Visiting with Tanzanians

Today we went to visit Ali and his family. He lives in a mud house, and is in the process of building a new house made of sticks and mud. His new house will have four rooms, and he will also build a kitchen in another building a few steps away from the house. The family was very honored that we would visit them, and they treated us very kindly. We were served a delicious lunch of a rice-coconut mixture with a very tasty sauce and all the chicken we could eat. He served us cold sodas, which is pretty amazing since there is no electricity near his house. He put the sodas in a bucket of water and let them cool during the night, and then brought them inside in the morning to keep them cool for us. Living in the Usambara Mountains, we are having warm days, and very cool nights. The view from his house is spectacular. His house is located near the top of a mountain, and we could see two surrounding valleys, one of which contained our school and our house far below. We had rain showers while we were visiting, so the walk (slide) down the steep, slippery slope was a fun way to end a most enjoyable day.

We are now entering the last quarter of the first term, and I am now teaching two Form IV classes in addition to all of the Form III classes. I teach in an O-Level school, which is equivalent to an American high school, so Form I would compare to ninth grade, Form II to tenth grade, etc. The school system here is oriented around very high-stakes testing. At the end of Form IV, students take national examinations. If the pass, they can go on to A-Level schools, which are like the first two years of college, and contain Forms V and VI. If they do well on their national examinations at the end of Form VI, they can then go on to study at a university. If a student fails the national examination at the end of Form IV, he or she can repeat Form IV and try again. The same applies to students who fail the Form VI examinations. Most students at the school where I am teaching are very well motivated, and are working hard to pass their national exams.

In my Form III classes I am currently teaching them how to do calculations using logarithms and four-figure tables. They are not allowed to use calculators on the national exam, but are expected to use four-figure tables. WOW, that takes me back to my high school days. Actually, they are not that much harder to use than a calculator, and I am enjoying it again. Also, it really stress proficiency with logarithms.