Lutangilo School Visit

We left Iringa to visit three schools and got caught in a traffic jam caused by two camels walking down the entire length of the Iringa main street.  They are not from here but belong to a ranch that was creating interest by parading the camels.  On the way we stopped in Kidabaga to repair a leaking power steering hose and pick up 5 big bags of maize flour for the school

These two attracted a lot of attention.

Maize milling machine to make ugali flour

Bridge on the road to Lutangilo.

  We arrived in Lutangilo just after noon and were greeted by Headmaster Sebastian Chaula and dancing students.

Student assembly to welcome us.

Headmaster Sebastian and student doing a Hehe dance. note bells around knee and ankle.

Lutangilo is high in the mountains and has natural forest on the hills nearby.  The road there is only passable in the dry season and cuts through and over hills of newly planted pine trees.The school is on a rise with three rivers below.  One, below the natural forest, is crystal clear and is used as the water source for the school.  They have a well but it is not working.

Headmaster with natural forest in background. It is helpful for a headmaster to be able to muster a stern expression but that is the opposite of Sebastian's personality.

Water source for school.

Lutangilo currently has about 140 students in four forms with 13 teachers.  Seven of those teachers are Form 6 leavers meaning they have only completed secondary school themselves.  Most of the rest are 2 year diploma teachers.  Lutangilo is a difficult location for attracting teachers because of its remoteness.  During the wet season, teachers would have to walk 20 km to Kidabaga to get transportation to Iringa.  They have a generator and the classrooms and teacher houses have electricity at night for lights.  The school has one house for teachers and rents another. They are building a new dining and meeting hall to replace the current one built from scrap boards.

Classroom buildings

I met with the teachers and we used the balance I brought to prepare solutions for doing volumetric analysis again to practice for the exam practicals.  We then had the students do the titration and they did a good job.  I think it was important to go through this before the exam because if things are not prepared properly, the students will not be able to do well on the practical even if they do the titrations well.  We also did the gel crosslinking slime experiment with the students.

The night was very cold and the headmaster had given me his room to use with a nice blanket to supplement my light sleeping bag.  The next morning the students assembled before 7 AM and one read morning devotions from the bible in English.  The students at assembly were using English and sang their school song in English.  There were no teachers present and I had just happened to be there so I know the English was not for my benefit so I was encouraged.  They will need good English to do well on the national exams.  We had some rain in the night and the cloud cover was very low and we drove through some of the clouds as we left for Bomalang'ombe school.

Student reading the bible in English for morning assembly.