26 January 2014

Weeks go by so quickly and this one seemed to fly particularly fast.  There was great rejoicing on Monday at the secondary school as the results of the 2^nd year national examination were announced.  Our school is in 3^rd place out of 353 schools of the Central Zone, so that is a really big achievement and makes the students (and teachers) feel really good.  The three top students from our school attained an average for all 11 lessons of over 90%, an amazing average.  For sure there will be even more wanting entrance to our school as the results show the possibility of a good learning environment.  As it is now, I have 83 students in the two English classes that I teach!

We have had quite a bit of rain this week, almost five inches.  Tuesday evening there was a heavy rain and on Wednesday I heard that a bridge on the main road between here and Morogoro was washed out.  That meant that no road traffic from Dar es Salaam to anywhere in central or lake areas was passing.  It made it kind of nice to get on the main road near here, which is usually a long wait because of trucks and other traffic.  We heard that on Friday the bridge got fixed, and yes, there were trucks on the road again yesterday.

The rain made us cancel the class with the little scholars on one day, and another day I rushed them home early as the clouds began to show signs that the skies would open soon.  A couple incidents with them this week made me think.  One day I was going to throw away two cheap ballpoint pens because the ink was finished and they didn’t write anymore.  One of the little girls asked me if she could have them, and of course I gave them to her.  When I asked her what she was going to do with them, she told me that they play with them, building houses, etc. along with little pieces of wood that they pick up.  No Barbie dolls so they make do with worn out ballpoint pens.

Another little girl has been coming with her older brother for some months now even though she hasn’t started school yet.   Sometimes she sits quietly and draws but other times she’s in the older kids’ faces, never sitting quietly, but doing a good job of disturbing them.  Because she’s so smart, she’s picked up lots of English words even though she can’t write nor read.  She’s been telling me that she is starting kindergarten this month and so, since school started for the kids, I asked her if she’s going to school.  She told me that no, she isn’t, and the reason is that her mom doesn’t have any money to buy her a uniform.  I’m sure that eventually she will get a uniform and start but she is such a smart little girl and will be missing some of the early learning that would benefit her.  She’ll catch up, however.

Well, that’s one week of school finished.  Actually, three days only this week.  Monday was the celebration of Zanzibar Revolution which is actually held on the 12^th of January every year but this year the celebration was moved over to Monday, and so that was a public holiday.  And then Tuesday was Maulid, the birthday of the Prophet Mohamed, so we had another public holiday.  At least that gave some more time for students to arrive and get settled in before the new school year actually got underway.

Wednesday we met a new group of teachers.  Some of the teachers from last year had finished their contracts which weren’t renewed, while others moved to be with family in another part of the country, etc.  They seem like a good group (lots more men than women, unfortunately) so I hope we will be able to work together well and have a good school year.

The classes so far have gone well and most students are eager.  Those I teach, 1^st years, were at school during November for an intensive English course and most of them are back.  A few are missing and a few new faces have appeared as well.  We will need to do something about the uneven distribution in the classes, however.  One group has only 30 while the other group has more than 45.  I can certainly notice the difference in the ease of teaching with those fewer students.  45 is really a lot for one class during the class periods, and also when time comes to mark exercise books, quizes and exams!

And so may this year be a good one for all of us.  I hope and pray for patience and creativity for me, for dedication and doing the best for students from all of the teachers, for joy and peace and love of learning for the students, for them to respect and love one another, for their continued growth in becoming adults.  Not TOO much to ask for!

12 January 2014

Another school year will begin tomorrow.  The students have been arriving since Friday evening and so hopefully when 8.00 a.m. arrives tomorrow morning they will be ready to begin their school year.  I don’t know how many of those in the first year who attended the English orientation course in November will be back but I suspect that most, if not all, will appear.  The government selection of students for their secondary schools only happened last month but I’d be surprised if those students who applied for and were chosen for our school would elect to go to another school.  Although fees would be lower in a government school, the quality of education as well as the care for students would be a factor tipping the scales toward choosing a religious school.  We shall see.

