A message from the (domestic) front …

It has taken time but we are getting the domestic side of life organised.  Steve is now the chief cook and bottle washer and I am trying hard to leave it to him.  But you know how hard it is to break old habits!

For those of you who wanted to see more of our house:

This is the living room.  We have a three piece lounge suite and a bookshelf that is hidden under the cloth (on the right) to keep dust out. We watch episodes of “West Wing” and “House” on Steve’s laptop in the living room and we eat our meals at the little table.  It is a very pleasant room.  The front verandah is off the living room but it is too dusty to sit out there.  It might be a good spot to sit when the rain starts in earnest.

 The main bedroom is quite big.  Our bed is smaller than a double bed so it’s lucky we’ve both lost some weight.  It is quite comfortable and we are now used to sleeping under the mosquito net.  The wardrobe is tiny and I have it for my clothes.  Steve’s are on a sofa in one of the spare rooms.  We have two spare bedrooms both with small double beds.  We are waiting for the landlord to have the mattresses recovered so they will be useable by visitors.  Our little refrigerator is in one of the bedrooms as there is only one power point in the kitchen and we need it for the stove, kettle and toaster.

 This is the kitchen.  The sink drain does work but we still wash up in a basin as we can’t get a plug to fit the sink! The water filter works well.  We are limited in what we can cook by the two hotplates – that let Steve off making me a birthday cake this year.

And the pièce de resistance – the bathroom!  It has two major pluses -

it is inside and it functions.  So far cold showers have not been a problem, the weather is quite warm and the water is not icy.  The squeegee helps the water run in the right direction to get to the drain after showering.  (I wish someone would teach plumbers about gravity!) The least said about the squat toilet the better!  We mightn’t like it but we are managing.

The backyard will one day have another house in it.  The foundations are there as well as piles of bricks and sand.  There are many plants, including vegetables, growing in each of the ‘cells’ of the foundations.  We have been eating home grown eggplant and tomatoes.  We should also get potatoes and sweet potatoes later in the year.  I have sown some watermelon seeds so maybe they will grow when the rain comes.

 

Steve spends a major part of each day in the backyard.  Already 80 bird species have come to visit.  New ones appear regularly so the novelty has not yet worn off.  Maybe when it does he’ll get more into the cooking (or maybe not!)  A 2.5 m brick wall surrounds our yard giving us some privacy. 

We have close neighbours only on one side – a group of families, two shops, two hair salons (men’s and ladies’) and a video viewing saloon which I think also hosts small political rallies for the Centre Unity Party.  The shops sell rice, sugar and maize flour by the kilo but also wheat flour by the kilo and dried yeast by the spoonful so I have been able to make flat bread.  The ladies who run the shops were sceptical when I said I planned to make chapatti with the flour and yeast.  I gave them some when it was cooked and they were very impressed though said I should have used salt!  We converse in a mixture of English, kiSwahili and kiHaya.  The little children who live next door like me to use kiHaya.  They give me gifts of stones and pieces of wood so I’ll say “kisinge” to them.  There is also a carpenter next door who made me some wooden cubes for dice.

On the corner of our road and the main road, about 100 metres from us, there are some small shops that sell a limited variety of fruit and vegetables and also soda (Coke and Fanta).  Today one was also selling meat.  A side of what looked like goat was hanging up out in the open air and the sales lady would have cut a bit off for us if we’d wanted it.

In the other direction, about a kilometre away, there is a small settlement with about 12 shops selling most of the things we might need though again the fruit and vegetables are limited to what the shop keepers have grown themselves.  The market in town has much greater variety but at our local shops we don’t pay the mzungu surcharge.

So far the only meat we have bought to cook is frozen mince steak from the Fido Dido Grocery where we also get other western items – peanut butter, jam, pasta, instant coffee and tea bags.  The meat has been very nice in pasta sauces.  Buying a small fridge has made the food buying/cooking/storing process much easier.

