Here's to Loyola High School

I spent this morning catching up on a few New Yorker magazines – I’ve gotten to the March 30th issue to give you some notion of what my life has been like these last months. I also toured Loyola High School here in Dar es Salaam. This school has a national reputation for its excellence—and this in just fourteen years of existence. You see, until recently rote memorization of facts in preparation for the national examinations has been the order of the day, but from its very start Loyola High School has been devoted to understanding rather than simple memorization. There are over a thousand students.

It’s an impressive campus located in the Mabibo neighborhood. The specific site used to be called Mabibo Farasi because of the horse-breeding estate at its center (farasi being the Kiswahili word for horse); it is now known as Mabibo Loyola because of the school, which replaced the estate. Don’t be fooled by “horse-breeding estate”; the school was located here because, as the written history in the school’s student handbook states, “The Jesuits wished to offer quality education for those with the ambition to study but are not able to afford such education.” Admission is based entirely on merit. The benefactions of many in the States have allowed a number of poor but worthy students seek their academic fortunes here.

I had a chance also to meet with Fr. Karongo, SJ, the present headmaster. He gave me some things to think about, shared with me some of the school’s materials, and introduced me to some of the school personnel. (Incidentally, the portrait of the school's first headmaster, Fr. Dick Twohig, SJ, of the Detroit Province, hangs in the headmaster's office.) At breakfast Fr. Georges Kimonge, SJ, the school’s bursar, gave some very good and wise counsel. The Jesuits here at Loyola High School and their colleagues are obviously running a great school benefiting so many; I look forward to learning from them as I make my way in Dodoma.

(The video starts first with the Jesuit community and then goes to the playing field before going to the various "blocs.")