Sunday, July 03, 2005
Friday, July 1
To catch up on some stuff:
When I quoted my Headmaster as saying “We do nothing” to prepare school leavers for life beyond our walls, it sounded pretty harsh. Deservedly, but there is at least this much to say to mitigate that attitude a bit: The school is primarily a boarding school drawing on the whole northern half of Tanzania, and the students disperse to their homes immediately after taking the National Exams. It takes about two months until their exams are graded and the results posted on the internet for them to retrieve. At that time, it would be practically impossible to bring together those students who will not continue, to guide them in other directions. So it would take some real ingenuity to accomplish anything after the test. Still....
I said I would introduce a class discussion about why people might not want to know the results of a blood test for HIV/AIDS? Well I did that, and that was one more stupendous flop. It met a spate of grumbling, rolling of eyes, and “Oh, this is chemistry class, not biology.” The only thing that got attention was when I asked them if a negative AIDS test meant they could be sure they did not have AIDS. They didn’t know, and knowing that a test will not be positive until three months after infection is really basic information. It indicates that they do NOT know as much as they think they do, even if they are tired of hearing about AIDS time after time.
I’m about to knuckle under to the system again. We are in this ‘tween-term limbo with only half the students here. I said we would review chemistry topics during this period, that it would be unfair to the students who are not here to introduce new material. But the students have been avoiding my class because they do want to continue covering new material. So my choice is to teach new material, or not have any students. Guess I will teach new material. But I will at least try to put my notes on flip-chart paper so the students who aren’t here can copy them when they return.
Actually, from here on things really get screwy anyway . Students return July 14, but it takes a week for them to actually show up. Then there is this big-deal Mock Examination from July 25 to August 9. Meanwhile I will be on the Safari with my family August 1 – 16. Then there is the mid-term break, Sept 14 - 18. And a Peace Corps Close of Service meeting October 2-6, and then the National Exams begin October 10. At that point, my formal duties are over. But somewhere in there I am to spend I think a week with the incoming PC volunteer crop in Morogoro, and we have to arrange a graduation ceremony here for the entrepreneurship course – with the PC Country Director and somebody high from the US Embassy attending, if we do hit the jackpot.
So right now it is clearly the lull before the storm.
And Oh, I am to be inducted into the International Rotary this evening at a dinner at the fancy Tilapia Hotel. I think I have been attending so many of the Rotary meetings to talk about the entrepreneurship program and arrange guest speakers that they finally got tired of introducing me as a guest. I will have to even wear a suit and a tie. The last time I did that was for our swearing in at the US Embassy in Dar es Salaam on November 21st, 2003. That day it was brutally hot and humid. Today it is very pleasant here in Mwanza and the Hotel, overlooking the lake at sundown, will be delightful. Hope my suit has not developed moth holes during these last two years.
