Yesterday was the start of a new school week. I had a hard time getting up; I felt super tired and wanted to go back to bed. I think it was the first time I’ve done this, but I set another alarm and slept 20 more minutes. Unfortunately I woke up groggier than before. Once I got up and moving I was fine, though, and once at school things got moving quick so I didn’t have a chance to feel sleepy.
My task for the day was to help finish marking the exams and input them into a grade book, but the whole process was messy. Teachers who didn’t show up on Saturday had to mark their portion of exams during class time, but they also had pupils to teach. I helped a couple teachers with marking, but I could only do so much. It felt like the first day of school scramble all over again, not to mention organizing a new “riveting results” English class.
I was meant to be sitting in this room most of the day marking exams, but thankfully the process was disorganized and I got to practice some music with Ezekia. We practiced “Happy Birthday,” “Tanzania National Anthem,” and some basic music theory. I’m really enjoying working with Ezekia because he seems to have some free time while at the school and he’s teaching me a lot during it. I did wind up moving back and forth between marking and music as some teachers finished and I could input the grades. Not everyone finished, however, so today will be more of the same.
After school I went on the bus route again. I really like seeing the area that surrounds where I’m living. The wealth gap is very interesting to observe. There are some shacks that are no more than 100 square feet made of branches, mud, sticks and corrugated tin roofing (used as walls, roofing, or both). The next piece of land may be the same, a piece of farm land—grazing pasture or crop fields, or a beautifully large house with all the modern amenities and a security wall with electric wiring. The bus route takes me through so many areas I wouldn’t otherwise see, and I’m glad I get to do so. After dropping all the kids off I went back to school with Abby (a teacher isn’t a daughter of Lucas, but is called sister and lives with the family) to do a bit more work. By the time we were leaving school it was 6 and a big storm had rolled in.
We waited for a while hoping it would let up, but someone at some point decided to go for it and we jogged home—very lightly and gingerly, it wasn’t much of a run. The thunder was so loud and constant it was actually a bit scary. Lightning was striking everywhere; what light was lost by the near-black clouds blocking out the sun was made up for by the bright flashes of lightning all around us. I was happy to see some stormy rain, but next time I’d prefer to be inside.
Last night I practiced guitar for a while so I’d be able to teach the kids “Happy Birthday” today. Jovin was incessantly begging to play which was a bit funny at first, but it got annoying after some time. For dinner we had one of my favorite meals which is a green—unripe—banana, some boiled potatoes, a meat of choice, and some veggies. Overall it was a long day, but after waking up really tired I was happy to be kept busy and active.