Unfinished business

I have so many unfinished projects and with the end of my contract fast approaching I need to start tying up loose ends. But the unfinished projects are multiplying!

Today another DFAT funds project started to take physical shape – the vertical garden that will be used to grow leafy vegetables and herbs.  It is constructed of plastic guttering supported by metal brackets that are attached to wooden battens fixed to the cement and brick side wall at the Centre.  I drew diagrams and explained very carefully to the fundi what was needed – and he has done very well!  He had brackets made that have the screw holes 50mm apart which could have been tricky to attach to 50mm wide timber but it’s fine if you put the screws in at a 45^o angle! We’ve tested the slope on the guttering and the water will flow the right way – something our plumbers at home have never managed.

The enterprise project had a successful excursion on Wednesday.  We visited the places wazungu go to buy their souvenirs as research for our potential small business.  The students loved Shanga – the tour we were given was excellent! The students also had their first visit to the Cultural Heritage Centre.  

We checked out prices of second-hand towels and fabric for the washable / reusable sanitary pads but also looked at kitenge and shuka for making aprons, tablecloths & napkins and stuffed toys. The students enjoyed the lunch of chips with coleslaw and soda. 

It was my first experience with the new deregulated bus system. Instead of all the daladalas doing one route, in our case Njiro to Bus stand and return, they are now doing multiple routes.  So we waited for a daladala that was painted with Njiro – Kisongo so wouldn’t need to change buses.  The conda was not pleased when we asserted our right to actually be taken to Kisongo – he wanted to turn around at the stand and head back to Njiro! He sulked a bit but we eventually were taken to where the sign on the bus said it was going.

The sanitary pad enterprise is at a bit of a standstill currently.  We have quite a bit of fabric cut but are still waiting for the funds for the sewing machine to be released to a local Rotary Club.  The process for getting money promised by overseas Rotary Clubs is quite cumbersome. There needs to be a local club to act as partner and funds are channelled through that way. We are currently focussing on packaging and advertising.  The students are trying to come up with a name for their product – “Brilliant washable reusable pads” is their current suggestion, I’m not convinced!

Today the second of the Canadian volunteers we’ve had with us for the last few months finished up.  I am very sad to see them gone.  Today’s departee has been working on the Life Skills curriculum and with our Social Worker as well as on the Sponsorship side of things.  She has done amazing work! Last week’s departee was working with the Director and Office Manager on proper accounting practices to make us more organised and transparent.  Both the girls have been so much fun to work with.  I made them lamingtons for a goodbye token. They had enjoyed them at our Australia Day BBQ and you evidently can’t get them in Canada!

Improvisation is very important here.  The subject for sport was Volleyball.  The students (and teacher) had never played and it was raining so we couldn't be outside.  So I taught them all the basics in the classroom using a blow-up world globe for a ball and two tables stacked for a net.  Everyone had loads of fun and hopefully all will go well when they play outside on the paddock using the new net.

The social life continues unabated – chicken and chips at Nick’s Pub last week to farewell the Canadiennes; pizza and beer last night at Le Patio where there was a very good cover band.  A Tanzanian friend who was with us was amused at we older Australians singing along enthusiastically with “One bourbon, one scotch, one beer” and “Hit the road Jack”! Dancing was also attempted.

I’m off to do the shopping now. I need purple and green fabric for the students to make bunting as an International Women’s Day craft activity – they will also design t-shirts with suitable slogans and sing Helen Reddy’s “I am woman”. I also need to look for what the enterprise leader calls “umbrella fabric” to make the pads leak resistant and more “Brilliant”.

More soon, hopefully a report on a successful International Women's Day event with video of the singing - the boys are loving being "invincible" though it sometimes comes out as "I am invisible"!

A late post!

It’s been a while since my last post – sorry! There’s either been so much happening and no time to write or nothing happening so no inspiration.

I’ve been back 5 weeks now. For much of that time a school friend (Seymour HS 1972) and her husband have been here staying with me between ascents of Mounts Kilimanjaro and Meru and safari-ing in Ngorongoro, Lake Manyara and Tarangire NPs. It was lovely having visitors – it’s even harder to get people here than to Hamilton! I enjoyed showing them Arusha – it was practice for when my sister and cousin visit in April.

New fan in the library, and a cement floor!

New desk and swivel chair.

Work has continued on renovations at the centre where I work. We have cement floors and ceiling fans in the two classrooms and in the library. The new whiteboards are wonderful now the protective plastic film has been removed – that was a minor hiccup. Facebook friends will know about it from a recent post!

 New white boards bought with DFAT money went into classrooms last Wednesday. They were getting scratched and were hard to write on and hard to clean even with metho. We were sick of them after 3 days!

Cleaning them (unsuccessfully) with warm water and soap yesterday I discovered a small label in the top corner saying “Remove protective film before use”.

Now we have perfect whiteboards!

White board and fan courtesy DFAT

 When you are volunteering you have to celebrate the small victories as much as the big. Monday’s victory was fixing the whiteboard problem, Tuesday’s was having the teacher responsible for IT successfully change the toner bottle in the photocopier.  Not important you might think but there are no photocopier technicians to ring here if something goes wrong!

Self sufficiency enterprise - owls, elephants and scrunchies.

Although I still have 3 months more of my contract I have to start passing over responsibility for all the processes I have in place.  Some will be handed to the teachers and some to the director. Everyone is so busy that pinning them down is hard. The teachers are a bit more biddable – they can be bribed with food.  The Director will be more problematic!

Knitting club

Next week I will run a workshop on using Excel to keep student records. The teachers are looking forward to it! They love the in-service training. Possibly knowing it always comes with muffins, cake and biscuits means they think of training as a positive experience, which is all good.

Australia Day

I’m getting out and about a bit. We had an Australia Day BBQ here at Sunpark with people from 7 nations. Last weekend I went to a card night and played 500 for the first time for many years – lots of fun! There is an Am-Dram production planned for a few months time with auditions starting soon, I’ll help with the production up until I leave. The Aussies here get together quite regularly for breakfasts and lunches at weekends and dinners as well during the week so there is always something happening. I do miss home but I’m never lonely!

A chameleon at breakfast - Bayleaf Hotel

A tractor at Ngaramtoni Forestry Institute - a Ford for Lyn.

Anna has just been in for a chat – she works such long hours at the hospital she can be hard to catch up with! She tells me work has started on the pre-school at Engaruka.  They have enough money for the foundations and floor, and have been able to buy enough bricks to build the walls.  With a few more donations they’ll be able to put a roof on.  I’ll post some photos soon so you can see what progress has been made.

So, that’s my report on the last month’s activities, I’ll try to do better next time and hope to have some pics soon from Engaruka. Thanks for your interest and support, Jenny.