Rough 'justice'

There are many things I love about Tanzania - many things that make me smile. Like the Happyness Hardware truck that I see most mornings and "Hello Mzungu" that comes with a beaming grin. I love the idiosyncratic spelling on official as well as unofficial notices and I love the cheerful positive attitude of most of the people I interact with every day.

But one thing that I do not like is the random application and misapplication of the 'law' by enforcement officials.

Most drivers here are used to being pulled over by the traffic police and asked for "chai" - money to buy themselves afternoon tea or a soda. Official business can happen faster if the "wheels are greased". When we were in Bukoba we came back from a weekend away to find many of the town's buildings were slated for "Bomoa" - demolition - for being too close to the road.  Buildings here in Arusha are also daubed with red crosses but demolition has not happened either here or there!

On Thursday afternoon I  witnessed randomly applied rough justice and was quite upset.  

On my regular walk home I often talk to a street trader who sets out socks, underwear, cheap jewellery and hair ornaments on a tarpaulin close to the footpath on Njiro Road.  I have bought small trinkets from him occasionally but usually I tell him "labda wiki kesho" - perhaps next week.  On Thursday, just as I approached his pitch, a truck pulled up and a dozen people, some in a military looking uniform, jumped out of the back and started rolling up his tarpaulins and removing his goods into the back of the truck. I stopped briefly but had to continue walking, around the melee and home, as AVI advice is to avoid such situations.  I felt that I wanted to help him but there was nothing to be gained by my getting involved.

I talked to a local friend about what had happened.  He told me this is normal - that the police raid illegal street traders a few times a year, confiscate their goods, demolish any stalls they have and the trader is fined. My friendly trader was illegal because he did not have an official permit or licence to run his business.  I saw next morning that the fruit stall where I buy my mangoes had also been demolished as the police had continued down Njiro Road.

The seeming unfairness of what happened upset me - my trader friend was trying to earn a living to provide for his family. Yes, he was trading illegally, but bureaucracy can be slow, cumbersome and impenetrable here so for micro-business people of little education it is not accessible. No, he was paying no taxes, and clearly he had paid no bribes!

I hope my street trader will return - and I won't wait until wiki kesho to do my shopping. I can feel more Christmas presents are needed - who fancies some beautiful jewellery and hair ornaments?

The Great Debate

Today in Global Studies / Spoken English we had a debate. It was in the form of a forum where three speakers gave their points of view and then were questioned by the audience.  The topic was "What is the greatest development issue?" The speakers gave reasons for it to be health, education or clean water. They had been 'prepped' by their teams using research on each issue.

It turns out that all these are interdependent. If you don't have a good education system people get sick through ignorance and you can't train enough doctors.  If you don't have a good health system then children miss a lot of school and their education suffers, or students are kept home looking after ill relatives and miss out on the education, either good or poor, being offered. If they don't have clean water available people get sick and children miss school - see above.

The winner for me was 'clean water' as it reduces sexual assaults on women and girls. How you ask? Many women and girls have an early morning daily trudge to fetch water, often kilometres from home, through isolated places, and fall victim to rapists. Provision of clean water in each village would improve lives the most!

Global Cycle Solutions Tz

Wednesday afternoon is theoretically students' half day off at Umoja but we often use it for excursions and other activities so as not to disrupt the academic timetable.  During October students are learning about Enterprise and Entrepreneurship and we are using a series of excursions to the Global Cycle Solutions workshop to reinforce that. The two so far have been extremely well received!

Global Cycle Solutions website says " Global Cycle Solutions is a social enterprise working to develop and disseminate affordable, quality technology for villagers around the world."

Global Cycle Solutions also run seminars where students can learn about the design process and how to develop a good idea into a useable product. Our students are attending seminars and practical demonstrations as well as having access to the GCS workshop to work on their own inventions.

The inventions that GCS have been working on and promoting include machines that use bicycle power. A rider can pedal the bicycle while it is in a stand to keep it stationary and use the energy made to power a water pump, a grinder or a blender.  The energy can be converted to electricity and used to charge a telephone battery. These inventions are very useful in the villages where there in no electricity.

