Thursday, July 07, 2005
July 5th
Yesterday was the 4th of July. I wore a red, white and blue shirt and got a double beefburger of sorts in Mwanza, followed by an ersatz chocolate sundae. Then came back home.
I made another teaching strikeout today. My class wanted new material? OK, today I went in with a flip-chart presentation on Soil Chemistry. In my first class, I had five students. In the second class, no students.
The five students, at least, said that the information was good and useful. But they said most of the students only want to spend time in the laboratory in these between-term sessions.
So where is my responsibility? To present the material in an acceptable fashion and to hell with how or if it is received? To give the students what they think they want even if they are not getting what they need? I guess the only thing I can add is that I don’t see much evidence of anything else useful that is going on for the students just now. But then, it is a drag to be hanging around here not accomplishing anything when I could at least be visiting other volunteers and sites around Tanzania, instead of sitting here reading yet more books from the library I inherited. Right now I am reading Ahab’s Wife, and really enjoying it. Naslund is a wonderful spinner of tales. And yesterday I borrowed a thick book on The Sikh Religion from the Gurdwara.
Joe has been visiting for a couple of days, and plans to head out tomorrow to Rwanda. Kara was here for a day last week. Visiting people is good, but I don’t have much interest in traveling within Tanzania to see just one more dusty town with one more crowded market of local produce near its center. I guess I am becoming jaded.
Yesterday was the 4th of July. I wore a red, white and blue shirt and got a double beefburger of sorts in Mwanza, followed by an ersatz chocolate sundae. Then came back home.
I made another teaching strikeout today. My class wanted new material? OK, today I went in with a flip-chart presentation on Soil Chemistry. In my first class, I had five students. In the second class, no students.
The five students, at least, said that the information was good and useful. But they said most of the students only want to spend time in the laboratory in these between-term sessions.
So where is my responsibility? To present the material in an acceptable fashion and to hell with how or if it is received? To give the students what they think they want even if they are not getting what they need? I guess the only thing I can add is that I don’t see much evidence of anything else useful that is going on for the students just now. But then, it is a drag to be hanging around here not accomplishing anything when I could at least be visiting other volunteers and sites around Tanzania, instead of sitting here reading yet more books from the library I inherited. Right now I am reading Ahab’s Wife, and really enjoying it. Naslund is a wonderful spinner of tales. And yesterday I borrowed a thick book on The Sikh Religion from the Gurdwara.
Joe has been visiting for a couple of days, and plans to head out tomorrow to Rwanda. Kara was here for a day last week. Visiting people is good, but I don’t have much interest in traveling within Tanzania to see just one more dusty town with one more crowded market of local produce near its center. I guess I am becoming jaded.
