Believe it or not, I have witnessed some very disturbing incidences since I have been here and I have avoided writing about them in order to keep my family from worrying anymore. The following incidents are somewhat disturbing but I feel they must be discussed.

Sunday night I was making a phone call around 9:30pm on the school football field, where I can get perfect reception, when I noticed a small fire near the school kitchen. I didn’t think anything of it until it got bigger. When I went to investigate what was going on, I noticed that most of the students were gathered around the fire and instead of putting it out, were spreading the fire so it would completely burn down the small school restaurant and area surrounding it. I then went to inform some of my fellow teachers about what was going on and they were very scared and advised me to not worry about the fire (since I would be in harms way if I returned to where the fire was) and go back home and go to sleep. I was very disturbed by their advice because the American in me wanted to call the fire dept (which doesn’t exist here in TZ) and have the fire put out or at least advise our village policeman what was going on (they told me that it was the teacher on duty’s responsibility). When I told one teacher he was surprised that I was so shaken up by the fire and what was going on because stuff like this is common here. I tried to explain to him that fires are a very serious thing in America and it is difficult for me to sleep when I know that a fire is spreading, (and not being put out) so near my house.

The next day I found out that a female student got in trouble for losing the soccer ball from the Saturday soccer game. In order to punish her 3 teachers came back to the school around 3pm (Sunday) and beat her for so long until she couldn’t stand up anymore. They then continued to beat her since she couldn’t stand up anymore. I think that she later passed out from this since the teachers had to resort to pouring cold water on her to get her to respond.

As it turns out, the school security guard was the one who stole the soccer ball and the teachers knew this they just wanted a reason to beat this girl that they didn’t like. The students were pissed off that they got accused and punished for stealing the soccer ball and so they stole the guard’s bicycle and went to his house and beat him up! (This might sound horrid but the guy was lucky that they didn’t kill him!) The teachers then beat some of the student’s for beating up the security guard and this made the students madder so they decided to burn the small school restaurant down.

I believe that what the students did was not only because of the soccer incident but because they have been beat very harshly all term, they were asked to pay more school fees for better food and the school has yet to provide it, the cooks have still not been paid after 3 months and most of the teachers don’t even teach their classes. On Monday I found out that in order to punish the students for the fire the teachers were going to beat the students! I know that if they take this action the repercussions are going to be worse than they were before and so I decided to notify my PC boss about what was going on and ask for some vacation time. He told me to take up to a week if I needed and relax in town. He later called my principal and chewed him out by telling him that if things don’t drastically improve at my school then they are going to relocate me. When I went to tell my principal that I was going to be going to town for a few days, he told me that he was very disturbed by all that happened since it turns out that the girl they beat was his niece! He also told me that what happened was a result of him not being strict with the teachers about beating the students and teaching their classes. This week the students were supposed to be taking their end of term exams but only a few of the teachers had even written their exams. He said that a few days ago an old woman (elders have a very high status in the village and here in general) came to him and told him that he needs to be very careful because the village is becoming very angry with him since he is not managing the school right. When I was waiting for the van that would take me to town, I heard many villagers talking about all that had happened. They surprisingly knew as much as I did about the mismanagement of the school. I am very certain that they will soon take action and demand that things at the school improve or else.
Some of my students also noticed that I was leaving and came to tell me that I had nothing to worry about and I shouldn’t be scared about everything that had happened.
I have been relaxing in town since Monday and will probably go back to the village Thursday.

On a lighter note, it is now harvest time in the village and I am able to buy many more foods than usual like squash, Chinese cabbage, cassava and oranges. However, I was surprised to find that they were selling elephant meat when I went to the market. It is illegal to hunt elephant here and if you are caught the punishment is very harsh. I also didn’t know that there was that many wild elephants near my village that they could hunt.
Someone also killed a 3ft long lizard near my house although they told me they did not kill it for food.

I am done teaching now until July and so I have decided to spend a week in Zambia and visit Victoria Falls, the most visited site in all of Africa. The American Embassy here has invited us all to the Embassy for a 4th of July celebration so I will be going to Dar es Salaam for that. Pictures of my travels and more pictures of my school, village etc will be forthcoming! Have a great summer!