Flying solo

Thursday September 20^th

I took my passport to school this morning and arrived early at 7:30 because the head had been told to expect a visit from immigration. I still had time to stop for my water having decided it was more sensible to buy a heavy bottle at the top of the hill than to carry it with me.

My Corner Shop

I am on a three month visitor’s visa (the only type I can get) and this precludes employment so we have to convince the powers that be that slogging away with no remuneration is not employment.  In the end it was all in vain because they never turned up.  T.I.A.

Just before I went to Form I at 8:00, Mr Masui, the head and teacher of Form III maths, informed me that he had to go into Pangani this morning so would I kindly take his class by myself and do Histograms.  Wow. Thanks.  I spent the time between Form I and Form III at 11.10 preparing what I would put on the board for them to copy, as I didn’t want to change their style of teaching on my first session.  I did though manage to slip in a starter.

Mr Masui

I have included a picture of my two classes and although quite a few were away in each class you might be surprised by the size.  Unlike the school in Pangani, Boza is a school where the parents pay about TSH5,000 (£2) a week towards their children’s education.  It is also partly residential TSH10,000(£4) a week and unlike the public school with classes of 50 ,60 and above, the biggest class is 42 in Form IV and my classes are smaller than that.

Class I

Class III

I showed you a picture of the bell the other day.  Dixon the bell monitor and I are good friends.  On Tuesday I pointed out that he had rung the bell at 7:53 instead of 8:00 and showed him the time on my watch and on the computer.  He changed his watch and now every time he rings the bell I get a beaming smile and a knowing look.

Dixon

The children are delightful and obviously enjoy laughing at my feeble attempts at Swahili whilst encouraging me with new words to use (all clean, I run them past the teacher first). 

Tomorrow I have a day off school as I have to go back to Tanga to organise a transfer of money and a couple of other things so am planning to catch the first proper bus at 7:00 and hopefully avoid the minibuses altogether. Only been here a week and it feels like a month, so much has happened.  I’ll fill in the gaps later.

Badai.