Poli Shule

This is the second week I am teaching at Poli, a secondary school in a nearby village, as part of the two-week long HIV/AIDS, Health, and Life Skills Day Camp. The volunteers have been split into groups of two with one counterpart to teach 30 students per group. In total, we are educating about 180 youth. Having just finished week one, I already feel a strong connection with the students and the relationship which we are building together in the classroom. First thing in the morning, all the students gather to sing the national anthem and the school's song. Then we all disperse to our respective classrooms for teaching and games. After an hour and half there is a break, then an hour and half more of teaching before lunch. Everyday lunch is brought to the school by two women and one man who prepare it during the morning. The students are served after the teachers, translators, and staff and they are responsible for bringing their own plate. There is no cafeteria; everyone sits around the school field, a group of girls gather together behind the football goal, a handful of boys eat on the edge of the playing field by the corn growing on a nearby farm, while others take their food inside the classrooms to sit and eat. Four out of the five days we have been served some variation of rice and pinto beans with vegetables and bananas. On the exceptional day we ate makande (a local dish of cooked corn and beans) instead of rice.

I can honestly say that I have not grown tired of rice and beans despite its popularity at every roadside diner and frequency in my meals at home! All in all I have had no problem adjusting to the cuisine here, perhaps because it is similar to my diet in the States. My only struggle concerns the times of meals, particularly dinner which is preferred by my family to be eaten at 9:00 or 9:30pm. I am fortunate to have had almost thirty clif bars and a three pound bag of almonds to hold me over and now, since those are gone, a 1 kg (or 2.2 pounds) container of peanut butter and a jar of raspberry jam. Each day, I make it a little bit longer until I my body reminds me of my tendency for snacking and craves a small snack to hold me over.

When lunch is over and the students have finished washing their plates and running off some of the new food energy, we return to the classroom for seventy minutes more of lessons. At 2:45 the students gather into new groups where they practice arts, drama and music for 45 minutes in preparation for a show at the graduation ceremony where family and friends will gather to support their hard work.

After lessons today I talked with one of the science teachers who has worked at Poli for two years. The school was opened in 2009 and is government funded, meaning that students attend for free but their resources are very limited. Four rectangular buildings with classrooms sit around the center of the school lot. Two pit latrines are located behind one of the buildings and a one room “kitchen” sits to the side of the four buildings, next to the playing field. The science teacher explained that the one-walled, wooden structure with a tin roof needs more work before the kitchen is finished, and for that Poli waits for funds from the government. I asked the teacher how government schools compare to private and his answer helped to explain why the cycle of poverty is so difficult to break: in most government schools there is no library (how can you do research without books?), no science lab (how can you explain basic biology without understanding the microscope?), no computers, and sometimes no electricity even compared to the private schools which usually have all of this and more. Students who attend government schools like Poli tend to live in the same area- they may be friends, family, or at the very least the same tribe whereas private schools tend to be more diversified in where the students are from across the region. A more diverse community allows students to learn from each other in addition to learning from their teachers. As a result, students influence each other by competing for better grades, resulting in an overall stronger commitment to their studies. Furthermore, these students are more likely to excel on the national exam that is given to all students after completing their fourth year of secondary school, which thereby decides their acceptance into two more years of secondary school, and after that, a University.

Most private schools are very expensive (even after conversion to USD) so usually only those guardians with well paying jobs can ensure their children has the most conducive learning environment. The students who cannot afford private school usually also face challenges at home which further complicate their situation. Many have hours of chores and responsibilities such as getting water, cooking, cleaning, gathering firewood or taking care of younger siblings, all which may take precedence over studying and some may not have food to eat once they are home, resulting in the distracting pangs of real hunger throughout the day. But at least even these children have the privilege to an education compared to children who must stay at home and help their parents work all day instead of going to school.

These problems in education circle back to problems in the government. Considering the amount of minerals and natural resources that Tanzania is filled with and the number of national parks that caters to the tourism industry, Tanzania has great wealth. However without good leadership this wealth is not returned to the people who live here and the disparity between education opportunities grows larger. Without education, the cycle of poverty continues.