Back to Teaching!

First Week Back

My apologies for taking SO long to update the BLOG! Last Monday was the first day back to teaching at Orkeeswa secondary. Needless to say, it's been busy. We have many new faces! We lost four volunteers (don't worry...their term was just up!) and one local teacher. I'm still teaching biology and agriculture in three different forms (grades). So, that means I step in front of a class 18 times/week. I'm also the school nurse. No cracking jokes about that one please... I take my responsibilities (and my thermometer) very seriously. I'll get to Lisa's responsibilities in a minute.

The students were excited, for the most part, to be back. I mean it's still school! But the relationship these guys have with each other and the staff is really unique. They are highly motivated to be there and be "good students" so it creates a good culture to want to return to.

Lisa is Teaching English!

In addition to being the "after school activities coordinator" and "office manager" and being married to me (full time job too), Lisa is teaching English! She's going to be great...but she's never taught secondary students....doesn't have a background in English as a subject (besides speaking it like a champ) (she was an ag-econ major) (but don't ask her about ag-econ either!) That being said, she's already done really well in her classes, especially Form 1 who she was working with last fall. Let's all pause for a moment and reflect on how we treated our high school English teacher and then feel remorseful for the things we did to them. Then, let's pray for Lisa. And me too. Well...all teachers all over now that I think about it! We need it!

Helping 4-H in Tanga

Well, after all that praying, you're really going to hate this. I'm not teaching this week. I'm hanging out by the beach in Tanga, Tanzania. The Tanzania 4-H is partnering with Ohio State University and the University of Wisconsin for some development projects. Somehow I tricked them into letting me be the presenter here for a part of the program. I'm talking about a website that 4-H advisors can go to to access content which they might use to teach 4-H members and also to discuss topics/issues. It's a cool tool. Hopefully the training goes well tomorrow too. Well, if nothing else I guess I got to hang out in beautiful Tanga for a few days while everyone back home was teaching away!