I think the sauna/internet cafe is an unexploited market niche. Except in Mwanza. We must be a mile from the Sun.
Some things just don't seem fair. Yesterday I was talking with a driver for an international organization and this driver had only finished what in America we call high school. He takes home about $700/month. Sitting nearby were several teachers who are all university degree holders taking home, after deductions, about $130/month. A safari driver once explained that although he had only graduated from about the 8th grade he, on average, takes about $500/month. I suspect he was underestimating.
One of the things I absolutely love about living here are the flowering trees. Yesterday I was standing in the school garden looking out over a small valley of rice fields and appreciating the purple, red and yellow flowers bursting out of the canopy. There were a dozen people digging in the rice fields, young children, all girls (except for one young boy who was carrying both a bucket of water and a baby - both unusual...all his friends were playing soccer about 10 yards away) pumping water at the well, shepherds driving their cattle and goats home from pasture, cars tearing down the highway and dozens of people walking along the roads. This is a very peaceful place, except when there is a wedding or a party or a holiday or a revival and then the speakers are pounding out music or the gospel or the gospel put to music until early morning.
I think the reason soccer is so popular outside America is that it takes almost no equipment. The young boys playing across the road every night have wrapped some cloth into what is approximately a ball and that's it. No nets or goals, they have to kick the ball between two stones or sticks that demarcate the goal. No shoes no uniforms no parents no coaches no referees no clocks no penalties. It's pure play.
Yesterday I was to fill out a character assessment for the students in a particular class. I am their class teacher which means if they have any sort of issue they can come to me. I have been assuming that if they do have something they want to talk to me about they can take the initiative. It's not so hard to find the one white guy at school. There can be no confusion about who I am or where I live. But they don't come to me and I don't go to them and so I found myself sitting in front of a pile of report forms with the task of giving these people whose names and faces I do not know a grade for things such as 'obedience' and 'cleanliness' and 'class spirit'. When I picked up the forms the Academic Master said 'I'm sure you know these people'. I said, 'not a single one'. He didn't say anything so I sat down and was giving them all C's - average - until another teacher told me they were pretty good students so I started giving some of them B's too. Anyway, presumably their parents, for whom the report forms are intended, are familiar with the habits of their children.
Some things just don't seem fair. Yesterday I was talking with a driver for an international organization and this driver had only finished what in America we call high school. He takes home about $700/month. Sitting nearby were several teachers who are all university degree holders taking home, after deductions, about $130/month. A safari driver once explained that although he had only graduated from about the 8th grade he, on average, takes about $500/month. I suspect he was underestimating.
One of the things I absolutely love about living here are the flowering trees. Yesterday I was standing in the school garden looking out over a small valley of rice fields and appreciating the purple, red and yellow flowers bursting out of the canopy. There were a dozen people digging in the rice fields, young children, all girls (except for one young boy who was carrying both a bucket of water and a baby - both unusual...all his friends were playing soccer about 10 yards away) pumping water at the well, shepherds driving their cattle and goats home from pasture, cars tearing down the highway and dozens of people walking along the roads. This is a very peaceful place, except when there is a wedding or a party or a holiday or a revival and then the speakers are pounding out music or the gospel or the gospel put to music until early morning.
I think the reason soccer is so popular outside America is that it takes almost no equipment. The young boys playing across the road every night have wrapped some cloth into what is approximately a ball and that's it. No nets or goals, they have to kick the ball between two stones or sticks that demarcate the goal. No shoes no uniforms no parents no coaches no referees no clocks no penalties. It's pure play.
Yesterday I was to fill out a character assessment for the students in a particular class. I am their class teacher which means if they have any sort of issue they can come to me. I have been assuming that if they do have something they want to talk to me about they can take the initiative. It's not so hard to find the one white guy at school. There can be no confusion about who I am or where I live. But they don't come to me and I don't go to them and so I found myself sitting in front of a pile of report forms with the task of giving these people whose names and faces I do not know a grade for things such as 'obedience' and 'cleanliness' and 'class spirit'. When I picked up the forms the Academic Master said 'I'm sure you know these people'. I said, 'not a single one'. He didn't say anything so I sat down and was giving them all C's - average - until another teacher told me they were pretty good students so I started giving some of them B's too. Anyway, presumably their parents, for whom the report forms are intended, are familiar with the habits of their children.
posted by Ryan Kadow at 12:03 PM
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