Thoughts about Msalato Seminary

Today is March 12th, 2012 and it rained briefly last night.  Just enough to wet the ground good and make everything damp in the morning.  All the crops are looking healthy and even the sun flower heads are sticking straight up now announcing they are growing and alive.  Everyone here is happy about the rains except of course those of us who must drive back and forth on the main road to Dodoma.
David is having a bad time of it with the car even though it was designed for some off road adventures.
But being a 17 years old car does not help.  Even though its suspension and ability were made to take the dips and bumps in the road.  So we will see how long it last...hopefully until we leave.

THOUGHTS ON EDUCATION AT MSALATO

Classes are going great and we are both enjoying our students. David's classes are going good at St. John's almost everyone has started to attend now and he has over 20 students in a graduate class on secondary curriculum. As for my classes, the tutoring is working very well for I see around 4 to 6 students a week individually before and after class.  The vocabulary and reading comprehension classes are also in full swing and appear to be helping. There is a wide range of abilities with the 17 students and therefore we have divided the group into three reading levels.  We can only hope that by this July they will have mastered enough vocabulary to continue in English next year with theology classes.  If not they will be recommended to complete their studies in a Swahili speaking seminary
in Morogoro I believe.

This is the new house of the President who has been re-elected for a second term.  His house is huge and is still not completed.  It sits close to the pizza place we love to go to eat pizza and have a Kilimanjaro beer!

BENCHES FOR ST. MARK'S

A couple of weeks ago right after we attended our Pastoral Churches on a Sunday, David announced he was buying benches for his church.  St. Mark's is about a 20 to 30 minute walk from our campus.  It is a new church with only a shell of a building and a roof.  Its floor is dirt and it has only openings for windows and a door.  The congregation sits on rocks or bricks or just the dirt floor.  David immediately ordered 10 benches from a Duka shop in Dodoma.  Eugenia who is our Swahili teacher helped him order them and made sure they were the right size for the small church.  This Sunday David will take the benches to church with him or have members of the congregation come and carry them to the church.  They aren't great but at least they are not rocks or dirt!

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Furniture store along the way to Msalato!

Passing on the road to Msalato from Dodoma by the Dolly-Dolly's.  There is only one rule when driving here and that is there are no rules for driving.