Moshi Airport School

Teaching has begun for me. Yesterday was my first day teaching at the Moshi Airport Primary School. The school is what they call an English Medium school, so all of the classes, except Kiswahili, are taught in English. There was a real need for a teacher for the 3rd grade, P3, as the current teacher was running back and forth between two streams of classes, each with about sixty students. So, the original setup was that I would take stream B for the week, and he would take stream A. The teachers were all very welcoming, and gave me the materials that I would need. It's amazing how often I realize what we in the US take for granted - you should see the textbooks that the students are using - they are completely falling apart! I was a little surprised, as I thought that I would be teaching the little first graders, so my original lesson plans included things like the song Head, shoulders, knees and toes. But the class that I stepped into was learning the difference between words like 'in, on and under,' and 'this and that,' and 'some and any.' So I had to make some quick revisions. Granted, the first day was kinda rough. I walked into a class of 60 students, was handed a piece of chalk and an eraser, and left alone! 60 eight year old's can be more intimidating than I thought! But once I got going, although I fumbled a bit, I did ok. Students are very different here, probably because of the socio-economics. They seem to REALLY realize the value of education, so even 60 eight year olds were very easy to manage behaviorally, as they all want to learn, and pay close attention. There are NO students acting up, but I'm sure part of that is the threat of corporal punishment, which is standard practice here in Tanzania (not by me though!). After class the English teacher pulled me aside and told me that stream A, his class, was FURIOUS that they did not get to have the visitor teacher, so we revised the schedule. Day 2, today, I started with stream B, and taught them for 40 minutes, while the teacher monitored studying for stream A. After first period, we switched, and I taught stream A, while stream B had monitored studying. I was also more prepared today. After talking to my buddy Erin back in the states, and getting some AMAZING lesson plans for today, the lesson went much more smoothly. I taught the kids about different jobs - vocabulary words like postman, doctor, nurse, baker, tailor, etc. I was more organized in my teaching as well, and the kids responded accordingly. There was one point that I was writing things on the board for them to copy down, and walking around monitoring, making sure that everyone was keeping up. One student was acting very shy when I would walk by him, covering his paper. Later in the class, I noticed that he was holding his pen very awkwardly with two hands, and quickly realized that he was writing with a broken pen. He was terrified when I found out what was going on, I think they get punished if they lose or damage a pen. So after class today, I bought 50 pens, and I'm very excited to distribute them tomorrow. Pens are expensive here in Tanzania, as they are imported, so the kids are forced to keep track of them. They get 2 per year!

Last night, there was another crisis. A couple of the priests showed up very late, obviously distressed. In the back of their truck was a broken water pump from one of their schools in a place called Same. Same is VERY dry, so very little rain can be collected to be used at the school. So the situation was: 330 secondary school girls, in a VERY dry place, with three days reserve of water, and a broken water pump that cost 6 Million Shillings (4,000 USD) to replace, and NO money. The problems here are real on levels that I could never have even imagined. So I got on the phone, and I was really excited to get into contact with Sarah Jones (an angel, in this case literally). THE Mission was able to come up with 2,000 dollars for the pump. The priests will be able to get the pump, and pay the rest on credit! I can't even describe how grateful they were. This is water we're talking about here - WATER! So today, Father Innocent and I traveled into Moshi Town, and ran several errands - the bank, getting pens, immigration for me, etc. Also, Father Innocent finally took me to the right shop to get my cell phone working properly! I was also VERY excited to see more pictures from the beginning part of my trip posted on facebook. Thanks Sarah! It looks as though my plans for Rwanda are coming together, but not sure. It's tougher to plan than I had thought, especially with limited internet access. But, if all goes as planned, I will be staring into the eyes of a silverback mountain gorilla on March 5. Fingers crossed....