Over the mountain

Thursday November 22^nd

I must be demob happy.  This morning I woke up and without prompting started singing a song that I can’t remember hearing for nearly sixty years.  Where it came from I have no idea but the song which as I remember was called ’I see the sun’ or something similar, has a chorus that goes –

Over the mountain over the sea
Back where my heart is longing to be
Please let the light that shines on me
Shine on the one I love

The trouble is that the tune is one of those like ‘It’s a small world after all’, that gets into your head and stays there, which can be so annoying, so it has been with me all day.  I’ll see what tomorrow brings.

I’ve mentioned in earlier posts that we are grooming Deo for the 2016 Olympics in Brazil.  His swimming comes on in leaps and bounds, which doesn’t sound a sensible analogy, but you know what I mean.  The latest additions though to our swimming parties are both real shocks.  Denis, who swore never to let the ocean wet his toes, has joined us on a number of occasions and, with some success, is attempting to move through the water without actually walking and Vicky has entered the water for the first time in her life.  I don’t know her age but she has grown up children in Moshi but before this week had never even been in a swimming pool before.  She did seem to think that swimming involved throwing yourself to the ground once the water passed your ankle bone, but we managed to walk her a little further in. 

Deo is another Tanzanian that shows that life itself throws up enough challenges to remove the need for Gymnasia and Personal Trainers.  He is very much the workman around the place as the pictures show. Incidentally I realised the first week that using the head as a beast of burden was not confined to women, as one of our students, returning a little late after the August break, preceded me up THE HILL with his suitcase perfectly balanced on top.  Another case where to use the camera feels intrusive otherwise I’d have photos of locals carrying 15 litre cans,  crates of bananas, sacks of cement, vacuum wrapped packs of large water bottles, the frame of a bed, the list is endless.

A refill run to Pangani.  I din't have my camera the day he took 5 crates.

At school the end of year examinations for Form I and III started today with my examinations in Basic Mathematics being the first ones.  At least it means that I have got plenty of time to mark them and complete the reports (?).  Thankfully these also owe much to education history with one sheet for each pupil and once you have entered the various marks and grades there is room for a one or two word comment.  I don’t know what Ofqual would make of the standard of invigilation though?

Baadaye