Week end

I only taught two classes on Thursday as the GI problems that had been troubling me since Monday worsened and Sister G drove us home a bit early. In consultation with Leah, I started on a course of the antibiotics we had brought with us for this purpose and woke Friday am feeeling much better. Simon stayed home and I walked to school to teach 4 classes - 2 standard 6, 1 S5 and 1 S4. Not without the usual Tz glitches however, the power went out at 9am and one laptop immediately ran out of power so I only had 3 laptops to work with. Fortunately, the power came back before the remaining laptop batteries ran out.

I focussed on the word processing options - more advanced with the S6s than the y0unger classes - changing font and font size, bold, colour etc. The younger ones need more exposure to the keyboard.

The language barrier is not really a problem. As long as I speak computer (left-click, save, hold shift button down while typing etc), while I demonstrate something, they cluster around and give their full attention and seem to understand. They pick it up quickly and when they get their turn at the computer, they may have to ask me (Sister! Sister!) how to do something again but they remember what it is they want to do. I will introduce the basics of Spreadsheets to the S6s next week and use the rest of last three teaching days to reinforce what we have been able to cover. That will cover the syllabus. Sister is most concerned about the 6s because they are tested this year.

Edna, the computer teacher, seems quite competent and was very pleased that the basic computer book I had brought with me was for the school and borrowed it for the weekend. At least 4 of the teachers have expressed an interest in learning more so, next week, I will see how we can make more time for them to have some teaching too.

It is hard to identify what makes the days so exhausting - the heat, the challenges of communication, the constant noise - probably all of this plus a bit of dehydration to say nothing about the GI issues. But everyday in the afternoon, most of us doze or nap and Sally and I are in bed by about 8:30ish pm.

We headed off to Peponi's on the coast south of Tanga - about 1h40m trip by back road from Muheza. In addition to running water and the ocean, the best part of being here is the quiet. No traffic, no fruit bats. The second best thing is being able to keep down and in a beer and most of a meal last night - surf and turf - prawns, calamari, steak and chips (fries)! The third best thing is sitting outside in the breeze, something we rarely do in Muheza.

Tutaonana
Rose