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!!

Still waiting ….

The last few weeks have been the sort of weeks that have volunteers heading for home, especially if they happen early in the volunteering experience.  The mentor and teacher training days that have been planned still do not have budget approval and the officers who have responsibility seem to be distracted by other more ‘urgent’ issues.  My project seems to have been consigned to the ‘too hard basket’.

I have been kept busy typing more practice exams and would like to show the officer responsible how to do it himself using Equation Editor – just as quick as the neat handwriting he is giving to me to type – but he is ‘very busy’ just now. 

I have also been helping compile the Primary School Completion certificates for pupils in the Bukoba District who passed the Standard VII exams in 2009.  These certificates are still to go to the Region for signing by the Region Education Officer (or his deputies!) before being distributed back to the schools to then be forwarded to the pupils involved.

Currently no skills are being transferred!

Wednesday was a whole day meeting of all VSO education sector volunteers and work partners where hopefully our output on flip chart paper will be useful in documenting and quantifying what we are doing here in Kagera.  Luckily we were reflecting on the last 12 months so my current frustrations were just a footnote. I have always been hopeless at anything involving flip chart paper so it was not my idea of fun!

The rainy season has set in and most days have at least some rain.  Though it rarely lasts all day, the rain does add to the degree of difficulty of getting through a day.  I left my car headlights on and came out to a flat battery Friday afternoon that took some time to sort out.  (Why, oh why, didn’t someone come and tell me?  Usually people are only too willing to tell you your headlights are on!!!)

The power is less reliable too, with the thunder and lightning tripping the circuit breakers at home and at the office. These are all little things I know but together they are adding to a level of frustration that, if I didn’t have positive experiences to look back at, would have me wondering why I am here.

The books are slowly being distributed.  Copies have gone to all the Bukoba Rural District schools and to some of the Bukoba Municipal and private schools.  The response has been good but I still need to get out into the schools and see theory put into practice.  On Tuesday I accompanied VSO’s Education Program Manager to one of my schools and we observed a wonderful participatory lesson on adding whole numbers where banana leaves were used to make the teaching aids!  So there are still good things happening to lighten the gloom.

On the ‘tourist’ front, there was a break in the rain this weekend and we had a lovely drive to the Karagwe road west of Kyaka to do some bird watching. A bird highlight was a pair of Grey Crowned Cranes seen previously in Uganda but always worth a look.

These scenes are of the bridge over the Kagera river and the ruins of a church at Kyaka.  These are ‘pretty’ views but they are a reminder that the peace we have now in Kagera is something to treasure and protect with vigilance.  During the Rwanda genocide the Kagera River, which rises in Rwanda and flows into Lake Victoria in Uganda, was used to dispose of corpses and the water flowing under this bridge carried mutilated remains.  The church, which looks like a ruin you’d see anywhere in Britain, is General Idi Amin’s handywork, inflicted only 30 years ago in a war where Bukoba town was also bombed.

Mum and Lyn will be here in a fortnight!  They landed in South Africa yesterday and have begun a trip into Kruger NP.  We are so looking forward to showing them Bukoba and Kagera region - I just hope the weather co-operates!