Supplies provided by the school

As a teacher in Tanzania, the only supplies you are provided with day to day is chalk, but only white at that.  The classrooms are not even equipped with a chalkboard eraser.  Basically, students’ old mattresses are cut up and used to erase the board.  Somehow, even though there are only 13 classrooms being used (for 1,000 students), these “erasers” always go missing to be used in another classroom.  Furthermore, each teacher is provided with a textbook of the grade and subject that they are teaching.  A week ago, we were given the yearly portion of other  school supplies – two pens and one notebook each.  I know that many American teachers do not get a lot of money to use for school supplies but I feel certain that even with the budget cuts they are getting more than two pens and a notebook.  But, just like American teachers, to make our lives easier, Jon and I have resorted to spending our meager income to supplement our classes.  Fortunately, we are able to do this, but unfortunately, the other teachers are not able to spend their income (or they are, but don’t).