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School was mighty boring yesterday. End of month exams began (and will finish today) meaning I was stuck marking all day. I was hoping I could sit in and supervise exams; maybe use that time to read or work on some projects—I wasn’t so lucky. The head teacher announced the group of teachers who would be marking and the group who would be supervising, my name was part of the first list. I settled around a table with 6 fellow teachers which we didn’t move from other than for meals and bathroom breaks. I was pretty proud of what only 7 of us accomplished, but it wasn’t enough. We got through half of the exams. Once it reached 3:30, we quickly forgot the announcement the head teacher had made that morning: all exams must be graded on the same day they’re taken.

It was after school when things got exciting. The kids and I sat in the “parking lot” for 30ish minutes with a driverless bus. He eventually arrived with tiny bus, telling us we were going to have to use it (I don’t know why, I’ve stopped asking questions regarding the bus situation). It took 20 minutes to figure out all the kids weren’t going to fit in the bus. We called for backup and Lucas arrived with one of these brand-spanking-new busses he recently got. The kids were very excited and it took a while for them to settle down, but eventually everyone got home.

I got home around 6:00 and went straight to my room. I was planning on reading for a little bit to rest, but at 7:15 I woke up with my book on my chest and a bit of drool on my cheek. When I went on over to the house, I was surprised to find a new addition to the family. A small baby (about 2 years old) is staying with us for a while because her mother—one of Lucas’ friends—broke her leg and can’t take care of a rambunctious child at the moment. I slept very well last night despite the long nap, and I’m ready for a long day of marking.

Yesterday was very productive. Abby and I were on time for the bus route—these days it’s a miracle if we’re only 5 minutes late, so on time is great! At school I was busy with music all day. I never really had a chance to look up; the whole music class was practicing for a performance on Friday so I had to be very involved with the guitar players. Tuesdays are also the days when the older grades have music and it’s more fun with them because they have a little finger dexterity. I got very tired after lunch and felt kind of bad for the kids I was teaching—I wasn’t bringing the same energy I normally do.

School ended promptly yesterday. Normally there’s a slow trickle of one class ending, those kids shuffling to the busses, then another class and another. Yesterday there was a bell rung right at 3:25 and all kids started running out of classes, causing bottle necks at stairways and doorframes. It was a bit chaotic and I wouldn’t recommend it again; the slow trickle is a bit gentler and safer. What added to the rush were the beginning stages of a heavy downpour.

I got home early. There was no remedial yesterday because there are end of month exams today and the teachers wanted to give the kids a break. I went with the bus route and then straight home. I supervised Jovin and Rebecca doing homework; they are some of the most self sufficient kids I know except when it comes to homework. They will sit staring at their paper doing who knows what for hours, not writing a single thing—it’s only once someone is looking over their shoulder or reminding them every 60 seconds to focus that they will crank out any work. Thankfully, I got nearly 2 hours of reading in supervising them. I got to bed around 9:30. Today I will be supervising exams and marking all day.

Yesterday was officially the halfway point of my commitment here at hope school. I’m expecting this next month and change to fly by; whenever I reach a halfway mark, I’ve found that time speeds up—unless it’s something I’m not enjoying and want desperately to end. Over the night it had rained nonstop, with a light drizzle persisting into day break. The roads were quite muddy, leading to difficult driving conditions. Abby and I got picked up from home which was nice—normally we walk to school and meet the bus there, but the rain had killed our motivation. The bus route had to be altered a tad. Some roads provided a challenge and others were decidedly impassable. With the difficult terrain we added 15 minutes to our route time and ended up being pretty late. Unfortunately, most of the busses had similar issues and the start of the school day was quietly postponed.

I was pretty busy at school yesterday. In the morning I spent a little over an hour organizing the computer room for the afternoon session of Riveting Results. Last week’s lessons were scrapped because the A/C and electrician people had left a terrible mess—it wasn’t until yesterday that the cleaners had finally cleared it out. It the commotion of installation and cleaning, the computers were moved all around and the chargers got tied into knots resembling one of my skillful fishing birds nests, so I had to rearrange all of this.

After computer setup was break; after break was English; after English was more computer setup. I went to break early and hurriedly ate my bread and drank my tea, burning my tongue in the process. I had planned a long lesson of exercises and wanted to get a head start on writing the things on the blank board. I spent the rest of the day jumping between these tasks. After lunch I was teaching English which I had to leave early to jump into riveting results. I went on the bus route home after school which went smoothly. The roads had dried out a little bit during the day and were less problematic.

