CHAOS FILING SYSTEM

04.03.2011

Jenni left for Zanzibar so I taught alone today and will all next week as well. I work well in a team with set rules, but as far as planning for things goes it’s much easier to do it alone, and on your own schedule.  Jenni and I have very different working styles. She prefers to just be available while I like to emphasize empowerment and bonding through doing together. She’s very happy when there’s a positive improvement, but I sometimes feel she’s too discouraged by the hindrances to even try. I think she realizes this herself and always gives me the credit for everything, but we work there together so it’s a shared effort either way. We get along well in our free time and it’s nice to have someone to go through the day’s events with.

We  got a new boy in for “stealing” grass from a national park area. He just wanted to feed his goat, but unlucky for him the police must have been in a very bad mood for arresting him for such a minor offense.

One of our boys Mohamedy had his third court sitting today and was expected to get to go home and back to school. Typically, the accuser who hadn’t bothered to show up the first two times showed up today. If the accuser doesn’t attend the third court hearing the case is dismissed. Unfortunately many know this system and thus only show up the last time which starts the proceedings over again.

Students in Tanzania study in Swahili for the duration of primary school, then suddenly switch to English and spend the next couple years just trying to learn the language and keep up with the teacher thus making the education system quite in-effective.

Seems like there are many good intentions and Tanzania is developing quicker than many other African countries, but good intentions are not enough to guarantee a successful outcome. Individuals can only do so much and there need to be big alterations that come from the higher government officials in order to make permanent changes within the governmental institutions.   

There’s so many new ideas and situations everyday that it’s been hard to get my thoughts organized concerning the teaching at Mahabusu so the organizational freak in me turned one wall of my room into an “office” covering the white paint with papers concerning different aspects of work at the prison. Mom and dad, when I get home I’ll finish with the other side of the attic ;)