So far the change to living here has been surprisingly easy.  We feel safe and welcome (or relaxed and comfortable!) in our home and work communities.  I am sure we will have some difficult times over the next 10 months (the time is slipping away so quickly!) but so far we are very content.

School with a million dollar view.

The schools we visited today are high above Kemondo Bay with magnificent views of Lake Victoria and the little town of Kemondo with its sandy bay and wharf where the Bukoba – Mwanza ferry calls in to pick up bananas and passengers.  Views that are not spoiled by those unsightly power or telephone lines!  These schools are in Katerero ward and are among the most disadvantaged we’ve seen to date.

At our meetings with the teachers we heard the same litany of reasons for poor academic performance; each reason enough on its own and each compounding the others.

The parents are poor and uneducated – they often do not value education.  The children are kept home to work on the farm or mind the little ones so the parents can go to the markets to sell their bananas and fish.  Uniforms, pens and books cost money the parents can’t spare.  The child often has to work to pay for these things.  Homework is not done as there is no kerosene to provide light at night.  Passing the Standard VII means the expense of sending the child to secondary school – again costing money for uniforms and books – so is actively discouraged.

Girls especially suffer as they have the lion’s share of work to do at home and you can work out for yourself the problems of puberty in the Third World.  Boys often truant if there is work going in the local quarry or brick kiln but they at least are paid!

Preschool classes are available to children aged 5 and 6 but these are poorly attended especially when there is a church run preschool available where the children get a religious education more prized by the parents and often in the local vernacular rather than KiSwahili.  Children then start at Government school at the compulsory age of 7 with no KiSwahili let alone English.

These rural schools are hard to staff.  There is no close accommodation for teachers, and teachers usually have no transport of their own.  In the 16 school visits we have done we have met one teacher who has her own car!  Some teacher houses are being used for offices and even classrooms, where the schools are overcrowded, though this is not always practical if there are not enough teachers to put one in front of each class anyway!  One school of 400 children had only two ‘safe’ classrooms.  The rest were badly built in 1930 and have had no renovation since – the floors are broken cement and the roofs leak in the wet, there are only small windows so there is limited light and ventilation.  Some were originally built as offices and are far too small for the number of children and desks.

Teachers are overworked and undervalued.  A teacher is expected to check each child’s exercise book after every lesson and there can be over 70 children in the class.  Inspectors come to the school to check this is being done.  Morale did not improve when the local District Commissioner had some teachers beaten by the police for what he considered to be their underperformance!  The government would like teachers to use more participatory methods but there is no money for teaching aids.  Even paper is rationed and aids must be made from ‘found materials’ – cardboard boxes, washing lines, wood off-cuts.  One teacher had made a ‘clock’ from a polystyrene box.  It had hands cut from a piece of plastic and they were held in place with a nail.  Such ingenuity and imagination!  I am collecting such ideas to share in other schools.

In 2005 new curricula were introduced.  Teachers received no professional development about these changes.  They consistently tell us they need refresher courses to understand the changes, and new ways to teach to keep the children interested.

Despite all this children are learning to read, write and count (here called the 3Ks – kusoma, kuandika na kuhesabu); some are passing the Standard VII and will go on to secondary school.  The best will get a place at a secondary boarding school, often several days’ bus travel from their home, and will get a good education allowing them to escape poverty.  Some may return as teachers to keep working at giving all the children of Tanzania the universal primary education promised in the Millennium Development Goals.

There is so much that I can have no influence over, but I will certainly be striving to support these wonderful, enthusiastic and optimistic teachers as they try to teach mathematics in conditions that my colleagues at Baimbridge would struggle to imagine let alone teach under.

August 17^th

Happy Birthday Toby – I hope you will forgive us for missing your 21^st Birthday.  We love you!