I went home after this bus route (normally I stay for remedial and the evening route) because I was exhausted. However, upon arriving home, I was told that we—Abby, Edith and I—were going to the new school site to plant crops there. The crop field is about an acre of land, maybe a bit more, and I was nervous for what this activity was to entail. When we got there plans had changed because the tractor that was supposed to come failed to show up. I was sent to join cement carries who were filling the foundation for the wall being built around the property. I enjoyed it; I have been missed physical labor.

The site is moving along swimmingly and I’m anxious to see the progress over the next few months. My body was so sore after only 30 minutes of hauling buckets of cement; I would fill up two buckets halfway with 40ish pounds of cement each, walk 100ish feet to the wall line, dump it in, walk back and repeat. We were at the site for 2ish hours. When we got home at 7:30 I was covered in dried cement, dust, and mud, so decided a shower was needed. I took dinner early and retreated to my room around 8:30 to get a little extra sleep. This morning I woke up a bit sore, but I’m sure I’ll be alright once I get moving. Today is music day!

I would classify yesterday as a productive bummer. I woke up at 5:30 in the morning so as to be ready to leave for church at 6:00. I was told at 6:30 that we weren’t going. It wasn’t until around 8:00 that everybody woke up and started moving. With those few hours I was able to make some calls and got started on the heap of marking I needed to get through. When people got up and breakfast was started, I settled in for a few hours at the dining room/ homework table and was able to finish marking one of the two tests.

For most of the morning it was raining, leaving us stuck inside. At 11 Jovin finally woke up and helped cure my boredom for a little while. Very creative is his mind and it helps me to feel young; we played some carbs and make believe games—his favorite activity. He had homework and I had some lesson plans to get done, so back to boredom I went. My only light at the end of the tunnel was a concert I was going to in the evening. Ezekia is finish up his time at university and has a bunch of exams and performances these coming months and I’m trying to use them as a solid excuse to get out and see parts of Arusha. I worked on my lesson plans for today up until it was time to leave for the concert.

The person who was supposed to drive me to the concert, Mgisha, showed up about 30 minutes late. We got in the car drove down the driveway and turned right back around. Mgisha got a note that he needed to go to Lucas’ mechanic office to work on some of the safari cars. My one exciting event of the day was canceled and I was a little upset. I wasn’t worried because I had another test to finish marking, but I felt bad letting my friend Ezekia down. Next weekend there’s another performance I can go to and make it up to him. The rest of the evening was spent marking and eating dinner and then to sleep.

Yesterday when going to the performance was cancelled, I really needed to find something to do to get out of the house—even if just for a few minutes. I convinced the kids to walk with me to a little shop to get some water (this served another purpose as I was out of bottled water). I was also able to buy some bubble gum. You can buy 1 piece for 50 shillings or 100 pieces for 3000 shillings. I opted for spending just over a dollar on 100 pieces. Each piece cost me 1.2 cents.

It’s starting to get to the point where I’m needing to prepare and plan for my next adventure over here. I’ve just found out I will be going to Hawassa, Ethiopia next with Water for Good (W4G) given that everything works out in the coming months. I’m nearing my halfway point here; I think I’ll be starting with W4G around April 12. It feels like I have a long time until then, but I know it’ll be upon me in no time.

I didn’t take many pictures yesterday—there wasn’t much to take pictures of—only this one here of the house dog in his favorite sleeping spot. I’m excited to be going back to school today; it’s raining really hard right now (normally I’m safe from getting wet in the mornings), making me a bit homesick and I’m more than happy to welcome the craziness of school to distract me.

Yesterday flew by quickly. I’m having a hard time remembering what I even did. In the morning I drove Jovin and Rebecca to school. We were late as usual. As we were leaving the house at 8:30, I asked Jovin, “What time do classes start today?” and he told me 8:00am. Aye, aye, aye. At school my Global StoryBridges students were waiting for me. None of the other teachers had showed up for that program yet—wouldn’t do so for another couple hours. Pius found me and said he wanted me to do corrections with his English class for the Friday exams they took and then give them another exam afterwards. I was able to give my GSB kids a task to keep busy while I was gone. I was so thankful when it hit 10:30 and was break time—I was finally able to take a second to think about what I was doing and how I could juggle being in two places at once.

