At 7:15 a.m. I begin my mile
walk to school.
By 7:30 a.m. I am at school.
Our school day lasts from 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
On Monday and Friday we have
morning assemble from 7:30 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. where we read the gospel for the
day with a short prayer, sing the national anthem, and hear announcements.
After midterms and finals it is also a time where we reward students who have
done well on their tests.
Most of my day is spent in
the library. We have one of the nicest libraries in the region, with about
8,000 books. Most of the books are textbooks, but we do have a few novels to
read for fun. Many of the students love to read, and will read anything they
can get their hands on.
The library is open to
students from 10:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. and from 2:50 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. The
students are also welcome to come if their teacher is absent.
From 10:00 a.m. to 10:30
a.m. is tea time (Tanzania was a British colony). At school we call it uji
break after the thin porridge that is served with the tea. During this time you
can buy various fried snacks such as a chapati (like a fried tortilla) or
vitumbua (fried rice cakes).
On Thursday and Friday I
teach classes after uji break. I teach Bible Knowledge for form one and three.
My biggest challenge in teaching is that for the form one students this is the
first time they are learning in English (primary school is taught in Swahili
while secondary school is taught in English). I have about eighty form one
students. In the beginning I was confident that ten of the students understood
the majority of what I said in English. To help them understand better I have
tried to incorporate artwork with the Bible stories we were reading in class.
From 12:40 p.m. till 1:30
p.m. we have a lunch break. For lunch we get a vegetable, beans or meat, and
rice or ugali (flour and water mixed together, that looks like mashed potatoes
but has no taste). My favorite combination is cabbage, beans, and rice.
On Thursday and Friday I
teach classes after lunch break. My form three class is much better at speaking
English, and we are able to have discussions in class. For form three we cover
The Gospel of Matthew and Acts of the Apostles.
On Wednesday we have clubs
from 2:50 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Many of our students are very artistic, but they do
not get many chances to express themselves. There are no art classes and art
supplies are very limited. This semester I have started an art club. The last
couple of weeks we have had a former student come and teach us how to draw
Tingatinga, an African style of abstract animals.
By 4:00 p.m. we are headed
home from work. When we get home we have some time to just relax. I enjoy
spending a lot of that time reading. The Kindle was one of the best things that
I brought to Tanzania. Now I will always have a book to read. In the last ten
months I have read seventy-eight books. It is nice to have the free time to
read. I have always been busy with my own school work that I have never had
much time to enjoy reading things that were required for class.
Around 6:00 p.m. I start
making dinner. I have not learned how to cook any Tanzanian foods, so our meals
our Western style. Pasta dishes are the most common meal.
After dinner I get on the
computer to check my emails and Facebook. We are fortunate to have a USB
internet stick that works most of the time. It tends to work best if we raise
it on our lantern.
Around 9:00 p.m. I am
getting ready to go to bed so that I can start all over again tomorrow.
-Lauren
