Week One

So far things have been good here in Lushoto. The school's been good and my students seem excited to have me there. I'm getting along well with the other teachers and even adjusting well to life without electricity. It's quiet and peaceful here, which is nice, but I will miss the more things to do Mwanza has to offer.

One encouraging thing is that my school seems to have a lot more resources than my old one. There is a well-stocked library as opposed to a pile of a couple dozen books. And perhaps the most shocking, almost all of my students have a math text book. Before in a class of 50 maybe two or three would. I don't have to tell you this makes things for me and my students much, much easier. I suppose that the difference is that now I'm at a Catholic school instead of a public one. Even at a good school like this, though, they struggle to get enough teachers. Perhaps because it's not right in town. Anyway, so far it's been great and I'm excited to be at Kongei.

Today I made the walk to the road and it was very nice, except for one disturbing incident. Apparently a truck hit and killed a child and there was a big crowd around the stopped truck. Some women were wailing and many of the men had knives and machetes. I've heard a lot about mob justice here, even for accidents like someone getting hit by a car, so I really didn't want to stick around to see how things turned out. The hardest thing to deal with here is how common a child's death is. If it's not malaria it's a car accident. It's also disturbing that it's so common you almost get used to hearing about the death of the child or grandchild of someone you know. Life goes on though.