Today marked the halfway point of our first round of school visits – we have visited 10 schools each with its own set of issues and challenges for the staff, students and school community.  We have met with the Head Teacher of each school and some of the staff.  We have gone through a questionnaire at each school looking at Standard VII exam results for the last two years, and results in English and Mathematics for boys and for girls.  Each school has given reasons for the changes in levels of performance – all too often they can be attributed to poverty!  Most schools have introduced or are about to introduce a morning break food program of maize porridge though sometimes it only goes to children from families who contribute money or maize flour, and it is those who can’t contribute who need it most!

The questionnaire looks at the SMART targets each school has set itself and progress made. Because the targets set were realistic there has usually been good progress.  In each school we have observed an English language lesson.  These have ranged across the standards from Std I to Std VII.  Today we watched a delightful Std I class sing (and dance) for us a song “I know my name, my name is wonderful, …” and at the end of each chorus a child would spell out her or his name in English.  These children then showed they recognised the letters in the alphabet and sang the Alphabet song.  I could picture my 6 year old nephew James in this class.

Also today a Standard VI class did an exercise in grammar reviewing present and past tenses and past participles (eg. do, did, done). In groups of three they had to find the set in a box of cards.  The girls who did to cut (cut, cut. cut) had an easy one, the boys who tried to hold (hold, held, hidden!) had trouble.  It was a good exercise.

Yesterday we watched a debate in a Std VII class that “Girls’ education is more important than boys’.”  The debate was a bit stilted in English but became quite lively when the students were allowed to express their views in KiSwahili.  I put in my 2c worth, that my mother believed educating girls was more important as she, as a widow, had been able to support her family because she was a trained teacher.  We agreed in the end that education for boys and girls was equally important!

The discussion at our meetings is also about what we, Michelle and I, can do to support teachers.  We have heard over and over that the curricula have been changed with no support for refresher courses from the government.  Teachers are crying out for workshops to update their maths skills particularly in geometry and algebra, and for student centred teaching methodology in mathematics.  This is right up my alley!  I have not yet observed a maths class in a primary school but I am getting a feeling for the problems – too few textbooks, limited resources, students with an attitude that maths is “too hard”.  I am really looking forward to getting stuck in!

I have begun already looking at resources that can be constructed from locally available materials.  Washing line and peg number lines is an easy one.  I have made a crude die from a timber off-cut and hope to introduce teachers to the many games that can make basic operations fun.  I watched a teacher explaining how to tell the time with just one clock for 60 students – I have now made several model clocks using cut up cardboard boxes and paper fasteners.  (500Ts 0r 40 Aust cents for a box of 100!)  I am very excited by the possibilities.

Visiting schools has been such fun.  I feel like The Queen.  Children curtsey and say “Good morning Madam”.  I wave from the back seat of the little 4WD as we arrive and leave.  Everyone is so friendly and welcoming – we are not made to feel what an imposition we are making in their busy days.  At one school of 800 children last week there were only four teachers present as the remaining 10 had gone to a workshop organised by World Vision at a neighbouring school.  While we were there all the teachers met with us in the Head Teacher’s office and the children sat quietly in their classrooms.  Then we were treated to an excellent Std V lesson about the use of ‘for’ and ‘since’ – I have been in Bukoba for four weeks.  I have been a teacher since 1981.  I am constantly stunned by what these teachers can do with so little!  It is inspiring.

More about school visits and other matters soon – keep those comments coming!  Jenny

Michelle and I have completed our first week of school reviews, accompanied by Mr Josiah, our aide from BRDC.  We have visited six schools over three days; we have fourteen more to visit in the next two weeks.

Our VSO predecessors, James and Sue Taylor, began this process last year when they introduced the idea of SMART targets to the school communities.  Each school has set itself several targets related to school management, teacher training and community involvement.  In our visits we are asking about and looking at evidence of progress towards these targets as well as observing a lesson in each school where a teacher demonstrates the use of student centred methods.  It must be daunting (and maybe a little galling) for the teachers having strangers drop in to judge what they are doing.  We try to be as non-threatening as possible.  I think my efforts at KiHaya help – it always elicits laughter and smiles all around.  (One day I’ll get the pronunciation right!)

