If not going according to plan can be ‘normal’ then I have had a normal week.

Monday I was scheduled to visit three schools in a southern ward of the Bukoba District.  When I arrived at the office Josiah was snowed under with extra work to get World Vision funding for some disadvantaged District schools so I bravely said I’d go on my own.  The first two schools are on the main road so there was little chance of me getting lost and the third is on a road that features often in my nightmares about driving here (I still can’t figure out how Michelle fitted the Suzuki between the truck and the pile of rocks while going down that rocky 1:1 incline) and I know it well!  The Ward Education Coordinator was going to meet me at Mubembe and help with the translation issues.

Two of the schools I visited were government schools and one was a private school.  The differences were stark! One of the government schools is so lacking in classrooms that it is running ‘double sessions’.  Half the students come at a time and although the school day goes a little later in to the afternoon the students are getting less classroom time than they should.  The Standard VII class I observed had about 80 students crowded 3 and 4 to a desk yet you could have heard a pin drop when the teacher was talking.  The teacher used group work and teaching aids to make the algebra class effective and enjoyable.  Another mentor found!

The private school has a pupil teacher ratio of about 18:1 and there are additional ‘teacher assistants’ in most classes.  The children are in no way as advantaged as a child in a typical Australian primary school classroom but the gulf between Bethania and Kemondo Primary Schools is immense. 

Yet both achieved 100% pass rate in the 2010 Standard VII exams, totally understandable and expected for Bethania, but as for Kemondo – I am going to keep asking the Head Teacher until she tells me her secret strategies for success!

These are the pre-school children at Mubembe PS – they don’t see too many Wazungu and became quite excited.

Tuesday I declared a training day for Josiah.  He was working on his application for WV project funds but all the numbers he’d carefully put in an Excel spreadsheet had vanished.  I said not to worry, I’d find them (more in hope than certainty) and luckily was able to retrieve them.  We then practised saving documents in logical places and using ‘insert formula’ rather than using a calculator to do the arithmetic and then entering results.  This was much more useful than me travelling off into the wilds of Katerero to schools that are quite a way off the beaten track on my own and (possibly) never being seen again.  I have my second teacher resource book well under way and appreciated the chance to work on that.

We will do more review visits next week and it will be possibly a good thing to leave some until March when (and this was to everyone’s great surprise and delight!) a new VSO volunteer comes to work with the BDC.  I learned on Tuesday that an expert on Education Management who has worked in Tanzania before so understands the context here well should arrive in March.  More about that when I know more!

 On Monday it was decided that Wednesday would be a public holiday rather than the alternative day, which was Tuesday.  It was an Islamic Holy Day (possibly the Prophet’s Birthday) but the shape of the moon influences when the celebration should be held and that is only decided at the last minute. 

So on Wednesday we packed the thermos, teabags and powdered milk and travelled up to Rubafu Point, about 40 km north of Bukoba, to looked at Uganda across a short stretch of lake.  There is a big fishing industry there with refrigerated trucks bringing fish back to Bukoba for processing and export.  I liked this photo of  a fishing settlement, taken from the road high above it – the colours and its slight out of focus-ness put me in mind of a Cezanne painting.

I also have a giggle whenever I see this version of the ‘ventilation brick’ that is employed above windows in local constructions – a great advertising coup by a multinational giant!

Thursday Josiah was not well so again I was in the office, working on my new opus, when two colleagues, fresh back from a month long training course, came in to ask me if  I’d run some mathematics training days in the further reaches of the District.  They have undertaken to organise all the logistics and the budget. (I think they’d done work on planning at their training course!)  I asked if mentors from ‘my wards’, whom I had selected, could come and help with the training, and as that seemed to be acceptable, we agreed to start this new program as soon as I’m back from Serengeti in March.  This is an excellent plan  – if it all goes as I hope – I just have to do the training component and not worry about transport, refreshments, etc.  I just need to get those teacher resource booklets!  They are still scheduled to be printed by February 22^nd and all will still be fine even if there is a week’s delay.

Friday Josiah returned looking fit and well.  We made more plans for next week!  I’ll let you know how many work out.

Children across the road from our house doing a physics experiment.

 ( Or playing on a see-saw they've made?)