Sunday, September 04, 2005
Kara came in from Sumve for the weekend, and she is staying here at my “hotel” again. Her school has reopened, three weeks after their disturbance, with about maybe a third or half of the students returned. She seems pretty calm about the whole thing. She feels that she has been able to help a few students in her two years here, and that it shows in a comparison of the score of her classes in Regional test results. Good for her, and good for her students!
Here, Nsumba wanted to reopen on the 29th but now, after a week, only 66 students have registered – about 10% of our student body. We had a staff meeting on Thursday: The most onerous requirements (Tell us in writing why the disturbance took place and name five other students involved) were made optional instead of mandatory, and teachers were requested to begin teaching on Monday even if they have at only 3 students in their class. It is hoped the students who are known to be in the area but not coming in will start registering over the weekend, now.
Ryan, Kara and I dropped in on our expat friend Peter yesterday afternoon, taking along beer and pizza, to watch CNN reports on the situation in New Orleans and the South. The pictures were dreadful, but this did seem to be the first day (Sept 3rd) when some order and coordination was taking hold. New Orleans was the headline on the major Tanzanian English language newspaper yesterday. No one can understand why the US, with all its resources and military power, took four days to get an effective, organized relief effort underway in its own country.
My house in Philadelphia has been vacant since the end of July, and we have not found new renters to take it on a month-to-month basis before I get back in February or so. Yesterday Allegra and Glenn suggested that we make the house available to a New Orleans family for that period by working with Church World Service or some other religious organization. This seems like a wonderful idea, and I’ve told them to go ahead and offer the house.
I also went to my favorite travel agent yesterday to begin planning my exodus from Africa. I’m would like to fly to New Delhi about November 14th, then to Beijing about December 5th, and on to Seattle about December 12th. That will take some tight fitting, since I want to stay here at Nsumba until the graduation of the students from my business course on November 5th, followed by a week of meeting with incoming PC volunteers Nov. 7-12. Somewhere in there I am supposed to have three days of medical checkups and stuff.
Here, Nsumba wanted to reopen on the 29th but now, after a week, only 66 students have registered – about 10% of our student body. We had a staff meeting on Thursday: The most onerous requirements (Tell us in writing why the disturbance took place and name five other students involved) were made optional instead of mandatory, and teachers were requested to begin teaching on Monday even if they have at only 3 students in their class. It is hoped the students who are known to be in the area but not coming in will start registering over the weekend, now.
Ryan, Kara and I dropped in on our expat friend Peter yesterday afternoon, taking along beer and pizza, to watch CNN reports on the situation in New Orleans and the South. The pictures were dreadful, but this did seem to be the first day (Sept 3rd) when some order and coordination was taking hold. New Orleans was the headline on the major Tanzanian English language newspaper yesterday. No one can understand why the US, with all its resources and military power, took four days to get an effective, organized relief effort underway in its own country.
My house in Philadelphia has been vacant since the end of July, and we have not found new renters to take it on a month-to-month basis before I get back in February or so. Yesterday Allegra and Glenn suggested that we make the house available to a New Orleans family for that period by working with Church World Service or some other religious organization. This seems like a wonderful idea, and I’ve told them to go ahead and offer the house.
I also went to my favorite travel agent yesterday to begin planning my exodus from Africa. I’m would like to fly to New Delhi about November 14th, then to Beijing about December 5th, and on to Seattle about December 12th. That will take some tight fitting, since I want to stay here at Nsumba until the graduation of the students from my business course on November 5th, followed by a week of meeting with incoming PC volunteers Nov. 7-12. Somewhere in there I am supposed to have three days of medical checkups and stuff.