During break I spotted these three broken tables. They belong to the chaos of music and bees that occurred on Friday. Previously I thought only one table had been broke, but now I see that it was multiple. It’s a bummer because I witnessed the two weeks of hard work put into making these tables. Lucas had them built at his home, so everyday I would walk past and see a little progress. And oh how fast it was ruined. Anyways, during break Pamela showed up for GSB! She doesn’t know anything about the video editing software so the kids didn’t have much use for her—it’s a bit like the blind leading the poor sighted. At least Pamela was able to supervise them while I taught another English class and gave them another exam. During the exam I left the room to go back to the GSB kids. This led to lunch and the arrival of another GSB teacher. Unfortunately this teacher left after lunch; he just wanted to come for a meal. The rest of my day at school was spent preparing a lesson plan for Monday (Pius informed me he will have me teaching his English lessons then) and marking the exams that the kids took. It was funny to see the increase in scores from the kids in the unsupervised class… I guess I should have expected it.

At home it was more of the same. We left school at 3:30 and I brought the exams home with me to mark and was given two more from the Friday exams. I was able to start some laundry and then hang it up. Around 6:30 Mama Edith took Jovin, Abby and I on an adventure to Lucas’ new secondary school site. I went about a month ago when it was an empty plot of land. Now they have just begun progress on the wall.

The school construction site was dwarfed by the next stop on our adventure—the 2028 African Cup stadium. Just 5 minutes down the road, this behemoth of a stadium is being built for the football tournament which will bring a lot of economic prosperity to this region of Arusha. It’s in such an interesting location; there’s no developed land within eyesight. Maybe a few homes around the area and shack-shops, but nothing like big hotels or restaurants for all the football lovers who will be coming to watch. It sticks out like a sore thumb, but I think it will be good for the community. We got home around 8:00 for the little excursion. I was very tired and hungry, but I had a little more marking I wanted to finish. It was around 9:30 by the time I finished eating and the marking (not all of it, just the one English test from yesterday. I still have two tests to mark today). I went to bed around 11:00 after showering and reading. I was told that we were going to church at 6:00 this morning so I woke up at 5:30, and at 6:30 was texted that church is off. Aye, aye, aye.

Eventful day yesterday! We’ve finally got our regular bus back!

You can see very clearly how we regressed throughout the past couple of weeks. I’m happy to say that this endeavor has really showed me that luxury and comfort are relative. I never thought I’d be happy to be sitting in a bus with broken chairs, no seatbelts, dust everywhere, and exposed wiring—but here we are. Yesterday the kids had exams all morning. I was assigned to supervise and mark as the exams were completed. You’d think with how often these kids take tests that they’d be doing really well; unfortunately, “practice makes perfect” does not apply. After lunch was sports and games (the eventful part of the day). For the first half of the two hours there was to be a musical free for all in the dining hall. The second half was meant to be a drivers versus teachers football match.

The dancing and singing performances start out great. Kids were having fun—only one table was broken from some jumping. Then the real chaos struck. Everybody who was outside came rushing in to the dining hall. Things quieted down a bit and nobody really knew what was going on. We then learned that some angry bees were attacking anyone and everyone who decided to venture onto the football pitch. And more than that, choosing select victims to chase down. We learned later that someone had disturbed a nest outside of the school compound while driving, been attacked by hundreds of bees, went to seek for helped from someone in the school grounds while being chased, and led the swarm to the football field.

This was his abandoned vehicle that we saw later on the bus route. The swarm was still a bit angry in this area and we had to close all the windows of the bus, making it a nice and warm sauna. There were still some people who decided to venture through this stretch of road on foot, but quickly realized the mistake and started running for their lives and seating at their faces/necks. It was pretty funny to watch.

Eventually the bees dispersed enough to where we could safely play our drivers vs. teachers football game. It was so much fun. A bunch of kids were watching on the sidelines, a few bees made for a spectacle when they decided to attack someone, and us teachers got completely embarrassed. The score was 4-0; I don’t think us drivers had a single attempt on goal. And what’s worse is that I, being someone who has never been great at football, was sitting among our top 3 players. I also found that my conditioning is very poor right now.

