AMDG      

When we first came here we never would have thought the weather could be as bad as it was during the first couple of weeks of February.  Cycling the dirt road to school when it is dry is not an easy task; when it is wet it is nearly impossible, especially as the last stretch was more like a fast flowing river then a road.  Still our bikes were somehow up to the task but the lack of mudguards meant that we would normally arrive very dirty.  The school itself seemed to be taken by surprise as there is no drainage system.  This meant that the playground was transformed into a giant paddling pool - much to the delight of the children.  Complaints of, "Teacher, teacher!  Gervas is swimming!"  at first seemed very weird but became fairly normal by the end of the week.  Because of this drastic action was taken, and swimming was banned.

After being told that they could not swim the children started to look for other ways to amuse themselves.  The rains had brought a variety of wildlife to the school so the kids did not have to look far.  At first they were quite happy to pick up the grasshoppers and throw them.  This soon evolved when the boys started to chase the girls with the insects (the girls did not find this as much fun).  Finally they found their favourite game of placing a grasshopper on the teacher's back, without telling him, then waiting for the grasshopper to jump into the said teacher's hair/neck and watch this teacher frantically try to get rid of the insect (we did not find this as much fun). 

Along with insects a large number of big frogs were also to be found in the school.  The children had a simple game here.  They would run up beind the frog and kick it to make it hop.  This game was only really amusing to them when the frog would jump through the long grass.  Upon seeing the long grass move but not being able to see what was causing it to move, some teachers (i.e. Dermot) would automatically assume it was a snake and jump several feet out the way.  Most of these games, however, did not last long.  The sun is so powerful here that within a week the place was nearly completely dry again.

Bizzarely, when the school had nearly completely dried and all that was left of the rain was a few ponds of stagnant water, some children came running up to us shouting, "Teacher!  Teacher!  Did you see the fish?"  Of course there wasn't going to be any fish.  The school is far away from anything, let alone a source of fish.  It is also doubtful that they could have evolved in the two weeks since the rain.  Still the children insisted.  Soon they became frustrated at our refusal to believe them and decided that if we were not going to the fish then the fish would come to us.  Sure enough one child came up to us holding a handful of small fish.  How all these fish could have made it to St Ignatius is a mystery.   

John recently received some good news when his application to stay here until December was approved.  It goes to show how enjoyable living out here is; he doesn't want to leave.  This has meant that he is looking for a more active part in the school and so has been given the job of librarian - not an easy task.  This library is vast but the books occupy one small corner of the room in a single cramped shelf. These kids love hearing stories and reading but the facilities really deny them these meaningful activities and so new books, displays, designs and furniture would open the door to the world of reading; this is John's vision for the library there and he says that his seven years of 'studying' design and technology under Mr. Crutchley at St.Ignatius College, Enfield will soon come in handy.

This news of more work, however, came just before being told that neither of us are allowed to teach on our own.  It has meant that we have become, for the time being, classroom assistants.  The problem of understaffing that occured at the start of the year was overcompensated so that now the school is slightly overstaffed.  As a result of this, and other issues such as language, it was felt that we should not be class teachers.  We are both unhappy at this decision and are currently trying to reverse it.

Valentine's Day here was a bit of a weird experience.  Firstly it is important to note some cultural differences between the way people celebrate this day.  In Tanzania it is less about going out for a romantic night at the theatre with the girlfriend.  Instead there is emphasis on spending time with people that are close to you; brothers, sisters, parents, friends.  It just so happened that on this particular Wednesday, by coincidence and at the last minute, we invited Kaye, a Jesuit scholastic, around for dinner.  Half way through eating the power went off.  Despite being open to cultural differences it still felt odd having a candlelit dinner with a Jesuit, on Valentine's Day.

February also saw the arrival of another German volunteer to our house.  Tanja is currently working at a local home for mentally disabled people with our fellow volunteer Melanie.  She arrived much to the delight of Melanie, who now has someone else to speak to in German.  This is, of course, fine by us but there have been a few occasions (especially, for some reason, after a couple of drinks) where they have forgotten that we do not understand their language.  They will turn to us and say something, we will then spend a few seconds trying to work out if we had just misheard them of if they have forgotten that, despite being white, we are not German.

Coming to Tanzania has, curiously, made us follow the Premiership more closely then we ever did back home.  Football is such a way of life here and an easy "conversation starter" at the pub (when Dermot tells people that he supports West Ham their first reaction is normally to laugh).  However this month saw the start of the 6 Nations and we have desperately been trying to re-educate the Jesuits and make them see rugby's superiority.  After three weeks they have at least stopped wincing after every tackle and some have learnt the scoring system.  With any luck they will soon be converted.

 If you would like to contact Dermot or John, or support their work or the school where they are serving, please contact Jesuit Missions (www.jesuitmissions.org.uk) for further information.

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