The Maturos have an amazing resource at their fingertips, one which scholarships around the world strive to have: a location that is exclusive for their scholars. The Maturos have an extra room that they aren't renting out, so I asked if we could turn it into a library and resource room for the scholars.
We had a scholar celebration for the scholars and their families and unveiled the resource room. For many of them it was their first day to eat ice cream. On Monday, 3 of the students came after school and studied in it - seeing them come to the room to study was the highlight of my stay here.
I have been bringing them each to the bookstore to pick out a couple books for the library. I want to instill the concept of "reading for fun" with this library. There aren't many novels in Swahili (most are in English) and no one has money to buy books to read for fun. I put up a map of the world, some pictures they drew, and bought some reference books as well. I also bought a bunch of school supplies and a little holder for them. We had a carpenter make a table and bookshelf because it was a lot cheaper than buying furniture.
Most of these young adults live in one room with their families, so they don't have a good place to study. They get distracted by chores around the house and people doing things around them. Most of the schools don't have a library, so it's really hard for them to study. I think that giving them a quiet and safe place to study may be the best thing that we can give them.
I am leaving on Friday and wish I had more time here. I will be going to Zanzibar until next Wednesday and am then coming home on the 20th.
vocab word of the day:
vitabu - book
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Monday, August 3, 2009
Updates
Went to an exhibition, which is basically like the agricultural part of a fair. Met with the Community based Healthcare Council there, which was really interesting.
Went camping to Kikoleto Hot Springs.
Finishing up health assessment - have learned a LOT about health here and specific needs related to them. Had a focus group with an NGO which deals with solid waste management (more on this in the future).
General wrap up with writing reports.
Hope Sustain Foundation will be able to join ANGONET...look them up online!
Hosting a scholar celebration for families next week. I will really miss the scholars.
Sorry this is so short - pressed for time in my last week here!
Went camping to Kikoleto Hot Springs.
Finishing up health assessment - have learned a LOT about health here and specific needs related to them. Had a focus group with an NGO which deals with solid waste management (more on this in the future).
General wrap up with writing reports.
Hope Sustain Foundation will be able to join ANGONET...look them up online!
Hosting a scholar celebration for families next week. I will really miss the scholars.
Sorry this is so short - pressed for time in my last week here!
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Superstitions and Beliefs
Albino killings: Witch doctors tell people that killing albinos will make them rich so (mostly in the Lake Victoria region), people still basically "hunt" albinos and kill them. They keep a part of the person in their home because they believe it will make them rich.
Owls: If an owl hoots by your house, it means someone will die.
Relationships: I've learned a lot about dating and relationships here. Even at the age of 33, relationship are kept secret from families until there is an engagement.
While I can't speak for all of Tanzania, I know that Sakina is a village very representative of many villages here.
In Sakina, the majority of people believe that 1) condoms are bad, 2) it is a woman's responsibility to avoid getting pregnant, 3) the major role of women is to cook and clean and serve her husband, 4) it is ok for a man to hit a woman if she won't sleep with him.
These are all questions we asked in household surveys, so we have data that shows this. It has been really interesting for me to talk to people about what they believe.
Healthy food: My brothers and sisters have never seen the food pyramid and didn't know that soda was unhealthy.
vocab word of the day:
simu - phone number
Owls: If an owl hoots by your house, it means someone will die.
Relationships: I've learned a lot about dating and relationships here. Even at the age of 33, relationship are kept secret from families until there is an engagement.
While I can't speak for all of Tanzania, I know that Sakina is a village very representative of many villages here.
In Sakina, the majority of people believe that 1) condoms are bad, 2) it is a woman's responsibility to avoid getting pregnant, 3) the major role of women is to cook and clean and serve her husband, 4) it is ok for a man to hit a woman if she won't sleep with him.
These are all questions we asked in household surveys, so we have data that shows this. It has been really interesting for me to talk to people about what they believe.
Healthy food: My brothers and sisters have never seen the food pyramid and didn't know that soda was unhealthy.
vocab word of the day:
simu - phone number
Friday, July 24, 2009
Men's Focus Group
We had a men's focus group with some men in the community. After I turned off the tape, we said bye and the men started talking to me in English. I was really inspired by what they said.
"Thank you very much for all you are doing. We are very happy the way you are doing this [talking to people and getting their opinions] so we can start to improve our Sakina and other communities will know about Sakina and what we are doing. The truth is that we have the ability to do each and everything but our leaders like to despite the teenagers. Most of us we can say, “I am not responsible for that” but we can agree that we can do it all ourselves and that IT IS OUR responsibility to take care of our Sakina and improve our Sakina."
Another man said: "We appreciate what you are doing. It is hard for our village leaders to do something like this [a health assessment of the village by visiting houses and talking to different groups of people] so we really appreciate what you are doing. Anytime you need us, call on us."
"Thank you very much for all you are doing. We are very happy the way you are doing this [talking to people and getting their opinions] so we can start to improve our Sakina and other communities will know about Sakina and what we are doing. The truth is that we have the ability to do each and everything but our leaders like to despite the teenagers. Most of us we can say, “I am not responsible for that” but we can agree that we can do it all ourselves and that IT IS OUR responsibility to take care of our Sakina and improve our Sakina."
Another man said: "We appreciate what you are doing. It is hard for our village leaders to do something like this [a health assessment of the village by visiting houses and talking to different groups of people] so we really appreciate what you are doing. Anytime you need us, call on us."
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Birthdays and Dirt
They love my hand sanitizer – we call it magic maji (maji=water in Kiswahili)
Birthdays: They don't even know when their own birthday is or sometimes how old they are. I was telling them how it's my mom's birthday and my half birthday next monday and they were so amazed that I knew that kind of information. We had to ask mama when her children were born and she knew what month but now what day. They looked at their birth certificate and Winston’s birthday is on Saturday! So, I am throwing him a birthday party. I have invited the whole family. He is turning 33...or 34, we're not sure. Haha.
Anthills: Irene, my sister, was eating something that looked like chocolate. I asked her what it was and she said it was the stuff that ants make to make anthills. I asked her if that meant it was...dirt? They sell it at all the local shops for about 10 cents. She said it's dirt but it turns into a special kind of dirt when it's in the anthill. My friend Remmy said that a lot of pregnant women eat it and people with iron deficiencies eat it because it is a good source of iron. I tried some and it tasted like...dirt. Surprise!
vocab word of the day:
sawa - ok (pretty much the only word I say all day)
Birthdays: They don't even know when their own birthday is or sometimes how old they are. I was telling them how it's my mom's birthday and my half birthday next monday and they were so amazed that I knew that kind of information. We had to ask mama when her children were born and she knew what month but now what day. They looked at their birth certificate and Winston’s birthday is on Saturday! So, I am throwing him a birthday party. I have invited the whole family. He is turning 33...or 34, we're not sure. Haha.
Anthills: Irene, my sister, was eating something that looked like chocolate. I asked her what it was and she said it was the stuff that ants make to make anthills. I asked her if that meant it was...dirt? They sell it at all the local shops for about 10 cents. She said it's dirt but it turns into a special kind of dirt when it's in the anthill. My friend Remmy said that a lot of pregnant women eat it and people with iron deficiencies eat it because it is a good source of iron. I tried some and it tasted like...dirt. Surprise!
vocab word of the day:
sawa - ok (pretty much the only word I say all day)
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Let's Compare Lives
Let’s compare lives…let me know if you have had any of the following experiences or have had any other experiences equally or more interesting:
1) Have the Village Councilor’s number in your speed dial
2) Made copies using a copier from the 90’s
3) Hand collated over 3000 pages to make 3 page and 17 page surveys
4) Have an open account at the local copy shop
5) Average 3 marriage proposals a month
6) Wear long sleeved shirts and skirts every day
7) Have to visit offices multiple times because people don’t show up for work
8) Make all food on a charcoal stove on the floor
9) Have to avoid getting pooped on by pigeons, duck under a clothesline, and pass by the cowshed before getting to the outhouse where your 2 options are to use the squatter or take a bucket of heated water in to bathe
10) Ride in a public transport van with more than 20 people and have to stop to put the door back on
11) Land on a runway that was last paved in the 80’s so that it’s part dirt, part asphalt
12) Greet your neighbors that live in a mud hut as you walk through your grove of banana trees
13) Have taught people how to turn on a computer, use a mouse, change a battery, use a digital camera, or use a withdrawal slip at the bank
14) Pay to use “fast internet”, which is slower than dial up
15) Don’t blink twice at someone walking down the main road in town with a goat or chicken
16) Have to avoid the chickens and ducks walking around the road
17) Live on a dirt road that is so rocky it is more enjoyable to walk than ride
18) Have to check the power timetable to see when the power in your community will be turned off that week
19) Have thirteen intelligent children living in poverty come over to hang out and play
20) Think that stale chocolate and riding in an SUV are the best things ever
21) Greet the Masai warriors that live in your neighborhood (that have big holes in their ears, wear brightly colored cloth, carry a walking stick, and wear rubber shoes made of tires)
1) Have the Village Councilor’s number in your speed dial
2) Made copies using a copier from the 90’s
3) Hand collated over 3000 pages to make 3 page and 17 page surveys
4) Have an open account at the local copy shop
5) Average 3 marriage proposals a month
6) Wear long sleeved shirts and skirts every day
7) Have to visit offices multiple times because people don’t show up for work
8) Make all food on a charcoal stove on the floor
9) Have to avoid getting pooped on by pigeons, duck under a clothesline, and pass by the cowshed before getting to the outhouse where your 2 options are to use the squatter or take a bucket of heated water in to bathe
10) Ride in a public transport van with more than 20 people and have to stop to put the door back on
11) Land on a runway that was last paved in the 80’s so that it’s part dirt, part asphalt
12) Greet your neighbors that live in a mud hut as you walk through your grove of banana trees
13) Have taught people how to turn on a computer, use a mouse, change a battery, use a digital camera, or use a withdrawal slip at the bank
14) Pay to use “fast internet”, which is slower than dial up
15) Don’t blink twice at someone walking down the main road in town with a goat or chicken
16) Have to avoid the chickens and ducks walking around the road
17) Live on a dirt road that is so rocky it is more enjoyable to walk than ride
18) Have to check the power timetable to see when the power in your community will be turned off that week
19) Have thirteen intelligent children living in poverty come over to hang out and play
20) Think that stale chocolate and riding in an SUV are the best things ever
21) Greet the Masai warriors that live in your neighborhood (that have big holes in their ears, wear brightly colored cloth, carry a walking stick, and wear rubber shoes made of tires)
Friday, July 17, 2009
The Vicious Cycle of Poverty
We went to the primary school to congratulate the two new Sakina Scholars for Sustain Foundation! The first student, Gerald, was very happy. The second, Suzana, was not at school. This was the second time she hadn't been to school when we had visited, so I asked where she was. The headmistress informed me that she had been sent home yesterday because she didn't pay the 2000 TSH (less than 2 USD) for lunch during her national examination (which is in September). Apparently they continue sending children home until they pay for lunch. The ironic thing is that if the children don't go to school, how are they expected to pass or even take the exam (in which case they wouldn't even need lunch)? Why is education taking a back seat to lunch during two days in September? Shouldn't the student be able to decide whether they want lunch or not? Since Suzana can't even make it to extra classes which cost 300 TSH, no wonder she didn't have 2000 TSH. I asked what happened if a student couldn't pay it and the headmistress said that eventually they would stop sending the student home. I was not very happy with that answer. I gave 2000 to the headmistress and asked nicely for Suzana to return to school.
Teh children that can't pay for lunch are the ones that should go to school so that they can get an education to eventually make money to support themselves. Instead, they are being sent home until they can make enough money to satisfy the school and the poorest will end up missing a lot of school and thus stay in poverty. That is a vicious cycle.
I admire Suzana even more because she is one of the top students in her class.
Teh children that can't pay for lunch are the ones that should go to school so that they can get an education to eventually make money to support themselves. Instead, they are being sent home until they can make enough money to satisfy the school and the poorest will end up missing a lot of school and thus stay in poverty. That is a vicious cycle.
I admire Suzana even more because she is one of the top students in her class.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Update
Wow...we hit the ground running with the health assessment. So much to share, so little time. Going to focus on being immersed here and will hopefully update soon.
I made guacamole and macaroni and cheese for my family though!
Saw Mt. Kilimanjaro
Did some focus groups with women in the community, village leaders, and church leaders.
Very dynamic.
I made guacamole and macaroni and cheese for my family though!
Saw Mt. Kilimanjaro
Did some focus groups with women in the community, village leaders, and church leaders.
Very dynamic.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Scholars Retreat!
Sorry it's been so long before I've posted...suddenly got very busy!
See sustainsakina.blogspot.com for some more updates!
Some highlights of the past two weeks:
Thursday, July 2
Today we got a lot accomplished business wise (yay!). In the morning, we talked a lot about strategic planning. We created a budget for the rest of the summer, trying to anticipate all costs we might have. Then we prioritized them. I also taught them a little bit more about excel. While we were creating our budget we practiced doing some math to calculate the budget. They learned how to add, add different boxes, and use the sum formula. We also talked about different business models (donation based, service providers, and those that sell goods) and brainstormed ways SF in Sakina could raise money. Finally, we did a SWOT analysis of Sustain Foundation in Sakina to really demonstrate what resources we have that we should utilize and what things we still need to figure out. Overall it was a very successful morning!
Saturday, July 4
Happy 4th of July!!!! No fireworks here.
Today we had our scholars retreat!!! All the scholars finally arrived by about 10:30 and we were off. Most of them wore their school uniform and some of the early arrivers that didn’t wear the uniforms were sent home to change. I really didn’t care, but Emanueli and Irene seemed to think it was necessary. At snake park they have a lot of snakes (huge ones) as well as all different kinds of crocodiles. There were little ones and big ones. We all took turns holding a snake as well. The scholars really seemed to like it! I gave them the camera and they loved taking pictures with it again. Then we went through a Masai cultural tour…it was really interesting. The masai drink blood and eat a lot of meat. They do a lot of hunting and keep cattle. They wear a lot of jewelry which is just for decoration and once someone becomes a dad, they take off the jewelry. I asked the Masai guy why he wasn’t wearing ear jewelry and he said because it is too painful. He said the Masai can choose whether to make their earlobes super big. It was also interesting because about half of the exhibit was about the circumcision rite of passage when the boys are 18. Basically they get circumcised and they aren’t allowed to cry. If they cry, they bring shame to the whole family and are treated like a child for the rest of their life. If they don’t cry, they drink blood from a cow and there is a party at night. They used to have a ritual for women, but they don’t anymore.
We stopped at a little Masai boma that was right outside the exit and I bought rings and bracelets for each of the girls. The boys took my camera and ran off to take pictures. Then we all went on a camel ride which was really fun. I think they all loved it.
Lunch was amazing and they loved using my hand sanitizer. The idea of soap without water was so cool to them. We also went through a shop that was waaay overpriced, but the proceeds went towards a health clinic that treats anyone for free. I thought that was really interesting – it was about 1 km away. I also started interviewing all the scholars to find out about their lives.
July 5
Today we finished up the last 5 interviews. Then we started some arts and crafts. Some of the scholars used Emanueli’s paint and glossy paper to make beautiful pictures. The others just used the supplies I brought to make acrostic poems (in Swahili or English), self portraits, bookmarks, and placemats depicting their favorite subject. Some of their A’s in the acrostic poems said Anneliese…haha. We also had the best meal I’ve had since I’ve been in Tanzania. There was also this potato salad thing that reminded me of fourth of july, so I felt right at home!
Then all the parents came, which was really cool.
Tuesday, July 7
HOLIDAY!!! Saba saba! It is a day of exhibition in Dar es Salaam and is a national holiday (although mostly it’s just government that gets off of work). They asked me if we have something like that and I said that we have exhibitions going on all the time.
We also visited our neighbor, the Councilor of Elerai. It turns out he is Baba’s older brother. He looks and acts just like him. Baba used to be a village chairman a long time ago as well as headmaster of Burka Primary school, so he is well connected.
Names: I’ve seen multiple types of spellings for our scholars and I keep getting confused. I asked about it and found out that they have anglicized versions of their names. For example, Dominiki Loakaki is the Swahili version and Dominick Loakack is the English version. Irene said that people sometimes spell her name Airene. They also said that they can tell what masai names are sometimes because they have good meanings but they just sound weird. The Masai choose their names based on meaning but a pretty sound isn’t as much of a priority.
Wednesday, July 8
We had a focus group with the scholar parents as a practice for the health assessment we will be starting next week!!! The focus group actually went pretty well! It was also a real morale booster because Emanueli and Irene felt like they were really doing something and could see actionable results.
I asked Emanueli and Irene why the government business is conducted in Swahili (we watch the Tanzania Budget Committee - TBC channel all the time) yet they have all secondary school classes in English. I think it would be super hard for students here to go into an English language immersion where the teachers don’t even speak completely great English. It seems like there should be more opportunities to speak English around here if they are expected to be educated in English. It seems like it unfairly disadvantages those that can’t learn languages very well and also that students would learn a lot more if they could learn in Swahili. They said that there just aren’t textbooks in Swahili for highschool levels.
Anyways, I learned that a lot of the leaders don’t actually know English – many of them only completely Standard 7, some form I, form IV, or Form VI. Very few of the government leaders went to university.
This really hit home how important education is. Not that the leaders aren’t knowledgeable about their country, but the decision making process and understanding about economics, mistakes made in the past, etc. might go a lot smoother if there were people with a little more education. How can they reform the education system here if half the people creating policies haven’t even gone through it?
See sustainsakina.blogspot.com for some more updates!
