It is difficult to know where to begin to summarise the last 12 months and after just two weeks back in Australia our time in Tanzania is taking on the qualities of a dream.  I have to keep reminding myself of the reality of our little neighbours Baraka and Vivienne, of the beautiful view down to town and the lake from our house and of daily life in what is very much the Third World.


As part of the ‘leaving’ process I had to write a report on my activities over the time of my placement – what follows is part of what I wrote.

 In my 11 months here I have worked with members of the Education Office of Bukoba District Council to get an understanding of how education is delivered in Bukoba District, in Kagera Region and in the United Republic of Tanzania.  I have focussed particularly on the workings of the government primary schools in 5 wards of Bukoba District – Karabagaine, Katerero, Katoma, Maruku and Nyakato.  The District Education Officers with whom I  have worked most closely (and whom I have bombarded with questions!) are District Academic Officers (DAO) Messrs Joel Paul, Amos Nyamutera and Zuberi Kalugutu; Ward Education Coordinator (WEC) Mr Josiah Karwihula whom the District Education Office has assigned as liaison to VSO Volunteers, the WECs of four of the five wards in which VSO has worked most intensively and the District Inspectorate team.  The District Education Officer (DEO) Gregory Fabian was also very helpful but was often unavailable because his work often took him away from Bukoba.

The help of all these people and the scaffolding from the work of previous VSO volunteers (David & Janette Cowie 2007/8 and Sue & James Taylor 2008/10) meant I could get straight into ‘work’.  In my first month in Bukoba I was able to actively participate in discussions with the Head Teachers and classroom teachers of primary schools in the five wards.  These discussions ascertained the needs of schools and teachers with regards to Mathematics teaching.  The Heads and teachers trusted me because of the relationships already established with previous VSO volunteers.  The needs discussed were then sorted into areas where I could help (e.g. In-service training on content and methodology; use of practice exams to improve student learning) and areas where I couldn’t (e.g. Insufficient text books).

Over the 11 months visits to schools have usually involved a formal review process in which schools have had to account for improvements or otherwise in exam results, attendance, etc.  Records have been kept, both numerical data and descriptive/anecdotal evidence over 3 years and that data will be available to subsequent volunteers.  Lessons have been observed on most visits.  It is humbling that teachers put in more effort just because we are there to watch!

Together my colleagues and I planned workshops to deliver in-service training to mathematics teachers at all levels of the primary school years.  The training was to increase teacher knowledge and skills of content (What they teach) and methodology (How they teach) particularly in the subject of mathematics.  This involved preparing training documents and having some translated, having documents photocopied, organising logistics for travel and refreshments and finding money in the Bukoba District budget to pay for it all.  I tried, as much as possible, to use only materials that teachers would have available to them.  By working as a team we achieved all this and ran 12 successful workshops during the period September to November 2010.  Two of these days were a cooperative effort with World Vision Tanzania (WVTz) Katerero Area Development Program (ADP).  These workshops were attended by 175 mathematics teachers from 30 government primary schools and 2 private English medium primary schools.

The ‘success’ of the training was measured in several ways.

·       Evaluation forms were filled in by participants following each training day.  These evaluations were consistently positive.

·       Review visits to schools revealed that teachers had acted upon the advice given and ideas from the workshops were being used in the classroom.

·       Improving examination results could be attributed to improvements in teaching of mathematics although other variables are also influential.

The photocopying of training documents is one of the biggest costs in running training days and workshops.  To reduce these costs at future mathematics training all the documents used were gathered together to make a book “Teaching Aids & Resources for the Tanzanian Primary School Mathematics Syllabus” and 1000 copies were printed and distributed to schools throughout the Bukoba District initially and ultimately throughout the Kagera Region.  The cost of printing was met by family, friends and work colleagues in Australia. (Total cost for 1000 books – Tsh3,000,000/=)

Further training days were run in January as a cooperative effort with the WVTz Lweru ADP and this increased the number of schools with which VSO had contact to 34 as two schools from Bukoba Municipal were also included in the Lweru ADP.

