Chui

That's the Swahili word for leopard. It is also used by many for tiger. And it is the name of my cat. I would have never thought that I would own a cat before a dog, but here I am with a lovely male kitten on the verge of maturity.

About one month ago, I received two kittens from my American friend, Andrea. One was gray in colour, so I gave him the name for smoke "Moshi." We had hoped that the two of them (brother and sister) would control the rats approaching our place from the bush that surrounds us. Within a day they ran away. Two days later Chui was found crying at the matron's house and we decided to bring him inside to get him used to us. It worked: He has made himself right at home.

Unfortunately Moshi has not returned, though there have been Moshi sightings on the campus.

Chui provides us hours of entertainment as he chases ping-pong balls, wrappers, and bags. But he is living up to his name -- he's a fierce predator. In addition to countless grasshoppers (very high in protein according to my Ugandan friend whose people eat them), he's caught three rats. I know PETA folks won't be happy to hear it, but he enjoys playing with his prey (of whatever sort) before finishing them off.

Who would have every guessed? As I wrote elsewhere, my mother would be appalled to think that I now own a cat, but I do! (Now for the dog!)

Meeting of Heads of Schools

In my capacity as Assistant to the Provincial for Education, I convened a meeting of the heads of schools of the Eastern Africa Province of the Jesuits (that includes Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda -- and now we can say SOUTH Sudan).


The meeting exceeded my expectations. We enjoyed one another's company, profited from the experience of one another, and grew from the collegial encouragement.

I also had the opportunity to meet up with two Jesuit friends: Cyriac Francis Malasi, a scholastic who had worked on this pro now studying theology at Hekima College, Nairobi, and the rector of Hekima College Jesuit Community, Fr. Gabriel Mmassi.

Not only that, I also had a chance to see the school sponsored by our lay friends in the Christian Life Community, St. Aloysius High School, on the edge of the infamous Kibera Slum of Nairobi. I was very impressed by the students and staff of this high school.

It was a good trip, but I was away from school for some excitement that it would have been better if I had been present: We had a fire in the boys' dormitory. The cause of it remains uncertain. Damage was limited to one room. The good news is that the dormitory was empty AND that all our systems worked. The alarm went off, Sr. Maria (in charge of boarding) went to investigate and saw the black smoke rising; when she arrived, she found workers already extinguishing the fire. The whole incident (dealing with the immediate issues, police reports, contacting parents, etc.) was very ably handled by Fr. Kizito, who acts as my deputy in my absence.

Opportunities to Help

Repeatedly, people ask if there are other ways of helping us than simply writing a check.

We'll have a partial of container of books coming this way very soon due to the generosity of a lot of great people who have contributed to Books for Africa, and I have recently been told that we can solicit some of our own material to be included along with the books provided by them. This came as welcome news.

If there are musical instruments in the corner of closets in your home, we could use them. If you have sports equipment no longer being used, we'd gladly take them off your hands. If you'd like to visit an art store and buy some art supplies for our art club, the students would rejoice. If you know of a school with microscopes or other equipment languishing in a store room, our science teachers will bubble over. No longer used digital cameras would be a great gift for our journalism club. Oh, and other "school supplies" we could use are clean (no viruses) usb flash drives, quality staplers, and other office "stuff". May of these things are available here, but their quality is low and their cost is exorbitant.

I have been told that the best way to send such items is pack them in a Rubbermade storage box and send it to
Books For Africa-Atlanta
2971 Olympic Industrial Drive SE, Suite C
Smyrna, GA 30080

The container should clearly state that the items are school supplies and for St. Peter Claver, Dodoma.

Thanks for whatever you can manage.

Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda

I'm in Nairobi and have excellent Internet service. Why didn't I take some pictures to update my readers on our progress? A real missed opportunity.

I am here in Nairobi, wearing a different hate than usual. I'm here as the assistant for education for the Eastern Africa Province of the Jesuits. On Thursday evening we'll begin a two day seminar for the heads of Jesuit educational institutions -- looking at the characteristics of Jesuit education and how those get lived out in the day-to-day in different circumstances.

I had a twelve hour bus ride yesterday from Dodoma to Moshi.

View Larger Map

(Looking at the map, you may ask why I didn't just go straight north through Kondoa and Babati. The answer is simple: That more direct route is via the Cape-to-Cairo Road. It is also known and the Great North Road. The only thing great about it is its length -- it is unpaved most of the way, and given that we just finished the rainy season it is in horrible condition. You cannot get a direct bus by taking that route.)

I managed to start and finish a 400-page book that Waweru lent me -- better than looking at the road and all the near misses! I had a marvelous time with our two Jesuits in Moshi, Tony D'Souza and Edmund Mallya.

