School update as Finish up a month back at school

Thank you to everyone who has been concerned for my health and praying.  The affects of the flu are gone except for a nagging sore throat, dry cough that is most likely being exacerbated by the constant cooking fire smoke and dust in the air.  I had a good week at the school.

The school year is off to a rocking start.  We have 94 students registered which is 14 more than our goal for a good registration.  We are experiencing some growing pains these first couple of weeks but are getting it all figured out.  This was not helped by the teacher that called in sick quitting this week to get married without giving anyone a heads up.  I am going to save the fun of hiring a new teacher for another week.

For "Reading with Barnabas" this week we had one of the youth reading a story for us.  I had to put it off a week to pump up the sound a little bit in my video editor.  My hearing has become horrible during my five years in Tanzania, but when the kids tell me they cannot hear a video after I turn the volume all the way up I felt I had to edit it a little.  The new kids are getting excited about the weekly videos.  As you can see from the next picture is all of them waiting to get in.

In addition I brought over some connect the dots using numbers or the alphabet and we put those into use this week in Pre-Unity.  

The test results for our first monthly test came in.  Our school average score was still in the low 80s though it is early yet.  We know we need to make the baby class testing a little tougher since 10 kids passed with a perfect score.  Once again girls ruled Standard II as they did when they were in Standard I.  

Our Baby Class group that all got perfect scores.  Kindness was absent for the photo.

Pre-Unity had a two way tie for 1st and a three way tie for 3rd.  Gertrude and Wolther continue their streak from last year.  Catherine was a late entry last year so good the see here in there again.  Isack was with us last year but rarely got good enough grades for the top level so we welcome him.  Isaya is one of our new kids so really good job there.

Nice continues here dominance in her class.  I think this is the 8th time she has been in first place.  Baraka Petro is normally in there somewhere but a new entry was Baraka Enoch who joined the group after his parents hit home that if he could do so well in the math competition last year he could do well in other classes.

As I said the girls in the small class continue to dominate.  Gladness, Teresia and Grace.

A new feature I am going to try to add to the blog is photo winner for the week.  I have been using my smartphone as my camera for about 2 years now.  I tried to get a point and shoot but it did not last long in this environment.  Even one of the tough cameras only lasted 3 years.  I decided I wanted a good camera again and splurged on myself to get a Panasonic Lumix FZ300 which is close to a dslr but has a fixed lens and is dustproof which should make it last a little longer.  So I am working on my photography skills.  Every week I am going to have one or two photos I think are the best and show them off.  The photo at the top is of our teacher Josephine's son who is not old enough to be enrolled yet but comes to school with her everyday.

The second winner is below.  A rare picture of Happy with a smile on her face.  Don't worry she smiles but the moment she sees a camera she does the Tanzanian thing and frowns.