I spent some time during this past week waiting in lines for various services.  And during those times I often chatted with people near me in those lines, and, not unusually, I was addressed as “Mama yangu” a couple of times.  That means “my mother” and is used often by younger people as they converse with older women, like me.  I mention that because in the last line I was waiting in, a middle-aged man struck up a conversation with me.  As is often the case, people are curious about what I’m doing here, etc.  When he asked me about my children, and I replied that I didn’t have any, his face showed utter disbelief and pity.  He just couldn’t imagine how I could be even remotely happy without having children.  He is probably an evangelical Christian because he kept reminding me that the Bible says to go and fill the earth, and that I could be a Christian, a religious person even, and not follow that mandate was  beyond his comprehension.  He said he himself has a “nation” of children.  How many?  16.  Fortunately I was called to get my business done at that point because if he had that many children with one wife we may have gotten into a discussion on how his wife’s health has been affected by bearing all those children as well as questioning his ability to care for that many children and provide them with education and everything else that they need.

Anyway, I am to be pitied because I don’t have any children; however, I don’t feel very pitiful, and very much enjoy the times I’m called Mama, Mama  yangu, Shangazi (auntie), Bibi (grandmother), and by many  many more than 16 people!

2014 - 5 January

It’s definitely farming time in this part of the world.  There was a big rain on Christmas night and another one on New Year’s night, and everyone is waking up to farming now.  Each and every little bit of land, and I mean LITTLE, is being hoed and planted with something or the other.  Some of the corn that was planted earlier is up about five inches already and is being weeded now.  Mostly what’s been planted is corn and peanuts, and so far, so good. 

In our area there is a lot of construction of houses going on, all in various stages.  Those that have people living in them are farming the little bits of land around their house; those houses that are just foundations have people planting in the house!  The outside walls of the foundation are laid with cement blocks and then the inside is filled in with soil, upon which will be laid stones and cement, but until that is done it’s a place to plant something. 

Some people have larger plots on the outskirts of the city, and these folks I meet in the morning with hoes on their shoulders and a jug of water in their hands.  Because schools aren’t in session now, kids are tagging along, and you can just see how enthusiastic they are about getting up early and going to the fields!  But they start young.  Some of my little scholars (kindergarten and 1^st graders) were waving at me yesterday as they planted peanuts.  An  older person was turning over the ground with her hoe and the kids were planting: bare feet, toes dipping in the ground to make a little depression, then drop in the seed (s), then the front or side part of the foot covering the seed.  They’re little experts already.

Farming is an occupation for people who have hope.  And here we all have hope that the rain will be enough and at the right time so that food will be available in a few months.

Christmas with the animals

Although the Christmas season continues, Christmas day is over and a wonderful time it was.  Three of us decided to go visit the animals at Mikumi Game Park this year.  From Dodoma it’s about a five hour drive, not exactly around the corner, but the closest game park to us.  On Monday the 23^rd we arrived a bit after noon and settled in, catching up with each other since the last time we had met.  We stayed at a lodge just outside the park, small and cozy and nice.  One of the reasons we decided to celebrate this way was so that no one had to cook, no one had to wash dishes - we just enjoyed!

Hot it was, however.  Here in Dodoma we are at a higher altitude but Morogoro and Mikumi are lower and it’s hotter and much more humid.  We were more than grateful for air conditioning in our room especially before it rained Christmas night and cleared the heaviness a little.  Actually, it’s really hot here in Dodoma now also, although it doesn’t feel so humid.  As I write this nearing 5.00 in the afternoon, our thermometer shows over 95° in the shade of our back porch.   

Tuesday morning we didn’t manage to get up early so as to be in the park during the optimum viewing time but did manage to arrive about 9.00 a.m.  We hired a guide, several who are there at the park entrance looking for work, in order to not get lost in the park and to have him show us where to go to look for animals.  Very shortly after entering the park we saw a huge herd of elephants and stopped to watch them for a long time.  They crossed the road right in front of us and it was thrilling.  The herd consisted of a few huge ones, some medium sized ones, and even some babies.

Every time we stopped the car to look at animals we were bothered by biting flies, some of them tetse, coming into the car.  They must be really bothersome to the park inhabitants, animals and those park employees who have quarters there.

We went to the hippo pool and watched the hippos do nothing.  During the day they just sleep in the water so their backs sticking out of the water were all we saw.  Without a guide we never would have noticed that there were crocodiles along the edge of the pool – One of them poked the top of his head out a little; another showed only his eye.  We were told that sometimes they manage to kill a baby hippo but otherwise they have to wait for other game to come to drink. 

