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!

Things to cook on a 2-burner stove #3

Banana and currant pikelets

Stir together

1 ½ cups plain flour

3 tsp baking powder

3 heaped dessertspoons raw sugar

3 heaped dessertspoons full cream milk powder

1 tsp cinnamon

Mash 3 small bananas (~ ½ cup) and mix in 1 egg.  Mix into dry ingredients.  Slowly stir in ¾ cup water to which you have added 1 tsp vinegar. 

(The batter should be ‘pikelet’ consistency so don’t add all the water at once and use your judgement.)

Stir in ¼ cup dried red currants.

Cook dessertspoonfuls in a hot butter-greased frying pan, about 2 mins each side, until risen and cooked through.

We had dinner at the Yaasila Hotel last night to admire the ‘super moon’. In Tanzania it is being suggested that this super moon may bring on the ‘big rain’, which is now overdue – a big problem (shida kubwa) following the failure of the ‘little rain’. The sky was still cloudy after a very rainy day (see, it’s working all ready!) but was an impressive sight nevertheless.

[The barge you can see in the picture just washed up several years ago, no-one seemed to know from whence, and is now used by the local boys as a swimming and fishing pontoon.]

Tanzanians on the whole are superstitious people.  The biggest news out of Tanzania currently is regarding a retired Lutheran cleric near Arusha who is selling a potion that he claims will cure cancer, AIDS, diabetes and high blood pressure among other things.  The price is moderate – Tsh500/= a cup (around 35 cents) but you have to travel to his village to get it. [Read the story here.]

A friend was telling us that donations are being solicited in her work place to fly a dying colleague from Kagera to Arusha so he can be ‘cured’.  What would you do?  Here you would just pay up, knowing it’s a donation to Precision Air.

On the work front it’s been a very slow week but with all the signs that work life could become frantic at any moment.

The BRDC officers who told me several weeks ago that they would take care of the logistics for the new seminars that had been to begin on March 7^th are nearly there with their budget and planning and we may be ‘good to go’ on March 28^th with twice the number of training days originally planned and at less cost to the BRDC.  I may have to run workshops on topics I’m less familiar with – writing Schemes of Work and Lesson Plans – but I have this coming week to sort it out.  I think in the current plan I will have the best of the teachers from ‘my’ wards to help and that they will get some financial recognition of their extra work.  It’s looking like a win for everyone.

On Thursday I mentioned I’d also been working on a practice exam for this year’s Standard VII, converting one I’d written to the new multiple choice format.  “Yes, that will be good.  We’ll do the mock exam for the District on April 1^st”  - not an April Fool Joke but I think I can be ready.  Steve has done the proof reading on the english language version and checking of answers and I have discovered that under the security arrangements thought necessary I will now have to shoot him!  The office will proof read the kiSwahili version.

So all is going well.  The data I have just prepared for a VSO-DFID review says in the 7 months we have been here I have directly influenced 211 teachers and education managers and through them a further 292 teachers and 15,569 children.  [ We will have a meeting with the review team this week too, so it’s lucky time is so elastic! ]  And the next few weeks should boost these numbers as we move out into more wards of the Bukoba rural District.


A post script to last week's blog - we evidently left the hospital opening too early - there was music, dancing and speeches.  Maybe that cheered-up PM Pinda!

Lately I have been thinking about the arbitrariness of life in Tanzania.  Why do things happen the way they do?  Who makes the decisions and why?

Today we went to the official opening, by the Prime Minister of Tanzania, of a refurbished hospital at Izimbya.  The hospital is owned jointly by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania (ELCT) and the Bukoba Rural Council.  It is close to Josiah’s shamba so it was an opportunity for us to visit his family and for him to avoid a crowded minibus ride home.  We visited Josiah’s 80 year old mother and talked to some of her grandchildren including one, a human rights lawyer, who is visiting home between finishing work in Geneva and starting a project in Jamaica.

We came to the opening expecting loud music, traditional dancing and long speeches.  There was none of that!  The PM, Mizengo Pinda, walked around the complex, with the local ELCT Bishop, talking to employees, clients and lookers-on.  He cut the ribbons without fanfare.  I don’t know how he felt about the gifts of bananas, dried fish and a goat.

I was standing with a group of ladies who had brought their babies to be vaccinated.  He shook my hand, and then chatted to the ladies standing near me.  It was all very calm and relaxed.  The police who were with him also looked calm and relaxed.  We chatted to the cameraman from the Tanzanian Broadcasting Corporation who was travelling as part of the PM’s retinue about how stable Tanzania is compared with much of Africa.  This is a nation with much to be proud of and thankful for!  And the people of Izimbya, including Jenny (below) have a beautiful new clinic and hospital that they can now officially use.

Yesterday, unannounced, a pile of printed documents appeared on Josiah’s desk.  They were from the Examinations Board of Tanzania announcing a change in the format of the Standard VII National exams.  All are to be entirely multiple choice.  There was no consultation and no warning, at least in this part of the republic, that this decision was likely.  It means the Practice Exam in my book is less useful as a trial exam and I will have to rewrite the exam I had written for my Wards in the new format.  Teachers have 5 months to prepare themselves and their pupils for this unexpected change.  I can understand the reasons – easier marking and instant improved perceived performance (with A, B, C & D to choose from each candidate should at least get 25%!)  It will now look as if my efforts have improved standards; whether there is improved learning will be harder to judge.  I don’t know if anyone thought about the increased cost to schools of printing the inevitably longer revised exam format.

Over the last week or so someone has been busy in Bukoba with a spray can of red paint.  Every second shop or dwelling, some quite new and substantial, on the two main roads has a large red X and the word BOMOA painted on the front wall.  ‘Bomoa’ means demolish.  Someone, probably in Dodoma, Tanzanian’s capital, has decided to enforce a law about how close a fence or building can be to a main road. 

Immigration Office

Now many buildings, including the Magereza Club (Prison Bar) and the Immigration Office are slated to be removed!  So far no demolition has occurred and we have heard that the people affected are planning to fight the decision - it’s a bit crook when overnight you can lose your home or business because a law changed after you built it.  It’s also a bit silly as most of the buildings are not a danger to the flow of traffic (the traffic manages to be a danger without any help from the buildings!) and the economy cannot afford to rebuild perfectly serviceable buildings.  It will be interesting to see what happens next.

Lina's Night Club - where will the public phone go if the fence is demolished?