Did you ever think why many of the top leaders in Tanzanian Government were teachers before?. Did you even think why most of them had to quit their teaching carriers and become politicians?.
I will not give you the answer here but i just want you to figure that out by yourself after reading the real teaching life experience from myself as a teacher.I will tell you how i felt before about teaching and how I feel now,especially after 9 years of teaching experience.
I remember the day when the names of teachers who were selected to go and serve Government schools came out and I was one of them!. I was so happy!. The whole night I was thinking about my first class and how it would be!.
The day when I had to go to my working place came and everything was on set.The school was called NTAMBWE secondary school.It was at Lushoto.I was happy to go to Lushoto because it was a famous place in Tanzania.It has lot of tourism attractions like beautiful mountains and wonderful forests.Apart from that the weather condition of Lushoto is wonderful although it was a little bit challenge for me.
I got prepared and start the journey.I had to take the bus from one region in Tanga called Handeni to Lushoto town.We arrived at Lushoto town around 1:30pm.I was a little tired but relieved that the journey was over.It was different from the way I expected.I asked one of the people who were at the bus stop about the place where Ntambwe secondary school was!. He told me that I still had long way to go, because I had like four to five hours to reach at Ntambwe secondary school.Then I asked about the buses which goes to Ntambwe.He told me that there are no buses going to Ntambwe.He said,in order to reach to Ntambwe village I had to take pick up which are used to carry goods from farms.
After a lot of struggling including the pick up sticking in the mad, we reached to the village called KWAMAKAME where I had also to take the motorcycle to Ntambwe village.We reached at Ntambwe around 7:00 during the evening and being introduced to the acting headteacher because there was no head teacher at that school by then.
Now the challenge was,where would I stay because there were no teachers house at that village.We had the conclusion that, by that time I had to stay to that head teachers house temporarily while they are trying to figure out about my house.It was so cold that day.I was freezing!!I slept to that headteachers house until the next day when I started my teaching carrier as a professional.
The first day at that school was wonderful on one side and challenging at the other side.I remember being the first teacher to reach at school that day( may be because I was excited with my first day at my work place). Students were very happy to see the new teacher ta their school. Around 9:00 am only four teachers were at school.I had to ask where the other teachers were and the answer were,those ware the only teachers at that school.I got tired!!I mean the students were so many! over 250 compared to 4 teachers include the head teacher who was practically not teaching!!.
My life at work started that day.After one week I was given a very small house which was being used by primary school teachers but by then it was not used anymore.I had no problem for that because what i was only thinking about was teaching. The problem was the fact that the school was kind of new and so I had to do environmental planning like where to put gardens and plant trees. I had also to act like a discipline teacher(although by then i was using Tanzania teachers ways of disciplining students which are not suitable).
I was getting hard time concentrating on teaching because I had a lot of works to do.Sometimes I was not even entering the classes because of discipline issues or meeting with parents.I started to see my job as a burden and that is when thoughts to apply for transfer started in my mind.
Apart from all those challenges people of that area were so good to me.The kind of respect I got from those people is the one which gave me courage to move on.Sometimes they were even coming to my house to talk and help me with home chores.They were also bringing food,fruits and vegetables. That is what made me to stay,Love!!. After sometimes we received other three new female teachers.Now I had a company and the thinking of asking for transfer fed away.
We did our best with my fellow teachers,but the problem was,every teacher was complaining about hard life there.Water was not safe and there were cholera eruption every time,Tradition issues where students were sometimes shouting,running,and crying with no reasons and poor living environment. At the end every teacher was gone and I was the last one to go away!!I know they are still singing the school song I taught them and I miss them so much. Now you can just think how these teachers frustrations would affect the students.
You want to know where I went.There is where the real story started. The place at the middle of the sea!!. Next post we are going to travel together to that place and find out what happened there to me as a teacher.
THANK YOU!
teacherdeo.blogspot.com
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