Ntagacha Village School

On Monday a group of us walked up the road to Ntagacha Village Primary School, where 800 children from surrounding areas attend classes. The school at City of Hope is technically considered a private school, since children’s parents or guardians pay a small amount each month. The village school was quiet as we walked up the long dirt road to the U-shaped courtyard of buildings, and I thought school might be canceled for the day (something that I am discovering is very common around here).

However, a couple children spotted us from the windows, and groups of children began to quietly gather in the doorways.

As we talked to a group of teachers (the kids seemed to all be sitting in class while the teachers gathered outside in the courtyard- yet another aspect of the Tanzanian education system that I don’t understand) the kids crept closer and closer until suddenly all 800 were surrounding us. Imagine about 8 mzungus (Swahili for white person), each like this:

Alice and the kiddos 

The crowd around me, anxious to be in a picture!

I was afraid someone was going to get trampled, between the kids leaping and jumping to be in a picture and then nearly knocking each other down to see the small screen on my camera. The village school does not teach English, which is why so many parents try to get their kids into the school at City of Hope. I am hoping to go back to the village school in these next 2 weeks and try to teach a couple English classes. I have a few simple lesson plans that I came up with during my last trip to Tanzania, but if anyone has any ideas, send them my way! Last week I thought teaching creative arts to classes of 50 was intimidating-now I am thinking teaching English to 800 sounds a little more intense! We’ll see what next week brings!