We try to give the participants in our program a variety of experiences in the wider world so last week we had our excursion to Tarangire National Park. It was a lot of fun but a very looooong day.
Monday, October 14 was a public holiday for Nyerere Day so we were able to hire the school bus belonging to a local private school that could hold all our students, our teachers and various others. The wheel chairs and the picnic lunch fitted in the lockers under the bus - no hydraulic lifts here; and the four girls who need the wheelchairs were helped onto the bus in the same way you’d ‘help on’ a sack of potatoes!
The drive to Tarangire Gate is about 2 hours but the passengers had been sitting on the bus for quite a while before we left and a few were desperate for a convenience stop just before the turn off the tarmac, so we stopped at the side of the road and they divided, girls to the right, boys to the left, to go behind the bushes.
At the gate it took a while to process the paper work but soon enough we were in and on the lookout for wanyama wa porini - simba, twiga, tembo and their friends.
We were very lucky, we had good views of lions (two very lazy males who had been working their way through a meal of baby elephant) giraffes, buffalo and various antelope. The young trainee tour guide even stopped the bus for birds so we saw ostrich, Southern ground hornbill, Kori bustard and many vultures. We despaired of seeing elephants (they are all currently in Lake Manyara NP as you can read in Steve’s blog!), but eventually we saw a few including a few very young ones.
There were very many (naughty) monkeys at the picnic ground where we stopped for lunch and tourists were not minding the park rules about not interacting with them and making future behaviour worse. You can’t go wrong over-estimating the stupidity of a very few people!
It was a great day out for everyone, any day that involves a soda must be a red-letter day!
Last week I also progressed a step along the path to becoming a registered tax payer in Tz. I had tried the week before, going to the TRA with all the required documents listed on the application form, but was told I also needed an ‘Official Letter’. We argued that no such thing existed or was needed but to no avail. So I went to the Archdiocese to get an Official Letter and they said, “What’s that?” I had come prepared with what I thought it should say and the nun in charge of such matters dutifully typed it up. I spell checked it while she watched “Monkey Magic” on the telly then she said I should return the following day after it had been signed by Someone Important. I have it now so I feel Official. It’s been too hectic since to return to the TRA but I’m sure when I do there will be another hurdle to clamber over.
This week I have also made some progress on a plan for professional development of the trainers at the centre. (We can no longer be a ‘college’ with ‘teachers’ or ‘students’ because we are not registered with the education authorities, and we cannot be registered because there is no category for what we do!) The Catholic order that started the Mission where I work runs a Vocational Training College and a Boys Secondary School with a Deaf Education Unit at Tenguru, just east of Arusha. I visited there with two of our trainers so they could have collegial discussions on curriculum and pedagogy (or as Mark put it, “I have a new friend!”) and I also visited the secondary school and made a new friend. I have struggled with explaining money related arithmetic to our deaf students but now, courtesy of Madam Happy, the DP at the secondary school, I have a short video of all the necessary Tz sign language hand signs. She was very pleased to be filmed on my phone! We will return there next week and hope to get a collaborative partnership happening.
I have spent quite a bit of the last two weeks on the road including the 5 hour round trip to Moshi driving our four leg amputees for prosthetics fittings at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre. Driving in Tz is never pleasant and on Thursday rain added to the degree of difficulty although it did keep the pikipikis off the road! It was a successful trip with progress made by all four. One was even able to try out his new leg and was so pleased to be actually walking!
I have also made progress on the Kiswahili literacy front. I put a list of the 100 most common words in written swahili on the wall of the classroom / dining room and the students swarmed all over it reading them all out loud! They are so starved for reading materials. I am hoping over the next few months to get a collection of books together but then I’ll have to work out how to preserve them from damage and ‘disappearance’. I have also printed small slips of paper with the most common syllables in swahili for the students to sound out and assemble into words. Swahili is a totally phonetic language where any letter always makes the same sound so once they know the sounds the rest is easy (maybe!). I will report on progress.
Next week will be another big week! We have the Regional Director for AVI who is based in Sri Lanka coming to visit my work place to see what we’re doing together. All the visitors I’ve shown around have been amazed by our centre and the way our participants tackle the huge challenges they face. I love showing them off to everyone because they are such an impressive bunch!
So I’ll have a lot to report next time, I appreciate your interest.
Love from Jenny
