No Water, No Class

It is tough to plan ahead in Tanzania, because you never know what is going to happen. Last night the water and electricity turned off. This morning the electricity is back on, but no water. As I was about to start teaching my form V physics class today, I was informed that my students had to report to the kitchen to fetch water from the well. So much for my physics lesson. I also just found out that tomorrow we have ‘baraza’. Not sure what that is, but I gather that it is basically a huge school meeting for all the students and staff.

Maybe the baraza will be kind of like a kick off assembly for the new school year. School has been open for over a month, but students are still trickling in. About 25 of my 35 form V students have reported to school. If the rest don’t arrive soon, the government will offer their spots to other students who did not make the cut during the first A-level school selection process. So it may be a couple more months until all my students arrive. It is especially frustrating as a physics teacher because the topics build on one another. Students are really jeopardizing their chances of succeeding in A-level physics by arriving late. A second selection student who comes two months late to school hardly has any chance at all of doing well. And unfortunately the students don’t have a chance to fail out and start A-level over. They just ride along for two years not understanding anything and then fail the A-level national examination.