We were shown other inventions to help in the garden. There was a micro-drip watering system that provides water for plants with no waste. The system was made from lengths of plastic tube and small spikes. The spikes were the same distance apart as the plants in the garden.

GCS also shows students how tools and implements can be made from recycled materials more cheaply than they are bought in the shops. They have a tool for removing maize kernels from the cob quickly and efficiently. The students really liked that one! Many of the recycled materials are from bicycles.

GCS has many tools and machines that students can use to work on their inventions.  Some are hand tools and some are power tools. GCS staff can also give helpful advice. Students can use the workshop free of charge.

A walk in the Mlangarine Valley

Today's hike was a real change from previous Twende hikes. In the past months I've walked through dry paddocks, scrub and creek beds on the west side of Arusha. Today, east of Arusha, was green and even lush in places despite the rains not having yet started. We also saw many hectares taken over by plastic houses where flowers and vegetables are grown for export to Europe.

Today's walk was the usual United Nations, this week including Kenyan, German, Danish, Swedish, Welsh and Scot, plus two Aussies. Age range was about 20 years  to 60. Lots of conversation happens as we walk - about life here and life at home, about our various reasons for being in Arusha, our experiences at the hospitals, schools and NGOs where we work.

Part of the way was along the now derelict Arusha - Moshi railway line.

I always enjoy these walks though usually at about the 3 1/2 hour mark I have some second thoughts on the wisdom of 'healthy exercise'.  But at the end I'm always glad I made the effort!

Counting Down

In only 11 weeks I will be flying back to Australia for Christmas - I'm sure the Christmas decorations are in the shops in Australia by now!  And yes, I am counting down.

Last month the High Comm decided that, for AVIs, flights through Nairobi Airport would need special permission, given only at the beginning of the month of travel. It didn't seem sensible to wait until December 1 to confirm flights to Australia 2 weeks later so I've changed my booking to fly via Dar es Salaam instead. The very chatty and helpful Qatar airways agent who changed my flight thought I deserved a bonus for the inconvenience of it all and has given me a 40 kg luggage allowance both ways! So my Christmas shopping is in full swing.

It is hard to find handicrafts that are made here. The tourist traps are crammed with trinkets mass produced in Asia being sold by locals who swear blind they made it themselves. If so they've been very busy because I've seen the exact same articles on sale from Entebbe airport in Uganda to Hartbeesport in South Africa and five countries in between! Still, the chocolate hornbill and the helmeted Guinea Fowl (see pic below) were irresistible and they'll go in the bird collection on the mantelpiece at home in Hamilton.

The only things I'm relatively confident about being 'local' are the beaded objects sold in many women's co-operatives. Often the women are there making them. So I have bought trinket boxes, a lot of jewellery and a collar. Also sandals and a water jug cover. So, family, expect something with beads for Christmas.

 

The water jug I bought on Thursday from a venture just outside Arusha called Shanga. Disabled adults are employed there making a variety of handicrafts - textile and glassware.  The glassware is made from recycled bottles and jars. It really is beautiful work. Textiles are created on hand looms and seamstresses turn kitenge into many useful and decorative items. I think I'll be going back there for more glassware, so put in an order if you'd fancy recycled wine bottle under the tree in December.

Here is a glass shaper at Shanga making a bowl someone may get for Christmas.

Doing my job

Finally a week where I did the things AVI think they're paying me to do! No egg and spoon races and no hobnobbing with High Comms and riding in bullet proof cars. The only excitement was the sighting of a domestic turkey in the yard across from the centre.

This week I observed classes and gave feedback, assisted volunteers in their teaching, researched, wrote and rewrote curriculum documents and ran a workshop. It wasn't very exciting but it was as close to a 'normal' week as I can get!

