Jim on a High (Thanks to Tanga) and a Low ( Thanks to T.S.B.)

News: Mr’s Kiange, the mother of the man who had taken us on our mountain jaunt died, she was 98. The forth form mock’s are going on at the moment. The bank at home – T.S.B – has screwed up, again.

Leaving the Mountain is an adventure in itself.   The only way down is through the good graces of the Seventh Day Adventists, we either use their bus or their open backed truck. The fare is now 4,500 schillings - a rise of some 12% recently, inflation here is astronomical.   Anyway everyone get’s up at around five thirty as the bus leaves at six, ostensibly. There are a couple of gathering places, any one of which could be a trap vis-à-vis getting a seat, of which there are about 25.   The bus has been known to hold up to 55 and it’s a tight squeeze.   Why I was sqez in there last week like paint on the ceiling.   The ride down the mountain in the early dawn is highly invigorating and can be hair-raising also, during the rains; there is a tendency to slide all over the very narrow road.   The trip brings us to Mechana, then along the ‘highway’ ( bara-bara ) on into Same the district capital.   All taking about two hours; God and the S.D.A willing.   It’s from here that we explore Tanzania.

A few weeks ago – Easter actually – we hit out for Tanga, a large and, as it happens, very beautiful town on the coast.   From Same it took about six hours. We were making good time when we changed busses in a small town called Kirogway, the bus from there to Tanga – 30 km – could reasonably have taken half an hour as the road is not bad … for Tanzania. We actually took something closer to two hours on what appeared to be the whim of the driver. God and the S.D.A give me patience.

On arrival at Tanga we went straight to a hotel on Independence Avenue – the Sea View, fronting onto the sea - it has a wonderful view of the bay and Toten – dead man’s – Island.  The cook here, a man of Indian extraction proved to be fantastic and an all around good egg to boot may I say.  The boy’s at the hotel, and girl, were wonderful and made our stay very enjoyable, providing us with bikes and generally chauffeuring us around.   They also helped arranged trips to Pangani village with its attendant river and out to a sandbank and coral reef about five miles from the coast.    But am I getting ahead of myself.

It was latish as we booked in, but we decided to go for a swim and dropped down to the sea just below.   The fishermen were - in nautical terms - just ‘pulling in’.   An active fishing spot it was a little too dirty for swimming.   Then one of our crew – Aisling - had the brainwave to hire a small Dhow and sail over to the island, it was a grand trip followed by a grand swim.  We had fish for supper that evening.

The Pangani River is bursting with crocodiles of which we spotted two. In fact we spotted just four crocodile eyes and one snout.   Another interesting sighting will be reported by Aine Staunton in an article coming soon.   A very wide river at its mouth – 400 meters – it is banked on both sides by mangrove swamps and has a real ‘Heart of Africa’ feel. The trip lasted about three hours and was very enjoyable and provided an extra frisson of excitement when one of  ‘our gang’ tried to decapitate herself when she jumped into the crocodile infested waters on the way back – it’s o.k., I saved her … ha-ha.

Getting back to the ‘Indian cook’ – Muresh – the sauces were incredible and his ‘wali qua samaki’ is ta die for.   The sand bank deserves a longer mention but I will leave that to someone else.  It’s time for bed.

Now, on a lighter note, the bank at home: a few years ago these guys left me high and very dry up in Nepal, when for reasons that have never been explained they decided to render my card inoperative – on a whim I believe.   I went to great lengths in my home branch - Galway - to ensure that the same would not happen again.  Great promises and assurances were made – in Galway, mister L. don’t worry everything will run smoothly this time – and do you know what; they have done it again! More fool me. What’s the saying ‘fool me once shame on you, fool me twice…  

Anyways this is Jimmy the beguiled signing off, stranded by the T.S.B once again, this time in Africa.

Or something like that…

Reflection on the Semester by Aine Staunton

I sit here on a Sunday afternoon in Suji and I think to myself, what has changed in Malindi Secondary School since we arrived here on that glorious Sunday afternoon the 1st of November 2010?  A change is a process of becoming different, seeing something within somebody or within the environment around you.   Change is not something that is brought about very easily, it must be carefully manipulated and encouraged.  I have learnt that change is not something that happens very quickly in Suji!

