Steve and Barnabas in Tanzania

The last four weeks we have been putting on Spelling Competitions at the school.   Every Thursday during the normal “debate” time, which is never an actual debate but instead a time when students have to speak at the front of the class to recite something they have learned, we have been going class by class with the competition.     Ester is the letter champion for the Baby class As you can imagine, the Baby and Middle preschool classes was not so much about spelling as inclusion with the rest of the school.   We had them come up to blackboard and write letters.   After we went through the alphabet, we gave them simple words they see regularly like “cow” but allow their teacher to coach them through the process.   In the end their level of competition is more about who can follow instructions in a timely fashion than the actual ability to spell.   Eugene is the letters champion for the Middle preschool class The first real lev...

Before I get started, I wanted to say thank you to everyone who wished me well after last week's blog.  My fever finally broke for good that Monday night.  I have been coughing it all up out of the deep recess of my lungs this week.  My throat is still very raw feeling and I am tired, but was able to help all week fill in for the teacher that was sick and proctored tests all day.  Due to the sluggish mental attitude, I am behind on my creative aspects of my job.  So I will go back to an old standby and introduce one of our student's via the Conversations with Barnabas program. This week I meet Mery's dad when he stopped by the school to meet with our Head Teacher (principal). He works at the sugar plantation that I ride through to get to our school each week after my day in town.  This means Mery and her family are not the traditional Maasai that surround our school.   Mery is one of those kids that would be any teacher's bright spot....

It seems every week I have a lot of items to go over in this blog.  The first is about the spelling competition I have been preparing for the last two months has finally happened and I have to say it was a big success.  I wish I had not been in charge so I could have taken video of the kids and especially the teachers during the competition.   Gladness Stephano won the competition but she got challenged by Teresia and Grace for Standard I (First Grade) and also Meri and Nice from Pre-Unity (K-6?).  I have been downloading vocabulary lists for first grade students in the states and pulled my list of words from that.  We started with a written test in Standard I and Pre-Unity with 25 words I would call out and give in a sentence.  Some of the items I also drew on the board to help them recognize what I was asking them to spell.  I had originally not planned to include the Pre-Unity group but the Head Teacher asked me to.  For the most part ...

Yep.  I want to brag a little today.  Don't worry I am not here to brag about myself, but about the kids at our school.  For newer readers, we have 43 kids at the school aged 4 to 9, with the majority being on the lower end of that age range.  Our kids live in a tough environment.  Most of their homes do not have any form of electricity, no heat, no air conditioning, no tv and no video games.  The majority of the kids don't have a chore list with rewards if they do x number of items without being reminded.  They have life that includes washing dishes, taking care of younger siblings, going with their mom to wash clothes at the well, herding cattle after school.  Most don't have their own room, in fact some share a room with all their family members at bedtime.  They don't have flavored juices and drinks refrigerated and waiting on them any time they want them.  There are no snacks to pop in a microwave or rip open a bag.  They hel...