Until this week the only Tanzanian school I’d been in was St Peters Junior Seminary, which was next to the Amabilis Centre in Morogoro.   It is a secondary boarding school and has students selected by competitive exam from all over Tanzania.  It is reckoned to be an excellent school.

Students at St Peters are aged from 12 years and are training to be priests.  After ‘A’ levels they will go to university.  Upon graduation they will be ordained.  Many are being supported financially by their home village church or diocese and are expected to return as parish priest.  Some will become teachers and return to St Peters.  Those who do not maintain the high standards required return home.

I observed and participated in four lessons at St Peters.  The first was a Form II Mathematics lesson.  The level of work was equivalent to our advanced year 10 students.  The class had been working on index laws, including fractional and negative indices, and were moving on to the use of 4-figure Logarithmic Tables for doing calculations.  This lesson was their first use of the book of tables.  I was able to help the students who raised their hands for assistance.  There were about 50 students in the class so I was kept busy.  The next class was a Form III learning about adding and subtracting polynomials.  I watched the children work – they were doing the questions written on the board confidently in their exercise books.  Students were called upon to demonstrate their working on the blackboard.  When the teacher saw an error he would ask another student to “come and assist your friend”.  Again there would have been 50 students in the class, all boys aged 14 to 16.  The teacher was amazing!

I observed a Form VI (‘A’ Level) English lesson.  Again, the teacher was amazing.  This class had only 12 students.  The teacher wrote a poem on to the board for the students to copy into their books – I copied it too and it covered three pages!  The teacher commented, with a glance at me, that in other places students would get a photocopy of the poem so more time could be spent on discussion.  The poem, “Development” by Kundi Faraja, a Tanzanian, was written about 15 years after Independence in 1980.  It is a criticism of the government and elected officials for the delays in meeting the needs of the people.  After copying the poem the teacher read through it and explained the images in it.  It is a very powerful poem and no less relevant today than when it was written.  After the lesson I commented to the teacher that I would not ever be able to be as political in my comments to students as he had been.  I asked if he would be able to speak as he had in a government school.  He said he would, after all he was only speaking the truth!

The last lesson I observed was a Form II English class.  The teacher had been reluctant to have me there but Father Oscar had insisted.  I felt uncomfortable and didn’t stay long as I felt the boys were suffering because of my presence.  The teacher was unfriendly and unsmiling.  It was only then that the bare cement floors and walls, the lack of adequate desks and equipment, the dullness of the light became overwhelmingly obvious and I knew learning did not happen in this classroom.

The schools we have visited this week are Government primary schools.  Most go from preschool to Standard VII, one was a new school that only goes to Standard VI so far.  The classrooms we have seen are basically bare cement shells, open to the elements (and insects), 20m square with a small blackboard on one wall and nothing else.  But good learning happens here!

We watched a demonstration lesson in each school where the teacher showed us and his colleagues a participatory (student centred) approach to teaching.   Teachers used hand made 'teaching aids' - paper slips in one case and pieces of recycled card in another - with numbers written as numerals and in words for the children to match up.  In one of the schools the energy and enthusiasm (and the smiles!) of the teacher made up for all the deficiencies in resources.  The children celebrated the achievements of their peers with a little sung jingle for each correct answer.  It was so lovely.

Most of the problems in the schools are problems of poverty - of the system and of the families - and these are problems we as volunteers cannot solve.  But the teachers are enthusiastic to attend some maths workshops, particularly in algebra and geometry, so I will oblige as soon as the Tanzanian elections are over in October.

More on school visits, hopefully with pictures, soon.  Love Jenny

Just a little item to keep you going until I can write about our school review visits.

Anyone who started reading this blog from the beginning (October last year!) will know of my fascination with steel framed windows – I know now they called Brisling windows in England.  I wanted a house with windows like mine at home. ( And Nelson Mandela’s house in Soweto, the roadhouse in Nata, Botswana, and the Zambian Immigration Office at Kazangula.) 

