I am back in Tanzania for 5 weeks to visit secondary schools with education materials and installing a computer lab at Image. I arrived in Dar on Sept 2 and caught a ride with a car returning to Iringa. Peter, my driver, is a good friend from past trips. We stopped along the way to buy two large bags of charcoal because they are 15,000 tsh ($10) along the road instead of 25,000 tsh in town and is longer lasting. Peter said the two bags should provide 3 months of cooking for his family of 4. Charcoal is the cheapest method to cook in the city (in the village they use wood) and is a reason for much of the deforestation in populated areas. Most of the bags sold along the road are picked up by trucks and sold in Dar.
We did not see any upside down trucks this trip but did come across this burned out bus which had been there 4 days and might still be there when I leave. Everyone got off the bus but they lost their luggage.
I saw some wildlife in Mikumi including this old Cape Buffalo which was grazing 10 feet from my car window but a lot of the park near the road had been burned because it is so dry now and most of the animals were in other areas.
I am staying in an apartment in Iringa with a lot of space for setting up the computer equipment. I have a file server and a wireless network that I will take to Image to provide content to 13 low power netbook computers. The whole system will be powered with a 200 W solar panel with batteries for night. I met with the Headmaster from Image and set an ambitious plan to visit all 6 diocese schools. We go to Image next Tuesday and I will be there until Saturday to work with the teachers and students.
I took the daladala (local bus) out to Tumaini to see Maria and Sele at our old house and see the campus which is not in session. There is a Finnish couple staying at the house now who will be teaching in the Counseling Program. They have a day guard as well as a night guard now. The day guard is a young woman nursing a young baby. She took a picture of me with Maria and Sele with the typical slant from a person who has never taken a picture before. The science building at Tumaini had added a floor since we were here in January and the lecture rooms on the first two floors were finished and beautiful.
Walking back to the road to pick up the daladala again I was passed by a herd of cattle and saw this english medium nursery school. Private English medium nursery and primary schools are growing in popularity as a way to get ahead for secondary school where the language of instruction is in English. Learning English while you are trying to learn your subjects in the same language is one of the biggest hurdles for Tanzania education. I hope to understand these issues much better after my visits to the schools.
Yesterday, I went to Ilula hospital and installed 4 Ubuntu computers I had brought that were loaded with nursing and medical content. The Nursing training videos that Sue and DeeDee had picked out for me to include were a big hit. Nurse Rita and the new Nursing school principal were like kids at Christmas. Rita said she was learning from them already and it sounds like the videos will be useful for the staff at the hospital as well as the school when it opens next year. There is a lot of potential for video training in Tanzania and I also brought a portable projector for showing Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) video in villages. This should be a pretty good draw for an audience in places where there is no TV or movies.
We did not see any upside down trucks this trip but did come across this burned out bus which had been there 4 days and might still be there when I leave. Everyone got off the bus but they lost their luggage.
I saw some wildlife in Mikumi including this old Cape Buffalo which was grazing 10 feet from my car window but a lot of the park near the road had been burned because it is so dry now and most of the animals were in other areas.
I am staying in an apartment in Iringa with a lot of space for setting up the computer equipment. I have a file server and a wireless network that I will take to Image to provide content to 13 low power netbook computers. The whole system will be powered with a 200 W solar panel with batteries for night. I met with the Headmaster from Image and set an ambitious plan to visit all 6 diocese schools. We go to Image next Tuesday and I will be there until Saturday to work with the teachers and students.
I took the daladala (local bus) out to Tumaini to see Maria and Sele at our old house and see the campus which is not in session. There is a Finnish couple staying at the house now who will be teaching in the Counseling Program. They have a day guard as well as a night guard now. The day guard is a young woman nursing a young baby. She took a picture of me with Maria and Sele with the typical slant from a person who has never taken a picture before. The science building at Tumaini had added a floor since we were here in January and the lecture rooms on the first two floors were finished and beautiful.
Walking back to the road to pick up the daladala again I was passed by a herd of cattle and saw this english medium nursery school. Private English medium nursery and primary schools are growing in popularity as a way to get ahead for secondary school where the language of instruction is in English. Learning English while you are trying to learn your subjects in the same language is one of the biggest hurdles for Tanzania education. I hope to understand these issues much better after my visits to the schools.
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