Monday, February 09, 2004
It is 1:30am. I think I am tired but I am not sure. The electricity problem in my house still has not been fixed. Usually I have no power between dusk and about 8:00, but last night it would not come on even by 9:30. I get tired of trying to read by the kerosene lantern so decided that I would go to bed, let myself wake up in the middle of the night as I usually do if I go to bed early, and then look over my material for tomorrow’s class.
I guess I got up a little too early. The wind was blowing through the house and I could hear papers rattling on my desk. So I got up to close windows in advance of the rain which is now coming down in torrents.
But I do not feel like looking over chemistry notes. I think I am OK for tomorrow. Anyhow, a lot of the class will be spent in going over the examples I gave them last week that they will not have understood, and I have new material prepared that will take a good bit of time to copy onto the board for them.
Yesterday, Sunday, I went to the Catholic Church hoping to meet Brother Timothy, who I’ve been told knows a lot about the social service organizations in the area. I want to explore opportunities for Myrna when she comes to visit me in June. But Bro. T. was not there. So after that I went to other PCVs, Joanie, Steve and Joe at Rock Beach Hotel for chess and commiseration about teaching problems. The commiseration was supportive – it is nice to know that I am not alone in facing students here. The chess game was sloppy. Joe gave me his queen, then I got careless as I bore in to administer the coup de gras to his king and he came out of it with my queen and knight so beat me in the end. We now stand at Joe=1, Lee=2.
Then I dropped in on Gunje, another chemistry teacher. We both need to get our students into the laboratory, and I wanted to talk to him about what we can really do with them if we have only one balance for 55 students. How can they weigh out materials to make up standard solutions with only one weighing station? That question didn’t get answered, but we decided that there should be a meeting of the Chemistry Department. And he insisted that I stay for dinner, which consisted of excellent roasted fish with a big bowl of peanuts on the side, cold chipsy (home fries) and soda.
That made me late for my meeting with the students of II-B who had asked to meet with me. It was fun. We sat on rocks under the trees and talked about why I was there, the differences between Tz and American education and students and opportunities for employment in Tz. They asked the inevitable “How can I go study in the US,” to which I replied that I could not help them, and that it is difficult to find a way to get to the US to study especially since Sept 11. Surprisingly they did not know what happened on that date, so we talked about that some. They unanimously felt that the US is making enemies for itself around the world and should not be trying to control the world by itself.
At the end of the meeting, one of the students brought out his camera and we had a festival of picture taking. The group with me, small groups with me, individuals with me... What a celebrity I am!
Well the rain stopped, and now has come back again. Frogs are peeping in thanks for the fresh water. I’ve had to go flip the circuit breaker about every five minutes to keep the power on as I write this posting for my journal. I am going to give up on the power, go back to bed, and listen to the rain on the roof from there. Good night.
I guess I got up a little too early. The wind was blowing through the house and I could hear papers rattling on my desk. So I got up to close windows in advance of the rain which is now coming down in torrents.
But I do not feel like looking over chemistry notes. I think I am OK for tomorrow. Anyhow, a lot of the class will be spent in going over the examples I gave them last week that they will not have understood, and I have new material prepared that will take a good bit of time to copy onto the board for them.
Yesterday, Sunday, I went to the Catholic Church hoping to meet Brother Timothy, who I’ve been told knows a lot about the social service organizations in the area. I want to explore opportunities for Myrna when she comes to visit me in June. But Bro. T. was not there. So after that I went to other PCVs, Joanie, Steve and Joe at Rock Beach Hotel for chess and commiseration about teaching problems. The commiseration was supportive – it is nice to know that I am not alone in facing students here. The chess game was sloppy. Joe gave me his queen, then I got careless as I bore in to administer the coup de gras to his king and he came out of it with my queen and knight so beat me in the end. We now stand at Joe=1, Lee=2.
Then I dropped in on Gunje, another chemistry teacher. We both need to get our students into the laboratory, and I wanted to talk to him about what we can really do with them if we have only one balance for 55 students. How can they weigh out materials to make up standard solutions with only one weighing station? That question didn’t get answered, but we decided that there should be a meeting of the Chemistry Department. And he insisted that I stay for dinner, which consisted of excellent roasted fish with a big bowl of peanuts on the side, cold chipsy (home fries) and soda.
That made me late for my meeting with the students of II-B who had asked to meet with me. It was fun. We sat on rocks under the trees and talked about why I was there, the differences between Tz and American education and students and opportunities for employment in Tz. They asked the inevitable “How can I go study in the US,” to which I replied that I could not help them, and that it is difficult to find a way to get to the US to study especially since Sept 11. Surprisingly they did not know what happened on that date, so we talked about that some. They unanimously felt that the US is making enemies for itself around the world and should not be trying to control the world by itself.
At the end of the meeting, one of the students brought out his camera and we had a festival of picture taking. The group with me, small groups with me, individuals with me... What a celebrity I am!
Well the rain stopped, and now has come back again. Frogs are peeping in thanks for the fresh water. I’ve had to go flip the circuit breaker about every five minutes to keep the power on as I write this posting for my journal. I am going to give up on the power, go back to bed, and listen to the rain on the roof from there. Good night.
