More on Teaching in Tanzania

Today I experienced that delicious feeling we all know of having an unexpected day off of work. My CCS teaching colleague, Nick, and I arrived at the school today to an assembly in the courtyard. The first clue that something unusual was going on were the girls dressed in slacks with a kanga (wrap skirt). Neither girls nor women wear pants in public here. It turned out that the entire school was going corn harvesting today! Since I had a skirt on and a bushel of essays to grade, I bowed out and returned to home base. It's wonderfully cool and quiet right now so I making major progress on those papers. The students and staff will continuing harvesting tomorrow, so I'll dress appropriately and join them then. The school has some acres of corn which is what the staple food Ugali is made of, and everyone pitches in to grow and harvest it. On the way to school today we, in fact, passed many fields with young people harvesting.

Yesterday all the students had exams. Since there are no copying facilities, the testing procedure involved the students filing out of their classrooms and waiting in the courtyard while the teachers wrote the tests on the board. This is done three times as all students taking a battery of tests all morning every Monday - three periods worth. Testing is a major activity in schools here. Form 4 students (seniors) will soon begin to prepare for their national exams which they must pass to enter the next level of studies -- Form 5 and 6, which is basically junior college. There is a major examination at the end of primary school which screens students for high school. If you don't pass, you don't go to high school. Many don't' pass and must either go to work, or if they are lucky attend a vocational school. We visited a youth center yesterday where students who didn't pass the high school entrance exams are studying to work in the hotel and restaurant industry. They cooked us a mighty good meal and were most hospitable. And there should be a lot of jobs since this is the launching point for Mt. Kiliminjaro.

One thing that shocks us all here is the widespread use of corporal punishment in the schools. I have seen teachers yank students ears, swap them upside the head and deliver blows with a switch to the hands. Many teachers take a switch and chalk to the classrooms each day. Teachers at my school insist that this is the only way to control the students. Maybe that is why the students are so excited to have us Muzungus (foreigners) at the school.

The walls of my classrooms are beginning to brighten up. I have brought in maps and have flip chart sheets all over with our brainstorming activities and problem solving tasks. I was very excited to bring in my boom box, but it turned out that only one classroom has an electrical outlet and that one is pretty shoddy. It works if a student holds the plug about half way in the socket and gives it a slight twist to the right... and remains in this position. Thankfully I have batteries and it is pretty easy to buy more in town. As soon as we are done harvesting the corn, we will start working on a song.

My Form 4 Students are going to start writing a small book about their lives here in Tanzania as well as letters of introduction. I will use these along with photos and a ten minute movie about St. Teresia I plan to make to recruit pen pals for them at Berkeley High and maybe some high schools in SF, including the remedial high school we share the building with at the Mission Campus. We are all psyched about this project.

well, back to those essays.