9 months in to my time in Africa and 1/3 of the way through my Peace Corps service, I am beginning to see what a regular regimen in Tanzania is like. Since coming back from IST and starting the new school year, things have certainly gotten into a groove and I've developed my own daily routine of sorts in some ways, although I am trying to avoid this by doing things out of the ordinary (which is always easier when you're the only white person within miles). But the things that still always remind me that I'm in Africa are the amazing sunrises and sunsets EVERY day, and the ridiculously clear night skies that just do not exist back home.
It's been a while since I've been able to get into town, which has given me a good opportunity to do more things at my school. A few weeks ago we got the results back from last year's national exams...and I guess they weren't very good - worse than the year before and lower than the nearby Ward school, which we are supposed to do better than apparently because we are the more expensive private school in the area. We had a few meetings to discuss what can be done to improve the test scores, even the school Manager came, who I had never seen before. A lot of the teachers said we need more books, since even most of the teachers don't have the books for the "new" (6 or 7 year old) syllabus. The only ones who do are those who I've given Peace Corps-supplied books to. Some of the kids do have a few books of their own. Our library (which I finally saw opened for the first time!) has a good number of donated books, mostly math and science, but they are not all that compliant with the Tanzanian syllabus, or at least organized very differently, so I don't think they get used too much. I agree that there needs to be a better supply of books, but the secondmaster said he was concerned that they would be outdated soon too if the syllabus changes again. I suggested that all the teachers make their exams as much like the national ones as possible, even for monthly and midterm tests, so that the students aren't totally shocked when they see how difficult those are. That's what I've been doing for my Math students, and it seems to be helping. They decided that the students who failed last year in Form II would be sent home, and those who almost failed have to get a certain score on the first midterms this year or else they will be sent home too. I guess that is common practice for private schools to keep up their overall scores and reputation, though I don't know what will happen if they end up sending everyone home.
I also found out where the bar is set for the Math exams this year. Of 130 who took the test last year, 8 DIDNT fail math - 2 C's and 6 D's. But I already know we will do much better this year - I really do have some very smart students, and I think this group of Form IV's has had a Peace Corps teacher now all 4 years for Math, so they are my golden children, and hopefully a good Peace Corps success story.
We had our first monthly test a couple weeks ago, which was difficult, but not impossible since there were still a couple A's. But in my one slower class, most of them failed badly, and because of mistakes in simple things like adding and subtracting that they just never learned well enough. I know there are definitely those that are lazy and don't want to study, but I'm sure there are also some who just never got a good foundation in Math from their Primary schools and now don't have a chance to keep up with what we're doing this year. But it's not like they are incapable, they just need to start back from the beginning. So when I gave back the tests, I gave all those who failed a post-it note attached. And I told them starting tomorrow we are doing extra math in the mornings before school, starting back as early as we have to so everyone at least knows the basics. i told them to be there at 630 and not a minute late, and they said they understood. Well, at 630 the next morning I stood there waiting by myself, not a single one made it on time. About a quarter of them trickled in over the next hour, but I didn't even bother doing any math. I was pretty upset because I'm going out of my way to give them extra practice and they didn't even care to show up. So after the afternoon assembly, I had the student leaders call all of their names, and lined them up and had them do running in place, up-downs, and push ups for about a half hour. It must have had some effect because the next morning there was a big group waiting for me when I got there, and almost all of them showed up.
It was good because most of the students see me as much more lenient than the other teachers, which I definitely am since I don't hit them with a stick. But at least they saw that I have my own methods of punishment to use. I'm still trying to use more of the rewarding good behavior tactics than punishing bad. The school store/ point system has been going well so far. I've been getting a lot of students asking for more problems to do and almost everyone comes to class now. Though I think they're all hoarding their points to try and get soccer jerseys- no one's really bought any school supplies yet. I've been working on organizing all the old NECTA problems I have by year and subject, into like a class binder, so they can all study what they need help with. And I also got a ton of digital copies of old exams, so they are taking practice tests in the evenings when we bring out the computers. If they still fail this year, it won't be because they didn't have anything to study from...
So that has been my life for the last few weeks, with much of the remaining intermittent time spent spitting seeds on my porch while it downpours around me. It's kept me much busier than I ever thought I would be during Peace Corps, but I prefer that to having nothing to do. In other news, I've successfully introduced 16 inch softball to Africa! And of course by introduced I mean taught them how to swing a big stick at a ball. There was a guy at school fixing up old desks, and I gave him some crude bat blueprints and he said he would try to make it. It turned out really well, except that it's probably as heavy as 4 or 5 real bats - I guess I estimated poorly in the specs. So the thing weighs about 10 pounds and I was surprised none of the tiny children threw their back out swinging it, but they still seemed to be having a good time. The name of the game quickly became: one kid hits the ball and the other 30 in the general vicinity run in circles around the pitcher until someone finally gets the ball. I managed to get some pretty priceless video footage of it as well.
In other sports news, our basketball court now finally has rims! Although it was pretty fun just dribbling, passing and running around (should have even taken away the basketball to do an Air Bud reenactment) and especially good for our fundamentals. [We no able to dunk, but good fundamentals. It more exciting that way.] Besides, it's pretty hard to do a layup anyways when theres a pool of mud right under the hoops. I'm still hoping we can get some concrete laid out soon. Not sure if the school will front the cost for that though.
The solar power project is still invoking interest, at least for my headmaster. A technician came to the school to give a cost estimate, and after cutting back a bit, it should at least be in the range for grant-writing opportunities. There is one through the U.S. Ambassador's office that may be the best option. It would be around $5000 and could feasibly run our computers, printer, and most classrooms to lower dependency on the oil-guzzling generator. The only issue was the headmaster initially wanted me to do all the grant writing, but I told him (although that sounds like a very sustainable solution...) I wouldn't do anything unless someone else was in charge of it. So he designated the physics teacher to lead it with me - I'd still rather have someone who actually has interest in the project and wants to do it than someone he tells to write it, but it's a start I suppose. There's another Peace Corps site in Njombe that did a similar project a few years ago, so I will probably go visit there to get ideas/contacts.
I found out that this year Tanzania is doing a nation-wide census, which is going to throw off the school year schedule apparently. They want all the kids to return home for the census in August, so instead of our usual June-long break, there will be a couple weeks off in June, and then school will close for the month of August. I'm a little worried for the students' exam prep since the tests will be pretty much right when they come back from break, but it is nice that the schedule is the same all over the country, so I can plan travelling with other volunteers (and all of you who are coming to visit!). For our week break in early April, I think I am going hiking in some mountains around Njombe, and I still have my sights set on doing Kilimanjaro - maybe for the August break. Some others are also talking about doing a trip to go rafting on the Nile, which would be pretty amazing as well.
Please try to keep me posted on your lives at home as often as possible! And thank you everyone for your birthday well-wishings! It was an interesting one in Tanzania, with about 12 hours of it spent traveling for a trip that should only take 5 or 6...but eventually arriving and getting to see everyone was great! And of course the funfetti cake mix sent from home was a welcome addition!
