One of my students once said, “Education gives us the chance to think about the future and not just day to day.” While this is true, it is often the simple day-to-day challenges, misadventures, and successes that make life interesting. While most of you reading this have never met me and most never will, I think it is important to share part of myself and my students with you so that you may get to know us.

There are 22 students at the school right now. They are very clever and it is upsetting to imagine what they could do if they had been given the luxury of an education with books, laboratories, and other materials that we find to be commonplace in the United States.

Every day, classes start at 8:00 am. We have three periods that are one hour long each and at 11:00 am we stop for breakfast- tea and a few sweet rolls. Classes resume at 11:30 am and last until 2:30 pm, when we have lunch (ugali, a Tanzanian flour dish, and beans) until 3:30 pm. We then have discussion periods or review for various subjects. The students leave for home at 5:30 pm. On Saturdays, the students take practice exams from 8:00 am until 12 noon.

There are two other teachers right now, Bertam and Boniface, and both are Tanzanians. Bertam teaches history, geography, and civics, while Boniface teaches Kiswahili and English. They put a lot of effort and energy into teaching and you can tell they care a great deal about the students.

On Tuesday, the students dissected a frog. They had never dissected a frog or toad before and the reactions were priceless. They could not believe how similar the toad was to humans.

The students loved every minute of it. They made diagrams and wanted to understand every aspect of the internal structures. They were curious, investigative, and self-motivated to find answers. After we had completely dissected the frog, Salum wanted to know how to put everything back correctly, sew it up, and revive the little fellow. I can see Salum becoming a doctor.

It is a unique experience to share practical discovery with someone who has only learned something theoretically for their entire life. I’m sure anyone who is a teacher knows how good it makes you feel to see a student truly grasp something when they do it practically.

It’s not that Hajimu isn’t coordinated. He plays soccer really well. He also catches on to stuff pretty quickly. While we were walking home from the school, some grass got caught around my ankle so I yanked my foot out and took a tall step to avoid getting snagged again.

Hajimu asked, “Madam, why do you walk like this?” and I said, “because the grass is tall and it was catching my feet.” And he said, “No, it’s because your neurons sensed the grass and your brain told your muscles to take bigger steps.” And I said, “Hajimu, you’ve got it…sort of.” And I was really happy. Then, because we just finished classification, he started listing off kingdoms, phylum, and classes, and giving examples from each, which was also very nice.

For the next few months we will have classes at the school for environmental science, leadership, economics, and computers. We will also work with the students on developing the curriculum for next year. Of course, there will be more stories and pictures. I know the students would love to hear from you, so please feel free to write anytime and ask any questions of me or the students.