I have been busy this past week preparing my mid-term exams. Not only did I have to write the exams but I also took it upon myself to tpye the exams. I felt bad giving them to the secretaries to type because all four of my exams were pretty long and all had a short story the kids are going to have to read. The other teachers, I found out after the fact, are giving exams that are like five or ten questions. I heard the word mid-term and I thought of the tests in America..oops. My kids are probably going to hate me because all of the exams have at least four parts and they are getting the entire three hours to finish, the teachers are also going to hate me when they are forced to monitor my exam, I am also probably going to hate me when I am forced to pull and all nighter grading them so that i can leave early for break...oh well.
I did not realize when I volunteered to type my exams what this would really entail. I knew that I could whip out a six page paper in under two hours, how hard could typing four exams be? Well when one to the secretaries led me tot he room where the typerwriter was located I started to sweat. The only time in my life I have used a typewriters was when I was about 6-9 at the omniplex (only the colest museaum for kids ever) and even then it was an electronic one. When they showed me the dinosour I was suppsoed to sue with the special paper I was to use and left me to my own devices I was baffled. It took me a good 45 mintues of frantic sweating and button pushing to figure out a. how to capotalize letters b. how to format the typewriter to go past the middle of the page for one line and how far I could really go after it dinged the end of a line before I had to start another line and c. how hard I had to hit he keys to make the impression on the paper (this was some kind of special typewriter because it didnt use ink and only made indentions on this paper). Needless to say i wasted two sheets of paper, which I felt bad about before I even figured out the simple things. Spacing was hte next beig obsticle and took me typing out one full story miserably to get it right. After two hours i had only finished one exam. I did finally get on a role but even then I didnt dare use anything but my pointer fingers to type. As a side note most people can tell either from personal experience or from reading my blog that I am a horrible typist and speller, this compounded my nervousness when typing the exam because you can really use correction fluid on this paper. One of the secretaries did come in at one point and comment on how fast I was typing, I couldnt tell if there was a hint of sarcasm in her tone or if she was really telling the truth, I pushed on though.
By the time I was on to my third exam I was feeling pretty comfortable and even ventured as far as to use other fingers to type, partially because my pointer fingers were hurting so bad from hitting the keys so hard, and partially because I felt comfortable. Each exam was taking me progressivly less and less time as I became more comfortable with my new friend. By the time I finished the fourth exam it was almost 7 p.m (I started at around 2 mind you) it was getting dark, my hands were hurting really bad and I even had a small callous that had developed on one of them. I did gain anew found respect for the secretaries of the 1930s and 1940s who had to type on these non-electric typewriters everyday..so rough.
When I get to Zambia next week I am going to upload pics of the typewriter and my finished product, also I am going to upload a pic of the "copy machine" at school. I finally got to see how they make hte copies this week and I am still a little baffled. It is this crank thing that is really more like a printing press from what i have gathered, all I know is it must suck to have to crnak out all the copies of all the exams and the ink for this thing gets EVERYWHERE I'm talking ink handprints all over the office wall fromt he guy trying to pull one sheet off and put anotehr on, it was comical/kind of confusing to watch it all take place. I still cant beleive that it all works without electricity.
Monday, March 19, 2012
My Easy Bake Oven
lately I have attempted baking some things again. I have been reading this Peace Corps cookbook we got at our orientation and have found some really good recipes. It all started when I was questioning some of the teachers and students about the things you can buy in Isoko. I knew if I wanted to do any real baking I was going to need some baking powder and baking soda. Figuring out the Swahili words for these things was a little easier said than done, of course. My initial thought, as any normal persons would be, was to look in the dictionary. Well I found the words and was asking people and they seemed to know what they were, and i was even happier to find out i could buy baking powder down in the dukas by school. During break I went down there to buy baking soda, only to receive yeast. I went back up to school and showed the students whereupon they confirmed it was baking powder. I had to try and act it out and describe it as best as i could and finally one of my favorite students told me it was called chapa mandashi. I then went back to the duka to ask for it only for them to produce a mandazi (a doughnut like treat) because they thought I was saying mandazi instead of mandashi...typical for me. After that i gave up and gave a student money to go down to Isoko and buy the baking powder and baking soda (baking soda so much easier to figure out, sensibly they call it bicarbonate).
