One of the most vital, if often overlooked, aspects of any school around the globe is the library.

Having a properly stocked collection of books and educational materials is essential for a student’s advancement outside of the classroom. A library is often the first opportunity for a young student to open a book and let their imagination and creativity be tantalized and stimulated by tales of wondrous adventures and history. Whether fiction, non-fiction, biographies or auto-biographies, the love of reading and writing will be nurtured in a library. And as we enter the 21^st Century where technological advancement has progressed by leaps and bounds, it’s an educational institutions’ duty to keep up with the times, to give their students as much opportunity for career advancement through the necessary skills needed to prosper in this day and age.

Particularly in Tanzania, where most infrastructure is lacking and some children and adults will never have stepped foot in a library their entire lives, it’s crucial that we try and introduce the benefits of a library and its purpose at all levels to our students.

Here at St Jude’s, we have three libraries that act as central hubs on each campus. All are staffed with professional librarians and/or teacher-librarians who are there to help our over 1,500 students borrow books, work with computer programs, complete homework using the reference materials and find the right newspapers to read up on the daily happenings around Arusha and East Africa.

The majority of books are donated mainly from school and public libraries in Australia and the U.S. as well as from individual families and visitors. There are also a number of bookshops in Arusha that supply us with textbooks and small novels in Kiswahili. We have visitors from other schools come to see our libraries and students from the local teachers colleges will visit too. Our library staff will also visit other school libraries to share information and processes.

Each library keeps a list of novels or books they would like to see donated, in hopes that one or two titles will complete a series of a set of young adult novels, for example. This list is coordinated with the visitor and donor relations teams to help the libraries have complete volumes of series.

Here are a few snippets of information about our Lower Primary and Secondary libraries:

LOWER PRIMARY

Every week there are 19 classes that come through the Lower Primary library, from Standard (Year) 1-4. There are a total of 1,372 books that can be circulated during the week. Teachers will also drop in to pick up DVDs for classes.

Some of the ongoing projects include the Year 1 students modeling picture books from the style of well-known authors. Students also have been learning about the difference between fiction and nonfiction books, while the younger students concentrate on telling their own stories and describing their characters. Future projects include research projects about snakes and reptiles

UPPER PRIMARY

Throughout any week there are 20 classes in Standards 5-7 that come through the library doors, sometimes as most as 8 classes in one day. In the month of September, 3,938 books were borrowed by the staff and students. This term the Standard 5 and 6 students have been developing their map reading skills using atlases and researching countries outside Africa. They have learnt how to make a mind map and are presenting their information on posters. Lessons usually focus on thinking strategies, information gathering and honing literacy skills.

SECONDARY

Every day there are around six classes in the library. It’s a mix of English classes which come to the library for one period a week and additional classes where teachers bring their students to do research, reading and to use the resources available. Since the students board for the entire week at the Secondary campus for an entire term, the library is in constant use as students visit during break time, lunch and after school. Approximately 300 students come through the library each day, while there are often between 30-50 students in the library after school doing a variety of things. They loan around 1,500 books per month, around 70 per day and have 10,000 items in their secondary collection. The 10,000 items cover fiction, non-fiction and DVDs.

Secondary library lessons are linked with the English curriculum and focus on the use and writing of English using resources in the library. For example, Form 3 students have been using newspapers to study how to write articles, letters to the editor, and book and music reviews. Form 2 has been looking at hotels, facilities and furniture in hotel rooms and how to write reservation letters.

When St Jude’s introduced hot lunches in 2004 there were about 500 student and staff to feed. Fast forward to present day, and there are almost four times that amount: over 1,500 students, over 400 local staff and more than 50 international volunteers is the current St Jude's tally. That’s almost 2,000 mouths that need to be fed morning tea and lunch on a weekly basis, and then there are dinners for the students who board at Usa River and Moivaro. It takes an incredibly organized and efficient team to keep this process on track to avoid a logistical nightmare, ensuring our students are fed hot, nutritious meals to keep them motivated, energized and their minds focused on the tasks ahead. A supply of clean drinking water is readily available to keep everyone hydrated as well.

