Tanzania: Poor Education

Wow Tanzania has a poor education system. Classes are in English because it is the business language. I was told that Public school teachers send there children to private schools because of the poor education. I was not impressed by the private school I attended. The theme of the school is “Fear God and gain wisdom”. It is a Pentecostal school. The school motto just doesn’t sit right with me. Any ways the books that they are using has misspelled english words in it. Most of the questions sound funny. There are even incomplete sentences in the text books. The last sentence on a page was Cashew nuts are grown in the coastal re- . The sentence was not even finished. One question was something like if the economy is good it is easy for someone to get a job? I was looking for the answer in the text book and it was definitely no where to be found. This was a question for a 4th grader. I don’t think there is a simple answer to that question. One of the kids had a question how fast is the speed of sound? The answer was not in the text book. We can’t google it because we don’t have internet here. Maybe I am being to critical.

Well Dan hit me good today. He is a 6yr old with Autism and you never know when he lashes out. He is always hitting things and children. If you ever put anything on a table infront of him he has to knock it off. He can never let anything just sit there. I took my eye off him for one second and he slapped me on the forehead. He is one strong kid. Unfortunately his parents as a really small child thought he was possessed and took him to a witch doctor. The family didn’t know what to do. He is at St. Nicholas and has been here for 4 years now. Danny loves plastic bottles. He loves throwing them and he loves hitting people with them. He also loves being spun around. Danny the tornado. You never know when he will strike. The hardest part for Danny is it seems he can’t talk. So it is hard for him to tell you what he wants. He is a very entertaining child to be around.

Anthony asks me everyday if we can go for a bike ride. He probably asks me 100 times everyday. He is very persistent, My answer every single time is Maybe (Labda) That is probably the word I use the most here. I feel sorry for Anthony. His parents left him with his hands tied up as a baby. Some one found the child and brought him to the hospital. Anthony definitely has some sort of mental disability but I am not sure what. He means well but he doesn’t always act well around others. Every child here is unique and fun to be around.

This is witness. She is a bundle of energy. I love her dearly. She always comes to me to be held. However she has pulled on my beard at least 3 times and it hurts. It is time to cut it off.