We saw lots of impala (and other similar animals in their same family), giraffe, zebra, baboons, many different kinds of birds, buffalo, warthogs,  and even a lion.  We really didn’t expect to see a lion because it was mid-day but maybe because it was overcast she was out scouting around.  She wasn’t very close, and was actually walking away from us, but it was great to be able to see her.

The park is 450 sq. miles, so it’s a big one and we only spent until noon there but managed to see lots of animals and enjoyed it very, very much.  How magnificent they are, each kind in its own way, and it’s marvelous to be able to see them in their homes.  So all in all it was a very happy Christmas and a blessing to be able to spend it so comfortably with friends and some of nature’s glorious animals.

“Anyone who truly knows creatures may be excused from listening to sermons for every creature is full of God, and is a book.”  Meister Eckhart (1260-1327) 

 

Merry Christmas!

                   This week is Christmas and such a special time of the year.  I was in town last

week and there are signs that Christmas is coming, besides the CD’s of Jim Reeves singing “Silent Night”.  Some shops are decorated and the bank has a very nice Christmas tree, artificial of course, but it looks nice.  There also seemed to be a lot of people on the streets so maybe they were Christmas shopping.  Some little kids I’m pretty sure were getting measured for new shoes so they’ll be all spiffed up for Christmas.

I needed to renew the car’s registration as well as renewing my driver’s license so that was my main job in town.  I was treated very well while doing both tasks, a reminder again of how it pays to be an elder in this society.  Another interesting reminder of different cultures was when I was standing in line at the bank.  It was a long line and a long stand, and I stood at a distance which was comfortable for me behind the person in front of me.  The woman in back of me was probably at a distance comfortable for her as well, but it was really close for my comfort zone.  It’s like in church when there really is no more room in a pew but another person comes and manages to sit.  Amazing …. 

The other day while out doing my early morning walk, I met a woman who was coming in from the outskirts of town with some vegetables to sell.  We had met before but this day we stopped to talk.  She asked me if I was Chinese (!) and I guess that’s because many other strangers around are Chinese since they are building the university as well as some roads in the area.  After we got through that bit of the conversation, she asked what I was doing in that area.  She knows where we live but I was a bit far from the house so she was wondering where I was going.  I told her that I was just doing exercise.  That surprised her, and finally she said, “Well, as I see it, you’re already old so I don’t know why you would be doing exercise!”  What to say to that?  I admitted that I am old but that exercise could be helping me stay healthy.  She just kind of shook her head and off she went.  I can imagine that she would love to be able to not walk miles in order to make a little money …..

Merry Christmas!

15 December 2013

“The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus, it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing.”  (Isaiah 35)

This reading of the 3^rd Sunday of Advent couldn’t be more appropriate for us today in Dodoma.  Early this morning the third nice shower of the week poured down, and already grass and green things are sprouting, the desert is blossoming, and I’m sure the dry land is very glad.  The frogs are singing all night long after having been silent for months, and the insects are appearing out of nowhere to fly around and some drowning in pools of water, so glad are they to have moisture again.  Farmers are excited, and are busily finishing their fields’ preparation.  My flower seeds have already sprouted and it won’t be long before the Chinese cabbage that I planted in a bag seed bed will be up as well.  After Christmas these vegetable seedlings will go into a small plot and soon we’ll be eating fresh greens.  Chinese cabbage is available every day from the lady near us who sells fruit and vegetables but how satisfying it is to eat something just a little bit closer to one’s own labour. 

Mandela’s burial was a large part of my day today, as was the memorial service  on Tuesday.  He is resting in peace after a full and self-giving life.  Also Tanzania’s Independence Day was celebrated on Monday, 52 years since Independence.  A lot has been accomplished; a lot needs to be done yet.  But listening to President J. Kikwete talk today at Mandela’s funeral, I remembered all the sacrifices that Tanzania made so that other countries in Africa, younger than Tanzania, could be independent.  And as Pres. Kikwete said, it was often to the detriment or delaying of Tanzania’s development that this was done.  How nice that Pres. Nyerere’s widow, Maria, was present.  I wonder how many young people in Africa today remember all the sacrifices of their elders to achieve the opportunities available to them now.  I liked it when Roda ( 9 years old) came to visit today and I asked her if she knew who Nelson Mandela was, and she said “Yes”.  When I asked her who he was her reply was simple, “He was Nyerere’s friend.”  How true.