The rest of the day was nice. I went with the afternoon bus route and then came back to school to mark exams. Class four and seven took 6 exams each and the other classes from class 3 and up took 2 exams each, totaling 18 exams to be marked. Assuming about 100 kids in each class level, us teachers had approximately 1800 exams to mark! I took mine home last night and finished most of the work. The evening remedial route didn’t require my services last night and I think I’ll be off the hook for the time being; another teacher wants to go with that route now because it drops closer to his house than his previous route. I was able to use that extra time for exam marking which was nice. I still had some to finish this morning however, but at least I’m done now and will be going to school with an open schedule.

Ahhhh! Six weeks! Yesterday was stellar! Homesickness has gone (for the time being). Weather is holding up! All is good! The morning started off in a bit of a mess. Two days ago our extra bus broke down in the middle of the route and hadn’t been fixed by yesterday, leaving us stuck with this puny little thing. I feel like I can’t even call this machine a bus; it’s actually smaller than most cars in America. And it wasn’t exactly up to prime driving standards either—take a look at the tires.

The tiny bus wasn’t exactly roomy enough for the typical three adults of Abby, uncle Willium, and myself. Uncle, a term of endearment for all the non-teacher employees at the school, had to go by himself. Abby and I waited at school for another bus to come that could pick up what kids didn’t fit in Uncle’s bus. However, space was so limited in tiny bus that it could only make a few stops and had to turn around to drop the load of kids off, so it was back before any real bus had arrived. It took 3 trips to get all the kids to school. Eventually a real bus helped us out. Surprisingly everybody got to school on time!

At school, yesterday morning, I taught two full lessons for Teacher Pius. I think I’d previously said he was pawning off most of his marking duties, but scratch that—he’s pawning off all of his teacher duties. I enjoyed it though and hope to do it more, so this is in no way a complaint. I will, however, complain about the 3 hours of proper marking I decided to do. Normally I just put checks where the pupils did the work or an “x” where they didn’t, but yesterday I decided to tell them what they were getting wrong and how to fix it. Those 3 overly ambitious hours got me through 1/10 of the past months work, so maybe I’ll just revert to my old strategy for past work and reserve the good marking for future notes.

I was able to practice some guitar during remedial classes. The bus routes before and after were nothing special, thankfully. We had extra small bus back again and although it was tight we only required one trip on the routes. Abby and I got home right around 7:30, leaving ample time for me to help with homework. I was able to get to sleep around 10 which was great. Today there is a big football match between teachers and drivers; staff and kids have been hyping it up all week. I get to play in it, but I’m not sure I’ll be in for more than a couple minutes once they see my foot dexterity…

Yesterday was fun. In the morning we were still stuck with the small bus; every day we’ve been promised that the next day we’ll have our bus back, but it hasn’t happened yet. When I got to school it was time for my daily morning meeting with Pius to give me my schedule for the day, but he was no where to be found. I waited for him in his office, after 30 minutes I decided to give up and just went to do my own thing. I had some music books to mark which meant I had a good excuse to go to the music room and practice some guitar. I took breakfast and then continued to practice/mark until lunch. After lunch I offered my wonderful grading services to my friend Teacher Pamela and did that for the rest of day. Pretty boring school day, the only exciting thing was the new food I got to try: a watery corn based soup that I’m not much a fan of. After the bus route home I hung out with my buddy, driver Willium, during the hour of remedial—no lessons I could help in and Pius leaving for Ash Wednesday service left me with some nice free time.

On the evening bus route we had a bit of excitement! We were halfway through the route and had just finished dropping a girl off when the common clunk-clunk-clunk of a new manual driver stopped us dead. Unfortunately it wasn’t a newbie driver that caused this, but a broken clutch. We sat for about an hour waiting for someone to bring us a new bus we could use to finish the route. Abby and I got home around 8:30. I went straight to shower and then had dinner at 9:00. Rebecca and Jovin were really taking their time with homework, so I wasn’t able to go to bed until around 10:00. Despite the lost sleep, I’m feeling great this morning!

Yesterday I woke up very tired. It was the first day where I really wished I was back home in my own bed and could just go back to sleep. Luckily, it was only momentary; I was up and moving with energy and enthusiasm seconds after the alarm went off. Abby and I are chronically late for the morning bus route these days. We’re supposed to leave the house around 6:40—recently it’s been more like 7:00. For breakfast we had cake, left over from Abby’s birthday, which reminded of Grandpa Dave and how he enjoys a good pie for breakfast. It was music day yesterday (every Tuesday and Friday), but Pius wanted me to do some review of the test I had marked the previous day with his classes. Thankfully, no overlap with music.