The initial placement documentation talked about training and empowering teacher mentors from the five focus wards to enable them to train teachers in the other 19 wards of the District. Plans for this started in January 2011 when review visits to schools focussed on finding exemplary teachers using participatory methods who were willing to be Mentor Teachers and participate in training days in Wards adjacent to theirs. 

The review visits were also a time to present achievement certificates to schools.  I continued a program of appreciation of excellence and of improvement initiated by Jim & Sue Taylor by producing certificates for schools which had excellent results in the Primary School Leaving Examinations (Standard VII Exams) or had improved their results in English and mathematics.  These are highly valued by schools and displayed prominently.  At the request of the District education office certificates were produced to recognise excellence in Mock exams in May 2011 and District Office Education staff have had training in how to produce them using Word and Mail Merge.

Budgetary constraints meant that progress was slow on getting the Teacher Mentor teams activated.  In the meantime I worked with one of the DAOs on preparing ‘mocks’ or practice exams for Standard IV and Standard VII in the subject of Mathematics.  I had run workshops in the 5 wards on how to use practice exams to target future learning and review of learning.  This was only going to be helpful if pupils and teachers had exams and marked answer sheets returned to them.  I worked with the DAO on strategies that I hoped would make this possible.

There are two Teacher Training Colleges (TTCs) in Bukoba District: St Francis TTC and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania (ELCT) TTC.  I visited each of these to talk to the lecturer in mathematics and to leave copies of the “Teaching Aids & Resources” book.  At each TTC I was able to give a talk to the college students and demonstrate the low cost / no cost teaching aids I had made.  I also visited the Katoke TTC in Muleba District where VSO Rhona Brown is employed.  I had several discussions on training of mathematics teachers with the lecturer and tutors there and participated in a full day workshop on making teaching aids organised by Rhona.

Money was found in April to run a pilot scheme using a Teacher Mentor Team to deliver In-service Training to teachers from 10 more schools.  Four excellent teachers from Maruku ward were selected and together we prepared a two day training program to be run in the adjacent ward of Bujugo and then Kanyangereko.  Feedback from the Teacher Mentors and from participant teachers was positive.  The only suggested changes mentors and teachers would make were these: Teacher Mentors appreciated the signed and stamped certificates they were given and payment of their costs in attending but felt they deserved to be financially rewarded as well.  Teacher participants appreciated the refreshments of soda and biscuits but would rather chai and a more substantial meal!  Had these expenses been included into the budget proposal the training days would not have been approved!

My mother’s death in South Africa and our return to Australia for her Memorial Service meant I was absent for nearly a month but on my return we began the implementation of the Kagera Reading Programme.

The Kagera Reading Programme is an English language teaching resource devised by ex-VSO volunteer David Jackson. Each set of the program consists of 66 laminated cards – one with instructions for use, 60 with a story, vocabulary list and comprehension questions and 5 with answers – and costs Tsh76,000/=. We wanted to introduce it into Bukoba District schools.  Three English Teacher Mentors trained by previous VSO volunteers Sue and James Taylor, were given a set of the program to use for a few days and then they each gave a demonstration lesson watched by other English teachers in their ward.  Sets of the program were given to all government schools whose teachers attended.  The teachers each signed a contract to use the set weekly as part of the supplementary reading in Standard VI and VII.  Sets were distributed in Karabagaine, Maruku and Nyakato Wards initially and then Izimbya Ward. (27 sets valued at Tsh76,000/= each)  Plans have been made for a further 6 sets to be purchased and distributed in Kanyangereko Ward. (Total cost including travel money ~ Tsh2,600,000/=)

A second ‘private’ scheme Steve and I had embarked upon was to provide picture story books in KiSwahili suitable for primary aged children to supplement the libraries of the most disadvantaged schools.  We sought out authors and books given awards in Tanzania’s Children’s Book Project and bought 15 copies each of 38 picture story books.  These were delivered to schools in Katerero, Karabagaine and Nyakato wards during June. (Total cost Tsh1,600,000/=)

The ‘success’ of these final two projects was measured in smiles on faces of children and teachers!

