Teaching in Magoto
On Tuesday we made our last visit to students on service, visiting Seth Yoder in Tarime Mogoto. We left Tuesday morning, wondering whether we would have trouble getting up the muddy escarpment slopes considering we had a night of incessant rains!
We arrived in Tarime Magoto without incident around 10:15 a.m. and met Seth at Ebenezer School, a private school run by the Mennonite Church. The school provides classes for nursery through standard 5 (grade 5). Seth’s work is to fill in for any of the classes when another teacher is needed. Seth teaches from 8-10, then they break for tea until 10:30. He again teaches from 10:30-12:20 and from 2-4. He is busy!
We watched Seth teach English lessons to the Standard Two class – a group of about 20 students. He did a very nice job helping them understand when to use these, those, that, and this in various sentences. It is obvious that Seth is well appreciated by his principal, colleagues and students. In addition to teaching English he also teaches Math to the various levels. They, are of course, wishing he could stay!
After observing Seth in the classroom, he took us on a short hike to the top of a rock outcrop on which there was perched a large water tank. The top of the tank afforded an amazing view of the valley below, dotted with farms and homes. Magoto (along with Nyarero and Mogabiri) is located atop the escarpment and therefore is at higher elevation. This is banana country!
We made it back to Seth’s home in time for lunch and met his three host sisters and mother, Serena. Seth’s Baba (Amon Wambura) works as the doctor at the Nyarero clinic where Jess Klink works and therefore is only home on the weekends. We had a tasty lunch of liver, rice, beans, potatoes/matoke (cooking bananas) and sukuma wiki (spinach greens). It did not take long to get full – requiring another walk! Seth took us down the slope to a spring, which is the source of their water and where he washes his clothes. We ended the day in town at a small canteen for a soda and some time to catch up.
Seth commented how happy he is to be in a rural, isolated setting. He definitely has made the most of the experience and dedicated himself wholly to his students and family for these five weeks. He commented how difficult it will be for him to figure out how to say goodbye to this experience!
It is perplexing how the 5 weeks could have gone by so fast! The students will make their way back to Musoma on Monday morning March 31st to prepare for our return trip to Dar es Salaam on April 1st. April 2-4 we will visit Zanzibar, April 5th sleep one last time in Dar and early on the morning of April 7th the students will fly home with these stories and many more ready to spill over…
– Ryan for all the students