During this whole ordeal i had been talking about needing these things to bake bread when the mama who serves us tea heard me and asked if I would teach her how to bake bread, i agreed and told her to come over on Sunday. Sunday she arrived forty five minutes early to find me in shorts and a swimsuit top (it was awkward i had the music going while i was cleaning and didn't hear her knocking so she walked in). Sunday morning I wrote out the directions in Swahili so she would be able to do it on her own at home, i was nervous about getting everything right, but I can officially report that i only made two minor spelling errors which if you know me is nothing. Everything worked out well, explaining the concept of the Dutch oven was a little tricky because I was using the cardboard from one of my packages as a lid but I think she eventually got the picture. She was super excited when we finished and i gave her the loaf, she invited me over to her house next weekend, I can't wait to go she is super presh.
Other than the bread I have attempted brownies and a pop tart from scratch. The brownies turned out kind of cake like but were still good and the pop tart was a delish cinnamon sugar treat. This week I am planning on making a cake and frosting in honor of my little brother pressy turning 21!! I also want to attempt to make bean burgers because I have been really craving a hamburger lately. It was gotten bad my cravings for real food. I get jealous when I am watching a movie and they are eating a salad or pizza, I even have dreams about food which is really sad. I am going to upload pics of the treats I have made in two weeks when I am on vacay!
During this whole ordeal i had been talking about needing these things to bake bread when the mama who serves us tea heard me and asked if I would teach her how to bake bread, i agreed and told her to come over on Sunday. Sunday she arrived forty five minutes early to find me in shorts and a swimsuit top (it was awkward i had the music going while i was cleaning and didn't hear her knocking so she walked in). Sunday morning I wrote out the directions in Swahili so she would be able to do it on her own at home, i was nervous about getting everything right, but I can officially report that i only made two minor spelling errors which if you know me is nothing. Everything worked out well, explaining the concept of the Dutch oven was a little tricky because I was using the cardboard from one of my packages as a lid but I think she eventually got the picture. She was super excited when we finished and i gave her the loaf, she invited me over to her house next weekend, I can't wait to go she is super presh.
Other than the bread I have attempted brownies and a pop tart from scratch. The brownies turned out kind of cake like but were still good and the pop tart was a delish cinnamon sugar treat. This week I am planning on making a cake and frosting in honor of my little brother pressy turning 21!! I also want to attempt to make bean burgers because I have been really craving a hamburger lately. It was gotten bad my cravings for real food. I get jealous when I am watching a movie and they are eating a salad or pizza, I even have dreams about food which is really sad. I am going to upload pics of the treats I have made in two weeks when I am on vacay!
The Hardest Thing
This weekend I was faced with probably the hardest/saddest thing I have had to deal with thus far in Africa. On Saturday morning i was awakened by singing outside our house and did not really think much of it. Fifteen minutes later our second headmaster came over and told us that a student had died and we needed to go down to Isoko asap for the funeral. It was a form one student named Atukuzwe. In Tanzania they have the actual funeral and burial immediatly after a person dies but the mourning period at the family's house can last up to two months depending on how well off they are. I found out on the way down to Isoko that the singing was the students who live at Kafule on their way down to the funeral.
It was one of the saddest things for me going to the funeral. Although I did not know Atukuzwe very well because she was a form one student, I still knew who she was in class and felt really bad for her young classmates. She was only 12 or 13, loosing a classmate at that age has to be really hard for the kids. All of the students were there dressed in their uniforms and crying. Apparently she had a heart problem and collapsed on her way to pick corn on Friday afternoon, but there is no real way of knowing how she died because this is Africa and where I am an especially poor area and they don't really preform autopsy's.
We were of course made to sit in the front row and it was rough when the boy leaders from school brought the body in on a stretcher, covered thank God. They also moved her into the coffin right there in front of everyone at the service.
Even though most of the people here, kids included are used to death because there is a very high AIDS rate in my area (there are at least 47 kids at school who are complete orphans). it still seemed to hit the kids and people really hard. My second headmaster had to go outside and cry at the service and at one point I was even tearing up thinking about how in America this probably would not have happened. Here if someone has any condition other than AIDS it seems like it is hard for them to really get any correct diagnosis and medication. Also it was just hard because it was someone so young. I was impressed how it seemed like all the students were there to mourn the loss of their fellow student, they were singing special songs from school and they even contributed a nice sum of money to the family, which is a big deal considering most of them have so little. This was defiantly the hardest thing I have had to do here. I was also surprised how today everything was business as usual at school, although they did have a moment of silence for Atukuzwe during morning assembly.