Thank you to everyone who financially supported the work we did.  It will always be a sorrow for me that my mother did not get to see Bukoba District and the teachers and children whom she has helped.

I also want to say how much respect we have for all the wonderful volunteers, not just VSOs but many quite young Germans, Swedes and Danes working with various ELCT projects and others who came to Bukoba as volunteers and have stayed on to help the people, especially the orphaned and disabled children, with whom they have fallen in love.  It is a community of which we were proud to be a part. 

Our Year is almost over – we fly back to Australia tomorrow!

We are spending these last few days in Dar es Salaam tidying up the last administrative details with the VSO Tanzania office and completing all the necessary end of placement reports.  It is a time to reflect on the last 12 months – Did we achieve what we wanted to achieve? Where do we go from here?

Steve and I entered the volunteering realm with what we thought were realistic expectations – we knew we would not redress centuries of injustice in one year.  We hoped to show the people with whom we would live and work that Australians knew about their circumstance and cared.  We also hoped to learn more about ourselves.  Our Year has given us so much more than that!

We have so many wonderful memories – sights, sounds, smells and experiences that cannot be adequately described.  Bukoba District - its people, its schools, its streetscapes and landscapes will be forever in our hearts.

Regular readers will know all we have done.  It just remains to say that we were farewelled in style and that we have promised to return. 

Kwaherini na asanteni sana!

I will do a ‘summary post’ in the next week or so and then move on to the next adventure!

Here are some pictures of the children at Kanazi PS and Kabale PS with the picture books for children in kiSwahili that we delivered last week.  We felt like Fairy Godmothers transforming lives!

I was also pleased to see these Arithmagons on the classroom wall – not put there especially for us as teachers did not know we were coming.  They are one of the activities from “Teaching Aids & Resources”.

We have just one week to go before we return to Dar es Salaam and then to Melbourne.  Our Year in Africa is going very quickly!

Another of our projects is now near to completion.  It is astounding how much time and effort it has taken to buy children’s picture books in kiSwahili but with the help of local author Johansen Machume and local publisher Ebrahim Sokwala we have bought 15 copies each of 40 books, written by local authors, in kiSwahili.  Most of the authors and many of the books have been awarded prizes in Tanzania’s Mradi wa Vitabu vya Watoto (Children’s Book Project).  
These 600 books will go into 15 government schools in Bukoba District which are striving despite disadvantage to educate the children in their community.  We expect to deliver them to the schools in Katerero, Karabagaine and Nyakato Wards this week.  We hope these picture books will foster the love of reading that we and our children have.

Thank you to everyone who has supported this project particularly my sister  and brother-in-law Lyn & Paul Duhig, Rev. Peter Cook & Hamilton Uniting Church, the Social Club at Department of Primary Industries Hamilton and Mr Rob Drummond’s tutor group at The Hamilton & Alexandra College.

Kagera Reading Program

The Roll-out of the Kagera Reading Program is continuing with schools in Karabagaine Ward getting their copies last week and Maruku and Nyakato Wards this week.

Pupils again were totally engrossed with this new way of learning and the teachers and Ward Education Co-ordinators were won over.

Pupils quickly grasped what they had to do.  Teachers also learned quickly how easily work could be marked and how to keep records on student progress.

Sixteen sets have been put into schools and a further 15 will be placed soon.  If feedback is positive it is a project that I hope can be on-going.

A tale of two snacks.

These precious little things are in the preschool class at Maiga PS.  They are patiently waiting for their morning porridge – possibly their first meal for the day.

 Steve and I had a beer with friends at the Bukoba Club on Sunday night. These senene (grasshoppers) are deep fried and salted like any good bar room snack!

