School starts at 7:30am so we try to get there around 7ish which means that I am usually up around 5:45 in order to get myself awake and ready. Since we don’t have any hot water at our house and it is a little chilly for a cold shower in the morning, I usually boil a pitcher of water for my shower and then take a “bucket bath”.
Monday morning we have a secondary assembly where we have announcements, worship together and have a speaker. The past three years teachers have been assigned an assembly to speak at so I have had the chance to share three times – I think that it is a great chance for students to see that their teachers are real people who struggle and to hear our stories. Every other morning we have a 15 minute homeroom time. I work with the grade 10 class and have been with them for the last 2 years. This year we have been reading some of C.S. Lewis' books together and the students have had some good questions about them. It’s a short time each morning, but it is a nice chance to get to know the students better and to start the day with prayer.
My grade 10 classs - we are dressed up for a student council activity
The rest of my days are filled with classes or other responsibilities. I teach four lessons a week of grade 7 English, one lesson of Art and the rest of the day is spent working with my learning support students who need extra help. I also teach one of the service learning classes and take students out each week to work in a local school teaching English. I do have a few free periods during the week, but they somehow always get filled with some other activity!
Some students in my English class...working hard as usual!
Teaching English at a local school
Some of my girls who like to hang out in my room during lunch...they call themselves "the lunch bunch"
One of the other things that I do at school is working with the student council. We meet every Tuesday as a leadership team and then once a month with the rest of the class representatives. Our time is usually spent planning different activities and thinking of other things that we can do to make HOPAC a better school. It is so much fun to work with these student leaders and to watch them grow as they work together.
The leaders of the student council...all great students
Most days after school we hang around for a while to get things ready for the rest of the week or do other things (except when I was coaching basketball and then I had practice or games most afternoons). We have a prayer meeting on Wednesdays right after school and then usually have staff meetings after this. Tuesdays and Fridays there are after school activities that the students can stay for if they want. I am in charge of the yearbook and I meet with some students to help put it all together. It’s a lot of work, but great when it is all done!
My basketball team...having fun while running around the school
Friday night is youth group and while it always takes a bit to get excited about going out on a Friday night, I love hanging out with the kids. We usually start about 6:15 and we have an hour for small groups. We usually spend a good chunk of time chatting and catching up (even though we have seen each other all week at school!) and then spend some time working through a book and talking. The rest of the kids start to arrive about 7:15ish and we hang out for a while before we start at about 8ish. We usually start with some game and then a discussion time – we have been watching the Nooma videos and discussing them lately. After we are done, the kids just hang out until about 10:30 when I finally head for home and bed!
My small group
Our weekends tend to be spent at home recovering from the long week and relaxing. It’s a good day when we can stay in our pajamas until 10! We usually stay home on Saturdays unless there is something that we need to do in town. Meg has 2 Tanzanian friends, Burest and Asha who come over sometimes and spend the night with us and hang out.
Burest and Asha hanging out in the hammock
On Sunday, Melissa and I usually go to the Vineyard chuch in town – its an English speaking church that is mainly made up of missionaries and ex-pats. It has been a nice church and good chance to worship together with community. Since we are always in town on Sundays, we do our grocery shopping after church before heading back home. My AIM team meets together every Sunday night for fellowship. We rotate the house we are at and who leads it and it is a great time of encouragement and community as a team.
The other thing that we do a lot of here in Dar is sit in traffic. No matter what day, what time or where you are going, there is always traffic some place so we tend to spend a lot of time in the car! Traffic is bad enough when it is dry, but it is much worse when it is raining and everything gets flooded! I enjoy driving here because it is always an adventure!
Don't worry...we were stuck in traffic when we took this picture...I am a great Tanzanian driver!
Driving one day in the rain...the picture does not do justice to the amount of water that it covering the road...it is literally like driving through a lake.
We also spend a lot of time doing things around the house...cathing rats, killing other critters, getting water trucks when we run out of water and any number of other things that happen unexpectedly. It is great to have Gibbie, a young Tanzanian who lives at our house, around because he is like a brother to us and is always there to hang out or help with problems!
Meg checking out the water tanks to see how much water we have...we don't get any city water so we buy all our water by the truck load.
Gibbie helping us once again...yes, there is a rat under the orange bucket...it is dead though!
So there you have it…a glimpse at a “typical” week in my life. Not that anything is typical or normal living in Africa! But that's what I love about it!
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