We have finished the first half-term of school and so now have two weeks of vacation. The students from other towns went home by bus early on Saturday morning and the rest dribbled out later on Saturday morning. They were SO excited to be going home and anxious to see their families and friends. They were relieved to have finished three days of mid-term exams, and of course are now anxious to see their results. I chuckle at them and their intensity. They agonize over the questions that they don’t know the answers to and the expressions on their faces as they think are memorable. Some of them lay their heads on their desks, I guess thinking that the answer will pop up through the wood! It will be good for them to have a little rest and relaxation from the stress of getting used to a new school, being away from home, new classmates, studying in a language not theirs, in short, all the new things they’ve been confronted with during the past three months.
I spent many hours marking their exams and once again it seems like 90 papers never end. There were some laughs along the line, however. One of the sections had to do with new vocabulary that we had just learned, and one part of that vocabulary was the names of places and another part was the names of young animals. One answer that I got for the place where bees live was “bees home”. Sure. And the answers for young animals were the best: A young cat is called a “catlet”; a young sheep a “sheeplet”, or the best for a young sheep, a “piglet”. We’ll need to do some revision of those words ……
I celebrated my birthday by being on the bus for 12 straight hours! We Maryknoll Sisters had a meeting in Arusha over the weekend so I had to travel on Thursday. I had called a taxi the day before to pick me up here at 6.00 a.m. for a 6.30 bus. When he hadn’t appeared yet at 6.15 I started to phone him, and after a couple tries he answered and said that he was on his way. He arrived at 6.22 and we flew to the bus station. We arrived, I got on the bus, and the bus took off. (The taxi driver found a flat tyre on his car when he woke up and had to rush around trying to find another car. That’s not easy to do when so few people own cars.) The trip was fine; safe and just long. The bus is big, can hold 50 passengers, but the driver seems to do his job effortlessly. At one point he was eating peanuts from the shell, talking on his cell phone, passing a long lorry, all while driving us. All the religious symbols he has near him on the bus must do some good as talismans for protection; he’s got some from every religion under the sun.
We have had some rain this week after quite some time of none so that is hopeful. There was needed a few more showers in order to bring the crops to their desired state, so this was very good. The weather is cooling off considerably, especially at night. We almost need to pull a sheet up at night now .
Do you want to know one thing I’ve noticed about getting older (notice I say “older” and not “old”) is that I can’t change a light bulb anymore! Now that may not be a problem for many, but we have a time trying to get someone to change a bulb. Why? Well, it seems they’re really high up. We find that we don’t have the balance that we used to have, and so climbing even a short step ladder and reaching up is challenging to balance. The youngsters we know who would be happy to help us don’t have these kind of lights at home and so don’t know how to remove fixtures and change bulbs. Others are busy, working until late at night and asking them to come seems like an imposition. I never thought I’d see the day when changing light bulbs was a big problem …
We’re in Holy Week now and may you all have a blessed one. When we arrived at the church on Palm Sunday, we found almost no one there. It was only after a little while that someone came up to us and asked us if we weren’t going for the Palm Sunday procession. Where was it? At the main road, about a ten minute walk away. We should have known that we were out of the information loop when no one else was in the church waiting for Mass to begin. Anyway, the procession was great. Lots of people, lots of singing, lots of tree/bush branches being waved.
Happy and blessed Easter to all.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
15th March 2010 – Always Listen to Advice
Sometimes I wonder why it takes some of us so long to heed advice from those who have more experience in certain matters. Here is how I learned the lesson in a less than easy way.
For a couple weeks we had a family of wasps building a house on our gate, a couple of feet from the door through which we go in and out. Everyone who had visited us had noticed this construction going on and each one warned us about how severe the sting of a wasp can be and advised us on how to get rid of them: Some day after dark, spray the family with insecticide so as to slow them down, then knock down the house and crush it. Well, I delayed, and continued to watch them grow bigger, to increase in number, the house to get larger. Saturday morning when returning from praying with our Small Christian Community, I opened the gate and was immediately stung by one of them. I came into the house and made a paste of bicarbonate of soda and water, applied it, and the pain quickly became a little less. I was teaching within a short time and so rushed off to do that. The students noticed my white flaky arm (dried baking soda paste) but I explained what had happened and went on with the class. The pain and the swelling weren’t bad on Saturday but Sunday, Sunday night, Monday, Monday night the redness and itchiness were really severe. By Tuesday the swelling was down and the itching tolerable. I kept thinking about how it would have felt like to have more than one of those creatures do the stinging, or what if it had been a child that was stung. By next time I may have learned to listen to advice.
The last Sunday of the month is visiting day at school and teachers are asked to be there to discuss with any parents who want to their concerns about their daughters. On the last Sunday of February there were quite a few parents who came to visit, including one with a baby who has been born since her daughter came to school. It was a thrill for Doreen to get to meet her little sister! There was crying and laughing going on, both from those who had visitors and those who watched from a distance while others embraced their mothers. The parents that I talked to were concerned about their daughters, asking about their progress in their lessons, about their discipline at school, how they behave, how they get along with the other students, etc. And inevitably they thanked me for not only teaching their daughters but also for caring for them, guiding them, helping them develop.
