Projects in the Library

Just a typical Tuesday afternoon! One of my students got ahold of my phone and took a few pictures of me working in the library.  I'm currently in the middle of a big project to organize copies of old exams and arrange them in binders so that students can easily find them and use them for practice.  Lots of sorting, hole punching, and numbering to do!  Today, I'm working on civics exams. 

 

Sunny Sunday

It's been a beautiful week weather-wuse here in Monduli. It's been sunny with highs around 80, so not as hot as is often is in January, but still lush and green from last week's rains. 

The Ngarash Church of Christ across the street from the church is building a new concrete block building, much bigger than their current log structure. 

I love how the vines are growing up on the school gate; I like passing under the orange flowers coming in every day. 

Starting the Book of Daniel in Sunday School

Another Sunday in Bible class! Today, we started in the book of Daniel. Today's lesson was about Daniel, Meshach, Shadrach and Abednego and the King's food.  I brought some fruit (bananas) and some cookies. We talked about healthy food. I'm not sure how well it sank in, though, because when I said they could eat the props, the cookies were gone long before anyone glanced at the bananas. ;) To be fair, bananas are grown here and a major part of the diet, so not that exciting. But the grocery store wasn't open yet on my way today so I had yo make do with what I could get at a convenience shop. 

We watched a cartoon of the story, and we drew a poster about 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 about honoring God with our bodies, showing healthy things we can do. 

New Hairstyle

A lot of the students really like to do hair, but as they are all required to keep their hair short while at school, they don't get the chance often. I don't usually let them mess with mine, because it gives me a headache. But every now and then I will relent. 

Above, Hawa, Lissa and Jackline pose with the finished product, a rather lopsided set of French braid pigtails. 

Well, pigtails plus one little extra braid of to the side...

Daniel got in this photo even though he had nothing to do with the hair and was just passing through. 

 

Library Cleanliness

This afternoon (Friday), one of the library student workers, Mispina, and I spent a while cleaning the library.  I think it looks pretty good now!

Last weekend, the students made a complete mess of the library. Usually, it's not too bad on Monday, but this week it was awful, with books scattered everywhere and piled in the floor, cookie wrappers left in the seats instead of being thrown away, and dominoes everywhere. I called them out on it at Monday night devotional; many of them who had been in the library that day agreed that it was really trashy that day.  I told them that if it was in such a bad condition again this weekend, then we would have to have a weekend in which they aren't allowed to use the library at all, which they don't want to happen as many students enjoy hanging out there and reading books.  I reminded them to put books back on the shelf when they are finished with them, or if they don't know where they go, at least stack them neatly on the table.

So today, I took a photo of what the library looked like right before I left on Friday, with one of the preform students, Melau, in the way.  Hopefully next Monday will be better! 

Form 4 Finishes NECTA!

Form four has finished NECTA! The NECTA (the Tanzanian National Exams) is a set of exams in each subject that students take at certain grade levels: year 4 and 7 in primary school, year 2 and 4 in secondary school, and year 6 in A-levels (college prep; we follow the British system here).  The form 4 exams are a very big deal as the scores on these exams will determine what schools the students can get into for A-levels or colleges as well as what subjects they've scored high enough in to study there.  For example, if someone wants to be a doctor, they need to study sciences: physics, chemistry and biology, but if their scores in one or more of those subjects aren't high enough, they might only qualify to study a different three subjects and so will have to go a different career direction.  So, it's been a lot of study and stress for our graduating students!  

But today, they are finally free.  After finishing, Benedict and Salum stuck their student numbers (exams are recorded by number, so that there will be less bias from the graders, knowing only a number and not a name which might tell them if the student is a girl or boy or from certain tribes) on their backs and wore them around for a while.  Not sure why, but then students are always doing strange things.  

The students were being a bit silly, but I don't blame them as they've been working so hard on exams for the last week and a half.  Finally free!  Now all that remains is returning books, emptying out lockers, packing and having a final special dinner with the teachers tomorrow night before they head home on Thursday night or Friday morning.  

Below, Benedict is wearing a mask today.  Full-scale mask wearing never caught on here, especially as the official policy here is that we don't have corona virus any more (an honestly, nobody around here seems to), but the idea of wearing a mask if you are coughing a lot to stop the spread of even just colds and flus has caught on just a bit.

Below: How many photos do I have of these two??  Gabriel and Salum are two of the biggest hams around here; I swear they can smell a camera coming out from across campus.  It'll be weird to not have them in nearly every picture next year! 

Salum insisted on turning the camera around and getting a photo of me, too.  And the unsuspecting preform student who just happened to be standing next to me at the moment.

We heard a commotion outside; normally a couple of students have the job (it's an elected position on the student council) to ring the bell for classtimes, lunch, etc., so not just everyone gets to ring it.  However, to celebrate with form four, the time keeper on duty let Baraka ring the bell for lunch.  We remembered why we don't let Baraka ring bells.  Nah, he did fine, maybe a little overenthusiastic, but I have to give him a hard time.  Salum decided we needed a photo of Baraka ringing the bell, so here he is holding the handle pretending that he is still ringing it. 

I'll miss this class, but I'm happy for them to finally finish and go to have a nice long break!  (A really really really long break--form five doesn't start until July or August.   They'll be bored out of their minds in a week.) 

 

Lewis Arrives for a Visit

On Tuesday, Lewis and Michela arrived, Michela for a visit and Lewis to assist with some business work that needs to be done at the school.  Form 4 finished their last exam this morning, and they'll be leaving over the next couple of days, so they were happy to see Lewis one more time before leaving.  Some who live locally he will be able to see again on future visits, but some who live many hours by bus away it will be harder to keep in touch with.  Many of the students were hanging out in the library after finishing the exam, so he stopped here first when he walked up to the school to greet them.

 

Physics Practicals are Deadly

I think the physics practical (the practicals are exams done in the lab, in which student have to demonstrate their ability to complete certain experiments or procedures) killed form four.  I came in to the library and found several of them flopped all over the place.  

Science Club Studying History

So, the Science Club has started meeting in the library on Friday afternoon during Club time. However, for some reason they've been learning about history so far. Students have made presentations on some topics they had read about, and today, Baton, who is the student leader of the club, asked me if they watch a documentary about World War II.

We got the projector set up, and they're now watching. We watched one in English, and now we're watching one in Swahili. 

Friday Afternoon in the Library

Another Friday afternoon in the library... Benson got a few selfies in. In the first one, you can see that I actually do work around here sometimes. :)  Below, Benson and Lee are just being silly (which is on brand for them).  

Friday afternoon is club time at school, and the science club has asked to hold meetings in the library.  Baton, who is in form 3, is leading the group. 

A little Friday afternoon relaxation... 

 

More Papers to Grade...

The life of a teacher...more exams to grade!  I'm trying to get through another stack this week, for both form 1 and form 3.  These are exams that I wrote myself, so I really should have known better than to give form one so much writing to do; it takes a while to mark!  

Below, dry season continues.  We keep thinking the rains will come any time, but for now it's still dusty and brown.  I continue to be happy about the lack of mud, though.  The field across the road from me seems to be growing weeds, despite the lack of rain.  A lot of the farmers are starting to plow up their fields, ready to plant corn quickly as soon as the rains do start.