This morning I hopped on another bus at 6:30 a.m. and got to Nairobi eight hours later. Actually with the road between Arusha and Nairobi now mostly paved it could be a much quicker trip -- but the inefficiencies at the border slowed things down considerably.

In an earlier post, I mentioned that we're holding our students more accountable re: their behaviour. For the most part, they are responding well. We really do have good students -- but they are teenagers!

Why's TZ Poor?

That was the title of an opinion piece published last Sunday. The article's thesis is that it is a crisis of leadership. A former student of mine who has expertise in these things notes that are other factors that must be kept in mind as well: "poorly-developed infrastructure (as the column says), bad deals with foreign powers; underdeveloped human capital."

The issue of infrastructure is being dealt with in very noticeable ways, especially regarding the development and improvement of roads. To think that just a few years ago the road between Dodoma and Dar es Salaam was not paved!

There is a real desire to capitalize on the riches of the country -- the flag of Tanzania is meant to reflect these riches: yellow representing gold and minerals; blue, the sea; green, agriculture. I am excited about our doing something regarding the "green" (though I'd like even more if we found a little something represented by yellow!). With the help of the many folks with whom I had a chance to share the story of St. Peter Claver High School and Our Lady Queen of Peace Educational Centre, we'll be starting our agricultural project shortly (we already have a crop of sunflowers doing well -- and our student agricultural club has planted mchicha --spinach -- and Chinese cabbage [in fact, they've sold their first harvest of mchicha to our kitchen].

We'd love to get a state-of-the-art vineyard started -- and in that regard we're right in line with the hopes for the Dodoma Region of people like the country's prime minister.

It is all very exciting.

Catching Up.

I'm not quite sure where to begin, for it's been so long since I have written anything at CHoP.

Maybe it is best to work my way backwards over several posts.

Today was a busy, fruitful day. I met with Sossy about a number of things (including issues regarding the first steps for our agriculture project [exciting] and some issues regarding construction [a bit of frustration on this front these days]); I managed to confirm the plans of our students' Easter-break travel; I talked with our acting librarian about a recent exchange of books with our friends at the Poverty Eradication Network; and did some planning for a workshop I'll be presenting in a few weeks.

Our students enjoyed our Palm Sunday a lot -- we processed around the entire campus, waving our palms and singing songs. It was a great change to the regular order for them. Saturday morning was spent practicing.

The weekend was not all sweetness and light mind you. On Sunday about twenty students were late for lunch. I'm beginning to lose patience with the constant lateness for everything -- and they know it. I've told them that they will suffer natural consequences: Being late for a meal means simply missing the meal. Well, they missed one of the great meals (pilau [a special rice dish], meat, and salad. I made a stupid mistake regarding this punishment, though: I told the students who were on time that they could divide among themselves the food meant for the students who were now missing the meal. I have never seen such gluttony as I did among the boys. It was embarrassing and I'm glad we had no visitors to witness it.

I ended up racing around trying to save at least some of the rice because I decided to temper justice with mercy and allow the late students to eat a simple meal after the others were dismissed and then to clean the dining area and the outdoor dish-washing area.

Oh the glowers cast in my direction! I told them that except for the most serious offenses, my own approach was to move on from such unpleasantness ASAP and that I would encourage them to do the same. And we have.

On Saturday evening we watched Shrek, which gave me an opportunity to talk on Sunday about Prince Farquad and his search for riches, power, and glory as opposed to another sort of leadership marked by self-offering for the life of others. They really enjoyed the movie -- especially the slapstick parts of it. (I realized during the movie just how many allusions to popular American culture were not accessible to them -- and even so they enjoyed it.)

Last week was one of tightening screws. On the Friday our students' mid-term break, I met with the faculty to review the first quarter. There was general dissatisfaction among us with the behaviour of our students, especially respect and timeliness. It was an excellent meeting which bore many fruits. I had already determined upon my return here from my month away in the United States and Canada that there were issues in these areas, so I was glad that the teachers and I were of one mind.

We also talked about empowering student leadership. I have made some critical mistakes in this regard, and I was very happy to have the faculty suggest ways in which we could do better. We've elected a head boy and a head girl and will have elections for the other offices, too. I will meet with these officials more regularly than I have their appointed counterparts and will give them job descriptions to help.

I mentioned the mid-term break. Of course as with any school break it was a break for the students and in part for some of the faculty, but it was work for the office. It was rather productive given the fewer distractions.

More later -- and now with Internet limping back I might even manage a few photos, including photos of our students looking smart in their new school sweaters.

Apologies

A lot to share but no Internet for two weeks, so I depend on trips to town, which are infrequent because of the cost of petrol and my time.

Sorry, but more when things are working properly.