Our Purchasing Team plans the food purchases for each of the three terms throughout the year. They source all of the products from local suppliers and visit the local markets several times during the week to ensure the food is as fresh as possible. Since there is no refrigeration on the campuses, the meat is bought and prepared fresh, and the vegetables are only kept for two or three days. Trucks are constantly going in and out of the gates delivering fresh fruits, vegetables and bags of rice and maize.

The meals prepared by our 29 cooks are traditional Tanzanian and East African fare, which include staples like ugali (a stiff porridge-like substance made of maize flour) accompanied by beans, pilau (rice with spices and meat), and plenty of vegetables like ngogwe (described as an African eggplant) served with rice. Kachumbali - a salad made from tomatoes, onions, carrots and peppers - is a ubiquitous side-dish served with every meal. Every Tuesday our cooks make mandazi, an East African doughnut, to have with morning chai (tea).

For some idea of the quantity needed to feed everyone across the three campuses for one term, here’s an idea (items are listed in Kiswahili with the English translation in parenthesis):

Mchele (rice): 12,500 kg / 27,558 lbs

Maharage (beans): 4,500 kg / 9,921 lbs

Choroko (lentils): 800 kg / 1,764 lbs

Maize: 2,850 kg / 6,283 lbs

Nyanya (tomatoes): 2,065 kg / 4,553 lbs

Karoti (carrots): 2,905 kg / 6,404 lbs

Vitunguu (onions): 1,855 kg / 4,090 lbs

Nyama (meat): 850 kg / 1,874 lbs

At a time when so much attention is focused on the unhealthy eating habits across dining halls in schools throughout the world, we're proud to be serving plenty of fresh vegetables and nutritious meals that will aid in our students growth and development into the future leaders of Tanzania.

This will be our initial audio post, in which you, the reader, are taken through an aural journey throughout a typical day at St Jude’s Lower Primary Campus. Click on the links after each paragraph to sample the sounds of St Jude’s.

MOSHONO CAMPUS, LOWER PRIMARY, MONDAY

The first sound you hear every morning at The School of St Jude is the revving of the bus engines. The fleet of 21 buses is woken from their nightly slumber, ready for another long days work. Beethoven’s Für Elise – the sound some buses play when going reverse – fills the morning air.

Red, green, yellow, orange and blue buses head out the front gates of the Moshono campus, scattering in each and every direction looking for bright-eyed St Jude’s students in their spiffy blue uniforms.

Once the fleet returns, the students pile out and flood the playgrounds until the morning bell rings, signaling the start of classes.

As the sun continues to peak through the morning fog that’s descended upon Moshono from Mt Meru, the students shuffle between their Maths, Science, Geography, Physical Education, Music and Art classes, taking in new knowledge and ideas. A quick break for morning tea goes by too quickly, as the sounds of tiny footsteps hurry to their next class. Before you know it, lunch time has arrived.

The lower primary students are escorted by their teachers to the outdoor dining hall, where plates of hot, nutritious meals are waiting their arrival. Bowls of rice and beans – the Monday entrée – with a side of tomato, carrot and capsicum salad, with forks and cups of water are placed neatly along the rows. Before anybody has a bite, a prayer is said.

Lunch is devoured quickly, as the students want as much time to run around and play with their friends. Because this is Monday, the lower primary students will have their weekly assembly soon after lunch. The cooks and cleaners convert the dining hall into an assembly hall, rearranging the benches to face the stage. Students pile back in to the rows. To kick off the assembly, three things must happen:

1. The St Jude’s prayer must be recited.

2. The Tanzanian National Anthem, with students on drums, must be played.

3. The School of St Jude song, accompanied by its original dance, finishes the assembly introduction.

The assembly will include everything from different grades performing songs and acts on stage that they’ve been practicing, announcements, introducing new visitors, special guests and weekly awards. After assembly, the students will go to a few more classes until the closing bell rings. The students will line up and filter into their appropriate bus, ready to take them home.

Another Monday at the Lower Primary Moshono Campus comes to a close, the sounds of St Jude’s permeating into the atmosphere, rising above the clouds, past Mt Meru, spreading far and wide as the fight against poverty grows ever stronger.