My house here on the Barabara Maruku, Ramisheni, is very nice but the kitchen window is louvred, as are all the others in the house, and have insect screens on the outside and a thick coat of red dust on the glass and the sills.  I am not complaining mind, just commenting!  I have found one building with the 3 pane high windows that are just like mine – they are on the Magereza Club.

I cannot take a photo of the Magereza Club to show you – it is a Government Building so taking a photo is strictly forbidden.  It is the pub that is part of the Kagera region open prison!  It is used by prisoners and prison staff, I have heard it is open to the public as well.  Maybe we’ll try it sometime in the next 12 months (or maybe not).

We stopped to see this waterfall on the way home from a school visit today - isn't it lovely?

More soon, Jenny

August 7^th

We have been in Bukoba a week now and our little house is starting to feel like home.  We still have Mr Charles and the mafundi* visiting most evenings.  They consistently arrive as dinner is just ready no matter how early or late we decide to eat!  We now have a frame over our bed for the mosquito net, a new security light on the shed and wooden pelmets for hanging curtains in all the bedrooms.  We still don’t have a kitchen sink that we can use but the fundi* is (probably) coming tomorrow.

I walked to work and home again Wednesday and Thursday.  Steve walked with me, as did a varying trail of small children singing “mzungu*, mzungu” and giggling at our KiSwahili.  (We also get a lot of “Good morning/afternoon/evening, Madam/Sir.  How are you?” irrespective of time of day or which of us is addressed.  Our “Very well, thank you.  How are you?” is usually repeated by them to make sure they will have it right for next time.)

Michelle and I share an office with Mr Josiah (our BRDC liaison) and Mr Mr Mankunda, an academic officer for secondary schools.  In our building (the BRDC Education Office) there are offices for the District Education Officers for primary and secondary schools and their PA, the District Academic Officers for primary and secondary schools, officers for Adult Education, for Culture and for Sport, a Teacher Services Department (for appointments, promotions and discipline) and a Registry Department.

The Registry Department is very important – if there is no documentation or form for it then it doesn’t exist!  Copies of all correspondence in and out are stamped, dated, holes punched and fixed with string into bulging cardboard folders.  Then a note is added to the list of contents on the front cover.  These folders are stored in the registry office and in piles on officers’ desks. 

Records of exam results are also kept in the Registry Office.  These are all hard copy records – BRDC Education Office has two computers that I have seen – one on the primary school DEO’s desk and one on his PA’s desk.  Mr Josiah has a laptop of his own that he brings to work.  Jim & Sue, the previous VSOs were helping him increase his IT skills and we will continue – it is a very little thing to do compared to what he does for us.  Mr Josiah is our link with BRDC – we rely on him to translate, to find what we need and to make sense of the system we are working in.  When we start our school review visits next week he will come with us to get us to the schools (no maps are available) and to aid communication and smooth over misunderstandings of language and culture.

Michelle and I have spent our days planning our school review visits – looking up vocabulary that could be useful and putting the schools’ Standard 7 exam results (the exam all children sit at the end of primary school which determines if they can move on to secondary school) into a spreadsheet to analyse and understand.  We have also spent a lot of time greeting people and chatting as wazungu* are still a novelty and everyone wants to meet the new ones!  When greeting and chatting it is important to show proper respect especially to those in authority or those with age on their side (I am respected by everybody!).  Some of the Head Teachers of district schools have popped in and we have met a couple we will be working with, also some of the Ward Education Coordinators (WECs) who will be important to our success.

Our school review visits start in the coming week.  We will visit 20 schools over 3 weeks.  We will be finding out how they are progressing with the SMART targets (management lingo) they set themselves last year.  We will also be finding out what help Michelle and I can be as administration and mathematics ‘experts’.  I am really looking forward to seeing what is happening in the classrooms to find out what the challenges are. 