Some highlights of the past two weeks:
Thursday, July 2
Today we got a lot accomplished business wise (yay!). In the morning, we talked a lot about strategic planning. We created a budget for the rest of the summer, trying to anticipate all costs we might have. Then we prioritized them. I also taught them a little bit more about excel. While we were creating our budget we practiced doing some math to calculate the budget. They learned how to add, add different boxes, and use the sum formula. We also talked about different business models (donation based, service providers, and those that sell goods) and brainstormed ways SF in Sakina could raise money. Finally, we did a SWOT analysis of Sustain Foundation in Sakina to really demonstrate what resources we have that we should utilize and what things we still need to figure out. Overall it was a very successful morning!
Saturday, July 4
Happy 4th of July!!!! No fireworks here.
Today we had our scholars retreat!!! All the scholars finally arrived by about 10:30 and we were off. Most of them wore their school uniform and some of the early arrivers that didn’t wear the uniforms were sent home to change. I really didn’t care, but Emanueli and Irene seemed to think it was necessary. At snake park they have a lot of snakes (huge ones) as well as all different kinds of crocodiles. There were little ones and big ones. We all took turns holding a snake as well. The scholars really seemed to like it! I gave them the camera and they loved taking pictures with it again. Then we went through a Masai cultural tour…it was really interesting. The masai drink blood and eat a lot of meat. They do a lot of hunting and keep cattle. They wear a lot of jewelry which is just for decoration and once someone becomes a dad, they take off the jewelry. I asked the Masai guy why he wasn’t wearing ear jewelry and he said because it is too painful. He said the Masai can choose whether to make their earlobes super big. It was also interesting because about half of the exhibit was about the circumcision rite of passage when the boys are 18. Basically they get circumcised and they aren’t allowed to cry. If they cry, they bring shame to the whole family and are treated like a child for the rest of their life. If they don’t cry, they drink blood from a cow and there is a party at night. They used to have a ritual for women, but they don’t anymore.
We stopped at a little Masai boma that was right outside the exit and I bought rings and bracelets for each of the girls. The boys took my camera and ran off to take pictures. Then we all went on a camel ride which was really fun. I think they all loved it.
Lunch was amazing and they loved using my hand sanitizer. The idea of soap without water was so cool to them. We also went through a shop that was waaay overpriced, but the proceeds went towards a health clinic that treats anyone for free. I thought that was really interesting – it was about 1 km away. I also started interviewing all the scholars to find out about their lives.
July 5
Today we finished up the last 5 interviews. Then we started some arts and crafts. Some of the scholars used Emanueli’s paint and glossy paper to make beautiful pictures. The others just used the supplies I brought to make acrostic poems (in Swahili or English), self portraits, bookmarks, and placemats depicting their favorite subject. Some of their A’s in the acrostic poems said Anneliese…haha. We also had the best meal I’ve had since I’ve been in Tanzania. There was also this potato salad thing that reminded me of fourth of july, so I felt right at home!
Then all the parents came, which was really cool.
Tuesday, July 7
HOLIDAY!!! Saba saba! It is a day of exhibition in Dar es Salaam and is a national holiday (although mostly it’s just government that gets off of work). They asked me if we have something like that and I said that we have exhibitions going on all the time.
We also visited our neighbor, the Councilor of Elerai. It turns out he is Baba’s older brother. He looks and acts just like him. Baba used to be a village chairman a long time ago as well as headmaster of Burka Primary school, so he is well connected.
Names: I’ve seen multiple types of spellings for our scholars and I keep getting confused. I asked about it and found out that they have anglicized versions of their names. For example, Dominiki Loakaki is the Swahili version and Dominick Loakack is the English version. Irene said that people sometimes spell her name Airene. They also said that they can tell what masai names are sometimes because they have good meanings but they just sound weird. The Masai choose their names based on meaning but a pretty sound isn’t as much of a priority.
Wednesday, July 8
We had a focus group with the scholar parents as a practice for the health assessment we will be starting next week!!! The focus group actually went pretty well! It was also a real morale booster because Emanueli and Irene felt like they were really doing something and could see actionable results.
I asked Emanueli and Irene why the government business is conducted in Swahili (we watch the Tanzania Budget Committee - TBC channel all the time) yet they have all secondary school classes in English. I think it would be super hard for students here to go into an English language immersion where the teachers don’t even speak completely great English. It seems like there should be more opportunities to speak English around here if they are expected to be educated in English. It seems like it unfairly disadvantages those that can’t learn languages very well and also that students would learn a lot more if they could learn in Swahili. They said that there just aren’t textbooks in Swahili for highschool levels.
Anyways, I learned that a lot of the leaders don’t actually know English – many of them only completely Standard 7, some form I, form IV, or Form VI. Very few of the government leaders went to university.
This really hit home how important education is. Not that the leaders aren’t knowledgeable about their country, but the decision making process and understanding about economics, mistakes made in the past, etc. might go a lot smoother if there were people with a little more education. How can they reform the education system here if half the people creating policies haven’t even gone through it?
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Compassion Orphanage Round 2
We went back to Compassion Orphanage today to talk more in depth to the people that work there. Sorry for the long post. I know I already covered Compassion in a previous post, but I found out a lot more information. It’s a really cool place!
Quick Facts
Founded in Tanzania: 1999
Sakina Center Founded: 2001
No. of Centers in Arusha: 7
No. of Students (2009): 279
No. of Staff: 4
No. of Committee Members: 7 (3 yr. term, replace 2 members every year)
No. of Bible Study Teachers: 9-12
Key Contacts
Program Coordinator: Moses Mollel
Social Worker: Joyce Mmbaga
Health Worker: Judicate Mathias
Accountant: Veronica
Pastor: Noel Urio
Operations
Every staff member has a daily, weekly, and monthly plan. Twice a month, the staff meets with 7 committee members, who are church members at Compassion.
Compassion keeps a folder for every child for their health and education records. They also give a folder to every child to keep at home for letters from their sponsors.
Every staff member at Compassion must visit all of the children’s houses and schools every year, with the social worker visiting those houses with more serious issues. They check the home environment and to make sure the child still has their folder.
In a typical week, the accountant goes to secondary schools to pay school fees. The health worker takes children to the hospital. The social worker does house visits while the coordinator registers new children. They all spend time helping the children write letters to their sponsors.
Every Friday, they have a meeting to give progress reports and evaluate their action plan.
Registration
When a child comes in to register, they visit their homes to look at the home situation. They typically register those who are orphans or have a poor home situation. They take pictures of newly registered children and send them off to the main office, who then records the new applicant and sends it off to the world office in Colorado Springs. The headquarters then matches up sponsors with children. Children can wait up to 5 months to find a sponsor, but typically wait about 3 months before they get matched up. I think they said that if a child gets sick before they find a sponsor, Compassion still takes care of their health issues.
Letter Writing
Every Wednesday, the staff picks up sponsor letters from the main office in Arusha and distributes them to the children. The children then must write a letter back.
Compassion has a special letter writing form where the letters are written in English or Swahili and then translated into the other language so that each party can understand the other.
How often the children write depends on how often their sponsor writes, but there are three times when every child is required to write a letter: Christmas, Easter, and school holiday.
Resources
In terms of education, the resources available to the students depend on the specific sponsor and what the sponsor plans to fund. However, most sponsors fund at least transportation, textbooks, and school fees.
Compassion sponsors a safari every year to the national parks and pays for all of the students to go.
Compassion also has some health related books, which are kept on site.
Education
Education is a very integral part of Compassion, whether through international sponsorships, health education, bible study, or supplemental classes.
The staff goes to all of the schools and collect attendance records every month and grades after every term from the headteachers. If a student has poor performance, they also pay for tutorial lessons. Currently, Compassion’s oldest students are in form IV.
The staff keeps a completion plan for each child, which is updated annually. Compassion will only sponsor students until age 22. The completion plan keeps information such as their records, ambitions and what they hope to achieve with their education.
On Saturdays, they have 9-12 teachers teach bible study in addition to health seminars, welding, carpentry, tailoring, and cooking.
Enrichment
Sponsors sometimes come to visit the children, which is a great opportunity to learn about new cultures.
At Compassion, the staff holds spiritual camps. They also coordinate sports teams (netball, football, volleyball) which compete with the other 6 centers in Arusha. Choirs from all of the centers coordinate joint concerts. Finally, the headteachers at the schools help with organizing education competitions, such as exams, spelling bees, debates, writing competitions, and even history bees.
Health
Every Saturday they have health education for ages 3-16. They also have adolescent stage lessons which teach children 10 and above how to avoid risky behaviors.
If a student gets sick, Compassion pays for all of the children’s health needs and accompanies them to the hospital. They have a special treatment book with the child’s picture in it that they bring to the doctor at the hospital to make notes about the student.
Compassion prepares monthly disease and prevalence reports for the main compassion branch in Arusha. In addition to recording a child’s illness in his or her records, they also use monthly treatment records for internal use to record when a child gets sick. They record details such as the child’s complaint, what the hospital treated them for, and how much it cost.
In March and September they do health screenings of all of the children with a parent present. They check whether the child has access to: water, a clean latrine, a medical facility, and a pharmacy. They also check eyes, ears, head, nose, teeth, skin, hygiene, signs of infection, conduct problems, activity level problems, signs of parasites, clinical signs of malnutrition, and nutrition intake over three screenings. The health worker may also decide to refer a child for treatment.
Future Plans
Future Plans: They hope to have a computer program as well as a form V and VI and university program. Their oldest children are in form IV, so they hope to continue supporting them all the way through university. Other compassion branches have students all the way through university.
I gave out the little bag of toys that I brought today to the neighborhood kids, which included some playdough, a frisbee, necklace making kit, stress reliever balls, mardi gras beads, key chains, etc. They LOVED them.
We also got invited to a send off party tomorrow night (see my post about weddings, basically a rehearsal dinner without the rehearsal) – I get to wear my kitenge that I picked up today!!!!
KEY AGES: The TZ government considers you an adult at 18, which means that that is the age you are legally allowed to smoke, drink, vote, drive, be subject to adult punishment in court, and enlist in the military.
Vocab word of the day:
Kusoma – to read
Quick Facts
Founded in Tanzania: 1999
Sakina Center Founded: 2001
No. of Centers in Arusha: 7
No. of Students (2009): 279
No. of Staff: 4
No. of Committee Members: 7 (3 yr. term, replace 2 members every year)
No. of Bible Study Teachers: 9-12
Key Contacts
Program Coordinator: Moses Mollel
Social Worker: Joyce Mmbaga
Health Worker: Judicate Mathias
Accountant: Veronica
Pastor: Noel Urio
Operations
Every staff member has a daily, weekly, and monthly plan. Twice a month, the staff meets with 7 committee members, who are church members at Compassion.
Compassion keeps a folder for every child for their health and education records. They also give a folder to every child to keep at home for letters from their sponsors.
Every staff member at Compassion must visit all of the children’s houses and schools every year, with the social worker visiting those houses with more serious issues. They check the home environment and to make sure the child still has their folder.
In a typical week, the accountant goes to secondary schools to pay school fees. The health worker takes children to the hospital. The social worker does house visits while the coordinator registers new children. They all spend time helping the children write letters to their sponsors.
Every Friday, they have a meeting to give progress reports and evaluate their action plan.
Registration
When a child comes in to register, they visit their homes to look at the home situation. They typically register those who are orphans or have a poor home situation. They take pictures of newly registered children and send them off to the main office, who then records the new applicant and sends it off to the world office in Colorado Springs. The headquarters then matches up sponsors with children. Children can wait up to 5 months to find a sponsor, but typically wait about 3 months before they get matched up. I think they said that if a child gets sick before they find a sponsor, Compassion still takes care of their health issues.
Letter Writing
Every Wednesday, the staff picks up sponsor letters from the main office in Arusha and distributes them to the children. The children then must write a letter back.
Compassion has a special letter writing form where the letters are written in English or Swahili and then translated into the other language so that each party can understand the other.
How often the children write depends on how often their sponsor writes, but there are three times when every child is required to write a letter: Christmas, Easter, and school holiday.
Resources
In terms of education, the resources available to the students depend on the specific sponsor and what the sponsor plans to fund. However, most sponsors fund at least transportation, textbooks, and school fees.
Compassion sponsors a safari every year to the national parks and pays for all of the students to go.
Compassion also has some health related books, which are kept on site.
Education
Education is a very integral part of Compassion, whether through international sponsorships, health education, bible study, or supplemental classes.
The staff goes to all of the schools and collect attendance records every month and grades after every term from the headteachers. If a student has poor performance, they also pay for tutorial lessons. Currently, Compassion’s oldest students are in form IV.
The staff keeps a completion plan for each child, which is updated annually. Compassion will only sponsor students until age 22. The completion plan keeps information such as their records, ambitions and what they hope to achieve with their education.
On Saturdays, they have 9-12 teachers teach bible study in addition to health seminars, welding, carpentry, tailoring, and cooking.
Enrichment
Sponsors sometimes come to visit the children, which is a great opportunity to learn about new cultures.
At Compassion, the staff holds spiritual camps. They also coordinate sports teams (netball, football, volleyball) which compete with the other 6 centers in Arusha. Choirs from all of the centers coordinate joint concerts. Finally, the headteachers at the schools help with organizing education competitions, such as exams, spelling bees, debates, writing competitions, and even history bees.
Health
Every Saturday they have health education for ages 3-16. They also have adolescent stage lessons which teach children 10 and above how to avoid risky behaviors.
If a student gets sick, Compassion pays for all of the children’s health needs and accompanies them to the hospital. They have a special treatment book with the child’s picture in it that they bring to the doctor at the hospital to make notes about the student.
Compassion prepares monthly disease and prevalence reports for the main compassion branch in Arusha. In addition to recording a child’s illness in his or her records, they also use monthly treatment records for internal use to record when a child gets sick. They record details such as the child’s complaint, what the hospital treated them for, and how much it cost.
In March and September they do health screenings of all of the children with a parent present. They check whether the child has access to: water, a clean latrine, a medical facility, and a pharmacy. They also check eyes, ears, head, nose, teeth, skin, hygiene, signs of infection, conduct problems, activity level problems, signs of parasites, clinical signs of malnutrition, and nutrition intake over three screenings. The health worker may also decide to refer a child for treatment.
Future Plans
Future Plans: They hope to have a computer program as well as a form V and VI and university program. Their oldest children are in form IV, so they hope to continue supporting them all the way through university. Other compassion branches have students all the way through university.
I gave out the little bag of toys that I brought today to the neighborhood kids, which included some playdough, a frisbee, necklace making kit, stress reliever balls, mardi gras beads, key chains, etc. They LOVED them.
We also got invited to a send off party tomorrow night (see my post about weddings, basically a rehearsal dinner without the rehearsal) – I get to wear my kitenge that I picked up today!!!!
KEY AGES: The TZ government considers you an adult at 18, which means that that is the age you are legally allowed to smoke, drink, vote, drive, be subject to adult punishment in court, and enlist in the military.
Vocab word of the day:
Kusoma – to read
Monday, June 29, 2009
Home Visits
Today we went back to Burka Primary School. Since we interviewed 10 students, the best way to assess need was to physically visit their houses and see their home environment. While this wouldn’t be appropriate in the U.S., Emanueli and Irene thought this was a great idea. We went to four students homes. I could tell all of them were definitely poor, but Emanueli and Irene really knew what to look for to assess the different levels. They had no problem ranking them against each other. Two of them really stood out to me. The first boy lived in a very dilapidated building where his mom rented two rooms. Her job was to sit on the ground all day and pound plaster (I’m still not sure what it accomplishes, but I see people doing it everywhere).
The second girl had a particularly compelling story. She lives in a one room square mud hut with her 2 older brothers and 1 younger sister, surrounded by banana trees and a few meager crops. After both of her parents died, her oldest brother kept the family together and cared for them. He only finished primary school and never got the opportunity to go to secondary school. He now shines shoes to earn money for the family.
The second oldest brother had an international sponsor to go to secondary school but lost his sponsorship after he didn’t have shoes to go to school and his grades dropped. He wrote a letter to the local government petitioning them to ask the national government for help to go to school and got a government sponsorship to finish secondary school. Now he is in Form IV, preparing for his national exams, and taking care of his younger sisters, with ambitions to go to university.
The applicant, a current standard 7 student in primary school, hopes to go to secondary school. Right now, primary schools are on holiday, but hold remedial classes that students who can afford the 300 TSH a day (less than .30 USD) attend. Today, she stayed home to wash clothes, clean house, and make meals for her family, but first and foremost didn’t attend remedial classes because she didn’t have the 300 TSH. Maybe tomorrow, she said.
After visiting her home, we looked at her grades and saw that, with an A average, she was one of the top students in her class.
Health Assessment: We are starting to review the objectives for the health assessment of the community that we will start in two weeks. We have a data collection manual that is very useful and helpful. However, it has a lot of words that Emanueli and Irene don’t understand. I had assigned us to go over chapter 1 and it was clear that they understood about half of it. We spent about 1.5 hours discussing data collection with me clarifying and giving examples that they could relate to. I’m glad we are doing this now and not waiting until the health assessment starts to figure this stuff out!
I also showed Irene and Clemens, one of my other brothers, the typing programs on the laptops that I brought (which were donated to Sustain Foundation). Learning “home row” brought back memories of elementary school and our typing exercises that we had to do in computer class.
The power went out again tonight and Emanueli told me that it’s because the power quota for Sakina went out. I jokingly said maybe they have an energy schedule for the villages and he said that they actually do! He doesn’t know when Sakina’s schedule is. He said all of the power is hydro powered in Moshi. So interesting. I want to find out more about this power “timetable.”
Word of the day:
Natosha – enough (when you say I’ve had “enough” food)
The second girl had a particularly compelling story. She lives in a one room square mud hut with her 2 older brothers and 1 younger sister, surrounded by banana trees and a few meager crops. After both of her parents died, her oldest brother kept the family together and cared for them. He only finished primary school and never got the opportunity to go to secondary school. He now shines shoes to earn money for the family.
The second oldest brother had an international sponsor to go to secondary school but lost his sponsorship after he didn’t have shoes to go to school and his grades dropped. He wrote a letter to the local government petitioning them to ask the national government for help to go to school and got a government sponsorship to finish secondary school. Now he is in Form IV, preparing for his national exams, and taking care of his younger sisters, with ambitions to go to university.
