What the story is for today!

Today was a great day! The group that met with Theo yesterday went on student verification visits today and those of us that did that yesterday met with Theo today. We also went to a school, what a stark contrast compared to the school we came from. The walls are bare, there is no colors, no maps, no computers, no internet, no books (text books or reading books) and lots of kids. I was in a class 4. They were learning about maps, but without a map in the classroom. There were forty kids, the teacher really did have a great relationship with his students, but there is just so many of them. The school was run by Mama Tesha as Taryn had said yesterday, I am guessing she gave background information about the school, so I am not going to do that again.

We also discussed with Theo (the head mistress at PHF) the downfalls of Tanzanian education. The huge positive though is there are teachers who are hungry to learn, so hopefully we will be able to give them things they can take back with them, and if not implement them, at least start thinking about different ways to teacher their students. They mainly use lectures now, the teacher talks and the students copy! It was interesting though because as much as we talked about areas of improvement they can make, it also made us much more aware of our shortcomings in the US in education! So much for us to learn from each other! I am excited to see what the rest of this experience has in store for us!

That part was copied from the blog at www.phfteachers.blogspot.com you should check that out some people can tell you what has been going on much more eliquently than I can.

But I did forget to put in that we went to rugby game tonight. It was a great night and Tanzania won! We alos played some frisbee with some little kids that were there. Not many of us knew muchabout rugby, but Mark plays rugby here so he was filling us in. I decided that was a sport I really didn't need to try, it looked painful. I am feeling better but still not great, but what you would expect when you are traveling here! Have a super day!