A typical staff meeting at Mary Goreti Secondary School

Meeting Scheduled for 9:00AM, Wednesday January 7th 2009

8:59 Mary Beth and I arrive to find a note on the white board informing us that the meeting has been re-scheduled for tomorrow, January 8th at 9:00am due to very few of the teachers showing up for the departmental meetings that were held on the previous day.

Thursday January 8th 2009 Posted Meeting Time: 9:00am

8:58am Mary Beth and I arrive and excitedly go to sit at our newly assigned desks. Two other teachers are seated at their desks. One teacher is wandering around cleaning.

9:05am One more teacher arrives.

9:08am Four students arrive and begin to clean the staff room.

9:10am Two more teachers arrive. One of these teachers is the self-proclaimed Master of Ceremonies who has a goatee resembling a rat tail protruding from his lower lip.

9:11am Three of the teachers go outside.

9:13am A teacher approaches us and attempts to schedule another meeting with us for 9:45. Double booked!

9:15am Mary Beth and I are the only teachers present in the staff room.

9:19am Mass cleaning effort by six students continues. MB and I are beginning to think we are not supposed to be in the staff room at this time but no one has said anything to the crazy wazungu in the corner.

9:24am James (a Jesuit living with Balige for this semester) arrives and after laughing at us for arriving at 9:00 informs us that when a meeting is scheduled for 9:00 we should come at 10:00.

9:25am Two teachers come into the staff room and sit in the lounge area instead of at their desks. One teacher at desk.

9:27am Sudden inexplicable influx! Four teachers arrive!

9:28am Three of them go back outside.

9:30am Status update: Four teachers at desks. One moving furniture. MB and I straight chillin. One student cleaning. One teacher at computer.

9:31am One in one out rule seems to have been applied.

9:34am Supplies for tes begin to be put out.

9:39am MB leaves on a mission to find Sister Njau.

9:40am Someone turns on the television and flips through the channels until the soap opera channel is found. Show title: Deceptions.

9:42am Sister Njau(headmistress and convener of meeting) arrives sans MB

9:45am Sister Njau, "Good Morning Teachers! How is the day?"

9:47am Sister Njau is chatting on her cell phone.

9:50am Meeting commences. Stand for prayer. 22 people present

9:51am Three more people straggle in.

9:52am Announcement of Form 2 Examination results. They ranked second out of 486 secondary school in Tanzania. Celebration to occur later.

9:55am The Master of Ceremonies re-enters and is playfully publicly chastised by Sister Njau.

10:15am Status update: 30 people present

10:18am This writer begins a crossword puzzle brought from the Washington Post. Thursday level. Tough.

10:21am Interruption for speech from special guest! He begins his spiel with a "God is Good!" The congregation responds, "All the time!" He says, "All the time?" Congregation of teachers: "God is Good!" He then proceeds to inform us that in life, people should do three things. Plant a tree, have a child and write a book. He goes on to claim that he has done all three and then pitches his study skills book to us at the discount rate of 2000 tsh.

10:33am After a strenuous 43 minutes of meeting... its time for a tea break!

11:05am Meeting resumes.

11:15am A handout is passed out from the computer department. Under general comments it states that the computer department would like to thank the administration for the two new computer teachers, Ms. Talia and Ms. Betty, who are mostly welcome. Mostly??

11:35am Several people asleep. Handouts being read aloud word for word. This writer witnesses a teacher sending a text message to a colleague to wake her from her nap. Cell phones ringing sporadically.

11:43am Sister Njau stands up and peaces out with no warning mid-action plan from the Natural Sciences Department.


12:18pm* A note is passed from James. It asks..."Who sings Lean on Me?" I bust out my pizzle to check and show MB. It says the Temptation. She says, "no."

12:28pm Another colleague surreptitiously begins to read Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt (who Mary Beth has met and whispers this information to the reader) under his desk.

12:32pm Sister Njau returns and immediately begins asking questions that were just clarified 36 seconds earlier.

12:38pm Crossword puzzle finished.

12:45pm Two cases of soda arrive.

1:15om Sister Njau lists of the absentees of this meeting, stating why they are not here if she knows, and inquiring as to why if she does not.

1:18pm Prayer for lunch. Words of encouragement for the new school year from Sister Njau, "Let us put our legs down and our hands down and our legs doen and reduce this F." Then we celebrate the positive Form 2 Exam scores with sodas for all!

*It should also be noted that between the minutes of 11:45 and 12:15 nine people were witnessed picking their noses.