Today we learned that Tanzanian 4:00 really means 10:00,
6:00 really means noon, and so on. The day begins when people get up for the
day, which is traditionally 6:00am (except for Montana and LuRue). We learned
this the hard way when our teacher for the day (a new one…yet another) told us
that we’d be teaching the lesson at 4:00. To us, 4:00 is the time of day when
we have been getting together with the students for informal games.
But it didn’t matter too much anyhow, because we spent the
first class period in the teacher’s office, not doing much of anything. When it
became clear that we’d be doing the same thing for the second period, we said
we’d like to at least walk around the school grounds. As it turned out, we were
intercepted by Edward. When he learned that we were free for some time, he took
us to the kindergarten building some distance away.
There we were introduced to the student teacher who speaks
no English and 11 adorable children about 3 or 4 years old. Edward has decided
to place us there since, for this week, we have been placed with teachers not
prepared to have “wazungu” helping them. Mr. Haran from last week has been
absent this week to attend to a medical problem. We didn’t stay long at the
kindergarten, but did get to place brand new blindingly white socks on the feet
of the amazed kindergarteners. We could imagine them running home later to show
off their new socks. We also know that within days the socks will be the color
of the red dirt so prevalent around this area.
We returned to the school in time for the staff meeting in
which the schools grades were listed from the national testing done recently
for Form II. The headmaster was not happy and tried for a balance between
encouragement and disappointment while talking to the teachers.
Our “4:00 class” began at 10:00. After a little back &
forth with the teacher about whether we had to follow the book, during which
the students would barely speak one at a time, or whether we could do our own
lesson during which all the students would call out all the words all
the time, the teacher left the room for most of the class, leaving things in
the hands of Montana and LuRue who like to get the shy students (just beginners
in speaking English) to call out lots of words as much as possible, and to get
them to laugh and smile.
After lunch, we were housebound for much of the time due to
thunderstorms and very heavy rains. We returned to the secondary school at 4:00
(10:00 Tanzanian time) for games. Since the grass was too wet to be outside as
usual, we had to use classrooms. Attempting to deal with about 25 Form I
students in a room filled with desks and chairs was mind-boggling. The initial
result was chaos. Trying to organize everyone into two groups with chairs
around a “table” with students who don’t speak English was challenging enough,
but then trying to teach them “I Doubt It” was another hurdle. Word by word,
charade by charade, we finally got the idea across to enough of them to “sort
of get it”. We were then invaded by even
more students who were onlookers. As it turned out, the shuffling of the cards
was as important as entertainment as anything else. Since we measure everything
we do by the smiles and laughter we can pull from these super-quiet, super-shy
students, we called the hour a success.
On the walk home, the thunderstorms began to rumble again,
causing Montana to speed-walk the last few hundred yards, but she was thrilled
to see two actual bolts of lightning. No pictures, but an image that will
surely remain in her mind forever.
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