in Swahili at the Ngarash church are all optional, so tend to be the more dedicated or interested students. 

During the service

Several of the students participate in leading worship alongside some of the teachers who are members of the church of Christ; these days, the students do everything except the main sermon (and sometimes do that, too), including the communion meditation, which here in Tanzania is generally nearly as long as the sermon.  Everything is done in English except the singing; we sing in English occasionally, but in Swahili at least eighty per cent of the time.  I've recorded the singing a few times; I'd like to add the recordings to a blog post but the times I've tried the internet hasn't been strong enough to handle uploading a larger file like that.  Sometime when I'm in Arusha on wifi I'll give it a try again.  

I had a very cute helper keeping up with my bag while we waited for Bible class to start.