 I know the porridge would be better for me but I do enjoy a glass of Serengeti and a handful of senene  before dinner.

This week we began the task of introducing the Kagera Reading Programme into schools.  We started on Wednesday in Izimbya village, meeting at Igoma PS with english teachers from each school in Izimbya ward for a ‘demonstration lesson’ in the use of the programme.  We received the usual 'Rock Star' reception!

As we’d had no time to give one of the local teachers experience with the programme it fell to Josiah to conduct the lesson!  He had not lost any of his teacherly skills!

The teachers were at first sceptical but the children loved it.  The pictures tell the story!  More reports on this after the rest of the demonstration lessons from teachers in Karabagaine, Maruku and Nyakato Wards.

Later in the day we visited Kikomero Secondary School in the far south west corner of Bukoba District.  There 75 students, three permanent teachers and a couple of part-timers struggle against the apathy, even antipathy, of the local community towards secondary education.  The Head Master showed us around the school - currently four useable classrooms of which one does double duty as staff room and Form IV class room – and a relatively new teacher accommodation house.  The site has infertile soil – little chance of starting a shamba here – and is exposed and windswept.  The school is the first we have seen with rubbish bins – scattered around the campus they proclaim “Keep Kikomero Clean”.

Luckily the school has the support of the District Office and the pupils proudly sang us their school song about how they love their school and value the education they gain there.

You don’t fatten a pig by weighing it.

National Examinations are a BIG DEAL in Tanzania.  They are used to assess individual pupils and to rank schools, wards, districts and regions.

Pupils in Standard IV are tested in an exam that once determined if a pupil was promoted to Standard V.  Promotion is now automatic but the exam with its attendant secrecy and armed guards remain!  It is held in November, towards the end of the school year, with results released in Term I of the following year, which leaves pupils to stew over Christmas.

The Standard VII examinations, also known as the PSLEs (Primary School Leavers Examinations) are held in early September.  These are important as they determine which pupils go on to secondary school, and to which school they will go.  Preparation for these exams starts in Standard V as work from the final three years of primary schooling is examined in the five major subjects – KiSwahili, English, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies.  Preparation starts to get serious after the first term’s mid-term break when the first of a series of practice exams or ‘mocks’ take place.

 If you are a regular reader of this blog you will know that I was preparing practice exams for printing just before the Teacher Mentor run training days.  The first of these practice exams has recently been held, the answer sheets have been marked and now comes the first test of my influence in this area.  What feedback will the schools, teachers and, most importantly, the pupils receive?

Feedback to pupils regarding exams has traditionally been limited.  Secrecy surrounds the  National exams as well as practice exams as they frequently contain errors. Teachers, themselves poorly educated, have not wanted to give pupils back corrected work in case they themselves are found to have made an error in teaching or in marking.  This has meant that all the feedback a pupil receives is a percentage score – often a source of discouragement rather than encouragement.  The pupil has no idea which questions were done correctly and in which areas more work is needed.

When fattening pigs the feeding regime changes as the pigs put on fat and muscle – the weighing has a purpose.

I agreed to write and type up exams in the new multiple choice format on the understanding that pupils and teachers would get useful feedback.  So far all I am getting is (smiling) promises that it will happen – after this and after that!  The current standoff is that the papers have to be “released by the DEO” and that can’t happen until June 4^th.  Term ends on June 10^th for a 4 week break.  Will pupils get their question papers and answer sheets back before then?  Just at the moment I am pessimistic but open to a delightful surprise!

Yesterday we visited two of the local tourist attractions – Ntoma Beach and Maruku Falls -  with three younger volunteers.

At Ntoma Beach we watched the fishermen hauling in their net.  It was quite Biblical!  A lot of effort was expended for a very small return of less than half a dozen fish.

At Maruku Falls we became the ‘tourist attraction’ for these local lads.