The applicant, a current standard 7 student in primary school, hopes to go to secondary school. Right now, primary schools are on holiday, but hold remedial classes that students who can afford the 300 TSH a day (less than .30 USD) attend. Today, she stayed home to wash clothes, clean house, and make meals for her family, but first and foremost didn’t attend remedial classes because she didn’t have the 300 TSH. Maybe tomorrow, she said.
After visiting her home, we looked at her grades and saw that, with an A average, she was one of the top students in her class.
Health Assessment: We are starting to review the objectives for the health assessment of the community that we will start in two weeks. We have a data collection manual that is very useful and helpful. However, it has a lot of words that Emanueli and Irene don’t understand. I had assigned us to go over chapter 1 and it was clear that they understood about half of it. We spent about 1.5 hours discussing data collection with me clarifying and giving examples that they could relate to. I’m glad we are doing this now and not waiting until the health assessment starts to figure this stuff out!
I also showed Irene and Clemens, one of my other brothers, the typing programs on the laptops that I brought (which were donated to Sustain Foundation). Learning “home row” brought back memories of elementary school and our typing exercises that we had to do in computer class.
The power went out again tonight and Emanueli told me that it’s because the power quota for Sakina went out. I jokingly said maybe they have an energy schedule for the villages and he said that they actually do! He doesn’t know when Sakina’s schedule is. He said all of the power is hydro powered in Moshi. So interesting. I want to find out more about this power “timetable.”
Word of the day:
Natosha – enough (when you say I’ve had “enough” food)
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Church and Internet
I’m getting a traditional Tanzanian outfit, called a kitenge, made at the tailor so that I can wear it to special events we hold this summer or meetings with village leaders.
Today I went to the same church I went to last week (which I never talked about in my blog). Everyone has to bring their own hymnal and bible and there isn’t really a printed program. There are 3 pastors and 1 new visiting pastor every week. Before the service, everyone gets their offering envelopes from a table area outside. The women all dress up and wear kitenges and even younger boys wear oversized suits if they have one. One young boy was wearing a shirt (clearly shipped over from the US) that was promoting the election of Danny White for some office in Flomaton, AL. I wonder if Danny White knows his shirt is being put to good use.
I noticed this week (which I didn’t notice last week but which they do every week apparently), was that the women sat on the left side and the men sat on the right side (with the exception of me sitting with Emanueli). We sit close to the front and always come early, so I never noticed until I looked behind me during the service. Emanueli said that it’s just specific to this church but he couldn’t really explain why they chose to do it.
Last week, there was an auction during the service to raise money for the church. They auctioned off 1 item: a goat, which went for 23,000 TSH (About 20 USD). This week, there was an auction, but it took over half an hour while they auctioned off bags of fruit (a bunch of bananas here, 5 oranges there), soap, milk, and other donations that people had brought. During the auction, the choir would sometimes break into a song type chant about whatever was being auctioned off to encourage people to bid.
Last week there was an adult choir that was very engaging, with some nice dance moves and a hoppin’ beat from the keyboard. This week, the children’s choir sang, which was just as entertaining.
During the service, we got up four times to walk to the front of the church to give offerings. The pastor was cracking everyone up during the sermon and I really wished I knew Swahili.
After church, Emanueli, Irene, and I met the Sakina Scholars at an internet café and taught them how to use internet and email. We signed them all up for gmail accounts. It was really fun! It was kind of crazy with all 18 of us in the internet café at once and other customers trying to use computers. It was really awesome though because the kids who had been there the longest started helping those that had just arrived. It was neat to see them working together and helping each other out. Some great teamwork. I wanted to get some pictures of them learning to use the computer, so I gave the camera to some of the scholars who were waiting and they helped me document the occasion. They were so excited!!
Fundi – tailor
Today I went to the same church I went to last week (which I never talked about in my blog). Everyone has to bring their own hymnal and bible and there isn’t really a printed program. There are 3 pastors and 1 new visiting pastor every week. Before the service, everyone gets their offering envelopes from a table area outside. The women all dress up and wear kitenges and even younger boys wear oversized suits if they have one. One young boy was wearing a shirt (clearly shipped over from the US) that was promoting the election of Danny White for some office in Flomaton, AL. I wonder if Danny White knows his shirt is being put to good use.
I noticed this week (which I didn’t notice last week but which they do every week apparently), was that the women sat on the left side and the men sat on the right side (with the exception of me sitting with Emanueli). We sit close to the front and always come early, so I never noticed until I looked behind me during the service. Emanueli said that it’s just specific to this church but he couldn’t really explain why they chose to do it.
Last week, there was an auction during the service to raise money for the church. They auctioned off 1 item: a goat, which went for 23,000 TSH (About 20 USD). This week, there was an auction, but it took over half an hour while they auctioned off bags of fruit (a bunch of bananas here, 5 oranges there), soap, milk, and other donations that people had brought. During the auction, the choir would sometimes break into a song type chant about whatever was being auctioned off to encourage people to bid.
Last week there was an adult choir that was very engaging, with some nice dance moves and a hoppin’ beat from the keyboard. This week, the children’s choir sang, which was just as entertaining.
During the service, we got up four times to walk to the front of the church to give offerings. The pastor was cracking everyone up during the sermon and I really wished I knew Swahili.
After church, Emanueli, Irene, and I met the Sakina Scholars at an internet café and taught them how to use internet and email. We signed them all up for gmail accounts. It was really fun! It was kind of crazy with all 18 of us in the internet café at once and other customers trying to use computers. It was really awesome though because the kids who had been there the longest started helping those that had just arrived. It was neat to see them working together and helping each other out. Some great teamwork. I wanted to get some pictures of them learning to use the computer, so I gave the camera to some of the scholars who were waiting and they helped me document the occasion. They were so excited!!
Fundi – tailor
Friday, June 26, 2009
New Scholar Interviews and Health
This morning we went to Burka Primary school to interview 10 students. This was a great practice for the health assessment that Emanueli and Irene will be conducting because they could practice moderator and note-taker roles. I told them that one person should ask the questions and the other take notes. They switched roles halfway through. I realized that my role here in Sakina should be more of a guiding rather than participatory role, which will help empower them and also allow them to practice for next year’s selection process. I decided that since they’ll be the ones picking scholars in the future (and the interviews are conducted in Swahili), I will not help pick the scholars, but will rather help guide them through the selection process. We had a long debriefing session where we revised interview questions and processes for next year.
We then went to the bookstore, where we got all of the prices for all of the subjects for each form to see if it is feasible to add textbooks into the scholarship. This is one of the main problems cited in the student letters. We also started talking about the scholarship and Emanueli said he thought that we should include an English-Swahili dictionary in the scholarship, which is a great idea. I asked him what kinds of books they read for fun (in Swahili). I’m thinking I could buy some books to start a little library at the Maturo household with books for the scholars to read just for fun. I realized just how much of an asset it is to actually have a place that is exclusive to the scholars where they can use laptops, read books, etc. A lot of scholarship programs, even in the US, strive to add value that is exclusive to their scholars in ways other than financial aid, but it’s hard if students are spread out among different schools and there isn’t a common place for them to spend time. The Sakina Scholars program definitely needs to use this asset to its potential.
Emanueli and I had a good conversation about health practices. Health works the same way as electricity, phones, water, and everything else. Pay as you go. There are no checkups. I explained that at the minimum, the commonly accepted practice is to get a checkup every year at the doctor, 2 times a year at the dentist, and 1 time a year at the eye doctor. Here, they only go when they get sick. Basically, it doesn’t make sense for people here to get checked out “just for fun” because they don’t have the money to do that. I told him that we only go to specialty doctors (ears, nose, and throat, foot, back, etc.) when we have a problem, but that there are standard doctors we see every year. I explained that the benefits are that you can catch diseases early and that doctors can warn you ahead of time if they notice you are doing something bad for your health. I gave cancer as an example and Emanueli noted that there’s only one hospital in TZ that can treat cancer. Emanueli’s eyes aren’t that good either, but he’s never been to the eye doctor. I also asked him about people’s teeth here and he said it’s from some mineral in the water that is in excess. He also asked me if we drink water from the tap, and I explained that all the water goes to kind of a water factory, where they clean it first and it then goes to pipes which flow into people’s homes.
I wonder if they are paying the “poverty penalty” with health. The poverty penalty is basically when you pay as you go, buying a small amount of something, where it would be cheaper to buy it in bulk, but you don’t have enough money to pay for it in bulk. It would be interesting to see how much a typical person spends on health during the year and then how much they would pay if there were a health plan to cover them.
The idea with the health assessment that we are doing is to find out what kind of health program would benefit Sakina. Our initial hypothesis is that a community health worker program could be a real asset. Our hope is that we’ll see an improvement in people’s health and decrease in disease and death if we can catch disease, poor hygiene, and other negative health practices early by having community health workers visit households monthly to check in and record how health practices and rates of disease are changing.
Vocab word of the day:
Hujambo – how are you
We then went to the bookstore, where we got all of the prices for all of the subjects for each form to see if it is feasible to add textbooks into the scholarship. This is one of the main problems cited in the student letters. We also started talking about the scholarship and Emanueli said he thought that we should include an English-Swahili dictionary in the scholarship, which is a great idea. I asked him what kinds of books they read for fun (in Swahili). I’m thinking I could buy some books to start a little library at the Maturo household with books for the scholars to read just for fun. I realized just how much of an asset it is to actually have a place that is exclusive to the scholars where they can use laptops, read books, etc. A lot of scholarship programs, even in the US, strive to add value that is exclusive to their scholars in ways other than financial aid, but it’s hard if students are spread out among different schools and there isn’t a common place for them to spend time. The Sakina Scholars program definitely needs to use this asset to its potential.
Emanueli and I had a good conversation about health practices. Health works the same way as electricity, phones, water, and everything else. Pay as you go. There are no checkups. I explained that at the minimum, the commonly accepted practice is to get a checkup every year at the doctor, 2 times a year at the dentist, and 1 time a year at the eye doctor. Here, they only go when they get sick. Basically, it doesn’t make sense for people here to get checked out “just for fun” because they don’t have the money to do that. I told him that we only go to specialty doctors (ears, nose, and throat, foot, back, etc.) when we have a problem, but that there are standard doctors we see every year. I explained that the benefits are that you can catch diseases early and that doctors can warn you ahead of time if they notice you are doing something bad for your health. I gave cancer as an example and Emanueli noted that there’s only one hospital in TZ that can treat cancer. Emanueli’s eyes aren’t that good either, but he’s never been to the eye doctor. I also asked him about people’s teeth here and he said it’s from some mineral in the water that is in excess. He also asked me if we drink water from the tap, and I explained that all the water goes to kind of a water factory, where they clean it first and it then goes to pipes which flow into people’s homes.
I wonder if they are paying the “poverty penalty” with health. The poverty penalty is basically when you pay as you go, buying a small amount of something, where it would be cheaper to buy it in bulk, but you don’t have enough money to pay for it in bulk. It would be interesting to see how much a typical person spends on health during the year and then how much they would pay if there were a health plan to cover them.
The idea with the health assessment that we are doing is to find out what kind of health program would benefit Sakina. Our initial hypothesis is that a community health worker program could be a real asset. Our hope is that we’ll see an improvement in people’s health and decrease in disease and death if we can catch disease, poor hygiene, and other negative health practices early by having community health workers visit households monthly to check in and record how health practices and rates of disease are changing.
Vocab word of the day:
Hujambo – how are you
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Sinoni and Kimaseki Secondary Schools
Today we went to Sinoni Secondary School and Kimaseki Secondary School. The daladalas on the way to Kimaseki were VERY old. One of the doors fell off and the guy had to put it back on when we stopped. Emanueli said it’s because on this particular road the policemen don’t patrol frequently so when daladalas get outdated, they start driving them on the routes that drive on this road. I think I’ll walk next time.
We went to the best and worst schools yet. Sinoni was very impressive and had their own well and even had a nutrition class track in addition to the science and business tracks! Kimaseki, on the other hand, didn’t have electricity. There is a general shortage of teachers and a lot of the secondary schools were constructed in the last couple of years. I think the government created a new mandate which said that every municipality needs its own secondary school, so construction started! All of the Sakina Scholars went to the same primary school, but were dispersed to all different parts of the city based on their national examination scores. I’m still not clear as to why some students are assigned to schools they are close enough to walk to and other students have to take a 50 minute daladala ride to school.
Sinoni Secondary School Profile:
Key Contacts
Headmistress: Marco I. Mano
Academic Master: John Mtweve
Quick Facts
Founded: March 2001
No. of Students (2009): 1174
No. of Teachers (2009): 30
No. of Classrooms (2009): 20
Class size: 45-70
Days of School: 194
Uniforms: Dark green sweater, white blouse, black pants or skirt
School year: First term – mid January to March\April (Mid term holiday), June (mid year holiday), Second term – early July to late September, Third term – late September to late November
Laboratory: Not officially, but have resources to use in classrooms
Library: No
Computer Lab: No
Electricity: Yes
Daily Schedule
7:00-7:15 Attendance
7:15-7:40 General cleanliness
7:40-8:00 Announcements
8:00-10:40 Classes begin
10:40-11:10 Break
11:10-2:30 Classes resume
2:30-3:30 Cleanliness, Remedial courses, and Extra-curricular activities
Mondays: Club meetings
Tuesdays: Self-Reliance
Wednesdays: Sports and Games
Thursdays: HIV\AIDS Talks
Friday: Sports and Games
Clubs
Health Club
Subject Clubs
Scouts
Club against Corruption Environmental Club
Debate Club
Religious Societies
Sports
Football
Volleyball
Netball
Student Services
Health: First aid kit, guest speakers at health club, HIV\AIDS talks on Thursdays
Social Welfare: 2 teachers which act as counselors
Field Trip: Organize student-financed study tours to different places
Clean water: A sponsor helped them build their own well on the school grounds to guarantee that their students are using clean and safe water.
History
The school was started in March 2001 with 80 students and 4 teachers. Last year, 45 students graduated and went on to form V and VI at another school. This year, they expect 65 students to go on to complete their A-levels.
Future Plans
In the future, Sinoni plans to expand by adding more classrooms, a library, and official laboratories. They also want to have an administration block with offices for teachers and an internet café for teachers and students.
In terms of academics, their aim is to have 0 students score Division 0 on national exams and to reduce the number of students scoring in division 4.
Classes
Forms I and II opt to take the business track or the food and nutrition track, which consist of 9 core subjects and one or two additional classes:
Core subjects:
• English
• Kiswahili
• Maths
• Geography
• Civics
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Physics
• History
Business Track (11):
• Bookkeeping
• Commerce
Food and Nutrition Track (10):
• Food and Nutrition
Forms III and IV opt to do business, food and nutrition, or science, which consist of 7 core subjects plus 2 or 3 additional classes:
Core subjects:
• English
• Kiswahili
• Math
• Geography
• Civics
• Biology
• History
Business Track (9):
• Bookkeeping
• Commerce
Food and Nutrition Track (9-10)
• Food and Nutrition
• Chemistry
• Physics (optional)
Science Track (9)
• Chemistry
• Physics
Kimaseki Secondary School Profile:
Key Contacts
Headmaster: John Medukenya
Daily Schedule
7:30-8:00 Roll Call and Cleanliness
8:00-10:40 Classes
10:40-11:10 Break and Morning Tea
11:10-2:30 Classes
2:30-3:30 Cleanliness and Extra-curricular activities
Tuesdays: Sports
Wednesdays: Clubs
Fridays: Sports and Religious groups
Quick Facts
Founded: 2005
No. of Students (2009): 1463
No. of Teachers (2009): 21
No. of Classrooms (2009): 17 (currently building more)
Class size: From 55-80, Form I = 80-85, Form IV = 55-60
Days of School: 194
Uniforms: Maroon pants or skirt and maroon sweater
School year: First term – mid January to early June; Second term – early July to early December
Laboratory: No
Library: No
Computer Lab: No
Electricity: No
Clubs
Subject clubs
Health Club
Choir
Environmental Club
Scouts
Club Against Corruption
Religious Societies
Sports
Football
Volleyball
Netball
Student Services
Health: First aid kit and women’s needs, 3 days health seminar
Social Welfare: 2 guidance counselors who are teachers or from NGO’s
Field Trip: Organize student-financed trip varying in length and location
History
Kimaseki is a community based school that was started after the population of the primary schools in the area increased, creating a need for a secondary school. With funding from both the community and Tanzanian government, Kimaseki opened in 2005.
Future Plans
Kimaseki hopes to start a form V and VI (A-level program) in the future. It also hopes to increase the number of classrooms, create a lab, and library with more textbooks. It also hopes to have 3 or 4 staff quarters, add electricity, and have a computer classroom.
Classes
Forms I and II take 11 subjects:
• English
• Kiswahili
• Math
• Geography
• Civics
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Physics
• History
• Bookkeeping
• Commerce
Forms III and IV take 9 subjects, opting for business or science:
• English
• Kiswahili
• Math
• Geography
• Civics
• Biology
• History
Science Track:
• Chemistry
• Physics
Business Track:
• Bookkeeping
• Commerce
Left Handedness: Whenever you are offered food (we were offered bread and chai at every school) they first pour water on your right hand and then you are supposed to eat and take food with your right hand. Under no circumstance are you supposed to accept or give anything with your left hand, whether it is food or anything else. This is because they wash their body with their left hand and thus it is considered unsuitable for accepting things, especially food. This is unfortunate for me because I am left handed and naturally use my left hand to accept and give things.
Vocab word of the day:
Alhamis – Thursday
We went to the best and worst schools yet. Sinoni was very impressive and had their own well and even had a nutrition class track in addition to the science and business tracks! Kimaseki, on the other hand, didn’t have electricity. There is a general shortage of teachers and a lot of the secondary schools were constructed in the last couple of years. I think the government created a new mandate which said that every municipality needs its own secondary school, so construction started! All of the Sakina Scholars went to the same primary school, but were dispersed to all different parts of the city based on their national examination scores. I’m still not clear as to why some students are assigned to schools they are close enough to walk to and other students have to take a 50 minute daladala ride to school.