It was one of the saddest things for me going to the funeral. Although I did not know Atukuzwe very well because she was a form one student, I still knew who she was in class and felt really bad for her young classmates. She was only 12 or 13, loosing a classmate at that age has to be really hard for the kids. All of the students were there dressed in their uniforms and crying. Apparently she had a heart problem and collapsed on her way to pick corn on Friday afternoon, but there is no real way of knowing how she died because this is Africa and where I am an especially poor area and they don't really preform autopsy's.
We were of course made to sit in the front row and it was rough when the boy leaders from school brought the body in on a stretcher, covered thank God. They also moved her into the coffin right there in front of everyone at the service.
Even though most of the people here, kids included are used to death because there is a very high AIDS rate in my area (there are at least 47 kids at school who are complete orphans). it still seemed to hit the kids and people really hard. My second headmaster had to go outside and cry at the service and at one point I was even tearing up thinking about how in America this probably would not have happened. Here if someone has any condition other than AIDS it seems like it is hard for them to really get any correct diagnosis and medication. Also it was just hard because it was someone so young. I was impressed how it seemed like all the students were there to mourn the loss of their fellow student, they were singing special songs from school and they even contributed a nice sum of money to the family, which is a big deal considering most of them have so little. This was defiantly the hardest thing I have had to do here. I was also surprised how today everything was business as usual at school, although they did have a moment of silence for Atukuzwe during morning assembly.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Its a Jungle Out There
These past two weeks I have had some interesting run ins with animals in and around the village.
The first incident happened a week and a half ago when I was one the bus coming back from Mbeya. The second half of the trip I got the chance to sit in the cab with the driver my friend. When I got in there I noticed that there was someone else who would also be sitting up there with me and subsequently had a chicken in a bag with its head sticking out. When the other passenger got in I realized she had a lot of luggage and I offered to hold the chicken because lets face it its not something I haven’t done before and this one seemed pretty calm. Well things were going along smoothly with my new friend and I, I would be lying to you if I said I didn’t try and pet it, it was soft. An hour into our three-hour trip I noticed that the sack had gotten heavier. At first I thought it was just some droppings and was thankful that the bag was there. After awhile I realized that it was an egg in the sack. I was really taken aback/semi grossed out by it but at the same time I thought it was funny that the chicken felt cool enough with me to lay an egg. I was slightly mad that the lady wouldn’t let me keep the egg but you cant win them all right?
The second run in was at my house last Thursday afternoon. Gretchen had gone to a friends house and there they gave her some beans still in their pods for us. Learning from past experiences we knew that you must to dry the bean pods/ beans out before trying to store them or else they get moldy and start sprouting. Thursday morning we laid the beans out and when I came home nit he afternoon things were promising. I sat down to read a book and then I heard a strange noise. When I looked outside I saw one of the massive birds that live in the tree outside our house. These birds are not your normal birds these things are MASSIVE. Good hornbill and that’s the closest things I can think of that resembles these things. I am no bird watcher but I know that these things have huge beaks that look like they could crush my arm. Anyway I see one of these guys out there eating our beans and being semi scared/fond of my arm I yelled shoo and then threw our little broom thing at it. it eventually left after it had gotten its fill of beans. Later that night I was telling Mr. Mbughi and his wife and she informed me that there was no way that the bird was eating the beans because they only eat meat. This fact alone solidified my fear but at the same time I hope that one day he walks out and sees the birds eating her beans because I have learned that they in fact love them.
Finally the last little run in I had Saturday night after dinner. I was taking the pots out to clean when we finished eating and of course it was dark out so I had my headlamp on. I was walking in our hall to the back door when I noticed something on the ground that caused me to jump WAY back. Slizzering on the ground was either the biggest worm I have ever seen, ever or some kind of snake. As a side fact to of my biggest fears are snakes and spiders. I jumped on the chair still holding the pots and made Gretchen shoo it out of the house. It was a nasty bluish gray color and was slizzering mad when she started to push it with the broom out of our house and compound. The rest of the night I was terrified to go back outside because I didn’t want to see that nasty little guy. Its bad enough I have massive spiders on my wall, I have learned to live with them, but a snake thingy no way
The first incident happened a week and a half ago when I was one the bus coming back from Mbeya. The second half of the trip I got the chance to sit in the cab with the driver my friend. When I got in there I noticed that there was someone else who would also be sitting up there with me and subsequently had a chicken in a bag with its head sticking out. When the other passenger got in I realized she had a lot of luggage and I offered to hold the chicken because lets face it its not something I haven’t done before and this one seemed pretty calm. Well things were going along smoothly with my new friend and I, I would be lying to you if I said I didn’t try and pet it, it was soft. An hour into our three-hour trip I noticed that the sack had gotten heavier. At first I thought it was just some droppings and was thankful that the bag was there. After awhile I realized that it was an egg in the sack. I was really taken aback/semi grossed out by it but at the same time I thought it was funny that the chicken felt cool enough with me to lay an egg. I was slightly mad that the lady wouldn’t let me keep the egg but you cant win them all right?
