Blue Skies over Arusha

In a nice break from the clouds of the rainy season, we had beautiful blue skies as we ran errands and shopped in Arusha today.  Above is the clock tower, which is one of the main landmarks in the city.  The clocks are sponsored by Coca-Cola and have the logo on them if you look closely (which you probably can't in this picture). Nothing too special about this day in Arusha, but it was such a nice day that I took some pictures, so I'm sharing them here. 

Below: we stopped by a electronics repair shop that a friend of a friend runs, but unfortunately he could not save Beth's phone. :( 

We finished our day eating at the new Chinese restaurant near the grocery store, which is always a treat.  I enjoy cooking, but I'm not that great at Chinese food.  A former student, Isack, met us there as Beth had some books for him; I think it was his first time eating Chinese food, but he enjoyed his chicken fried noodles. 

 

Invigilating Exams

Exam time again!  I have a few exams to invigilate this week.  Below, I was with form four for their English exam.  Several students had forgotten what the word 'synonym' means and tried to get me to tell them, but they had to figure it out for themselves.  That word is used from form two on, so they should know! 

 

Annual Textbook Order

Part of my job as the school librarian is to put together the annual textbook order.  We have in the budget each year funds to buy additional books and to replace books that have been destroyed, so early each year I get a list of requested books from all of the teachers.  Here in Tanzania, we have a goal of having at least one textbook of each type per every two students, which qualifies us as a high-level school.  In many schools, several students share one book, so one of our goals this year was to hit that mark with all of our major textbooks. 

Textbooks generally cost from $4 to $8 each, with a few of the higher-level ones being a bit more, so it adds up fast.  This year we spent over $1900 on books!  Running a school can be quite expensive.  (Speaking of which, if anyone wants to sponsor a student or contribute towards scholarships, let me know...) 

Making the order is just the beginning of my work.  It took a while (nearly two months!) to get our order from one of the bookstores in Arusha, but they did deliver them, so that was nice.  Fortunately, we have an empty office at the moment, so I commandeered it.  First, I had to unpack all the books and check what we received against my original order and against the receipt.  There were some books missing and a couple of things on the receipt I didn't recognize, so it took a day or two to sort that out.  The bookstore made a second delivery a couple of days later with the missing books.  

Then, the books needed to be processed.  Even with students helping, it took a couple of weeks of spending most of my time at work outside of class working on it.  First, we stamp the books with the school stamp in the front, the back, and somewhere in the middle.  Then, I write in the front cover, the last page, and on the bottom of page 50: AOCSS, Form 1, Oxford Biology, #1/20. (or whatever form/book it is).  I go through my inventory of our existing books to number books that are being added correctly.  After all of that, we completely wrap the covers in packing tape to help them last longer, as these textbooks are cheaply made paperbacks, not durable hardcovers.  

So, with several hundred books, it takes a while!  I am especially grateful for the form four girls who spent several afternoons in the library taping books with me.  

Finally, I delivered the books to the individual teachers and they added them to their inventories, as they are responsible for keeping up with their subjects' books until the end-of-the-year inventory. I enjoy working with the books, but the big annual book order is quite a job! 

 

Visit from a Former Student

A former student who graduated in our first graduating class in 2019, Faustina, came to visit the school today.  She stopped by the library to say hi and we got some selfies.  It was good to see her again.  She's from Monduli, but is studying at a pharmacy school in Moshi (three hours away) now.  I remember her as a very kind girl; once when I was revising adjectives with preform one of the questions was "___________________ is a kind person.", and several students put her name.  

Below, one of my students got a quick photo of me talking to students as they left the classroom for lunch. 

 

Back to School!

Well, the two-week Easter break is over, and it's a Monday back in class for our students.  The form one boys were still in a bit of a silly mood today.  These photos will be fun to pull out someday when they are graduating... 

 

Relaxing with Friends during the School Holiday

It's our Easter break here, so we don't have school for two weeks.  It's still not a great time to travel, so I'm staying around here for this break.  On Monday, I went along with Beth, David and Fibi to take the kids to AIM mall to play in the new play area.  They needed an adult to supervise them, so we sacrificed David and we women went to get coffee/ice cream etc.  I also brought my laptop so I could get some work done there in the city where there's better mobile service and occasionally even wifi.  

We had a good time relaxing, especially since it was a beautiful sunny day, unusual in the rainy season.  

The clouds were beautiful driving home just before sunset! 

 

Yardwork and Chocolate Cake

I recently wrote about how some of the boys who graduated last year came to visit me. When they visited, they saw that the weeds in my yard were getting out of hand. I usually hire some students during school holidays to clean the weeds out because there are always students needing some pocket money, but it's been awhile since a school holiday! They said they'd come back on the weekend and help, and they wouldn't take any payment. 

Four of them were free the day they decided to come, so it didn't take too long. They were almost finished, just leaving a couple of piles that needed to be carried out, when the rain hit. It's still rainy season here, so it can come quickly and with a vengeance! It was pouring, so everyone ran for the house. 

Since they had said they wouldn't take payment for helping me, I made them a chocolate cake to say thank you, so we sat around eating cake and listening to music until the rain finally slowed and they were able to walk back into town. I did worry a bit about Bahati's blood sugar...he ate three big pieces of cake and four pineapple sodas. I think he bounced all the way home... 

 

Kitenge Fabric!

One thing I really love here is all the beautiful kitenge fabric! Some are printed with designs, and some are batik. I'm really trying not to get addicted to buying more...

Graduation isn't until September, but since I had the chance today to spend some time in the Kitenge market in Arusha, I decided to look for fabric for a new dress for the occasion. Which one do you think? I think I'm going to go with the yellow one on the top left. It reminds me of sunflowers! I think I'm going to use the leaf pattern below for an everyday dress. 

 

My New Favourite Chinese Restaurant!

We have a new Chinese restaurant in Arusha, near Shoppers, the grocery store we go to all the time.  I know this might not seem that exciting, but we don't have that many options here of different cuisines.  There's a Chinese restaurants at AIM mall, but it's not very authentic, and there's one on the other side of town, but not easy to get to on a regular basis.  This one is right in the area we always go to, and it's really good!  Definitely the most authentic Chinese food I've had since moving here!  Today I got spicy cauliflower (that is actually spicy!) and Sichuan chicken.  It made me miss by days in Wuhan a bit. :) 

On the way home, we had a beautiful sunset!  

 

Celebrating Last Year's NECTA Results

At the end of last year, form two scored very well on their national exams--38 division I and 2 division II!  The results don't come out until January, usually, so celebrating takes place after they've already started form 3.  It turned out tonight was the night!  For students who eat in the school dining hall three meals a day, a home-cooked meal is a special treat.  The students decided they wanted to cook themselves, so the school provided the ingredients and they got to work.

It took a lot longer than they thought it would to cook so much food--it was well after eight before they finally ate.  But they enjoyed their meal!  They made rice, fried potatoes, cabbage slaw, and a tomato-sauce-based goat stew that is popular here, to be eaten over rice. 

Congratulations to the students for their good scores! 

 

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!