Sinoni Secondary School Profile:
Key Contacts
Headmistress: Marco I. Mano
Academic Master: John Mtweve
Quick Facts
Founded: March 2001
No. of Students (2009): 1174
No. of Teachers (2009): 30
No. of Classrooms (2009): 20
Class size: 45-70
Days of School: 194
Uniforms: Dark green sweater, white blouse, black pants or skirt
School year: First term – mid January to March\April (Mid term holiday), June (mid year holiday), Second term – early July to late September, Third term – late September to late November
Laboratory: Not officially, but have resources to use in classrooms
Library: No
Computer Lab: No
Electricity: Yes
Daily Schedule
7:00-7:15 Attendance
7:15-7:40 General cleanliness
7:40-8:00 Announcements
8:00-10:40 Classes begin
10:40-11:10 Break
11:10-2:30 Classes resume
2:30-3:30 Cleanliness, Remedial courses, and Extra-curricular activities
Mondays: Club meetings
Tuesdays: Self-Reliance
Wednesdays: Sports and Games
Thursdays: HIV\AIDS Talks
Friday: Sports and Games
Clubs
Health Club
Subject Clubs
Scouts
Club against Corruption Environmental Club
Debate Club
Religious Societies
Sports
Football
Volleyball
Netball
Student Services
Health: First aid kit, guest speakers at health club, HIV\AIDS talks on Thursdays
Social Welfare: 2 teachers which act as counselors
Field Trip: Organize student-financed study tours to different places
Clean water: A sponsor helped them build their own well on the school grounds to guarantee that their students are using clean and safe water.
History
The school was started in March 2001 with 80 students and 4 teachers. Last year, 45 students graduated and went on to form V and VI at another school. This year, they expect 65 students to go on to complete their A-levels.
Future Plans
In the future, Sinoni plans to expand by adding more classrooms, a library, and official laboratories. They also want to have an administration block with offices for teachers and an internet café for teachers and students.
In terms of academics, their aim is to have 0 students score Division 0 on national exams and to reduce the number of students scoring in division 4.
Classes
Forms I and II opt to take the business track or the food and nutrition track, which consist of 9 core subjects and one or two additional classes:
Core subjects:
• English
• Kiswahili
• Maths
• Geography
• Civics
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Physics
• History
Business Track (11):
• Bookkeeping
• Commerce
Food and Nutrition Track (10):
• Food and Nutrition
Forms III and IV opt to do business, food and nutrition, or science, which consist of 7 core subjects plus 2 or 3 additional classes:
Core subjects:
• English
• Kiswahili
• Math
• Geography
• Civics
• Biology
• History
Business Track (9):
• Bookkeeping
• Commerce
Food and Nutrition Track (9-10)
• Food and Nutrition
• Chemistry
• Physics (optional)
Science Track (9)
• Chemistry
• Physics
Kimaseki Secondary School Profile:
Key Contacts
Headmaster: John Medukenya
Daily Schedule
7:30-8:00 Roll Call and Cleanliness
8:00-10:40 Classes
10:40-11:10 Break and Morning Tea
11:10-2:30 Classes
2:30-3:30 Cleanliness and Extra-curricular activities
Tuesdays: Sports
Wednesdays: Clubs
Fridays: Sports and Religious groups
Quick Facts
Founded: 2005
No. of Students (2009): 1463
No. of Teachers (2009): 21
No. of Classrooms (2009): 17 (currently building more)
Class size: From 55-80, Form I = 80-85, Form IV = 55-60
Days of School: 194
Uniforms: Maroon pants or skirt and maroon sweater
School year: First term – mid January to early June; Second term – early July to early December
Laboratory: No
Library: No
Computer Lab: No
Electricity: No
Clubs
Subject clubs
Health Club
Choir
Environmental Club
Scouts
Club Against Corruption
Religious Societies
Sports
Football
Volleyball
Netball
Student Services
Health: First aid kit and women’s needs, 3 days health seminar
Social Welfare: 2 guidance counselors who are teachers or from NGO’s
Field Trip: Organize student-financed trip varying in length and location
History
Kimaseki is a community based school that was started after the population of the primary schools in the area increased, creating a need for a secondary school. With funding from both the community and Tanzanian government, Kimaseki opened in 2005.
Future Plans
Kimaseki hopes to start a form V and VI (A-level program) in the future. It also hopes to increase the number of classrooms, create a lab, and library with more textbooks. It also hopes to have 3 or 4 staff quarters, add electricity, and have a computer classroom.
Classes
Forms I and II take 11 subjects:
• English
• Kiswahili
• Math
• Geography
• Civics
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Physics
• History
• Bookkeeping
• Commerce
Forms III and IV take 9 subjects, opting for business or science:
• English
• Kiswahili
• Math
• Geography
• Civics
• Biology
• History
Science Track:
• Chemistry
• Physics
Business Track:
• Bookkeeping
• Commerce
Left Handedness: Whenever you are offered food (we were offered bread and chai at every school) they first pour water on your right hand and then you are supposed to eat and take food with your right hand. Under no circumstance are you supposed to accept or give anything with your left hand, whether it is food or anything else. This is because they wash their body with their left hand and thus it is considered unsuitable for accepting things, especially food. This is unfortunate for me because I am left handed and naturally use my left hand to accept and give things.
Vocab word of the day:
Alhamis – Thursday
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Sombetini and Felix Mrema Secondary Schools
I went on two school visits today to Sombetini Secondary School and Felix Mrema Secondary School.
General thoughts: Sombetini impressed me with their English language skills. You could tell they really enforced the language pledge there – they even had a sign that said no English, no service. Haha. Every school has “general cleanliness” in the morning and afternoon, which is when the students clean up the school by watering flowers, cleaning desks, cleaning toilets, etc. They don’t have a janitor because the students and teachers take care of everything. Seems very efficient and somewhat empowering because it allows the students to take ownership and care over their school. It’s definitely an interesting approach.
Sombetini Secondary School Profile:
Key Contacts
Headmistress: Bertha I. Lyimo
Second Master: John Chacha
Quick Facts
Founded: April 2008
No. of Students (2009): 806
No. of Teachers (2009): 11
No. of Classrooms (2009): 20
Class size: >30
Days of School: 285-290
Uniforms: Navy blue pants or skirt and navy blue sweater
School year: Begins mid January, ends mid December
Laboratory: No
Library: No
Computer Lab: No
Electricity: Yes
Daily Schedule
7:00-7:10 Arrival and roll call
7:10-7:30 Cleanliness
7:30-7:55 Morning Assembly
8:00-10:40 Classes
10:40-11:10 Break and Morning Tea
11:10-2:30 Classes
2:30-3:30 Cleanliness and Extra-curricular activities
3:30 Dispersal
3:30-5:30 Remedial for Form II
Clubs
Subject clubs
Scouts
Club against Corruption
Environmental Club
Religious Societies
Choir
Drama club
Poetry club
Sports
Football
Volleyball
Athletics
Netball
Motto
Education for Self Actualization
Vision
To provide a quality education so that all pupils are able to reach their full potential within a caring, secure environment
Mission
To provide a safe, supportive environment with a variety of educational opportunities to empower each student to develop the attitudes, behaviors, skills, knowledge to become self-assured, responsible and economically productive citizens
Student Services
Health: First aid kit
Social Welfare: 2 guidance counselors
Field Trip: Organize student-financed safari to Ngorogoro Crater or Serengeti
History
The school was started in April 2008 as a government school. They started with 320 form I students and 8 teachers. In October 2008, they hired 3 more teachers and received almost 500 new form I students.
Future Plans
Sombetini hopes to add bookkeeping and commerce classes but currently does not have the teacher capacity to do so. In two years, they plan to have nearly 1600 students. The headmaster wants to “make the school look like a school” with a laboratory and library.
The school also wants to be more self-dependent, which will require expanding school grounds to include a place for sports and more buildings for an administration block and classrooms. They hope to receive more teaching materials as well as teachers.
Classes
Forms I and II take 9 subjects:
• English
• Kiswahili
• Maths
• Geography
• Civics
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Physics
• History
Forms III and IV take at least 7 subjects and can take up to 9.
Felix Mrema Secondary School Profile:
Key Contacts
Headmaster: Rashid William Nkanga
Second Master: Mr. Hassan
Quick Facts
Founded: June 2007
No. of Students (2009): 750
No. of Teachers (2009): 11
No. of Classrooms (2009): 13
Class size: unsure
Days of School: 195
Uniforms: Charcoal grey pants or skirt and light grey sweater
School year: Begins mid January, ends beginning of December
Laboratory: No
Library: No
Computer Lab: No
Electricity: Yes
Daily Schedule
7:00-7:30 Reporting and General Cleanliness
7:40-7:55 Assembling and Announcements
8:00-2:40 Classes
2:40-3:00 General Cleanliness
3:00-4:30 Sports, Clubs, Remedial Classes
4:45 Home
Clubs
Family and Life Education club
Subject clubs
Scouts
Debate Club
Club against Corruption Environmental Club
Academic Revolution Club
Religious Societies
Sports
Football
Volleyball
Basketball
Netball
Student Services
Health: First aid kit, Global Service Corps health seminars
Field Trip: Organize student-financed safari for whole school
History
School was started in June 2007 with 164 students.
Future Plans
Felix Mrema plans to create a laboratory and library with more textbooks. They currently have 13 classrooms completed and 2 in progress. In addition, the school would like to offer bookkeeping and commerce classes, but don’t have enough teachers.
Classes
Forms I and II take 9 subjects:
• English
• Kiswahili
• Maths
• Geography
• Civics
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Physics
• History
Forms III and IV take at least 7 subjects and can take up to 9.
S4Si update: We have officially hired three mentors for our Zanzibar scholars!!!!! Two are really dynamic teachers from two of the schools we sponsor scholars at and the third is a journalist who is very involved with different education programs around the island. All three have excellent computer skills, which was one of the qualifications that was somewhat hard to fulfill. I got to write my first employment contract as well!
The Postal System:
Since no one here really has an address but rather a location within a village, mailmen aren’t a feasible way to deliver mail. Mail is delivered through PO boxes at the post office in downtown Arusha, and comes Monday through Saturday.
Scholar meeting: I also met with the scholars today to collect their photo release forms and connection letters. This was one of my favorite few hours in Sakina yet! I tried to teach them hand games in English and impressed them with my wide range of Swahili vocabulary (just kidding!). We sang songs and just goofed around. One of the scholars, William, said he liked the guitar, so I got out the guitar that Kerry from Sustain Foundation had left here when she came. It seemed appropriate that the sakina scholars would play Kerry’s guitar. They also read letters that were sent from school children from Carrboro, NC and loved them! I told them they could take pictures with my camera and they LOVED that. They all took turns posing together and posing with the guitar. I can tell the Literacy through Photography program during the scholars retreat will be a huge hit.
GREAT DAY.
Vocab word of the day:
Fenesi – jackfruit
General thoughts: Sombetini impressed me with their English language skills. You could tell they really enforced the language pledge there – they even had a sign that said no English, no service. Haha. Every school has “general cleanliness” in the morning and afternoon, which is when the students clean up the school by watering flowers, cleaning desks, cleaning toilets, etc. They don’t have a janitor because the students and teachers take care of everything. Seems very efficient and somewhat empowering because it allows the students to take ownership and care over their school. It’s definitely an interesting approach.
Sombetini Secondary School Profile:
Key Contacts
Headmistress: Bertha I. Lyimo
Second Master: John Chacha
Quick Facts
Founded: April 2008
No. of Students (2009): 806
No. of Teachers (2009): 11
No. of Classrooms (2009): 20
Class size: >30
Days of School: 285-290
Uniforms: Navy blue pants or skirt and navy blue sweater
School year: Begins mid January, ends mid December
Laboratory: No
Library: No
Computer Lab: No
Electricity: Yes
Daily Schedule
7:00-7:10 Arrival and roll call
7:10-7:30 Cleanliness
7:30-7:55 Morning Assembly
8:00-10:40 Classes
10:40-11:10 Break and Morning Tea
11:10-2:30 Classes
2:30-3:30 Cleanliness and Extra-curricular activities
3:30 Dispersal
3:30-5:30 Remedial for Form II
Clubs
Subject clubs
Scouts
Club against Corruption
Environmental Club
Religious Societies
Choir
Drama club
Poetry club
Sports
Football
Volleyball
Athletics
Netball
Motto
Education for Self Actualization
Vision
To provide a quality education so that all pupils are able to reach their full potential within a caring, secure environment
Mission
To provide a safe, supportive environment with a variety of educational opportunities to empower each student to develop the attitudes, behaviors, skills, knowledge to become self-assured, responsible and economically productive citizens
Student Services
Health: First aid kit
Social Welfare: 2 guidance counselors
Field Trip: Organize student-financed safari to Ngorogoro Crater or Serengeti
History
The school was started in April 2008 as a government school. They started with 320 form I students and 8 teachers. In October 2008, they hired 3 more teachers and received almost 500 new form I students.
Future Plans
Sombetini hopes to add bookkeeping and commerce classes but currently does not have the teacher capacity to do so. In two years, they plan to have nearly 1600 students. The headmaster wants to “make the school look like a school” with a laboratory and library.
The school also wants to be more self-dependent, which will require expanding school grounds to include a place for sports and more buildings for an administration block and classrooms. They hope to receive more teaching materials as well as teachers.
Classes
Forms I and II take 9 subjects:
• English
• Kiswahili
• Maths
• Geography
• Civics
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Physics
• History
Forms III and IV take at least 7 subjects and can take up to 9.
Felix Mrema Secondary School Profile:
Key Contacts
Headmaster: Rashid William Nkanga
Second Master: Mr. Hassan
Quick Facts
Founded: June 2007
No. of Students (2009): 750
No. of Teachers (2009): 11
No. of Classrooms (2009): 13
Class size: unsure
Days of School: 195
Uniforms: Charcoal grey pants or skirt and light grey sweater
School year: Begins mid January, ends beginning of December
Laboratory: No
Library: No
Computer Lab: No
Electricity: Yes
Daily Schedule
7:00-7:30 Reporting and General Cleanliness
7:40-7:55 Assembling and Announcements
8:00-2:40 Classes
2:40-3:00 General Cleanliness
3:00-4:30 Sports, Clubs, Remedial Classes
4:45 Home
Clubs
Family and Life Education club
Subject clubs
Scouts
Debate Club
Club against Corruption Environmental Club
Academic Revolution Club
Religious Societies
Sports
Football
Volleyball
Basketball
Netball
Student Services
Health: First aid kit, Global Service Corps health seminars
Field Trip: Organize student-financed safari for whole school
History
School was started in June 2007 with 164 students.
Future Plans
Felix Mrema plans to create a laboratory and library with more textbooks. They currently have 13 classrooms completed and 2 in progress. In addition, the school would like to offer bookkeeping and commerce classes, but don’t have enough teachers.
Classes
Forms I and II take 9 subjects:
• English
• Kiswahili
• Maths
• Geography
• Civics
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Physics
• History
Forms III and IV take at least 7 subjects and can take up to 9.
S4Si update: We have officially hired three mentors for our Zanzibar scholars!!!!! Two are really dynamic teachers from two of the schools we sponsor scholars at and the third is a journalist who is very involved with different education programs around the island. All three have excellent computer skills, which was one of the qualifications that was somewhat hard to fulfill. I got to write my first employment contract as well!
The Postal System:
Since no one here really has an address but rather a location within a village, mailmen aren’t a feasible way to deliver mail. Mail is delivered through PO boxes at the post office in downtown Arusha, and comes Monday through Saturday.
Scholar meeting: I also met with the scholars today to collect their photo release forms and connection letters. This was one of my favorite few hours in Sakina yet! I tried to teach them hand games in English and impressed them with my wide range of Swahili vocabulary (just kidding!). We sang songs and just goofed around. One of the scholars, William, said he liked the guitar, so I got out the guitar that Kerry from Sustain Foundation had left here when she came. It seemed appropriate that the sakina scholars would play Kerry’s guitar. They also read letters that were sent from school children from Carrboro, NC and loved them! I told them they could take pictures with my camera and they LOVED that. They all took turns posing together and posing with the guitar. I can tell the Literacy through Photography program during the scholars retreat will be a huge hit.
GREAT DAY.
Vocab word of the day:
Fenesi – jackfruit
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Elerai Secondary School and Learning Through Photography (LTP)
Fun fact: They use A4 legal size paper here. Luckily that’s the kind of paper I brought because that’s what I use at school for doodling and printing out rough drafts of papers. Perfect!
This morning we went to Elerai Secondary school, where four of the scholars attend. I talked to the assistant headmaster for almost 2 hours and he patiently answered all of my questions. Some basic observations before I give the full school profile: big class size, growing, in need of textbooks, teachers, and other teaching resources, very new.
Key Contacts
Headmistress: C.P. Kawala
Asst. Headmaster: Peter Bejumora
Quick Facts
Founded: May 2006
No. of Students (2009): 1439
No. of Teachers (2009): 45
No. of Classrooms (2009): 26
Class size: 60-63 students
Days of School: 194
Uniforms: Navy blue pants or skirt and dark green sweater
School year: Begins early January, ends early December
Laboratory: No
Library: No
Computer Lab: No
Electricity: Yes
Daily Schedule
7:30 First Bell
7:30-7:40 Attendance
7:45 Morning Assembly
8:00-11:20 Classes
11:20-11:50 Midbreak
11:50-2:30 Classes
2:30-3:00 General Cleanness
3:15 Departure
3:00-4:30 Club meetings every Wednesday
Student Services
Health: First aid kit and periodic health seminars by medical professionals
Field Trip: Organize student-financed safari for form II students
History
The idea for Elerai Secondary School originally came from members of the community, who took the idea to the village leaders. The issue was that Burka Primary School children had nowhere to go to secondary school because it was too expensive to send the children to the nearest secondary school, which was so far away they would have had to pay for room and board. The leaders met and agreed to start construction on a new school.
