Week 7 at School

Well here it is Saturday night and I thought I would have nothing new to write.  That was wrong as the weeks interesting story happened today.

Before I begin, I thought I would show you my second office.

That is how I spend a few hours every day except Sunday, reclined on the bus, usually trying to balance the accounts.

For those reading the online blog, there is more if you click on the Read more>> button below.

Denise has spen the last week or 2 trying to sort out accounts that need sorting, and has even started her knitting classes with the kids at school.  At least we didn't bring 10kg of wool all this way for nothing - thanks Deb and friends, it wasn't all in vain.  I was getting a bit worried about that one.

I am starting to make a few changes to the work processes and practices to improve the workflow and make my life a little easier.  I am also starting to work out the suppliers and am beginning to get rid of the belief that the school is an opportunity for the locals to make more money than they should be.  I am loving my role and having the opportunity to make a difference, although to do that takes time and effort, so many days I come home only to do more work at home.  The good thing is I am already seeing improvement.

I have stopped Swahili lessons as 2 hours of lessons was too mentally draining after a full days work, plus it was costing us a fortune paying for 2 people.  Denise is still going.  I have worked out that I can still get my point across, and am slowly picking up some Swahili, but I doubt I will be an expert any time soon.  I think I will be lucky to get above kindergarten level.

This afternoon I was going to basketball to once again assist the referees.  Tip off time was 4 or 4.30 depending on which message you read, so being the diligent fellow I am, I together with Denise and Ray, from school, got there at 4, only to find we were first there.  After the last time, no surprises there.  Now as a game takes 1.5hrs or more, and the sun sets at 6pm, you would think that timing was a big factor in starting a game of basketball when there are no lights.

I phoned the coordinator to say I was at the court, but got his voicemail so left a message to say I was at the courts.  At 4.30, I rang one of the referees who said he was on his way.  A few players began turning up at this stage, and agreed that tip off was 4.30.  At 4.45, the coordinator turned up totally unflustered and said it was the Tanzanian way.  I pointed out that the sun doesn't care for Tanzanian time and was still going to set at 6pm.

At 5, I inquired who was reffing and was told that he was 10 mins away.  At 5.10, I inquired again and was told he was coming, so after some deliberation with myself, I said I would ref, but I wouldn't run for fear of injuring my achilles again.  The only problem was, I was still in my work clothes (refer pic below, with Mt Meru in background).

First thing I did was to make one team wear white tops, so I at least had a chance of telling who was on which team.  A few shirt swaps did the trick.  Next I asked who was doing the scorebench - not required, so off we went with not clock or score, although Denise and Ray started scoring and keeping time.  6pm was to be full time.  It was amazing that for a game where they didn't care who won, how many times they asked for a score check.

Next thing you know I am reffing my first game in well over a year on a dirty cement outdoor court with indistinguishable line markings in Tanzania, while wearing hiking boots.  The game itself was quite fun to ref as it was an "All Star" (I use that term extremely loosely) game and nobody was playing for sheep stations (I discovered that they don't understand that term here - don't know why....).  After watching the previous weeks finals games I was looking forward to them trying to intimidate me.

At 6pm as the sun was setting I called full time.  All the players then came over and said who is reffing the rest of the game.  My response, "Not me, I'm going home as it's getting dark".  Particularly after one of the players told me that after dark the basketball court and surrounds was quite a dangerous place to be, even for locals.  As we drove away they were still playing in fading light.  I did notice that they were questioning the calls of the ref who took over from me, after not questioning one call from me, even when my jump ball went back over my head (no surprises there) and I gave an incorrect additional free throw.

By the way, the original referee never did turn up.  Not too sure what happened there.

I have finally got a meeting organised with the basketball coordinator to sort out details to run a referee and scoretable course here.  The meeting is planned for 3pm next Saturday.  Let's see how prompt they are next Saturday.

On the way home we saw an accident, not too serious although it was blocking the lane coming the other way.  Come to think of it, I haven't seen a tow truck here yet.

We got home and were going to have dinner at The Hole (the pub outside the gate), but found out 2 others were going out for dinner in 30 mins so invited ourselves out with them.  A pleasant end to a long day was had by all.

Until next week.