We had dinner at the Yaasila Hotel last night to admire the ‘super moon’. In Tanzania it is being suggested that this super moon may bring on the ‘big rain’, which is now overdue – a big problem (shida kubwa) following the failure of the ‘little rain’. The sky was still cloudy after a very rainy day (see, it’s working all ready!) but was an impressive sight nevertheless.

[The barge you can see in the picture just washed up several years ago, no-one seemed to know from whence, and is now used by the local boys as a swimming and fishing pontoon.]

Tanzanians on the whole are superstitious people.  The biggest news out of Tanzania currently is regarding a retired Lutheran cleric near Arusha who is selling a potion that he claims will cure cancer, AIDS, diabetes and high blood pressure among other things.  The price is moderate – Tsh500/= a cup (around 35 cents) but you have to travel to his village to get it. [Read the story here.]

A friend was telling us that donations are being solicited in her work place to fly a dying colleague from Kagera to Arusha so he can be ‘cured’.  What would you do?  Here you would just pay up, knowing it’s a donation to Precision Air.

On the work front it’s been a very slow week but with all the signs that work life could become frantic at any moment.

The BRDC officers who told me several weeks ago that they would take care of the logistics for the new seminars that had been to begin on March 7^th are nearly there with their budget and planning and we may be ‘good to go’ on March 28^th with twice the number of training days originally planned and at less cost to the BRDC.  I may have to run workshops on topics I’m less familiar with – writing Schemes of Work and Lesson Plans – but I have this coming week to sort it out.  I think in the current plan I will have the best of the teachers from ‘my’ wards to help and that they will get some financial recognition of their extra work.  It’s looking like a win for everyone.

On Thursday I mentioned I’d also been working on a practice exam for this year’s Standard VII, converting one I’d written to the new multiple choice format.  “Yes, that will be good.  We’ll do the mock exam for the District on April 1^st”  - not an April Fool Joke but I think I can be ready.  Steve has done the proof reading on the english language version and checking of answers and I have discovered that under the security arrangements thought necessary I will now have to shoot him!  The office will proof read the kiSwahili version.

So all is going well.  The data I have just prepared for a VSO-DFID review says in the 7 months we have been here I have directly influenced 211 teachers and education managers and through them a further 292 teachers and 15,569 children.  [ We will have a meeting with the review team this week too, so it’s lucky time is so elastic! ]  And the next few weeks should boost these numbers as we move out into more wards of the Bukoba rural District.


A post script to last week's blog - we evidently left the hospital opening too early - there was music, dancing and speeches.  Maybe that cheered-up PM Pinda!