The Saga Continues

The laboratory space just will not work. Architects, engineers, and I are brainstorming about how to use space in the wing under construction for laboratories.

We have some years to worry about the space issues of losing these classrooms (the former labs do not make for good classrooms, either). A mess, but a redeemable one.

One of my frustrations is how design and engineering are done here. The idea is that you put up a structure and then decide things (like how a building will be plumbed, etc.). As we move forward, I'll try to encourage a different approach. As assistant principal at St. Ignatius, Cleveland, and principal at U of Detroit Jesuit HS, I was involved in a number of construction problems. We had issues, but they were all taken care of early on in the design phase. I wasn't here for that, but even if I were I would not have noticed a lot of the issues because of the minimal information given in floorplans, etc.

The most frustrating thing is that it is clear that no reference was made to minimum standards for school buildings -- available from the Ministry of Education here (and available in generic form with a quick Google search).

We continue to learn!

I met with some more frustration at the post office today. That caused a bit more frustration. Eddie Siebert kindly sent tons of videos for our use. Educational ones, some for entertaining students on weekends (and helping with English skills as well), and some for the entertainment of the Jesuits. Well...the Tanzania Revenue Authority official opened the boxes (containing, incidentally, precisely what was claimed) and he's assessing us a huge duty -- 60,000 TSH. I'm sending someone else to the post office tomorrow to see if we might not get a better deal.

There are some small, wonderful moments, of course. I stopped by Don Bosco High School this morning to see if we could get faculty members there as correctors for our exams. While there I ran into some parishioners from here -- a delightful moment.