We need to get these visits done in August.  In September the WECs and the Head Teachers will be too busy with the national Standard 7 exams (there are five 1½ or 2 hour exams – KiSwahili, English, mathematics, science and social studies) to be wanting interruption from us.  In October the WECs will be too busy with their responsibilities in running the national election (organising polling places, electoral rolls, etc.)  Once we know what we can do best to support teachers we can spend September organising it and hopefully by October we will be running our first lot of workshops.  Anyway, that’s the dream!

Yesterday was also momentous for two great events.

Event 1.

 I became the Registered User of a Tanzanian Postal Commission post office box – and I have the photo ID to prove it!  On Tuesday we went to Posta to apply.  I explained in my best KiSwahili that we would be living in Bukoba for one year and that we would like to rent a PO Box.  He told me (in English) they didn’t have any left.  I asked (in English) if there was a waiting list.  He sent me to the next counter.  I tried again with “I would like to rent a PO Box” and the young woman behind this counter pointed to an office out the back and fled!  A man come out from the office to which she’d gone and motioned us back to the first counter.  I asked (in KiSwahili) if he spoke English.  I was relieved when he said yes!  I repeated the story about why we were here and he told me I could have a PO Box but not today – it would take at least 2 days to find one.  I filled in the form, gave him a copy of my passport and visa and told him we’d be back on Friday.

Friday morning we went back to Posta.  The English speaking man from Tuesday was there and he said I should go to counter 2 to pay, then I could have my PO Box.  I queued, then paid, then returned to the first counter.  The woman from counter 2 came around too, with all the forms and the receipt.  “Where are your 2 passport size photos?”, she asked.  Right! “I’ll be back this afternoon with the photos” I said and headed for the door, then remembering advice from a friend who’d been an AVA in Zimbabwe, went back to the counter and asked if I’d need anything else.  No, just the photos were needed.  (I must be from Mars if I don’t know that!)

After momentous event 2 (soon to be related) and a rest at home we returned to Posta with the required photos (which were twice the size of the space allotted on the card and have been radically trimmed!), I signed all the forms and my Registered user card was handed over.  The only thing now is to get the key to the box.  My English speaking friend informed me it hadn’t arrived yet – he didn’t say from whence it was to come.  I am to go back next Friday and hopefully the key will be there. 

Anyway – now you can write to us at our new address

Jennifer Clark

PO Box 1951

Bukoba

Tanzania

Event 2

The Bukoba equivalent of Sheepvention, known as “Nane nane*” is currently on and Mr Josiah insisted we took yesterday off work to attend.  It is a celebration of all things agricultural and horticultural held nationally, culminating on an August 8^th public holiday. (A Sunday this year so no long weekend!)  Each of the regional district councils had a display highlighting the products its farmers grow.  Many industries had displays – we spent quite a bit of time hearing about the sugar and coffee industries – and there are animals and vegetables on display too (though no sheep!)

As at Sheepvention there were commercial organizations wanting to sell the stuff they were demonstrating – a small scale oil seed press, a foot powered water pump – and lots of food and beer tents.  I bought 5 matching kangas – pieces of printed cotton cloth about 120cm by 4m - to use as curtains under our newly installed curtain boxes.  They were 3500Ts each. (Less than $3)  The hardest thing was choosing a print that would go with the décor. 

There were also a lot of vegie crops growing.  I’m hoping they inspired Steve to get our vegie garden started as everything grows so quickly here.  I n our garden we already have self sown tomatoes which are flowering and African eggplant almost ready to harvest.

It was a great morning out!

More soon, love Jenny

*Essential Vocabulary

mzungu – white person,  wazungu – white people

fundi – skilled workman, mafundi – skilled workpeople

SMART targets – Specific, Measurable, Agreed, Realistic & Timed

Posta – Post Office

Nane – eight

Authentic Ford merchandise?