My VSO colleague, Wilhelmina, has been conducting workshops in our wards for teachers and school committee members to enhance the skills of the committee members and to improve working relationships between teachers and the committees.

One of the activities has been particularly interesting.  A mixed group of teachers and committee members, around 5 – 6 in number, is given 3 large sheets of paper, a handful of plastic drinking straws, scissors, masking tape and a stapler and is told to “build a school”.  

I have attended four of these workshops this week and watched about 15 groups in action.  No group yet has asked “What are the specifications?” or “What should it look like?”.  All groups have based their building on the classroom structure they are sitting in.  No group yet has counted the materials or made a plan before starting building – they have launched straight in to taping straws together and folding the paper into a rectangle.  Most groups have constructed something, most have ‘finished’ a building and two groups only have asked for more materials.  The resultant buildings have been instructive as to building methods in Tanzania!

While we were busy in the classroom with the teachers at Katoma ‘B’ PS there was a soccer match happening outside – Katoma v Karwoshe which went 4-2 in Katoma’s favour.  Several hundred primary and secondary school children were present either watching the game or ‘hanging out’ with no teacher supervision!

When you were at primary school did you use the SRA reading and comprehension program?  It was certainly popular in Australia in the 1960s when I was at Wodonga State School No 37.  

VSO volunteers David Jackson and Jonathan Coolidge have devised a similar program specifically for primary school children in the Kagera region of Tanzania.

The Kagera Reading Program is a set of 60 short stories and passages with associated word lists and comprehension exercises, each on a separate laminated card.  There are also cards with the answers and a card with an explanation for the teacher about how to use the program most effectively in the classroom.

Thanks to some very generous friends in Australia, Steve and I have bought 16 sets of these at about A$50 for each set.  I am working on a program to get them into schools before we leave.

Hildegarda, the english teacher at Nyakato PS has taken a set and is trialling it in her classes.  In a week or so she will run a demonstration lesson to show the other english teachers in Nyakato Ward how to use the program.  If they choose to use it, each school will receive their own set of the program.  I have asked the Nyakato Ward Education Co-ordinator (WEC) to monitor the use of the sets of cards – I don’t want them locked in drawers and never seeing the light of day!

I have also talked to the WEC from Karabagaine Ward about the program and hope to have a demonstration teacher at Kabale school too – that is where those beautiful children on the front of the Teaching Aids & Resources book are pupils.

Thanks especially to Bruce and Norm Anderson and to Rev Peter Cook and the Hamilton Uniting Church for their very generous donations that have allowed this to go ahead.

I have always written this blog first and foremost for my mum.  I am hoping there are other readers out there who will continue to enjoy what I have to say about my work in Tanzania.  Please leave comments and ask questions – I like to know who I am talking to!

 The “Teachers teaching Teachers” experiment began with what I thought was a very successful trial just over a week ago.  It was a great learning experience for everyone!

Josiah, Sr Flavia, Kamera, William & Levina

I learned, following flat tyres on consecutive days, that you can put a spare on a 14” rim on the back axle of a car designed for 15” rims but not on the front axle as it jams the front disc brake.  


I also learned that I have to ‘let go’ of my teaching aids and ideas and let the people who know the Tanzanian government school context best show teachers how to use the aids in the ways they think will work best.

We began on Monday at Bujugo PS near the Kyanyabasa ferry.  It is inaccessible by daladala so the BRDC 4WD transported Josiah and the mentor teachers while Steve and I took all the equipment in our car. 

Steve and I arrived first and were soon surrounded by children wanting a close-up look at the Wazungu.  They stood 10 deep around me and waited to be entertained.  We looked at my counting book together reading the numbers first in kiSwahili and then in English.  Then we counted in kiSwahili by 2’s, 5’s and 10’s using a 1-100 number chart as a prompt.  (It is possible to maintain attention of several hundred children with a couple of calendar pages used creatively – probably my colour helped!)  We had just started on counting by 3’s when the BRDC car arrived and the Head Teacher of Bujugo PS who had been watching, amused, from a distance sent the children back to their classrooms.  He then decided that the pre-school classroom would be nicest for our training days and sent the pre-schoolers home!

