Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Man, so much stuff is popping, it is hard to keep track of it all.
Christopher was at my door at 8:00am to show me what he had put together in the form of a resume for job hunting. The whole concept of job hunting and resumes are totally foreign to Tanzanians, so we spent quite a while editing and revising. At 27, Christopher just completed Form IV (that is, 11th grade) last year with average marks. But he was an orphan, raised by his grandmother and so was late in starting to school. Anyway, he strikes me as unusually mature, reliable, and nonetheless without hope of finding a job the usual way through family contacts. So I spoke about him at the Rotary Club last week, and among the Club members they say they can give him a job, but they did want to see his resume first. I should be able to pull it through for him at the next meeting, tomorrow night.
After Christopher left I rode my bike downtown to make final trip arrangements with Maria at Fortes Safari. The family safari gets underway NEXT WEEKEND! All of a sudden, the time has come. Just a couple of loose ends remain now, and this will surely be a trip for the books. But while I was talking with Maria, Manjit Singh walked in and insisted that we all stay at his lodge for the night after we leave the Serengeti, as his guest. Manjit is a Sikh – his name Singh gives that away, even without his turban and silver bracelet – and he knows me because I have been attending the Gurdwara so regularly. But I certainly never expected this very welcome gift.
So now I need to delay our overnight stay at the Bujora Museum and our arrival at the hotel in Mwanza by a day. Pleasant tasks, those. Also, with this change we will be able to pick up two Peace Corps Volunteers in Bunda as we pass through, and give them rides to the NaneNane Day festival in Sumve. I’ve never attended a NaneNane festival, but supposedly they are interesting and Sumve has a good one. It is kind of a “Farmer’s Day thing,” I’m told. Maybe the Tanzanian version of a County Fair? We will all explore it together, and Sumve will wonder where all the white folks came from this year.
Then I went to meet with the manager of the CRDB Bank, and got him to agree to talk to my business classes on Saturday. He wants a written invitation – I’ll have to handle that tomorrow. This bank got some government money to facilitate micro-businesses in an experimental program. That should make his talk especially interesting, and he should also be a future target for me as one of the judges for the business plans the students create. I won’t hear his talk though, because I will already be on the bus to Arusha. And the talk will be in Kiswahili anyway.
So, I think the flight from Amsterdam to Kilimanjaro takes about 12 hours. My bus from Mwanza to Arusha via Nairobi, Kenya, takes 21 hours. Wanna trade?
Had to hurry back to Nsumba then, because I was to help invigilate the Mock Examination in Civics in the afternoon. This 2 ½ hour exam – most subjects have 3 hour exams - was something else! The questions were prepared by a regional committee of teachers. Every answer sheet was coded instead of signed, with the seats carefully numbered and recorded on the answer sheets as well. A separate diagram was created showing where each seat was located. Another separate list correlated student names with the codes. 183 Students in seats all carefully placed. All paper handed out for answer sheets had to be individually stamped on the spot with the school logo. Anyone needing a bathroom break was escorted by an invigilator. Many students were visibly praying while the tests were being passed out. After the tests were collected they were counted and placed in sealed envelopes for grading by another independent committee. It had all the tension and angst of an SAT exam. BUT THE RESULTS DON’T COUNT FOR ANYTHING! Really. This is all just a practice so the students will know what to expect in the National Examination in October. True, the results will be evaluated statistically against other regional schools, but their only “value” is as “continuing assessment” – ie, proof that classroom work is proceeding, like showing that yes, students have been doing their homework. The results in no way factor into the final grades. What a waste of energy and time for teaching!
After all this I came home to meet with the staff committee that is planning activities for my family while they are in Mwanza. Wow. They have created an agenda suitable for visiting dignitaries. But even in all the planned sponsored tours of the school that include visiting the kitchen, the dormitory under construction, the gardens, the infirmary – I am not kidding – I think there will still be a lot of friendly exchange going on. They are as excited about the visit as my family is about coming here.
That didn’t leave any time to get back downtown to call my Delaware Bank and arrange an electronic transfer of funds to pay for the Safari. That call has to be made in late afternoon or evening because of the time difference. And I had told Savera that I would fix the tires on her tricycle yesterday, so I am already two days late to do that job. Well, it hasn’t been dull this week, and I have my list of things to do tomorrow.