Underneath are a few of the things that have popped into my head when writing this short piece and the positive changes which have occurred in this school.  Although these changes may be small or slight, any change here is a positive one in my opinion.

Surface changes within the school

To begin with there are now more teachers in the school with qualifications.   The teachers that were here prior to our coming and who are currently teaching alongside us, had and have just finished their form six schooling which is equivalent to our leaving certificate.  Before we arrived the students were lucky to see a teacher for a single class on any given day.  Now we have a great timetable and the students have a teacher for the majority of the day even if this is very tiring and exhausting for us teachers.

We have successfully set up soccer, volleyball and netball teams.  It was obvious that these children had never really competed against other schools or enjoyed school sports before.  It is difficult to fit in training sessions and to get all of a team together as they have chores to do at home.  We train every week and have a great set of new jerseys which were sponsored by Aaron’s father and his co-workers.   We have not done fantastically in the school competition this semester but the children have thoroughly enjoyed it and one of our players even had the chance to do some trials for a regional team.  The change here that is most apparent is that someone got a chance and these children are getting a greater chance to succeed in life.  If we had not selected that student to go for the trials he would never have known any different and would never have got such an opportunity.

Corporal punishment …. Disappearing slowly

This is a slow process; we have had countless conversations with the school head master and other teachers explaining to them that this is not the way to deal with students who misbehave.   At the moment we do not see any of the teachers using the cane to administer punishment but this does not mean that it is not still happening.   At our last meeting we discussed punishment of students and decided to have Sunday detention class for any misbehaving students.  The students here are not what you would class as out of control or anything like it.  One of the male African teachers said to me one day when we were “discussing corporal punishment”  that the students to not respect him if he does not use the cane….my argument was why do my students, the same students you teach respect me and I am able to control them without using a long wooden stick.   The teachers have now agreed to only use the cane as a last resort in future.  They believe that this is the African way of life and is needed within this culture.   I am certain that this “way of life” will disappear completely within the next few years especially if this issue is under constant review and education given to the people here on a continuous basis.  

For the first few months teaching in these classrooms was very quiet.

The students in the class would not make a sound; they would not answer questions and would not participate what so ever in a class.  At first I put it down to them not understanding my lovely Mayo accent, but of course this was not the case.  It all connected back to corporal punishment and them getting hit if they answered a question incorrectly.   How can anyone learn if they do not make mistakes?   Six months in and we have now some kind of class participation, not anywhere near what I would like it to be but it’s a start.

Use of the English language in the Village

All pupils in Tanzania are taught through the medium of English.  The level of English within the village has improved greatly.  Students are teaching their parents, we are teaching the younger children and hope to set up some evening classes again in June.  We had evening classes running for a few months but it got way to much with school and sports and everything so we hope to set them up again in June for everyone when school finishes for the summer.

Changes we have seen and hope for the future

We see the changes that have taken place as positive and we hope the people in the village view them in that light.   We hope to give the pupils a sense of self worth and that they will view the education they receive from us as a positive experience and that it will inspire them to further that education.  We are aware of the value that the people of Tanzania place on education and we are glad to be here to help in the process.

Aaron's Management is Proving Successful

Aaron writes about his team.

This is a picture of Malindi Secondary School Football Team sporting the  new football jerseys which were sponsored by my dad and his co-workers at Donegal VEC.     They look fantastic and even though we didn't have the most desirable result for our first match our results have picked up with a very credible 2-2 draw with a private school named Alkachenje and just last Wednesday we played against the neighbouring village Gonjanza with a 2-1 win there. We played without our Form 4's (who normally make up 6 of the starting team) as their mocks begin next week so I was delighted that the younger guys were able to do the job.

The picture below is from our match against Makanya Secondary School. 100 students of Malindi made the journey down the mountain (some hardcore supporters even walked) to show their support for our boys in green.   There I am in the Pic - The White Fella at the end with the assistant trainer Aisling adding the glamour to the occasion!