Umoja currently has three local teachers and two international volunteers teaching timetabled classes. I have been attempting to institute a program of weekly observation, feedback and reflection with the local teachers.  So many interruptions and distractions mean I have not been able to establish a pattern that isn't a distraction in itself. I want it to seem unremarkable for me to be in the classrooms so everyone acts 'normally'. When I am in the classrooms I usually see effective teaching and learning happening and I'd be surprised if that wasn't the norm.

Beginner maths learning algebra.

The volunteers are a mixed bag - in the three months I have been at Umoja we've had Canadian, British, Polish, Belgian, US and Danish volunteers teaching Life Skills, Global Studies, Spoken English and Library. Some are qualified teachers, some are university graduates in various fields and some are virtually straight out of high school - younger than some of our students. Oftentimes they teach what they know - usually something they're passionate about (which is good) but sometimes not relevant to the students or a  repeat (which is not!). It has been a big job consulting and getting feedback on what constitutes a "balanced curriculum" but now it is only being "tweaked" as I look for helpful resources to teach what has been decided on. Future volunteers will have a better structure to help them with what to teach in the classroom, and hopefully there are resources I have found, too, to help the local teachers in their work. 

The workshop was on planning - schemes of work written in January for the whole year also need some tweaking when you've unexpectedly lost a week of teaching time to sport and leadership training. The teachers have now reassessed their programs and are looking towards end of year exams. They also enjoyed banana and passionfruit muffins and mango yoghurt pikelets - half at the beginning of the workshop and the remainder at 4 o'clock when they showed me what they had achieved!

I have been working on a collection of stories and poems to expand the students' store of reading materials.The English teacher, I know, has enjoyed reading the Roald Dahl works I have found. I also found a cache of Hans Christian Andersen stories that have universal appeal despite being from different continent and century. And the Danish volunteer pointed me in the direction of some wonderful international poetry - works from Zimbabwe in English language that should resonate with our students.


This week I also felt a long way from home when our daughter unexpectedly and without warning married her partner Jeremy in Hobart and I also missed our grand-daughter Sophie Jean's first birthday party.   I'll catch up with them all in Australia in December I hope - Skype is great but not a substitute for a proper cuddle.

A photo of the elopement in their living room!

Interruptions

It’s been a disrupted week this week with the normal program suspended while YES Tanzania (Youth Empowerment through Sport – a Scottish NGO) ran Leadership training with 20 of our students. This involved some theoretical work in the classroom and lots of running around on the paddock near the centre. Some teaching staff and outplacement students were also involved in a ‘Train the Trainer’ capacity. On Friday the students and trainers went to a local primary school and ran a sports carnival.

While 20 students were out of class doing their thing, the remaining students were in a combined class ‘marking time’ – revision in English and maths are not as exciting as running around in the paddock playing games! I was teaching the IT classes while the IT teacher was being ‘empowered through sport’ which was a challenge – I’m useless with Windows machines and only familiar with Office for Mac applications. Nevertheless, with help from Mr Google, I taught the students how to put animation into their Powerpoint presentations. There are a few students who need to learn ‘less is more’ as they delighted in having words spinning in and out all over the page! We had a demonstration of Skype in action and the students sang Happy Birthday to Steve on Thursday.  I also made good use of the Kagera Reading Program.

On Friday, so the students who weren’t YES men wouldn’t miss out on their dose of sport, we had an “Old Fashioned Games” event on the paddock. Two student teams and a teacher team competed in games such as leapfrog, tag and marbles. The students laughed when Danielle announced I was in the teachers’ team – very rude!  I’ll get some pics from Caroline next week and add them to this blog.

We had a special afternoon tea – Pyrou provided oranges, I brought a watermelon and some mini-muffins and Danielle and Kaylene made a peanut butter and chocolate cake. The day finished with “prizes”. Students were allowed one garment of their choice from the recycled clothes cupboard. A great day was had by all!

Next week normal service resumes and I hope to observe some classes as well as run a workshop on planning for the remainder of the term, including provision for unexpected interruptions such as we’ve just had!