Christopher was at my door at 8:00am to show me what he had put together in the form of a resume for job hunting. The whole concept of job hunting and resumes are totally foreign to Tanzanians, so we spent quite a while editing and revising. At 27, Christopher just completed Form IV (that is, 11th grade) last year with average marks. But he was an orphan, raised by his grandmother and so was late in starting to school. Anyway, he strikes me as unusually mature, reliable, and nonetheless without hope of finding a job the usual way through family contacts. So I spoke about him at the Rotary Club last week, and among the Club members they say they can give him a job, but they did want to see his resume first. I should be able to pull it through for him at the next meeting, tomorrow night.
After Christopher left I rode my bike downtown to make final trip arrangements with Maria at Fortes Safari. The family safari gets underway NEXT WEEKEND! All of a sudden, the time has come. Just a couple of loose ends remain now, and this will surely be a trip for the books. But while I was talking with Maria, Manjit Singh walked in and insisted that we all stay at his lodge for the night after we leave the Serengeti, as his guest. Manjit is a Sikh – his name Singh gives that away, even without his turban and silver bracelet – and he knows me because I have been attending the Gurdwara so regularly. But I certainly never expected this very welcome gift.
So now I need to delay our overnight stay at the Bujora Museum and our arrival at the hotel in Mwanza by a day. Pleasant tasks, those. Also, with this change we will be able to pick up two Peace Corps Volunteers in Bunda as we pass through, and give them rides to the NaneNane Day festival in Sumve. I’ve never attended a NaneNane festival, but supposedly they are interesting and Sumve has a good one. It is kind of a “Farmer’s Day thing,” I’m told. Maybe the Tanzanian version of a County Fair? We will all explore it together, and Sumve will wonder where all the white folks came from this year.
Then I went to meet with the manager of the CRDB Bank, and got him to agree to talk to my business classes on Saturday. He wants a written invitation – I’ll have to handle that tomorrow. This bank got some government money to facilitate micro-businesses in an experimental program. That should make his talk especially interesting, and he should also be a future target for me as one of the judges for the business plans the students create. I won’t hear his talk though, because I will already be on the bus to Arusha. And the talk will be in Kiswahili anyway.
So, I think the flight from Amsterdam to Kilimanjaro takes about 12 hours. My bus from Mwanza to Arusha via Nairobi, Kenya, takes 21 hours. Wanna trade?
Had to hurry back to Nsumba then, because I was to help invigilate the Mock Examination in Civics in the afternoon. This 2 ½ hour exam – most subjects have 3 hour exams - was something else! The questions were prepared by a regional committee of teachers. Every answer sheet was coded instead of signed, with the seats carefully numbered and recorded on the answer sheets as well. A separate diagram was created showing where each seat was located. Another separate list correlated student names with the codes. 183 Students in seats all carefully placed. All paper handed out for answer sheets had to be individually stamped on the spot with the school logo. Anyone needing a bathroom break was escorted by an invigilator. Many students were visibly praying while the tests were being passed out. After the tests were collected they were counted and placed in sealed envelopes for grading by another independent committee. It had all the tension and angst of an SAT exam. BUT THE RESULTS DON’T COUNT FOR ANYTHING! Really. This is all just a practice so the students will know what to expect in the National Examination in October. True, the results will be evaluated statistically against other regional schools, but their only “value” is as “continuing assessment” – ie, proof that classroom work is proceeding, like showing that yes, students have been doing their homework. The results in no way factor into the final grades. What a waste of energy and time for teaching!
After all this I came home to meet with the staff committee that is planning activities for my family while they are in Mwanza. Wow. They have created an agenda suitable for visiting dignitaries. But even in all the planned sponsored tours of the school that include visiting the kitchen, the dormitory under construction, the gardens, the infirmary – I am not kidding – I think there will still be a lot of friendly exchange going on. They are as excited about the visit as my family is about coming here.
That didn’t leave any time to get back downtown to call my Delaware Bank and arrange an electronic transfer of funds to pay for the Safari. That call has to be made in late afternoon or evening because of the time difference. And I had told Savera that I would fix the tires on her tricycle yesterday, so I am already two days late to do that job. Well, it hasn’t been dull this week, and I have my list of things to do tomorrow.