In 2005, construction started on six rooms and in May 2006, it became a government registered school, starting with just 200 students and 4 teachers. The construction of the school reduced the number of street children because families who previously couldn't afford boarding school could now send their children to secondary school.
By August of 2006, there were 10 teachers. In January 2007, there were a total of 10 rooms, 4 of which were built by the community, 20 teachers, and 693 students. By 2008, there were 35 teachers, 1078 students, and 17 rooms, 3 of which were financed by the Ministry of Education.
Future Plans
Elerai School is starting to outgrow its space. The school’s goals are to expand, buy more textbooks for the students, create a place for vocational training, open a laboratory, and establish a space for a library. It would also like to add form V and VI, but the government will choose which one of the 14 municipal schools in Elerai will teach form V and VI. The law mandates there must be one school in every municipal area with form V and VI, but there isn’t one yet in the town of Elerai.
Clubs
Subject clubs (English, Math, etc)
Scouts (co-ed)
Choir
Health Club
Debate Club
Club against Corruption
Classes
Forms I and II take 9 subjects:
• English
• Kiswahili
• Math
• Geography
• Civics
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Physics
• History
Forms III and IV must take at least 7 subjects (6 of which are mandatory) and can take up to 11:
• English (Mandatory)
• Kiswahili (Mandatory)
• Math (Mandatory)
• Geography (Mandatory)
• Civics (Mandatory)
• Biology (Mandatory)
• Chemistry (Elective)
• Physics (Elective)
• History (Elective)
• Commerce (Elective)
• Bookkeeping (Elective)
Learning Through Photography program: Emanueli and I went into town to meet Elena and Katie from Literacy through Photography (LTP), a Duke-based program that works with pictures to think critically about the environment around us. It’s a really neat program! Durham and Arusha are apparently sister cities. An art teacher from Arusha Secondary School named Pepe went to Durham in 2005, loved the LTP program, and wanted to start it in Arusha. This is the 2nd or 3rd year that reps from LTP in Durham have come. They do lots of teacher trainings and then guide teachers to implement them in the schools.
Basically, what LTP does is tries to stimulate creative thinking and critical thinking to learn about a topic. For example, they have a staged process where they give children a topic and have them write down all the words that remind them of that topic. Then they draw what they think of when they envision the topic. Finally, they work together to take pictures that symbolize the topic. The idea is to engage the student rather than just having a teacher lecture from his or her notes.
LTP contacted Sustain Foundation about the work we are doing this summer and we hope we can integrate it into our initiatives. It was a great meeting and Emanueli, who was an art teacher, was very excited about it and we spent the whole way home brainstorming ways to use LTP in our health assessment and with our scholars. One way we could incorporate LTP into our program is to take some health related pictures to our one on one interviews or focus groups and talk about the pictures (where they look at every detail, down to the button on someone’s shirt). This is called photo elicitation.
Another way we are hoping to use LTP is to connect our scholars program with the health assessment. We would use LTP as the second day of our scholars retreat and use the writing, drawing, and taking pictures stages to think critically about health in the community, with topics such as mental health, problems in the community, staying in shape, food practices, hygiene, first aid, HIV awareness, etc. The scholars could work in small groups\teams to create pictures. In terms of the health assessment, we don’t really have a lot of time to do the full process in focus groups or interviews but could take the pictures that the scholars took to the focus groups (with church leaders, parents, village leaders, etc) and have them do photo elicitation to get them thinking about the community critically. The fact that the pictures were created by students living in Sakina to show different health issues will force the community members to accept what’s going on in Sakina and not dismiss it as another community’s problem. We may also want to bring in pictures from the outside of things like clean water, etc. (ideal conditions or very not ideal conditions) to get them thinking about how these conditions are similar or different in Sakina.
LTP has a blog that you should check out! http://literacythroughphotography.wordpress.com.
Vocab word of the day:
Tutaonana baadae – see you later
This morning we went to Elerai Secondary school, where four of the scholars attend. I talked to the assistant headmaster for almost 2 hours and he patiently answered all of my questions. Some basic observations before I give the full school profile: big class size, growing, in need of textbooks, teachers, and other teaching resources, very new.
Key Contacts
Headmistress: C.P. Kawala
Asst. Headmaster: Peter Bejumora
Quick Facts
Founded: May 2006
No. of Students (2009): 1439
No. of Teachers (2009): 45
No. of Classrooms (2009): 26
Class size: 60-63 students
Days of School: 194
Uniforms: Navy blue pants or skirt and dark green sweater
School year: Begins early January, ends early December
Laboratory: No
Library: No
Computer Lab: No
Electricity: Yes
Daily Schedule
7:30 First Bell
7:30-7:40 Attendance
7:45 Morning Assembly
8:00-11:20 Classes
11:20-11:50 Midbreak
11:50-2:30 Classes
2:30-3:00 General Cleanness
3:15 Departure
3:00-4:30 Club meetings every Wednesday
Student Services
Health: First aid kit and periodic health seminars by medical professionals
Field Trip: Organize student-financed safari for form II students
History
The idea for Elerai Secondary School originally came from members of the community, who took the idea to the village leaders. The issue was that Burka Primary School children had nowhere to go to secondary school because it was too expensive to send the children to the nearest secondary school, which was so far away they would have had to pay for room and board. The leaders met and agreed to start construction on a new school.
In 2005, construction started on six rooms and in May 2006, it became a government registered school, starting with just 200 students and 4 teachers. The construction of the school reduced the number of street children because families who previously couldn't afford boarding school could now send their children to secondary school.
By August of 2006, there were 10 teachers. In January 2007, there were a total of 10 rooms, 4 of which were built by the community, 20 teachers, and 693 students. By 2008, there were 35 teachers, 1078 students, and 17 rooms, 3 of which were financed by the Ministry of Education.
Future Plans
Elerai School is starting to outgrow its space. The school’s goals are to expand, buy more textbooks for the students, create a place for vocational training, open a laboratory, and establish a space for a library. It would also like to add form V and VI, but the government will choose which one of the 14 municipal schools in Elerai will teach form V and VI. The law mandates there must be one school in every municipal area with form V and VI, but there isn’t one yet in the town of Elerai.
Clubs
Subject clubs (English, Math, etc)
Scouts (co-ed)
Choir
Health Club
Debate Club
Club against Corruption
Classes
Forms I and II take 9 subjects:
• English
• Kiswahili
• Math
• Geography
• Civics
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Physics
• History
Forms III and IV must take at least 7 subjects (6 of which are mandatory) and can take up to 11:
• English (Mandatory)
• Kiswahili (Mandatory)
• Math (Mandatory)
• Geography (Mandatory)
• Civics (Mandatory)
• Biology (Mandatory)
• Chemistry (Elective)
• Physics (Elective)
• History (Elective)
• Commerce (Elective)
• Bookkeeping (Elective)
Learning Through Photography program: Emanueli and I went into town to meet Elena and Katie from Literacy through Photography (LTP), a Duke-based program that works with pictures to think critically about the environment around us. It’s a really neat program! Durham and Arusha are apparently sister cities. An art teacher from Arusha Secondary School named Pepe went to Durham in 2005, loved the LTP program, and wanted to start it in Arusha. This is the 2nd or 3rd year that reps from LTP in Durham have come. They do lots of teacher trainings and then guide teachers to implement them in the schools.
Basically, what LTP does is tries to stimulate creative thinking and critical thinking to learn about a topic. For example, they have a staged process where they give children a topic and have them write down all the words that remind them of that topic. Then they draw what they think of when they envision the topic. Finally, they work together to take pictures that symbolize the topic. The idea is to engage the student rather than just having a teacher lecture from his or her notes.
LTP contacted Sustain Foundation about the work we are doing this summer and we hope we can integrate it into our initiatives. It was a great meeting and Emanueli, who was an art teacher, was very excited about it and we spent the whole way home brainstorming ways to use LTP in our health assessment and with our scholars. One way we could incorporate LTP into our program is to take some health related pictures to our one on one interviews or focus groups and talk about the pictures (where they look at every detail, down to the button on someone’s shirt). This is called photo elicitation.
Another way we are hoping to use LTP is to connect our scholars program with the health assessment. We would use LTP as the second day of our scholars retreat and use the writing, drawing, and taking pictures stages to think critically about health in the community, with topics such as mental health, problems in the community, staying in shape, food practices, hygiene, first aid, HIV awareness, etc. The scholars could work in small groups\teams to create pictures. In terms of the health assessment, we don’t really have a lot of time to do the full process in focus groups or interviews but could take the pictures that the scholars took to the focus groups (with church leaders, parents, village leaders, etc) and have them do photo elicitation to get them thinking about the community critically. The fact that the pictures were created by students living in Sakina to show different health issues will force the community members to accept what’s going on in Sakina and not dismiss it as another community’s problem. We may also want to bring in pictures from the outside of things like clean water, etc. (ideal conditions or very not ideal conditions) to get them thinking about how these conditions are similar or different in Sakina.
LTP has a blog that you should check out! http://literacythroughphotography.wordpress.com.
Vocab word of the day:
Tutaonana baadae – see you later
Monday, June 22, 2009
Plumbing and Government
"Running water": Some houses seem like they have plumbing, but really they have a huge water vat outside the house and it is connected to the faucets so that water comes out. But, when the water vat runs out, the water is “finished,” as Tanzanians like to say when something runs out. Then they have to buy another vat and hook it up.
Tanzanian Government: The Tanzanian president is elected every 5 years and they can serve a maximum of 10 years. Same with the village leadership. Everyone I’ve talked to likes President Kikwete, but have qualms with some other African country’s leadership, Zimbabwe as one example.
SUSTAIN FOUNDATION: I taught Emanueli and Irene more about the laptops and showed them how to navigate around. I also created a financial spreadsheet and put Emanueli in charge for the rest of the summer. While I filled out participant observer forms (which will help us document observations about different places in the community), Emanueli and Irene worked on their laptop to finish translating and refining the scholarship application. Afterwards, we worked together and brainstormed interview questions and selection criteria. We still have a lot of work left to do, but the scholar program is starting to fall in to place.
Typical meal: ugali (tasteless white corn and flour mixture that tastes kind of like grainy bread), green bean, potato and carrot stew, rice, beans (with coconut sauce yum!), cabbage, ginger chai, bananas. It’s delicious!
Vocab word of the day:
Napenda – I like
Tanzanian Government: The Tanzanian president is elected every 5 years and they can serve a maximum of 10 years. Same with the village leadership. Everyone I’ve talked to likes President Kikwete, but have qualms with some other African country’s leadership, Zimbabwe as one example.
SUSTAIN FOUNDATION: I taught Emanueli and Irene more about the laptops and showed them how to navigate around. I also created a financial spreadsheet and put Emanueli in charge for the rest of the summer. While I filled out participant observer forms (which will help us document observations about different places in the community), Emanueli and Irene worked on their laptop to finish translating and refining the scholarship application. Afterwards, we worked together and brainstormed interview questions and selection criteria. We still have a lot of work left to do, but the scholar program is starting to fall in to place.
Typical meal: ugali (tasteless white corn and flour mixture that tastes kind of like grainy bread), green bean, potato and carrot stew, rice, beans (with coconut sauce yum!), cabbage, ginger chai, bananas. It’s delicious!
Vocab word of the day:
Napenda – I like
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Tanzanian Education System
Since I’ll be working with the Sakina Scholars program more closely over the next couple weeks, it may be interesting for you to understand the education system here:
The structure of the Tanzanian education system consists of three levels of education:
• First Level: First level education consists of 7 years of primary school (elementary school). This level may sometimes also consist of one or two years of pre-primary school (pre-school).
• Second Level: Second level education, or secondary school consists of 4 years of junior secondary school (ordinary level school Form I-Form IV) and 2 years of senior secondary school (advanced level school Form V-Form VI).
• Third Level: Third level education consists of education and programs offered by separate, higher education institutions. Students complete at least 3 years of tertiary education (university).
The Tanzanian educational system includes a series of exams, the first taken in Form IV. The Certificate of Secondary Education Exam or the Ordinary Level (O-level) exams are held in November; the results are released in March of the following year. Students are tested in nine different subjects. The Sakina scholars take 12 subjects and choose which 9 they want to take. The subjects they take are:
• English
• Kiswahili
• History
• Geography
• Civics
• Mathematics
• Physics
• Chemistry
• Biology
• Commerce
• Book Keeping
• Economics
The Certificate of Secondary Education is awarded in four divisions to candidates who fulfill the state requirements.
• Division One: awarded to candidates who (1) pass in at least seven subjects, which must include at least one subject in civics, Kiswahili, foreign languages, social sciences or technology, mathematics, natural sciences, commercial studies or home economics, (2) pass with grades of A- C in at least four subjects and, (3) reach a collective score of no more than 17 points in the candidate's seven best subjects.
• Division Two: awarded to candidates who (1) pass in at least seven subjects, which must include at least one subject as listed above, (2) pass with grades of A-C in at least four subjects and, (3) reach a collective score of no more than 21 points in the best seven subjects.
• Division Three and Division Four: descending from the above standards.
Candidates are eligible to enter the fifth year of secondary school if they pass in at least five subjects with grades of A-C on the O-Level exams. After the final year of secondary school - the thirteenth year - students can take the Advanced Certificate Examination (A-level) exams in nine subjects, including General Studies, which is recognized all over the world. The A-Levels are taken in May, and results come out in October, also awarded in four divisions. Division 1 and some Division 2 students are eligible for loans and government scholarships to go to university, but they are very competitive.
Word of the Day:
Chakula cha mchana - lunch
The structure of the Tanzanian education system consists of three levels of education:
• First Level: First level education consists of 7 years of primary school (elementary school). This level may sometimes also consist of one or two years of pre-primary school (pre-school).
• Second Level: Second level education, or secondary school consists of 4 years of junior secondary school (ordinary level school Form I-Form IV) and 2 years of senior secondary school (advanced level school Form V-Form VI).
• Third Level: Third level education consists of education and programs offered by separate, higher education institutions. Students complete at least 3 years of tertiary education (university).
The Tanzanian educational system includes a series of exams, the first taken in Form IV. The Certificate of Secondary Education Exam or the Ordinary Level (O-level) exams are held in November; the results are released in March of the following year. Students are tested in nine different subjects. The Sakina scholars take 12 subjects and choose which 9 they want to take. The subjects they take are:
• English
• Kiswahili
• History
• Geography
• Civics
• Mathematics
• Physics
• Chemistry
• Biology
• Commerce
• Book Keeping
• Economics
The Certificate of Secondary Education is awarded in four divisions to candidates who fulfill the state requirements.
• Division One: awarded to candidates who (1) pass in at least seven subjects, which must include at least one subject in civics, Kiswahili, foreign languages, social sciences or technology, mathematics, natural sciences, commercial studies or home economics, (2) pass with grades of A- C in at least four subjects and, (3) reach a collective score of no more than 17 points in the candidate's seven best subjects.
• Division Two: awarded to candidates who (1) pass in at least seven subjects, which must include at least one subject as listed above, (2) pass with grades of A-C in at least four subjects and, (3) reach a collective score of no more than 21 points in the best seven subjects.
• Division Three and Division Four: descending from the above standards.
Candidates are eligible to enter the fifth year of secondary school if they pass in at least five subjects with grades of A-C on the O-Level exams. After the final year of secondary school - the thirteenth year - students can take the Advanced Certificate Examination (A-level) exams in nine subjects, including General Studies, which is recognized all over the world. The A-Levels are taken in May, and results come out in October, also awarded in four divisions. Division 1 and some Division 2 students are eligible for loans and government scholarships to go to university, but they are very competitive.
Word of the Day:
Chakula cha mchana - lunch
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Compassion Orphanage
Today I went to Compassion Orphanage, a place at which the Maturo family used to volunteer and where we will conduct part of the health assessment. I met with Pastor Urio, a social worker named Joyce, and the Compassion coordinator, Mr. Mollel.
Compassion is a really neat place. They don’t receive any government money and depend on outside donors, internationally and domestically. About 300 kids attend Compassion, most of whom aren’t orphans, but who come from poor family situations. Some have sponsors from other countries as well. I got a tour of the compound, which consists of a big conference hall and offices as well as some “classrooms” and a kitchen. The classrooms are currently a converted chicken coop and a building in progress. The kids sang a song for me and asked me questions. On Saturdays they have little classes about different topics. They used to have fun things like art, etc., but they ran out of funding and now just have bible study and miscellaneous classroom topics. We will come back in a few weeks to teach about health.
In terms of services, they provide health services. They have a first aid kid on site and if the child gets very sick, they send the child to the hospital and pay for the medicine. They also have health seminars on prevention, hygiene, etc. In addition, they provide a healthy meal. Today, some of the parents of the Compassion children were making a healthy meal (greens, meat, etc) and are educated on how to prepare good food for their children. They also provide counseling to the parents about health and how to make the home environment better. They give the families little tasks to do that help Compassion but also give them some work (separating coal, etc).
I asked Joyce what she does as a social worker and she said she does three main things: 1) They do health evaluations which involves checking the children’s eyes, nose, etc. and assess their health situation to see if it’s changed since the last check up. They administer any care or send them to the hospital if necessary. 2) They create education reports for each child and mark down their class standing and grades. These reports are also sent to sponsors as an update. 3) Finally, she corresponds with overseas sponsors from countries such as the U.S., Korea, Greece, etc. They have the children write letters to their sponsors three times a year; at Christmas, Easter, and during school holidays. Each student has had the same sponsor the whole time so there is some continuity for the donor and student. They also send a picture of the student.
Something in the back of my mind the whole time was how S4Si can use some of the donor outreach that Compassion has. I think a lot of it just involves us operationally getting situated and organized to do that kind of donor outreach. I think that would help our donations a LOT!