The kids are starting to make some progress in music and I have a few guitarists who are going to be able to play some songs for the school soon. I have a few deadlines for the guitar players right now; they’re supposed to be able to play happy birthday for all the February birthdays by the end of the month and there is a talent contest at the end of the quarter that some need to perform in. Progress is slow, but as the few distinguish themselves I’m able to use some extra time after school and during free periods to work with them. The day progressed quickly. Being busy with music class all day helped in that respect.

During lunchtime a massive storm rolled in. The dinning hall has only a tin roof on top, no ceiling boards, so the rain pouring down on top made the room feel like the inside a snare drum. Unfortunately, this wasn’t one of the storms that passes through quickly, and it rained for the rest of the day. The weather system and clouds were so thick that it became dark much earlier than usual; normally sunset is around 7:30, yesterday it was dark by 6:45. According to my weather app it seems like it’s going to rain for the next week—officially beginning the raining season.

We had a fun time on the remedial route. We high centered the bus at one point and all the kids had to get out so the body could raise a little bit. I’d never really thought about it, but the tiny shell of the bus definitely isn’t made to carry the weight it has been—we’re at least 20 people over the capacity.

On the route I saw something that took me by surprise. I went to take a pee over a ledge that normally looks down into a dried out canyon—yesterday it was flowing with water enough to make me think I could go fishing. There were also some Maasai herders that had taken the opportunity to use the flash flood river as a watering hole for their cattle. Today it will be interesting to see if, with no more rain, the water feature still remains.

Yesterday I was very happy to be going back to school. I’m comfortable there now, and I always have something to do, even if it’s a boring task like marking exams or books (which is what I did for most of the morning). Pius, the head teacher/class 7 English teacher, had me mark his class 7 books. He hadn’t marked a single one since the last time I helped him and I think there’s now an agreement that I will be doing all of his grading. The way he showed me how to mark is really easy; I’m supposed to give a tick anywhere the work is done and an “X” wherever they didn’t finish. But, I’ve decided to give them some feedback because that’s what really helps them learn—not a participation trophy. So I spent my first 2 hours at school going through one half of the class seven books, up until break. Yesterday’s break was warmly welcomed not only because I was thankful to be able to look at something other than sloppy handwriting and misspelled words for a little bit, but because I love the little tea and bread routine nowadays.

After break Pius had me go to his class to give them a mock exam and supervise it. It feels like at this point I’m just doing his teaching duties for him. I will say that he is super busy—if any teacher, student or parent has a complaint it is sent to him and half of his day is spent in his office dealing with just these nuisances—so I don’t blame him pawning off some busy work. After they had finished the exam, I went to mark it. It only took about 45 minutes to mark (it was only one of the two classes from grade 7). I finished marking right as lunch started and went off to eat.

It was my favorite lunch yesterday. I love rice and beans; it’s a safe choice compared to things like the tiny fish. I hurried through lunch because the 30 minutes allotted for it was going to be my only free time to set up the computer room for the Riveting Results class. However, when I cut lunch short to go set up, I found the room was a mess from A/C having been installed over the weekend. The teachers decided to hold off on RR for the day and hopefully tomorrow it will be clean and cool for us!

This was good because Pius wanted me to sit in for him during his other lesson, doing the same thing as before. This go round I was smart and spent my exam supervision time marking month old notes and tests as pupils finished them. With this efficient strategy I left myself with about 2 hours of marking for today. After the regular day was done I went on the bus route. Driving around never fails to spike my heart rate, and I’m not sure I’m ever going to get used to this crazy style of transportation! Once done with the route, back to school for remedial. It was Abby’s birthday yesterday, so the head teacher had a little celebration surprise planned for her during the remedial break period. It was nice. All the kids sang. We had some cake. Abby (the one cutting the cake in the picture below) was surprised. It killed a lot of lesson time, so the kids enjoyed it.

On the remedial evening bus route, the usual and nothing special other than getting some ice cream for Abby. We had another little birthday celebration after dinner for Abby at home. We stayed up a bit later than usual eating cake and taking pictures. This morning I’m a tad tired because of it, but hopefully I’ll pull through soon. Music today!