School Days-- Iron Rule Days

Rebecca with beet harvest from our garden.

The weather has definitely changed in the past week. It was cold as recently as last Tuesday, and now it is not. The sun is beating down harder, the dryness is turning everything to dust, we don't need socks in our houses at night. I have not worn a wetsuit in the pool this week, and I am in short sleeves at work. I know many like the cold, but I am definitely a warm weather person.

Last week I described some of the ways in which we are thwarted and left to wait patiently for the oft-constipated bowels of bureaucracies to move (Tanzanian and Canadian), and I have no updates of change to report at this writing although it seems certain now, that the visa process will not be done in time for our volunteer to participate in the program for her in Canada. We are hoping for better outcomes on the other things we are wating for.

We have been enjoying the return to school routines for the third week and have settled into activities we participated in last year on weeknights we feel we can spare. Wednesday evening choir is the most consistent. Since the kids are dropped off at our office by the school bus at 4:30 pm, we usually head straight there when they arrive and get home after 7. That is a general challenge of our situation: we really need to be prepared with all of our stuff for the entire workday and evening before we leave at 6:40am. Choir is enjoyable for Rebecca and I and the kids are content to read or search the church grounds for hedgehogs and chameleons (and usually find at least one). We are preparing music for a church harvest festival at the end of September. We are singing an eclectic repertoire with a choral selection from Handel's Judas Maccabeus called "Praise the Lord," a quirky barbershop quartet version of the old hymn 'Count your blessings' and another contemporary piece called "Thankful" that sounds like a jazzy Sondheim ballad. We have a mixed group of Tanzanian, European and South Asian singers, so it has been a rewarding challenge to get us to sing together in harmony in the 'crunchier' sections of the music.

Among the highlights of the last 10 days, I would mention three that were somewhat out of the routine. The first was a team meeting this past Friday. In an organization like MCC, the character of a team can change significantly from year to year based on the number of 1, 3, and 6 year expatriate staff that come and go. In a way, each fall can feel like a fresh start as most changes happen over the summer. It is also typical for staff to take vacations for some part of the summer. Our family was out of town, as was our Country Rep Sharon. We have all been back together in the office in the past month but this was the first all-day meeting where we discussed directions for the year ahead, changing roles, etc. We met at Sharon's house and had lunch together as well. It is interesting to see that we are smaller this year; notably Zoe, our SALT volunteer, left after her year of service and we were not successful in recruiting any new one-year volunteers this year. I am posting a photo here of our MCC team this year. Besides me and Rebecca, there is Sharon our Country Rep, Lucia our Finance Officer, and Chrispin our Agriculture Programs Coordinator. Among the exciting things we discussed was the location of our planned annual retreat. It is not decided yet, but Zanzibar as well as Mwanza on Lake Victoria are high on the list. This is one of the perks of living in such a beautiful country.

Friday evening we had a surprise visitor. Nyambura, a friend of Rebecca's from seminary who lives in Kenya, was down in Arusha for a wedding. She came in by bus from Nairobi and we picked her up on the way home from Gymkhana on Friday. She only had a short visit with us, not even staying over, but Rebecca enjoyed catching up after nearly 15 years of not seeing each other.

The second unusual activity was a field trip our family took this weekend to the far northwest end of town. (We live on the Southeast end) so it was about an hour drive. Our friends, Neil and Christy Rowe Miller, who attend our church here and are former MCCers, live closer to the foothills of Mt. Meru. (Interesting side note, Neil is a cousin of Marjorie, a classmate from high school who I saw at our HS reunion this summer.) We drove up to their house and then took a hike into the Meru foothills. We walked around for several hours in an agro-forest that surrounds Arusha National Park which goes up to the top of Mt. Meru. It was good to get out of town and do some hiking, although being dry season it was incredibly dusty on many of the paths and we came home looking like we had been plowing a field all day. Although we did not summit any ridges we did have some nice overlooks on Arusha, and passed through some interesting ravines. No wildlife except Neil's two dogs that accompanied us.

When we got back to their house, Christy had prepared Nestle's toll house cookies (a rare treat!) and a spaghetti dinner. We really enjoyed the time together with them and we learned about an app (Openstreets) where all the trails around the foothills of Meru are marked and can be followed with GPS on a phone. So we are hoping to come back and do some more exploring sometime.

Rebecca led music for church on Sunday and I continue to help with Sunday school registration. What is interesting about our Sunday school is that we had about 75 this week, and in the class I had taught, about 2/3 were new, and about 1/3 from the previous week were not there. I can see it will be a challenge to keep track of who is who in this context.

Teachers arriving into training session.

Monday morning at work was our third unusual event. Rebecca and I went to witness a training conducted by one of our local partners, Mwangaza, at a secondary school about 45 minutes out of Arusha. The project they are doing is teacher professional development on sensitization to issues of child protection. To that end, they are training teachers to refrain from using corporal punishment as a behavior management tool in favor of more effective alternative forms of discipline. While corporal punishment is highly regulated in TZ (not quite illegal), it is still frequently used in schools by many teachers, and generally looked upon favorably. The training includes awareness about the psychological harm that can result and reasons why it is less effective  compared to other classroom management strategies. The training includes a workshop to help the school write and implement a child protection policy, and to implement 'safe school clubs' (anti-bullying clubs) for kids because bullying is another common form of school violence.

Rebecca and I listened for a half day with 28 teachers who were participating. It was interesting and a great opportunity to practice our Swahili comprehension. Fortunately they provided many written materials which are easier to understand because the words are in front of us. The 5-day training began with a philosophical discussion of mindset (fixed vs. growth) to encourage teachers to think about how to approach difficult challenges. It was a good strategy because much of what they taught afterwards was quite challenging to many implicit assumptions about their practices. Generally, though, I sensed the teachers were open to change and particpated actively.

David's Swahili homework.

On the subject of education, since I did not post yesterday evening, I will mention one last activity we participated this Tuesday evening, which was a visit to our own kids' school for parents to meet the primary school teachers. Because school is so far from home, we opted to pick up the kids directly from school and spend an hour at the nearby Coffee Lodge until the program began. It is good to be involved as much as possible. St. Constantine's is a good school, but some of the teaching can be uneven and it is important as parents to be on top of details and express expectations. David is not as satisfied this year as he was last year and we are trying to make sure that he is getting what he needs pedagogically in a way that reflects best practices in primary education. It is challenging because the British system, particularly in Africa, puts a very high value on conformity and rigid obedience, as a pathway to success in school. Threat of punishment is often preferred over positive reinforcement. (Ex. David's whole class just got their first detention because someone was running during morning line-up. They all had to write down the 100 rules of St. Constantine during recess. Are there that many? I think it ended up being a creative writing assignment!)

St. Cons tries to do much better, but many of teachers only experienced that in their own education and may not have the experience to do something different. I think it helps if parents like us can help children negotiate these experiences and make the best of the situation they are in.

I am caught up to the present moment, so I will stop here.

Bonus Photo: David helping with beets too.