For a couple weeks we had a family of wasps building a house on our gate, a couple of feet from the door through which we go in and out. Everyone who had visited us had noticed this construction going on and each one warned us about how severe the sting of a wasp can be and advised us on how to get rid of them: Some day after dark, spray the family with insecticide so as to slow them down, then knock down the house and crush it. Well, I delayed, and continued to watch them grow bigger, to increase in number, the house to get larger. Saturday morning when returning from praying with our Small Christian Community, I opened the gate and was immediately stung by one of them. I came into the house and made a paste of bicarbonate of soda and water, applied it, and the pain quickly became a little less. I was teaching within a short time and so rushed off to do that. The students noticed my white flaky arm (dried baking soda paste) but I explained what had happened and went on with the class. The pain and the swelling weren’t bad on Saturday but Sunday, Sunday night, Monday, Monday night the redness and itchiness were really severe. By Tuesday the swelling was down and the itching tolerable. I kept thinking about how it would have felt like to have more than one of those creatures do the stinging, or what if it had been a child that was stung. By next time I may have learned to listen to advice.
The last Sunday of the month is visiting day at school and teachers are asked to be there to discuss with any parents who want to their concerns about their daughters. On the last Sunday of February there were quite a few parents who came to visit, including one with a baby who has been born since her daughter came to school. It was a thrill for Doreen to get to meet her little sister! There was crying and laughing going on, both from those who had visitors and those who watched from a distance while others embraced their mothers. The parents that I talked to were concerned about their daughters, asking about their progress in their lessons, about their discipline at school, how they behave, how they get along with the other students, etc. And inevitably they thanked me for not only teaching their daughters but also for caring for them, guiding them, helping them develop.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
1st March 2010 - Another New Month
Another month has passed and all is well here; I hope the same is true for readers of this rambling blog. We continue to have some lovely rains, and everything is green and beautiful. The corn and the millet look so tall and green and healthy, and the peanuts look great, too. With all of the sandy soil around, I guess peanuts (called “groundnuts” here) do very well. Right now many fields of them are in bloom so they are pretty with their little yellow flowers. We have had a taste of some of this year’s crop already and they are fat and nice. Last year was the third bad year in a row for crops in this area, so people are about at the end of their food supply. The hope that the good rains has given this year is a great boost. Of course, I don’t know if the same is true all over the country or just in our immediate area, but this rainy season has made people very happy.
I spent what seemed like hours and hours marking papers this past week. Monday and Tuesday of this week were days for giving monthly tests, and so after giving the test there remains what? Right, marking them, of course. It seems like 90 papers are never ending, and I got really tired of some of those sentences before I could finally put them away. As expected, there were some high marks (in the 90’s) and some low marks (19 and 20). Some of those with low marks shed a few tears when I returned the papers…. School pass mark is 45 and supposedly they will be returned home if they don’t manage to get that average, hence the tears. They will be given some time yet but still it makes them anxious, of course.
Last Sunday I had a couple visitors, both young girls who have just finished their A (Advanced) Level examinations at different schools here in Dodoma. One is the daughter of a fellow who was one of the first employees at the school in Singida and she was just a little tyke when I last saw her. The other is the daughter of a teacher at that same school. She was in her first year of secondary when I left Murigha, and now she’s finished those four years plus two years of A level. She wants to be a doctor so badly; if she does well in the exams she just did, she has a chance at one of the four medical schools here in Tanzania. The government helps girls who pursue careers in science but she’ll still need extra financial help. Her parents are very supportive with whatever they have: her father has a teacher’s salary (not fantastic) and her mother farms and also does some sewing for people. The other girl also wants to go to University, and is aiming for a career in accounting. Both are lovely girls, hard working, smart, charming. May their hopes be fulfilled.
I spent what seemed like hours and hours marking papers this past week. Monday and Tuesday of this week were days for giving monthly tests, and so after giving the test there remains what? Right, marking them, of course. It seems like 90 papers are never ending, and I got really tired of some of those sentences before I could finally put them away. As expected, there were some high marks (in the 90’s) and some low marks (19 and 20). Some of those with low marks shed a few tears when I returned the papers…. School pass mark is 45 and supposedly they will be returned home if they don’t manage to get that average, hence the tears. They will be given some time yet but still it makes them anxious, of course.
Last Sunday I had a couple visitors, both young girls who have just finished their A (Advanced) Level examinations at different schools here in Dodoma. One is the daughter of a fellow who was one of the first employees at the school in Singida and she was just a little tyke when I last saw her. The other is the daughter of a teacher at that same school. She was in her first year of secondary when I left Murigha, and now she’s finished those four years plus two years of A level. She wants to be a doctor so badly; if she does well in the exams she just did, she has a chance at one of the four medical schools here in Tanzania. The government helps girls who pursue careers in science but she’ll still need extra financial help. Her parents are very supportive with whatever they have: her father has a teacher’s salary (not fantastic) and her mother farms and also does some sewing for people. The other girl also wants to go to University, and is aiming for a career in accounting. Both are lovely girls, hard working, smart, charming. May their hopes be fulfilled.
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