Our house

View from our house

View along the track to work

August 1st

Yesterday was a long day! We left our hotel for the airport at 8 o’clock knowing it could take anywhere between ½ and 2 hours to get there in a taxi depending on who else was on the road. The traffic was very light by Dar es Salaam standards so we had quite some time to while away at Julius Nyerere International Airport, especially as the plane to Mwanza was running late!






We had a very smooth flight to Mwanza but were up too high to see much but clouds other than just after take-off and just before landing. The landscape around Mwanza is fascinating. There are many very tall, thin rocks on the escarpments – they look like rows of obelisks. We only had a brief glimpse of the lake as we landed.






We had a four hour wait at Mwanza airport. Abraham, Michelle and I played 500 – Abraham is just learning and is addicted to making a call whether he has the cards or not! Michelle won the first game and was well on the way to winning the second when we were called to be security screened (again!!) for the short flight across the lake.






The trip over Lake Victoria was in a 12 seater plane with one engine and one pilot – Steve would have rather had two of each! The woman I sat next to crossed herself and said rather a long prayer as the plane was taxiing. She and I had been chatting, while we waited on the plane, in KiSwahili and KiHaya. She approved of all the words the VETA students had taught me. She laughed at the thought of me on a pikipiki.






This last flight was only 45 minutes and we saw lots of little islands, lots of little fishing boats and lots of blue water. It looks so pretty! The Bukoba airport is close to the lake and at right angles to the shore. The plane went quite a way inland and banked around to land flying towards the lake. We were able to see lots of small settlements that will be a part of Bukoba Rural’s local government area.






We were met at the airport by Mr Joel (Acting District Education Officer), Mr Josiah (the BRDC officer who will be our assistant) and a BRDC driver with a large 4WD. First Michelle, Mark and Abraham were delivered to their new home down in town and then we were brought to ours.






Our little house is high on a hill (away from the pesky lake flies), just outside town and across from a government girls’ secondary college. It is on a dirt road but there is a bitumen road at the corner just 100 m away and this bitumen road winds down steeply to town – a distance of about 2.5 km. The house has rendered cement block walls inside and out, a cement floor and a corrugated iron roof. The walls and window frames are painted aqua and the doors, door frames and architraves are royal blue. There is a high cement block wall all around the yard with two double gates at the front that we padlock at night. There is a gap in the fence where the front verandah juts out, but that has a floor to ceiling metal grill. There are metal grills on the front door and back door that are also padlocked shut at night. We are very safe!






The house has three bedrooms – one large and two small, a sitting room, a small kitchen with a store room off it, a shower room and a toilet. There is also a lockable shed out the back, in case I get a suitable motorbike, and space for a car, if we end up buying one. The back yard has foundations for a second house, which our landlord, Mr Charles, hopes to build soon (but hopefully not while we are his tenants!). We have plenty of ceiling lights and power points, there is a new double hotplate in the kitchen and a new cistern over the (squat) toilet. We are really very lucky – this is superior accommodation for Tanzania!






Mr Charles has made many improvements to the house and furnishings to exceed VSO standards. We have a dining table and four chairs. There is a new bed and mattress in our bedroom – the varnish on the wood is still ‘tacky’, and all the windows have new insect screens. There are spare (old) beds in each of the other bedrooms for visitors. We have a lounge suite and a wooden cabinet/bookshelf. It isn’t perfect - the outside security light on the side of the house is still to be fixed as well as the kitchen plumbing, which currently drains onto the floor; and a ‘boy’ was supposed to come this morning to tidy up the yard but there is no sign this has been done – but it is far better than it might have been.






We stayed in the house last night, sleeping on the bare mattress. We were cold! What a luxury. And it was so quiet!! No amplified wake-up call from the mosque at 5:15! Today we have bought sheets, pillows and pillow cases and a light quilt at the market in town. We bought some crockery and cutlery (just two of everything so don’t rush over to visit just yet!) We also bought buckets and a basin for washing and washing up. The BRDC driver took us into town and brought us home. We think we will be quite comfortable here.






