Just been to paradise and back.....

Long white soft sandy beaches, hot clear turquoise coloured sea water... what more can anyone want?  We’ve just spent 2 days on Zanzibar at a hotel that was right on the sea front. A great relaxing and re energising time out!

We got a boat from Dar es Salaam that takes about 2 hours. On the way there it was very civilised and not at all crowded – may have been the fact that we caught the first one of the day at 7am. We got the last one of the day returning and it was chaotic. It was a bit like a Virgin train to Manchester on a Friday evening – people sitting everywhere blocking walkways. I was wedged between a woman and her little girl - who kept on trying to sit on my seat with me - on one side and two women sitting on the floor, but using my rucksack and my legs as back rests!!

Although we were only in the country (they talk about Zanzibar as if it was a separate country) for two days, thanks to a friend of Francis here, we saw loads – we did a tour of Stone town; went to see the red colubus monkeys who can only be found in Zanzibar; did a spice tour, part of which included having a typical Swahili spiced meal and saw some caves in which they had kept slaves during the slave trade. Despite this we managed to have the evening and early morning on the beach which was the best relaxant ever!

It was hard coming back but the fact of the matter is that we are here to work... and there’s no question that’s what we will be doing!  Off to near Kilimanjaro tomorrow at the crack of dawn to deliver a session to academic school teachers. Had better continue the preparation then.....

By the way if anyone wants to holiday in Zanzibar I can recommend a good hotel  and if you want a travelling companion just ask!!

Our first training session

On Wednesday we went to the Salesian sisters’ place just outside the city to deliver our first training session. They run a primary school which they started only a few years ago. At the moment there are only 3 classes – Nursery/reception, Year 1 and 2 – but each year as the cohorts move up they are adding another one. The training session was for the primary teachers and also for the technical school teachers!! I did my utmost to try and get two separate sessions because for me teaching five year olds to read and 18 year olds to weld are very different and require quite different skills – but I lost and we did them together.

Neither of the groups of teachers had done any formal training before being in the classroom. People who fail their leaving exams tend to go in to primary teaching (!) and people with vocational skills and want to teach, go in to technical schools. Although they have the relevant skills for the subject they don’t have much knowledge of what’s involved in teaching. Given all this, it seemed very daunting. However both the Heads of the respective schools wanted something on planning and preparation. I left Zelma to do that bit (and a session on questioning) whilst I looked at learning styles and the importance of building self esteem in your students. I also led some ice breakers and energisers. I did an activity where they each had the name of an African country taped to their back and through closed ‘yes/no’ questions they had to find out which one it was. Hmmm didn’t work!! It was mainly because they found the whole idea very confusing and then were not that familiar with other countries on the continent. It made me think whether we could do it for Europe? (answers in comments below please!)

Due to lack of time the one thing we did not cover was interactive teaching methods which the primary teachers would have welcomed (I think!). As we went round the school the second class (Year I equivalent) was colouring in a square which the teacher had already drawn in their books. I was itching to help them to make it more fun and active but had to sit on my hands – and yes I did manage too! On the other hand the reception teacher was great. The kids were singing and dancing and really enjoying themselves.

Sister Cecily asked if we could stay for a few days to help the teachers some more but unfortunately our schedule doesn’t allow it. However, perhaps another time, another year....

The next few weeks......

I am blogging again so soon because I don't think, once we leave Dar, that we will have the regular internet connection that we have here. For those of you interested in following my journey (and have a map of Tanzania to hand or know East Africa)we are going north to Moshi next. It is near Kilimanjaro so hope we'll get a glimpse if nothing else. Then south again to Dodoma, the capital (anyone surprised here? I thought Dar was as well!!). From there we go up to the North West to Shinanga and then back directly south to Mafinga. I am exhausted at the thought of it but it is very exciting! At each place we are doing INSET with teachers as well as some student sessions on motivation and study skills (colleagues - help!)

The above takes us up to the end of this month then for the last 3 weeks or so we shall be in Kenya. First in Nairobi and then up to the north to a place called Korr near Marsabit. Once back in April I shall definitely need a rest!!