I walked in to have lunch today and Mama was watching Dr. Dolittle again. Haha.
I am getting a traditional Tanzanian outfit made for nice occasions, such as a celebration we will hold at the end of the summer. Irene and I have been looking around for some nice fabric (called a kitenge).
I met with the scholars again today! I am starting to be able to connect with them more between my Swahili and their English (which is actually pretty good). I never fail to amuse them by speaking broken Swahili, so I figured it’s a good way to connect. I also remembered almost everyone’s name! They taught me some more vocab words and tested me on the animals, which I didn’t remember very well. I asked them to tell me more about Masai (3 or 4 of them are part Masai), what they do around the house, what they like to cook, what they want to be, etc. We could start our own village – William wants to be an engineer, Elias an animal doctor, Omar a leader, Rehema a lawyer, and so on. We did a little ceremony where everyone got a certificate congratulating them for finishing their first year of secondary school and took some pictures. We also gave them the photo release form that we translated into Swahili. I will meet them on Wednesday for them to give us back the form and a letter describing their year! I can’t wait. Next Sunday we are meeting them at the internet café to give them email addresses, which they all looked EXTREMELY excited for. None of them have really used a computer, so it will be great for them to learn initially and then to have the laptops at the Maturo’s house for reinforcement. See the Sustain Foundation blog http://sustainsakina.blogspot.com for a picture!
Vocab word of the day:
Ongeza! – more! (which Mama tells me every time I finish my food)
Compassion is a really neat place. They don’t receive any government money and depend on outside donors, internationally and domestically. About 300 kids attend Compassion, most of whom aren’t orphans, but who come from poor family situations. Some have sponsors from other countries as well. I got a tour of the compound, which consists of a big conference hall and offices as well as some “classrooms” and a kitchen. The classrooms are currently a converted chicken coop and a building in progress. The kids sang a song for me and asked me questions. On Saturdays they have little classes about different topics. They used to have fun things like art, etc., but they ran out of funding and now just have bible study and miscellaneous classroom topics. We will come back in a few weeks to teach about health.
In terms of services, they provide health services. They have a first aid kid on site and if the child gets very sick, they send the child to the hospital and pay for the medicine. They also have health seminars on prevention, hygiene, etc. In addition, they provide a healthy meal. Today, some of the parents of the Compassion children were making a healthy meal (greens, meat, etc) and are educated on how to prepare good food for their children. They also provide counseling to the parents about health and how to make the home environment better. They give the families little tasks to do that help Compassion but also give them some work (separating coal, etc).
I asked Joyce what she does as a social worker and she said she does three main things: 1) They do health evaluations which involves checking the children’s eyes, nose, etc. and assess their health situation to see if it’s changed since the last check up. They administer any care or send them to the hospital if necessary. 2) They create education reports for each child and mark down their class standing and grades. These reports are also sent to sponsors as an update. 3) Finally, she corresponds with overseas sponsors from countries such as the U.S., Korea, Greece, etc. They have the children write letters to their sponsors three times a year; at Christmas, Easter, and during school holidays. Each student has had the same sponsor the whole time so there is some continuity for the donor and student. They also send a picture of the student.
Something in the back of my mind the whole time was how S4Si can use some of the donor outreach that Compassion has. I think a lot of it just involves us operationally getting situated and organized to do that kind of donor outreach. I think that would help our donations a LOT!
I walked in to have lunch today and Mama was watching Dr. Dolittle again. Haha.
I am getting a traditional Tanzanian outfit made for nice occasions, such as a celebration we will hold at the end of the summer. Irene and I have been looking around for some nice fabric (called a kitenge).
I met with the scholars again today! I am starting to be able to connect with them more between my Swahili and their English (which is actually pretty good). I never fail to amuse them by speaking broken Swahili, so I figured it’s a good way to connect. I also remembered almost everyone’s name! They taught me some more vocab words and tested me on the animals, which I didn’t remember very well. I asked them to tell me more about Masai (3 or 4 of them are part Masai), what they do around the house, what they like to cook, what they want to be, etc. We could start our own village – William wants to be an engineer, Elias an animal doctor, Omar a leader, Rehema a lawyer, and so on. We did a little ceremony where everyone got a certificate congratulating them for finishing their first year of secondary school and took some pictures. We also gave them the photo release form that we translated into Swahili. I will meet them on Wednesday for them to give us back the form and a letter describing their year! I can’t wait. Next Sunday we are meeting them at the internet café to give them email addresses, which they all looked EXTREMELY excited for. None of them have really used a computer, so it will be great for them to learn initially and then to have the laptops at the Maturo’s house for reinforcement. See the Sustain Foundation blog http://sustainsakina.blogspot.com for a picture!
Vocab word of the day:
Ongeza! – more! (which Mama tells me every time I finish my food)
Friday, June 19, 2009
PO Box and Laptops
ZANZIBAR UPDATE: Camryn and Iris led the new scholar\parent meeting at FAWE today and it went really well! They are taking the new scholars to the internet café tomorrow to set up email addresses. In addition, they are working on finding three solid mentors for the next school year and also visited a girls hostel where previous S4Si delegates set up computers and a small library.
I am keeping a blog for Sustain Foundation, which you are welcome to check out at http://sustainsakina.blogspot.com. I will include additional observations that are interesting to SF stakeholders.
Emanueli and I went into town and created Sustain Foundation’s own P.O. Box #13469. It’s definitely a great first step. We also visited Picasso Café, an overpriced tourist restaurant where Stephen, one of my brothers, is the chef. It was a really cute café and definitely a possibility for a 4th of July celebration.
I started training Emanueli and Irene on two small laptops, which were donated to Sustain Foundation and spruced up with open source Ubuntu and Open Office. There are also some educational programs on them for the scholars to use, including a typing program! I showed them how to use the laptops and some databases I made for storing information about finances and the Sakina Scholars program. We also talked about what kinds of documents we will need for the Sakina Scholar program going forward, such as an application and photo release form.
We started translating a scholar application I had made and before we knew it, the whole family was in the room pitching in. After we practice a little more, I hope they will type up a blog posting for us!
We are in the process of hiring a translator to translate all of the health assessment documents and will have them finished in the next two weeks so we can get started on the health assessment of Sakina!
The scholars are coming over again tomorrow and I can’t wait! We are giving them certificates of achievement to congratulate them for finishing their first year of secondary school (Form I). We filled out the certificates and filled in their name and school name. We are also giving them a photo release form for their parent\guardian to sign so that Sustain Foundation has official permission to use their pictures in promotional publications. Emanueli and Irene spent time after dinner translating a release form that I already had created.
During dinner, we watched Dr. Dolittle, one of the VHS tapes I brought, which Mama has already watched twice! Haha.
Vocab word of the day:
Dada – sister
Kaka – brother
I am keeping a blog for Sustain Foundation, which you are welcome to check out at http://sustainsakina.blogspot.com. I will include additional observations that are interesting to SF stakeholders.
Emanueli and I went into town and created Sustain Foundation’s own P.O. Box #13469. It’s definitely a great first step. We also visited Picasso Café, an overpriced tourist restaurant where Stephen, one of my brothers, is the chef. It was a really cute café and definitely a possibility for a 4th of July celebration.
I started training Emanueli and Irene on two small laptops, which were donated to Sustain Foundation and spruced up with open source Ubuntu and Open Office. There are also some educational programs on them for the scholars to use, including a typing program! I showed them how to use the laptops and some databases I made for storing information about finances and the Sakina Scholars program. We also talked about what kinds of documents we will need for the Sakina Scholar program going forward, such as an application and photo release form.
We started translating a scholar application I had made and before we knew it, the whole family was in the room pitching in. After we practice a little more, I hope they will type up a blog posting for us!
We are in the process of hiring a translator to translate all of the health assessment documents and will have them finished in the next two weeks so we can get started on the health assessment of Sakina!
The scholars are coming over again tomorrow and I can’t wait! We are giving them certificates of achievement to congratulate them for finishing their first year of secondary school (Form I). We filled out the certificates and filled in their name and school name. We are also giving them a photo release form for their parent\guardian to sign so that Sustain Foundation has official permission to use their pictures in promotional publications. Emanueli and Irene spent time after dinner translating a release form that I already had created.
During dinner, we watched Dr. Dolittle, one of the VHS tapes I brought, which Mama has already watched twice! Haha.
Vocab word of the day:
Dada – sister
Kaka – brother
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Elerai Village Council
Today, Baba, Emanueli, and Irene took me to the Elerai office. Elerai is the area in which I live and Sakina is located within Elerai. Within Sakina, there are many streets on which many people live. The Maturo household is located on Kabida ya Maziwa.
I wanted to meet some key stakeholders in the community so that they were aware of what we would be doing over the next two months. They will also be an integral part in the health assessment of the community. Baba knows everyone, so he introduced me. I met the ward executive officer and the village chairman. They both were really nice and told me they would help in any way possible with Sustain Foundation’s work this summer. The village government breakdown is as follows: chancellor (elected), ward executive officer (works with chancellor but is appt by govt), village chairman (elected), village executive officer (works with village chairman but is appt by govt), street chairman (elected), Ten sill leader (elected and is in charge of a small group of households).
Then we went took the daladala, which are small vans that serve as the bus system, into town. We first stopped at the Arusha Municipal Center and met with some officials who explained the NGO registration process. It’s a little complicated and may take a little while to become officially registered, so it’s a good thing the village leaders are supportive.
It was fun to help Emanueli and Irene start using their business cards at every office we visited!
Winston and I took a walk today and had a really fun conversation in a mixture of Spanish, English, and Swahili.
Vocab word of the day:
Picha - picture
I wanted to meet some key stakeholders in the community so that they were aware of what we would be doing over the next two months. They will also be an integral part in the health assessment of the community. Baba knows everyone, so he introduced me. I met the ward executive officer and the village chairman. They both were really nice and told me they would help in any way possible with Sustain Foundation’s work this summer. The village government breakdown is as follows: chancellor (elected), ward executive officer (works with chancellor but is appt by govt), village chairman (elected), village executive officer (works with village chairman but is appt by govt), street chairman (elected), Ten sill leader (elected and is in charge of a small group of households).
Then we went took the daladala, which are small vans that serve as the bus system, into town. We first stopped at the Arusha Municipal Center and met with some officials who explained the NGO registration process. It’s a little complicated and may take a little while to become officially registered, so it’s a good thing the village leaders are supportive.
It was fun to help Emanueli and Irene start using their business cards at every office we visited!
Winston and I took a walk today and had a really fun conversation in a mixture of Spanish, English, and Swahili.
Vocab word of the day:
Picha - picture
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Fun Facts
I gave the family some VHS tapes I brought and they loved them!
Some fun facts and random observations:
• On the soap opera about HIV\AIDS yesterday, the boy in the show was wearing a Lakers jersey and a UNC hat!
• I saw a place with a sign for TechnoServe and also a place where they sell MoneyMaker Pumps!!!! I studied both of these NGO’s last semester. Check them out – they are really cool organizations.
• I found out two of my brothers, Stephan and Winston, speak a little Spanish. Winston apparently speaks Spanish better than English so I’ll have to try speaking to him.
• The power went out for a while today – it goes out sometimes and without warning or a good reason. Luckily I had brought a headlamp and two crank flashlights that don’t need batteries. My family loved them and used them for the rest of the night
• I have seen very few mosquitoes – they aren’t bad here at all, nothing compared to Zanzibar
• They call Zanzibar Zengi and Arusha A-town
• Zanzibar, Arusha, and Dar have different accents, but Zanzibar Swahili is apparently the original Swahili
• Some people here like country music! They said it is usually associated with older people. Baba and Clemens and I talked about it and they said they like artists like Kenny Rogers.
SUSTAIN FOUNDATION: I met with Emanueli and Irene to go over some of the plans for the summer. I gave them their business cards, which they were pretty excited about. They didn’t really know how to use them so I explained situations in which we should and should not use the business cards. I told them that we will have chances to practice.
I also met with all of the Sakina Scholars! It was so great to finally meet them. They all went to the same primary school together but now go to 6 different secondary schools between the 11 of them. Many of them were pretty shy, so I asked them lots of questions and used my limited Kiswahili, which made them laugh. They have different levels of English, but they took turns teaching me Kiswahili. One boy, Elias, taught me different animal names and said that he is going to give me a test the next time we meet. They range in age from 14 to 16. Most of them said their favorite food is ugali, which is a white, rice and corn based type of flavorless bread that you eat with stew and vegetables. In terms of music, they all like hip-hop, reggae, and bongo flavor. I memorized all of their names, which for anyone that knows me, is quite a feat. Hopefully I can post a picture soon!
Vocab word of the day:
Mbuzi – goat
Ngombe – cow
Some fun facts and random observations:
• On the soap opera about HIV\AIDS yesterday, the boy in the show was wearing a Lakers jersey and a UNC hat!
• I saw a place with a sign for TechnoServe and also a place where they sell MoneyMaker Pumps!!!! I studied both of these NGO’s last semester. Check them out – they are really cool organizations.
• I found out two of my brothers, Stephan and Winston, speak a little Spanish. Winston apparently speaks Spanish better than English so I’ll have to try speaking to him.
• The power went out for a while today – it goes out sometimes and without warning or a good reason. Luckily I had brought a headlamp and two crank flashlights that don’t need batteries. My family loved them and used them for the rest of the night
• I have seen very few mosquitoes – they aren’t bad here at all, nothing compared to Zanzibar
• They call Zanzibar Zengi and Arusha A-town
• Zanzibar, Arusha, and Dar have different accents, but Zanzibar Swahili is apparently the original Swahili
• Some people here like country music! They said it is usually associated with older people. Baba and Clemens and I talked about it and they said they like artists like Kenny Rogers.
SUSTAIN FOUNDATION: I met with Emanueli and Irene to go over some of the plans for the summer. I gave them their business cards, which they were pretty excited about. They didn’t really know how to use them so I explained situations in which we should and should not use the business cards. I told them that we will have chances to practice.
I also met with all of the Sakina Scholars! It was so great to finally meet them. They all went to the same primary school together but now go to 6 different secondary schools between the 11 of them. Many of them were pretty shy, so I asked them lots of questions and used my limited Kiswahili, which made them laugh. They have different levels of English, but they took turns teaching me Kiswahili. One boy, Elias, taught me different animal names and said that he is going to give me a test the next time we meet. They range in age from 14 to 16. Most of them said their favorite food is ugali, which is a white, rice and corn based type of flavorless bread that you eat with stew and vegetables. In terms of music, they all like hip-hop, reggae, and bongo flavor. I memorized all of their names, which for anyone that knows me, is quite a feat. Hopefully I can post a picture soon!
Vocab word of the day:
Mbuzi – goat
Ngombe – cow
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Sakina Orientation
I didn't really go through culture shock after arriving in Zanzibar, but I have already started to feel a little bit here in the village. The city of Arusha is about 20 minute daladala ride away. I’m staying in a suburb of Arusha called Sakina and within Sakina I am staying in a small village called Maziwa (which means milk in Kiswahili). There is a dirt road from the main road that winds through Maziwa.
Today Emanueli took me into town. Arusha is very different from both Dar and Zanzibar. It has kind of a rustic feel with mountains surrounding it. The streets are fairly wide and there are lots of little shops. It is less crowded than Dar. Emanueli said that there aren’t many people that live in the city, but that a lot of the Indians live right in the city (above the shops). We went to the UN Tribunal for Genocide in Rwanda (which occurred in 1994) and sat in on a court proceeding. There was a gallery for people to watch and the whole time they were there they were debating whether there was a phone in this guy’s house and shop and how they got there (whether they were legal lines or not). I don’t know what the overarching case was about. I wonder what it takes to be one of the judges\jury there. Apparently the tribunal will close this year after it completes all of the court proceedings.
CHINA ALERT: We saw a building being constructed by a Chinese construction company. I asked Emanueli about the Chinese and he said there are some here, but they are mostly in Dar. Apparently, a lot of Chinese run little shops, etc. and the TZ government is starting to get mad because they are taking jobs and money away from the TZ economy. Overall, he said that most of the Chinese investment is through building infrastructure. His view was that the Chinese with little shops were taking jobs that Tanzanians could do, so what they should really do is start employing Tanzanians. Makes sense to me.
Then we went to the Museum of Natural History, which is located in the old German Boma from when Germany colonized TZ. Behind the museum is Mt. Meru, which takes about 3-5 days to climb. It was colonized in 1885 and then peacefully taken over by the British in 1918 after Germany lost the First World War. Some good things: Germany built lots of infrastructure that still stands today, which many Tanzanians agree still benefits TZ. They also encouraged the use of Kiswahili in government. Some bad things: They mistreated the Tanzanians, especially women and used corporal punishment. They would severely beat people for small misdemeanors.
During dinner, we watched a little TV. They have infomercials about everything – what to look for when you get your eyebrows done professionally and how to use Facebook. So funny! There was also a commercial from a construction company which looked like a news wire. The title was: buildings collapse in dar and many injured. I got really sad and they all said it wasn’t true – these were just commercials alerting people of the dangers of construction. They said they sometimes get fooled too when it comes on around news time. I think they should just alert about dangers rather than posting something that looks like a catastrophic news item. There was also a soap opera with a HIV\AIDS theme that was meant for HIV\AIDS awareness.
We also talked about what a wedding is like. The son has to ask permission from the parents before two people can get engaged. Then, a week before the wedding there is a kitchen party (sounds like a wedding shower \bachelorette party). All the women get together and give the bride gifts for the kitchen and the mom and friends talk about marriage and give advice – make good food, treat your husband well, etc. The women wear kanga dresses to this party. A kanga is a piece of patterned cloth that women tie around their waist and wear around the house. Two days before the wedding, there is a send-off party for everyone (sounds sort of like a rehearsal dinner except without a rehearsal). There isn’t really a bachelorette and bachelor party. Then there is a day of rest before the wedding. Then at the wedding, the bride wears a white dress. The bride is supposed to pay for the send off party and the groom pays for the wedding. Usually friends all come together and each person contributes something towards the wedding, maybe a night at a hotel, the cake, the food, etc. It sounds like a great plan!
