We have been in Tanzania about a week now. After the first
few days of orientation we moved into our new home on the outskirts of Mtwara.
We are living in what we were told is part of what used to be Aquinas School
before it grew too big and was moved to a new campus about a mile away. The
building is part of the parish complex of Christ the Redeemer parish. The rest
of the structure and the adjacent building is occupied by a kindergarten.
On Monday were started coming to the school for the first
time and have been meeting the teachers and other staff as well as getting to
know how the school operates here. The school is run by the Missionary
Benedictine Sisters of Tutzing. It is one of the nicest secondary schools in
the area and has around two hundred seventy students enrolled. Around two
hundred of the female students are boarders and live on campus in dormitories
or the hostel as they say here. The remainder of the students, boys and girls,
walk or bike from the surrounding area. The school is well equipped with solar
panels that were donated a few years ago since the city electric grid does not
come out to the school. The city water does make it out here, but the school
also has its own water storage and rain water system, so overall the school is
well prepared to handle what can be an unreliable municipal system.
Tuesday we were able to sit down with Sister Maureen the
headmistress and discuss what will be our responsibilities here at school. I
will be taking over many of the jobs for which Earl Fong the outgoing Lay
Mission-Helper was responsible. This includes creating the timetable for which
teacher teaches which class at what time, maintaining the donated computers
(many of which are aging fast) and keeping the records for the school
backed-up. I will also be teaching math and physics and possibly computers. I
don't know when I will start teaching but it shouldn't be until at least when
we get back from language school in August. Lauren will also be taking over
many of the responsibilities of Diane Prell, Earl's wife. This means that she
will be in charge of the library and book catalog and checkout records, all of
which are done by hand. She will also be teaching bible knowledge. In fact one
of the bible classes currently has no teacher, so Lauren just found out today
that she will be covering that class tomorrow. That seems to be the norm for
here in Tanzania; things are fluid, so we will be fluid with them.
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