Lia has babies!

As much as we tried to prevent, Lia ran away one morning and got herself pregnant. About 4-5 weeks ago, she gave birth to 4 kittens. Jon and I weren't happy about her being pregnant but the kittens have actually been so much fun to have around. They are all black and there are 3 males and 1 females. We've named the biggest kitten Godzilla and the runt "Julie Jr." or JJ. The other two kittens we can't really identify since they look the same. Lia is a good mom and we're happy to have them for now.

One of the baby kittens in my hand

Elementary School

Here is the closest elementary school to our high school. It's likely that all of these students at this school come to ours for high school. Elementary school in Tanzania is where I feel a lot of the educational issues that I face as a high school teacher stem from. There is a severe shortage of teachers and so sometimes kids will go through a whole grade without a teacher and then move onto the next grade. A HUGE issue is that the teachers of elementary school are usually completely unqualified. Students who fail high school often go back to become an elementary school teacher. I believe that Peace Corps could make a much larger impact by teaching at elementary schools instead of high schools.

The inside of an elementary school classroom

the school

school schedule for grade 4

Schedule translation - this is what grade 4 students are studying:

1. Mathematics 
2. Swahili 
3. English
4. Science
5. History
6. Geography
7. Civics
8. Religion

Their after-school events include:

1. Cleaning the school (no janitors)
2. Sports
3. Farming