Call Me

Do you remember that song? It was performed, I believe, by Shirley Bassey . (Okay, I didn’t really know that; I just googled it.)

Malasi gave me a SIM card last night. We immediately tested it by having him call me, and it worked. What we didn’t try is the other way around, which when I tried it later didn’t work. This afternoon Sossy and I went to the vending office and discovered the problem: I’d protected my i.d. – not allowed. So now I have mobile service.

Though I don’t have a message service yet, and though I can’t SMS, and though I don’t have tons of time in the prepaid account, you can, as the song goes, call me. For my number write me at the gmail account listed in my profile.

I spent much of yesterday and today reading the standards of the various subjects in the prescribed national curriculum. Former students and my colleagues at the SOE LMU and in the TEP at GGSE will appreciate how I felt as I looked at the matrix complete with a pacing column for each of the subjects. Scheduling will pose an interesting challenge because not every subject meets every day. (So for instance Form I –the first year of the ordinary level in the high school) has three forty-minute periods of chemistry, four forty-minute periods of biology, six forty-minute periods of mathematics, seven of English, etc.

I also spent time beginning to work on the student handbook. Thanks again to the folks at UDJHSA, Georgetown Prep, and Episcopal HS in Alexandria, VA, for sharing their handbooks with me. Having the handbooks from the two boarding schools is helpful. (I especially like the rule in Episcopal’s –a co-educational boarding school as ours will be – that students are never allowed in unlit areas.)

Two days until I leave for Morogoro. I’m not nervous at all about setting off to that city (it’s lovely, but very hot and humid in the coming months. Incidentally, the afternoons here are very hot and dusty these days, but there’s little humidity, a nice breeze, and it cools down so much at night that I close my windows [as much as they close]; by 4 in the morning I have pull the top sheet over me to keep warm). I am beginning to feel a bit intimidated by learning the language. As Steve Martin used to say about the French in his stand-up act: “They have a different word for everything!” I do want to become fluent in Kiswahili, so I’ll work hard at it and push myself. Push myself doesn’t mean furrowing my eyebrows; relative to language study it means for me to dive in and not worry too much about making mistakes.

Finally, because I don’t know whether I will be posting before the weekend: A shout-out to my sister Kathleen and future brother-in-law Steve who are getting married this weekend. Only good things to the two of you as your lives unfold together!