Vocab word of the day:
Ndizi – banana
Today Emanueli took me into town. Arusha is very different from both Dar and Zanzibar. It has kind of a rustic feel with mountains surrounding it. The streets are fairly wide and there are lots of little shops. It is less crowded than Dar. Emanueli said that there aren’t many people that live in the city, but that a lot of the Indians live right in the city (above the shops). We went to the UN Tribunal for Genocide in Rwanda (which occurred in 1994) and sat in on a court proceeding. There was a gallery for people to watch and the whole time they were there they were debating whether there was a phone in this guy’s house and shop and how they got there (whether they were legal lines or not). I don’t know what the overarching case was about. I wonder what it takes to be one of the judges\jury there. Apparently the tribunal will close this year after it completes all of the court proceedings.
CHINA ALERT: We saw a building being constructed by a Chinese construction company. I asked Emanueli about the Chinese and he said there are some here, but they are mostly in Dar. Apparently, a lot of Chinese run little shops, etc. and the TZ government is starting to get mad because they are taking jobs and money away from the TZ economy. Overall, he said that most of the Chinese investment is through building infrastructure. His view was that the Chinese with little shops were taking jobs that Tanzanians could do, so what they should really do is start employing Tanzanians. Makes sense to me.
Then we went to the Museum of Natural History, which is located in the old German Boma from when Germany colonized TZ. Behind the museum is Mt. Meru, which takes about 3-5 days to climb. It was colonized in 1885 and then peacefully taken over by the British in 1918 after Germany lost the First World War. Some good things: Germany built lots of infrastructure that still stands today, which many Tanzanians agree still benefits TZ. They also encouraged the use of Kiswahili in government. Some bad things: They mistreated the Tanzanians, especially women and used corporal punishment. They would severely beat people for small misdemeanors.
During dinner, we watched a little TV. They have infomercials about everything – what to look for when you get your eyebrows done professionally and how to use Facebook. So funny! There was also a commercial from a construction company which looked like a news wire. The title was: buildings collapse in dar and many injured. I got really sad and they all said it wasn’t true – these were just commercials alerting people of the dangers of construction. They said they sometimes get fooled too when it comes on around news time. I think they should just alert about dangers rather than posting something that looks like a catastrophic news item. There was also a soap opera with a HIV\AIDS theme that was meant for HIV\AIDS awareness.
We also talked about what a wedding is like. The son has to ask permission from the parents before two people can get engaged. Then, a week before the wedding there is a kitchen party (sounds like a wedding shower \bachelorette party). All the women get together and give the bride gifts for the kitchen and the mom and friends talk about marriage and give advice – make good food, treat your husband well, etc. The women wear kanga dresses to this party. A kanga is a piece of patterned cloth that women tie around their waist and wear around the house. Two days before the wedding, there is a send-off party for everyone (sounds sort of like a rehearsal dinner except without a rehearsal). There isn’t really a bachelorette and bachelor party. Then there is a day of rest before the wedding. Then at the wedding, the bride wears a white dress. The bride is supposed to pay for the send off party and the groom pays for the wedding. Usually friends all come together and each person contributes something towards the wedding, maybe a night at a hotel, the cake, the food, etc. It sounds like a great plan!
Vocab word of the day:
Ndizi – banana
Monday, June 15, 2009
Meet the Maturo's
Today we had another morning in Tarangire, where we saw some lions! After going on our safari and camping, I’m so glad I brought binoculars, a headlamp, and flashlight. I felt very prepared.
Then we went back to Arusha airport and I met up with two of my host family brothers, Emanueli and his older brother, Winston. We got back to the rest of the house and met the family. I got a tour of the house and my room, which is very nice! The restroom and washroom (bucket area) are outside by the cowshed. They have a very big compound and grow their own banana trees!
Maturo family: There is Baba and Mama – Baba speaks very good English and he was a math teacher in primary school and then a program officer for primary schools at the Ministry of Education. He is Masai, but the last person in his family to live in a Masai boma (village) was his grandfather. Mama is Chagga (the tribe from Mt. Kilimanjaro) and she speaks very limited English; however, she is so nice and welcoming! The kids are Winston, Irene, Gladys, Emanueli, Stephen, and Clemens. Winston is the oldest and he used to be a shopkeeper for a tourist office, but now lives at home and also takes English classes. Irene and Gladys sometimes decorate and cater weddings to earn extra money. Gladys teaches primary school and is taking classes to resit the Form IV exam so she can get a certificate, which will allow her to earn more money. Emanueli finished through form IV and enjoys painting and drawing. He was an art teacher. Stephen is a chef at a restaurant that makes American type food and he is going to cook for the family next week. Clemens is in Form IV and will be taking his national exam in October. He really likes the sciences.
I will be working with Irene and Emanueli for Sustain Foundation and I can’t wait to get started!
I played outside with some of the neighborhood children and we played jump rope, ball, and Giraffe, Giraffe, Elephant (twiga, twiga, tembo), a version of Duck, Duck Goose.
I was not feeling very well, so I got tested for malaria, which was quick, painless, and luckily negative! We had spaghetti (which they call superghetti ) for dinner.
Vocab word of the day:
Simba – lion
Then we went back to Arusha airport and I met up with two of my host family brothers, Emanueli and his older brother, Winston. We got back to the rest of the house and met the family. I got a tour of the house and my room, which is very nice! The restroom and washroom (bucket area) are outside by the cowshed. They have a very big compound and grow their own banana trees!
Maturo family: There is Baba and Mama – Baba speaks very good English and he was a math teacher in primary school and then a program officer for primary schools at the Ministry of Education. He is Masai, but the last person in his family to live in a Masai boma (village) was his grandfather. Mama is Chagga (the tribe from Mt. Kilimanjaro) and she speaks very limited English; however, she is so nice and welcoming! The kids are Winston, Irene, Gladys, Emanueli, Stephen, and Clemens. Winston is the oldest and he used to be a shopkeeper for a tourist office, but now lives at home and also takes English classes. Irene and Gladys sometimes decorate and cater weddings to earn extra money. Gladys teaches primary school and is taking classes to resit the Form IV exam so she can get a certificate, which will allow her to earn more money. Emanueli finished through form IV and enjoys painting and drawing. He was an art teacher. Stephen is a chef at a restaurant that makes American type food and he is going to cook for the family next week. Clemens is in Form IV and will be taking his national exam in October. He really likes the sciences.
I will be working with Irene and Emanueli for Sustain Foundation and I can’t wait to get started!
I played outside with some of the neighborhood children and we played jump rope, ball, and Giraffe, Giraffe, Elephant (twiga, twiga, tembo), a version of Duck, Duck Goose.
I was not feeling very well, so I got tested for malaria, which was quick, painless, and luckily negative! We had spaghetti (which they call superghetti ) for dinner.
Vocab word of the day:
Simba – lion
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Tarangire National Park
Today we went to Tarangire National Park, which is 2600 sq. km. We saw: guinea fowl, zebra, water buffalo, impala, wildebeest, giraffe, mongoose, termite houses (huge!), white headed vulture, elephant, and hartebeasts. All of the national parks have been so big!
We spent the night at a campsite and were treated to some native Masai dancing and performance. There was a guy keeping watch at the campsite with a bow and arrow to protect against animals or thieves.
Vocab word of the day:
Twiga – giraffe
We spent the night at a campsite and were treated to some native Masai dancing and performance. There was a guy keeping watch at the campsite with a bow and arrow to protect against animals or thieves.
Vocab word of the day:
Twiga – giraffe
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Ngorongoro Crater
Today we went to the Ngorongoro Crater, which was REALLY cool. It was formed from a huge volcano and subsequent movement of tectonic plates. There are many Masai, the local tribe in Arusha (more info to come in future days), that walk around in the crater with their cattle, keeping a bow and arrow with them at all times in case of a lion attack. We could also see the Serengeti in the distance. Overall, I think Disney did a pretty good job with Lion King.
We saw: umbrella acacia, fork tree, zebras, spotted hyena, silverback jackal, grey heron eating a snake, ostriches, buffalo, black rhino (the only place in TZ and the world that you can still see them in the wild – 18 total), corian bastard (unsure of spelling) (heaviest bird in the world that can still fly), hippos (can hold breath for 3 minutes), guinea fowl, secretary bird, black kite bird, and lion (in distance we saw about 4 – they were huge!).
During lunch, two Tanzanians asked to take pictures with me and it brought back memories of China. We also sat outside on a rock for lunch, but black kite birds kept getting dangerously close and Muridy said they would eventually take our chicken right out of our hands. I felt a bird wing graze my head and I decided that was too close for comfort so we ate the rest of our lunch in the car.
Vocab word of the day:
Tembo – elephant
We saw: umbrella acacia, fork tree, zebras, spotted hyena, silverback jackal, grey heron eating a snake, ostriches, buffalo, black rhino (the only place in TZ and the world that you can still see them in the wild – 18 total), corian bastard (unsure of spelling) (heaviest bird in the world that can still fly), hippos (can hold breath for 3 minutes), guinea fowl, secretary bird, black kite bird, and lion (in distance we saw about 4 – they were huge!).
During lunch, two Tanzanians asked to take pictures with me and it brought back memories of China. We also sat outside on a rock for lunch, but black kite birds kept getting dangerously close and Muridy said they would eventually take our chicken right out of our hands. I felt a bird wing graze my head and I decided that was too close for comfort so we ate the rest of our lunch in the car.
Vocab word of the day:
Tembo – elephant
Friday, June 12, 2009
Bye Stonetown! Hello Safari!
This morning I got up early and walked around Stonetown one last time. I took lots of pictures and said goodbye to some of our friends in the local shops. I stopped by FAWE to say goodbye to all the ladies there, especially Bibi Asma. I think Bibi Asma is one of my favorite ladies!
Then we went to the Zanzibar airport, which is very small, and flew in a 12 seater Cessna to Arusha. It was somewhat scary but we made it! I can’t believe all of my luggage fit as well! We made it to Arusha, which was an even smaller airport than Zanzibar, and were greeted by our tour guide, Muridy, and the cook, Buga. They are awesome! Something must have happened with our camping plans because we ended up spending the next two nights in a hotel which was pretty nice.
Arusha’s landscape is kind of like western US. That night we went on a game drive through Lake Manyara. Lake Manyara is part of the Rift Valley Basin which is one of the only fissures on the earth’s surface that can be seen from space. The Rift Valley goes from Jordan to Mozambique. Fun fact: Hatari, the John Wayne film, was also filmed here.
During our safari, we saw camels, goats, cows, donkeys, herons, olive baboon, sausage tree, toucan, African elephant, zebras, northern ground hornby, wild buffalo, hippoes, warthog, masai giraffe, impala, corwn crane (ntl bird of Uganda), hamerkop (they make big nests), wildebeest, banded mongoose, giraffe, dikdik (always travel in groups of two). There is underground water from the Ngorongoro Crater that feeds into Lake Manyara. There are 110 sq. km of bush and 220 sq. km of water.
Vocab word of the day:
Mbele – front
Nyuma – back
Then we went to the Zanzibar airport, which is very small, and flew in a 12 seater Cessna to Arusha. It was somewhat scary but we made it! I can’t believe all of my luggage fit as well! We made it to Arusha, which was an even smaller airport than Zanzibar, and were greeted by our tour guide, Muridy, and the cook, Buga. They are awesome! Something must have happened with our camping plans because we ended up spending the next two nights in a hotel which was pretty nice.
Arusha’s landscape is kind of like western US. That night we went on a game drive through Lake Manyara. Lake Manyara is part of the Rift Valley Basin which is one of the only fissures on the earth’s surface that can be seen from space. The Rift Valley goes from Jordan to Mozambique. Fun fact: Hatari, the John Wayne film, was also filmed here.
During our safari, we saw camels, goats, cows, donkeys, herons, olive baboon, sausage tree, toucan, African elephant, zebras, northern ground hornby, wild buffalo, hippoes, warthog, masai giraffe, impala, corwn crane (ntl bird of Uganda), hamerkop (they make big nests), wildebeest, banded mongoose, giraffe, dikdik (always travel in groups of two). There is underground water from the Ngorongoro Crater that feeds into Lake Manyara. There are 110 sq. km of bush and 220 sq. km of water.
Vocab word of the day:
Mbele – front
Nyuma – back
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Passing Out Acceptance Packets
Today we had a really busy day! Camryn went to Ben Bella to meet with old scholars and collect their photo release forms and connection letters.
Iris and I first went to Lumumba, where we met with Shemsa, Tawhida, and Rahima, our three current scholars. We talked with them about S4Si and gave them their scholar folders. We took pictures with them too! I hadn’t had any pictures with scholars yet, so I was excited about that.
Then we met with all 10 of the Lumumba form II applicants. We thanked all of them and announced who received the scholarship. Even though the girls that didn’t receive the scholarship were visibly disappointed, we thought this was more personal than just handing out rejection letters and also didn’t make anyone feel singled out. It also recognized those that did receive the scholarship. We gave acceptance packets to the two girls that got the scholarship, Mulhat and Rahima, who were both very excited. Muhaymina, our teacher contact at Lumumba, the girls and their parents will be coming to a meeting at FAWE next Friday to get everyone on the same page.
Next we hightailed it to Zanzibar Commercial Secondary School. We met with Ramla, Jamila, and Maryam, our current scholars and then did the same process with the scholar recipients at ZCSS as we did at Lumumba. Amne and Ilham were also ecstatic.
We had to be back to meet with Jacob Jacob at 12 to pay for the rest of our safari so our morning sure was hectic!
Since Form II at Ben Bella only meets in the afternoon, we had to wait until around 4 to hand out new scholar acceptance packets. The five girls that received the scholarship, Bahati, Mwanaidi, Farhat, Tawhida, and Sabra, were VERY happy. I am jealous that Camryn and Iris will get to spend more time with our new scholars and really get to know them.
Vocab word of the day:
Tisa – 9 (for our nine scholars!)
Iris and I first went to Lumumba, where we met with Shemsa, Tawhida, and Rahima, our three current scholars. We talked with them about S4Si and gave them their scholar folders. We took pictures with them too! I hadn’t had any pictures with scholars yet, so I was excited about that.
Then we met with all 10 of the Lumumba form II applicants. We thanked all of them and announced who received the scholarship. Even though the girls that didn’t receive the scholarship were visibly disappointed, we thought this was more personal than just handing out rejection letters and also didn’t make anyone feel singled out. It also recognized those that did receive the scholarship. We gave acceptance packets to the two girls that got the scholarship, Mulhat and Rahima, who were both very excited. Muhaymina, our teacher contact at Lumumba, the girls and their parents will be coming to a meeting at FAWE next Friday to get everyone on the same page.
Next we hightailed it to Zanzibar Commercial Secondary School. We met with Ramla, Jamila, and Maryam, our current scholars and then did the same process with the scholar recipients at ZCSS as we did at Lumumba. Amne and Ilham were also ecstatic.
We had to be back to meet with Jacob Jacob at 12 to pay for the rest of our safari so our morning sure was hectic!
Since Form II at Ben Bella only meets in the afternoon, we had to wait until around 4 to hand out new scholar acceptance packets. The five girls that received the scholarship, Bahati, Mwanaidi, Farhat, Tawhida, and Sabra, were VERY happy. I am jealous that Camryn and Iris will get to spend more time with our new scholars and really get to know them.
Vocab word of the day:
Tisa – 9 (for our nine scholars!)
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
S4Si's New Scholars!
Today we spent all morning/afternoon picking our scholars.
We went through all of the scholar applications to start evaluating our applicants. We came up with an algorithm that would help us add some objectivity and “method to the madness.” We blindly graded the applications so that we wouldn’t be influenced by the interviews. We ranked 6 criteria on a 1-7 scale based on what was included in the application. The criteria were: need, well-spoken/effort, drive to learn, passion, caring for others/community, awareness/curiosity about the world. The questions catered to these criteria so that it was easier to find girls that possessed what we were looking for. It was interesting because some of the girls with the best grades had the worst applications. While this wasn’t always the case, it was definitely an interesting observation.
We took the top 9 girls. Our formula was as follows: application 40%, interview 40%, grades (based on class rank) 20%. Within the application and interview, need was weighted 10% and the other criteria were weighted 6% each.
One of our current scholars hasn’t been to school for a week and we finally found her! If she didn’t show up to school today, one of the girls at Ben Bella was going to take us to her house. She has a still unidentified heart condition which prevents her from going to school. Her dad has paid for some medicine but can’t afford to pay for the rest of it currently. Iris and Camryn will continue to check up on her situation after I leave.
We celebrated picking our scholars with pizza and ice cream! I was so proud that our formula worked and that it selected our scholars fairly. In the end, we agreed that those that were picked were the ones that truly were academically gifted and the neediest.
See S4Si’s blog under News and Media (www.s4siunc.org) for our new scholar congratulations!
Vocab word of the day:
La la salama – good night
We went through all of the scholar applications to start evaluating our applicants. We came up with an algorithm that would help us add some objectivity and “method to the madness.” We blindly graded the applications so that we wouldn’t be influenced by the interviews. We ranked 6 criteria on a 1-7 scale based on what was included in the application. The criteria were: need, well-spoken/effort, drive to learn, passion, caring for others/community, awareness/curiosity about the world. The questions catered to these criteria so that it was easier to find girls that possessed what we were looking for. It was interesting because some of the girls with the best grades had the worst applications. While this wasn’t always the case, it was definitely an interesting observation.
We took the top 9 girls. Our formula was as follows: application 40%, interview 40%, grades (based on class rank) 20%. Within the application and interview, need was weighted 10% and the other criteria were weighted 6% each.