Each of my Mentor Teachers had brought prepared teaching aids to show their peers and gave a short participatory ‘lesson’ to show use in the classroom.  The lessons covered the problem areas of geometry, the metric system and integers.  On the first day we concentrated on Standard I-IV and on the second day Standard V-VII.  We repeated the program at Ntoma PS on the Wednesday and Thursday.

We also gave away many copies of the book Teaching Aids and Resources and I feel confident the teachers understand what is in it and how to use it in their schools.  Now I have to write a report for the BRDC and when I return from Australia later in May we can start looking at taking Teacher Mentor Teams into the other wards of Bukoba District.

Jean Campbell Robertson 29 Mar 1930 - 17 April 2011

This morning my wonderful mother, Jean Campbell Robertson, died in Kloof Hospital Pretoria.  Her peaceful but sudden death came barely 48 hours after a shock diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.

Mum has been travelling in South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe since leaving Australia with my sister Lyn and brother-in-law Paul on April 2^nd. Today Mum and Lyn were due to arrive in Bukoba to visit Steve and me and to spend a week seeing at first-hand the sights, both beautiful and tragic, that I have been describing to Mum in our weekly phone calls over the eight months I have been working in Kagera .  Instead this morning Lyn and I held her hands as she drifted to the next world.

Paul had rung me in Bukoba on Thursday night from the hospital emergency room to tell us of the doctor’s diagnosis – news horrible to tell and to hear.  Friday I flew to Johannesburg, arriving yesterday morning, after spending more time in departure lounges than in the air.  Lyn and Paul drove me to the hospital where mum had been admitted early on Friday morning.  She was in Intensive Care as doctors attempted to stabilise her blood pressure prior to proposed surgery on Monday to relieve pressure on her pancreatic duct, bile duct and stomach from a large tumour at the head of the pancreas.

When I entered the ward mum, who knew I was coming, beamed and waved weakly.  The short half hour of visiting time was filled with mum, Lyn and me talking about their travels, my work and mum’s medical care.  My mother, an intelligent and pragmatic woman, was actively interested in her treatment and pleased to finally have an explanation for why her body was letting her down just as she was starting the grand adventure she had been planning so long.  She was under no illusions as to likely scenarios.  She told us her wishes if the surgery should be unsuccessful.  We visited again in the afternoon and there had been very little improvement in her condition.  We talked again of work and world affairs, of travel - the power and splendour of Victoria Falls, the grace and beauty of a giraffe, the wonders of the natural world - but also of our shared recollections of over fifty years in a close and loving family, and we said all those things that often are not said when a loved one is dying, to the regret of those left behind.

Ultimately the surgery was not performed.  Saturday evening mum’s lungs became congested following aspiration of fluid she had been trying to drink and that was the final assault on a body already weakened by an aggressive cancer.  At 1:30 am the hospital rang for us to come, medical intervention giving mum her fragile hold on life was slowly ceased and we held her and talked to her as her breathing slowed to a halt and her heart stopped beating. 

The nursing staff then removed all the medical paraphernalia and we were able to sit with mum quietly adjusting to the fact that though her spirit will always be with us this would be our last time spent in her physical presence.

Today has been a long day, starting for us as it did at 1:30 am South African time.  International time differences meant we were able, as soon as we returned to the hotel, to begin ringing family back in Australia with the news and, thanks to Skype, could have long conversations with our brother and children, with mum’s twin sister and with mum’s best friend giving them time to ask all the questions and receive all the answers they needed to understand what had happened. 

We have told our story over and over in the last 14 hours to all the people who loved mum most and who knew her best.  This telling and retelling has in some ways made it ‘real’ though a certain numbness still remains.  Each hearer  has been glad to know that mum was able to have at least part of her greatly anticipated adventure in Africa and that her end was peaceful and spent with two of three who loved her and whom she loved most.  (I’m sorry that you were not here too Cam and that you have had to hear it all in instalments over the telephone.)