This afternoon we walked the track from here to my work and back – it is partly on dirt road and partly narrow footpath. It takes about 30 minutes. It follows a ridge so there are no steep climbs but is quite rough in places and winds through what seems to be backyards of houses though no-one seemed to mind us passing through! Along several stretches of the track there are magnificent views of the town and lake. (Also very many new birds that had to be identified!) Tomorrow I think the driver will come and get me in the morning but mostly I will try to walk when the weather is suitable.






The only draw back with our location is that there is no cooked food to buy anywhere close. The little duka next door sells uncooked rice, beans and cornflour but no vegetables or fruit. Later this afternoon we will walk back into town to get some food for tonight and tomorrow morning and we’ll probably get a taxi back up the hill. Tomorrow Steve will need to get his act together and buy a kettle and some saucepans so he can start his adventures in cooking from scratch. (Cooking lesson #1 – In Tanzania food comes raw!) There will be no convenience foods for us. We are going to try to do without a fridge. He also needs to set up the water filter so we can stop buying bottled water. Disposing of rubbish for us will be a problem though the locals just throw theirs wherever!






August 2nd






Yesterday evening didn’t turn out quite as we had planned! We set off for town across the paddock over the way. There were lots of people to greet as yesterday seemed to be washing day and people were sitting watching their washing dry where they had laid it out on the grass. As the road down to town is very busy we though we’d continue on the walking track that seemed to be heading in the right direction. It wasn’t long before we had no idea where we were or which direction it was to town. I used my best KiSwahili on some people going the other way. “Tumepotea”, we are lost! and does this track lead to town? Yes they said. What they didn’t say was that it was the long way! After another 15 minutes of walking we were still on the walking track and still had no idea where town was. A little 5 year old girl took pity and walked with us to find her older teenaged friend. The little one told the older one that we wanted to go into town. The teenager, named Jenny (short for Jenesta she told me), walked with us all the way to the market, about a 20 minute trek, chatting occasionally in a mixture of KiSwahili and english. When we reached the market we were too late, it was padlocked shut! We were still able to buy some of the things we needed at a roadside stall. Jenny made sure the thermos flask we bought was sound by holding it up to her ear. Jenny didn’t ask for anything, she seemed happy just to be our guide. We offered her a soda at the café but she said she had to get home. I gave her Ts1000 which was very little really for the help she’d been but she was very pleased.






After Jenny left us we walked down to the lake for our first close up look. There is a sand beach and small dunes stabilised with marram grass. It is such a pity we won’t be able to swim there – it looked so inviting and we were very hot and dusty – but the Bilharzia risk is too great. There were local youths having a swim, they were having a great time in the waves.






We had an early dinner at the Lake hotel. There is no menu – the waitress said we could have either chicken or fish with one of chips, rice or ugali (maize flour porridge). There was also a little bit of salad on the plate but I wasn’t feeling ready yet to tackle anything uncooked. My chicken and rice was very nice. It is one of the meals I hope Steve will cook for me.






It was still fairly early when we finished our meal so we decided to walk home up the hill. That knocked the last bit of stuffing out of Steve! We arrived home in the semi-gloom to no power. By 8 pm we’d realised we were the only ones on the road with no power so I stood on a chair with a torch to examine the fuse box – the circuit breaker had flipped off! Now we were right! We watched an episode of a science doco on Steve’s laptop before falling asleep exhausted at 9.00pm.






Our landlord Mr Charles had rung us on Steve’s mobile phone while we were down at the lake. He was here at the house with a workman wanting to get the sink drain fixed. He said he’d come back today and get the job done, so this morning we are sitting waiting! We are waiting for the BRDC driver to deliver our luggage that came last week on the bus and we are waiting for Mr Charles. We have no idea when these events may happen and no way of knowing. We also need to go to town to get the things we couldn’t get yesterday.






While we are waiting I’ve had the time to write this long winded saga on my laptop – now all I need is the opportunity to get to an internet café to post it.






More soon, Jenny.