One of our current scholars hasn’t been to school for a week and we finally found her! If she didn’t show up to school today, one of the girls at Ben Bella was going to take us to her house. She has a still unidentified heart condition which prevents her from going to school. Her dad has paid for some medicine but can’t afford to pay for the rest of it currently. Iris and Camryn will continue to check up on her situation after I leave.
We celebrated picking our scholars with pizza and ice cream! I was so proud that our formula worked and that it selected our scholars fairly. In the end, we agreed that those that were picked were the ones that truly were academically gifted and the neediest.
See S4Si’s blog under News and Media (www.s4siunc.org) for our new scholar congratulations!
Vocab word of the day:
La la salama – good night
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Building an Education Program
Iris and I went back to Ben Bella and waited for the second half of the applications (the girls that we interviewed in the afternoon yesterday hadn’t brought their applications). The apps that were supposed to be in by 9:00 am started trickling in at 9:25. During this time we talked to Teacher Mao a lot. He told us that teachers make about 120,000 TSH a month and that training teachers make about 90,000 a month. Secretaries make about 75,000 a month. Teachers make less than $120/month. That's incredible. The last apps came in at 11:25.
We went back to FAWE to meet with Bibi Asma and she had some great ideas. We asked her how we could prepare our students better and address some of the issues that Dr. Mukangara and Dr. Mbilinyi cited. Some of her ideas were:
Tuseme – means “speak up”, has been run by other FAWE branches, focuses on leadership and public speaking skills
Field trips – 1x a year with mentors to historical sites, Jozani Forest, etc.
HIV\AIDS camps – includes housing, food, camp, facilitators and role models
Volunteer day – could be in villages or visiting a nursing home
Professional speaker – women from businesses NGO’s in the area that deal with education, women in law, etc.
Writing competition – writing topics with a prize
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION: Mr. Vuai turned out to be the secondary school program officer for Zanzibar. The ministry head had asked him to write a report about S4Si, so we talked for a while about what S4Si does. He told us that we should start going to rural schools and expand to Pemba, Zanzibar's sister island. While S4Si does not have the capacity to do that, they are certainly interesting ideas.
S4Si does the minimum by providing money to our students, but we've gotten some really great ideas from different factions about how to really create a PROGRAM.
We went back to FAWE to meet with Bibi Asma and she had some great ideas. We asked her how we could prepare our students better and address some of the issues that Dr. Mukangara and Dr. Mbilinyi cited. Some of her ideas were:
Tuseme – means “speak up”, has been run by other FAWE branches, focuses on leadership and public speaking skills
Field trips – 1x a year with mentors to historical sites, Jozani Forest, etc.
HIV\AIDS camps – includes housing, food, camp, facilitators and role models
Volunteer day – could be in villages or visiting a nursing home
Professional speaker – women from businesses NGO’s in the area that deal with education, women in law, etc.
Writing competition – writing topics with a prize
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION: Mr. Vuai turned out to be the secondary school program officer for Zanzibar. The ministry head had asked him to write a report about S4Si, so we talked for a while about what S4Si does. He told us that we should start going to rural schools and expand to Pemba, Zanzibar's sister island. While S4Si does not have the capacity to do that, they are certainly interesting ideas.
S4Si does the minimum by providing money to our students, but we've gotten some really great ideas from different factions about how to really create a PROGRAM.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Ben Bella Interviews
AFRICA TIME: Stores seem to open and close whenever the shopowner feels like it. Some shops are open, some aren't. Other shops I haven’t seen open for days. It's acceptable to be 1/2 hour late most places.
Today we went to Ben Bella. Iris and I interviewed form II girls while Camryn passed out information folders to our current scholars.
Overall, the Ben Bella girls impressed us a lot, which was a stark contrast from the school environment and teachers\administrators. We interviewed about half of them in the morning and half of them in the afternoon.
The girl that touched me most was the last girl, Bahati. Every girl has said they are impoverished, so assessing need has been very hard. The video camera had already run out of battery so I transcribed her interview almost verbatim. I liked her because she was very genuine and giving even though she was clearly very poor. She gave us evidence of her financial need by showing us her old uniform and explaining that she only eats meat when her village has a festival. She even invited us to her house to eat cassava!
During the interviews I got a call from an unknown number and when I called back, the lady on the other end couldn’t speak English. I gave the phone to the headmistress and she told me that someone from the Ministry of Education was trying to contact us and wanted to meet with us ASAP. We were being summoned to the Ministry of Education! It made me feel like I was in Harry Potter. A man named Mr. Vuai called us later and we set up an appointment to talk with him at the Ministry on Tuesday.
We tried to meet with Zuhura, the last scholar that we hadn't met with at Ben Bella, but she was still not at school. Apparently she has a heart condition that they are still trying to figure out. Eek!
Word of the day:
kishoto - left
Today we went to Ben Bella. Iris and I interviewed form II girls while Camryn passed out information folders to our current scholars.
Overall, the Ben Bella girls impressed us a lot, which was a stark contrast from the school environment and teachers\administrators. We interviewed about half of them in the morning and half of them in the afternoon.
The girl that touched me most was the last girl, Bahati. Every girl has said they are impoverished, so assessing need has been very hard. The video camera had already run out of battery so I transcribed her interview almost verbatim. I liked her because she was very genuine and giving even though she was clearly very poor. She gave us evidence of her financial need by showing us her old uniform and explaining that she only eats meat when her village has a festival. She even invited us to her house to eat cassava!
During the interviews I got a call from an unknown number and when I called back, the lady on the other end couldn’t speak English. I gave the phone to the headmistress and she told me that someone from the Ministry of Education was trying to contact us and wanted to meet with us ASAP. We were being summoned to the Ministry of Education! It made me feel like I was in Harry Potter. A man named Mr. Vuai called us later and we set up an appointment to talk with him at the Ministry on Tuesday.
We tried to meet with Zuhura, the last scholar that we hadn't met with at Ben Bella, but she was still not at school. Apparently she has a heart condition that they are still trying to figure out. Eek!
Word of the day:
kishoto - left
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Full Moon Party
Today we took an hour daladala ride to Kendwa, a nice beach area on Zanzibar. We stayed in a bungalow at Kendwa Rocks, which was very clean and picture perfect. There were lots of tourists. We overheard some tourists saying things like “I wish my room had a view” or “This food does not impress me.” We laughed because we felt pampered: we could actually take a hot shower (yes, shower, not bucket) and had complimentary breakfast!
At night was the world famous full moon party, which only happens every full moon. A lot of locals and tourists come for these parties. It was cloudy so we couldn’t see the full moon, but there was lots of dancing, food and entertainment.
Before we went to bed, Iris and I saw a bush baby, which kind of looks like a monkey/koala bear, climb around the inside of our balcony. We sat watching it until it climbed away – it was so cool!
At night was the world famous full moon party, which only happens every full moon. A lot of locals and tourists come for these parties. It was cloudy so we couldn’t see the full moon, but there was lots of dancing, food and entertainment.
Before we went to bed, Iris and I saw a bush baby, which kind of looks like a monkey/koala bear, climb around the inside of our balcony. We sat watching it until it climbed away – it was so cool!
Friday, June 5, 2009
Mentoring Program and Prison Island
Today we went back to FAWE to meet with Bibi Asma. She was very excited that we will start this mentoring program and has already talked to a few interested people. Also, Muhaymina, a teacher from Lumumba, is also willing to be a mentor. Basically, we need to create a mentor manual before January (when school starts here).
We have A LOT of work to do before the students start the next school year. Bibi Asma let us borrow a USAID mentor manual for the Ambassador Girl’s Scholarship Program (AGSP) to see what is typically included.
She also said that we should create an online database where the mentors and FAWE can enter information about our scholars. This is EXACTLY what we need, especially when we are oceans apart and have spotty communication. After being here for three weeks, I have realized that there are so few people with solid computer skills that I never dreamed anything internet related (such as an online database) would be possible. FAWE already does this with AGSP, so there is an existing system we could use. This idea still gives me goose bumps because the idea that FAWE or a mentor could enter information and we could view it immediately is so exciting. To go from hearing from our scholars once a year (sometimes as much as every 3 months) to getting immediate updates would help S4Si make great strides. Plus, this will help give us some continuity year after year and help us document whether S4Si is really making an impact through academic records and student’s progress.
PRISON ISLAND: After we went to FAWE, we took a boat to Prison Island. Prison Island was used to transport slaves and was a stopping point at which the slaves were kept until they were sent to the Slave Market on Mkunazini Rd., right by our house. They were kept there and checked for illnesses, etc. Later on, a jail was constructed (while it was still called Changuu Island, which is named after a type of fish). Finally, after being named Prison Island, it was used as a port for immigrants (like Ellis Island) into East Africa - they still had quarantine and ship records. It was never actually used as a prison while called Prison Island. There is a really nice hotel on the island (the water in the pool is transported through an underwater pipe from Zanzibar to Prison Island). They also had a tortoise sanctuary – the tortoises were just roaming around and we got to go inside and feed them. They even had one that was over 100 years old. It was so cool!
On the way back, we saw lots of debris from the ferry accident that happened a week ago. Cranes were brought over from Dar es Salaam to hoist the ferry out of the water, but they still haven’t brought it up from the harbor. Supposedly there are still bodies trapped under the ferry. Since the ferry was a cargo ship as well, there were bags and containers of soap, beans, biscuits, couches and other goods that were still floating in the ocean. It was very impactful. I haven’t had great internet for a while, so I haven’t been able to check for updates on passenger deaths and survivals.
Word of the day:
Bahari - ocean
We have A LOT of work to do before the students start the next school year. Bibi Asma let us borrow a USAID mentor manual for the Ambassador Girl’s Scholarship Program (AGSP) to see what is typically included.
She also said that we should create an online database where the mentors and FAWE can enter information about our scholars. This is EXACTLY what we need, especially when we are oceans apart and have spotty communication. After being here for three weeks, I have realized that there are so few people with solid computer skills that I never dreamed anything internet related (such as an online database) would be possible. FAWE already does this with AGSP, so there is an existing system we could use. This idea still gives me goose bumps because the idea that FAWE or a mentor could enter information and we could view it immediately is so exciting. To go from hearing from our scholars once a year (sometimes as much as every 3 months) to getting immediate updates would help S4Si make great strides. Plus, this will help give us some continuity year after year and help us document whether S4Si is really making an impact through academic records and student’s progress.
PRISON ISLAND: After we went to FAWE, we took a boat to Prison Island. Prison Island was used to transport slaves and was a stopping point at which the slaves were kept until they were sent to the Slave Market on Mkunazini Rd., right by our house. They were kept there and checked for illnesses, etc. Later on, a jail was constructed (while it was still called Changuu Island, which is named after a type of fish). Finally, after being named Prison Island, it was used as a port for immigrants (like Ellis Island) into East Africa - they still had quarantine and ship records. It was never actually used as a prison while called Prison Island. There is a really nice hotel on the island (the water in the pool is transported through an underwater pipe from Zanzibar to Prison Island). They also had a tortoise sanctuary – the tortoises were just roaming around and we got to go inside and feed them. They even had one that was over 100 years old. It was so cool!
On the way back, we saw lots of debris from the ferry accident that happened a week ago. Cranes were brought over from Dar es Salaam to hoist the ferry out of the water, but they still haven’t brought it up from the harbor. Supposedly there are still bodies trapped under the ferry. Since the ferry was a cargo ship as well, there were bags and containers of soap, beans, biscuits, couches and other goods that were still floating in the ocean. It was very impactful. I haven’t had great internet for a while, so I haven’t been able to check for updates on passenger deaths and survivals.
Word of the day:
Bahari - ocean
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Zanzibar Commercial Interviews
Today we interviewed five girls at Zanzibar Commercial Secondary School. I realized that even though we are asking them prepared questions and having some great conversations with some of the girls, I still feel very unprepared and disconnected. Other than understanding what S4Si does, what experience or qualifications do we, as American university students without a complete understanding of the culture, language, and way of life, have to be making such life-changing decisions?
How do we gracefully waltz in and out every summer while still conducting ourselves with humility, consistent outreach and enforcement of our scholarship?
I think that the key is to include locals that care about what we do because they are the ones that will really be able to assess the situation. I hope that the mentors that we hire for the students will solve a lot of the issues that I am struggling with. As much time as we put in to S4Si at UNC, the students that go each summer are practically going in to the selection process blind. If we are going to continue to send students every summer, which I think is an important and unique characteristic of our organization, we need to have in-country contacts that we can consistently communicate with and set selection processes that will help mitigate the learning curve that American university students experience in Zanzibar. That’s not to say we shouldn’t be able to explore the island and learn things for ourselves, but when it comes to S4Si, we need to have a better guiding structure already in place.
Word of the day:
Leo – today
Keshu - tomorrow
How do we gracefully waltz in and out every summer while still conducting ourselves with humility, consistent outreach and enforcement of our scholarship?
I think that the key is to include locals that care about what we do because they are the ones that will really be able to assess the situation. I hope that the mentors that we hire for the students will solve a lot of the issues that I am struggling with. As much time as we put in to S4Si at UNC, the students that go each summer are practically going in to the selection process blind. If we are going to continue to send students every summer, which I think is an important and unique characteristic of our organization, we need to have in-country contacts that we can consistently communicate with and set selection processes that will help mitigate the learning curve that American university students experience in Zanzibar. That’s not to say we shouldn’t be able to explore the island and learn things for ourselves, but when it comes to S4Si, we need to have a better guiding structure already in place.
Word of the day:
Leo – today
Keshu - tomorrow
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Lumumba Interviews!
Today we went to Lumumba Secondary School, where we interviewed 8 girls. It was great to kick off interviews! Something I realized very quickly is that girls that can’t speak English very well are at a disadvantage, yet the ability to speak English is not one of our selection criteria. Many of the girls did not understand what we were asking. Others could not speak very well. The interviews should really be done completely in Swahili so as to get a holistic sense of the applicant.
I again got the overwhelmed feeling that I got the first time I visited with some of the teachers and headmasters. How can these girls take classes in English and pass tests when they can’t understand simple questions that we are asking? Many of the teachers also cannot understand, so I can’t imagine what the communication is like in the classrooms. I would really like to sit in on a class.
The answers to some of the questions were also very interesting. On the application, we asked them to write three words that describe themselves. Most put something like thin (or fat), brown-colored, and short (or tall). A few put the types of words we were looking for, like polite or intelligent. When we asked what they do outside of school, we typically got a daily routine (chores, homework, helping parents, etc). Poverty or their incomplete education was their biggest obstacle and when asked what their greatest accomplishment has been, many replied “I am not yet fully educated, so I can accomplish something when I become a doctor (or whatever they wanted to be).” It seemed as though to many, education was the key to finding purpose in life. Only then could they accomplish anything or be of any great help to society.
I think this is an interesting perspective because in the U.S. it seems that students (of all socioeconomic backgrounds) feel much more empowered at a younger age. Perhaps it is an arrogant confidence and lack of humility or maybe just part of the “entrepreneurial spirit” and “American dream” that is instilled in us when we are young. It is probably a little of both. For the girls on Zanzibar, it is the everyday chores and studying that is allowing them up to make a difference in the future. If they don’t fetch the water, the crops don’t get watered, which means the crops don’t grow, and they can’t make money for the family. If they don’t study night and day to pass their form IV exam, their education is over unless they can pay to go to private school and re-sit the exams.
In the U.S. our education is definitely an investment in our future, but we don’t wait until we have completed our studies to start working with our passion. We volunteer, hold jobs, or talk with professionals to get a glimpse into the lives of what we hope to become. Poverty is certainly a barrier to many things such as education, textbooks, access to health care, etc., but it is not a barrier to exploring passion and expanding curiosity. Even though volunteering doesn’t seem to be feasible, I hope that we can create ways to expose our scholars to female professionals and empower them to be leaders in school clubs or in class. I’m sure my perspective on this topic will become more informed and less naïve over the next few weeks.
Word of the day:
Mandazi – delicious sweet bread that I like for breakfast
I again got the overwhelmed feeling that I got the first time I visited with some of the teachers and headmasters. How can these girls take classes in English and pass tests when they can’t understand simple questions that we are asking? Many of the teachers also cannot understand, so I can’t imagine what the communication is like in the classrooms. I would really like to sit in on a class.
The answers to some of the questions were also very interesting. On the application, we asked them to write three words that describe themselves. Most put something like thin (or fat), brown-colored, and short (or tall). A few put the types of words we were looking for, like polite or intelligent. When we asked what they do outside of school, we typically got a daily routine (chores, homework, helping parents, etc). Poverty or their incomplete education was their biggest obstacle and when asked what their greatest accomplishment has been, many replied “I am not yet fully educated, so I can accomplish something when I become a doctor (or whatever they wanted to be).” It seemed as though to many, education was the key to finding purpose in life. Only then could they accomplish anything or be of any great help to society.
I think this is an interesting perspective because in the U.S. it seems that students (of all socioeconomic backgrounds) feel much more empowered at a younger age. Perhaps it is an arrogant confidence and lack of humility or maybe just part of the “entrepreneurial spirit” and “American dream” that is instilled in us when we are young. It is probably a little of both. For the girls on Zanzibar, it is the everyday chores and studying that is allowing them up to make a difference in the future. If they don’t fetch the water, the crops don’t get watered, which means the crops don’t grow, and they can’t make money for the family. If they don’t study night and day to pass their form IV exam, their education is over unless they can pay to go to private school and re-sit the exams.
In the U.S. our education is definitely an investment in our future, but we don’t wait until we have completed our studies to start working with our passion. We volunteer, hold jobs, or talk with professionals to get a glimpse into the lives of what we hope to become. Poverty is certainly a barrier to many things such as education, textbooks, access to health care, etc., but it is not a barrier to exploring passion and expanding curiosity. Even though volunteering doesn’t seem to be feasible, I hope that we can create ways to expose our scholars to female professionals and empower them to be leaders in school clubs or in class. I’m sure my perspective on this topic will become more informed and less naïve over the next few weeks.
Word of the day:
Mandazi – delicious sweet bread that I like for breakfast
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)