The second run in was at my house last Thursday afternoon. Gretchen had gone to a friends house and there they gave her some beans still in their pods for us. Learning from past experiences we knew that you must to dry the bean pods/ beans out before trying to store them or else they get moldy and start sprouting. Thursday morning we laid the beans out and when I came home nit he afternoon things were promising. I sat down to read a book and then I heard a strange noise. When I looked outside I saw one of the massive birds that live in the tree outside our house. These birds are not your normal birds these things are MASSIVE. Good hornbill and that’s the closest things I can think of that resembles these things. I am no bird watcher but I know that these things have huge beaks that look like they could crush my arm. Anyway I see one of these guys out there eating our beans and being semi scared/fond of my arm I yelled shoo and then threw our little broom thing at it. it eventually left after it had gotten its fill of beans. Later that night I was telling Mr. Mbughi and his wife and she informed me that there was no way that the bird was eating the beans because they only eat meat. This fact alone solidified my fear but at the same time I hope that one day he walks out and sees the birds eating her beans because I have learned that they in fact love them.
Finally the last little run in I had Saturday night after dinner. I was taking the pots out to clean when we finished eating and of course it was dark out so I had my headlamp on. I was walking in our hall to the back door when I noticed something on the ground that caused me to jump WAY back. Slizzering on the ground was either the biggest worm I have ever seen, ever or some kind of snake. As a side fact to of my biggest fears are snakes and spiders. I jumped on the chair still holding the pots and made Gretchen shoo it out of the house. It was a nasty bluish gray color and was slizzering mad when she started to push it with the broom out of our house and compound. The rest of the night I was terrified to go back outside because I didn’t want to see that nasty little guy. Its bad enough I have massive spiders on my wall, I have learned to live with them, but a snake thingy no way
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Under 100!!
Because my brother Preston thinks I don’t update my bog enough this post is dedicated to him.
I am officially on the downward slide of my time here in Africa and in Tanzania. I can’t believe how fast time has flown by in retrospect. In only 72 days I will leave my home in the village of Kafule and head up to Dar to meet my parents and in 98 days I will be back in America!!!! In between now and then I have some fun things planned, which I look forward to everyday. One of those is my spring break trip down to Zambia and Victoria Falls for 8 days, the other is of course my parents coming to Tanzania for three weeks of crazy traveling. It’s these things that get me through the long days when my students are behaving badly (which has been an unwelcome new trend).
I really cant believe that it is already March. Furthermore I can’t believe that people are still baffled by our presence here. We have been a constant in this area for a good 7 month and still on the reg, I meet people who cant believe that I live here. Where have they been for the past year, living under a rock. I feel like the majority of people know that there are 4 mzungus living in Ileje District, but somehow I still manage to encounter the people who are taken aback by the sight of me.
Lets see so far this week things in the village have been fairly calm. Today the students for the 7th week in a row did not go to class and instead spent their time planting/cutting down trees. Apparently the massive amount of 2X4 sitting outside the classrooms is not enough and they need more wood. It turns into a colossal waste of time after about an hour because when you delegate 600 kids to do a job that only needs 50 people you end up having all the guys sitting around while the girls are doing all the work, which is typical in Tanzania. The girls/woman do all the cooking and cleaning while the guys sit around and watch TV or talk. The same happens at school when it is cleanliness on Thursdays the girls are always the ones doing all the work while the guys just kind of idle around.
Yesterday things did get kind of interesting; lately there have been a lot of soccer matches at the field by our house because they are working on the one near Isoko. Well yesterday was a rather heated match between Isoko men’s team and a neighboring village. We can hear all the cheering and vuvuzela horns from our house, but it looked like rain so yesterday we did not go to the match. We heard a loud commotion out of the norm, and found out later that there had been an all out brawl between not only the two teams but also the fans who were there. This is out of the ordinary for Tanzanians because they are normally really peaceful people and rarely fight. Yesterday things got real though, we found out later that the “ambulance” came and two players had to be taken to the hospital apparently I picked a bad match to skip.
