Weeks pass

After two weeks of teaching, I’m actually starting to get a rhythm. I wake up at 6:30, teach until either 13:00 or 15:30 (together with others though!), help with homework in the evenings and go sleep at 22:30. So it’s a fairly busy schedule – though less busy than that of the students, who have to do various duties around the base too.

So in the past two weeks time really flew, it feels like just a few days. I’ve gotten a lot of impressions though, and learned a lot about Africa through all the people here at the base.

One thing that impressed me was the number of accidents. In the first two weeks I heard of three cases of malaria, a severe road accident, three more illnesses and three deaths... This about the family or close friends of the ones on the base, and about the students themselves in the cases of malaria. It really seems like a lot to me.

They do have hospitals here in Morogoro, but they’re true businesses – money is king, not the wellbeing of the patients. That in some cases that means false diagnostics, high medicine prizes or even fake medicine. I guess the same goes for the health care centres that are in the countryside. In spite of this the students who had malaria are now nearly fully recovered without having to miss much of the lessons. A few pills really make a huge difference.

As for road accidents, it’s mostly the motorbikes that get into trouble. Of course these are quite popular here, as they can take you anywhere a car can take you for a lower price. I haven’t seen any police on the roads so far though, and driving on the highway without a helmet seems perfectly normal. Besides that there’s people driving after having a few beers, so no, road safety isn’t exactly optimal.

Anyway, back at the base a lot of people went to the conference. In fact, I think everyone who wanted to go somehow got the money, in a lot of cases in the last two days or so. As told two Brittish ladies (or girls? I never know for people in their 20s.) came to teach exactly when the regular teachers were gone. Sounds like there was some divine planning there! They do great at class, especially at pronunciation of course. And they made some fun games to play during class as well.

Next week the regular teachers will be teaching again, minus one... If God wants, Joshua is going to start his study. We’ve become very close friends in the past days, and I’d hate to see him go. We made music together, and talked, went for walks... “Linguistics in Arts”, I think the study’s called. He really wants to go. Today we’ll see whether he’s accepted at a university, whether he actually can. If so, I’ll be the only male teacher left, wonder how that'll go.




Obadiah comes in and starts speaking. "Ah! I still remember after our picnic. We hadah eggs, nuts, banana..."
"And bread, and pork too," Joshua says.
"Yes! That combination..." Obadiah rubs his stomach as he continues. "Ah! It was big problem in ze dormitory." He points at the loo. "It was like... Ras? Tras? That new word... Yes, 'blast'!"