As the end of the month is fast approaching, I figured it was time for the February blog! We are in the swing of things here in the sweltering city of Dar es Salaam. On the school front, I am absolutely overwhelmed with meetings right now (as you might have figured out by the title of this blog). In the last two weeks, I have literally had 2-3 meetings each day about new students that want acceptanceinto the school, existing students who are doing poorly, and students that we are unfortunately "counseling out" of the school because they are not achieving at a high enough level. As I might have mentioned before, IST is the best (and only) school in the city and surrounding areas that provides a really good education. There are other school in Dar, but none that prepare students for University like IST does. So........its a precarious situation for parents who have children with learning disabilities, etc. Our school is not designed to accommodate large numbers of Special Education students nor are we equipped to deal with students who have significant disabilities. Consequently, we tend to see a lot of disappointed parents and students, and in the last few weeks, I have seen a lot of tears. Its not easy telling a parent that her child didn't "make the grade" to get into the IB program for grade 11/12, and she will have to send him away to boarding school in the UK for the next two years. I wish it was different, but unfortunately our school curriculum doesn't allow for low achievement. Sad...
On a brighter note, I recently returned from my ESP (Extended Study Program) in Moshi. This is a week long trip in which every grade 9 or 10 student and teacher goes away for the week. I put hours and hours into planning my trip. All of the other ESP trip options are long standing trips that IST does every year. I really felt that a trip to Light in Africa in Moshi could be a great opportunity for the students, so I planned another trip to add to the list. I had 15 eager 9th/10th grade students sign up for the trip, so it was a go. Unfortunately, three of the most high maintenance, loud, obnoxious girls in the school decided to sign up! God help me. I had some preliminary meeting with them, basically threatening their lives if they misbehaved!!!! They were definitely scared!
The infamous 3.....We left on Dar on February 7th in a huge bus full of IST students. Half of the group was mine, the other half was going to the Crater Highlands for a 5 day hike. When we arrived in Moshi after a long day on the bus, I momentarily regretted my decision to plan this trip. The hotel wasn't nice, the t.v.'s didnt have enough channels, the city of Moshi had nothing, the guys on the streets were "creepy", the towels were not clean, the beds weren't comfortable, and so on. God forbid you take these kids away from their Dar mansions, their house help, their personal drivers, their gardeners, they security guards, their cooks, their playstations and big screen t.v.'s and their imported food. Unbelieveable. It took awhile, but they did manage to settle in, and realized that the hotel (which is one of the nicest in Moshi) wasn't as bad as they made it out to be!
The week turned into an incredible experience for these kids, and was eye opening for all of them. They got to see the "real" Tanzania for the first time, and they made amazing connections to the kids at Light in Africa. We went swimming, painted one of the buildings, helped the bigger boys write letters to their sponsors, hiked to a beautiful waterfall and just hung out with the babies and toddlers. I think most of them are already planning their return trip this summer. And, I must say, 2 of the 3 girls mentioned before turned out to be the most involved and enthusiastic. I was SO proud of them, and I actually made an awesome connection with them over the course of the week. I can see a change in then at school, and their teachers have even commented on it. So, as they say, "two out of three ain't bad!"
In other news......I am looking into buying a car. I have reached my breaking point with taxis. You can only argue so much over the price of a taxi, before you want to kill ALL taxi drivers. I do have a personal driver now. His name is Chris and he drives a tuk tuk!!! Theresa, my good friend here, and I use him all the time! Tuk tuks are 3 wheeled cars, that are open on the sides. They are becoming very popular here, and are much cheaper than taxis! Its a great way to get around here, especially because you get the nice breeze on the ride! Anyhoo...by my next blog, I just may have a new car.
OK, I should go. Abdi is coming in about an hour and I am so happy to have a visitor! I need a break from school and sitting at home watching tv. My days are so busy that I cant seem to do much at night besides watch the Style Network. Unfortunately, my "Office" seasons are both finished. I am unhealthily addicted to the Office. I LOVE Dwight!
OK...toodles.
Jen
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