There is so much I could tell you but it will have to wait til later......I need to get on preparing the sessions on learning styles and interactive teaching methods that I am delivering. Zelma is doing preparation and planning so I feel I've drawn the longer straw there! Angela and Pat, I could really do with you here to help. I want to, so much, model the methods we are encouraging the teachers to use so having to be quite creative.

Talk to you all again. Hoping to get to Zanzibar before we start journeying so will make you all jealous after that!

Bagamoyo

On Sunday we went up to the town of Bogamayo about 60kms north of Dar Es Salaam. We were driven by the young lad who usually drives the Papal Nuncio to Tanzania. He gave up his Sunday rest day to take two middle aged women out for the afternoon – some commitment and dedication!

Bagamayo  (according to the Bradt Guide on Tanzania) ‘ranks among the most historically  compelling towns in East Africa’.  In the 19^th century it was the main terminus for the slave trade from East Africa to Zanzibar and then on to the Middle East. We particularly went to visit the Catholic museum which is part of a compound started by the Holy Ghost fathers in the late 1860s. At first the missionaries lived side by side with the slave traders, but then when the slave trade was being abolished the missionaries ransomed slaves and allowed them to live free within the compound. In the records, that can be seen in the museum, there were children as young as 6 and 8 who had been freed as slaves.

This Catholic compound was also the place that Livingstone was brought to, in 1874 from Zambia where he died. His body was sundried (like fish!) after all the internal organs had been removed and then carried the thousands of miles to Bagamayo: this took nine months. The body was placed for one night in the tower of the church and since then it is known as Livingstone tower and although the church has long since been knocked down and rebuilt on a different site, the tower still stands in remembrance of this event. Perhaps, on my return I should  go and see his body in Westminster Abbey having never done so before?!

Feast of Don Bosco

The day started with a Mass for the 100 students and 40 staff in the big hall in the centre. This hall serves as a church, meeting room and a recreational space – with table tennis being played every evening for half an hour. I have yet to take part but, of course I will!!  Mass was long and relatively lively with a lot of great singing. It is the first time I’ve ever heard the bidding prayers being sung!  It was quite comforting to know that teenagers everywhere are the same; a few of the boys at the back were not just slouched in their chairs but asleep!

After Mass Zelma and I joined the community for a drink which for some consisted of the liqueur that we had brought for them. In fact Fr Thomas soaked his cake in it!

The students celebrated with a morning of games – netball and football. The netball was teachers versus students; the teachers won though not before the Head, Brother Francis, had been sent off for foul play, for moving the goal posts when the opposition were shooting! There were four teams playing football simultaneously on the same pitch. An interesting way of solving the numbers problem and it seemed to work.

These games were then followed by lunch for everyone. The students always get lunch but normally ugali (maize flour mixed with water) and beans. Today it was rice, piri piri and meat. I sat with a young man who was in his first year doing electrical studies. He has come down from his village near Kilimanjaro to live with his aunt so he can study here. He told me – almost incidentally - that he used to have a brother who died in a fire. The same fire that left him very scarred on his face and with a hand that is now disabled.

The school is a technical school that serves young people who have failed their Form 4 exams (equivalent to GCSE) and although it is private, the fees are only about £50 a year which just covers the lunchtime food. Despite being a government approved technical college it receives absolutely no funding from the government: salaries, materials and all other expenses have to be found by the Salesians. When I asked the Rector where they got the money from, he said ‘providence and some benefactors’. I have learned that this is a typical Salesian approach of optimism and one that believes it will happen somehow and before it is needed. Welding, electrical studies, carpentry and secretarial studies are all taught here alongside English and computer studies.

The feast ended with most members of the Salesian family  - Sisters, Brothers and Priests including the Papal Nuncio to Tanzania -in Dar Es Salaam coming together for prayer and then for a riotous meal and evening of celebration.

My first ever blog

Well here I am attempting to write my first ever (only?)blog entry. As I am banging away on these keys, I cannot help but wonder who is going to read this. But then I have some kind friends who for no other reason may go on to it, because they feel sorry for me?!

But enough of that, I don't have time. I still have to learn swahili, find and iron some clothes to pack in to a bag; in fact find the bag first; read all about Tanzanian education; go to the bank; get some anit malarials... and many many more things before Friday. Panic setting in - hmmm nearly but not yet.