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Getting a Little Crazy
Things at kafule have taken a dramatic turn in the past week. In the past week alone we have had a leopard spotting, a man killed chopping down trees near the school campus, and finally to top it all off we were informed that there was a “wizard” killed. Needless to say as per usual things have been interesting.
I will start with the leopard. On Tuesday morning we were walking to school and Gretchen noticed some weird paw marks in the mud. I say weird because we really don’t have any dogs up in the village, and these paw marks were big. Anyway she didn’t think anything of it until later we were at home and a friend was over and informed us that in fact around seven am there had been a leopard wandering around. All this time I thought I was in fake Africa with only goats, cows, pigs, and chickens. When really there have been crazy wild animals lurking out there. The people were a mix between scared and nonchalant. Apparently this has happened before and it was “old” so NBD right? Others were terrified. Our good friend Mr. Mbughi was scared to come out of his house that night. We were informed that it did eat three chickens but did not bite anyone so it was okay to roam around. I know if I were a super endangered animal Kafule would be one of the last places I would go.
The project of cutting down all the trees around school/ the village is still in full force, but don’t worry because every Wednesday instead of having class the kids have been going and planting more trees. The justification in cutting the trees down was A. the school needed money and can sell the wood for a good price and B. the need to make desks/chairs/doors for the classrooms. The poor form one kids are sitting 4 deep at a desk and some have to stand up all class because they don’t have a chair. It gets distracting. Anyway they have hired “professionals” to cut down these trees and this week there was a small accident. One of the guys cutting down the tree miscalculated and the tree fell on him and crushed him. Thank God I didn’t see it and only heard about it after the fact because that is really sad.
Finally the last thing that I found out about this week was the fact that a man was burned alive for being an alleged “wizard” In the village there are traditional healers, or “witch doctors” if you will t\hat are totes fine and people go and see them all the time to try and fix their problems. I was surprised to hear then that someone was burned for being a wizard. I was more surprised to find out that it happened at one of our teachers houses. Again like the leopard issue this was brought up in a really casual way and a blasé attitude was taken by the guy who was telling us about the event. I mean really its like I am living in the thirteenth century sometimes with the things I am dealing with. Its all part of the cultural experience
I will start with the leopard. On Tuesday morning we were walking to school and Gretchen noticed some weird paw marks in the mud. I say weird because we really don’t have any dogs up in the village, and these paw marks were big. Anyway she didn’t think anything of it until later we were at home and a friend was over and informed us that in fact around seven am there had been a leopard wandering around. All this time I thought I was in fake Africa with only goats, cows, pigs, and chickens. When really there have been crazy wild animals lurking out there. The people were a mix between scared and nonchalant. Apparently this has happened before and it was “old” so NBD right? Others were terrified. Our good friend Mr. Mbughi was scared to come out of his house that night. We were informed that it did eat three chickens but did not bite anyone so it was okay to roam around. I know if I were a super endangered animal Kafule would be one of the last places I would go.
The project of cutting down all the trees around school/ the village is still in full force, but don’t worry because every Wednesday instead of having class the kids have been going and planting more trees. The justification in cutting the trees down was A. the school needed money and can sell the wood for a good price and B. the need to make desks/chairs/doors for the classrooms. The poor form one kids are sitting 4 deep at a desk and some have to stand up all class because they don’t have a chair. It gets distracting. Anyway they have hired “professionals” to cut down these trees and this week there was a small accident. One of the guys cutting down the tree miscalculated and the tree fell on him and crushed him. Thank God I didn’t see it and only heard about it after the fact because that is really sad.
