School keeps on trucking, Most days I get in at 7am when school starts, but if I have no classes till later this arrival time can be flexible, when I'm free, I try to help out where i can assisting with the little ones who are always a demanding handful for any single teacher, they love the company, they see me as a new source of entertainment and the teacher always welcomes the help... Sometimes i get involved with the Internet in the library a handy resource for keeping in contact. Being part of a school is funny, this school has similar systems to any in New Zealand, with timetables, class and teaching structures, it is funny to be a teacher because it is quite the role reversal having to deal with either over excited and out of control primary kids or teenagers that think they are smarter, faster, stronger then you or just too kool for school. My reaction to this kind of behaviour is just to ignore the kids who try to act too kool, they really want your attention as you are new and white and secretly they want to impress, so if you act uninterested they soon respect you and learn to tow the line. Remembering back to those good old teenage days I can picture myself back at school, its a hilarious stage that everyone goes through, There is this one guy at our school who is always showing off to the girls especially in sport, man it gets frustrating because if the younger kids are playing soccer he will just jump right in and play very aggressively kicking balls harder than necessary, trying to hurt and bully others and basically interrupting the game, I leave discipline to the elder teachers who are more than sick to death of his antics.. Ha ha the ways of the world. I am really enjoying teaching sport especially and have taught most of the classes from the primary through to secondary how to play rugby, we have some exciting games now with the older kids, they are starting to take to it. It is refreshing to assist the teachers in the English department and get some time to talk to the older students that have large aspirations, I try to engage in as many subject related conversations as possible constantly questioning and testing the students, I focus more on the ones that want to learn, as my time here is short. I like telling the students how much potential they have and that any thing is possible if they want it enough. Sometimes i feel like a preacher emphasising a think big approach, but if this can effect just one student positively then my work here is complete. I am amazed at how much a student from a developed country with a decent educational background can bring to a local school in a developing country, most of these kids really want to learn and sponge any info off you. Most are so competitive at sport, so eager in class they are only really limited by the aspirations and abilities of their teachers, my main problem is time, I can see quite a bright future for students at this school with the right implementation, unfortunately some teachers are quite laid back and not dedicated to positive change, so i just stick with doing what I can.
News here can be shocking, Tanzania has real problems as most African countries do, you hear about these problems consistently in the headlines of major national news papers and on the television, but there is a lack of a strong government, or public sector to deal with important issues. For instance there has just recently been another albino killing north of Dar-es-Salaam this takes the total to around 30 within the past year, maybe more, I heard about these disturbing acts before I came to Tanzania and the are very real here, Albinos are normal Africans born with a deficient gene that colours their skin whiter than even ours, here they are being hunted, hunted for body parts especially organs, genitals, limbs, breasts and fingers. The problem is superstition, many Tanzanians both the uneducated and the higher classes are told by witchdoctors (whose opinion they trust sometimes to the point of idiocy) that albino parts can bring good luck and wealth, there is huge money paid for these body parts, people will brutally murder and even dig up graves just to get hold of these, government action has been ineffective so far as this problem escalates. Another massive issue here is still poaching and animal smuggling, over 50,000 animals have been the victims of poaching within the year as the problem threatens major tourist attractions and endangers species of wild life. Species like the Rhino are now under strict machine gun protection, it is a shame that this age old problem is still of such large concern here...
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