Now is not the time to eulogise.  I’m sure my mum’s 81 years will be thoroughly reviewed at a memorial service to be held in Wodonga sometime in May.  Now is the time for me to try to say goodbye to a wonderful woman who has loved me unconditionally, who has been a role model in how to live life fully and without regrets and who I will miss daily each time I think “I must tell mum ...” and “I must ask mum ...”

We had another Christmas today - five cards arrived from Australia!  All had been posted in early December so have taken 4 months to arrive!  Thank you Brenda & Keith, Nonie, Don & Joan, Marg & Ron and Pam!  We’ll bring the cards home and put them up for Christmas 2011.

 The week just finished has had its ups and downs.  Monday the officer responsible for examinations found time for me to show him how to use Equation Editor to type maths exams.  He was quite excited when he saw what his computer could do!  He asked me to type him out a tutorial so he’d remember how to use the program.  I did that on Monday night (and I also relented and typed out the 2^nd practice exam)

Tuesday I visited the ELCT and St Francis Teacher Training Colleges to give them the promised copies of the Teaching Aids & Resources book.  The Mathematics Tutors in both colleges were very pleased; at St Francis I also talked to two classes of students and demonstrated the teaching aids I had brought with me.  It went very well.  The St Francis maths tutor later rang to thank me again and to check we’d arrived back in town safely.  (Although maybe that was because I ran over their flag pole as we were leaving and he was worried about my driving skills!)

Wednesday I reluctantly started typing out the 3^rd practice exam, but only the english version!  Someone else can do the kiSwahili probably faster than retyping to fix my mistakes.  At 3:30 the exams officer came to see how I was progressing (Would it be finished by Friday?) and proudly gave me the news that funding for my training days had been approved and they would start Monday.  Thursday being a Public Holiday (Thank you Mr Karume, first President of Zanzibar!) that gave me Friday to contact the schools to be invited, train the mentors and assemble the equipment needed!

Wednesday night we had a lovely dinner at our friend Leen’s house with some other local volunteers – a UN of Belgium, Scotland, USA and Australia – and were happy to toast Karume with several bottles of South African red.  There was a minor misunderstanding about his height (I thought Rhona was telling me he was short, but that’s actually Glaswegian for shot!) but all in all it was a very merry evening.  Luckily Thursday could start late and we had an afternoon trip to Katoke for some birdwatching after the rain cleared.

Friday was frantic!  Found phone numbers and rounded up mentor teachers to meet at 12 noon, finished typing Exam 3, designed and printed the master for attendance certificates, found the DEO to sign it (had to sneak in through his assistant’s office to by-pass the queue waiting at his door) and packed the bag of equipment to take to mentor training.  Then down to town to have the certificates printed on to card and to buy sodas, samosas and maandasi to feed the mentors.  We made it to Makonge PS just after 12 noon, had our picnic and started work on planning the Training Days.  By 3 pm it was all sorted out.  Then we headed back to the office to stamp the printed certificates with the official Bukoba District Education Office stamp and round up the last of the equipment needed for Monday.  Whew!

Saturday I bought the sodas and biscuits for the training days and the last of the other odds and ends needed.  I went to the bank to swap seventy thousand shillings in Tsh10,000 notes for Tsh1,000 notes to give the teachers their travel money.  There was hardly even a queue! (Though I’m a bit suspicious now that I have been given notes destined to be destroyed as many are missing the holographic strip – I hope I haven’t been scammed!)  We even had time for a bit more bird watching and another Shoebill at the Kyanyabasa Ferry in the afternoon.

Steve's photo of Ngono River taken at the Kalebe Bridge.

So now we are ready to start this new adventure in Teachers training Teachers – my raison d’etre. Hooray!!