Finally the last thing that I found out about this week was the fact that a man was burned alive for being an alleged “wizard” In the village there are traditional healers, or “witch doctors” if you will t\hat are totes fine and people go and see them all the time to try and fix their problems. I was surprised to hear then that someone was burned for being a wizard. I was more surprised to find out that it happened at one of our teachers houses. Again like the leopard issue this was brought up in a really casual way and a blasé attitude was taken by the guy who was telling us about the event. I mean really its like I am living in the thirteenth century sometimes with the things I am dealing with. Its all part of the cultural experience
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Teaching
Apparently my headmaster/academic master reads my blog because in the past two weeks I have gotten what I asked for…a hobby. My new hobby that takes up the majority of my time now is…teaching. I know some of you may be thinking, wait isn’t she supposed to be there teaching in the first place? Teaching now has been taken to the extreme, due to lack of teachers at my school. I found out two weeks ago that the other temporary English teacher had left and now it was my responsibility to teach over 600 students English. One hundred and forty of these students, being form one, do not know the difference between sir and madam and greeted me with a hearty good morning Sir the first day. I can say that since that first lesson there have been no more slip ups in the usual greeting. I am now teaching ever period of everyday and still feel like I am short changing some of the classes because there is just not enough time in the day to get to everyone. To say that I am overwhelmed would be an understatement, but I am all these kids have so I have to suck it up and push through these next three months, and try and stay on top of my grading.
Teaching form one has been an interesting experience thus far. The kids are super small, they are between the ages of 10 and 14, so they are still in the cute phase. I even have a few kids I am fairly sure are only 8 years old but they tell me they are 11, we will see. I was actually kind of nervous to go in to class the first day because the English level of form one can vary drastically between students. They are all coming from different primary school that place a different value on learning English so some kids are superstars while others are barely managing to count to ten. I have learned though, that I actually really like to teach these kids, they are helping me learn Swahili while I teach them English. I am forced during class to pull on all the Swahili words and phrases I know to get points across and to help the kids understand the concepts, which has helped me immensely in only two weeks. I can also say that i have two favorite students in form one, a boy and a girl. The boy's name is....wait for it......Allipipi which may be one of the best names ever/ the name of my next pet. The girl is Nancy (pronounced nanc of course) she is about 4 feet tall and 60 pounds and so precious i will take pics of them and try and upload hte next time I am in Mbeya.
In other news we finally found out the results of the major form four examinations that the students took last October. Of the 45 students who took the exam only 8 of them passed to go on to the next level of schooling. I am proud to say that the highest score in the school went to one of my personal favorites and our former house girl of two days. For the students it has been an extremely long wait, I could not imagine taking the SAT or ACT or even the LSAT and then being made to wait four months to receive my results, that then determines if I get to continue school or not. I am heart broken for the students who didn’t pass, but they can always take the test again, they just must wait until September to take it again. Until then I guess they just hold odd jobs. For some of them I know that they wont go on to further studies because just graduating form O level was enough for them and that also makes me really sad. The system here is so crazy. To even get to secondary school the students must take a test and if they fail well that’s it for them, Tanzania needs to get its act together when it comes to education if they ever wish to advance.
Thats enough ranting for one post. Until next time, pray that I dont go crazy trying to keep all my classes straight
Teaching form one has been an interesting experience thus far. The kids are super small, they are between the ages of 10 and 14, so they are still in the cute phase. I even have a few kids I am fairly sure are only 8 years old but they tell me they are 11, we will see. I was actually kind of nervous to go in to class the first day because the English level of form one can vary drastically between students. They are all coming from different primary school that place a different value on learning English so some kids are superstars while others are barely managing to count to ten. I have learned though, that I actually really like to teach these kids, they are helping me learn Swahili while I teach them English. I am forced during class to pull on all the Swahili words and phrases I know to get points across and to help the kids understand the concepts, which has helped me immensely in only two weeks. I can also say that i have two favorite students in form one, a boy and a girl. The boy's name is....wait for it......Allipipi which may be one of the best names ever/ the name of my next pet. The girl is Nancy (pronounced nanc of course) she is about 4 feet tall and 60 pounds and so precious i will take pics of them and try and upload hte next time I am in Mbeya.
In other news we finally found out the results of the major form four examinations that the students took last October. Of the 45 students who took the exam only 8 of them passed to go on to the next level of schooling. I am proud to say that the highest score in the school went to one of my personal favorites and our former house girl of two days. For the students it has been an extremely long wait, I could not imagine taking the SAT or ACT or even the LSAT and then being made to wait four months to receive my results, that then determines if I get to continue school or not. I am heart broken for the students who didn’t pass, but they can always take the test again, they just must wait until September to take it again. Until then I guess they just hold odd jobs. For some of them I know that they wont go on to further studies because just graduating form O level was enough for them and that also makes me really sad. The system here is so crazy. To even get to secondary school the students must take a test and if they fail well that’s it for them, Tanzania needs to get its act together when it comes to education if they ever wish to advance.
Thats enough ranting for one post. Until next time, pray that I dont go crazy trying to keep all my classes straight
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