The "Mocks" and Safari by Jim Lovett.

                                                      Here we are atop our mountain.!

                                                   Aisling, Belinda, Aaron, Jim and Aine!

All right folks, back with some sort of report from Tanzania. We have started teaching again, a few weeks now, at the beginning it was hard to find anything like a full class since the students are required to

provide 5 kilos of beans, 10 kilos of maize and 5,000 shillings toward their upkeep and payment for their teachers. This is supposed to be illegal in the new corruption free state!

The results of the fourth year 'mocks' came back, and while there was a great improvement across the board - the girls were very happy with their student’s results; for instance 30 of  Belinda’s students from a cohort of  35 passed Geography.   The first and second year students are showing a marked improvement in all subjects as these students are into our way of teaching and we have instilled a work ethic in them.   I, on the other hand received a shock from the fourth formers as only one boy passed - a pass is 21% - he got 54%, the next nearest was 19% and then 6% and there were around 15 students that got 0% and almost as many with just 1%. I knew that ‘my lot’ were not going to do very well but this was a shock.

Then I got to see the exam papers and a chance to judge the marking. I thought that I would start with the 6% paper, on the first question alone - there are 14 questions to be attempted - she would have got 5% from me and an overall 35%, not great but a far cry from the dispiriting/deflating mark she received.  All the questions were marked by a different examiner, they were judged only on whether the answer was correct; thus the mathematical ability of the student played no part in their result. I am nearly certain that the examiners have no mathematical training whatsoever but how to combat this kind of farce??

On a lighter note:  A bunch of us went on safari - a Swahili word meaning journey - where we visited three parks - Manyara, Ngorongoro and Tarangire were the parks we picked and we filled up 8/10 big tents or 3 large safari jeeps to give you some idea of our numbers. A great time was had by all, the guides fabulous and the cook sublime: cooking in the most primitive conditions he knocked up some wonders. We saw all the animals we could want including the big five; elephant, buffalo, rhino, lion and leopard. This was done at a very competitive price with the aid of Andrew Lebabu from 'Lebabu Africa Tours LTD' ph:+25578445210, more on Andrew later. Also we must mention here a guide and tour operator on Zanzibar, her name is Salma and has proved to be a godsend in many ways; houses to rent, safaris on Zanzibar and on the mainland, one day treks, and is in general an all round 'good guy', she can be reached at Ph: +255777431665 and can be found in the Kiponda Hotel where she works, it is a grand hotel at a reasonable price.

Flies in the ointment which cannot be ignored - it would be irresponsible not to mention them - must start with the dangers of Arusha. Here two of our members were mugged in broad daylight and robbed of quite a substantial sum. There were 20 or so people involved in the robbery - quite common we now hear in Arusha - and the police were totally disinterested in the question - which makes one think!  Again Andrew Lebabu was very helpful and went way beyond the call of duty to alleviate the situation. Also there were a couple of bag snatchings in Zanzibar, so being careful is part of the equation here;  still for all that we had a great summer.

Or something like that ... Jim