School in the Mountains of Iringa Area

Countryside on way to Lutangilo

It's hard to imagine a more beautiful place than this countryside, the road to Lutangilo Secondary School.  Each of the schools we have visited has had a unique situation, but this one was most unusual.  We drove though forested areas and got views of virgin forests.  It reminded me of the alps, but we are so near the equator.  This area gets a lot of rain and it is cloudy much of the time.  The roadway was cut along the mountainside creating a tan ribbon across the mountain side.  The lumber is cut into planks at the side of the road and is neatly stacked waiting for pickup.   

Lumber cut at harvest site.

Students greeting us including dancing and singing school song, part of which is "we will do better"

Lutangilo is run by the Lutheran Diocese of Iringa and is for Form 1 though 4 with an enrollment of 180 students.  The school is rather new and has suffered from poor test performance.  The new head master who started last April is working hard with his staff to change school test scores.  They are implementing additional weekly testing with a concentration on two subjects a week.  He was teased by his classmates in college for his love of Hehe dancing.  He told his friends that when he became headmaster he would still do Hehe dancing, and he does dance with his students and they love it.

Part of acrobatics demonstration

Hand hoe musical instrument

Bucket drumming for dancing

Drum accompaniment

Hehe dancing with headmaster in light jacket.  Note Hehe bells on ankle of girl dancing to left of headmaster.  

Students watching dancing

Headmaster's office with Eunice and Don Fultz

Eunice Fultz and Lusungu Msigwa checking student information.

Classrooms and some dormitory rooms.  Students are waiting to have information checked and pictures taken.

Test Results Form II published outside Headmaster's Office, disappointing results.

Periodic Table on wall of supply room.

Mountain stream and source of water.

Students gathering water after lunch

We were given a tour of the campus and saw students with buckets walking away from the kitchen area.  We asked and heard that the well had broken and now the water must be gathered from the nearby stream.

Dining area is necessary because of high rainfall.

Kitchen smoke pours out through wall of logs.

View of Virgin forest as seen from school grounds.

As we left this remote area, we saw two girls walking along the narrow road.  They had been dismissed from school because their names were not on the school lists we had brought.  Due to no fault of theirs, the referring pastors had not submitted the proper paper work and had sent them off to school. Each girl a had signed paper explaining their dismissal. It was late afternoon and night would be coming in two hours.  We offered to take them to anywhere we were going along the road.  We took them to Iringa which was more than a two hour drive away.  I asked my Tanzanian friend if they had money, and he did not know.  He said they would be safe.  I thought how different from the high student life I know.  We dropped them off in a central location of Iringa where one of the girl's family could take care of them.